Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.

Category Archives: Katie


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Windy walk

Yesterday early evening I took Katie to another metro park for a walk. You might remember that we went out to my favorite park last week and walked while watching ducks and geese and swans. That park is quite a distance from home, so this time we went to a closer park. It’s not as fun to walk in because it’s mostly just fields and woods, and it’s over a mile before you even get into the woods! The first mile is down a BIG hill beside a hilly field. So that means on the way back the last mile will be up a very big hill.

It was very windy at the park during our walk. Katie started out excited and eager to get going.

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We headed down the hill with her sniffing along the edge of the bike path, checking out each blade of grass.  So we weren’t moving very fast.  Eventually I got her moving, though when I asked her to “heel!” she looked at me like I was nuts.  I totally forgot I was carrying chicken in a pouch.  That probably would have motivated her!

We stopped at a bench, and thinking of the picture of Josh on the park bench after his grooming appointment I tried to get her to sit on it.

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She didn’t like the bench at all, and this picture was taken just before she leaped off and asked me what the heck I thought I was doing!  So we kept walking down the big hill.   On our last long walk in the park she walked 3/4 of a mile out and 3/4 of a mile back to the car.  So today I figured maybe we’d walk 1 mile out and 1 mile (up the big hill) back to the car.  She seemed pretty agreeable to that.  But at 9/10 of a mile (they have all the 10th’s marked off on the bike path) she sat down.  Period.  Wasn’t moving any further.  In any direction.  Great.  We talked about it for awhile.  I told her I couldn’t carry her 9/10 of a mile up a big hill.  So we rested a bit, then turned around.  She kept wanting to continue on the way we had been heading, but I wasn’t going to get us into any more trouble than we were already in.  We stopped at every park bench to rest, and she conned me into carrying her for a couple of short spurts.

I took pictures along the way as something to do while we were resting.

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Then with 1/2 a mile to go I remembered the CHICKEN!  Oh yea.  CHICKEN!  I asked her to heel and showed her the chicken and guess what?  All of the sudden she was full of energy!  She trotted next to me like a perfect dog.  Like the dogs I had seen walking with their people the way dogs are supposed to walk!  She heeled almost perfectly the whole 1/2 mile back to the car.  Even after I stopped giving her treats.

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We got back to the car, she drank a little bit of water and we headed home where she fell asleep for the rest of the evening.   I need to carry water and some sort of container with me when we go for walks this long.  And remember not to lengthen our walks by too much too fast.  Just like any athlete, she can get injured if we do too much too soon.  Gotta think of her as my athlete in the family.  Certainly isn’t me anymore!

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Fun match was FUN!

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This morning Katie and I went to our first obedience fun match! It was really a 4-H  kids dog obedience match, but there was a ring for novice adults and their dogs, so a couple of friends from our last obedience class went with their Shepards, and I went with my Katie. It was less than 5 minutes from home, and it only cost $10, so how could I not go?  I took my camera and one of the husbands took a few pictures, but the lighting was terrible, so what I share with you will be grainy.  Still, it’s Katie in a ring doing WELL!

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Katie did her heel pretty good… most of the errors were Mom, not dog…though she still doesn’t like to be right next to my leg.  She sat instantly each time I halted, without me having to tell her, and she came like lightening on her recall.  When I asked her to finish (going around me to sit on my left, which she does just beautifully at home) she walked around behind me but didn’t come sit next to me.  Turns out there was something behind me against the wall that she had to investigate!  They cleaned that up after our run.  LOL!  She did great on the sit stay (see picture above where she was distracted but didn’t break her sit!) and even  made it all the way to the end of the 3 minute down stay!!  That was the longest three minutes of our lives!  She shifted a bit and I knew she was thinking about wandering, but she didn’t! GOOD GIRL!.  We did two runs, the second off leash, and she did just as good that time too.  I am so proud of her!

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One of the friends brought her family which included two little girls, ages 7 and maybe 4 years old.  They were instantly in love with Katie; she is so much smaller (and “fluffier!”) than their 8 month old Shepard.  Katie isn’t used to kids and initially backed away (once all the way under the chair I was sitting on, I had to tell her “TUNNEL!” to get her to come back out to me!) each time they approached.  But by the end of the morning Katie was playing with the older one, and tolerating the younger’s more intense petting.  It was really good for her and I’m proud of her for that too.

And even better?  There was no food allowed in the ring, so she did all that work without getting a treat!  I gave her treats in between runs, and told her what a good dog she was.  She snuggled in my lap for awhile, licked my face and seemed to have a good time.  But I know she’s exhausted.  How do I know that?  Cause she’s SLEEPING!  Or trying to.  The Mom keeps taking pictures of her and that is so distracting to a girl needing her beauty sleep, don’t ya know.

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We’re having a great weekend, sunny, warm…hope you are all well and having good weekends too!

Now we’re off to nap!

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Katie got a box!

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Katie doesn’t get mail very often and never one with such a nice title!  She was very excited while she helped me open her box:

katie-1351And this is what we found!

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…some really really nice things!  Katie is most interested in the BIG doggie treat!  Right now she is over in the kitchen staring longingly up at the counter where it reposes…she’ll get some of it tomorrow.

So THANK YOU Reilly!  We (Katie and I) really appreciate you going to such work to send us our gift!  You really went above and beyond!

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Not spring here yet

So I’m reading about temps in the 80’s, looking at pictures of flowers in bloom, thinking maybe I saw migrating birds back for the summer, really believing that spring is here.   Relaxing my guard so to speak. Yesterday it was cold and windy, but Katie still wanted to spend some time outside in her kennel where she could keep watch on her road.

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But today?  Well, see for yourself:

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We are no longer going to predict spring here.  Every year we are fooled into thinking winter is over, and then winter slaps us up the side of the head again.  So we are going to stay inside and PLAY!

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Hope you have warmer weather!

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Paw print!

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Hey guys! Katie and I finally found a pawprint!  We looked and looked but couldn’t find anything.  Then today I sat down to read my January/February issue (OK, I’m late getting to it I know) of “Public Libraries” and guess what’s on the back cover?

A paw print!

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It’s a book binding company that provides tougher bindings for books that get a lot of use!  Wouldn’t you know I’d find a paw print that relates to libraries!

Katie says;  “Enough of this reading stuff Mom!  Let’s PLAY!”

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Some kind of hope

This morning the temperature was a balmy 51 degrees when Katie and I ventured out. Last Monday morning it was only 7 degrees, so you can understand that we felt a bit giddy today. We ended up over 60 degrees this afternoon!

After I dropped (poor) Katie off at the groomer I went for a walk around the neighborhood. I took my camera, looking for signs of spring, but in reality it was a pretty dismal looking day, gray skies, still some slushy snow in the ditch, a lot of dirt and litter. At my turn around spot I ran across these guys:
trees-801 Notice the one on the right is charging toward me. I don’t think he thought of me as a friend. I backed up and got a shot of him front on…after he spit at me and showed his teeth.  Though these guys were very pretty I don’t think they’re the kind of horses you pet and feed apples!

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Then I wandered around the back yard and cut some pussywillow,  redbud and forsythia to put in a vase inside.  Hopefully soon I’ll have some real proof of spring, blooming on my counter!

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I hope spring is truly on the way now.

And Katie came back

from the groomer very pretty.  As usual.

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We've got toys…wanna play?

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Following the recent theme of toys…Katie and I thought we’d share some of hers.  Well.  Not really share; I’m not sure she’d be good at sharing being an only dog.  But she has a basket full of toys, all of which she has loved at different times.  She mostly loves whatever is the new toy.  But some are her favorites all the time.  Like Mister Froggy whose yellow belly you see in the basket above.  And she’s pretty psyched about her frisbee too.  But her all time all the time can’t resist toy is her small tennis ball.  If she can find it (it’s frequently under some piece of furniture) she will drop it at the feet of anyone not payng enough attention to her.

Today I didn’t have to work and I have to say that I didn’t get much done around here either.  It was sort of a Katie free for all day, mostly playing fetch the ball, fetch the froggy, fetch the doggie…that would be me fetching…not her.  If the toy gets flung into a scary place, say under the desk, or under a chair she will plop herself down and look expectantly at you until you give up and just get her the toy.  Really I don’t think she needs anymore doggie training, she is smart enough as it is.  I took a picture of her with her ball today that reminds me of the picture Sara took of Oreo:

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So I have to go…she wants to play!  We’ve already taken a trip to the pet supply store where we practiced heeling with distractions.  She did so so.  We’ve thrown the ball for what seems like hours.  You’d think she’d be tired, but no, right now she’s growling at a possum that is eating birdseed outside her back door.  Possum doesn’t seem to be intimidated, so I’ll distract her with a toy.  Time to go.  As Katie would say, we’ve got to go Go GO GO!!

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Sometimes snow is pretty. Even in March

Really.  Though I suppose those of you out there getting snow in the South aren’t convinced of the fact that snow is pretty.

We’ve had a busy few days here in Michigan, starting Thursday when Aunt G. died through yesterday, the day of her funeral.  In between the family things we needed to attend to I also took Katie to a couple hours of advanced dog obedience, where we worked on stuff needed to compete in obedience.  She was off the wall and not very focused, the result of days inside with none of us around to practice with.  But we did get to do a typical obedience run off leash which was very fun.  And we got to do some jumps because they are included in higher level Rally, and Katie LOVES to jump.  She came home and went to sleep.  Two hours of being on your toes apparently exhausts a typical sheltie girl.

We had some snow too…though nothing in comparison to what some of you are enduring now.  Our snow on Saturday was very pretty, soft white flakes floating slowly down while the sun was coming up.  It was beautiful and for once we didn’t mind seeing it because we know that the snow season is almost over.  Well we think so anyway.  Katie was like a puppy, trying to catch all the snowflakes in her mouth.  I told her she couldn’t catch them all, but she sure wanted to.

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I also had to work quite a bit during these past few days, the result of not being scheduled for four days in a row!  So I didn’t get to go to everything Aunt G’s family planned, but I did spend most of Sunday at the funeral home with my husband, Aunt V. and Uncle W., the two surviving siblings of my husband’s mother’s large family.  It was nice to see distant relatives but I wish we were meeting under happier circumstances.  Isn’t that always the way,  we just don’t take time for family things until there’s a crisis.  We should try harder, don’t you think, to get together for famility events that don’t involve funerals?

Katie and I hope those of you with lots of snow (we hate to tell you, we have none on the ground except where we have been piling it up all winter) are digging out and getting back to normal.  But don’t you agree that snow really is pretty? 🙂

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Blizardless Librarian

For a couple of days we’ve been warned that another big snowfall was headed our way this weekend. Four to eight inches they said. Supposedly it would start snowing Saturday morning at 10 a.m. and would continue, intensifying throughout the day, ending around 6 p.m. Great. I was working all day at the library, 9-5, and figured I’d have a doozy of a drive home.

As I was getting ready in the morning I glanced toward my front door and saw this:
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Hmmm, I thought.  “Red sky in morning, sailor take warning.”  So Katie and I went out to investigate, and to put a letter to my sister in the mailbox:

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When we got back in the house the glass storm door had steamed over.  Look how pretty!

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I headed off to work with extra gloves, a hat, and boots, prepared for the terrible ride home I anticipated.  But though it did snow, all day in fact, starting at 10:00 just like they predicted, we got 2 or 3 inches at most.  And the ride home, while slow, wasn’t nearly as awful as I expected.

The other librarian and I thought maybe we’d have a slow day, maybe with the weather people would stay home.  We were so wrong!  My favorite story of the day involved a grandmother who had a granddaughter doing an internship in Poland.  She came in to find out how to get into her email.  Since we were still slow, first thing in the morning, I taught her how to use her email.  She got to read a note from her granddaughter, view the photos that had been sent, and write the granddaughter a long note back.  She was thrilled, and even better, was proud of her new skill.

Another interesting experience I had at the library during the day included the shy young girl and her dad who came into the library “looking for poetry.”  After I showed them where most of the poetry was, at the far back of the library, she pulled out a piece of paper folded up into a small square.  After unfolding it all she informed me she needed “these five books of poems,” which turned out to be in the kids area, near the front door.  Which taught me (once again) to ask more questions at the start rather than taking the first sentence at face value.

We were busy all day; I helped a middle-aged woman figure out that the horror author she wanted was Dean Kootz, a high school student find information about steroid use, a recent graduate of law school fax her information out for numerous employment opportunities, found another student a biography about Harriet Tubman, commiserated with a woman about how we both get “click happy” when we’re reserving books from our home computers late at night.  All the books we’ve ordered tend to show up at the same time and it’s nearly impossible to get them all read.  Another family wanted help finding a book about polygamous cults as well as something to help them diet by reducing carbs.  Someone else wanted a book to help diagnose an unspecified medical condition.  And a teenage girl needed help learning Latin “so I can write vampire stories.”  And those are just the ones I remember!

The day flew by, I had lots of fun, the snow wasn’t too bad, and this morning, after another dusting of snow, we have sun!  What a wonderful weekend!

And it’s only Sunday morning! 🙂

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I don’t have to work again until Thursday.  Katie and I are going out to play in the new (not so deep) snow!

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Honest Weblog

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We were tagged by Ludo to design a list of ten honest things about Katie the devil dog..er Sheltie. Katie has flatly declined to help with this list. She is patently ignoring me; now that she has finished barking at the garbage truck out front and the trio of squirrels out back she has collapsed in glorious exhaustion in the foyer. So I will take this time to squeal on her:

  • * Katie likes to sleep on top of pillows. Preferably on pillows on top of furniture. Most especially pillows on top of king size beds. And in the middle of the bed so that no one else but her gets space. She likes to lay kitty-corner so that she takes up the most amount of space possible. Which is quite a lot considering she is a small dog.
  • * She will make the rounds daily, maybe hourly or even every few minutes of all closets to guarantee the doors are closed. If they are not closed she will pick the choicest piece of clothing or footwear and prance about the house with it. If it is underwear she will place it adoringly in the middle of the living room as a prize. She knows instantly if a closet door has been opened in any part of the house and will within minutes arrive to show off the gifts of her plundering.
  • *Katie hates Hates HATES squirrels and cats and people walking on her road and trucks and anything that moves outside unless she has given prior permission to be within her eyesight. She will bark until she scares them all away. And then she will nap; the better to gain strength for the next potential attack on her property.
  • *Katie is a pig.  She will scarf down her dinner, lick the bowl clean to hide any evidence and then go find human #2 to ask for her supper.  “Please please please feed me,” she whines, “Human #1 NEVER feeds me and I’m just starved!  I haven’t eaten in MONTHS!”  If she pulls it off and human #2 feeds her (again) she will scarf down dinner #2 without any problem.  She would probably eat herself to death.
  • *At school Katie prances around and does her obedience exercises perfectly while looking adoringly at her Mama.  At home she pretty much ignores any direction from Mama, being that Mama is too far down the family power hierarchy to pay attention to.  Certainly Mama is well beneath Katie’s powerful position in the family!
  • *When called by her humans because she is barking, Katie will bark back until it’s an lose-lose proposition and the humans give up.  Katie always has the last word.  If she’s picked up in an attempt to quiet the barking, she will lick the human’s face all over until we are laughing.  It’s her secret weapon.
  • * Katie barks hysterically, in a very menacing way and flings herself onto the bodies of anyone who accidentally sneezes while in Katie’s house.  This comes as a startling surprise to visitors, and is a constant embarrassment to her parents.
  • * Katie also barks hysterically whenever the tinfoil drawer is opened, and increases her frenzy if the tinfoil box is actually removed from the drawer.  Heaven help us if tinfoil is pulled from the box.  We are working on this, with a bag of treats in the drawer.  If she’s good she gets a treat, but that generally only happens if  her Dad is in the room.  If it’s Mom trying to use tinfoil, well…Mom’s on her own.
  • *Don’t even get us started about the vacuum.  It has bite marks on it and Mama is afraid Katie will break a tooth trying to kill it.  However, progress has been made.  After an initial bit of barking and lunging, if Mama ignores her, she will slink away to another room and give up and Mama can continue to clean the floors.  It’s all so exhausting for both of us.
  • *Sometimes (OK, a lot of the time) when Katie wants attention she will bring her ball or toy and drop it at our feet.  If that doesn’t work she’ll go to the front door and cry, which generally means she has to go out.  So out we go, where she will spend innumerable minutes sniffing around at all the excciting things out there.  But not go to the bathroom.  Hmm….inside we go where the cycle will repeat itself until we get down on the floor and PLAY!  Playing only has to take a few minutes until she’s satisfied.  You’d think we humans could figure it out.

Looks innocent, doesn’t she?  Don’t be fooled.  She’s plotting.

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