Cabin Fever

Just back from a good long hour's walk in the woods with the dogs. After yesterday's shut in day we were feeling a little cabin fever. It's scary that it only takes 24 hours for that to happen. I forgot my camera but I don't think it would have been a successful photo day since it's quite overcast and the woods were very dark. It was sort of misting but at a comfortable 5 degrees and no wind it was a very pleasant stroll.


Leeloo is so funny about her walks. She spends most of her time manically running through the trees chasing Archer or being chased by Archer, then stops, looks around for me, approaches, brushes by and smiles up at my face and then carries on her manic runs. I always touch her head or back in response and am rewarded with a wagging tail that trots off to look for trouble. I like that she is thoughtful enough to return to me and express her thanks for the walk. She's the only one who does it. Sigh ... kids today ...

Archer keeps a very close eye on me but that is more due to age and insecurity than anything else. I have faint hope this close contact will carry into adulthood. He always grabs a stick or some bark and entices Leeloo into a chase game and she is usually happy to oblige. They run like maniacs in and out of the trees, onto the path, past me, into the trees again ... round and round. It can get a bit dizzying.


The trick to walking several dogs together and not getting knocked down when they blow by is to not change your course. The second you try to avoid them they could hit you because they're calculating their course based on your location when they're about 10 feet away. If you step to try and avoid a collision chances are good you will end up with one. If you make like a tree and stand still or simply carry on walking as though you don't have an 80 pound missile approaching at break neck speed you are usually pretty safe. They are quite capable of hurtling through a forest without hitting tree trunks so I feel pretty confident they won't take me down. This doesn't mean I don't keep a close eye on them - they are not always watching where they are going! It also doesn't mean they don't emerge from the trees sometimes with long scratches and scrapes long their sides from hitting branches .... which they never seem to notice.


We saw lots and lots of deer prints but no actual deer until right at the end of the walk when Raimi thought he saw something of considerable interest. He shot off around a corner and Leeloo followed but I'm pretty sure she didn't know what he was so interested in. Fortunately he thought whatever it was had run into the school field so he sort of trapped himself enough for me to catch up.


I had to walk the last 300 yards to the truck holding onto him because he just could not get deer out of his brain. It's a good thing he saw it at the end of the walk or I would have been dealing with him bolting into the woods at every moment. It's hard for him to switch gears once he's got a thought in his head. There are so few rattling around in his cavernous skull it's no wonder a big thought has trouble finding the exit.

Plan B

It's pouring rain today so I have to fall back on beach photos again. Everyone is asleep, I tried to get them out earlier but there was no way. It's like a monsoon, just torrential rain all day.

Here's the most handsome Boy being Most Handsome. And the most silly puppy being Most Silly.

And the most curious Bubby being Most Curious.

Maybe tomorrow we can go outside without having to put our water wings on ...

Christmas with the Kranks

Yesterday, being the first day of December, I decided that it was high time we get our Christmas photo completed. My parents came over to help and amidst much laughter at the dog's outfits we managed to get a few decent pictures. People ask me how we managed it and it was mostly a matter of bribery and patience.

The first few photos my Dad took were to illustrate the general mayhem we were dealing with. Initially the dogs were completely baffled by the proceedings and ended up pretzeling a few times but eventually as they got sick and tired of the exercise they just lay down in defeat.

Once in position there were some wardrobe malfunctions as Leeloo's antler's kept falling off and Raimi kept removing his beard. Archer wouldn't sit which was annoying because we'd been working on that very command the week prior to this event. My mom pointed out that it seems he needs more practice.

In the end we got about 4 successful photos that show the dogs at their absolute cutest. These are a couple that I particularly like. Raimi's expression in this one is priceless, he does not portray as jolly a Santa as one would hope(his beard just sleighs me - ahem - slays). Leeloo, with her big round doe eyes, is perfect for a reindeer - not to mention the legs you can't see. Archer the elf looks bored but it doesn't take much for his sharp little brain to get tired of one activity and want to move on to the next. And here we all are looking interested and alert, moderately cheerful and in the holiday spirit. We used a gingerbread cookie as a bribe and managed to get everyone looking the part but at least it was an appropriately festive bribe. Thank doG I decided against wrangling a cat in there as well ...

Happy holidays to all this Christmas season!

Tremors

It's less than 24 hours from the first day of December and we just go back from the beach. It was cool and brisk but not unpleaseant if you dress for it. We wandered up and down for an hour until I ran out of fresh water for the dogs and Raimi started giving me the 'Can we go home Mommy?" look.

The highlights of the walk were sticks and holes. I discussed sticks in the Stick It blog a few days ago so I won't bore with more photos and tales of stick wars. I will 'bore' you with holes though. Get it? Bore? >cough<

Archer likes to dig. Sand is easy to dig in so he can create a pretty large hole pretty fast. This is my favorite position. What's not to love? He can get pretty intense about it too - very focused. Is there something on my nose?Raimi almost always continues the hole Archer has already started. Not a dog of great original thought is The Boy. Sometimes he loses sight of things.

Two heads are better than one. Or rather, one brain and two heads. I love the expression of deep concentration on The Boy's face ... I expect an implosion any moment; however, he is at his sweetest when he is trying to use his brain. Both of them should really just leave the thinking up to Leeloo who rarely lowers herself to wallow in the dirt

Soul Food

I took these photos a while ago of the dogs helping me make their dinner. Leeloo takes particular interest and occasionally pokes one of the dishes to remind me how the food goes in the dish. "Remember Mommy how the food ... the food there, it goes in the dish right? See the dish? It's empty. Fill it."Archer is also very interested in the proceedings. He looks very concerned about something; possibly how long the process is taking. Once the food is on the floor it disappears as fast as they can inhale it. And inhale they do since sometimes they have to stop and cough out a piece from their esophagus. It doesn't slow them down much. Raimi is a little slower; he usually takes about three times as long as the others do to eat so ... about two minutes. He doesn't seem to think it's a race so he eats at his own pace. Always has always will. His dish goes in between the hot water heater and the expen to protect him from the other dog's attention while he eats.

This arrangement is good for Raimi because he can eat at his leisure without having to fend off Leeloo and Archer who express considerable concern that he is eating so slowly. Of course, this does not stop them from waiting for him to finish so they can check his bowl for any missed kibble.

It hardly matters that Raimi never leaves a spec behind ... they will always double check just in case.

The Big Bang Theory

Sometimes the wind is your friend and sometimes it's your arch enemy. Since the Ridgebacks are both scent and sight hounds (try arguing with me and see how far you get) if a good smell crosses their path its almost as though a piece of string has been attached to the tip of their nose and they are pulled toward the trail without much effort.

This results in hearing loss. Hearing loss can lead to all kinds of Bad Situations such as bolting through the woods, crossing a road un-supervised, and at it's worst - Getting Lost.

It also results in Deep Thoughts which never turn out to involve things like Pulitzer Prizes or research grants.

The best case scenario is what happened the other day which was the Frozen Body combined with Deep Thoughts and resulted in only minor hearing loss. It was a Lucky Day for the critter at the other end of the smell.

The Thorn Birds

Last Thursday, the day Halo left, we got back from saying good bye to her after our walk and Leeloo came into the house with a cut on her right rear foot. More specifically a puncture and a slice. It may be the same thing Halo had cut herself on a couple weeks earlier, I've looked everywhere in the yard but just cannot find the culprit. The slice had a flap on it so I cut it off because the skin was drying and it was catching on things. You can see the triangle shaped hole in her toe. Problem with foot injuries like this is that they bleed and bleed and it's hard to stop them because everytime the dog puts its foot down it forces blood through the foot. Not hard to guess why it will keep bleeding. I went through bandaids and tape and eventually managed to get it to the point where it was sealed enough that it stopped actively bleeding. She was lame for a couple days but only if she had to walk on gravel so we stuck to grass and sand for the most part ensuring of course that the cut did not get filled with dirt.

So what does Miss Legs Leeloo do? Why she gets something else jammed into her left front foot. This time it was a thorn she picked up racing through the grass with Raimi. We were out on the boardwalk heading back to the truck and they wanted one last romp through the grass. After a few minutes she returned to me and stood with her paw up looking forlorn. I checked but couldn't immediately see why she was lame and she was fidgeting something awful. I made her stand so I could take a really close look at her toes and there it was, a little piece of grass or something stuck to her pad. I figured it was a little thorn that was jammed in the ridges of her pad because it's coarse.

A moment while I interject - when I left Calgary my friend Phil got me a going away gift. Now, if you knew Phil you'd know that he only really likes to give practical gifts, things like flashlights, winter coats, tool sets, mattress heater pads ... things of this nature. All appreciated and all very thoughtful. So what does he come up with for my trip across Canada with 4 dogs and 3 cats? Why an Official AKC Approved Pet First Aid Kit of course! It's incredibly thoughtful and I hoped I'd never need it. So I keep it with me at all times when I'm walking the dogs because we are often deep in the woods or way out on a beach somewhere. It's in my back pack which holds water for me and the dogs, a chocolate bar(in case of low blood sugar miles from a store), dog treats, three leads, scarf, gloves, hat, and of course camera. See? Isn't it marvelous? So since I knew I couldn't pull out the thorn with my fingers I figured any first aid kit worth its salt must have tweezers. So I whipped out the kit, rifled through and voila! Tweezers. It took some doing but eventually I got hold of that slippery little sucker and pulled it out. Except it was not what I expected. It was much much larger. It's almost a half an inch long! No wonder Leeloo was lame. It was hard to get hold of too because the very tip that had broken off only left about a millimetre sticking out of her pad. It was like the iceberg of thorns.

In my first aid kit what else do you suppose they include? Why a specimen case of course. So I popped it in there for future reference photo taking, packed it all up, checked Leeloo's foot for blood(just a drop) and we headed on our way. No more lameness and Phil's thoughtful gift saves the day!