Caturday #2

Simon loves Dusty. Really he does... it's that sort of love you had for your little brother who poked you and then sits on you and chews on you.

Tgif!

Yup, yay for Friday. Simon went out in the yard and helped me herd chickens and played ball. Those are two of this favorite things. ;)

It's Fiber! :D

Argh, Simon's one bane, the paper towel roll. What makes me laugh is that he goes into stealth mode when he sees them where he can reach them. What he's after isn't the darn paper towels, oh no, it's that luscious cardboard center, nom nom! He unrolls all the towels with his nose and then happily chews on the cardboard tube.

At least I can still use the towels when he's done. XD

Heh, twenty years ago, if you ever told me there would be a time in my life I'd have owned Corgis, I would have laughed and said, "I don't do small dogs," and promptly hugged my Shepherd.

Now I have four of them, yipes! They're wonderful, awesome dogs! (And they're not small dogs, they're just vertically challenged dogs!)

Caleb - the Firecracker.

Wow, the weather at the airport was horrid. We got off the ferry, drove ten minutes and were in blowing, driving, wet snow. The plane was right on time, the puppy safe and sound.

Oh, he looks adorable and innocent, doesn't he? Actually, he's as totally different from Simon as oil and water. Where Simon was a quiet, docile, utterly gentle soul, Caleb here is a pistol. They were unloading his crate off the plane and you could hear him howling as they brought him up in luggage. Let me tell you, it's a big dog howl, whoo boy! He tips that little nose back of his and lets loose like a fire engine. Woooooooooooo. The minute he could get out of his crate, he was off to go explore the luggage carousel; had to grab and tuck him, and he thought this was awesome and spent the next ten minutes licking everyone's face he could possibly reach, including random passer-by's.

Then where Simon tucked his head into Matt's arm and breathed a quiet sigh of relief, Caleb spent the walk out of the airport wiggling all over like a jack in the box, staring at everyone and everything, yapping, howling, telling anyone in earshot how horrible that plane ride was.

He's into everything he can touch, he muscled his way right in with the rest of the pack and was snatching a bite to eat out of Riley's bowl. Riley was so shocked and baffled that someone was pushing their way in to his sacred stainless bowl that he allowed this to happen for two seconds before I could scoop him up and get him re-aligned with his own food. He's wrestled with Simon and held his own, wrestled some random cats, wrestled the carpet, managed to clamber onto the sofa all on his own.... the Pembrokes are quietly ignoring him for the most part. Piper gives him the "crabby face" when she sees him in her space. Riley keeps staring into the small of my back and I'm glad he doesn't have a high powered rifle. I'd be a statistic.

He was pretty good, slept most of the night in the crate next to the bed. Again with the howling, at 3:30 AM, 6:30 AM and now he's just running around in circles in the living room, barking like a doofus at Simon, who is not willing to share his toys in the morning. Actually, Simon's taken all of his toys and hidden them at this point, like an older brother. They're not even toys he wants - he hates the Nylabone, yet he's dragged it into his bed for safe-keeping. ;)

Hightailing!

Quick post! Heading out to the airport today, to pick up the new member of the CorgiCrew. Simon's all like :D (Actually, he's always like that and has no idea why he's like that this morning. Except for he got to chase a chicken who tried to escape while I was feeding this morning. Anyone want a ninja chicken? Free to bad home. ;) )

The woods are lovely...

Every Sunday is a riding lesson day come heck or high water. Blondie's getting better than I am a whole lot faster, so we need to work on this, haha. Of course, the last few Sundays have been torrential pouring rain, an arena that turned into quicksand because the drain failed, and today, it's snow. Yay.

I try after every lesson to take the dogs out for a run on the trails where we ride. We pick the ones that are too narrow for the horses so that we don't bother any other riders. Of course, last week, it ended up being a horrible mess, pitch dark, pouring rain, but it was the first week we'd traveled back there without Gabe, and I just wanted to go and walk and think.

The Corgis had fun, and they always do. You could sort of see them shuffling into their new positions a little - Piper was now lead dog instead of Gabe, and took it very seriously. Instead of bolting into the bushes and emerging out every three seconds, she stayed mostly on the main. Simon has taken over the 'make sure you're still alive' position. He stops and waits, turns his head to watch me and once in a while, there's a bark. "Hi, back there, hurry up!"

Riley, of course, is no different. He sometimes trots off for a few moments of excitement when we turn onto a trail we've never walked before, as you can see here with his bum leading the pack. It never lasts, though, and soon, he's back at heel, with a sigh and a "ho hum" been there done that look.

(I will mention that a) it was starting to rain, and b) dark as heck, my camera hated it, whoo. I will also mention that this is the first time in an hour or two that Piper was standing still and not vibrating. I think she was just recharging for a second in this picture.)

I love the woods in the Puget Sound, though. That's the thing I would miss if we ever moved, the hours in the forest, just walking and looking and enjoying the trees and the damp. It's gorgeous.