Remember Me?

It’s been so long since I’ve posted that I almost forgot my Typepad password.  The last time I posted it had snowed at our place last December.  Sadie and I took a romp around the pasture in the dark, enjoying the brisk temperature and the reflective light from the snow.  Then Sadie died 11 days later from a sudden onset of seizures.  Dave and I were practically immobile from grief.  We couldn’t stand the thought of Christmas without a dog in the house so four days after Sadie died I went to the Humane Society and brought home a 7-week old puppy, whom I named Jodee PuppyMonster.  That first night I stayed up all night with her so she wouldn’t whine and Dave could get some sleep.  I felt sorry for her because it had been such a tramatic day — getting spayed, separated from her litter mates, weaned, and brought to a strange place by a strange human.  I went to bed around 4:00 a.m. just after Dave got up.  Since then, she’s been on her own at night in her crate.

Raising a puppy is a major, major undertaking.  I admire Elaine for using clicker training but I’m old fashioned and believe in good measures of love, attention, playtime, voice praise mixed in with a few spankings and raised voice.  I tried the praise and treats method for a while but Jodee just wasn’t understanding that piddling in the house wasn’t acceptable until she got a spanking for it then lots of praise and a treat for going outside.  Jodee is a sweet, sweet puppy and tries hard to please.  Most of the time I only have to show her what I want her to do and she does it.  When I have to tell her and show her over and over and over again, such as not jumping on the furniture or up to the counter to steal food, she gets a spanking.  Then I ask her to do something she is very good at, such as "sit".  I taught her to sit in less than 5 minutes.  One day she was jumping around, playing, trying to bite my ankles and I was getting impatient and annoyed so thought I’d teach her to sit as a diversion tactic.  I told her to sit and she did.  Just like that.  I gave her a lot of praise and asked again. She did it again.  Wow.

One of these days I’ll post a picture, hopefully before she’s an adult but since I’m not very reliable about posting, don’t hold your breath.  Jodee is a sort of tawny color with white background — very large and very small tawny spots, short hair, broad head.  She’s some kind of hound and bays instead of barks.  It’s very funny to watch her baying at the wall heater.  When she wants to go outside, she jumps on the washing machine because her leash is up there.  I’m trying to teach her to sit by the back door instead.  Wish me luck.  The important thing is to get her to consistently go do her business outside.

Okay, enough about dogs.  What else?  A kitten adopted us a few weeks ago.  We have two house cats and want an outside cat for rodent control so we set up a box for her on the porch and feed her twice a day.  She has the sweetest face and is a brown tabby.  We call her Sweetie as she found us around Valentine’s Day.  One of these days I’ll gain her trust enough to put her in a crate to take her to the vet for her alteration.  For now, gaining her trust is more important than potential kittens.  I have noticed that the tom that was hanging around hasn’t been around for a couple weeks.  He’s a beautiful cat but aloof.  I’d love to capture him, have him altered, then encourage him to stick around.

The horses: Clipper dumped me pretty hard just after Christmas.  I ended up with bruised ribs and a numb but functional right knee.  I didn’t ride for a couple weeks then regained my confidence on a gorgeous, black Hanoverian mare named Cindy, who acts like a big labrador retriever lap dog.  About a week later I started riding Clipper again.  He was good then bad then good again.  We’re in a good stretch right now and will make our show debut at a little schooling show on Sunday.  Sunny is in training with my other trainer friend Sue, who has reined cow and cutting horses.  Sunny will be bred to Sue’s Quarter Horse stallion.  Right now I have no horses at home, which is fine because I got tired of packing water for Sunny when the hose froze.

Besides the animals, I’m just about done with the Master Gardener training for Skagit County and will get to begin my volunteer work as early as next week.  I’ve been enjoying winter by skiing a fair amount, both cross country and downhill.  I go cross country skiing with a friend from work.  Last Sunday we accidently went about 10-12 miles and were pooped afterward but really enjoyed our margaritas a local mexican restaurant.  Dave and I go downhill skiing at Mt. Baker then have dinner at a wonderful sushi restaurant in Bellingham afterward.  We hadn’t spent a whole day together since before we moved up here so it was a very nice reminder that we have a tremendous amount of fun together.  We plan to go to Mt. Baker again in a couple weeks then to Whistler for a long weekend the end of March.   Between all that, we work a lot on the farm: pruning, fencing, preparing the garden spot, planning the garden, etc.  I am leading the very active life that I’ve always wanted.