Renaissance Faire

SUMMARY: A fantastical Saturday.

I and two friends took ourselves and our cameras to the Northern California Renaissance Pleasure Faire on Saturday. Had to leave the Merle Girls at home, but none-the-less had a great time (although I never manage to take enough photos). Here's an appetizer selection.

A naughty faun.  (Faun girl, if you see this, my friend has more photos of you that you can have. I'm at elf (at) finchester (dot) org.)

An herb seller outfit.

Musicians and performers of all kinds abounded.

It was a Fantasy-themed weekend, and fairies of all kinds abounded.

In the Renaissance, nothing is ever spelled the same as it is in the 21st century. Food and drink, all marvelous, also abounded.

Fairies on horses!

Vendors abounded--amazing ceramics and other stunning works.

Elizabethan outfits were the most elaborate.

Street scene--booths of one sort or another, or stages, lined the entire site.

Dirty Laundry laundresses performing.

Belly dancer.

Romeo and Juliet as you've never seen it before!

Playing dice. It was impossible to tell who were "participants" and who were "visitors"--many visitors (like me) dressed for the time period, more or less. And people hung out and did all the sorts of things that people did.

Speak softly and carry a...

And masks.

Oops, caught in the act.

For many more photos of these and more, including nights in shining armor, brilliant colors, and all, here are the rest of my photos from the day:   http://elf1.smugmug.com/Events/Renaissance-Pleasure-Faire2013/32572615_t4qXS6

Weekend Results--Hopeful and Not

SUMMARY: Training might be paying off--

Saturday: Generally a  good day.

• Pairs Relay: On a lead-out pivot, Boost ran around the first jump. Reset her and started over and we ran beautifully. No Q, though.
• Standard: On a lead-out pivot, pulled off the 2nd jump and (watching the video) I don't think I had even turned yet. Reset her and started over and we ran beautifully (well, except once where I did a front cross and the jump wasn't where I expected it to be, so a bit of time wasting while I figured it out). No Q, though.
• Gamblers. Went exactly per plan, except for a bit of confusion in the actual gamble part--we got it but were *barely* under time. Thought it was a pretty good run--a Q but ended up with no placement.
• Jumpers: Went really nicely up to the next to the last jump when she turned back to me for a refusal, but the rest was lovely.
• Steeplechase: Wahoo, a lovely, fast run! At least, it felt fast to me. Would never have occurred to me that Boost doing a lovely clean run wouldn't Q, but she didn't. I did notice that she hesitated slightly before a couple of jumps, but thought nothing of it. In watching the video afterwards, I see what I've noticed in other vids-- it might feel fast to me, but she's constantly measuring her strides, taking too many, spending too much time looking at me. That made me very sad--despite how well things have gone all day, this tells me that we have a very long way to go to fix things. (I'll see about posting the video later.)  Plus, well, the fastest dogs are so DANG AMAZINGLY fast.
• Which took us up to Snooker, which is the one Q I really want--the Super-Q variety, that is. We'd had a pretty good day actually. NO (!) bars knocked, no weaves missed, only a couple of runout or refusal things. I could only hope--I scouted out a four-reds, four-7s course but decided that it required skills that we are too weak on, so picked a  nice four-reds, one-four and three-sevens course that I was pretty sure that we could do.
  Sadly, however, we were near the end of the running order, and by that time I knew that, to get a super-Q, I had to do at least a 6 and  three 7s, and four 7s was easier--by that I mean that it wasn't easy (for us) but that it flowed better than the 6. So--the part that I thought would be hard for us? It was. On the 2nd red, she did the "what jump?" thing and then knocked the bar, and I knew it was all over. Went a little longer but my heart wasn't in it and I missed an obstacle, so not even a plain Q.

Sunday: Not as good; reverting.

•  Jumpers: Well, we got through it sort of--two knocked bars and one reallllly wide turn (my late front cross). Still, a reasonably good flow.
• Snooker: Picked a reasonable two-7, one-3, one-5 opening that I thought that we could probably get through--only one long stretch where she had to send ahead of me, and of course she didn't--turned in front of me and started leaping backwards. I had to reset her and move again, wasting time--and then turned back to me instead of taking a teeter, which really surprised me. But we got all the way through the opening, all the way through 6 in the closing, over the first jump of the 3 jumps in #7, and on the second jump of #7--she was so busy watching me that she ran past it instead of taking it. I could've just died. Yes, it would've been that badly desired Super-Q. Crap.  SO much work left to do to try to fix years of deteriorating performance. Still--with 3 days perspective--it was a pretty good run over all. It was a Q, adding to our huge stack of useless plain Snooker Qs.
• Gamblers-- Wheels starting to fall off. Some miscommunications wasted time, two sets of weaves and she didn't make the entry on either of them, so not a lot of opening points. I had a good approach to send her out to a tunnel in the gamble (which lots of dogs had trouble with), but I knew that the part where she had to keep going over a jump after the tunnel would be a problem, and sure enough, she turned back to me before the jump. So no Q.
• Standard: Ran past a jump while looking at me. Turned away from a jump in front of her to look at me. Turned away from the weaves in front of her to look at me. Back to our usual messy style. But at least no bars down.
• Grand Prix: Came in past a jump in front of her while looking at me. Turned back to me on the approach to the weaves. Definitely no Q.

 Looking at me and running past or turning back from obstacles is still a huge problem. I guess I shouldn't expect miracles after only 3 weeks of more concentrated and focused practice. Generally, our runs pleased me, but I admit to feeling a mite discouraged at the work that I need to do.

So--Only 3 bars for the weekend, which is pretty good for us. Two Qs for the weekend, which is definitely better than 0.  I'm not completely discouraged--it does feel like we made progress--but will I have the stamina and determination (and time) to keep on it?  We shall see.

Motel

SUMMARY: My back is so much happier in a regular bed than in MUTT MVR. Sorry, MM.

Don't they look happy? This is in the Travelodge in Turlock last weekend.

Whenever possible without paying an arm and a leg more, I get a room with a King bed (like we share at home) or with two Queens, because the 3 of us just do NOT fit well on a single queen. Yes, I'm spoiled.

This time around, Tika mostly slept on the floor except for brief periods on the blue bed and a little time on the other bed with me; Boost slept mostly on the blue bed with brief periods in the other bed with me. Every time I woke up, they were in different locations.

This is me in the room's cosmetic area (what do you call it? sinks and counters and mirrors--the bath & loo are behind a door). Takeaway: Look at the camera, not at myself.

Tika Brain, Who Knows

SUMMARY: Meds and kibble and communication.

Kibble

Back in July, Tika started refusing her regular kibble or eating just a bit of it. She'd eat other stuff, but not that. So I bought her a big bag in early August of the different kibble that our dog sitter successfully fed her. That lasted 2-3 weeks, then she wouldn't eat that *or* the traditional kibble (which is what Boost still gets). Then I bought 5 small bags of random kinds of kibble. One of them she rejected after about 2 weeks, but has been cheerfully eating the rotation, fed from a different one of those small bags each meal.

Yesterday morning, I set down her food and she sniffed it, then looked at me accusingly. I tried holding the bowl for her, and offering pieces right out of my hand. Sniff, look. Then she stepped over in Boost's direction and tilted her head as though trying to see what Boost had, then looked back at me, then looked at Boost's dish again, then back at me.

So I put away the kibble from her bowl and gave her some of the traditional kibble. She ate it happily. Hence, I'm putting that back into the rotation to see how that goes. Funny dog.

Meds

Tika will take her meds if I hide them thorough in something tasty, like canned dogfood. It has to be very thoroughly hidden, though, as Tika sniffs carefully at everything that I offer her and won't take it if she detects meds. The Vetmedin is the toughest because the pill is so large. Often I have to break it in half and try again one half at a time.

Saturday night in the hotel, she was lying on the bed and I sat next to her. I offered her the hidden Vetmedin pill and she refused it. Tried surrounding it with more food--refused. Broke it in half, cleaned it off, hid it with fresh food. Sniff, reject. Tried begging, tried offering it in a different hand--sniff and refuse. "Oh, Tika," I said sadly, ready to give up for the evening, "you have to take your drugs." I started to stand up, but she gently placed a paw on my arm and looked at me. I stayed there and asked, "what do you want?" She looked at my hand with the pill. I offered it to her. Very slowly, very gently, she took it and swallowed it.

Sometimes I just don't understand dogs.

But I love my Tika just the same.

We're Still Here

SUMMARY: Boost training, Tika eating, Human Mom...wellll...

Hard to believe that I haven't posted anything since Sept 15. I keep thinking of things to write here to keep track of, but then somehow I never implement.

I've started working more diligently on Boost not wanting to drive ahead to obstacles in front of her. Working in the yard, mostly just running in circles to keep her going. Have rented the big field at Power Paws 3 times to spend an hour practicing. Got one private lesson--two days ago--so I've had only 2 days to practice a few minutes each day on that material. (Also got some tips on improving her weave reliability, you know, the reliability where some weekends she is HOT and other weekends we can't do them correctly EVah?)

I dropped my weekly class for a while so that I can concentrate on Boost's Special Needs. Feels odd--it has been a long time since I've not had a regular agility class or two, but I think that this is what we need right now.

She seems to enjoy it!

Tika started coughing more and more and I took her in to the vet Wednesday. He's pretty sure it's "bronchitis" caused by one or more of: weakening trachea (happens in some older dogs), heart enlarging more and pressing on the trachea, or allergies or dust. Lot of construction going on behind us right now to turn the 300ish-acre parcel into a park (yay!) and the neighbors are complaining about the dust, so could be that.

He recommended upping the hydrocodone that I'd been timidly giving her, and sure enough, pretty much no more coughing.

Although I'm not sure that she isn't a little less energetic. Hard to tell, because she's been less and less active and energetic. Maybe a couple of close-to-full-speed chases after a toy or frisbee, and then is content to just wander around investigating things. Lies down quickly in many cases. Doesn't bother getting up to see what's going on unless she's really convinced that it's worth her while (used to always have a Tika tailing me everywhere, every time I even stood up).

Her appetite seems good as long as I keep rotating through 4 different kibbles (NOT the one she's been eating for 10 years and NOT the one that I bought for her back in August--got tired of both). Although she's SO SLOW now. Old timing on mealtime: Both dogs sit. I set Tika's food down and release her, she attacks it. I set Boost's food down and release her, she starts eating calmly, and...Tika is done already! NEW timing on mealtime: Both dogs sit. I set Tika's food down and release her, she starts picking up small mouthfuls and chewing thoroughly. I set Boost's food down and release her, she starts eating calmly. Eventually, Boost finishes and then stands and watches Tika. Meanwhile, I take 6 t-shirts out of the dryer and fold them neatly. Then, finally, Tika is done. It's eerie, how different it all is.

I seem to be making some kind of subtle commitment to continue doing agility, as I have just bought a replacement tunnel for the most disintegrating one, and I've just bought 2 new (well...used) jumps. No activity on adding dogs to the family, though. I'm starting to be inclined to wait until Tika is gone (yikes, painful to think of).

My foot no longer bothers me--mostly because my back has been giving my muscles and nerves such a nasty ride that I've not been very active. But in the last couple of weeks I've started walking to the frisbee park again, and working on a little agility training again, and trying a couple of new things through the physical therapy department. There might be hope. (I think I'll still be struggling this weekend, but mentally I'm feeling pretty good.)

So, this weekend--off to Turlock for two days of USDAA agility. Boost competes, Tika gets to hang out.

I usually, as we all know, get up at 4 am to drive out on Saturday morning of out-of-town trials, but after getting up to the alarm this morning to go up to the practice field, I decided that I can't bear to do that again (even earlier) tomorrow, so I've done the unusual thing and reserved a hotel room for tonight. MUTT MVR is pretty much packed--oh, clothing! Ok, will get to that in a moment--and dogs got some exercise and maybe, just maybe, I'll be in bed in Turlock at a reasonable hour tonight! Worth the expense this time around, anyway.

See you all on the other side of Weekend.

A No-Q Day

SUMMARY: Some highlights and lowlights.

I drove 4 hours today for about 2 minutes of ring time. Pretty crazy, huh? My general rule is that I have to stay at the destination for at least as long as my round-trip time to make it worthwhile going, and we were actually there for right about 8 hours. For 3 runs.

Got there in time to work the first class (not entered in Masters Challenge Standard) to earn a free lunch and raffle tickets.

Gamblers--opening started well and then she pulled off a dogwalk right in front of her, not sure why, then I couldn't get her into a replacement tunnel, but we ended up even so about where I wanted to be when the whistle blew, with her on the A-frame--but she came off the A-frame without being releasd and I had trouble getting her lined up and we in no way came close to getting the actual gamble. Still, she had two awesome sets of weaves.

After that, I got Tika out and we hung out in the shade watching the runs.

The Woodside site is known for being hot. Wasn't as hot as some times when I've been there and the paint is peeling off the roads (well--maybe not, but it should have been). But still, by the time I had finished lunch, it was hot enough an late enough (11:30 already) that I decided that I for sure wasn't going to stick around another couple of hours after Snooker to try a Jumpers run (last class of the day), so scratched Boost from that.

Standard--beautiful run, felt good; she came off the teeter without being released and I made her down for a moment as a reminder (then her dogwalk and Aframe were good and I held them a bit). And, dang, she missed her weave entry. After doing so well on them in gamblers.

Hung out with Tika again, getting hot even in the shade.

Snooker--well, crud, on the 3rd jump, I said "go hup" and she started towards it and I moved to get into front cross position and she pulled off it, then I got frustrated, like really WHAT does it take to get you to go over a jump, really???? and finally she did it but knocked the bar and it was all over.

At least it was a good reason to hop in the car and come home. Took about 20 minutes longer to get home through heavy Sunday-afternoon traffic heading back into the Bay Area than it took to go out thataway between 5:30 and 7:30 in the morning, go figure. Glad I left a couple of hours early; got home after 5:00 as it was.

So, back to the drawing board, or try to find more specific things to focus on. Yes, I should be videotaping everything. Guess I should get out the new/used camera and figure out again how it works.

Agility Titles

SUMMARY: Regrouping for Boost.

(Repost with corrected numbers.)

Do I compete in agility to have fun with my dogs? Yes. Do I compete because it's a good physical and mental workout for me and for them? Yes. Do I compete because I like being outdoors and hanging out with many good friends? Yes. Because I love seeing dogs and handlers working together like clockwork and demonstrating the best that they can offer? Yes.

But I also do it for ribbons and titles. Just sayin'.

Somewhere up there in the fog is the Power Paws agility field.
Plus some mountains and similar large objects.

Now that Tika is out of the picture and will never get her Platinum Lifetime, drat it all, my current next best bet for ribbons or titles is Boost, but we have not done that well as a team most of the time.

Now that I have my energy and enthusiasm back for training a bit, we'll see what happens. Because, for me, competing and repeatedly failing to Q is not fun. Handle it better with a young dog with whom I see progress. But not an 8 1/2 year old dog when we should both know better.

So, again this morning I rented the agility field--getting up there by 8 a.m., groan! --to practice having Boost run on ahead of me. We'll see how that goes in our one day of competition tomorrow.

Looking back down through the fog towards where I took the first photo.
Last Saturday at 8 a.m., it was scorching. I'm not complainin' about the fog!

Anyway, just a quick regroup on titles that Boost and I *could* earn in the Championship program if our Q rate vastly improves:

Title Category	Current level	Next Level	Have Qs	More Qs needed
Masters Standard	SAM-Bronze	Silver	21	4
Masters Relay	RM-Gold	Platinum	39	11
Masters Gamblers	GM-Bronze	Silver	16	9
Masters Jumpers	JM	Champion	7	3
Masters Snooker	-	Champion, Bronze, and Silver	26, incl. 2 SuperQs	1 SuperQ
ADCH (championship)	-	ADCH	Everything but...	1 SuperQ
ADCH	-	Bronze (triple ADCH)	Everything but...	1 SuperQ and 8 Jumpers Qs
Tournament	Silver	Gold	31	4 (any mix of Steeplechase, Grand Prix, and DAM Team)

There are hills beyond those trees? Really?

So, the point is, if I want to satisfy my own cravings, I must concentrate and keep up the energy and enthusiasm and hope that my aging body lets me keep going. Boost is quite willing to keep at it.

See y'all on the other side of tomorrow.

The sun hides in the fog, but wait--
I see a tiny round speck that is the sun, perhaps the light at the end of the tunnel?

Tika the Picky Eater

SUMMARY: Failures and solutions.

In the months since we discovered Tika's heart condition and started her on various medications, her once-insatiable appetite waned. Instead of vacuuming down her kibble at twice Boost's speed, she now ate at half Boost's speed. And she'd stop to look at me accusingly between bites.

After we added the digoxin in late July, it started being much more challenging to get her to eat her meals. I sometimes added a little peanut butter, sometimes a little canned dog food. Usually she'd eat, but sometimes I had to feed it to her a handful at a time because she wouldn't eat it out of her bowl.

When she spent the 4-day weekend at my friend's house, she apparently refused her normal kibble entirely, even when hand-feeding or moistening, but eagerly gulped down the kibble that the friend had been using for treats. So I bought a big bag of that.

That worked for maybe 2 weeks, and then that became anathema, too. I could still sometimes get her to eat it by offering her handfuls, or by strewing it on the floor, or by handing it to her one piece at a time, but mostly that stopped working, too.

I bought some chicken stock (no sodium) and poured it over the kibble, which worked for a couple of days and then she wouldn't do that, either. For a week or a bit more, if i let thekibble sit in the stock until soft, I could convince her to eat it by either spooning it onto the floor (tell me why it's OK to eat it off the floor but not out of the bowl?) or by handing her small handfuls.

But even that stopped working very well.

Kibble with chicken stock. Yawwwwwwwn.

Spooned onto the floor. Ho hum; surely  there's something more interesting out in the hallway.

Fed by personal humanservant, one piece at a time. PuhLEEZ stop bothering me with that stuff.

Boost -- Are you KIDDING me? *I* will eat it! *I* am a good dog! Why you not let me eat it???

OK, one damp piece at a time placed on the floor directly in front of her--yes, that is tasty, thank you.
You know how many pieces of kibble there are in one meal???

So, anyway, that wasn't working for me. A few days ago, I came up with this idea: Went out and bought several small bags of different kinds of kibble, and am rotating through them, a different one every meal. Now she is quite happy to eat an entire bowl of kibble at each meal, directly from her bowl. We'll see how long that lasts, but so far so good.

Dogs are so weird sometimes.

Working on that Snooker Super-Q

SUMMARY: Steps I'm taking.

So, for the first time in many, many months, I've had the energy and enthusiasm to focus on improving Boost's agility performance in hopes of getting that danged last Super-Q.

I've actually been working on bar-knocking in the yard.

I actually rented the big field last saturday morning and again this coming saturday morning to practice just having Boost drive ahead over jumps. Basically I dropped toys in various places around the field where I could drive her over 2, 3, 4, or more jumps to get a toy. I felt that Saturday went well--she's very happy to drive ahead when she thinks there might be a toy out there. I noticed that she knocked bars when she wasn't sure where the toys were going to be, hmm, something to think about.

It was pretty warm, even at 8 a.m., so we rested quite a bit between runs.

Tika wanted to bark while I was running Boost--this is a no-no, don't want to disturb the neighbors, but if I ran her through 5 or 6 obstacles and then gave her treats, she'd be quiet for a while. Not sure what I'm going to do this weekend--have been instructed "NO barking," so we'll see whether it's cool enough that I can leave her in the car.

Anyway, will work on more of the same this Saturday morning--I decided to sign up ONLY for Sunday of this weekend's 3-day USDAA trial in Woodland, because that's the only day with a Snooker, and I just don't want to be out in the heat in the central valley for 2-3 days.

Tonight in class, there were only 2 of us! I asked whether JB would be willing to do some private lessons/evaluations on snooker, and then we agreed to spend most of class trying to do various snooker-like runs. Boost didn't knock a single bar! And she got all her weave entries! I made a few handling errors, but got no refusals, either. I hope this carries over to Sunday's competition; would sure be nice.

My back is still a mess, but my core muscles are getting stronger as I do my exercises (not as often as ideal, but enough that I notice a difference) and I've been doing some exercycling in lieu of hiking to try to let my foot continue to rest but still work my legs and cardiovascular system. I felt pretty good in class tonight, but with only two of us, I turned into a pumpkin before the full class session and came on home.

But, in other words, the enthusiasm that I've had in the past but not for a long while is back. Trying to hold onto it and keep on going.

How Are We All Doing?

SUMMARY: Reporting on Human Mom, Boost, and Tika.

Tika is refusing food more and more often. I'm not happy about this. Don't know whether it's her meds or her health. Need to call the vet to discuss. Not convinced that taking certain drugs to help her heart or her cough is good if it means that she loses interest in food. Until this morning, she was happy enough to eat the new fancy expensive kibble that I just bought--as long as I didn't intermingle regular kibble, which really ruined the whole thing, you know. But hand-feeding still worked. This evening she didn't want to eat much of it at all.

She even almost turned down her guard-the-house-goodie this morning when I left for work--and she's not rejected that before. (It's just a dry biscuit, but until now has been eagerly accepted.) No problems tonight in class, though, sucking down those Zukes minis!

Human Mom had a rotten night last night, what with back/leg pain, a cough that wouldn't quit between about 2 and 3 a.m., two dogs that needed to go out in the middle of the night at different times, and a sometimes coughing dog. H.M. got most of her sleep between 7:30 a.m. and 10 a.m. Amazing I made it through the day. But work was interesting and urgent today, which helped.

And then, even more interestingly, felt really good in class tonight running Boost. Was able to actually run, fast for me anyway, without pain. That bodes well for the weekend. Still, the back and connected leg pain are such a...pain. Standing there, watching someone else's run, turned my head or some other innocuous minor movement, and whack! Sudden pain in lower back and I had to take steps to ease it out. So we didn't do a whole class this evening; want to save myself for the Regional Championships this weekend in Prunedale.

Boost--well, wow, what a great night in class! Not a single bar down! No nasty runouts (except pretty obvious handler errors) or refusals. Wow! Well, OK, couple of missed weave entries, darn it, she will just never be as good as Tika at the weave entries. And that's the thing we've most practiced through the years. OK, anyway, maybe it was because I was moving more comfortably and faster, dunno, but what a pleasure it was! Hoping that it lasts through at least some of the weekend.

See folks there Saturday through Monday; I bailed on Friday's events for various reasons. Weather should be great, people should be wonderful, maybe we'll get a Q or two.

Apples

SUMMARY: Everyone needs a hobby.

Boost seems to be collecting apples from under the apple tree in the back yard and storing them in strategic locations around the house. So she'll have something to eat in case of the zombie apocalypse, I suppose. Or, if not that, they make perfectly good toys to roll down the hallway and chase.

"Hmm--it round, it red, but it no taste like yard fruit ball. Hm. Taste like master gamble Q. Hmm."

A Few Pix in Downtown San Jose

SUMMARY: Wordless Wednesday

>>  Visit the Wordless Wednesday site; lots of blogs. <<

Today is National Dog Day

SUMMARY: August 26 every year.

Can't tell you more than that, as today their server seems to be overloaded. Instead, go play with your dog.

I'll be at work. :-/

When will the cruelty stop?

Tika's Retirement Run, Part 2

SUMMARY: Video.

Part 1 is here.

She starts out pretty fast. Knocks a bar about halfway through, not sure why (I mean, these *are* only 16" jumps). Then goes off course (before the teal tunnel) when I'm actually turned and calling her and clapping--I wonder whether that was a side effect of all the heart-warming cheering and clapping going on all around us? No matter, a Q wasn't my goal -- I was watching for signs of discomfort or coughing or slipping on the wet grass.

Then she slowed abruptly before the next to the last jump, not sure what that was about--did she think we were at the end? -- so I stopped, so she stopped, and then when she looked OK to me, I popped her over the last jump to make it official.

Notice no excited foot biting at the end, sigh. But she doesn't look particularly *un*happy.

Anyway, it was nice, and  a whole crowd waited to give me hugs and kudos at the exit gate.

Tika's Retirement Run, Part 1

SUMMARY: She's just a good girl

We had our final run this morning pretty early. Fog, as usual, had descended in that area overnight and made the grass quite damp. I saw several dogs slip and fall; didn't want Tika to do that.  Also wasn't sure whether she'd want to run or would start coughing or what, so I tried to take it easy.

That didn't work well at the  beginning--she shot off the startline and I barely got in my first front cross. She slowed through the run and almost stopped before the last two jumps ( after earlier knocking a bar and going off course) but completed it, with a crowd cheering us on the whole way.

She did cough a bit right after that, but not a lot, so it was OK.

I didn't cry too much, just some while I was getting all the hugs from so very many of our agility friends who've been with us through thick and thin; who supported us, teamed with us and sometimes even Qed and won with us, encouraged us, cried with us, laughed with us, and all the rest. What a great group of people.

I brought a cake. A huge cake.

She expressed curiosity about the cake.

I encouraged her repeatedly to put her paws up on the table to try to get a photo of her looking at her cake. I think she thought that this was some kind of trick, but eventually she did.

And she didn't waste any stupid time by merely stupid *looking* at the cake. That had not been part of my plan.

So I cut that huge hunk out and the Merle Girls each got a piece of gooey sugary yummy retirement cake.

Tomorrow, more about the weekend and hopefully some videos.

(Thanks to Jean Danver for the photos.)

Coming Up, Tika's Last Trial

SUMMARY: Well, officially entered, anyway.

I entered Tika in one run this weekend, Jumpers, which was always her favorite. I haven't been doing much with her at all, and she starts out in the yard playing fast and eager but quickly resorts to just digging her notorious hole to china under the shrubbery. Tried running her around a small course today with just a few jumps and tunnels and never did get all the way through it.

So I might just pick a quick few jumps and out. So sad. I'm so very sad. I'll make that officially Tika's last agility run. Here's the age data from this trial's statistics sheet:

I'm not expecting much from this weekend. This week I ended up with a cold, so am tired and congested on top of Boost's insane obsessive scratching and biting the last couple of nights, really interrupting both of our sleeps. She scratched for two hours straight when I went to bed last night, and then another hour after I gave her a prednisone.

Now that she's on prednisone, I hope that'll knock it out quickly so we can both sleep.  Except of course that prednisone tends to make my dogs' bladders work more urgently, which could get me up in the night anyway--so I *do* want to remain asleep-but-alert to avoid having a bed wetting or floor wetting like last time around.

This heavy scratching started (it's been building up by hydroxyzine had been holding it off) after several days of Tika coughing a lot during the night. Now Tika's getting an occasional small dose of hydrocodone/something (similar to what humans get with an intractable cough) and I think that's helped some, not eliminated completely but not interrupting my sleep every hour.

And I've already mentioned that I'm completely out of shape, not doing any running or hiking or anything. My foot and back aren't a lot better--improving, I think, but not there yet. I've put on weight, Boost has put on MORE weight which is a mystery because I've been cutting back her food more. She's now getting only 83% of what she has gotten most of her adult life, and she's up another half pound in the last month! Argh! It is true that she's also getting less activity because I'm doing so much less lately.

So this weekend is really not going to be about me and Boost qualifying in anything because the odds seem slim. Instead, it's about Tika retiring, and about sugar, because that's what I'm bringing to celebrate. Because I need more sugar.

In fact, must go pick up the celebration thing right now.

Wish us good luck in getting a good night sleep, and then in the morning it's off to Manzanita Park.

Things That Tika Has Mistaken For Something Alive While Out On A Walk

SUMMARY: Dogs see shapes.

Tika goes nuts when she sees another dog while we're out on a leash. She makes a ruckus, but in fact she really does just want to go check it out and then she's happy. She just doesn't often *get* to go check it out, dang Human Mom.

Photos from the web--things that Tika has actually mistaken from a distance for a person walking a dog on a leash (motion vs blurry vision)--suitcase with long handle, person pulling wagon, man using string trimmer:

Tika also is ready to take off like a rocket--from 0 to 60 in a nanosecond--if she thinks some critter is running. Image of something that almost got my arm ripped off--shoulder hurt for days-- because I was thinking, "innocuous inanimate thing blowing in the wind that dogs would have no interest in" and Tika was thinking, "Thing run! Me chase!"

Now she has cataracts, which the vet noticed yesterday are getting a bit thicker, so who knows what she's going to mistake for something else.