Look out, world!!!

Before you stands what is, without question, the world's newest and most terrifying force to be reckoned with in the venue of dog agility. Standing 16 3/4" tall and weighing in at a portly 26lbs, this orange furry sausage appended to the universally renowned Flamboyance (tm) is going to take the sport of agility and turn it on its head!!

Or, you know, not.

*sigh* What can I say? Woo was cut out for cute faces and the occasional television role, but not for any kind of dog sport. When I first brought him to flyball practice last year, everyone in the club was impressed with his small stature and lined up to watch him do his first ever row of jumps. By jump #3, they had all turned back to conversation among themselves, if that speaks to you about Mr. Woo's jumping (or rather lack of) style.

To demonstrate:

Tweed, ADC, AGDC, MJDC, MGDC, FDM-CH-S

Notice the clean lines of his finely tucked legs parallel to the water's surface. Notice how he is driving forward with purpose. Notice what a gorgeous figure he makes in his jumpingness, screaming "look out world, Tweed has arrived!"

Mr. Woo
Notice the nambly pambly splayed legs, the mocking wavery of the The Flamboyance (tm) and the complete lack of purpose or style in his jump.

In other words: I don't think Mr. Woo is going to be my next stellar agility dog.

So the other day at the beach an eagle stole Piper's $5.00 rubber Chuck It ball. I threw it out in the water and the eagle got there first, took off with it and then dropped it down a building vent of the nearby museum. And did I have a camera to document any of this? Nooooo sir, I did not!! Stupid rain!!

But now Piper has a brand new, $10.00 pink Orbee ball to match her pretty pink Camo collar. The collar, incidentally, was purchased for Piper by Cookie Uncle Adrian, who mocks my obsession with All Things Pink for Piper, but also feeds my addiction through purchases like this:

She is so pretty!

It's too bad Piper won't play flyball anymore, because Auntie Fiona and I have a dream. In this dream, we have a flyball team of rescue dogs called "Pretty In Pink" and all the dogs will be outfitted in pink harnesses and the handlers in pink shirts.

The star of this Dream Team will be The World's Cutest Puppy. You all know her as Rogue:

Yes she is imperious. Yes she is full of 'tude. Yes she is a big devil nestled coyly in a small adorable package. I don't care. I love her!

So does Wootie.

I took these photos at the ill-fated agility practice where I learned that Woo will never be an agility star. Having a lie-down in the tunnel is just not part of the competition.

Some other dogs who came to agility practice:

No-Eyes Muppet and Woo-Eating Smudge

This puppy was just present at the facility, he is too young for agility. But OH MY GOD is he ever keeee-ute!! I was smitten with his Dane-ness, and he had me wrapped almost all the way around his giant paw!

Look at that face!

He is just 4 months old. One day, he will tower over this sibling of his, who is a larger sized Chocolate Lab.

Now Toby, bless his heart, is not much of a agility dog. He's more of a drool and walk around kind of dog. Since Woo and I weren't really making a lot of progress on the agility front, I had some time to torment Toby with strategically placed cookies.

"Hey Toby, want a cookie?"

"Yes Please!"

"Hey, umm, the cookie? I ... oh ... cookie."

"I can ... get .. the cookie ..."

Poor Toby. All that work for a wee biscuit.

I think swimming season is now officially over. It's getting dark a lot sooner after work and Red Dog has let me know that swimming is no longer a soothing panacea to his hot aching joints, but rather it is more like being pelted with iceballs right in his elbows. He's still game to go of course:

But that's because he is a good, brave dog. His limping for the next 24 hours tells me something different. So it's back to mucky grass and soft moist earth for the winter.

This funny little Jack Russell disagrees. He said "Get in that water and be a man!! Be a HUMAN!" and he demonstrated how.