Archie, The Delicate Flower

For weeks, the outside temperature has been only a couple of degrees cooler than the surface temperature of the Sun. Nonetheless, Archie is convinced that he is not able to get even a moment of proper sleep at night unless his entire body is in contact with mine and he is covered with a blanket. As soon as Archie is ready to sleep (there's always play time first!), he will begin pawing at my arm, which means he wants me to lift up the edge of a blanket so he can slide under it, preferably right next to me. A complicated dance ensues as I try to cover him without having the blanket cover any part of me. Why would I need a blanket? I’ve got a 12-kg, fur- and blanket-covered heat factory attached to me all night long. 

I'm quite excited that Archie starts agility class this week. The local club holds its agility classes outside, so I hope that it cools off as predicted in the next couple of days. I am not sure my delicate flower from the PNW is ready for the heat and humidity. I bought him a cooling vest, and plan to have plenty of cold water and a fan for him. For us both!

I introduced Archie and myself to the club via email. They asked me to do a brief skills test with Archie and one of their instructors. I thought that was reasonable and readily agreed. The instructor had come up with a rather difficult Jumpers-style course that was 17 obstacles in length but that only used 9 obstacles so most were repeated in various tricky ways. Archie of course crushed it. She then said, what about his contacts? I ran him up and down the Aframe a couple of times. He nailed that too. Weaves?, she asked. To show off a bit, I rear-crossed him as he flew through a set of 12 poles. No surprise, then--we are in the Advanced Class. It will be interesting to see how this goes for us.

I'd like to find a private instructor but that is going to take more time. We are going to need to start going to trials, get known by the AKC agility community out here, let word get out that I'm looking for that.

Winter Sunshine

It's going to be extremely cold the next couple of nights--a blanket of snow and a clear sky will combine to create perfect conditions for any heat left in the ground to radiate up, up, and away. It may get down to 7 F tonight! That's pipe-freezing weather for areas like this which don't normally experience such temps. I've done what I can to protect the house.

But that clear sky means the next two days will be beautiful, sunny days. It's still damned cold, below freezing, but the sunlight is flooding into the back door. The entire pack has stretched out on a blanket for a nap (can't have them laying on the floor, they are all too delicate for that).




Harry grew up in Salt Lake City (he was born in Provo). He's seen his share of snow. I used to take him snowshoeing with me! He's a hardy little guy. And this morning he was trying to hop around in the snow and run with the other dogs. He managed to have some fun for a few minutes. But I'm afraid his age is catching up to his intentions. His left front leg "froze" up, wouldn't bend. It was almost like he was having a spasm in that leg. I picked him up, wiped all the snow off his paws, and set him inside so he could warm up. He's fine now but I shoveled off the back porch so he wouldn't have to walk in snow at all if he didn't want to.

Winter Sunshine

This is living in the moment.




I know Harry looks really...diminished. He may be old but he knows where the best napping spots are.

Where's Mimi? She's curled up on top of a puffy pad in a crate by my feet, her favorite place to keep an eye on me when I'm studying.

Musings on Sleeping CircusK9

I'm spending the weekend studying biochem and animal genetics, with a bit of French thrown in. I'm pretty much caught up with animal nutrition at the moment. When I add up the hours I spend in class and the hours I spend studying each day, it comes out to far more than I spent going to work these past few years.

The dogs are not happy about this new arrangement.

Harry has been nursing a soft-tissue injury in his left shoulder for a couple of weeks so our normal walking and play schedule have been even further restricted. But he's been showing signs of improvement the past few days so this morning I decided we needed to make our regular trip to the Bald Mountain recreation area for our trail hike.

I've talked about our walks there before. We cover around 3 miles, a little over half of that on single-track dirt trails. The trails are moderate in difficulty (tree roots, embedded rocks, erosion barriers, sections that are rather steep, etc.) but they are well maintained, marked, and used by a lot of people. The dogs love their weekend trail walk--so many more smells and sounds than the usual neighborhood outing. All three of them come back nice and tired.

Here is a picture I took of them this morning as they settled in for their post-walk nap. Azza methodically gathered all of the loose toys into/around the tiny dog bed then curled up in it. She prefers the little bed, which is quite amusing--she barely fits into it. Once he was comfortable, I covered Harry with a blanket because he's old and deserves a little extra TLC.




A tired dog is a happy dog! A tired dog is a good dog who will let me study uninterrupted for the next three hours.

And here's a pic of HellBeast's new puffy bed. I may not be that fond of him but there's no reason he shouldn't have a warm napping place too.




On the bright side, I at last managed to train HB to stay near my feet at night so he can sleep on the bed with the rest of CircusK9 (Mimi and Harry are NOT at all interested in sharing their bed space with an annoying cat). As you may know, cats triple their mass when they sleep so not only did I have to train him to stay at the foot but I had to train him to stay to one side so I wouldn't have to continually shove him aside to make room for me. I think we've achieved mutually acceptable compromises all around (he sleeps near Azza so she had to be willing to put up with that). He likes to crawl under the topmost blanket so he stays warm, Azza can snug up to him if she chooses, and I can put my cold feet near him when I need to. Certainly worth a nice, puffy cat bed for his perch.

Baby, It's Cold Outside

No, not really that cold, but fall/winter weather has at last arrived in northwestern Oregon after what seemed to be an interminable hot, dry summer. It's been cool and rainy for a few days now.

The small propane gas stove that is the source of heat in the house has started up after months of idling. Even so, I've had to haul out extra blankets for us all.

Here's a photo of Azza and Harry napping in front of the stove, the warmest spot in the house. I know pink isn't the manliest of colors but it suits Harry well.

It seems that I can't get enough pics of sleeping dogs. There's something so relaxing about watching them nap.

Keeping Warm

 
It got a bit chilly last night. Azza was able to demonstrate that she has at last learned how to get close to Harry without upsetting either him or me. In this photo, he was curled up and covered up first, then she curled up next to him and I tucked her blanket around her. I suppose it's also worth nothing that Azza has finally learned the value of being covered with a warm blanket at night. She used to kick it off right away. Now when I drape it over her, she sighs and tucks her nose even further into her belly.

Laughing at me because I cover my dogs up with their own blankets? Laugh away. It keeps them quiet and happy all night long. And if I get cold myself, I drag Mimi under the covers with me. She gets the best of all possible worlds then.

Best Twenty Bucks I Ever Spent

When I was in Salt Lake City over the holidays, my friend Gosia took me to Costco. This may seem to be a non-event to many of you, but in fact, this was the first time I had ever been in one. It was somewhat overwhelming to say the least.

But we are professionals and remained focused on our goal: dog beds, round 42" wide beds with cedar and polyfill priced at less than $20, to be exact. I bought two and dragged them back to Texas.

Who would have thought that one bed could accommodate so many little dogs?

Clockwise from top: Gracie, Cap, and Dyna, with Jack in the middle

Sleeping With Dogs

I can't remember sleeping alone. Or peeing alone, for that matter, but that's a story for another day. There's been a small cast of human partners sharing the bed stage now and then, but for the most part I've been sleeping with dogs for the past ten years.

Iz always slept with her head on the pillow next to mine. I have terrible insomnia, sleep lightly when I do sleep, and wake frequently. It was always a comfort to open my eyes, turn my head, and see her head next to mine. I could feel her warm body stretched out next to me, and I could smell that special dusty smell on the top of her head that was her smell. But as she became sicker, she needed to pull away and find her own space on the bed at night. I started missing my Iz sleeping next to me long before she actually left us.



Dyna has taken over that prime sleeping spot now. She moves around a lot at night but some part of her is always tucked into the space next to my pillow.

Harry has always slept on the bed with me (except for a few months when he was banished to a crate after he broke Lola's jaw at 3am--yet another story for another time). He continues to mourn the absence of his sister, and ever since Iz died, he has been glued to my side at night. No matter how much I toss and turn, Harry is velcroed to me like a burr. It is a comfort to be able to put my hand out and hug him to me, knowing that he understands, that he doesn't mind my waking him up for just a moment to make sure he is still there, still warm, still right beside me.

I've been crating the puppies from the beginning. Jack's daughters were just too wild to have on the bed at night. And after a while, it seemed reasonable to reduce the dog load and crate Jack at night too. He doesn't mind, really, and has been a very good sport about it.

But now that Iz is gone, the dog load has been reduced too much. Harry and Dyna are always pressed up against me, but with Iz gone, it just hasn't been enough.

So I've been hauling the pups into bed at night, one at a time, just for a couple of hours each. (I call them pups even though they turned three on September 1.) Both seem to understand what I want--they snuggle in right next to me (on the opposite side of me from Harry, of course), throwing off those deep terrier sighs of contentment as they drop off to sleep. Neither moves a hair for as long as I let them stay next to me--I always have to pick them up off the bed, warm and relaxed with sleep, and ease them back into their crates.

I can't imagine ever sleeping alone again. I sleep with dogs.