Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.

Category Archives: Katie


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Squirrel alert!

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I’m Katie, the ever-vigilant squirrel hating dog.  I can never rest.  Now that it’s spring the squirrels are back!  They could be anywhere!  Just anywhere I tell you!  It’s madness!

What’s that you say?  Stop barking?  Get off the chair?  Are you crazy?  Don’t you know that if you let your guard down for ONE MINUTE those squirrels will be back?  And you just never know what they may do next!  Climb a tree!  Scamper across MY lawn!

Awww…OK, I’ll get down.  But it’s your risk if they get by me.   I’m telling you, it’s a bad decision to make me get off this chair.  They’re sneaky, those squirrels, could be anywhere.  Probably are eating MY birdfood right this minute.  They know when I’m around, yes siree they sure do.  Can’t be nearly as effective if you curtail my tools.  Silly humans.

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Can’t expect me to keep track of those guys when I can’t see out the window…..HEY! SQUIRREL ALERT!!!   Don’t worry guys, I’m still on the job!  SQUIRREL ALERT!  SQUIRREL ALERT!  MAYDAY MAYDAY!

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Can’t keep a good dog down.  No siree, always on the job, that’s me.  Hope they appreciate it.  Might be a biscuit in it for me if I do a really good barking job.  Hmmm…  gonna ask for a raise, yes I am.  This kind of work makes a girl hungry.  Should be getting more food at supper.

And another thing.  What’s up with no dessert for dogs?  Gotta check with my union rep.  Yep, sure do.  Oh no…there’s ANOTHER ONE!

Squirrel alert!  Squirrel alert!  Gather round guys, they’re out there.  They’re everywhere.  Stand guard!  I’ll take care of them, let me at em!

Sigh.  I know, I know…get off the chair.  Geeze.

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Holy springtime Batman!

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Wasn’t it just last week that we had snow?  OK, maybe two weeks ago tops?  And it’s been icky and cold and rainy since.  Then we got one or two days of warm weather and while I wasn’t paying attention spring appears to have sprung!

This morning Katie and I went on a little yard reconnaissance to see what we could see.  First off, out near the mailbox our creeping phlox has little pink buds!  Yesterday there were only small green nubs easing up out of the cold wet soil.  I’m sure of it.  And the peonies that were planted a couple of years ago?  A day or so ago there was no sign of them.  This morning?  Well, see for yourself:

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And my violets are blooming,  trees-9371 as is the bleeding heart that had only just sprouted out of the ground last time I checked.  Even the red bud tree is in bud!  trees-940

Everywhere we looked we saw signs of spring.  Katie had a wonderful time, such wonderful things to smell!  trees-933 I tried not to look at the dandelions flourishing in among the chosen plants.  trees-9421 Have to get cracking or I’ll be overrun again this summer!

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School results, cause we know you're sitting with bated breath wondering…

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Yesterday Katie and I got to go to an advanced competitive obedience class. It meets every Saturday morning, but I’m usually working, so this was the first time I’d been to it. Katie’s first time too! 🙂

We got there pretty early, so we walked around in the parking lot of the mall, sniffing stuff and doing the potty thing. She’s getting good at being able to go in strange places, which is handy. After I got that all cleaned up and thrown away we ventured inside. There were only a few other dogs there at that point, two big Rotweillers and a big German Shepherd. They were practicing coming, and stopping and going DOWN! and waiting. They all looked good, very professional. I felt WAAAY out of my league. I had never called Katie from across the room, then yelled “DOWN” when she got part of the way and had her go down like they were doing. Katie had never waited to chase after a toy until she had been told to “GO GET IT!” Heck she didn’t even heel very well; while these dogs were attached to their people at the hip, gazing adoringly at them, ready to respond to every whim, Katie heeled with her nose on the ground, looking to pick up any leftover treats. SIGH. I was intimidated, and whispered in her ear that maybe we were in the wrong place.

More people came in with their dogs, another couple of Shepards, a Boxer, a Wheaton Terrier, a Doberman, an Australian Shepherd.  All of them bigger than Katie.  All of them with more experience, and it appeared, more confident handlers.  Poor Katie!  So we started going around the room in a big circle, heeling as the instructor called out commands and worked one of the Rottweilers.  Katie was keeping up pretty well, though still not exactly where she needed to be.  Then the instructor commanded us to do a moving down.  Unsure what that was I sort of watched.  Everyone put their dogs into a down, Katie went down too.  Then everyone started walking but the dogs stayed!  WOW!  Katie stayed too and I trotted to get back in my spot.   The humans walked around the room, up next to the dogs, until we got back to our own dog.  Not a dog moved a muscle.  Even Katie.  I was so proud of her.  We did several other things with our heeling, and she did pretty well.

Then we did sits and downs.  A THREE MINUTE sit!  That is forever.  Katie sat between the Boxer and a Shepherd.  We all walked way down to the other end of the room.  She stared at me.  I stared back.  People started talking amongst themselves and one by one almost all the dogs broke.  Katie kept looking at me.  I kept looking at her with my arms folded, my feet planted apart.  She looked at all the other dogs moving, getting yelled at, getting reset up.  She looked back at me, I looked back at her.  She never moved!  I was so so HAPPY with her!  Of course then we did the down.  FIVE minutes, though I didn’t know how long it was because I missed what the instructor said.  I got her into a down, walked away, then faced her from the other end of the room.  Arms folded.  Feet planted.  We watched each other.  Some of the dogs flopped over and went to sleep.  Katie and I just watched each other.  She woud occassionally shift her hips, you could see she was thinking about what was up.  Was she done working?  Was it OK to explore.  She looked at the other dogs, no one was wandering.  She looked at me.  I looked back.  And she NEVER MOVED!  I can not believe my little hyper dog lasted 5 minutes without breaking!  Such a girl!  She got lots of treats for that when we went back to them!

Then it was Stand for Exam.  Well.  Katie HATES being touched, especially by a stranger.  She is always happy for people to come up to her, but when they reach out to pet her she backs up.  She rarely does well on this, sometimes she won’t shy away too much, but she never stands still.  Guess what?  She let two different strange men walk up to her and run their hand along her back and didn’t move.  I was six feet away from her and she was standing in the middle of a room full of strangers and she let them touch her and didn’t balk.  At this point I am beginning to wonder if I brought someone else’s dog!

Of course she was good on her recalls, she loves that game, didn’t even anticipate and break early.  She was perfect.

So all I really need to work on is heeling, getting her to heel where she’s supposed to, rather than surging ahead or getting behind, and especially getting her to stop checking the floor out for good things to eat.  Hopefully the weather will hold and we can go to the park and practice some more.

Meanwhile I am so proud of her!  What a good girl!

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Doggie plans

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We’re going to doggie school tomorrow morning! I don’t get to take Katie as much as I would like, economics being what they are, and my work schedule being so random. But tomorrow I don’t have to be at work till the afternoon, so Katie and I can attend a competitive obedience class for a small drop in fee. YEA!

I should be working more with Katie.  Since our last disastrous fun match we’ve worked only a little bit in between the thunder storms and random work schedules. It’s hard to heel around the sofa, but we’ve done some of that and a little bit of work at the park too. She’s getting better, but not nearly as good as she was last summer when we worked every day at the park. Of course I didn’t have a job back. Darn job interfering in dog progress!  LOL!

It was 79 degrees outside when I emerged from the library after a full day of being inside a dark old damp clammy building. Can’t waste an evening like that, so Katie and I went to the local softball park.  I thought we’d practice some heeling, but  Dad had just fed her and she wasn’t nearly as interested in me as she was in sniffing stuff.

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She sniffed the pond for a bit but it wasn’t particularly interesting, so off we went down a path into a big field.  katie-1474

She had to keep coming back for me as I was busy taking pictures of all the pretty brown grasses, and wasn’t keeping up.  I found a couple of pretty places for her to model for me as well.  There was a viewing deck at the far back of the property that I’d never seen before.  Not sure what we were supposed to be viewing, but we tried to look like we knew what we were doing.  katie-1481

And there was a pretty red twig dogwood bush out there, shining in the lowering sun that I asked Katie politely if she’d sit next to.  She did, but it was grudgingly.  She really wanted to be running around and sniffing more exciting things rather than posing for me.  katie-1491

It was a pretty long walk, and we were both hot and sweaty when we got back to the car.  Well.  I was sweaty, she was panting.  She had a drink, so did I and then we went home.  She’s sleeping now.  This walkie thing is wonderful, wears her right out!

Wish us well in school tomorrow morning.  I need all the help I can get!

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Out of control rally fun match

I worked all day today, rushed home, grabbed the dog and drove 45 miles south to a fun match this evening. The result? Katie was out of control. We had little to no time to warm up, though the facilities were very nice. She was scared; she loves to go to school, but when we arrived she knew right away this wasn’t any school she’d ever been to before. She immediately peed all over the asphalt behind the car. Poor girl, she’s never done that before!

Inside we were one of the first few people there, so we started right out with Rally. They were really good with me. There was a “off set figure 8” that I had never seen before that some lady explained and explained to me. Then the judge explained it again better! Also a right step that wasn’t set up very well and that we never did do quite right.

Katie was a wild thing, paying attention to the other dogs, other rings, loud noises, people going by. She didn’t focus on me until the judge asked me if I had treats, which I did. Once Katie figured out I had treats she focused a lot better! LOL! But still.

They let me go through the course twice with a judge and we learned a lot. But half way through the second time Katie just sat down. Then jumped on me. She was WAY DONE MOM! We finished strong though once I got her moving again.

In obedience they were really patient with me too. Most of the issue is me, obviously. The obedience judge gave me some good pointers for stand for exam, and for getting her to heel closer to my leg. So that was well worth it, though I was somewhat embarrassed by how out of it she was.

Then I FORGOT to stick around for sits and downs, which we really could have used practice on. On the other hand, Katie was not in the mood to sit still for very long.

So all in all, it was an OK $10.00 spent. It did show me that we have a TON of work to do, mostly on heeling correctly. The rest will come from that. And from me studying my rally move cards more!

Don’t know about Katie, but I’m exhausted! I have to work all day tomorrow and all day Sunday, so I’m headed for sleep now. Unfortunately, Katie, now at home, wants to PLAY!

Silly dog.

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Went for a walk

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Yesterday it was finally warm enough not to freeze off vital body parts, so I took myself off for a walk. I used to have a favorite four mile run, and since I haven’t been able to run for a very long time, I walked the route, just to see what had changed during this last long winter.  I thought about taking the dog, but decided I wanted to walk further than she was able to go.

It was a beautiful day, blue sky, bright sunshine.  I walked along a packed dirt road, realizing that it was a perfect day for a run.  But I’m in no shape to begin running yet, still nursing the stress fracture in my foot.  So I settled for a walk.  Turns out it wasn’t such a bad thing.

At the two mile mark there is a small park with nature trails that I have never explored.  Usually I am running as I go by this spot, and have never taken the time to stop and find out what was there.  I saw this past winter a map that said there was a heron rookery at the end of these trails.  So yesterday, armed with my trusty camera I headed down the trail to see what I could see.

My first decision was which way to go at the fork in the trail

trees-877 Hmm…should I go into the woodlands or the meadow?  I decided maybe a heron rookery would be in the woods, but I wasn’t at all sure.  The woodland path headed downhill, and I reminded myself that I’d have to come back up anything downhills I traversed.  Funny.  In the old days when I was in better shape I never would have thought about that.  Sad.

I stopped to take a few pictures of the path ..

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and some fungus on a tree.

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Right about then I heard such a shrieking, grating, loud noise coming from up ahead.  It was the sound of blue herons!  Disturbed blue herons!  I couldn’t see anything, so I hurried down the trail toward the noise.  Not too far ahead this is what I saw, up in the sky:

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Can you see them?  There were thirty or forty (hard to count them all!) blue herons flying in big circles above the rookery.  I counted eighteen nests, but it was hard to see, there are probably many more.  The herons kept flying in higher and higher circles, their squawking decreased, and it became more quiet in the woods.  The path continued downhill, but was becoming waterlogged and muddy, so I eventually turned around and climbed the hill back to the road.   It was an amazing experience.  Once the leaves are on the trees I won’t be able to watch the nests, so I hope to go back and watch again soon.  I don’t think I was the one that disturbed them, as I was quite far away, taking quiet pictures.  But we’ll see if they all go up in flight next time I’m there.

On the way back home I walked through the wetlands down below the rookery, enjoying the sun and blue skies.

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It took me forever to do this four miles, especially with the side trip into the woods.  I doubt you could call it a workout, but at least I was out on a walk!

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Later in the evening Katie and I went to the park so that she could walk and sniff around as well.  I think we both need to do this more often, especially since the weather seems to have broken.

Shoes are broken in too.  Fun times.

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Happy to see you!

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Two things I can always count on  are the reactions of my dog and my family when they see me coming.  They’re always happy to see me whether I’ve been gone for weeks or just a few minutes.  That kind of unconditional love is hard to find in this world and I know I’m lucky.  I’m lucky that I have one of the sweetest most loving dogs, and the best family too; they’re all happy when we’re together.

It’s easy to take for granted the excited gyrations of your dog each time you come home from work, or the smile from your spouse when you walk into the room.  Sometimes it takes a loss to recognize what you had.  But far better, isn’t it, to recognize it right now?  In the moment?  To accept that hug, that smile, that quiet conversation or that tail wriggle and revel in the joy of having it, right now, right here?

Katie knows how to do that.  She doesn’t worry about the future (except if and when her supper will arrive) or agonize over the past.  She just loves you to death right now.   And as much as my siblings, husband and I have been through I think we’re beginning to enjoy the right now when we’re together.  Even when the real  stuff of our lives threatens to encroach.  When some of us are together we can, for the moment, right now, enjoy doing silly things.  Like coloring Easter eggs, or decorating Christmas cookies. Doing a little trick skiing or cooking some lavish squash soup.   We’ll climb a mountain, take a boat ride or maybe do all those things in a single weekend.  We fit in some of the fun little things we did as kids and forget we’re grownup with grownup problems.  Just hang out.  It’s not total avoidance, we know our problems will still be there when we go home.  And that’s all right.  Right now, we’re just HAPPY TO SEE YOU!

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Park! Got to go to the Park!!

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The weather gave us a break today, sunny, not so windy, highs in the 60’s. And I didn’t have to work! Can’t let an opportunity like this get by us, so Katie and I went to our small local park. It’s really just a couple of softball fields, a soccer field and some paths mowed in a big field with a couple of ponds sprinkled about, but it’s one of Katie’s favorite spots in the whole world. I like it because it’s close to home and still scenic.

In this picture Katie isn’t on her leash, but that was the only time I tried this.  She’s really good at sit and stay, and we were far far away from any cars.  But still…our trainers say the only time a dog should be off leash is when you’re 100% sure they are safe, and for Katie and me, that’s a good rule.  But I wanted a good portrait of her without the leash in the picture.  The rest of the time she was on one of two leashes I had with me.

There were lots of great things to sniff!

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We tried to do a self portrait of the two of us, but Katie wasn’t that into me and didn’t want to sit still.  After all we hadn’t been to the park all winter and there was SO MUCH to explore!  Silly Mom wanting to sit and take pictures!

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Eventually we made it down to the big pond where we explored around the edges.  We startled three gartner snakes.  Well, let’s tell the truth.  They startled us! Can you see the snake in the photo below?

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We also startled a frog into jumping into the pond with a big PLOP!  Katie is a big wimp, all bark, no action.  She jumped just about as high as the frog all the while backing up!

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We settled in for a bit  just watching the water.  The wind was blowing toward us, making little waves wash up on the shore.  It was very relaxing!

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What a wonderful time at the park!  Hope you all had a great day too!

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Happy Gotchya Day Katie!

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Two years ago today Katie picked us to be her roommates!  She was ten weeks old and already had an attitude!  She wasn’t afraid of anything or anyone; she played the part of a tough girl, but she turned out to be a sweetie.   When she wasn’t being a devil girl!

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Notice the weather we had that day!

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In fact we had a lot of pretty days that spring.

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And this is Katie today, on this fine “spring” morning!

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Happy “Gotchya Day” baby girl!  We’re glad you chose us.

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Different day, different dog

Katie and I went to another fun match last night. It was a spur of the moment decision and we hadn’t practiced at all since last weekend. She was pretty unfocused just walking around waiting for our turn, and she wasn’t much more focused in the ring. I couldn’t get her to heel near me, she got distracted by a mirror along the wall that we walked toward, and off leash she was mostly out of line. She DID hold her sit and down even without me talking to her, though I did have to point at her twice.

The judge said that Katie isn’t ready to be off leash and that I should use a shoelace to get her to heal where she’s supposed to. I agree she doesn’t seem to know where she’s supposed to be. I think I need to start again with the “watch me” healing to get her back in position. Plus Katie sat twice at each halt. This is coming from me correcting her when she doesn’t sit close enough when we stop. Now it appears if she doesn’t get a treat she thinks she’s wrong and she scoots over. SIGH. Wonder how to fix that??

After our run I was talking to another lady. She told me that when you do obedience the dog can’t have any tags on, so I need to get another collar to use for obedience showings. No one ever said that before. And then she poked her finger into Katie’s side and said “and she’s FAT too!” which actually is something I’m beginning to notice, that Katie may be getting overweight with all the treats of training.

So all in all, not that successful a run, though it only cost $5.00 and I learned quite a bit. We have so much work to do! Sometimes it seems overwhelming! But the park near us is open again, the one where we worked every day last summer. So back to work we go!

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