My birthday

Well, it seems that I am not immune from getting older, and worst of all I have friends (?) who remember and celebrate the fact.  Just kidding, I was amazed at the birthday attention I rated.  Cards galore, and not one but two parties, one the day before, one the day after, which worked out just fine.
I got specially prepared sushi, a wonderful cake, and a card from all the critters (they are so talented), and then at dog class I got brownies, a "Man training kit" with a rolled up paper, a spray bottle, treats, and a glow in the dark leash.  That last item has potential for various things, but I am trying not to jump to conclusions.

Decibel will think that we now dress for dog class, she wore the leis and tiara like a pro.  Melinda brought all four of her GSDs, and they heeled and sat and downed in unison it was something to see!

Thanks, you all!

Pinky revisited

Well, it appears that Decibel is over her fear of the flamingo.
Today she noodled the thing long enough for me to go and get the camera, wait for it to open up, and for the incredibly slow shutter to deploy, and she was still playing with Pinky.  Of course now I had to stop her before she chewed his tail off.

In the backyard Decibel does much landscaping and she is very busy rearranging the downspouts from the gutters.  She likes pulling them off and carrying them around.  She then tries to be helpful when I put them back.  I think I will try and harness this energy for good, and train her to pull the downspouts off when I have to mow the grass, I always forget about the darn things.  Of course that could backfire with the girl...
Decibel always makes me laugh.  This morning she was rowdy, and so I gave her a bear hug and demanded a kiss.  You have seen the shrinking kids when an overly affectionate relative wants a kiss and the kid just wants to get away?  We had the same kind of wrestling match, and then she had a bit of a temper tantrum, then she gave me a BIG sloppy kiss and off she went.
What a girl!
Her newest trick seems to be to paw visitors so they will pay attention to her.  Another thing to work on.  I'm sure that is not on the Canine Good Citizen list.

Yesterday she showed how brilliant she is.  I built a small hurdle for my horse, to teach her to step over things, and Decibel had to check it out.  On a lark I said: "Hop", and over she flew!
I said it again, and she jumped back!  How very clever.  Maybe she should try out agility.  But I am too old for that, I think.

All in all this spring is not too bad, a few warm days make up for a lot of mud.  Ruby the cow is back, and we are all glorying in milk and dairy products galore.  The dogs are learning to mind their manners while I milk and lap their milk gladly.

Spring Swim

It is relatively mild today, and for some reason I thought that vacuuming might be good, but that turned out a bad idea in a way.  The door opened, and our neighbor walked in.  There is a horse on the highway, mine, since it is black and white!
Well that is not good.
I had not heard the dogs bark or anything, but as I run out, I look up to the paddock, and that there is my horse.  So the highway black and white horse is at least not mine.  Small grace.
Sure enough though, there is a black and white pony running around next to the road, so I open the gates and have the guys drive the horse through.  It is a pony, and definitely not mine, and it is racing up the drive toward my horse, who might be in heat, so that would explain things, for the pony is a male.  I lock the gates, thank the guys, and go after the pony, closing gates as I get to them, so at least the little beast is contained.  With a halter I drive him into the paddock, secure him there, where he races the fence and makes squealing noises at Sweetpea, who promptly bucks and rears.
Ah spring has literally sprung!
I call the vet, and she can think of one person who might own the pony, so I call Janel, the hairdresser and get the 411, which is her address as well.  Janel soon finds out where the pony belongs, and sends help.  The pony is picked up in short order.
Well after that excitement I take the dogs for a walk, and Decibel finds an empty plastic bottle, and races around crunching it, and playing with it.  She goes into the pond, and puts the bottle down to drink, but the thing floats off.  Decibel is confused.  Why is it moving?  She sits down in the water, studying the situation, just her head sticking out.  The bottle is floating, sailing across the little pond.
Then she has an idea!
Decibel jumps up, hops out of the pond, races to the other side, jumps back in, swims about three paddles worth, grabs the bottle, gets back to shore and races around triumphantly with her newly caught bottle.  Well, she was pretty clever about it, running to the other side.
I hope there won't be more excitement today, this was enough fun.

Several thousand reasons why I hate to save daylight

Decibel is ONE!

Decibel is one year old!

Today is Decibel's first birthday, and of course we started celebrating a bit early, since such a momentous occasion does not fit properly into a single day.

Actually, since dog class was the day before, we brought hats and party favors and had our friends celebrate with us, so Decibel got two days of fun.

Hats were a hit

Is that a dunce cap?

What a cute-y

Then we started to have real class, with sits, downs, meet and greet and so forth.  Even the new puppy did really well, in spite of the silliness with hats and Harold and I trying to handle two dogs each or me four dogs while Harold took pictures.

Sit-stay

Down-stay

Sit stay again?  Make up your minds...

Meet and greet

Decibel is certainly no longer a little girl, and most of her puppy behavior has gone, although she is still loving, independent, smoochy, wants attention, loves to play, loves to learn to eat a treat, loves to eat, and so forth.  The only part of her that is still a bit puppy like is her coat, a felting mess of puppy fluff, adult 'goat-hair', winter wool and the assorted odds and ends of straw and hay and leaves that congregate there.  Right before her birthday party Maggie marked up the grass area, and scratched a mess of dry lawn onto Decibel's birthday party 'outfit'.  That's what happens when you try to dress up your kids, I guess.  They look worse than if you just left them alone.

Meatloaf again? No, it's meat-cake!

I baked Decibel a meatcake (meatloaf) with cheese, and of course we will all share it with her.  Then Harold trapped a raccoon in the barn, which really had nothing to do with Decibel's birthday other than the timing. A big fat coon, who probably lived well off cat food, and now has to be relocated to town.  (Hey, they drop off their unwanted pets at the farm, we ship wildlife back to civilization, somehow that all works out).

Soon Harold will be home to give Decibel her second present, she is getting a basketball to try and pop, I already gave her the softball to play with, I couldn't wait.  We have to talk to a guy about having some fence built, then we can have birthday fun again.

The pink nemesis

We had a nice spring day, and I took full advantage of it, walking the dogs, working the horse and enjoying the sunshine.  When it came time for evening chores, I let the dogs out in the barnyard, while I got my shoes on.

Decibel started barking at the propane tank... no the mulberry tree.

Now what?

Maybe one of the cats was up the tree.  Decibel can see items as if for the first time, and when she thinks they don't belong, she will make a big deal of it.  So I go to check it out.

Well, turns out she was afraid of the pink Flamingo.  

Admittedly, the thing has seen better decades, but he still makes me laugh, and besides, our type of landscape decorating actually benefits from a pink flamingo.

Anyhow, Decibel was afraid of it.  We can't have that, not after I told her it was okay, and to go check it out, so I spent about ten minutes working with her around the thing, until she could touch it and approach it.  She nearly wrenched my arm out of the socket several times, trying so hard to get away from the plastic nemesis.  Well, maybe her artistic sensitivities were seriously offended here.

However, when I say that something is safe, I need my dogs to trust me on that, and after a while Decibel could stick around the ornament, and we could go on chores.  

After chores we revisited the flamingo twice more, each time the moment came sooner.  The last time Harold came home, and I made him greet Decibel by the plastic bird, and when it comes to her 'Daddy', Decibel knows no fear, she went to him, come hell or pink flamingo.

Today we had to sit by the bird to get to play tug, and it went well, and on the way back from our morning walk (it is back to blustery and winter), I took Decibel's picture under the bird, and she could stand there long enough without dying of fright.  

Never a dull moment, right?