It all started with a TWWWISSSTTTTNOOOOOOO!!!!

OK. Actually it all started much earlier than that... with a "woof" not a whisper. (That'd be Twist reminding me as I was leaving the house that I promised him he could go with me and Stan to put the sheep away today.) So, we three trekked to the barn. But first, I put a baggie of grapes in my pocket.

Grapes. See... my next door neighbor - you know, the guy whose back pasture the sheep have so kindly been keeping meticulously mowed for the summer - well... anyway, Jose has a pony. I don't know his name (the pony's. I clearly know Jose's name), so I started calling him (the pony)... well... Pony. Don't judge. He (the equine in question) answers to it. Anywho, Pony the pony and I have become friends of a sort. I bring him goodies. He lets me love on him and pretend that I have a horse... or pony in this case.

Pony... the... uhmmm... pony.

He's a small creature (as ponies most often are), but it brings me great pleasure to see Pony the pony come trotting over nickering to me for his goodies. Usually by the time I'm at the gate between his back pasture and ours, he's trotting over, or, more often than not, already there waiting for me, demanding I pick up the pace. Today Twist, Stan and I made a special trip over to see him because there were no sheep over there nibbling on Jose's grass today. But, I like to bring him something every day or three, and today, being my birthday, seemed like a good day to share the wealth, so to speak. Hence the grapes for Pony.

So, we enter the pasture, and Twist, in a most unusual move, rushes the fence to Pony barking. Twist knows Pony. Pony knows Twist. I've no idea *what* that was all about. I called Twist off, and then gave Pony some grapes and got a snuffle on the nose from him in return. Nothing in the world like exchanging carbon dioxide with a several hundred pound pony named Pony. Then out of the corner of my eye, I saw a black dog taking off in a shot.

 (This is where the TWWISSSTTTNOOOOOOO!!!! comes in to play) 

I looked up to see the black dog racing for all he's worth after a Twinkie. (I mentioned grapes. Did I mention Twinkies? Oh. Sorry). Not like a Hostess cream-filled Twinkie though, but like a cute little German Shepherd girl named Twinkie.

 TWWISSSTTTNOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

 I looked down and felt a nip and a nudge and here sits Twist. HARRROOOOO! You need Me? Roo? What No? No WHAT???  WHAAATTTT???

STANNNNNTHEBOOOYYYYYNNNNNOOOOOOOOO!!!!! 

 Poor Twinkie. She was racing around trying to escape the rude STAN THE BOY!!!! Stan really likes Twinkie. Pretty Girl. Cute. Little. Kinda shy. Right up his alley. He's been oogling her from across the fence for a year now. And they being on the other side of the pasture, Well... I was thinking "CRAP! How am I gonna keep Twistie from getting involved in that reindeer game?!!! AND rescue poor Twinkie from the doofus STAN?!"

I reached down and grabbed Twistie by his cheek to keep him from bolting off to join the game and started walking over when...

 Jose to the rescue!!! 

Out from behind a big covered trailer pops Jose, who calls Twinkie, startles Stan, who finally hears me say GET OVER HERE NOW!!!! (which he does), and Twinkie is saved! PHEW!!!!

GRAPES! GIMMEEE!

Jose and Twinkie return to the trailer to finish painting it. Stan and Twist are banished to the other pasture (ours), and the other side of the gate from good dogs named Twinkie and the pon... oh yeah, back to Pony. 

Pony watched it all impatiently and when the hoopla was done, he promptly reminded me that I had not finished giving him his goodies. His nose knew. So he started whinnying to remind me (Woof. Whinny. Reminders are all the same language, right?) Jose laughed when I told him Pony was being quite a pushy boy when it came to his goodies. Apparently Pony *really* likes grapes. :)

 It started with a "woof" and ended in a nicker.

As I was leaving, Pony softly called out to me. Jose chuckled and said "He is saying thanks for the grapes!"

Thanks Jose! I got that one! See ya soon Pony!

I'm a chore dog!

Haroooooo friends!!! TWIST here!!!! ROO to you! I was sooooo excited this morning when mom let me go do CHORES wif my uncle Stan this morning!! I got to RUN. FAAAST. (really. I zoom zoom!) All the way to the barn. Then I visited Peking duck and the quackers to say good morning to them (they're always so chatty in the mornings). But the best part is that I got to play with the white fluffy toys that move!!! I get so excited to see them that my teeth chatter. I cannot HELP myself. Sheep! Sheep! I was BRILL!!! I stayed back (mostly) and kept them from running away. And I escorted them to the pasture to eat for the day.

Yay me! ROO!!!

Tomato / TomAhto

Stan is the only dog to have an upstairs crate. It's really sort of a left over from years ago. He goes in it when we all first go up to bed and stands there until I get settled then joins me, but otherwise he never uses it, and no one else would dare go in HIS crate.

One day I peeked in there and noticed a quite large stash of stuffies. I began pulling them out one by one, counting as I went, out of sheer curiosity. He had 24 toys in there. No wonder the house seemed kind of low on stuffies!!!! I washed them, and took a picture of him with them. (attached) and posted to Facebook that my dog had a hoarding problem and might need an intervention. His co-breeder said no puppy of hers was a hoarder, he was a smart dog and simply saving for his retirement! Hence I could be expecting a visit from the Feds for laundering money at any moment. This wasn't his biggest haul. I am proud to say that he is a good saver. He has had upwards of 30 at once in there.

Living the Cartoon

Ok. I know it's not a Penny original but I swear this is exactly what happened when herding went wrong on the farm today! Those who have herding breeds recognize this cartoon, and we all chuckle, and I'm positive I heard Andrea laughing from the sidelines. See, what happened was…

It started with Twist. (I fear many stories are gonna start with "see, what happened was it started with twist") we were in the back pasture watching the sheep graze. Twist is still reaaaallly excited to do this, which is exactly why I torment myself and expose him to it as often as I can manage. He needs to learn that herding with sheep sometimes really is about letting them meander and munch. So when it's his turn to move them, he's all happy. How can ya get upset at a guy who is so happy to gather sheep? Really?

Well. Twist really wasn't the real problem… this time. This time we had some help. Tripled. Dari, Bug and Rango decided to help out. Dari is Twists sister, and she is further along (helped tremendously by her slightly less enthusiastic drive to bunch them and a good "lie down"). The other two are just babies and are there to romp and play. Get tired (tired pups make for happy owners), and learn from the big dogs what to do (ok this cojldve been a fail today)

I sent twist away and suddenly Dari and thw babies were all playing rig around the handler… and I wound up literally foot bound in a herd of sheep as they all raced in a circle "helping". Oy!!!!! I finally managed to call my dog off and Andrea got up out of her chair after laughing for an hour or so to help gather the rest of the hooligans.

I survived. I hope I survive the rest of Roo's adventures.

Long time!

So, I completely forgot I had a blog hanging out here. Let's see if we shouldn't revise it instead of harassing the world of Facebook for a while!  

So much has changed since October 2008.  The dog list has grown by two. One and a half really. I cannot count a Pomeranian as a whole dog, mighty tho he is. 

Lava is 11. He is in good health for an older dog, tho he now has diabetes insipidus, which is a fancy way of saying he has a hormone issue that means his kidneys don't concentrate his urine. He is on twice daily eye drops for this and is doing well now. Stan is a veteran now at 8. He is still my main man. Always Mr. Dependable. My super-go-to-guy for chores, snuggles, you name it. The newest is Twist. He is now 1.5 years old and is a tornado and kangaroo all wrapped in one. I'll let him introduce himself at some point soon. 

The biggest changes have been with Oona. Finnish Lapphunds were given full status in the AKC. we finished her Championship and began going after her GCh however she had to be spayed for medical reasons, so she is retired. We may work on something else. She is a smart cookie. 

I'll try to bring everything here up to speed slowly. For now, it's nap time for me and mine!

OonaBean is a NURSE!

Yesterday Oona earned her third leg in Rally Obedience (Novice) in AKC and is now Jakalakummun Oona, RN. It wasn't her best effort, but in the end a Q is a Q is a Q, and an 83 is still a Q... Next up, weekend of Agility in November if she doesn't come in season!

My very best girl

Willow gave it her all, but on September 30th I helped her go. She was a miracle every day and I am so amazed that she sustained as long as she did. I will always be grateful for my very best girl. I realized well into her life that I was spoiled by her excellence. Her excellent house manners, her excellent people skills. Her excellent disposition. Her excellent devotion to me.

During her time with me her best moments were when we were reaching out to others. Shortly after I acquired Willow my mother started on her slow downward spiral. Mama loved animals though, and she liked my dogs just fine. When she moved to the assisted living facility, I began taking Willow in to see her. Of course this is a community, and there are those who love dogs, and those who are scared of them. I was very consciencous of this fact, and the fact that my dog was not a lapdog and was intimidating to many but Willow's quiet manner made her lots of friends in the nursing home. Many residents saw her and started holding out their hands and clammored to pet her as soon as they saw her come in the door. I distinctly remember one visit we were in the community room with mama, and one of the residents started getting upset, shouting towards me "Get that dog outa my house! Dogs don't go in the house!"

We moved down to mom's room to quit upseting her of course. A few visits later, I caught this same woman glimpsing over at her occasionally while we were doing Willow's tricks for the other residents, all the while tryng not to let me know she was watching her.

The couches in the community area were threefold, and were set up facing a tele in a U shape. A few visits later mom and I were sitting on one of the couches watching tv while Willow sat and mom petted her and this same woman came in and sat on a couch on the other side, quietly watching, and a few visits later she was there, in the room, waiting for us. I invited her to sit on our couch, and she joined me, and was soon shyly petting my well-behaved angel. She quickly joined the ranks of clammoring fans to greet her when Woo came into the home, and was, for the remainder of her lifetime, Willows devoted friend.

Willow made lots of friends along the way, and she made it possible for many dogs to live a great life by our giving them a second chance. Today I got some photos of one of those second chance dogs. Moxie (shown in these photos) along with Brock (formerly Redman) were pulled by me the same day. I went down to look at one, saw there were two, and decided they were both coming home with me. Willow gave her stamp of approval on both boys which was good enough for me. Neither was with me very long before they were adopted. Moxie went to Nancy in New York State. Nancy went to extreme lengths to pick up Moxie when the train proved difficult to make. This week Nancy was travelling and decided to bring Moxie on her vacation for some one-on-one time (she has a total of four siberians). She sent me some photos just today of her boy (hard to call him ours - he's been there for many years now! grin - but I still do in my heart) - I'm not sure about how you readers view this photo, but it looks like Moxie knows he's got it good, and has no intentions of giving up his spot on the bed or his place in her heart! Moxie looks an awful lot like my Woo and I've often wondered if we would discover they were actually related if we could view their pedigree (like my Sixx, and Yuri were).

Moxie is one of quite a few dogs who got a second chance because 10 years ago I said "I'll take her" and brought home my Woo. My thanks - to all who have loved her in their hearts - with thanks and love from mine.

Willow Bay Keno Barnhart
Feb, 25, 1998 - Sept. 30, 2008

Much loved as the heart and beginning of WooPak and MUSH-R, but mostly for being my very best girl.

Godspeed Woo