It Asploded

The radiator in my truck has been leaking for a while, and John’s been keeping an eye on it. It started out as a pretty slow leak, so we weren’t too stressed about replacing the radiator immediately, and we’d been doing okay with just topping off the coolant. Saturday, the truck overheated on my way back from Sanford (my fault, because I didn’t realize that the coolant I saw was just residue and not an actual indicator of the volume). I pulled off the road, gave it a few minutes to cool off, and then got home with no trouble. John came over to check it (and brought a new radiator and thermostat with him), and we put in over a gallon of coolant. We talked a bit about the leak, thinking it might still be relatively slow, and decided we’d definitely have to replace the radiator before I headed west before Christmas. Since I was headed back to Sanford on Sunday, we also decided it would be a good idea for me to take some coolant and check the level before I left the farm, just in case. It’s a good thing, too, because I put in almost another half gallon before heading home. I called John on the way, and we decided the radiator would need to be replaced sooner rather than later. John came over yesterday evening to work on the truck, and pointed out that the radiator had basically exploded – the hood was covered with coolant and was actually still dripping late in the evening, when I’d gotten home before noon. So, now the truck has a shiny new radiator, a new thermostat, and a couple of new hoses. John has to make a trip over again today, because the thermostat housing has a hairline crack and was leaking last night. Once that’s replaced, though, we should be good to go. Its so great to have a friend who knows how to fix these sorts of problems (and who has a wife who lets him!).

That’s My Boy!

Today was the first day of the herding trial in Sanford. The weather was nasty this morning – chilly and rainy (although, at least it wasn’t raining sideways like the last trial). To make things really fun, the ground at the PT ring was deep, boot-sucking muck, and inside the ring wasn’t any better – lots of muck and small ponds. They actually had to change the panel layout for safety reasons because of the flooding. We all had a good time, anyway. And thank goodness for rain pants!

I’m not sure this picture does justice to the amount of mud and muck that covered both of us (I think you can get a better idea of that with the video), but you can see the mud on my legs and jacket and Duncan’s front legs. If you look closely, you can also see that his back legs are covered, too. What you can’t see is that his tail is just one long mud slick. None of that matters, though, because we had an excellent run today and Duncan earned his PT title! You may now address him as D’Cans Dark Warrior Dreaming, JHD, PT, CGC.


Duncan was very excited to be at the trial and just couldn’t stop bouncing. Everyone thought it was very sweet when he jumped up and smeared mud on my jacket. Three times. I sure couldn’t fuss at him, though; he was way too happy to bring him down with a scolding. And that was before we even went into the ring. I was a little concerned that he was too excited to have a quiet run, but he settled down as soon as he started working.

We had an absolutely beautiful run. We picked up the sheep with no trouble at all. Duncan was a little concerned about being so far from the fence - we’re usually right near it but the ground conditions forced us away from it. Thankfully, the sheep were in a nice, quiet mood, and Duncan had himself under great control, so the sheep didn’t mind him being right up on their butts. One sheep didn’t want to make the turn with us, but Duncan brought her back to me with no problem. I did my hold near the judge (didn’t plan it that way, it just seemed like a good spot for it), and Claire said later that I actually made a really good choice, because the people at the fence acted as a draw for the sheep and helped keep them still. Right after the hold, you can hear me fuss at Duncan – what you can’t see is the chunk of wool he’s spitting out of his mouth. And where does he grab the sheep? Right in front of the judge, that’s where! Thankfully, the judge didn’t hold it against him. Of course, the sheep didn’t get too upset, either, but some judges would have given at least a warning at that. One of the guys watching said that right after that, when I turned back to Duncan again, I stopped him just as he was reaching for the sheep’s hock (“Just a little taste, Mom!”). I’m thinking two grabs, especially with the second not being on the wooly butt, might have been a problem for the judge. The rest of the run was calm and quiet, with an easy penning.



Duncan got a ton of compliments for his beautiful work, with a lot of comments about how quiet and controlled he was. He was such a Good Dog today. We’ll go back tomorrow and do it again – and this time get some photos, since it won’t be raining. I know we don’t need to do the run tomorrow, since we completed the title today, but I’m really looking forward to going into the ring with absolutely no pressure on us. I won’t be stressed, which should help keep Duncan relaxed, and a nice low-key run would be a great way to end the year.

Cross All Paws

Duncan and I have a herding trial tomorrow and Sunday in Sanford – its our last trial of the year. We need a good run one of the two days so we can finish his PT title. The weather is supposed to be pretty crappy tomorrow, but we’re running fairly earning in the morning, so maybe the sheep won’t be too pissy when its our turn. The weather should be better Sunday – cold, but no rain – so we might stand a better chance. I’d rather have a good run tomorrow, just to get the pressure off. Keep all your paws crossed for us!

Who Knew?

I admit, I never thought the day would come when I’d be excited by pants with snaps and zippers on the legs. But by golly, today is that day. I went shopping for some rain pants to wear at tomorrow’s herding trial (I learned my lesson during the last trial, when it rained sideways for hours), and I found what I wanted at Dick’s Sporting Goods. The pants are great – there’s a snap at the bottom of the legs and a nice long zipper, so I can easily get the pants on without taking off my boots. How great is that? And even better, I got the pants and jacket for 60% off.

Kitty Porn

Mikey and Per’la have always been particularly close, frequently sleeping curled up next to each other, or with at least a paw or tail making a physical connection while they nap. I have several pictures of them snuggled together, as well as pictures of Per’la keeping a watchful eye on things while Mikey slept. What I walked in on last night was a bit much, though.


Mikey has clearly lost all sense of decorum.


Mikey was disturbed by the camera flash, but Per'la doesn't appear the least bit concerned about being caught in such a compromising position.

Family Traits

I was out taking pictures of the pups recently (I know, we’re all surprised), and Reyna was being very gracious about posing for me.

Something I’ve noticed lately is how gray her muzzle has become in the last few months. My baby girl is 3 months shy of 6 years old, which is roughly equivalent to being in her very early 40s. So, I’ve decided that the gray isn’t due to old age. Its because she takes after her grandmother’s side of the family. After all, the Davis’ do tend to go gray early. Great-Uncle Laurence and Mom are good examples. And even me – I have a fair amount of gray hair, too (although, not so much around my muzzle).

SheepGoatDuck Muck

Duncan and I had another work-for-herd session yesterday. Duncan had such an excellent time that he’s still pooped. Speaking of which, its amazing how my prissy boy doesn’t care how deep or nasty the muck is that he’s slogging through, as long as there’s a sheep involved. Between the mud from the rain the night before and the general farm muck, Duncan was covered up to his belly by the time we were done. He was a dirty, happy pup.

We mixed things up quite a bit, to see how he’d do. He had a lovely easy session with two sheep when we first arrived (remember, the fewer sheep in the flock, the lighter (more skittish) they are, so to have an easy session with two sheep means Duncan was very relaxed and controlled). Now, if we can just duplicate that at the trial this coming weekend, I’ll be ever so happy. We did a session of boundary herding, which Duncan handled wonderfully. One interesting thing we saw was that Duncan takes correction from Claire with no problem (when she reminds him about the edge of the boundary), but when I correct him, he goes into Worried Dog Mode and tries to come farther into the grazing area to get right next to me. As long as I’m not correcting him, he doesn’t seem to have any trouble with being that far away from me. Just something we need to work on.

Duncan definitely remembered the goats from our last session, because he made a point of trying to avoid them, even when he was tied to a tree. Apparently, he doesn’t find being head-butted particularly entertaining. After a bit of work, we had another session in the arena, but with a much larger flock. Duncan handled them with no trouble at all, moving the flock around the arena with barely any effort. More work, and then back to the herding. We took the flock through the woods, which was a new experience for both of us, and then to the upper part of the grazing area for another boundary session. At one point, Duncan figured out he didn’t need to keep running the boundary, so he sat down for a break. That was perfectly fine, because as soon as the sheep moved too close to the edge, he popped up and moved them right back into the grazing area. And he did that with no indication from either me or Claire that he needed to do it, which I think is pretty impressive.

After moving the sheep back into the arena, we headed up to the duck pens. Ducks don’t herd at all like sheep, and that was very evident. Poor Duncan kept herding them like he would sheep – moving them in the correct direction and then backing off. Unfortunately, backing off of ducks means the ducks will stop going where the dog was trying to get them to go, and instead they’ll head back to their pen. Duncan got pretty mouthy with the ducks, but Claire only fussed once or twice. At one point, he tried licking a duck into submission. When that didn’t work, he just picked it up (and no, he didn’t hurt it). Claire said he was just doing what most dogs used to sheep do at first - trying to either hold the duck in one place to make it stop moving (balance is very important to herding dogs), or simply picking the duck up to make it go where its supposed to. We’ll have to keep practicing with the ducks.

Now, these pictures have nothing to do with sheep herding (or duck herding, for that matter), I just really liked them.

Yay, Heat!

So, I turned my heat on Saturday afternoon and it didn’t seem to do a whole lot of heating. Sunday wasn’t a problem, since the weather was nice and I worked the afternoon/evening shift. I got home from the kennel Monday to discover that the heat still wasn’t being very productive. I called John and he came over to check things out. Apparently, my blower motor had gone kaput. John was able to find a new motor and came over yesterday evening to get everything hooked up. Thanks to John, I now have heat, and heat is a very good thing.

Good Blood, Long Hours

I’ve been too busy and tired to post anything lately, but I thought I’d take a few minutes for a quick blog (before I curl up on the couch and zonk out).

Reyna’s blood work results came back sometime in the recent past. Its been a very long week, so I don’t remember exactly when… It was as perfect as we expected – her kidney and liver values are all in the normal range. And not just Reyna Normal, but actual Medically Accepted Normal. Impressive, isn’t it? This means she’s allowed to stay on the NSAID that improves her joint pain and arthritis, which is a good thing. Something I find really interesting about Rimadyl is that there seem to be a lot of people out there dead set against having it in the house, much less letting it pass their dog’s lips. Some people will tell you that Rimadyl is a horrible medication, that it kills some dogs and sickens all the rest. But on the flip side of that is Reyna, She Who Reacts Badly To Every Medication, having absolutely no problem at all with this dog-killing drug. On our side is also my vet (and I’m sure many, many others) who treat a lot of dogs with Rimadyl and see a problem with maybe 0.5%. Granted, there’s a reason why Reyna gets her kidney and liver values checked every six months, and if they ever look bad, she’ll come off the Rimadyl. But its very hard to see it as the hideous thing some people make it out to be. Oh, well. We’ll use what works for us, and they can use what works for them.

I’ve gotten a lot of hours at the kennel this week. In fact, today was day 5 of a 7 day stretch. Its been exhausting but generally fun. Or at least less not-fun than office work. I don’t enjoy scooping poop, but I like working and playing with the dogs. Most of the staff is pretty good to work with, although I occasionally think the owner’s forgotten just how long some things take. After all, when you have 230 dogs to get outside, clean their kennels, get them back inside, feed and water them, and then pick up leftover food, its just going to take a while. Regardless of how many people are working, that’s not something that can be done in an hour. Or even two hours. Today, I think 7 of us got it done in 3.5 hours (of course, two of the girls – one who normally works daycare and one who is just there for the week - moved a bit slower than the rest of us like, but the fastest its been done with that many dogs is 3 hours). There’s even been some excitement to liven things up a bit. Yesterday morning, one of the dogs I took outside for her morning potty break had a grand mal seizure as soon as she entered the run. She seemed fine a couple of hours later, but then she had another one this morning, again as soon as she entered the outside run. One of the managers said we shouldn’t take her out anymore, but my response to that was that she’d been taken out at least two other mornings and every evening and hadn’t had seizures. At least, no seizures that anyone saw or reported. She was scheduled to go home this afternoon, so hopefully she’ll do better. The really big excitement this morning was the little Shiba Inu that climbed the exterior fence during her morning run and escaped out into the big, bad world. I was taking out another dog and happened to see a dog wandering in the woods beyond the kennel fence and decided to check it out (since there aren’t any houses around the kennel that might have wandering pets). I was able to tell through the fence that the dog had a yellow kennel collar and got one of the other girls to alert the manager. By the time she got her slow self moving, the dog had left the woods and crossed the four lane road in front of the kennel. The dog crossed it by herself again, and managed to avoid being hit by any of the passing traffic. The drama ended well, with the dog locked securely back in her kennel and a note on the door saying she was to be taken out only on a leash. The owner was extremely happy that she wouldn’t be sued by any irate owners. And all of that happened before 9:00 this morning.

Oh, and I finally broke down and turned the heat on this afternoon. 54 degrees in the living room is a bit cold, even for me and all my layers of clothes.

Santa Paws 2009

I don’t see a reason to cancel an inexpensive family tradition just because I’m mostly jobless, so last night I took the pups for their annual photos with Santa Paws, hosted by the local SPCA. I decided to make a minor change in how we did things, and I think it worked out for the best. The SPCA usually has time slots during the week and weekend before Thanksgiving, and then the first weekend in December. In 2005, we went the first weekend in December and got some really cute pictures. In 2006, we went the weekend before Thanksgiving, the place was a mad house and the pictures weren’t very good, so we ended up going again the first weekend in December. We got some good pictures that time. For 2007 and 2008, I decided to not mess with a good thing and just go in December – good pictures both years. This year, though, my free time is a bit different, so I scheduled us for a late slot on a weeknight, thinking there probably wouldn’t be too many dogs in the room. I was right – there was a pair of dogs leaving when we got there, and another pair came in as we were finishing. Having a calm, quiet room certainly helped keep Reyna and Duncan focused. The SPCA changed things a bit this year, too. In the past, we had to wait a week and then go pick up our prints and a CD. This year, though, we had the option of having a link emailed to us so we could download the photos – and the really neat thing is that I got the pictures today, rather than sometime next week (plus, I saved myself nearly an hour for the pickup trip). Below are the pictures that the photographer and whoever else with the SPCA looks at these considered to be the five best pictures of the bunch, in the order they were taken.

Nothing Too Bad

Reyna had her extremely belated annual checkup today. We’ll get the results of her blood work on Monday, but we’re not expecting anything unusual from that. Doc told me to up her Benadryl intake to see if it will help clear up her itchies, and to call him in a week if it doesn’t. He said one possibility is that she has a flea allergy (since she is, after all, allergic to most of the rest of the world), and if that’s the case, it could be a single flea bite that caused her current problem. Thankfully, there’s still no indication that she has fleas, so if it was a flea bite, it may have happened when we went to the Mutt Strutt earlier this month. Of course, there’s no way to know, so we’ll just keep trying the Benadryl. The vet and I also talked about Reyna’s limping, and he noticed that her left ankle seemed stiff. Probably just a wrong step and something that will go away soon. He had me walk and trot her, and we talked about the fact that she doesn’t have the range of motion in either hip that she used to have. I’d noticed before that she wasn’t taking long strides anymore. Watching her from the side, its also noticeable that she’s hunching forward some and carrying more weight on her front legs than she should. The only way to correct that is more exercise. I’m going to talk to the kennel owner and see if we can work out an arrangement for Reyna to use their swimming pool a couple of times a week. If we can, that should help build muscle and increase her range of motion. The vet also commented that Reyna’s a little underweight (a mere 71 pounds, as opposed to Duncan’s 117), but considering her joints, being thin is for the best. Doc said everything else looks great. All in all, it wasn’t a bad checkup.

That. Was. So. Cool.

Yesterday, Duncan and I went to Pittsboro for a herding session. The trainer is letting me swap work for training, so I don’t have to pay cash for the lesson. We did about 30 minutes of herding, then an hour of work, then another 30 minutes of herding. It worked out really well for everyone, I think.

After our regular herding practice, we decided to try Duncan on boundary herding. Instead of moving the sheep around the fenced area, the point of boundary herding is to have the sheep in a big open area while the dog guards the perimeter. The dog isn’t allowed to cross the boundary into the grazing area, and the sheep aren’t allowed to cross the boundary out of the grazing area. The handler is essentially just supposed to hang out while the dog does all the work. The trainer is hopeful that working boundaries will build Duncan’s confidence and teach him that he doesn’t need to be right up on me when we’re working the sheep (which would be very useful when we’re doing the other style of herding).

This was our first experience with boundary herding, and I wasn’t sure how it was going to go. Duncan was thrilled when the trainer asked him to gather up the entire flock and move them. He got them into the grazing area with no problem at all. The boundary was a path around the grazing area – one side was just the path, the next side was the path along the fence line, the third side was the path along the tree line, and the fourth side didn’t have a clear path – it was just the tree line. I was in the process of asking the trainer “How do you teach the dog the boundary?” and I’d just gotten “how do” out of my mouth when Duncan came to a screeching halt at the edge of the path. The trainer: “You were saying?” Me: “Never mind.” Duncan picked up the boundary idea very fast – the few times he tried to cross it was to come to me, not the sheep. As the sheep moved farther away from us, he figured out that he needed to get closer to them, but he stayed on the path. We only showed him the open side and the path along the fence line – he figured out the path along the tree line on his own. And watching him run the boundary, especially the side that was just the tree line, with no instruction from either of us, was absolutely amazing. Within just a few minutes, he learned a herding method that was entirely different from what he’s been doing. I am so proud of my boy!

The Dangers Of Television

I was watching a movie this afternoon (don’t remember what it was called; it wasn’t very good) that was set in the 1880s out in the middle of nowhere, and it started me thinking (I know, always a dangerous prospect). One of my ex-bosses told me that I should see the layoff as an opportunity. What he meant was that I would find a job doing the same or similar work to what I’d been doing, only I’d make a lot more money doing it (the general consensus was that I was underpaid for my job because of the way I moved up within the company, as opposed to coming into the company specifically to do that job). As I was watching the movie today, it occurred to me that he was right about seeing the layoff as an opportunity, but he wasn’t necessarily accurate about the *type* of opportunity. Instead of focusing on finding the “right” job - which could potentially lead to relocating - I should think about the places I’d like to live and see what jobs are available in those areas. I know this could upset a lot of the people who read this, because the places I’ve always thought about are not in North Carolina.

I haven’t been able to shake the idea since it hit. Let’s face it, being unemployed makes this the perfect time to enact a significant change in my life – I’m not tied to a job, which means I don’t have that excuse/rationale for not making a change. And why should I make my priorities job first, location second? Raleigh wasn’t my first choice for a place to live, or even my second – it just sort of happened. So maybe its time to be proactive, get serious about figuring out where I’d like to live, and reorder my priorities – location first, job second.

Baby Girl

Poor Reyna hasn’t been feeling too spiffy lately. Her attitude is generally upbeat, but she’s been limping on and off since the first cold spell a few weeks ago. I don’t think its necessarily her new hip, since her other hip is also bad and her shoulders are arthritic. But she’s definitely uncomfortable at times. A couple of days ago, she started scratching and chewing on herself, and when I pet her, she’s itchy and twitchy. I’ve been dosing her with Benadryl, and she got a bath this afternoon, which I hope will help. I checked, and there’s no indication of fleas (thank goodness). If we’re lucky, its just a minor allergic reaction to something, and the Benadryl will fix her up. Of course, if its that, I have to wonder what she’s reacting to. Just a seasonal thing, or (Dog forbid) something I brought home on my clothes from the kennel? She’s scheduled to see the vet next Friday to have her very belated annual exam, so if she’s not better by then, he might have a suggestion or two. Or, he might just look at her, shake his head, and say “Well, it is Reyna.”

Just A Bit Of Whining

This job search stuff is hard. I don’t like it. Spending hours in front of the computer each day, trolling through the many, many job sites, trying to figure out which postings are duplicates of postings on all the other sites, and constantly thinking “have I read this one already?” I’m tracking which ones I’ve applied to, so I don’t have to worry about that. Editing the cover letter each time, because you can’t have a nice generic cover letter, oh, no. It has to be specific to the position. Trying to figure out if I meet all of the requirements listed, and if I don’t, do I meet enough of them that I can still sound qualified. Its just frustrating. Sigh. I remember not liking the job search last time, but at least that time was by my own choosing. I really don’t like this forced job hunt. Stupid lay off.

Okay. Whining over.

A Howling Bad Time

Wednesday night, the wind was blowing pretty hard. At one point, it actually howled for a few seconds. Duncan was passed out in his chair, but when the wind howled, he woke up, jumped (almost fell, really) out of the chair, and landed with stiff legs and raised hackles. The poor guy stared at the back door for a minute or so, and then finally started to relax. Instead of getting back in his chair, though, he climbed on the couch and spent the rest of the evening curled up next to me.

Where’s My Canoe?

I know its been a while since I’ve posted, but I’ve been a bit distracted. I figured now’s as good a time as any to do a basic catch-up.

So far, no luck on the job hunt. I’ve been throwing my resume at anyone who’ll take it, but its just one more in a big stack of paper. Don’t worry, I’m not giving up – after all, its only been a couple of weeks. Sooner or later, someone has to be more interested in my resume than everyone else’s, right?

In the meantime, I’m still getting some hours at the kennel. Which brings me to Thanksgiving. I certainly won’t be making it to the western part of the state for the holiday this year. That’s going to be a busy week at the kennel, so I’ll be able to get a lot of hours that week (with time and a half on Thursday). Christmas is still up in the air.

My eye is finally much better. There’s still a bit of irritation at the corner of the lower lid, but it only bothers me when it itches.

Reyna’s been feeling pretty good lately, although I think me being home so much has her more tired than usual. It must be exhausting, feeling like she has to be constantly involved in everything I do. I need to get into town to get her a new bottle of Rimadyl and a bag of kibble, but I think I’m going to need a boat to do that.

Duncan was supposed to have a long herding session tomorrow (I’m trading work for lessons with the trainer), but that’s not going to happen. I got an email from the trainer this morning – her property is already flooded and the rain is still coming down. Oh, well. We’ll get to it next week, once the floods recede.

The cats – and particularly Belle – are all healthy (paws crossed they stay that way). They’ve been enjoying the cooler weather, because it means I use the heated mattress pad at night. The only downside is that it can get uncomfortable with six cats on the bed. You wouldn’t think it’d be a problem with a queen-size bed, but they all seem to feel the need to be pressed up against some part of me. Of course, it’s a good gauge of the temperature – when its really cold, it’s a Six Cat Night.

Yay, Antibiotics!

I don’t know if it’s the pills or the drops or both – and I don’t really care – but the meds are definitely working. The swelling is much less noticeable today than yesterday, and my eye doesn’t feel nearly as icky. Its nice not having my vision significantly blocked by part of my face.

There’s A Tear In My Beer

Well, not really, but that tune has been running through my head the last couple of days. Only now, the lyrics are “there’s a stye in my eye.” I woke up Saturday morning with soreness in my lower eyelid, and I figured one of the cats had probably kicked me during the night (its happened before). Sunday, I woke up to find the corner of my lower eyelid was red and swollen. When I woke up Monday, the swelling had spread almost to my cheekbone. I called my eye doc and was able to get an appointment yesterday afternoon. She said it’s a pretty aggressive infection, considering how fast it spread from just soreness to so much swelling. So now I’m on antibiotics to clear up the infection and medicated eye drops to keep the infection from spreading into my eye. This morning, I look like someone decided to punch me in the eye. I foresee cold compresses in my future.

On the upside, my wrist is feeling better, and I’m finally out of the brace. I just need to work on the flexibility. Belle is also finally doing better – she seems to have shaken off all but the last remnants of her cold.

“Thank You” Isn’t Really Nice

I could rattle off a list of things that contributed to what happened today, but why bother? The end result is that we had a really crappy run. I have GOT to get better with the stock stick, and Duncan has GOT to quit trying to eat sheep when he gets agitated (its really hard to convince the judge he didn’t do it when he has wool hanging from his mouth). We had a couple of good spots in our run, but the vast majority of it was just awful. We were “thank you’d” by the judge before we finished. In this type of activity, “thank you” does not equate to “good job.” Instead, “thank you” means “get your dog and get off my field.” It just was not a good day for us. On the upside, this means I don’t have to stress over whether or not we’re ready for Course A Started at the Sanford trial – nope, we’ll be working to get our second PT leg. Oh, well...such is life.

I’ll be posting the video from yesterday’s run sometime today or tomorrow. And no, I won’t be posting the video from today’s run.