Just some fun pictures from when we went to the dog park last weekend. I love the park after a fresh snow, when the sky is perfectly blue. I love that color of blue. Only Tatum and Jet went. I’m still not taking Levi. I don’t know, his park days may be over… we’ll see. But every day he seems a little bit worse. His poor old body just can’t repair itself anymore. Makes me very, very sad. Why not… Continue reading
The Park
So I haven’t been blogging much lately. In about three weeks Jet and I have an AKC agility trial. That’ll be fun. I hope we remember how to do it! I haven’t done agility much. Just been working, covering shifts for coworkers who have too much leave and have to use it, or lose it. Me, I use mine during the rest of the year and so I don’t have much left. It’s okay, it’s really quiet during the holidays so that’s nice.
Levi, Chase and Jet have been doing more Cyber Rally. Levi got his first Q. Though every day I worry he’s just getting worse and worse, older and older. This park trip was a lot for him. I feel bad that he’s still not back to how he was before that darn party. Maybe he never will be. Breaks my heart.
Chase got his second Cyber Rally Q, and Jet got his third, for a title. It’s been fun, and with the lack of snow and the weather in the 50s here in Utah, we’ve been able to get outside, which is nice.
I’ve been staying indoors a lot, though. Maybe I should look for some Sous Chef Jobs for something to do inside. But instead I sit on the chairs and watch TV or read. I do like to take it easy.
Parley's Nature Preserve
Well, it’s been a week and a half since Lucy passed away. And I am having one heck of a bad time getting over losing her. I don’t think I had this hard a time when Angel died. However, the husband reminds me that back then I was on Zoloft for anxiety. And that numbed all my emotions. And I went off that a year ago, because of side effects I didn’t like, and so now I get to feel the full slam of all my stupid emotions all the time. It sucks. But, I guess that’s just life. I just wasn’t ready to let her go.
Also, I’ve been just looking past too much, wondering where all the years have gone. I’m so worried about Levi, too, now, though my rational mind thinks he is doing pretty good. I’m taking him to a holistic type doctor to see if she can help him stay strong as long as possible, too. The regular vets are fine, but usually just give you the typical rymadil and narcotics and steroids for things. Hopefully this other vet will give him a bit of extra.
Levi is my heart dog. I really hope he lives 2 more years. I can retire in Aug 2013. Because I know that I’ll be a wreck when Levi dies, and if I have to actually perform at work, I really, honestly don’t know if I’ll be able to for a while. I don’t handle death, or extreme emotions, very well at all. Ugh. I feel like I’ve been bleeding all over the internet and Facebook, so I’ve been making a huge effort not to whine and cry about her too much. I did find a great website, Pet Loss, where people can go and brood over lost pets. I have been chatting online there, which has helped me a bit, I think.
Today I took Levi, Tatum and Jet to Parley’s Nature Preserve. It’s the only off leash park I like to go to. Our round-trip walk was 1.75 miles, I measured it with my phone. I also lost my fitbit… which is my fancy pedometer. That sucks, since it was $99 and I really can’t afford another one. Oh well, I guess I just can’t see how many steps I take anymore. Things are just things, anyway. What really matters is my family and friends. Both groups include my dogs. I realized that years ago when Lucy and Levi were very young and chewed many things up. After a while, I just stopped really caring about the things, and caring about the dogs.
Below are some more pictures. I am taking many more pictures of Levi, now, because I don’t have enough of Angel or Lucy. I have a ton of Jet, though. LOL. He is just so darn photogenic.
Running at the Park
Tatum and Levi
Jet in the Water
I stopped on the way home and got some yarn so I can knit some dark black socks. I’ve been having a bit of a knitting bug lately. I didn’t get any kmart coupons, though. I like the local yarn store, what a fun place that would be to work when I retire.
Well, I got up this morning and Jet an Tatum were full of energy and so I thought why not take them to the park. So off we went. They had such a great time. I took Levi, too. He doesn’t get out as much as he should anymore. But he loves it. Even though he’s going to be 11 in only a few days, he’s in really good shape. The colors were really pretty, too, which was nice. I’m… Continue reading
Well, while I’m gone on my cruise I didn’t want to leave this blog idle… so here is a cute picture of Levi’s but at the park when we went this summer. He loves the park. He is so good there now. He used to be a terror! When he was young we’d let him off leash and he would run around without listening for a good fifteen minutes. Kinda like Tatum and Muffit do now!
But he liked it, and now he comes back and hangs out for treats. He is a great boy.
I don’t usually like dog parks… mainly because my dogs don’t do too good at them. But I have to say, some of my dogs don’t do good at them.. but actually, only one doesn’t do good at them anymore. Levi used to be horrible, barking at people, running amok, when he was young. He’s better now though, more mellow and he tires out fairly quickly. yeah.. he’s almost nine so he’s showing a bit of age. Darnit.
These first two pictures are of some dogs we met when there that our dogs wanted to play with. Very handsome and cute indeed!
Anyway, this park, Tanner Park, aka Parley’s Nature Preserve, is awesome. And it’s an official dog park now! It is a gully and it’s about a mile round trip. You go down and walk to a little lake kinda drainage pond at the top, then turn around and head back. The dogs love it, you don’t stand in one place for any length of time.. and to keep moving is much better for the dogs.
Chase and Lucy stayed home, because Chase is the dog that doesn’t like other dogs in his face. And Lucy can’t eat treats anymore. So my husband and I took Tatum, Muffit, Levi and Angel.
Muffit had a great time… he always knows where we are, but he pretends to forget where we are. He doesn’t come back to his name as well as Tatum does (when she’s listening). But I think it’s just because he’s afraid the fun will be over, and it’s not deeply reinforced yet that his name means a yummy treat is in order. He will catch on, I’m sure.
You just can’t get happier dogs than this. This dog park is doggie heaven. We did end up losing Tatum at one point. She forgets about us sometimes. She gets so excited about the other dogs, she tends to ignore us and forget about us and she follows the other dogs. I do think, though, with time she’ll get used to it and listen and watch for us more. She is a good girl and she watches for treats after about the first fifteen minutes of getting all the excitement out of her system.
Tatum just has the happiest darn face when she’s at the dog park. She loves it. She came home and is dead asleep now. She laid right down when she got into the van in her crate. Once she realized it was time to go, she like sighed and was happy that she could relax!
The drive home was restful for them.. and now it’s time to go eat dinner, so I have to wake them up!
Lucy is our beautiful smooth collie girl. She does seem to be slowing down… with her cancer diagnosis and all. But she got to chew on a Kong a lot today, and carry it around and guard it, and guarding is one of her favorite things. Though she doesn’t like it quite as much as Levi does.
Lucy is doing okay. I watch her closely now and I think that her low energy is because of her cancer. But my husband says she is still the same. I just wonder. I worry about her every day. Monday I am taking her to the holistic vet to see what she can do, if anything, and get her opinion.
The rest of the dogs are doing well. I took Muffit and Tatum to Sugarhouse Park today for a walk. I haven’t taken Muffit out until now because he was sick. He’s done with his meds now and he is much happier, he is even enticing Tatum to play. He wants to play with Chase, too, but Chase isn’t ready yet. Having yet another new dog in the house has thrown Chase out of whack, but Chase is doing well and he hasn’t instigated any fights, which is nice. And we are helping him and making the other dogs respect his space, which is good and will help Chase adjust.
I’m please to say that Muffit ignored the people we walked by, sniffed everything, and seemed very well adjusted.
Fortunately we don’t need any eca stack around here to lose weight, but I am cutting down Tony’s food as he is a bit chubby now. And Muffit gets a lot to eat, since he is still too skinny.
Well we did some ASCA agility yesterday. I just entered the one day. I’m glad I did. Chase was so tired last night when we got home that he was showing his teeth to everyone, even Lucy and Levi and he doesn’t do that often at all.
Both Levi and Chase did great. Levi got a couple Qs, Chase didn’t get any but I did want to practice with him. And it’s so much fun to run him now. We have come a long way, and we still have a way to go but I’m learning. I’m especially learning lateral distance. Sometimes I think I can be further away from him than I can be. He missed a tunnel entry because of that yesterday. I thought he’d hit the tunnel he’s such a tunnel suck. But nope.. he check in with me instead, which was good!
Levi did awesome, too. I wasn’t in the best frame of mind because of Lucy’s most likely Cancer, but I was happy with the boys. I brought Tatum too, and she’s doing so well there. She goes up to everyone now looking for Livers, which she gets thanks to her Mum. Afterwards we were in the parking lot and I dropped her flexi… suffice it to say, we have to practice her dragging the flexi. Because the Mum can be a dork sometimes and drop them. She was pretty frightened of it dragging behind her.
Today is a rest day, which I need. Muffit is sitting beside me sleeping. He is such a snuggler. He is still snuffling, we might take him back to the vet tomorrow or Tuesday for a checkup.
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