Working like a .... well, you know. ;)

Oh man... retail on top of everything else, and thus the radio silence, but... I'm going to make this update as uh, covering as possible. :)

1) My hard drive finally got taken out by power outage number 16 and counting this year. Sigh. Seriously. Can't make it up. +I have a new computer, and was able to save most everything. Still sorting out some of my art programs, cripes, I hate losing software. :/ I really wish there was a magic computer button simply to move everything over instead of how long it actually takes.

2) My Cardi Claus box got here wonderfully, with delicious jam, horse treats, dog treats, and dog and cat toys that promptly run off with. I have photos on my camera, but they'll have to wait for a little later date as I catch up. I do want to say thank you, thank you so much to Amy and the wonderful Raglan Cardigans over at the
Crazy Cardiness blog. :) Thank you guys so much. It couldn't have come on a better, more needed day. Simon loves the Frisbee UFO, and Sophie promptly ran off with the mice before I could get them off the cardboard -- both of which keep ending up in my bed. Plus, thank you to the wonderful Janet Simple Things -- who on top of having a whole lot of puppies, put together the Holiday Exchange. :)

3) Man, I've waffled over making this part of the post. My female Pembroke Piper was diagnosed with lymphoma just a few weeks before Christmas. Unfortunately, she's not in the category of good response to chemo, and... it had already spread pretty badly. She's still with us, but I'm not going to say it hasn't been tough -- she totally has decided housebreaking is not high on her list. To the point where everyone else goes outside and she uh, runs for the other end of the house to pee on the rug. Awesome, Piper. That takes talent! ;) I'm up for a run of no animal issues for a little bit though...

Retail was good though -- had a good season! :D That's always a nice thing to have happen after the holidays! Good to breathe a sigh of relief and watch people shopping this year! :D

He who shares...

Is loved. :)

(Well, he's loved anyway. But he shares everything, including his food and his chewies. No wonder the kitty is growing like gangbusters!)

Snow days...

I have all these things to say, and it's just like -- so much going on, summing up! Busy as heck with work... my horse ended up hurting herself bad when we went to Canada for a dog show (Caleb got his first two Canadian points, awesome, and I showed him, and that was awesome... and of course it's possibly the worst photo of him ever. Not so awesome. ;) ) and after a whole lot of money to get that fixed...

Merlin passed away. His cancer spread from his foreleg to his hind leg... and he finally let me know it was time.

And of course, it snowed like heck here this week... and the wind came in and we lost power for 39 hours. ;) Which amazingly enough is exactly the degrees the house got down to. And my stove blew up, and the new stove came in damaged, but we've jury rigged our turkey and it's all better now. *grin*


But darn did I get some awesome snow pics. ;) And thus, freezing nearly into a lump was kind of worth it. ;)


Brain freeze...

Simon loves him some snow!

Pembrokes suffer snow quietly. With much disgust and resistance. ;)

Epic snow battle!

Oh, look, he's sitting still! Because he's frozen to the table, ahaha. ;)

Notice he has a sweater on? It was pitch dark, ice cold, and Caleb was like "sweater me plz" all the other Corgis were fine, not Caleb. He was so cold his teeth were chattering. Once he got a sweater, it was all good, poor little fellow.

We have gone past cute...

And into impossibly adorable. ;) Who seriously throws this face out to fend for itself? What is wrong with people? :(

Camodogged: Can you find the Corgi in this picture?

Awww -- haha, my sofa only has a Caleb on it right now! Matt has been moved over. ;)

I have no idea what the heck they are all doing in the bathtub. I heard something rattling around in there, walked in, saw this, walked out, snapped a cheap camera pic because I thought it was hilarious. I personally think they're discussing if my evil cat will fit down the drain. I wish them the best of luck. ;)

Sophie: The mighty sock killer. She has a thing for my socks. She growls at any cat who comes to see her kill, but plays tug o' war with Simon with the sock.

Simon's Cat...

Okay, I guess Sophie is Simon's kitty. Or he's her dog. ;) Every girl needs a good looking guy to boss around, right? ;)











(The last one cracks me up. Little flirt!)

Hello, Kitty!

Vet cleared, vaccinated, tested, microchipped, worming = expensive.

Happy, well fed kitten playing in the chair rungs = priceless. :)

41/52 42/52 (AKA: There's a sucker born every moment! )

41/52 "All the better to see you with, my dear!"



The challenge last week was a tribute shot. There was one done by a woman in my Flickr group that I loved -- it was of her adorable dog in a rain jacket.

Now, hahah, you'd think it would be easy to find a rain-coat in the Pacific Northwest, but darnit, I'm sold out at the shop! So, okay, we had to go for a parka. A red fur lined parka. Of course, I can't get Simon to look soft and pensive sometimes to save my life when he thinks something's hilarious. This he found quite funny, and of course he was laughing and then I was laughing. Not a good combo. ;) So, hey, you roll with it. *grin*

So, to her dog's sweet, adorable Red Riding hood we have Simon the Wolf in uh, Grandma's Winter Wear. Apparently he raided the back of the closet for his hood.

"But Granny, what big blue eyes you have!"
"All the better to beg for a cookie, my dear.."
"But Granny, what a big nose you have!"
"All the better to snuffle loudly in your ear and wake you up in the morning, my dear..."
"But Granny, my what short legs you have!"
"All the better to trip you in the kitchen carrying those muffins, my dear!"

Little Red Riding Hood probably is still laughing because the Wolf needs to hire better stand ins on his day off -- but that's okay, the Corgi probably ate the entire basket of goodies and was content.

Since we still had the coat, I had to go take a few more photos. This one cracks me up, he looks like a person who's off to sell fishsticks or go crabbing or something. ;)



Now for this week's shot... okay, it's not technically a grand shot, but oh man, it's so, so Simon.

42/52 "Stray Kitty..."




Huh... well, there is a little bag of bones calico kitten now ensconced in my spare room as of Friday night.

My neighbor found her in the back of a non-running truck on their property -- the poor little kitten was screaming and screaming. It saw them and ran towards them, yowling. The poor neighbor's daughter (who is not a pet person) was like "You pick it up mom! It might have rabies!"

So, of course, the baffled neighbor brought her to us and said, "I think her mommy lost her..."

Sadly no, dumped, starving, very, very desperate for love and food kitten. So, of course, we being the cat suckers we are took her in. She is not afraid of dogs, not one bit.

Simon took a bit to realize that she was actually a tiny cat. At first all he would do is poke his nose in the room and the most hilarious thing was how huge his eyes got. Kitten had NO fear and was like, "Hi!" and ran up to see him and Caleb staring into the room; quickly Caleb got all excited with the "Hey, look, Simon, it's a KITTY!" smile and pushed in to visit with her, wagging himself practically in half.

So, then the next thing that happens is that Simon goes into "Man, my brother's too friendly (note, stupid) for his own good better save him from himself!" mode and jumps in front of his brother! Our intrepid hero gives the "yipyipyip" noise as he turns around and shoves Caleb down the hall away from the kitten into the other bedroom, and won't let Caleb come out. Poor Caleb's just got the blink-blink expression on, and Simon's all stiff legged and ready to leap out to sacrifice himself for his dope of a brother.

I'm dying laughing, and Simon gives me the "It's NOT funny" glower, and then adds on a "fine, you stay in there, and wait until it becomes an alien chestburster, mom," for good measure.

It's okay though -- he finally realized it was a cat! He just didn't know cats came in concentrated form, like orange juice. Once he figured out the cat just wanted to love all over him, he was so excited, and poking her all over the floor, tail going a mile a moment with a big smile on his face. ;)

I just love this shot -- like I said above, it may not be a beautiful technical shot, and a little cluttered... but Simon is saying hey, little cat, no worries no more. It's pretty cushy here! :D

40/52 - Point and Shoot... (and a thank you)

Okay, I just have to shake my head. Week forty... and my dog is now on Auto-pose.

Seriously. This shot really sums this up. We went to the park, since it's been pouring all week, I had a tiny window to work in and I wanted to go find some fall leaves for him to play in.

I let him loose to run and he zipped once around in a big circle, and then went straight for the bench. He then promptly proceeded to walk up and down it a few times before he decided to strike a pose on his own accord until I put the camera down on the rocks.

It was a lovely pose, though. It's always funny all the things I see in his merle patterns -- see the chess knight on his haunch? Rather fitting! ;)



Of course the Zoolander himself (hahaha, several of you will understand that joke) had to get in on the posing. "Blue Steel, Caleb! Blue Steel!"



Hey, look - my leaves! (and a disgustingly slimy mushroom he perfumed himself with after.)

Ps: Thank you for all the comments on the old Merp. He's still hanging in, doing okay. I'm shocked... but really, he's a tough old bird, so to speak.



I know, I know. He's not an attractive cat in the slightest. The happy-purr drool isn't helping, but this is the best photo I could take of the old fellow. I like to think of him as ruggedly handsome. ;)

39/52 -Worship the Dog ;)

I think Simon was recalling the days back when dogs were worshipped.

Sadly, when he got home all my cats laughed at him for his grave misunderstanding of history....

(And of course, just a few more shots. Wow, Caleb's uh, looking more like a dog every day...)

Playing catch up...

Let's see... went to Vegas for Superzoo, the pet trade show. Long week -- some nice stuff there. I really only came home this time with several nice pet beds, some T-Shirts, and some very cute shampoo that has this neat 'pet freshening spray' on the bottom, and VERY nice shampoo on the top. Wouldn't use it for a show, it really softens the dog's coats, but Simon is now wafting the masculine smell of Coconut Lime. Ahhh. It's like a Cardi air freshener. ;)

So, here are my week photos...

37/52 "Luggage Inspector" (I left treats in the bag unpacking. Hahah, guess who found them!)



38/52 "Mmmmmuffins!"


Got home, have been working like a maniac. Well, got into work, turned around to let Caleb through the door and... my back went "no." So, this time went directly into the doctor and now am on muscle relaxers (still.) I will say the stim treatment though worked awesomely well, and this time it's only been a little over a week and a half and I'm nearly back to normal.

Found out that my little Arab is officially a "pasture pet" only. His knee is getting so arthritic that he's locking up a lot even loose in his pasture, and he's pitched on the ground a few times when he's got up a head of steam. Well, on a high note, he's photogenic and cute! He'll have to model and earn his living. ;) Sadly, he is nowhere as good as Simon.

Of course... getting ready for the Richland show, and I come home and my 19 year old arthritic cat's leg is swollen up like a little peg. Great. I had an appointment with my regular mobile vet (who I love. Matt and I had a mock fight and he said that if we divorce, he's taking custody of the vet. I told him no way) but he can't make it until Thursday. So I run him down to a new vet and the guy is great. He looks at it, takes fluid, tells me that the cat has cancer and without taking off his leg the cat has days to live. I pay the deposit, and take Merp home. I admit, I adopted this cat back in January... and I absolutely adore him. He's just the sweetest old cat, with everyone, including the dogs. Either that, or like some grandpas, he just doesn't care.

So, I spend a sleepless night, and decide that morning that he can't go in. He looks horrible, he's barely walking, etc... there's no way this cat can survive on three legs, none. Sigh. I call my regular vet out for Thursday... and we're all set to put him to sleep.

Well, get up this morning, his leg is way less swollen, and he's bopping around the house. Enough that he goes to get a drink of water in the other room, he lies in the sunshine and bakes himself. My mobile vet comes and we watch him happily purring and headbutting us for a while...

I've had to euthanize many of my crew over the years. You really do know when they are done; there's just something about them at that point where you realize they're ready to go. Merp decided today wasn't his day, and well... now we're sending away a test for a second opinion on the leg.

Unfortunately, my other cat walks in with his eye swollen shut last night, and he's ulcerated his eye again. Sheesh. Drops in the eye six times a day. Well, now that the cat's not in danger of dying this weekend at least, and the other one can be medicated, still preparing for Richland. Find out that a friend's dog that I've been hoping for a puppy from didn't take -- so bummed, but I'm sure not as disappointed as they are. Been looking for a pup since this spring... well, I guess that's someone's way of telling me the right one hasn't shown up! ;)

So... yeah. What does Caleb do? Cut his paw on a freshly cut branch of my Vine Maple running around after Simon in the yard... and is limping like gangbusters. It's not a bad, bad cut, but between his front toes, and bad enough for me to realize there is NO way we're going to Richland. Oh well, I'll live vicariously through everyone else, I guess, and hear how things went!

Sigh. Lovely.

Oh well! Pets happen, right? Everything's for a reason. Besides, today I can walk into the back room and the old cat purrs at me, That alone makes it all better!

Air Simon..!

Move over Jordan, for sure!



I snapped this photo when we were out playing earlier. Matt and I both were like "holy..." when he leapt into the air and did this ninja Cardigan backflip and whipped the toy into his mouth. I downloaded the camera tonight and man, I wish this background was clearer -- this is simply cool. It happened so fast I'm shocked I was still snapping and that I caught it!

For someone with short legs, holy crud... he is an athletic dog. I can't say I've had a Shepherd that was as athletic as this dog is. I still can't get over the air he got on this.

34, 35, and dogs and cats living together...

Well, it was an interesting last week. I bought a new desk for my home office. Then I cleaned out said home office this week with much help from Simon. Threw out a ton of stuff, yay, declutter!

Promptly had the laptop decide when I rebooted it last Sunday afternoon that I no longer needed photoshop or half my programs, and uh... it ate all the photos from that week, argh... then I couldn't find my disks. Anywhere. Yep, they got tossed out in the last great back room purge.

That said... I got a huge laugh out of this shot, because I darn well wasn't going to miss a week in the project when I hadn't missed a one yet! I spent the last few hours sitting here cursing bad, bad words, and pulling my hair out. So, then I managed to rig up Open Canvas to at least do a bit of photo editing, thank goodness. At least I could crop!

My workstation is a bit Simoncentric isn't it?

But hey, fast forward to this Sunday and the computer issues have somewhat been resolved, and thank goodness, my program now works once again! I think I saw little heralds with trumpets -- you don't know how much you use Photoshop until you don't have it, and then when you go look at what it costs new again, you have a nervous breakdown and swear to get it fixed somehow!

But yep, all fixed. This was this weeks shot -- Simon supervising the folks at the barn putting in the new fences. He did not like them approaching the horses and found this perch to watch them at on Thursday morning, right before I managed to convince him we should just go and take a walk, the horses would be fine. ;)

Caleb of course, never has any intention of looking very workmanlike. Instead, he happily plays with Dusty...

"Rar." "Rar!"

"Dude, what did you eat...? Ugh! No thanks, no kiss I!"

Simon and the Fluffy Ball.

What can I say. Give a striped Cardi a fluffy ball and he'll roll it around, take out the squeaker and gut it all over your house. (Ahem, Caleb.) Give Simon a fluffy ball and he'll play with it for hours and throw it for himself.

Yep. This dog is toy driven, just a bit! ;) I think if he ever discovered Flyball, he'd probably move out and go live with someone who did it on a regular basis. I know where I stand, heh!

Edit: Also, I am glad I am not the only one who has different names for toys in the house. Fluffy ball, Jolly Ball, Squirrel Ball, Football, "Don't you dare throw that in the house ball..."

32/52, 33/52 and a question...

32/52 "95 in the Shade."

Oh man, it was miserable here, whooch. Seattle is not meant to get to 95. It's against all nature. ;) So, new pool, since the dogs punched a hole in the old one, haha. Simon likes it because he can dive for his Wubba.


33/52 "Ferry Ride.."

Had to go across the water Friday for a trade show, so I dragged the dogs along with me. :) Simon and I went upstairs to shoot a few shots. As you can see, he's totally not paying attention to me hahah, he heard some people behind us stop and go "Oh! Look at the CUTE dog!" "What an adorable dog!" "EEE, I want to pet that dog!"

Yeah, he's totally not paying attention to me and hamming it up for those ladies. And their wonderful bag of potato chips. The little rotter knows instantly the "cute dog" tone and he is all ready to sit in someone else's lap and lick their face.



Running! Short little legs go!



(Also, I have to say, the fact that Simon's markings look like a map of the Americas crack me up. When he puts on a bit of weight, I go, "uh oh, buddy, your continents are drifting! Time to go jog more!")

Also, maybe someone can help me. Someone out there had a gorgeous grooming table with a Cardigan on it, and for the life of me, I can't remember who that was or if they made custom tables for folks. I actually not only wanted it for a grooming table, but for a temporary display table at work when we hold specials on products. Yep, I'm a multipurpose person, heh.

Busy, busy, busy...

Sure has been lately. I usually never bring things up like this but lately we've had a run of strange people at work. I have no idea if it's the moon, the weather, or financial issues, but I totally think I can sadly relate to the Jet Blue guy who deployed the emergency slide. Trust me this week's been one of these weeks where I just want to say, "Excuse me please," pop the slide, and scoot to freedom. I think I'd have this face on, too! ;)


I've had a lot of strange things go on in customer service, some funny, some sweet, but it's the ones like the customer who winged an unopened can of dog food at my head that give me great stories, but make me wonder if people realize in customer service, most of the time, if you say, "Please help, thank you?" most good customer service folks will bend over backwards to do just that. Common courtesy gets you a long way, really! *grin*

So, hey, have some dog photos to laugh at. Caleb gets some cute shots before I make him sad and toss him in the tub.






Oh, and a happy Riley, because he's lording it over us all as supreme Pembroke dictator. ;)