Paws for Reflection

Reverse Midas...

Welllll.... last week was a trial - everything that could possibly go wrong... let's not relive it, you know how that story ends.  This weekend was the frosting... when I lost my extra battery AND the battery charger.  I now have a dead camera with no way to get pictures off, so the blog is going dark until my order from Amazon.com arrives or the battery and charger resurface. 

The trend seems to be continuing this week...my nephew got kicked out of daycare today, after a truly awe-inspiring tantrum of titanic proportion wrecked his classroom.  Expelled from Kindergarten, booted from daycare...I'm not really sure where his story ends, but I think I probably need to start saving bail money.  On the bright side, he was doing really well on his state capitals!  I did manage to take a few quick shots before the Olympus had its last hurrah, and I'm glad I'm able to show you what a love Homer Jess is. He's always ready to lend a paw, even when it comes to studyin'.

 

The only thing Dora is interested in studying, of course, is the foot traffic in front of the house - she needs to be prepared to go into an insane barking frenzy at any given moment.

The Vagaries of Fate, and the Attitudes of Dogs.

This week has sucked.  Not been ok, not been so-so, but sucked in such a way as to make me think that I am on Candid Camera (tm) for a Hoover commercial, and that any second there is going to be a vortex that comes spinning out of nowhere to suck me into its maw.  I had initially thought that it was some crappy Karma on its return trip, coming back to bite me in the ass for some long ago wrong, but it's just gotten to the level where I would have had to have murdered some poor innocent pre-schooler and a bus full of puppies to warrant this week, and I'm pretty sure I would have remembered something like that.

So, I can safely say, with all of the heartfelt sincerity that lies deep in my (apparently black) heart:

TGIFF.

The extra F in there is my own little personal touch, and for those that don't know me, it rhymes with "ducking". 

But all that's behind me now, and all that's left is to survive the weekend.  Luckily, my weekend is so incredibly full that I may go insane, and then I won't really notice if things go any more wrong, as I'll be much too busy feeding peanuts to all of the pink elephants.  I love elephants.  I hate peanuts, so maybe it's best that the elephants eat them - I'd just throw them away, and that's not environmentally friendly at all.

I would try and feed them to my own resident elephant, but she is neither pink nor particularly fond of peanuts.  I did actually try and feed her nuts, and a teeny bit of shrimp with cocktail sauce, but she, unfortunately enough, was not wearing her gourmand hat, and made her opinion of my offerings quite clear.

 

Then again, I also wanted to chill out on the couch with her the other night and not play with her Wubba, and she had a similar opinion.  I figured we'd get in a little snuggle time, I'd rub her ears and watch a movie, maybe share my cookies and not even worry about crumbs getting on the couch.  She wasn't impressed.

 

Homer, on the other hand, is turning into a total LoveBug.  I found his sweet spot the other day...

Notice the giant pile of hair in front of him - I scratched and scritched and scratched for a good ten minutes, and he made his trademark Barry White Grumble the whole time.  He has now learned (from Dora, natch) how to beg for more, and the second you stop scratching him, he puts up the paw, and starts to plead with his big brown eyes.  He is learning from a master, and may soon surpass her at manipulating his people into giving him belly rubs and tasty treats.

However, his leg is healing well, and while I was scratching his sweet spot, he had that thing going like a (very slow) motor, scrabbling along the hardwood floors with every pass of my fingers on his neck.  Well, at least we know the dog "hind-leg-scratch" muscle survived the surgery intact.

 

He is definitely coming along, and despite the regular thrashings he gets from Dora, he is growing to be more and more of an inside dog, and his "lone wolf outside hound, aloof and stoic in the elements" persona is morphing more and more every day into his new "couch potato cheetoh-lovin' howling at 3 am to go out and pee" persona.  Luckily, he is just so damn cute that urges to throw shoes over the railing to shut him up in the wee hours of the morning are quickly squashed.

 

To top off the week, I've decided to relax tonight, with my cute ass dogs, play a little cards, and drink a little beer.  My nephew is reading the new Toys R' Us catalog with religious attention, though he's been sternly informed that there isn't a thing in it that he's going to get if he keeps acting up in school.

 

So, I guess even though I wouldn't repeat this week if you paid me, I've got my family and pups around me, food in the fridge, a roof over my head, and a damn good heating system to protect me from the cold-ass wind blowing outside my back door (thanks, Homeskillet, for that experience, during the 5 puppy pee outings in the last 45 minutes). 

Now, if only the rest of my life would go like this game of Gin Rummy... 

 

Short and Sweet

I'm abbreviating my posting tonight, not only because it's been a long day and I'm tired, but I still don't feel well and Typepad still isn't cooperating.  No thirty-one tries at twenty minutes apiece for me tonight!

However, most things in life are a little sweeter when you let the anticipation build...

 ...and whether it be a Wubba toss or another post on a random blog... most times it's worth the wait. 

So don't worry!

I'LL BE BACK.

Light Up The Night...

OK, forgive me the laxity in posting - Typepad is having some severe issues with their new posting format, and my blog has crashed about 1,000 times in the last two weeks.  If only I could pick it up and shake it down for lunch money like a kid on the playground, or kick it like a vending machine...

So last night was our fall training burn at the fire department, and Holy Mary Mother of God, was it cold outside.  I knew that it would be chilly, and I thought I came prepared - I brought my gear, I wore thermal underwear, I had my fleece hat and my Mechanix gloves, and I STILL FROZE MY ASS OFF.  For those of you that know me, and are acquainted with the size of my posterior, you know what an accomplishment this truly is.  SO, fall is here.  Autumn has come to call, and she's come with a vengeance.  (I say this with emphasis, as after freezing my ass off at the burn, I came home and forgot to close the back door last night when I went to bed, so it was 54 degrees in my house when I woke up this morning - BRRRR.)

I love going to the burns; I'm not fire side, so there's not nearly as much to do, but I LOVE fire, and I love to walk around and try and capture all of the activity on camera. 

Of course, not being on the fire side, except for the brief frenetic periods of rehab, most of my evening looks like this: 

And with the exception of keeping an eye on the fire guys and barring disaster amongst the trainees, all of my patients look like this:

 

Really, what's a little tumble out the window when your head is made of hose?  My mother always said that mine is made of rock, and I survived just fine, so I'm thinking they should walk it off and sign a refusal.

I don't really get to play inside, although one day I'd love to get a camera that can stand the heat and get some pics in the heart of the dragon, as it were.  For now, I'll have to settle for taking shots on the outside, which I have to admit, is still pretty frickin' cool.

Oh, but it gets cooler...

 

But I digress.  My girl is pretty upset with me, actually.  She's not an angry puppy, thank goodness, but she's definitely less than happy that I've been gone so much lately.  I came home Friday, went to bed late, got up Saturday, went to the burn, came home late late, slept, and came to duty Sunday morning.  She has been my Velcro girl in every spare moment - "Mommy Mommy Mommy! Play? Wubba?  Biscuit? Something?"  I felt bad this morning when I was getting ready - the sun was out, the air was crisp, the day was evolving into gorgeousness, my girl wanted to play...and I had one foot out the door.  I did take 20 minutes to throw the Wubba, and it was well worth it - Dora was ecstatic - ears up, eyes wide, strings of slobber flying in every direction from her panting excitement... and I finally captured her bunny hop on film!

 

Yes, honey, I'll play with you for a few minutes.  Mommy can always "negotiate" the speed limit on the way so that I make up the time.  *wink wink* Soooo...READY...

 

...SET...

 

...GO!!!

 

Rinse. Lather. Repeat.

She was so disappointed when I finally had to leave, and though she took it like a champ, her dismay was so palpable it almost made ME want to cry.  I'll try to get more time to play this week, baby, I promise!

Fall in the Country...

Sunday was quiet quiet quiet  - John came over to finish installing our new MASSIVE ceiling fans, and brought his son Jake with him - he's a super cutie!  He and Lou ran around like crazy nuts with the pups, and staged EPIC Transformer battles on all levels of the house.  Once John finished installing the Big Ass Fans (tm) in the family room, he broke out his special electrician's tools to let us know what Dora was thinking:

He offered to test me with the lightbulb, but MY momma didn't raise no fools!  I wish I could say the same for my girl....*sigh*

The rest of Sunday was quiet - I got quite a bit more done in the garage, and gave a ton of stuff away on Freecycle.  I HEART FREECYCLE!! But, to make up for a quiet Sunday, I've been at the firehouse since noon on Monday.  Federal holidays mean longer shifts (since the career staff have off) - and I staffed an ambulance with Don today from 8-6 before coming over to Station 5 to cover for Christie.  I am tired, having only gotten 3 hours of sleep last night, and I miss my pups.  I know that Dora has probably been sleeping on my bed since I've been gone... and DANG IT! I just changed my sheets before I came here, and I KNOW her butt is on my pillow!

My boy Homer, on the other hand, is sending me MAD love, since he is keeping my spot on the couch warm, and not making my pillow smell funny!

    

However, the past two days haven't been that bad - we haven't run a ton of calls, but Don and I took a ride through 5's first due, and I got to remember why I love running out here in the fall. (Good idea, Don!) 

There's nothing like driving along the winding back roads, the air nice and fresh - a hint of coolness in it and a breeze that blows the clouds in long wisps against the sky.

 

I love driving by the houses back here - each one standing alone in a field and surrounded by acres of lush grass, animals of every kind busily storing calories for winter, and every tree beginning to don its fall finery. 

  

I love the brilliant colors of the fall - the crimsons, the goldenrods, the burnt siennas that pop against a sky that gets a deeper a more brilliant blue with every drop in temperature.  It's days like this, when the sun is low enough in the sky to cast a golden light on everything around you, that it's easy to see the America of "amber waves of grain" that inspired one of our most beloved anthems. 

I love driving through the country, watching the shortening days wane away, separate from the noise and traffic and bustle of town.  I think one day I'm going to live out in the country, miles and miles from the rest of civilization, just me and my pups and my dozen or so foster kids.  It's going to be fabulous, you'll see.

 

Recruitment Day at the Firehouse!

Today was our annual recruitment fair at the firehouse, and though I haven't been feeling well for the last few days, I promised that I would go show my support, and I promised Lou we'd take him up to see the helicopter that AirCare was going to bring to demonstrate - they just replaced all of their 20 year old choppers with newer, sleeker birds.  I have to admit, it was pretty frickin' cool, I took about 300 pictures over the course of the day, and I got a sweet video of the chopper takeoff here.

Well, this morning, I temporarily lost my mind, and thought that taking the pups up to the recruitment drive would be a Good Idea - a chance for them to get out, stretch their legs, and just generally muck about - in the midst of a LOT of LITTLE kids and almost 100 strangers.  Yee. Haw. Then, after I actually thought about it for 30 more seconds, I decided to only take Homer, since he is so laid back, and to leave Dora home - she tends to get excitable and can be rough when she's worked up. 

So, I load the HoJo in the car, and we head on over (Homer's head hanging out the window the whole time - I think he just likes the sound his ears make when they flap in the breeze.).  I also figured, since there's a nice sized hill behind the firehouse where they dumped the backfill from the road closing, that we could get a start on the vet's new mandate about getting the Homey to walk up and down hills.  Well, after the first foray up the hill, suffice it to say that Homer Jess does NOT share my enthusiasm about the hill and it's benefits to his leg, and given his attitude, I'm fairly positive that he will not be joining any hill climbing groups any time soon.

 

But I made it up to him - we walked around in the woods behind the station, and his nose definitely got a workout - he smelled the flowers, about 7,000 individual blades of grass, all of the table set ups, and all the oil spots by the gas pumps.  I would think that his sensitive nose would stay away from that, but who am I to judge?

Todd actually ended up bringing Dora up to the station with him when he, Mom and Lou came up - she was severely unhappy being left home by herself, and she was almost prancing when Todd let her out of the car.  Her and Homer both were a huge hit - Homer had his own little fan club following him around.  He easily had over a dozen people come and rub his velvety ears and tell him how handsome he was - it was like a buffet for the ol' HoJo ego. 

Of course, because I am used to Danes a bit bigger than my girl, to me Dora seems small, and Homer Jess is just a wee thing.  I get a small reality check at events like these, and if I had a dollar for every time somebody approached to say "Oh my God! They're so BIG!", I'd be a gajibazillionaire. 

Dora did have one rough moment today - she was pretty excited at first to be amongst so many people, and tried to start a brawl with Homer.  She's started doing this bunny hop thing when she's feeling her oats - she'll play bow, growl a bit, then hop straight up in the air, all four feet off the ground - tail wagging the whole time.  Play bow, growl, hop, repeat.  It's the most retardedly funny thing you've ever seen, and she only does when she's trying to stir shit up, but I haven't been too successful at getting her to cut it out.  As any parent can tell you, the value of discipline is drastically reduced when you're laughing hysterically at the same time as you're telling them to "BEHAVE." I'll have to see if I can get it on video though, since it IS funny.

I have to give my girl credit, though - she was much better than I thought she would be.  There were a ton of little kids around, some of whom were afraid of dogs, and Dora was a gem - she would sit very still and let them rub her ears, and pet her, and grab all over her face.  She did nail a few of them with big gobs of slobber, which sent the little ones squealing back to their parents to show their "doggie kisses", and luckily almost all of the parents thought the "sliming" was pretty amusing. I will say that she circled the hot dog table like a shark, and at least part of her fondness for the little people could be that they hold their hot dogs right about level with her mouth.  She didn't actually manage to snag any poor kids' lunch, but I caught her a couple times watching me out of the corner of her eye while extending her lips toward some little kid's fistful of frank.  Of course, it didn't help that the kids all thought she was hysterical by trying to be Oscar Meyer Undercover, and I ended up having to give her half of mine to keep her off the kidlets.

Dora the Fearless Explorer did get a little bit of a fright, though - I was standing on the back apron, and was asked to back the ambulance (backing in the fire department is standing behind the unit in the driver's mirror view and advising of obstacles in their blind spots).  Well, like all big trucks, the fire department vehicles all have backing beeps to warn when they are in reverse.  The ambulance backs up, the beep sounds out, and Dora jumps six feet to the left.  Her ears were flat, her tail was tucked, and she was looking at the ambulance like it just ran over her Wubba. 

Dora also was very interactive with Lou, even though she had a million distractions - she helped him finish the candy he got from the Halloween table... she helped him into and out of his turnout gear...

...and when he got tired of carrying his balloon and asked Dora to "carry" it for him, she was outstanding about having it tied to her collar for the rest of the afternoon, even though it wasn't quite fashion forward.  Although orange *IS* a fall color, and we are changing to the autumnal wardrobe...

All in all, she did VERY well, around the little people, around the strangers, even around the two dachshunds that came up later.  She did bark once at them, which was amusing as the whole bay went quiet for a second, but she minded her manners quite well.  She got a little bouncy when we went out to where they were streaming the hoses, and she played a little in the backwater, but she wasn't quite brave enough to run through the stream and get all wet.

So we walked around, everyone loved on the pups, and Homer soon tired of the attention and dragged Grandma out to sit with him in the shade under a tree.  She actually brought a book with her, so they hung out over there until the helicopter came.  Bless HoJo's little heart - only he could sleep with a pumper doing hose exercises, a helicopter landing, and nigh on a hundred strangers passing every which way.  Man, that's a talent I'd like to have. 

We only spent about 5 hours total at the firehouse...but it was time enough for Lou to find a pup bigger than the ones he has at home!

...And to top off the cool factor of the day, I came around the corner on my street, and there was a rainbow, directly over my house.  How GROOVY is that???

Working On It...

Life has been busy lately - passing by at a dizzying pace, events changing almost faster than I can adapt.  Family, work, life, fire department - you name it, it's in a bit of upheaval.  Luckily, some things don't change very much...

and things at the ranch continue as normal...

 

I took Homer Jess  to the vet today, and everything is great.  His leg is healing nicely, and his range of motion is great.  The only thing he needs is a little work on inclines, since he's not using his bad leg to push off, so we'll have to find some hills for the HoJo to climb.  The vet loved on him for a bit, and then I took him for a few walks around the building so that he could sniff on every blade of grass and pee about a thousand times.  We drove home with the windows open, so his ears could flap in the breeze, and we stopped for french fries so that he had an excuse to drool on my shoulder. 

Into the Wilderness...

So I've been slacking on my posting a bit.  I've been très busy painting the garage and trying to get the new "craft room" regulated - I've got SO MUCH STUFF!!! Seriously, I could craft for years and years on what I've got now and be OK without buying a single thing new.  Does this mean that I will stop buying craft supplies?  Don't be ridiculous, of course not!

Painted garage (this is the cleanest it will ever be again...):

In any event, I've been a very very busy personne (I am randomly injecting the fake French accent... I feel very Gallic this evening) and thought to take a break today.  The pups kept me company yesterday on leads out in the front yard - and yes, I would LOVE to know where Dora found dog poo to roll in out in the front yard.  In plain sight.  On a 30 foot lead. I KNOW she got the look she gave me when I gave her a bath directly mail order from Satan, but I'd like to know where the poo came from nonetheless. At first I thought it was just her normal fragrant self, until I noticed her fur... Squick factor = positive 3,499 on a scale of 1 to 10. 

Dora was very excited to be out in the front - she was into everything and sticking her nose in and out and to and fro the whole time, when she wasn't trying to roughhouse with Homer or make threatening noises while frantically wagging her tail at all the passers-by.

Homer, as usual, was doing his best to keep gravity in check, and letting me know how things are at ground level.

He did sit up every once and a while and survey his domain...

...but after a few hours of that he went and decided to hang out in the bushes.  I don't know whether he smelled the rabbit family that lives over in that corner, or whether he was trying to get away from Dora, but he stayed over there until we were finished, and then he got a bath along with Dora and gave me some of the dirty looks I figure he borrowed from her.

But back to the break - today was fabulously gorgeous (as was yesterday, what little of it I saw) and I wanted to get out and stretch my legs a bit, and get Dora some outside time, she's been getting a little cabin fever.  I would have loved to take Homer, but he's still not very good for long walks on his bum leg, and I can't control both Dora and Homer's nose simultaneously.  He is incredibly strong, and she is an incredible spaz, and that just spells incredible disaster in a park with an incredible amount of pedestrians, bicycles and small leashed dogs that squeak when chewed. 

So I met my friends Dave and Jo and their pup Brig (or as Jo calls him, Briggleberry) out at Burke Lake Park in Fairfax.  Dave suggested the park, and it was FABULOUS.  It was actually kind of busy, but I didn't have any problems parking, there were a ton of trails, a lake that seems pretty clean, and a totally gorgeous Russian guy that came up and started talking to me within 10 minutes of my arrival.  Oooooh la la!.  Now, if only his girlfriend hadn't shown up like 15 minutes later... Zut alors! Oh well, at least Dora got some good rubbin' out of it - he thought she was a beauty!

The park itself is really pretty, and all the lakeside trails open out to views like this:

Both dogs seemed to enjoy the water - Brig didn't hesitate to go right in, to Dave and Jo's surprise.

Of course, there were some side effects to his forays into the lake...

...the bane of every fluffy dog everywhere... what Dave affectionately calls "Chicken Legs".

Dora, of course, didn't have this problem, and was more concerned about finding things in the water that were edible. (She was EXTREMELY interested in the geese on the lake, and had they swum just a leeeeetle bit closer, they might have found out firsthand how fast Dora can swim.  She used her laser tracking eyeball to follow them along the shore, and I'm pretty sure she didn't blink for a good twenty minutes.)

But I digress.  It was a gorgeous day - the weather, the temperature, the park, the company - all perfect.  Dora was more sociable than I thought she would be, and after the initial verbal scrap with Brig they got along famously, and she only tried to eat every other dog in the park.  I'm hoping the more she's around strange dogs, the more social she'll get.  I'd like to be able to take her out on a playdate at least once a month - we talked today about going out to Skyline for a day in November - hopefully the HoJo will be healed enough by then that he'll be able to take a couple hours of walking.

I was actually surprised how long we walked today - I met those guys at the park around 2:45, and we walked until almost 5!  Well, we were out on the trails until almost 5. There was quite a bit of walking, one really cute moment when Dora saw a squirrel and did a sort of bunny hop in place with her ears perked to the max, but there was also quite a lot of sniffing...

... a lot of peeing on trees (and leaves, and pebbles, and sticks)...

...and a lot of staring intently into the brush, listening to the Dog Whisperer that only pups can hear.

I thought for sure FOR SURE that Dora would be exhausted after all that - my own legs were hurting by the time we got home.  Alas, I was mistaken.  Although she rode all the way home with her head hanging out the window, within 15 minutes of being home she had her Wubba ready to go and started dropping it on my feet.  I kept throwing it over the railing into the backyard from the kitchen in the hopes that she'd get tired of running up and down the stairs... no such luck.

Bless her heart, where's a good old fashioned mickey when you need one? I have the feeling that's the only way I'm going to get any peace and quiet tonight. 

I Love My Life!

Short post tonight, since I'm on duty at the firehouse, but even though NOTHING went right today, I still have a fabulous life!  My house is a mess (and I totally don't care), I have dog hair everywhere, and my family is awesome (even though my nephew got sent home early from school today for throwing furniture).

I think that if it were possible to ensure that everyone in the world had a functioning sense of wonder and pretty strong sense of the ridiculous, we'd all be better off.  Things like the economy, the election, and the fact that gas is almost the price of a newborn child could be dealt with in a much more relaxed manner, because in the end, none of those things really matter.  The best moment of my day wasn't purchased, didn't have anything to do with the President, and couldn't be reached by car - it was when I sat upstairs in my rocking chair with my five year old nephew in my lap, and he put his head on my shoulder and explained to me why he had a bad day at school.  We sat and talked for about a half an hour, and though we weren't able to change anything that had happened, I think he felt better at the end of it, and is going to try and do better tomorrow.  He's a good kid at heart, with too much energy and not enough discipline.

(Meanwhile, Dora was insanely jealous of the snuggle and slobbered all over the both of us in her attempts to worm her way into the lap hug).

My boy Homer, as usual, was late to the party - he had no idea there was even snuggling going on.  I had to wake him up to let him know that Lou was even there to give him ear rubs!

He is JUST the cutest thing, although sometimes I think he looks like a retarded Muppet.  Case in point:

It's escaping me right at the moment which Muppet he reminds me of (OK - it could be a Fraggle, but I really think it's a Muppet), but it'll come to me.

But going back to the sense of wonder everybody should have, check out what I found on my porch today.  She was hanging out in the breeze, and though I didn't manage to capture the really cool moment where she was suspended against the sky with all of her legs outstretched, I still got a fairly good shot:

I know that spiders skeeve most people out, (and I will admit although I'm not really afraid of spiders, I still backed up when she put her front legs in the air and came at me...) but just take a second to look aesthetically, and with your sense of wonder at the forefront. 

She's this marvel of engineering, with these delicate legs, that spun this gorgeously complex web that looks like a giant delicate doily. All of her colors are complementary, and she was riding the breeze like a pro when I first saw her.  I really liked that her legs were translucent - it made her seem more delicate, I guess - almost a little piece of stained glass art, walking on my deck.

I think she's beautiful.  Creepy, yes, and I definitely would think twice about having her walk on me, but I think she's pretty harmless, and more perfect than anything I could create. 

Yeah, I'm weird, I know.