The Great Outdoors

Poe has always been a very difficult pet to have around.

He's rude, he destroys the house,  he pees on our stuff, and he won't give us the time of day.
In the past, Poe had never shown any inclination to go outside.
He's a house cat and that's his domain and if he wants to shred it, that's his prerogative.
However, he has recently been asking to go outside.

He snuck out when the house sitter was here and she had a heck of a time catching him to bring him back in.
I didn't want to let him out.  He's always been inside, and I was afraid he'd do something that would get him hurt outside.
But finally, his destructiveness, broke this camel, and I opened the door.
What did he do?
Well, he did this:

and then this,

and then he caught a grasshopper,

and climbed this,

and finally, he did some more of this,

and when it was time for bed, he came in on his own.
And you know what?
He hasn't destroyed or peed on one thing in the house since he's been enjoying the outdoors.

First Timer

The puppies are about 6 months old right now and looking for trouble on most days.
Scott decided it was time to show them each what sheep were for.  He tried Joe the other night with success, and tonight it was Nell's turn.

There was a brief moment of  "Whaaa...?"

and then she was off!

There was a little bit of this,

and she kept Scott pretty busy,

before she settled in to her job.

She clearly enjoyed herself,

but even good puppies have to quit sometime.

Good job, Nell!

Bark In The Park

Once in a while, my dogs pretend they have normal lives and get to go and do the things that the city dogs get to do.
Today was the annual Bark In The Park for the Windy City Canine Rescue.
I wish I could take all my personal dogs but I have too many alot of them right now - that's a whole 'nother blog.
Skid and Try got to go this time.

I thought I was bringing Try for his socializing but he's turned into such a solid pup/dog that really, he's more of a stabilizing force for me than I am for him.
And I figured, since we are going to a rescue fundraiser, I better bring the closest thing I have to a rescue, Skid.
They didn't disappoint me. Kids, dogs, loudspeakers.  Not a thing bothered them.
They spent most of their day hoping all the dog people in attendance would fork over the treats they all seemed to have in their pockets.
At one point, someone even fed Skid a frozen yogurt for dogs.  Peanut butter flavored.

He let Try have a couple of licks to taste it but he really wasn't much for sharing.

Try enjoyed meeting the dogs who were still puppies, but like him were a little on the large size.

This guy was his favorite and he was a lucky rescue.

Some of the demos were put on by our friends,

Hey Kort!

and we enjoyed cheering them on.

Go Leo!

(Leo is only pretending to be a sport dog, he's actually a serious herding dog)

Other demos were inspiring,

and we watched true heroes go through their paces.
We appreciated them coming to show us their stuff after they had so recently been working in the Alberta flood zones.

Even when it was time to pack up and go home, things were still entertaining.

I gotta get me one of those carts!  That could be really useful.

But finally, it was time to kiss everyone goodbye,

and go back to farm life.