Adventures

The pandemic shut down my streak of 29 straight months of visits to Boise but the drought ended yesterday…

…too bad the pandemic did not also end.

I think Sparkle is equally thrilled to be on an adventure. She had so much fun at our usual stop at the Salmon River.

She frolicked and swam and just had a good time.

She also introduced Pozy to the fun.

Sparkle was so happy to see her family.

Pozy just marched right in and made herself at home.

All people are Pozy’s People.

How is Berkeley, you wonder. The same strange blood sugar issues but the whole family is now Vegan and that seems to be helping.

They have long known dairy is a low blood sugar trigger for her (strange but true) and so having the whole family eat in the same way is useful and keeps food inclusive. “You can’t have that,” is hard for a child to hear all the time.

And speaking of family — here is Zeus with his boy…

While Pozy was enjoying our drive through Idaho and Zeus was getting cozy, Kadi was socializing at Home Depot…

Could she be any cuter?!

Thank you, Penny and Eden, for the photos. I love the updates and the photos — the Wildflowers are having such wonderful lives. Tomorrow is a fun update from another Wildflower — Lucy Clover King.

Happy Sunday to you.

Celebration with Queen Maddie Update

It is an amazing birthday. This little, beloved puppy is Maddie from the F Litter…

And Miss Maddie is TWELVE today. Barb shares this Birthday Report:

Miss Maddie had a wonderful day today.  In fact, Maddie would tell you that she has a wonderful day EVERY day!  Maddie sensibly takes no notice of the calendar, so she didn’t realize that it was, in fact, her TWELFTH birthday.  We humans, who obsess over the passage of time, did appreciate this remarkable achievement, made bittersweet with the memory of Maddie’s littermates who are no longer with us today.  We marked the day with a socially isolated celebration, highlighted by a special, dog bone shaped, peanut butter, yoghurt and carrot birthday cake, made by Maddie’s Bestie Baxter the Newfie’s Mom.  While Maddie may not have realized why she got the special goodies, she wasted no time in snurfling it down.  And she enjoyed all the other delights of her usual day, including walks at the Park and lounging in the yard and barking at passersby.

We stopped by Café Tenby for tea for the humans and cookies for the dogs. 

Yum!  Love that Greek yoghurt frosting!  Thanks Aunt Kathy!

I am Queen of all I survey.

I love my Mommy (and my Daddy too…but he’s taking the picture).

And thank you, Mary-Ann, once again and always, for sending me this vibrant, smart, and feisty girl, my constant companion!

Thank you, Barb, for the update and for Maddie’s amazingly awesome life. Okay, Miss Maddie — thirteen is next! You got this!

Maddie is the littermate of the Wildflowers’ grandfather, Zed — that makes her an especially great-great Auntie to Buttercup and they even live relatively close to each other. Therefore, it is a perfect day for Georgia to answer our favorite question: What’s Up, Buttercup?

"Buttercup has had a busy week....

…and it hasn't been all play either.  She's been "boning up" on her competition obedience.  She's rock solid on 'sit', 'come' 'down' and 'stand' and she's improving on "stay" (we just work on stay for a few seconds, mostly emphasizing the release cue).

We had our first swimming lesson this week (with more to come).   It was a splashing good time but a little scary for Buttercup who thought she was floating in a giant water dish. 

Buttercup thought her instructor was pretty nice (she is!!) but I think it was a little bit of "any port in a storm".

We went to a local park that had a big dragon.  I was surprised to find that the Native Indians in this area had a legend about the dragon (and thus why there was a dragon in the park :-).

I had long thought that the area we lived in looked like a dragon on the map of Washington state.  We live in the "Heart of the Dragon",  Caleb, Penny & Zeus live in the wing and Barbara & Maddie live by the eye of the dragon.

I have been involved with a therapy dog group (with many of my dogs going back fifteen years when we first moved here) and I hope to have Buttercup pass the therapy dog test in the near future.  I volunteer with two programs: Read to Rover (where 2nd grade children who are reading below grade level get to read to dogs) and Pets to People (where dogs visit the residents of a Senior home).  Right now we're not able to do either of these two things because of Covid.  Today the director of the program (who also happens to be the AKC Evaluator for Buttercup's CGC title) emailed to ask if we would be willing to do a virtual reading program with the school.  She said that she wanted Buttercup to be the guest of honor. I told her not to tell Buttercup because it will just go to her head and her head is big enough as it is! 

Buttercup thinks she's a Rock Star.

A Rock Star indeed!

Thank you so much to Georgia for the update and all the photos — including of Maddie as a puppy. What a grand life Buttercup is having with Patty, Georgia, and the rest of the gang.

Please have a happy day in honor of Maddie, and in memory of the F Litter who are celebrated always in our hearts.

Wildflowers

Buttercup’s human teaches Puppy Kindergarten at her training school in Washington and Zeus has joined her class. This means the siblings — and their humans — get to see each other regularly. How awesome is that?!

I just love the way dogs build community.

Thank you, Penny, for the photos!

The gray puppy coats are normal for some puppies and it does not impact the adult coat, which will be black. Pozy is my first puppy in a long time not to turn gray.

Yesterday was Sunday Socializing sans Suzanne and Sadie as they are out of town. Pozy first ran a track at the university, and that went well — I even added a gentle turn this week. I need a GoPro to get videos — anyone have suggestions about which one to buy??

I brought Claire along to practice obedience in new locations on campus. I have decided, after consultation with my very smart physician, to consider finishing Claire’s CD this year. More on that soon — the Great Viral Unknown is tricky to navigate, isn’t it?

Then we went to the hopping Market on Front to pick up breakfast burritos. Pozy met about 20 people as we waited — calling in to order and pay, a long leash, and a mask are how I try to make this kind of activity safer.

We have a Kadi (Mariposa) update! Eden shares:

“Kadi was 26.2 lb yesterday.  We continue to do some meet and greet with people several times a week. Kadi is turning out to be a social butterfly.  Our puppy kindergarten class started this week but the first class was sans puppy.  Kadi will be the youngest in the class but based on the class syllabus she should be a super star since she knows most of it already . My goal is primarily continue socialization and training in new places.

We have started some tracking training. Most mornings start with some heeling foundation training. I have found that when she is peak land shark in the morning, her energy can be refocused to some quick heeling training. I must admit I was quite proud of her heeling in Home Depot today. 

Kim Perry Photo.

It appears she inherited a digging gene.  Aunt Jannu has been showing her some tricks but she seems to be a natural.  My yard normally needs aerating in the fall but Kadi is getting a head start.  The only complication is that she thinks she should be able to dig a hole in the wood flooring in the house. Hopefully, we will figure out a good alternative for her creative digging in the house. We tried swimming this week but she did not think it was a good idea even with Aunt Jannu showing her it was fun.

A miracle occurred when I saw Kadi get up and go out the dog doors by herself to the back yard to go the bathroom.  I have not seen a repeat yet but she is starting to connect the dots on the housebreaking. However she is ahead of Aunt Jannu who was 4 months when she first started going out to the bathroom on her own.

Thank you so much to Eden for the update and doing such a fantastic job with Kadi.

I hope your day is as wonderful as the Wildflowers’ lives.