Sunny Weather

We are having a round of sunny weather here in Erie, PA. While the temperatures remain cold the sun is still wonderful to see, we are definately sun starved during the winter. In celebration of this Kai and I went for a walk recently on a beautiful day last week. The sun was shining and the temperatures were warm so we wandered around the small town of North East while waiting for Ashley to finish classes for the day. Of course, you know me I had camera in tow and took quite a few pictures. Kai posed nicely for this one while we sat in Gibson Park enjoying the sunshine.

Isn't he handsome? He loves to get out and enjoy the scenery with me. Getting him to pose for pictures however is sometimes a problem because he likes to get real close to the camera and lick the lens! He is also a great one for moving at the last second. Since I have an older small digital camera which can take a second or two to snap the picture I have taken many more blurry pictures of Kai than I would like to count. Taking pictures of Kai makes the delete button on digital cameras a wonderful invention.

I have stated before how long winter seems here in Erie and all the trees are still bare and the grass is dull green after having been buried for months in winter snow. Imagine how suprised I was while wandering around the streets of North East to find these flowers bravely poking through someone lawns near the sidewalk. 

Just that one view of spring has renewed my hope that soon I will be enjoying many more flowers on my walks with Kai. I am sure Kai has no objections to going with me on as many walks as we can squeeze in. Dogs are like that, no matter what your plans are as long as they are invited to go along they are estactic. How many of your human friends are as happy to be with you whether you are sitting on the couch watching TV or walking around the block on a sunny afternoon.

I will share more pictures of my walk with Kai in a later post. Right now I think I will spend some time with my dog. See you later.  

Kai has a girlfriend!

Last week Kai had a girlfriend come visit. Her name is Angel and she is a beautiful girl. Kai and her got together last year and she raised eight gorgeous puppies! We had a busy couple of days and Kai is now in a bit of a funk because she has returned home and he keeps looking for her. Now we are waiting to see if she has puppies in late April. I am keeping my fingers crossed, lol.  

Angel

Maybe Angel is the reason he was so distracted at agility class last week although in all fairness to him so were the other dogs in the class (all of them are girls so Kai thinks he is quite the stud muffin!). I guess I will find out when we go to class this week.

On an entirely different front Ashley had her dog Scamp neutered last Friday. He came home a little dopey and out of sorts but it did not take long before he was back to his usual rambunctious self. Keeping him quiet and stopping him from jumping once he started to feel better really has Ashley pulling her hair out. Of course he is wearing an E-collar so him and Kai have matching head gear! I have told him he now looks just like Kai but since his attitude towards Kai is ambivalent most of the time I am sure he resented the comparison. Here is a picture of Scamp sitting in his crate with his e-collar on feeling sorry for himself.

Scamp

Ashley and I went to the courthouse yesterday and purchased everyone's dog license for 2011 so we are set for this year. Now we just need some lovely warmer weather so we can go on long walks and enjoy our time together.

Organizing Picture Files

For the past week or so I have been organizing my picture files on my computer. When my older laptop began to have signs of impending doom and also because I always try to keep important files backed up I had put all my photos on a flash drive. I was amazed to find that I had over a thousand pictures when I went to download them onto my new computer. So I have spent a little bit of time everyday organizing them into files and culling some that are repetitive, blurry or have other major flaws I seemed to have overlooked the first time. I guess I never really thought about how large the number one thousand is but when you are spending hours going through photos and even after deleting hundreds of pictures I still have over nine hundred left. That count does not include the hundreds of pictures I have taken that were on the memory card of my camera that I have also transferred onto my computer that I had to edit.

What is the point of all this information? I thought that occasionally I will post some of my favorite pictures here in my blog. Some will be picture of my dogs, some will be family and friends and some could be just pictures of any thing at all.

  Yankee (my cat)

Out of the three cats in the house, Yankee is the only cat that will voluntarily pay any attention to me. In the picture that I actually took with my iphone he is sitting on my little table asking me for his favorite snack, a potato chip.

Ashley





My niece Ashley graduated from high school last June and this picture was taken at her graduation party last August. Ashley is such a wonderful girl and she has been such a joy since she has come to live with me.

Apple Blossoms

I took this picture in the neighborhood in the spring of 2009. The apple tree in a neighbors yard was in full bloom showing off all it's splendor.

Tasha and Shanna



The last picture from today is one of my first two white German Shepherds. They have long since gone to the Rainbow Bridge but they live on forever in my heart.

Time to call it a day. I will post more pictures in the future. So long.

A snowy day for a drive.

Today the weather turned snowy with very strong wind gusts so of course it is the day that I am driving to Youngstown, OH to meet a new friend. I was given information to contact her regarding a wheelchair she had for sale and after numerous emails back and forth it was agreed I could purchase the chair. Since my electric scooter had given up the ghost (unless of course I want to drive backwards the rest of my life) being able to purchase an almost new wheelchair at a great discount was such a blessing.

So we agreed to meet at the rest stop on Rt. 11 which is closer to Youngstown than here but a fairly easy and quick drive. Leaving home it was snowing lightly but by the time we reached I-90 the visibility had plummeted and the roads had blowing snow as well as already slippery conditions. Although I had left with time to spare if road conditions had been normal the weather slowed me down considerably and I ended up being late at our rendezvous. I did call her though and she was not upset thank goodness. When I finally arrive I am 15 minutes late and I am a person that is mortified to be late.

Kai loved the drive but then again Kai views riding in the car as second only to eating as his favorite thing to do in the whole world. He gets so upset if the vehicle leaves the driveway and he is not in it. He watched the loading of the wheelchair but then discovered that he was not confined to the extreme back seat of the van and could not walk up and check on me every once in awhile. By the end of the return trip he had figured out that he could stand on the wheelchair seat with his front legs and be closer to the action so he was happy about that.

Fortunately the return trip was uneventful. Visibility had cleared and the roads had been salted and were clear. Although it was still windy it was definitely not as troublesome as it had been earlier. The amazing thing was we had seen no accidents on our way to Youngstown when the weather was miserable but on the way home we passed car after car that had ran off the road and was stuck in a snow drift somewhere. Evidently driving too fast for conditions was prevalent today.

Kai and I are glad to be home safe and sound and Kai is now sleeping on the couch. I guess the trip wore him out.

Sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite!!

Running Errands & Playing in the Snow

Today was a day to run errands including what everyone always dreads, paying the bills. After paying as many bills as I could online I then had to visit the bank ATM withdraw cash and pay the two bills I cannot pay online which include the lot rent so that I can continue to have a home. I would love to be able to pay all bills online because then I don't have to venture out when it is freezing cold outside but the natural gas company does not allow bill paying online unless you have the money deducted from a checking account which I don't have. Why credit cards which are basic Internet currency are not accepted is beyond me.

So out we venture in the frigid air, first stop is the vet where we take Scamp to have his nails trimmed. Having been a pet groomer for ten years it is few dogs that I cannot manage to trim their nails but Scamp has proved to be one. We obtained him in September at the age of one and he had only had his nails trimmed once or twice. We were told that he didn't like it so they just didn't do it. He had no training of any kind and was extremely used to getting his own way. Despite major success with teaching him basic obedience and restricting his impulse to nip and bite if confronted he was still impossible when it was time to get his nails trimmed. Nail trimming required a muzzle, two people wrestling to hold him still while I attempted to hold on to a foot and trim the nails. We succeeded twice but the last time while doing the first foot he jerked the wrong way and blood was every where. We had a very difficult time getting it to stop bleeding because the nail was cut extremely close to the toe. So after talking with the vet we decided to take him there to have them done.

I am wondering if the vet's office will ever let him back there again since it took four vet techs to get a muzzle on him! They did manage to get his nails trimmed without blood loss from either staff or canine. The vet kidded that she was surprised at how strong such a small dog was. He may only be 17 pounds but he is wiry and all muscle. So with him relaxing in the back of the car we returned home to drop Scamp off and then we dropped off the rent, and tried to pay the gas bill but they were closed at 4 pm. Bummer!

Next on the agenda was picking up my friend Lynn and her service dog Otto at work and we took the Kai and Otto for a run. The snow was up to both dogs shoulder blades and they had fun hopping through it and chased each other around a little. Kai was more enthused with playing and running and Otto spent more time warning Kai off. Unfortunately since Kai was a puppy one of his favorite things to do when playing is to grab dogs by the front leg. Otto was having none of it and so after a short period of time the play was over and we took Lynn home.

I am now staring at two exhausted dogs sacked out on the living room floor and the couch. They do say that a tired dog is a happy dog! I do know that a tired dog makes a happy owner!

Dogs vs. Cats

In my household in addition to the three dogs there are also three cats that in typical cat fashion are convinced that we are all here to serve them. The relationship between the dogs and cats varies depending on the specific dog or cat and also to a great extent the time of day.

Rommel is a cat addict. He lives to seek out cats in the neighborhood with the goal of pinning them down and sticking his nose deep in their fur and sniffing in such a state of pure joy it is funny to watch. Of course the cats do not appreciate such behavior and tend to demonstrate their disapproval with varying degrees of growling, hissing and clawing. When Rommel first moved in here he tried this procedure on all the cats that lived here at the time but soon gave up because half of the fun for him was the chase and our cats just refused to run from a little old German Shepherd Dog. So now it is his dream to catch a cat roaming the neighborhood and show it how much he loves them. Taking Rommel for a walk is an interesting time because you must be alert for felines on the loose so you can distract his attention from them before he can act on his impulse.

Rommel sniffing DC

Kai on the other hand was raised by a cat at his breeder and he has a very good attitude towards cats in general. He mostly ignores our cats and the cats in the neighborhood. He does have his favorite cat though and Pip returns that affection and attention. Where ever Kai is Pip can usually be found. Pip gets in Kai's face, crawls over him and before he was neutered occasionally used him as an object of romantic affection. No matter what Kai does to him including putting his head in his mouth, pinning him down with his foot or using him as a furry pillow Pip just comes back for more.

Kai and Pip

I don't think the new addition to the household, Scamp, had ever met a cat until he moved here. I am not sure he knows what a cat is for that matter. Since he was poorly socialized as a puppy he is also not too sure that he is a dog. So his approach to cats is a little bipolar at times. When ever one of the cats comes in from the outdoors he loves to chase them down the hall. He also pounces on them at odd times in a playful mood and he is totally astonished when he gets hissed at and swatted in the face. He would have a totally scratched up face if it wasn't for the forebearance of the cats who keep their claws sheated. He especially has a hate - hate relationship with Yankee and the two of them tend to go into combat mode on sight of each other. DC on the other hand is jealous of Scamp and the fact that Ashley pays attention to him so he has taken the offensive at times and launched himself at Scamp anytime they are in the same room together.

So in my house the war between dogs and cats continues with occassional truces and occasional battles but mostly it seems to have long periods of indifference when both sides march to their own drummers.

Growing Old

Time goes by much too fast both for us and especially for our pets. It is so hard to believe that the puppy you remember like it was just yesterday is now a senior citizen.

Rommel will be ten this year. He spends a great deal of his day sleeping and he is moving slower. There seems at times to be a look of sadness in his eyes like he knows that he is older now and can't do everything that he used to be able to do. I know that he is not in pain except for some arthritis on occassion but it is difficult watching such an energetic personality lapse slowly into indifference. Rommel does love his food though and dinner time is the major bright spot of his day. Then you can see the young puppy shining through in his eyes. They say that when your dog is getting older you should decide on what criteria you are going to base your decision that he is no longer enjoying life and maybe needs to be helped to the Rainbow Bridge. You should decide on two or three things and if the dog is no longer able or no longer enjoys those activities you should consider euthansia. I know for a dog that lives to eat like Rommel does that when he starts to have no enthusiam for his dinner that it will be time to consider his needs above my own. I am hoping that day is a long way off.

Rommel

It's 2011 (Just in case you were not aware of that)

It is already ten days into the New Year and I am finally getting around to posting here again. It seems that I took all of 2010 off from blogging and I decided that I will make a concerted effort to make regular posts again. I may be talking to myself but it doesn't matter. Sometimes I have a lot to say so I might as well say it here.

Over the past year I have been concentrating on several things. Kai and I restarted agility classes and he is doing excellent despite having me as his handler. While I have always been a good handler in obedience trials I have found that agility is definately a totally different kettle of fish that I am often drowning in! Agility training requires you to be faster than your dog not only in your ability to get around the ring but also in your ability to think ahead and give your dog plenty of notice about what is coming next. Add to that the fact that due to physical limitations I am no longer able to run around the ring and I must use an electric scooter or wheelchair that makes training that much more difficult.

Speaking of my electric scooter, after three years of faithful service it has suffered a major meltdown and will no longer move in a forward direction. So unless I want to go through life in reverse I am forced to pay to get it repaired or find an alternative means of transportation. Fortunately, I lucked onto a fellow dog trainer in Youngstown, OH who has a almost new wheelchair that she wants to find a new home for and so this weekend I will be driving to Youngstown and coming back with new transportation. I think when I have saved up some money I will have the scooter repaired to use as a backup so that hopefully I will not ever be stuck with no means to easily get around.

Ashley and Scamp

My niece Ashley got a pomeranian beagle mix this past September and he is settling into the household fairly well. He does not always get along with Kai mainly because he does not being smacked on the head with a German Shepherd foot as an invitation to play. She named him Scamp and he is living up to the name. Ashley has been working hard on his basic obedience and they will be starting agility classes soon. I wish them luck but I think that they will be good at it and won't need extra luck.

Kai and his cat Pip are still the best of buddies. Where you find one you often find the other.

Kai and Pip

Ain't love grand!

I don't want to write about my entire life in one post. I will catch up more in future posts. Hopefully 2011 will be my year of the blog.