Dog Park Pictures

Two drawbacks to having a dog

1. Putting your hand in your coat pocket only to discover that you forgot to throw away the baggie of poo.
2. Toweling off after a shower and suddenly there's a cold, wet nose on your naked bum.

Hibernation Mode

Argh! I'm so cold. My day starts with a 45 minute walk with Sash and today the wind chill was 15 degrees. I felt like I was in St. Louis again. I was walking her in snow flurries! I feel my body saying, "Don't do anything. Just curl up in bed and read. Eat fatty & sugary foods." Well, I'm not eating fatty, sugary foods, if only by virtue that there aren't any in the house, but I've managed to walk Sash twice today, take the car to the dealership to look at a factory recall and to read about 100 pages while lounging on the sofa wearing 2 layers and covered up with the blanket. I feel a little guilty, but I'll be so busy starting next week that I think it's okay to lounge around some this week. At least I get SOME exercise.

Is is Spring, yet?

I've Foud It!

My new favorite television station. It's called Ovation and it's what A&E & Bravo used to be before they went so mainstream.

Each night features a different art form.

Tonight is dance. First up was TAP DOGS and now the Joffrey Ballet is performing to the music of Prince. Talk about hot!

Tomorrow night is about writers; the next is about illustrators and so on.

I guess you can only get it with a satellite service...at least in this area, but if you can find it, I would highly recommend you check it out.



http://www.ovationtv.com/

The Adventures of Connie & Sash

Good Lord! When that dog gets a scent and gets away, there's no telling how long it will take to get her back!

Today I was a the dog park by the river. Sash and I had been there for a good 45 minutes and she had been romping around with other dogs. She likes to go to the gate when people (and dogs) are arriving and leaving. The system, or so I thought, is fail safe. You see, there's an ante-pen where you take the leash off your dog and then the main pen where they all run. Both have gates. A pet owner should open one gate, go through, and make sure that the first gate is closed before opening the the second gate. Well, as I found out, the fail safe only works, IF you close the gates. There was a person there with her dog and her daughter. She certainly wasn't paying attention and seemed to care less about her dog or really want to have anything to do with anyone there. As she was leaving, she got her dog and daughter into the ante-pen, leaving the gate to the main pen open. As soon as she opened the 2nd gate, Sash, being the crafty dog she is, took advantage of the situation and made a break for it. I'm pretty pissed off at the other lady...she didn't even seem horrified that she's let my dog out. I was appalled.

But I didn't have time for that. I had to get my dog to come to me....FAT Chance. She was free and had a scent. I was scared to death that she'd get away and I'd never get her back. All sorts of scenarios ran through my head: She gets tangled up and I can't find her, she gets completely away and is hit by a car in a strange neighborhood, how am I supposed to tell the Humane Society that I lost her and to look out for her? Things like that.

I followed her on the trail onto some private property that led to god knows where. Sometimes she would pause long enough for me to catch up with her and then she'd take off again. I wasn't running (I don't run) after her, that would only increase the chances that she would keep running.

When the brush got so bad that I wouldn't be able to follow, I was heartbroken. She was nowhere in sight, I couldn't hear her at all and it was FREAKIN' COLD! I had just decided to head back and wait for her at least until it got dark when BOOM! Here she comes bounding out of the tall brush just like the last scene of HOMEWARD BOUND. Happy to see me and looking like she was laughing.

I was so relieved. We walked the half-mile back to the park. I let her run around in there for a couple of more minutes--until she discovered she could jump the fence into the ante-pen--then I decided it was time to leave.

Tomorrow we work on "come".

I don't give a BLEEP

Okay, who are the censors and why would they bleep out the word "damn" when the word "dam" was uttered at least 15 times before the statement "I don't give a damn."? I found it very strange.

Let me clarify. I was watching Orangutan Island and a commercial came on were celebrities were talking about beavers building dams; how industrious they are, how they build dams overnight, how we should send them to Iraq to help rebuild. The final statement was referring to the beavers' attitude: "I'm going to build this dam and I don't give a BLEEP. It's just a word, for goodness' sake! It's a word that has been uttered on TV a bajillion times. Why bleep it and who decides that that particular Damn gets the ax? I just don't get it.

Meet Sash

I made up my mind today. After careful consideration, I realized that one of the things that I loved about Carmen was that she was a Cat in a Dog Suit. She didn't require too much attention, she was aloof, she was very sweet, but not what I would call "Friendly". She was one that I could leave alone for 12 hours and she'd be okay with that (I didn't do that often) and I need a dog that will be the same way, but without Carmen's negative traits (I never trusted her around children or people whom she wasn't used to).

So here is Sash. She is in my house, I haven't heard a peep out of her and she's upstairs now in here crate of her own volition. Well, I just checked. She's not IN the crate; she's NEAR the crate (That's where she'll sleep and I'll keep her there when I'm gone). I think it will take some time for us to bond, but I have a few days this week, so we can get on a schedule of waking up and feeding and walking. I'm really glad to have her and while it will be an adjustment for both of us, I know that I have the perfect dog for me.

NC STAGE

Hans Meyer








Just wanted to screw with your Automatic Google Search, Hans. Happy New Year!