Since my work travel schedule took a bit of a break over Thanksgiving, I got my first foster in forever. Yay!! Her name is Lola. I was going to name her a noun instead of a name, but "Lola" was suggested by 3 different people within 10 minutes so I figured that was some sort of a sign. And she likes it when you sing to her....L-O-L-A Lola... Lola is a one year old min pin who is in foster because she needs time to heal some wounds. This cut on her paw is the biggest of the wounds and it was pretty close to healed when I got her.I think she could have gone up for adoption with that minor injury, but if the vet says she needs foster time, then she needs foster time! :) Which is great for me because she is the sweetest little love bug. She loves to cuddle and wants to sit on a lap, any lap, all the time. She's housetrained, quiet and easy to live with. As usual, the arrival of a new foster ensures that Mo will be attached to my side. She's not taking any chances of being replaced! There are two things that Lola is scared of. One is the camera: And the other is the cat:When I introduced her to Al, it caused no reaction at all. He was on the counter and I was holding her so she could sniff him. Ho hum. But a few hours later, the cat moved and HOLY TERROR! She went into a barking frenzy!! It's ALIVE!! Now she watches him constantly, usually keeping a bit of distance.Al does try to make friends with her. Lola will be sitting in my lap and he'll come up and rub his head on her. Lola gets all sorts of crazy, not knowing whether to run and hide or lick him. She starts with the licking. Al starts purring. Cute - they are friends! But then Lola can't contain her nervousness and she starts nibbling on him. Al is quite dog savvy, he can handle a little nibbling. But then Lola's fear and excitement get the best of her and WOMP!! She'll give him a big ol' chomp. Al doesn't take kindly to being bitten so he'll swipe his paw at her. This causes screams of terror and hurt feelings from Lola. Hilarious. Yet she never learns and the scene replays itself every few days. She gets along fine with the dogs - no problems at all. Mostly she ignores them, but outside she'll try to join in the chase games. Running around with Frankie: I take her back to the shelter this week. I am hoping her shelter time is short. She loves being around people and being in a kennel will make her very sad. She should go quick since she's small, gets along with everyone and is housetrained. Fingers crossed! One last picture of her sweetness and my crazy evil shadow:
My friend Marin hosted her annual Ugly Christmas Sweater Spectacular this weekend. The invite stated:
So, it’s once again time to scour the racks at your favorite used clothing retailer for the fugly holiday knitware that it sure to be hiding amongst the mismatched dishware and broken kids toys. In an exciting twist this year, we are also encouraging guests to take it one step further and add themes or costumes to your holiday attire. ‘80s Christmas? Done! Homemade Uncle Scrooge outfit? Yes, please! But whatever you do, you better look like a huge holiday goofball because non-dresser-uppers will be mercilessly ridiculed, tarred, and feathered! Also as in years past, a Grand Prize will be awarded to the winner (it’s more of a loser though, right?).
Did someone say costume?? Did someone say prize?? Yee haw! (Of course, someone also said huge holiday goofball, but we'll ignore that part!)
Marin and her husband were Santa and his elf. She is the cutest elf ever! Pat wanted to beat his 2nd Place finish last year, so he spent even more time making his sweater this year. I think he forgot the "Ugly" and made his sweater too cute:While it may look like a simple design made with felt and a glue gun, it actually took quite a bit of work to make it. That's because he spent hours soddering and wiring the eyes and nose of his reindeer. He even made a schematic with the boys at work to make sure it was done right. He's such an engineer. :) The eyes could be red, blue, green or purple and could flash in varying stages of colors. The nose flashed red. I took about 100 pictures but could not get one while the nose was glowing.
I chose to go with a holiday theme costume. My original idea was to go as a snowflake, but the creativity part of the making of the costume completely overwhelmed me, so I took the easy way out and became a snowman instead: A hot glue gun is a pretty handy tool. I used it to put on the buttons, make the pipe and make my carrot nose. I actually glued the orange felt to an old pair of glasses. Worked perfect!
Karissa and her dad went with Ugly Sweaters purchased at Goodwill just hours before the party. I'm pretty sure Baby Travis' outfit was not purchased at Goodwill: After coming in 3rd Place last year, Emily upped the ante went with an "ensemble": That is her actual tree skirt that she is wearing as a skirt. And those shiny balls are her actual Christmas tree decorations. Awesome.
Last year, a girl named Sarah won the contest. This year she was too scared of the competitiveness of Emily and Pat, and thus didn't even try to top her outfit last year. I think she just had on a red shirt and jeans. When the voting was tallied, the costumes and ensembles topped the Ugly Sweaters. Emily and I tied for 1st Place! Pat came in 2nd. And Jamie, though wearing what really was the ugliest sweater at the party, didn't even get an honorable mention. You just can't compete with a Snowman, a Christmas Tree and a sweater with wires and battery packs!
We all went up to Pinetop over Labor Day weekend for an agility trial.
GEORGIE: Georgie doesn't do agility. She got to hang out in the x-pen all day, whining and crying and being a pain in the ass.
MO: This trial was Mo's big debut! Our hopes were high! She'd been doing great at Jim's. Her confidence was up. We were doing full advanced courses, very slowly of course, but completing them! I thought she might be ready.
I was wrong.
She didn't like it at all. She was nervous with all the people and all the activity. She acted as if she had NEVER seen a contact obstacle EVER before in her life. This is the furthest she went on any of the equipment: No amount of cheerleading, begging, pleading or fake-treating would get her to go another step. This picture actually shows her at her bravest. Most of the time she wouldn't even touch the obstacle. She did a whole lot of the standing still, staring into space and pretending she was invisible like she did when we very first started classes. She did do a few jumps and perhaps a tunnel in every run, but we didn't complete more than 6 obstacles in any run on the first day.
Nevertheless, she was a hit with the crowd. Everyone loved her! After her first run, when I finally gave up and took her over the end jump, the whole crowd cheered for her....which had the unintended effect of scaring the bejeezus out of her. She tucked her tail and tried to run. After that, everyone realized what a "special" dog Mo is. They were super nice and gave her lots of room, moved slowly when near her and took their time trying to befriend her. Though I did have the feeling that people were tsk-tsking me behind my back for starting her in trials before she was ready. I was tsk-tsking myself, too.
I was hopeful that the second day would be better for her. She'd be a little more accustomed to the surroundings and she'd realize that all I was asking her to do was the same things we've worked on over and over again at Jim's house. I knew she could do it, I just needed to convince her that she could do it.
Yeah...not so much. She still refused all contacts, she refused some jumps, even. I tried to keep a positive attitude - maybe she'd do well in jumpers, which was our last run of the day. No contacts or tunnels! Perfect.
Here is her final run:
She started out so great - I thought for sure she was going to get a Q. Then at jump 4 and 5, she realized there were people around! And they were moving! YIKES! How can she be expected to go over a jump when there are moving people around?!?! But, finally....she finished a course! About an hour over time, but she did the whole thing! It wasn't anywhere close to how she does in class, but she did it.
FRANKIE: I also had high hopes for Frankie to do well at this trial. He, too, has been doing great at Jim's, doing perfectly in fact! He is now SIX years old and should be outgrowing his crack-baby ways. I thought for sure he would qualify in more than half of his runs.
Again, I was wrong.
We only got 1 Q out of 10 runs. It was very depressing. He got all cracked out on every run! People enjoyed his antics, but I didn't. I even tried having Pat run him once to see if that would get him to pay attention. It almost worked - he completed 3/4 of the obstacles - which was a record for the weekend, but he still lost it and went zooming around the ring for awhile.
Even when he's on crack, Frankie still excels at Jumpers. We always qualify. Except at this trial. Ergh. I must have been leading too far out because the jump I'm pointing at here: was completely skipped: and he took the next jump instead: Ergh.
I have to admit that by the end of the trial, I was completely disheartened. I have put four years and thousands of dollars into Frankie - to no use. The dog definitely has a screw loose and I am a terrible handler.
Pat and I were supposed to stay Sunday night so we could hike and explore the area on Monday, but instead I insisted that we just load up and go home. I was too grumpy to stay. :(
PABLO:
Huh? We already went through My 3 Dogs. Who is Pablo??
My friend Vickie found a chihuahua puppy a few months back. No owner was located so she named him Pablo and let him stay. Pablo looks out of place with her pack of Aussies, but he fits right in with my pack of tan dogs! They are like a little family of tan:
I have a free night tonight. Well, not a whole free night, but a bunch of free hours in a row anyway. I got home from work at 4:30 and I don't have soccer until 9:00. I would really have liked to go to bed early since I've been up before 5:00 am two days in a row (flights to and from Albuquerque), but I don't want to miss soccer. I thought about a nap, but if I start that, there is no way I'll get up and go play.
So, with four consecutive hours of free time, I could have done so many things on my to-do list, such as: input all my receipts and payments into my Town Treks budget worksheet, read The Godfather for book club, read Home for the other book club, take the dogs for a much-needed walk or take myself for a much-needed run (CitySolve and Great Urban Race nationals are next weekend and the weekend after!) or even (gasp!) update my sadly neglected blog.
But no. None of that got accomplished. Why? Because I got on facebook and got stuck there ....for a really long time!! I did some cyberstalking of people, read lots of posts (my cousin is selling both Gopher football tickets and her house...anyone interested??), tried to interpret the vague ones (why exactly do suppose that Elizabeth's day did a 180?) and looked at pictures of my roommate's trip to the Grand Canyon and Elaine's baby.
And here's where the vanity part comes in. I checked out my own profile page, too. Cuz I'm vain. And cuz it's fun to read people's comments on my postings and my pictures. This is my current profile picture - taken last week while Travel Troupe was cruising the Caribbean: I am vainly proud of the comments that my facebook friends have posted. One comment: "You should take on a second career of doing fitness competitions. I think you could bring in some cash. Just don't tell them what you eat." Another: "Like a fitness model!" Awww...so nice. Keep 'em coming, people! I do love a good compliment. :) And with less than a year before I am no longer in my 30's (oh my god, how I hate getting old!!!), compliments on my looks are more pleasing than they were 10 years ago.
Someone also asked me if this picture was photoshopped. Come on! You don't believe that a 39 year old whose main (only?) food group is Tootsie Rolls and KitKats can take a decent photo? But I have to admit - that yes - I did edit it a bit...but only because that woman who is perfectly framed between my legs is a little off-putting. :) Ok then...vain girl checking out. I've got some sushi waiting for me and some Coyotes hockey to watch for an hour before I go play soccer.
Buster came to stay for a week while Karissa was out of town. Bruiser and Chico came to stay for the next week while Chris' sister was out of town. Their visits overlapped by a day ...and this is what that day looked like:
Lola is a one year old min pin who is in foster because she needs time to heal some wounds. This cut on her paw is the biggest of the wounds and it was pretty close to healed when I got her.
I think she could have gone up for adoption with that minor injury, but if the vet says she needs foster time, then she needs foster time! :) Which is great for me because she is the sweetest little love bug. She loves to cuddle and wants to sit on a lap, any lap, all the time. She's housetrained, quiet and easy to live with. As usual, the arrival of a new foster ensures that Mo will be attached to my side. She's not taking any chances of being replaced! 
There are two things that Lola is scared of. One is the camera:
And the other is the cat:
When I introduced her to Al, it caused no reaction at all. He was on the counter and I was holding her so she could sniff him. Ho hum. But a few hours later, the cat moved and HOLY TERROR! She went into a barking frenzy!! It's ALIVE!! Now she watches him constantly, usually keeping a bit of distance.
Al does try to make friends with her. Lola will be sitting in my lap and he'll come up and rub his head on her. Lola gets all sorts of crazy, not knowing whether to run and hide or lick him. She starts with the licking. Al starts purring. Cute - they are friends! But then Lola can't contain her nervousness and she starts nibbling on him. Al is quite dog savvy, he can handle a little nibbling. But then Lola's fear and excitement get the best of her and WOMP!! She'll give him a big ol' chomp. Al doesn't take kindly to being bitten so he'll swipe his paw at her. This causes screams of terror and hurt feelings from Lola. Hilarious. Yet she never learns and the scene replays itself every few days. She gets along fine with the dogs - no problems at all. Mostly she ignores them, but outside she'll try to join in the chase games. Running around with Frankie: 
I take her back to the shelter this week. I am hoping her shelter time is short. She loves being around people and being in a kennel will make her very sad. She should go quick since she's small, gets along with everyone and is housetrained. Fingers crossed! One last picture of her sweetness and my crazy evil shadow: 
but he fits right in with my pack of tan dogs! They are like a little family of tan:
