Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.

Category Archives: Katie


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Reading about dog heaven

I was afraid to just title this “Dog heaven” for fear you’d all think something bad happened.  Nothing bad happened, I just ran across the sweetest little children’s book.  It’s called “Dog Heaven” and it’s written and illustrated by Cynthia Rylant.  It’s a picture book that explains what dogs get to do in heaven.  If you ever have to explain it to a little one I recommend this book.  Heck.  It even made me feel better about the three dogs I’ve loved and lost over my lifetime.

A sample of what’s inside:

“When dogs go to Heaven, they don’t need wings because God knows that dogs love running best.  He gives them fields.  Fields and fields and fields.”

“and…

“They run beside the water and bark and bark and God watches them from behind a tree and smiles.”

“And, of course, all God’s dogs sit when the angels say “sit.”

“And each dog is petted and reminded how good he is, all day long.”

I think all of you would enjoy this book, check to see if your library has it!  Sure it’s a picture book designed for small children..but it connects with the small child in me, and it will for you too.

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Back from the groomer

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Katie is just back from the dreaded groomer.  She loves to go for car rides, but starts trembling when she realizes we’ve pulled into the groomer’s parking lot.  She’s shaking like a leaf when I hand her over.   And as soon as we go back to pick her up she’s headed full tilt for the door.  But she’s so pretty when she’s all cleaned up it’s sort of worth it.  For us.  Probably not for her.

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Tricky T-day

Today is tricky t-day, where I’m supposed to show you Katie’s new trick.  Right.  I did order a book (from the library of course) on how to teach your dog tricks.  Aside from doing “Shake!” which Katie appears to have been born knowing how to do, I haven’t successfully taught her any tricks.  So I think I need some help.  The book isn’t here yet, so this week we’re continuing to do Shake!  If there’s food involved, she can’t get enough of that!

And we made it all night last night in the tent, a trick unto itself.  I wasn’t going to take her, but as I was leaving she jumped on my legs and begged to go.  So we gave it another try.  She slept all night, upside down, against the air mattress.

Silly dog.

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Another camping attempt

It was a warm night, dozens of fireflies winking nearby, hundreds of stars winking above.  Katie pulled hard at her leash, straining to get to the tent set up in the backyard.  But once inside she just wasn’t ready to sleep.  We tried.  Far off dogs barking, nearby deer wandering, cars driving by; it all riled Katie, and in turn me.  At 1:00 a.m., after 3 hours of attempting to sleep in the silky warm night air, I gave up and we went inside.

Once settled on the familiar bed, ceiling fan twirling, window open, she fell sound asleep, but I was wide awake.  I wasn’t barking at every sound from outside, but I certainly wasn’t yawning either, though I was extremely tired.  Another hour went by.  Katie rolled over onto her back, her favorite way to sleep, propped up against me.  Past 2 a.m., I was wide awake and Katie  softly snoring, her little feet twitching while she dreamed of chasing those deer into the warm summer night.

Another Katie adventure ended just the way she likes them to;  pressed up against her Mama, safe and sound, free to dream.

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Observation

Working in a library gives me the opportunity to watch people interact, and I’m beginning to recognize different parenting styles.  There are parents who arrive at the library and totally disassociate with their children, as if they are relieved to be free of the responsibility.  There are others that hover anxiously while  aggressively choosing books and movies and offering them to their children for approval.  Still others hang out nearby  letting the children choose their own items, but effectively ignoring any attempts at discussion.  And then there are the parents that actually interact with their children as if they are intelligent beings; listening while their children talk, provide coherent, relevant responses to their children’s comments and questions.  Those are the ones I like to watch the most.

I’ve seen negligent parenting, hostile parenting, coaxing parenting, condescending parenting, and supportive, image building parenting.  I’m sure some of the differences between parents has something to do with differences in children, but I have to ask; which comes first, the pouting, recalcitrant tween or the domineering, manipulative parent?

So much of the behavior I see in children, from the tiny youngsters refusing to stay near their mom as they explore  to teenagers oblivious to any requests from their parents reminds me of Katie’s behavior.  And worse, the responses from the parents often remind me of ..well…me when I’m trying to get her to do something she doesn’t want to do.  The cajoling, the bribing, the short loud demands…I’ve done almost everything I see parents do to get my dog to do what I want which is so often wildly different than what she wants to do.  Sometimes, as I commiserate with the parents at the checkout desk I almost slip and tell them that I’ve got the same issues with my dog.  But I stop myself.  I’m pretty sure no parent wants to hear how their child reminds me of my dog.  But still…

I’m just glad Katie has her own edgy and stubborn personality. Even when I make parenting errors she bounces back and reminds me that she still loves me.  I wish all parents could be so lucky with their own kids.

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Bird dog?

Katie and I went to the park yesterday afternoon.  There was a new sign there that said we weren’t allowed to train bird dogs for several months during bird nesting season.

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Good thing we were warned about that, because you know Katie is such a bird dog!  But we did have several incidents along our walk that involved birds.  Right at the beginning of our walk I noticed two families of Canadian geese near the pond.  One family’s babies already had the markings of adult birds, the other family’s little ones were still fuzzy balls of fluff.  I decided we’d take a route that totally avoided them as Sheltie + parent geese do not make a good mix.

We headed into the mowed paths of a big hilly field.  Katie enjoyed sniffing along the edges, at the flowers and traces of other dogs, who knows.  Suddenly she went stiff, then lunged and up out of the tall grass right next to us flew a fat brown partridge (or something like that).  Katie leaped straight up in the air and I screamed.  Guess we weren’t meant to be bird hunters!  Good thing Katie was on a leash.

We moved on down the path, and Katie went into her bird dog alert mode again. katie-16541 Holding tight to her leash I let her explore a little, and there was a turtle!  Way less frightening (at least to us) than the bird.  I eased Katie away so as not to disturb it and we moved on.  katie-16552

Just a bit further along the way we began to be dive-bombed by tree swallows, as we were passing their nesting boxes.  I kept ducking and urging Katie to “come on” as they swooped low over my head, making clucking noises just inches away from my hat.  We rushed through that section of the path!

katie-1656 Eventually we arrived at a resting spot, and Katie had a bit to drink.  I’ve been working on getting her not to be afraid to drink out of this contraption that allows me to carry water on my belt as well as serves as a bowl for her.  She decided yesterday that she was thirsty enough not to worry about the funny shape.

We also got to see a bluebird couple.  They were sitting on the fence that surrounds the softball field.  A game was in progress but that didn’t seem to bother them.  The male and female were swooping down into the outfield to catch bugs.  There was another bird hanging out on the fence, a little brownish bird that I thought was a sparrow or house finch.  On our way back to the car the blue birds were back on the fence, as was the little brown bird.  Turns out the little bird was a baby bluebird.  As Mom and Dad got bugs they’d fly up to the fence and feed the youngster!  How cool!  We watched for a bit and then wandered past.

And then, on our drive home we saw a wild turkey along the road near the house!  Katie didn’t notice it, but it was the last bird in our bird filled experience of walking in the park.    Maybe I should get Katie a set of binoculars so she can watch the birds more closely.

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Tricky Tuesday

katie-14221 Katie and I have been working on “shake” this week.  She learned it in about 2 seconds as long as treats were involved.  But no treat?  No shake!  I don’t have video but if I did, you’d see that she just grudingly offers her paw when I ask for shake, even with the treat.  She knows what I want, but she doesn’t want to give in and play the game.  She’s way too smart for me!

Today I have the afternoon off.  I promised her we’d do something fun.  That usually involves car rides and the park.  So off we go!


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Sittin on a Sunday

katie-1643 Katie and I spent some time weeding this morning.  Well to be truthful I weeded and Katie napped on the warm black asphalt of the driveway.  She’s the only Sheltie I’ve ever met that likes to be really warm.  After awhile I got too warm myself and we retreated to the rocker on the shady deck.  She’s being very good, intently watching the birds at the feeder, but not (yet) lunging off the deck to attack.  I keep telling her what a good girl she is, but I’m sure as soon as the resident chipmunk arrives all bets will be off.

Meanwhile the most beautiful wonderful thing just happened.  As I’m sitting here on the deck reading email (got to love that wireless!) and listening to a neighbor’s country music while sipping on iced tea, there is a ruckus in the trees just above the bird feeder.  And then down swoops a blue jay being chased by a Baltimore oriole!  The oriole chased the blue jay up and down through the trees for quite a long time, so I got to watch the sun flickering off of its bright orange back.  Then they both landed on the ground and the oriole continued to chase the blue jay until the jay left with a big squawk.  Sadly I imagine the cause of all this is that the jay tried to raid the oriole’s nest.  Or something equally traumatic.  But I only see an oriole maybe once a summer and never for as long as I got to watch this one.  I’m hoping he (she?) is around more this summer.  I have a feeder for them somewhere in the basement.  Guess it won’t do much good down there; I should find it and try to entice them to visit me again.  Last year an oriole tried to eat from the humming bird feeder, which is why I bought the oriole feeder.  Of course I never saw the orioles again after that first appearance.

So now it’s just Katie and I, one neighbor’s country music, another’s lawnmower, my backyard wren singing her heart out, and the frogs across the way joining in on the summer’s symphony.  Can’t say I’ve heard better .

Enjoy your weekend everyone!

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Agility-not

Tonight Katie and I were scheduled for another agility class.  But it’s been a misty kind of day and by evening it was starting to rain.  So the class got canceled.  But Katie was all wound up; I’d told her we were going to school, I’d thawed out her favorite turkey for treats.  I’d packed the car with her special princess pink agility leash.  She wanted to go Go GO!  So we worked a little bit in the driveway and on a plank I bought which was in the backyard.

Tuesday I went to the orange home improvement store and bought an 8 foot long 12 inch wide plank, some spray paint and a couple of orange cones.  At last week’s agility class Katie had been afraid of the dogwalk and the A-frame, so I’m hoping I can get her used to walking on boards that are painted yellow and blue.

Yesterday I put the plank out in the yard and we “walked the board!” several times.  This is Katie at the end of our session.  “Let’s get going, I’m not afraid of any stinkin board Mom!”

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Today I painted the board and we walked it some more.  Too bad there was no class, because she’s got “walking the board” down now I think.  We’ll have to see what happens when the board is elevated.

katie-1636We also did a little heeling around our cones in the driveway.  That turkey sure was motivating, as she was very attentive.  But it wasn’t as fun as going to agility class and getting to run and jump and visit with other dogs.  Oh well.  Maybe we’ll be able to go again someday!

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Tricky t-day

Katie and I are supposed  to be working on tricks for Ludo’s tricky t-day.  We are working on cross paws.  But since I don’t have a video camera, and we haven’t mastered the trick yet we don’t have much to tell you!  I use the word “cross” and sometimes she will cross one paw over the other.  But mostly she thinks I’m a little crazy.  Some of you have been successful at this trick, so any hints would be good.  I’m pointing to where her paw should go…I’m sure there are better ways.

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