Junglecardi

Out at the barn today. No one can see the mighty predator!

Under the wire - and underpinning.

(Told you Caleb has a long, long tail. I've decided his secret genetic flavoring is Sabertooth Ti-grrrrr....to match with my cat Dusty the No-Leopard.)

Very quick entry here because I literally just walked through the door after work. Long day, wow. Long, long, LONG day. The boys were good, though, and I felt so bad when I looked up at the clock and realized they hadn't eaten yet. No one was being pesty though; I think they realized that I've been numbercrunching straight for three days and I was about to lose my marbles completely. ;)

However, speaking of food goodness, Riley did his weigh in today, and we're all just cheering. He's down to 35.5! This is a milestone, I want to just swing him around a bit and cuddle him, but he wouldn't appreciate that in the slightest, knowing Riles.

He has been such a challenge to find something, anything, that works for him and will take the weight off without getting him violently ill. We're dealing with more accidental leak puddles than usual because of his increased water content but that's fine, I can deal with that, I just don't care. Floors wash, rugs blot. I'd just like him to be a good weight.

Yawn....

Dad, I'm tired... let's take a nap now, okay?

(Note: Caleb is busted right now. He's on a lead, because he figured out something at work again - again, unlike all of my other dogs who never have been this clever. He figured out how to get through the cat door in the back room, and one of the employees had just put down a can of cat food and the dry food bowl. I noticed he'd teleported because Simon was moaning miserably with his head stuck in the cat door, watching Caleb chow down on cat food. Needless to say, this evening he is ah, 'jet propelled' and on the leash because I don't trust him not to sneak and potty under the kitchen table.

... it's a good thing he's cute. Otherwise, I bet corgi tastes a lot like chicken. Or alligator. Let's go with that, mister sharpyteeth.)

Hummin' country songs...

The crew, on the road again. Goodness, Caleb's tail is LONG - I never noticed it until these photos. He's got like four inches on Simon's tail, I swear! Makes sense, he's actually a missing link between monkeys and Cardigans, I bet, with all the trouble he gets into!

Weigh in...

Let's see, Simon back in mid Feb...

Simon from today - I think he's looking better, closer to a good show weight?

I'm hoping to get things together and get him into the ring soon...

Whew!

Yup, I'm begging for coffee tonight myself after this week at work. Well, okay - just yogurt. Simon agrees with me that Brown Cow yogurt is good stuff.

Can hardly wait until next week - got both a grooming table and a dryer for the dogs, score! Little does Caleb know that his grimy fishpond days are soon going to be numbered, mwwahahah! Although, he's really good for the nail grinder and the bath, I just will be more apt to do it when drying them doesn't take hours...

Serious Cardi is Very Serious.

I swear, Simon thinks some very serious things. I think he's trying his hand at higher math...

(Or maybe it's "No, Mister Bond, I expect you to die.")

Time goes on...

It's been a year, and I still miss her so much. She was everything a Shepherd should be, balanced in mind and body. OFA excellent, too. She loved to show, she loved to work - everyone there was clapping and oohing and ahhing for her. She would hit that ring like a house on fire; and throw her legs out and grin. She loved it. When they tell you, "Show dogs show because they love to show off..." if she could drive, that would have been her bumper sticker.

I thought of her today, at work. One of my customers walked in and asked for nail polish for dogs. I laughed and said I just used to use mine on my Shepherd, no issues. Ali was sitting there one day watching me paint my nails at the kitchen table, and I said, "Put your paw up, I'll paint yours." (I was kidding.)

Darn if she didn't put her paw on my knee and wait there as I painted every nail. Then the other paw, and when we went in to class that night, she was busy handing her paw to everyone she met just so they could admire her toenails. No lie. My trainer just stood there and eyed us and said, "Wait, is she wearing nail polish? Wait, do you have matching nail polish, hahah! What did you two do, girls night out?"

I said, "Yeah, we sat up all night, watched movies, and talked about boys."

After that, the minute I would sit down with a bottle of nail polish, there she was, waiting her turn.

She was a great dog. I think all my show dogs will compare to her. If one of them has a quarter of her attitude, I'm good to go.

On a totally unrelated note, they had a live chicken on Good Eats. Simon took one look at that and went running at the TV, staring at it. He's still confused, and I think he's trying to herd that chicken back out of the TV and into the pen where it belongs.

Sure, he looks innocent...

Not. Caleb thinks he's all that and a bag of chips. I personally think they're the sort of chips that you eat three of, realize your mouth is on fire, and then go, "well, those aren't so bad" while frantically gulping water. His new trick at work is that he's figured out - unlike ALL my other dogs, that bags contain dog food. Thus, the dog food bags can be chewed open and eaten from. Argh. He's been caught at it, busted for it, and yet he decides every time it's so worth it and the minute my back is turned, he's back, tearing open a bag.

Hunting your own lunch gets expensive at my place, for sure. Sheesh.

More Seattle photos...

Caleb's still wiped out after yesterday. I need to take him out like that more often. Tired puppies are GOOD puppies.



Man, I really should have given Simon a bath before I took him over. I don't know how he gets so filthy so fast! Then again, I've never owned a dog with this much white on him!

Seattle day!

So, today was my birthday, and what do I spend it doing? Romping around Seattle with the Cardis and friends, of course. Well, that's not what we set out to do, but it's what we ended up doing, and it was a great day. The dogs got to go be social at Seattle Center and work on some socializing in large groups, and I got to take some good photos with different backgrounds than the yard for once.

Note: My dogs are Seattleites after my own heart. ;)



Then we went to one of those 'meat on a stick' Brazilian barbeque places for dinner. Wow. Oh my goodness, I'm a total carnivore, so that was the best place ever. I totally could live my life cheerfully eating meat on a stick, haha.

Got a lot of other shots of the dogs, but I'll post them a bit later.

Who needs a shedding comb...

When you've got teeth! Hahah, it's the bit of Simon fluff between his jaws that I thought was funny as heck. Silly puppy.

Warmin' up!

It's been pouring rain here for the last few days - today was the first day where it was actually dry and sunny for a minute. I keep hoping it will clear up a little just so that a) the arena isn't soup, and b) that I can go run the dogs on the back trail without Corgis being coated in mud. Simon has lost a fair amount of weight and toned up, but I'd like to see him do a little more...

I really need to go buy myself a good blower for drying the dogs. I had one, but I left it it back at the kennel when we moved out of that building. Sigh. Anyone out there have a good blower they can recommend at this point? Simon's coat is so thick, drying him is an all day experience without one.

Not A Corgi!

However, my dear mare is as obnoxious as one at times. Blondie puts anything in her mouth she can reach; and carries it right out of the barn. I've caught her running off with my gloves, my helmet, my crop, her bridle, rakes -- you name it, if she can steal it when my back is turned, it's gone. She hordes these little things in her haybucket and her stall; honestly, I'm just glad she can't dig holes, or I'm sure she would be burying anything she can reach for later!

... she does like Caleb, though. Caleb has no fear of her either, so she's all excited that the puppy will actually sit (both pets supervised) to be sniffed and nuzzled. Caleb just likes tasting her nose. She's always loved dogs, so she's had her feelings hurt a few times that none of mine want to go and visit her. Instead, they hide in the Volvo with big wide eyes as she pokes her nose into the window. ;)

Wish I was at Nationals...

I also wish it wasn't raining. It's actually pouring sideways here again, sigh. Don't get me wrong, I love the rain, but Simon and Caleb are totally bored. Simon when he's bored just flops in a corner and sighs.

Caleb, on the other hand, starts looking for things to destroy as quickly as possible. It's never a good sign when you say, "Put that down! Take it out of your mouth," for the umpteenth time. He's really a cute guy though - he actually came and snuggled with me and the cats for an hour on the sofa last night, and the cats didn't mind him, since he was radiating heat like a little striped water bottle.

He's really pretty, though. Both him and Simon draw people wherever we go.

Pudge Pudge, go away...

Riles and Simon, tossin' each other down in the pasture at my friend's farm. Riley's undercarriage is what this post is about - well, his underbelly, anyway!

I just have to share this because I've been fighting this for Riley's whole life.

Riley is fat. Obese, really. He's weighed as high as 42 pounds once. I feel bad for him because people constantly make fun of him, poor guy. My vet was sure it was a thyroid issue - his heart beat is slow, his temp a few degrees below normal, etc... but nine hundred bucks later, there's not a darn thing wrong with him. (Well, at least not that. There's a hundred other things wrong with him. Yay puppy mill rescue dog! Not.)

He's just Zen. My vet has the same sense of humor I do and dryly remarked that in case of the apocalypse, I am to save him to eat last, he'll be the one who stays nice and fat off of twigs, leaves, and rocks.

I put him on literally 1/4 cup of a light kibble a day and green beans and pumpkin for nearly a year, and we got down to -- drumroll---

38.8 lbs. And there we've sat. We walk a mile or more a day, throw the ball for fetch. He does not get handfuls of treats, etc. We have been on every diet, every exercise program, everything we could possibly think of. Mind you, I cannot feed him a raw food diet, which my vet recommended and I would have liked to do... he always got horribly ill on it, to the point where one morning I had to rush him to the vet because he literally got out of my car to go to work and I found his feathers soaked in blood, where he'd been fine ten minutes before.

Well, thanks to the folks I met at the herding trial who mentioned that Simon was getting slightly heavy (and I was only feeding Simon 3/4 a cup, split during the day) I went into a "dog must lose weight and tone up for show" for Simon - I've pretty much given up on Riles.

One of my customers had her Shepherd on Sojo's Europa, and said she finally had to take him off because he couldn't keep the weight on. I sell it, but I honestly hadn't used it before because of Riley's stomach issues - several of my people here had. So, I thought, oh, what the heck, let's try it. One of the things I liked is that they gave the okay to use cooked meats, as long as you add a multivitamin and other additives, like yogurt and cottage cheese, etc... I also add a probiotic supplement and digestive enzymes.

Switched Simon, Caleb, and Piper over pretty fast and no problems. Shockingly enough, so did Riley, with no issues whatsoever. I've had them on it since the trial, and we've been doing our regular activities... Simon's really toning up fast, and he looks WAY better, gah! Way better! Caleb's full and isn't begging and being a shark, and looks great. Piper of course, has always been a lean, mean, Corgi machine, and yet even she looks more toned.

Today, at work, one of my employees mentioned that she thought Riley had lost weight. I was like, nah... nah, he's still an ottoman.

However, they convinced me to put him on the scale and -- Riley has lost nearly two pounds! He is at 37 lbs. I am just shocked. He looks good, he's not gotten sick. The only downside is that because of the added water, he's having more of his other physical urinary issues, but frankly, a wet mop on Pergo is worth two pounds...

I'd like to get ten off of him. That's a reasonable goal, I think. I just hope this keeps working - the dogs look good, they're full and satiated, and frankly, I'd eat the darn Sojos mix. It smells like good soup. Really good soup.

Okay, I might just have to try it. *grin*

Woof!

Went riding today, and it was a good ride. My mare's getting way more responsive under saddle; now it's my turn to get way more responsive on top of it, poor girl. We did get a couple of good stops in, where I just shifted my weight and sat back in the saddle, said "whoa" and she halted without a touch on the reins. She's just a lovely, lovely horse, wow.

Caleb sat with me in the barn (tied on his lead) for a while and played with a tuft of horse-hair. He's such a goof. He has no fear of the horses, so I'm trying to teach him respect for her - just to make sure he doesn't think going close to any of her hooves is intelligent. She likes dogs, and I never let my dogs run loose at the barn or around the horses, but better to be safe than sorry if something were to accidentally happen.

Drivin' the tractor...

Simon was helping at a friend's farm today, putting up fencing. He's all proud of himself, he can drive the tractor. At least he thinks he can!

(I wish the focus was better on this, I loved his expression.)

When a Corgi meets a Corgi...

Goin' through the Rye...

Okay, it's more like tall road-ditch grass, but it didn't rhyme!

(Hahah, that wasn't my favorite book! It's funny, I kept a lot of books out of my classes, but that wasn't one of them.)

Beautiful day!

Caleb was determined to keep up with us on the walk today. You can see how tired he is, but he refuses to admit it. Admitting you're tired is for wimps.

Corgitude

Caleb's got it.

All the dogs did really well today; it was so gorgeous out I ended up working in the yard. I also learned something about cultivators/rototillers, holy moly, don't get one too close to a chicken pen fence. That thing grabbed the wire and ran right up the side of the pen, scaring me to death. I forgot to let go of the handle to shut it down, and had this horrible mental image of me calling into work saying I wouldn't be in for months because I was missing a chunk of myself.

Got it shut down, though, and all was well. I was much more careful. I can say it turned a day's worth of work into a few hours, and that was really nice. Super easy to turn all the bedding in there and get it to drain better!

Caturday #3

I needed a hug-picture today to think happy warm fuzzy thoughts on. Got into work this morning, and people were downright nutterbutter today. Fine, dealt with all of that, but then the employee that was supposed to relieve me called in sick. What makes me grumble is that I'd planned on seeing if I could get over to Mercer today to meet up with a fellow Cardi lover and that tanked, but... also...

I have been fighting off a cold for a week and a half now. I'm sick as a dog, can't shake the cough or the sneezing. She calls in to tell me she's feeling, "A little achey," so she thinks she better stay home or she'll give it to us.

I'm like... are you such a rather um, unobservant person not to notice that the manager and I have been sick all week? Ugh. So, yep, worked the extra hours. It was Riley's birthday though, so he got a fake dog brownie, and he was a happy dog. Simon had the groomer come out and give him a bath and I really need to work on my dog's table work -- darn dog falls asleep when they dry him with the blower. Not much stress there, huh?

Dis Wubba....

Is mine. Get your own Wubba.

It's funny, I never had a hoarding Shepherd. I mean, even when I had four Shepherds in the house, they all politely shared their toys with each other. If you gave four dogs a bone, they happily went to the corner and ate their bones, each dog knew that they had a bone. It was fair, to each have a bone. If they got up to get a drink, they came back to find their bone still where they had left it.

Corgis? Not so much. Four bones means that one dog wants all the bones. They hoard them like little stubby dragons on treasures, breathing fire at any other dog that thinks about approaching their space. There's no growling, just an angry if looks could kill eyeball.

I don't put up with hoarding here, and they know it, but it's hilarious that even after all this time one of them will try. They know that they're not allowed to keep all of them. After me going, "uh uh, share," that dog will sadly, sorrowfully move off the treat to let everyone have one, while looking at me just in case I happen to change my mind.

Now, that said, Simon and Caleb are happily sharing a hoof together. I guess that body part just isn't the same as those lovely, lovely beef bones.

Attack of the Killer Caleb!

Caleb VS Matt, round one. Everyone else was chasing the Wubba, but Caleb decided he was taking down bigger, tastier prey!

He's suddenly turned into snuggle puppy, too. Awww, wow, though, he's brave. Went to the barn today and the horses wanted to touch him. Unlike Simon, who ran pell mell back to the car and asked to be put in, Caleb reached out and bravely sniffed noses. Then he licked her. Everyone was like, "Oh, so cute!" and Abi (the rescue horse) was like, sniff, sniffle, sniff, and then made a face. Stinky puppy, apparently.

I personally think Caleb was checking her flavor. ;)

Ain't No Companion Like A Blue Eyed Merle!

I have to say, I love blue eyes on a dog. I have a lot of customers who can't stand them on Simon, I just love them. I think I can see more of what he's thinking, for some reason.

I always wanted a dog with blue eyes, even as a kid. Our Old English Sheepdog, growing up, had one blue and one brown eye. (Not that you ever saw them; he was my dad's show dog, in full show coat. Dad also used to pay me five bucks to wash and dry his dog. I was like, "WOW, five bucks!!!" Five bucks bought you a Breyer horse at Bi-Mart, so I was so there! Now, I think back on that and realize he was paying me five dollars for eight hours of grooming. Ooch!

Sheesh, my dad knew how to get the most out of his kids, that was for sure.)