Busy month

So, it's been a busy few weeks and my blog is woefully neglected. I'd like to point out that my zoo still has it fairly well. We signed Cyrus up for a puppy hunt next week (no, we're not hunting puppies) and he had a show last weekend. We brought Sasha with us (Mya happily visited Mom and the rest of the family), so she had a good time too. Once again, we came in dead last, second to brother Rider, who - incidentally - was gimpy. >sigh< I think I am not meant to show. I believe Cyrus will do much better when Jim takes over showing him. We know, in my own unbiased opinion, that he is clearly a gorgeous dog, deserving of all wins. :)





But the up note was that we visited the Turlock dog park for the first time. That's a nice park. Set on a slope, so there's good exercise on varied terrain. They divide the park between large and small dogs, and on Saturday there was this little black dog whose favorite game is getting the big dogs to chase her up and down the length of the dividing fence. All us owners leaned back in satisfaction and said, "Yep, they'll sleep tonight!" as they ran pellmell up and down the 150 ft fence, slope included. Good pups. On Thanksgiving, we had the park to ourselves most of the day, so even Mya got to go in. While we waited for the last couple people to leave, I took Mya over to the great children's play area they have. Here's some vid of her on the slides (I'm not sure everyone believes me about how much she loves them). I didn't get better shots because I was manning both the dog and the camera - Matt was in the dogpark with the big pups - and it was tough to get Mya to wait at the top of the slide for me to get ready with the camera rather than zoom down pellmell as soon as I put her up there.

Happy Moments

My mom seems to think that having 3 dogs and 2 cats and a snake is unbelievably complicated and a drain on time and energy.

Right now, I'm busy with a lot of things, including working full time and deep in two master's classes online.

All these crazy animals help keep me sane. Sure, it takes time to walk them, play with them, feed them, and clean up after them. But there is only so much time I can spend on "work" things. Judging by my previous two semesters, I am probably not spending any more "free" time doing non-work, non-chore things. When I reach a certain stress threshold, I check out and do something like read or watch a movie. Pet-time has taken the place of much of my reading or other elective activities. Walking the dogs is much more refreshing than watching an episode of Kare Kano. Sure, neither activity gets the bathroom cleaned right now, but cleaning the bathroom doesn't leave me feeling happy and recharged, the way a good 10 or 15 minutes of tug and fetch with Sasha does. The Zoo gives us a full and happy house. I wouldn't trade that for a spotless floor or even a magically-emptying dishwasher.

Here are some happy moments from this weekend, despite working on two school assignments and some house projects. (You can bet I wouldn't be posting pictures of a clean kitchen counter, even if I had one)

Sasha test-drives the new dog house, under construction. She seems to approve.

I love this shot. True, she is still round as a bullet, but this pic makes her look speedy. She accompanied us to Home Depot for dog-house-building supplies. It must have been Take Your Dog to Your Local Hardware Store Day, since she was one of three pooches there.

Cyrus borrow's Sasha's collar (he can do that, now that I walk the big dogs separately, to work on pulling issues). I think he looks snappy in it. Matt says he looks girly (he already has enough people saying, She's pretty! because of those lovely blond locks framing his face). It's hard to get walking-the-dog pictures of their faces... there's too many interesting smells! (In contrast, almost all of the at home shots are face shots. Never know, I might be getting ready to feed them something at any moment, right?)

Random Images

Cyrus has finally been getting into the car by himself. Well, twice. He doesn't really like the car, and even now he's not willing to get into it every time by himself. We still have to lift him up and put him in. Even so, the last time I took him to visit Jim and Linda, he rode in the passenger seat by himself (as opposed to draped over my lap) and didn't fuss or mess. Progress. He's the first dog I've ever had who didn't like the car. Mya, as you see below, loves the car.

I think someone is either coursing rabbits or running Jumpers and Weaves in his sleep...

This is my first official wildflower at our new house. It was growing all by itself in the desolation that is the front yard after more than a month of no watering. Way to go, poppy! Soon your brethren will surround you.

Bonus video 1: Cyrus and Mya playing a few weeks ago. If you notice, he is actually quite gentle with her. Toward the end, she spots me taping them, and Cyrus flips her ear with his nose to get her going again. Too cute.

Bonus video 2: These are grizzlies my grandma and I saw in Alaska September of last year. Too cool! It's a bit jumpy because I was filming in 8x zoom from a school bus.

Growth and Change

Getting a new house will be a big change for us, obviously. But to prove that we're not the only ones undergoing some change, here's what's new in the zoo.

I have a small, off-white starfish in my 55 gallon saltwater display tank. Apparently, conditions there favor small, off-white starfish because this one is multiplying like crazy. Note, I did not say "breeding" like crazy. Like many marine invertebrates, starfish can reproduce by splitting themselves into one or more pieces. Periodically, the starfish divides itself in half, and each half grows new legs to become a full starfish again. Since this happens frequently, I never see starfish with five legs of equal size anymore. They are always lopsided, with mature, normal-length legs and small, growing legs. Sometimes they have several different sizes as once, which means the individual has divided often. Anyways, enough with the science lesson. I actually caught the "birth" of a new starfish, since it was on the glass at the front of the tank. Here's what it looks like.

That's the evil dottyback in the background. He chases fish out of the tank when he can.

Two semi-new, soon-to-be-whole starfish. Odd, but amazing. And I'm sure it all happens by accident and blind chance. Really.

The dogs are changing, too. Fortunately, they're not about to split and leave us with six two-legged dogs to take care of. Thankfully. But here's a picture of Cyrus and Mya I posted earlier, from the beginning of April. And next is a picture I took yesterday. He's so big, and he'll get so much bigger!

Celebration

Well, we have a house in escrow. Yay! It should close by the end of the month. In celebration, I offer this totally unrelated video of the dogs playing in the front yard with Matt. Actually, I suppose it's relevant...the new house will have a much larger, much better yard for the dogs to run around in. We're all looking forward to it.

Fun in the Sun

Cyrus enjoyed his first trip to the beach last weekend. To celebrate the end of the semester, my parents, my aunt and uncle, Matt and I went to Carmel. With six dogs. That's a lot of dogs. Cyrus did very well, even though we went to some very crowded places. In Carmel, they were having an art show, at Carmel Beach they were having a surfing competition, and we stopped in Capitola Sunday afternoon to see their Spring Dog Festival, which was packed. Cyrus, Pisco and Molly (!) handled it like champs. Mya has gotten a little protective of "her" puppy and had a tendency to growl, which sets Cyrus off. All in all, we had a wonderful time.

Groundhog day in Spring?

We have a gopher who's moved in to the front yard. Mya is suddenly channeling generations of badger-hunting ancestors, and is determined to root out the infestation of evil. In the video below, she attempts to teach her eager young charge the finer points of gopher-digging. I think she was successful, don't you?

Those busy dog days of spring

Things have been rather hectic around here, but on the plus side, the end of the semester is in sight. That means that soon, my life will really go to the dogs. We're also eagerly awaiting Cyrus' last shots - we think he'll like Carmel. Mya certainly does.

Cast of Characters

Okay, I admit it: I don't have a real zoo. It just seems like it sometimes. My husband and I share our home with three dogs - a dachshund-mix, a dalmatian, and a new saluki puppy - a corn snake, and two saltwater fish tanks, one for display, one for soft coral frags. Emily, the dalmatian, has been with me more than half my life. Mya, the dachshund, is 5 years old, very clever, and knows it. Cyrus has been with us for about 2 weeks and already I think I should have named him Houdini. He is very smart and agile and, at 11 weeks, can already scale the 42" barricade we've been using to keep him in the kitchen when we're out. Luckily, he's been very well-behaved in his unsupervised explorations. My corn snake is named Sir Hiss, after the snake in the Robin Hood cartoon, and is around 3' long now. Of all the pets I've ever had, a corn snake is the one I whole-heartedly recommend to any parent whose kid wants a pet (although, only with proper research and children of the right age/maturity level, of course).

So, without further ado, welcome to the zoo.