Best. Day. Ever.

 

Eight straight hours of walking through plowed fields, brush, cracked and uneven earth. No lunch break, here. Mud caked in Cyrus' paws. The inside of my car looks like a cement truck vomited in it. The outside looks like the top of my bookshelf did a month ago. I have blisters and mosquito bites and sunburn. Cyrus almost fell asleep in the middle of his dinner.

Best day ever.

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Dog, trail, sky

What more do you need?

 

 

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Frank Fender

So Matt gets a call from his aunt, who says that a lady from work is looking for a home for her Himalayan kitty. An upcoming baby is involved and the family is not going to keep the cat.

Well, let's just say I did extract a promise that no cats will ever be let outside again, no matter what. Also, the cats are really his, so he kind of makes the call on new cats.

The good news is that Frankie (for his beautiful blue eyes) absolutely loves dogs. He's fascinated by them and not at all afraid. He really likes Cyrus.

They are opposite of each other, pale where the other is dark.

He was even comfortable in the middle of the pack, with everyone sniffing him. He's such a steady little guy.


Now if only we can convince Moira to like him. She perches on tall things and hisses when he comes near. He prefers to stay at dog level, so she is currently playing the "ground is lava" game.

Lost dog adventure

This morning, the dogs went nuts when someone walked past the side yard with their dog. A little while later, they started barking again. This time, the jingling collar tags sounded like random wandering. I peeked over the fence to see a big silver dog wandering around loose.

Of course, I had to find out what was up with her. If only to get my dogs to stop barking. No one was outside with her. She didn't really want me to come close, very barky, but scared with a tucked tail. She ran up to the porch of a house a few doors down from us. No one home. She did have a collar, but the address was a block away. Matt and I took her to the address on her collar.

The house was abandoned. The dog did look pretty skinny (as well as being enormous up close). Did someone abandon her along with the house? So, we took her home.

Big as she was, she was rather timid with our dogs. Not at all aggressive (and our three did pretty well, considering), but she couldn't really settle with them. She was very sweet with us, especially Matt, trying to climb into his lap (or over his shoulders) when Sasha and Cyrus got to sniffy.

We left a note at the house she'd been so interested in. My thought was that perhaps her owners and the owners of this other house (which had a bulldog in the backyard) had been friends and maybe walked the dogs together or visited each other, and that's why she knew the house.

As it turned out, her owners had lost the house. Then moved to a rental on our street, which was why she wanted to get back in that house. Her owners were very worried when they came home to find her out of the yard, but very happy that we'd picked her up so she wasn't wandering loose all morning.

We miss her a little, she was so sweet. Big, though. Turns out she is a 10 month old Great Dane. We're close enough to visit. :)

Favorite Visit

Laurel and her family have come to visit. We've all been having a lot of fun, and it's especially sweet to see the dogs and kids together. Cyrus has some new friends.

Introductions

Oscar and Sarah were abandoned by their owner along with three other siblings and their mother. Fortunately, they lived near a kind-hearted lady who also works for the library and she fed them, made sure they were immunized and altered and found what homes she could. Oscar and Sarah were the last of the bunch and serendipity matched their need for a home with our need for feline company for Moira.

They didn't settle in immediately, since they had been outside kitties and Moira was surprisingly, well, catty. But soon they became part of the crew.

Moira teaches Oscar the fine art of begging in the kitchen (important - never from the counter!)

Sarah investigates the plush surroundings.

So does her brother.

Cyrus and Sasha warn them to behave with their dog-pod laser-eyes.

The cutest thing was Mya's concern for Moira. At the first confirmation that there were strange cats in our house, Mya ran to find her buddy and check her all over, very carefully, to make sure Moira was ok and safe with these strangers.

Harvest Moon Dog Show

We just finished up 4 days of showing (the cluster runs through tomorrow, but 4 days is definitely enough for us). Cyrus is doing much better in the ring, more at ease, less worried about being touched in the face by strangers (judges). We do have some things to work on, of course. I, for one, have no clue where to put his feet. I do okay if he walks calmly into a nice stand, but if he's nervous or wants to sit down, then I'm less sure where his feet ought to go.

We did get some lovely gaiting, as you see in the picture. Cyrus managed to get in the ribbons on Thursday, which is the day the Swedish handler flew into the States to put the final couple points on his dog to qualify for Westminster. Just so you know what we were up against. :)

All in all, fabulous work, Cyrus. Your handler could use some improvement, though.