Country Life

So I was driving down a country road today when I spied something out of the driver's side window.


I had exactly 11 seconds to stop and take a couple of photos before I had to continue on since traffic was coming up behind me, and there were no shoulders on road, and I was pretty far away so these are heavily cropped. So I apologize for the quality. Even if I could have stopped, it's pretty hard to sneak up on a coyote in an open field.


He's probably hunting something that would make Mr. Woo EXTREMELY jealous.


And Mr. Woo deserves to suffer a little, believe me.

I suffer. Oh how I suffer. Hey, is that a rabbit?


He deserves to suffer because he is R.O.T.T.E.N. to the CORE!!! Yesterday we were taking a nice walk in the fields around our home when Wootie just vanished. One second he was standing beside me, the next he was nowhere to be seen.

At first I was all "Wootie, where are you? Get over here, right now." And after about 10 minutes of nary a sighting, I was like "Wootie? Sweetie? Where are you, pumpkin?" and then 10 more minutes passed and I was all "WOOTIE! WOOTIE! WOO-HOO! COME YOU BASTARD!!"

Still no Wootie.

I bushwhacked through fields and thorny things for about 45 minutes, getting progressively more frantic, until my heart basically just stopped beating altogether. What if he got run over by a car? What if someone found him and just, you know, kept him? What if he followed his nose all the way to Abbotsford? I ran home.

Where I found Wootie. Sitting on the porch.

BAD DOG!!

Looking for something?


*shakes fist at Wootie*

I know it's hard to believe, but he is a really bad dog. I was so angry that I hugged him and kissed him and sobbed and was all "oh I was so scared! Where'd you go?!" instead of giving him the beating he deserves.

Next time: more beatings, less love.


Today we were bored with our usual routine, so we tried out a new (to us) dog park in Langley. It's just a big round field, with a path circling it so people don't have to get their feet wet. It's not very exciting, but it IS fenced, so I didn't have to worry about losing Woo two days in a row.

*shakes fist at Wootie. Again.*

Tweed felt it was kind of meh.

Meh.


But he got a lot more excited when I pulled out the Chuck-It.


I tried to get a family portrait, but Wootie refused to join us, as he was busy eating dirt. Unusual, I know.

Mmmmm dirt. Wonderful, tasty dirt. Mmmm.


As for the other dogs ... well, I just don't think it's natural for two dogs to have these kinds of thoughts about their sister's shapely rear end, for crying out loud. She's their SISTER!!!!


What? We weren't doing anything!


We had to have a little chat about the birds and the bees, and how some feelings are just not appropriate to have. I guess I embarrassed them, because none of the boys would even look at me after that.



I know they're looking at my butt. I don't care. Throw the ball plz.


Tweed was quick to agree with his sister.


And Dexter was all "Wait, aren't we looking at her butt anymore??"


We played some Dumb Ball


Until Wootie tore up enough of the turf that I thought someone might notice.


So we packed up our hockey ball and our (ridiculously) long tongues, and headed back home.


Now we are snuggled up together ready to ring in the New Year.

Happy New Year! Wishing you all the best in 2010!

Merry Christmas!

from 3 Woofs & A Woo!

Recognize anyone

on this list?


:)

Don't mind us, we're mindless

I've got Dexter in training to be a mindless idiot with no training on him whatsoever.

Say whuuut?


That's right ... according to one of the stupidest discussions on a breed board I've ever read to date, if you play fetch with your dog, you're just an mindless idiot imposing your mindlessness and idiocy on your poor dog.

Poor dogs.

Stop smiling Piper! After 7 years of fetch, you are far too stupid to be happy.



Sorry Tweed, sATCh and 5 times Nationals Qualifier, your enormous repertoire of commands is a sham and all I can do now is hope to fix the damage that 9 years of fetch has done to you. You'll have to stop looking so eager - I too am a mindless moron, and I'm probably too diminished to throw this ball for you by now.


*insert eyeroll here*

I dunno about you guys, but I think that's a big load of hooey. I played fetch with my dogs just yesterday, and checked the ground over carefully afterward. Saw no signs of brains left in the grass, so I'm going to have to assume they didn't become dumber from the experience. I might be dumber for having read the discussion though.

I like playing fetch with my dogs. And 3/4 of them like it right back at me. All the eye-rolling I did might have impeded my reading comprehension, I admit, but what I walked away from it with was the idea that border collies are too smart to play fetch, but stupid not to play fetch, and therefore, people who play fetch should turn in their border collie ownership cards and stick to goldfish.

Uh oh. Scratch that.

Mr. Woo, of course, doesn't play much fetch. But Mr. Woo also sticks his head in thorn bushes, gets thorns in his ears, cries and bleeds and then repeats the experience the next day. And the next. Etc.

He *might* be kind of stupid.

Yay! What?


Dexter has a message for the fetch haters.


I do lots of things with my dogs. The other evening, I sat down on the floor and taught Dexter to run across the room and stand on a box. He knows sit, down, stay, come, gimme five, target, spin, get out, off, up, load up in the car, stay for paw wiping, tug, and my personal favourite "hugs and kisses" (when he puts his 'arms' around my neck and I lift him up for both those things). He's 4 months old and he knows tons of stuff! My dogs get to for walks, swimming, hiking up mountains, to agility classes, to flyball tournaments, to friends and relatives' houses ... and yes, they also get to play fetch. It seems ridiculous to me to belittle someone for playing a game with their dogs as part of a well rounded life of a variety of activity.

Less theorizing. More fetch. Kthnx.


Yay! More fetch!


On one of our daily constitutionals, I took this shot kinda off the cuff randomly and then laughed and laughed. It's like Wootie orchestrated it to not-so-subtly point out out how pathetic other tails in this world are, comparatively. Like, these sparse porcupine-tails are making him gag as he sees them fluttering around pathetically in front of him.


And it goes without saying, of course, he's got no respect for the excuse-for-a-tail, the Naked Snake, sported by his youngest brother.



In other news, "Little Man," now known as Journey, is healing up like a champ.


If Tweed doesn't take him out first ...

Ooomph.


And lastly, the people who share my property recently moved in with their border collie, Kila. Piper Does Not Like Kila, who is one of those border collies who stalks other dogs who are trying to play, cuts off their escape routes and grabs fur as they run by (given the choice between a dog who is enraptured with a hockey ball, and one who is allowed to obsess over other dogs, I'll take the former any day!).

Do. Not. Want.


^^ imperious princess.

Like it was never here

Snow's all gone.


And for no reason whatsover, here's a photo of Wootie eating peanut butter.

It's beginning to look a lot like

... like it's damn cold outside!


That's the start of our first official snowfall. I realize it doesn't look like much, but that was taken two hours ago. Now the snow has covered everything already, and my thermometer tells me it's -3 outside. That's just too darn cold. And the snow continues to fall.

ETA: A similar view just 2 hours later. And it's still snowing like crazy!


I would have risked the Wrath of the Dogs and declared a moratorium on outside time today, but I had to go out this morning to pick up The Package.

ZOMG!


That's Little Man, fresh from Kamloops, gimpy leg and all.

Il est joli, est il non ?


He's a lot fluffier than Dexter, though way smaller. And he's says that's fine, as he doesn't even want to be confused with Dexter, whom he does not really like.

Gee, I wonder why.

BONZAI!!!!!


Where ya goin', Gimpy? Come back here and play with me!


He probably feels a little vulnerable with that bum leg, and Mr. Bossy Boots wasn't really instilling confidence in him, poor wee felly.

And he still doesn't have a name, can you believe that? His previous owners were calling him "Lucky" but given that they managed to get him run over by a car within a week or so of owning him, that's a bit of a cruel irony ... even for me. So he needs a name. Any suggestions?

He's pretty cute, and you can see that one hip is no good. As I type, he standing there staring at one of the cats on just 3 legs. He looks normal when he runs, but he's not putting any real weight on that leg. This week he'll be going into our vet with his x-rays for a re-evaluation and then we'll schedule the surgery. And it's all thanks to the so so many of you who donated toward these costs! Some donated a little, some donated a lot and in the end we have what should be enough to cover the costs of making this little pants-biting miracle all better again!

Congrats to Amy Miller, who won the custom pet portrait from Laughing Dingo Studios!

I didn't get too many shots of him, I'm sorry. It was just too cold outside and my camera, which is on its last legs at the best of times, becomes sluggish and uncooperative in the cold.

And it is cold. The snow continues to fall, which Piper thinks is a lousy reason for me to not walk them.


Woo could care less. It's not as though he actually walks anyway.


And it's Dexter's first snow fall!! I was excited for him.


What's that white stuff falling from the sky?


It's been a busy week for us, as fosters come in and move on. Little Man will be going to another foster home this afternoon, where he won't be tempted to wrassle with Dexter after his surgery.

We temporarily has The Fire Breathing Dragon, aka Saphy:

This little monster dog is, if you can believe it, the product of a border collie and a cross of pomeranian/chihuahua.


All 20 lbs of her! And she is a going concern. Ball CRAZY and fast as the dickens. She is available through TDBCR - height dog for flyball, anyone?

We also made a new friend, Luna the world's most adorable black lab puppy.


And Maia, Lens Licker Extraordinaire.


Maia and her mum will be fostering Ziggy, who will available through our rescue soon as well.

Feed me, Seymour!

It's coming from inside the house!

So there we were this morning, enjoying some Wootie Toy in the horse paddock.

Wootie got some air


and some Mad Teeth(tm)


And then he was off and running like a shot


I wasn't sure what he was after. Could have been the big bold as brass coyote who was standing on my lawn in the middle of the afternoon two days ago.

Or it could have been the bunny rabbit that he enthusiastically chased up the road yesterday, and under the house foundation this morning. At least, I think it was the same bunny - the same very stupid, slow learner bunny.

But whatever it was he was after, he was convinced it was in the garden shed. Which is locked.

No matter.

He decided to just dig through the side of the shed.


When that proved to be frustratingly slow, he decided it would be faster to EAT THROUGH THE SHED!


What the hell?


He's teaching Dexter very bad habits!!


Good. More Wootie Toy for me.


Lord help me. Now I have to fix the shed.

In other news, we have raised $1500.00 for Little Man's surgery! You are amazing people, and you just made a little puppy's future so much brighter. We cannot thank you enough.

We'll be holding the draw this week and will announce the winner on the blog and on the website. So be sure to check back to see who gets a custom portrait from Laughing Dingo Studios!!