The Corgi and the Smithie

I thought I'd write a little note about what a day in the life is like when you live with a herding dog. Or, in this case for the next couple weeks, two herding dogs.

First, you cannot be deceived by how cute they are. Although Mattie weighs in at just 33lbs and Annabelle is probably around 18-20lbs, these little buggers can get fierce.

Herding dogs love to play and romp and, well, herd. Technically, they should get in trouble for herding other dogs at the dog park and such because 1) it's not appropriate for them to do that and 2) it's just bad form to use those drives, instinct and skill, which took hundreds of years to perfect, on such "trivial" stock as Golden Retrievers and Jack Russell Terriers.

But, when in my home, a serious herding dog play romp is strongly encouraged. When Kuro the Border Collie stayed with us for 3 months (he was 6-9 months old when we had him so he was REAL fun and crazy) I took video of a typical evening -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxZEat3R1E8 Now with Annabelle, it's more of the same craziness, perhaps a bit toned down though.

Annabelle is a Pembroke Welsh Corgi and is about 2-3 years old, about the same age as my Mattie. The Corgi was bred to herd cattle. The reason they have no legs is to keep injuries, while herding cows, to a minimum. Basically, the Corgi will bite the cows lower leg to move it (cows are totally stubborn and strong willed), then the cow will kick because it's pissed that it just got bit, and the Corgi will miss getting kicked in the head because she is so low to the ground. I guess you can say Annabelle has it in her to play a little dirty by aiming low and running away.

Mattie is a Smithfield Sheepdog. She is a drovers dog, meaning her job is to drive (herd and push) sheep and cattle from the farm into the town where the sheep/cattle would be sold at market (in this case, the Smithfield Market) and then of course, sent to the butcher shops to be turned into delicious beef pastries and haggus. Her claim to fame is to basically do this "driving" for many miles across the cold and blustery English countryside without a lot of interaction with a handler/human and then to essentially "protect" the sheep/cattle or whatever it was she was charged with that day. Mattie has long legs, unlike Annabelle, and therefore she has to be able to turn on a dime to evade kicks and other defensive measures from cows and sheep - moving fast and biting hard is what she does best. Visit my website at www.geocities.com/smithydog123 for more info on the Smithfield Sheepdog.

Unlike Mattie and Kuro playing (female and male dogs), Mattie and AB are both female. Coupled with the fact they are herding dogs, I have to say the word "MANAGEMENT" is a part of my routine now. It is the norm in Dogdom that female herding dogs have a difficult time accepting other female herding dogs. So far, M and AB are getting along quite swimmingly. However, I am ALWAYS near when they play as their "play" can turn into a nasty little scrap and I don't want blood to be shed.

The following photos visually describe my typical evening with the three pooches (and the cats of course)...

Something is up because GiGi has that "WTF?" look. This is a clear signal that the dogs have started to get restless...

I walked in to find Mattie totally taking Lucky out. Yes, I actually do think she is holding him down with her left front paw.
Lucky was actually pretty ticked about getting such a smack down. I had to break that one up and rescue Lucky by putting him on the other side of the baby gate.
I feel as though Mattie decided she was going to guard her flock of magazines that fell off of the couch. Note the "play bow" position and AB's and Lucky's hesitation about moving in on the magazines.

Let the games begin. Note Mattie's beautiful coat (she got a bath last night). She is whipping around to ensure AB doesn't go in for an ankle attack... You can also tell AB is getting ready to unleash her inner-Corginess


Game On! Annabelle is going all out here - flared nostrils, forward posture and check out those teeth! Mattie's getting into position though by getting low to ward off the attack.

Dogs Dogs Dogs

Since my last post, I've managed to run in my first pseudo-herding trial, taken on a dog to sit for the next three weeks and managed to take the Hybrid into the shop.

Let's start with the Hybrid. On Thursday, Jerill drove the Hybrid to work and found that the driver's window, upon putting the window down, wouldn't go back up very easily. I myself ran into this little problem as well a couple weeks ago when I stopped to get the mail on the drive into home and discovered that the window was struggling to find its place in the window frame. It kept popping down and FINALLY it stayed up. So, I called the dealership on Friday morning and they had an opening so I took it in. The dealership is only about 1/2 mile from my work, so I took full advantage of their pick up and drop off shuttle service. It turns out that the window-sticking has happened enough with the Civic for Honda to issue a Service Bulletin about the problem. So, the service center already knew what needed to be replaced/repaired. The car was fixed up that same day and I left work on time and with a fixed window.

I picked Scott the Border Collie up on Thursday. HWY203 opened up that afternoon and so I trekked to Carnation and did the doggie pick up. Scott seemed very satisfied with his accomodations while he was with us over the weekend. He stayed in our doggie-room, that is downstairs in a heated semi-finished basement. He was such a good boy - no barking, no pottying in his room and he was just so happy with the constant supply of biscuits and treats. Keep in mind that Scott is a true working dog and has lived a barn-life his entire life, so he was very much used to being in his own space in the night.

The trial was, in all respects, a fun day for working our dogs. The judge was unable to make the event, so we weren't graded on performance at all. Here is a video of Scott and I herding - in this shot, we are running a ranch course and this particular exercise is called "turning the post"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTyeZGRKNWs

Here is a picture of the herding-nuts at this event. Everyone I met was very nice and their dogs were great too. I'm on the far right with Scott, who is schmoozing for treats...

On Friday night, Jerill drove to our friend Eric and Harumi's house in North Seattle. They are the proud owners of Annabelle, the Pembroke Corgi. Eric and Harumi asked us to take care of Annabelle for three weeks while they went to Japan to visit family. Annabelle isn't a large dog but she has a big attitude - she is a herding dog through and through and you know what they say about those female herding dogs! Mattie and Annabelle are getting along very well - much to my surprise as the last time they hung out together we had to keep them separated for fear of a bad scrap. Now, they are relaxed and staying out of each other's face. I guess once a dog hits 2.5 years old they really start to chill out - it's very nice. I mean, I love puppies but they are just so nuts. Age 3-8 is really the best time of a dog's life. So, here is a pic of the pack. Annabelle will be with us through early December.

I'll spare you the gripe I have right now with the Letter-to-the-editor expressed in the most recent edition of the Sno-Valley Star newspaper about the biology class that dissected sheep brains. It was a letter from a guy at PETA talking about the suffering of animals, yada yada yada. All I can say about PETA is they are a farce, they're full of crap, they kill animals and they are against everything true animal lovers are fighting for. Visit http://www.petakillsanimals.com/ for details.

C'est la vie

Fungus Among Us

The rains have stopped! It is still quite cloudy but as of 10:15 a.m. the rain finally stopped. Our mountain was touched with snow this morning as well - it's quite chilly outside. At the conclusion of the rain spell, I grabbed Mattie and my camera and went mushroom hunting in our yard. I found some great specimens (all poisonous I'm sure).

These little "button" type mushrooms are all over the yard.

This was a single, with a skinny stump. Pretty camel color.

Not the prettiest fungus out there, but neat. Note the light colored ring around the edges. It's already started to decompose it looks...
These guys were right under our swing set. Really a nice deep orange color, and they're medium sized mushrooms.

These ones looked like truffles (but they aren't). They're very rounded and very dark colored.

I found this white one already flipped over. It was the coolest one so far.

Fallen leaves from our maple tree.

The only animal I could find was this single typical garden variety slug on our doorstep, munching on some old flower.

I was going to leave for Carnation at lunchtime to pick up Scott the herding dog since our trial is this weekend. However, HWY 203 is shut down for awhile due to flooding. I'm confident I can get Scott tonight or tomorrow but I really wanted to just get him today as it would be easiest. The herding trial is on Saturday in Roy, WA. It's classified as a "fun" trial for members of the Washington Stockdog Handlers Association but I think it will be great practice for me prior to my "real" trial on the 29th. I think I'm ready. However, even with the most experienced dog out there (which Scott probably will be), a trial run can still be disasterous!

Remember, it's not the dog, it's the handler. That's my mantra.

A Lot of Rain

So, where I live is known to receive twice as much rainfall as Seattle. Typically, Seattle gets an average of 60 inches of rain a year - in the beautiful Snoqualmie Valley, it's around 120 inches. That's a lot of rain. Having grown up in the Valley though, I'm used to it. I always appreciated the frequent dry days we would have in the Winter when I lived in Seattle and Bellevue.

Last week, I think it rained maybe four inches in one night. Tonight, reports indicate we'll be getting between 2-7 inches of rain overnight. However, the weekend looks to be nice and partially sunny!

Flooding isn't a big concern for our home - we live on a hill. However, high winds are also predicted tonight and tomorrow. This scares me a bit. Last year, we hadn't even made a payment on our home yet (we moved in October) and a tree fell on our house during a freak-wind storm. Nothing major was damaged, but we did lose a shed, some shingles, the little chimney and a couple of lawn chairs.

What I do like about the rain is that my car looks clean. And, the oddest looking mushrooms pop up in our yard. I failed to get pictures of the fungus but I noted 4 different species in our lower yard after the last heavy rain (all were non-edible). I'll have to go out tomorrow and check to see if we have more.

Jerill is coming home late from work tonight so I'm meeting him at the NB Bar and Grill -we eat there about once every 10 days. It's our favorite all-American food place in the Valley. But, appraently a new all-American type place is opening soon just a block or so away.

Our favorite Chinese food place here is Got Rice in Snoqualmie. Favorite Mexican joint goes to Ana's up on Snoqualmie Ridge. Best fast-food - Arby's, hands down. However, don't waste your time on the new Fried Macaroni on the Arby's menu -- we tried it and it was just 'okay.' And of course, best Japanese food has to go to the Snoqualmie Casino (it's the only place in town that serves sushi).

Ciao!

Dream Cars

Okay, not that my Hybrid isn't nice or anything, but I have to say I fell for a few cars at this year's Seattle Auto Show. Jerill and I went to the Show on Sunday with my parents, Carole and Arnold. I inherited my interest in cars from my parents who have probably had more cars that I care to count - some of which have been quite cool including a '67 Mustang, a Jag, an MG, and even a Model T. Here are some of the goodies from the show...

Okay, this is the Audi A8L - this is my dream car for commuting.
It's HUGE, comfortable and totally awesome. Quattro AWD, auto-everything.
And, it's really fast. MSRP around $87K to start.

Can't forget the new Aston Martin - same model as the one in the upcoming James Bond movie. This one will run you about $300K. This car is nice but I don't really WANT it like I want the Audi A8L or the other white one...

My Dad jumped into the 'fun' car they had at the show - the Flinstones Car. It was pretty plasticy but still pretty cute.
I believe it actually does run - although this one didn't appear to be powered by foot-power.

And, in my opinion, the creme de le creme of cars. The Porsche GT2. I've always loved the GT3 and this is their newest model into the line of Porsche Supercars. You can drive this as your every-day car, and then race it in Grand Prix events. Totally sexy, totally fast, totally Porsche. MSRP $197K



After the auto show, we decided to visit the new Snoqualmie Casino that just opened last Thursday. It was busy but bearable. We ate dinner in the Buffet as my parents are retired and LOVE buffets. This one is definitely better than the OCB (Old Country Buffet), and ALMOST as good as the Buffet in the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas. They offered a nice array of meats, seafood and Asian foods. Their desserts were pretty good (chocolate covered cream puffs and sundae bar). We didn't gamble one cent though. However, I will probably be back this week (Thurs?) to eat at the Sushi place in the Casino and try my luck at those 3 cent slot machines.

GiGi Super Kitty

GiGi is our 4 year old, pastel calico cat. I rescued GiGi from the Seattle Animal Shelter in November 2004. She was supposed to be a foster but I failed there and ended up adopting her because Lucky and George, our other cat, got along with her so well (plus, we fell in love with her too). I picked her out of a litter of 5 kittens. She was the skinniest, sickliest looking one of the bunch - the only one not playing. Knowing I could only foster one cat at a time, I took her to try to rehabilitate her. I wouldn't say she was feral, but she did spend her first couple of days at home hiding behind the toilet and hissing when we got near. Then, she figured out that people were her food source and she quickly become a totally loving, happy little cat. Here is a kitten picture of GiGi after she put on some weight...

For the last few weeks GiGi had been acting pretty strange. She was SUPER hungry all the time and actually would try to steal food off our dinner plates, she would push Lucky the dog out of the way and start to eat his food, and she would constantly be hanging out by the pantry where her cat food was stored. Then, this past week or so, she started behaving oddly - sleeping under the bed and not trying to steal food anymore.

I took her to the vet on Thursday and she was diagnosed with something called Hepatic Lipidosis, or "fatty liver disease." Apparently, GiGi put herself into a state of starvation by not eating the cat food I was providing her 24/7. I guess George, my older cat, was eating her share and leading me to beleive that the lower-calorie formula of food was working for one of my cats - GiGi was losing weight (she was pretty chunky). In actuality, she was only eating the treats and canned food I was giving them everyother day (for which George also probably got a large share of).

The condition is horrible as it affects a cat's liver. Any cat can get it but I read it's more prominent among cats who are overweight, put on a diet, female, and indoor cats. GiGi meets all that criteria. The survival rate of a cat with this condition is 80%. GiGi's test results from the vet indicate that this is the only thing that she has wrong though, which is good news. In 50% of the cases of cats with HL, half have cancer or some other critical disease. I have a feeling it's those cats with other conditions that will have a higher mortality rate - that's what I'm hoping anyway since GiGi doesn't have another condition.

GiGi is actually jaundice, which I didn't know cats and dogs could even get jaundice. The jaundice is a clear indication that her liver is messed up. The only cure of Hepatic Lipisos (HL) is to make GiGi eat as much as she can. I'm so thankful that she has not lost her appetite. We have her on her favorite foods now, she gets extra treats and thankfully, she is keeping all this food down. If she chose not to eat we would have to have a feeding tube inserted into her side directly into her stomach and essentially "force" feed her through the tube for 3-6 weeks! Let us hope it doesn't come to that.

So, thankfully, GiGi is eating, keeping her food down, and eager to eat and greet us. She is an ambassador of cats because she is very pretty, sociable, doesn't scratch unless frightened and has impeccable house manners. We couldn't have asked for a better kitty actually.

Here is a picture of GiGi recently...

And here is a picture of her from the perspective of a spider that she is about to kill, er, I mean play with. She is quite the hunter and keeps those horrible wood-spider (Hobo spiders technically) at a minimum in our home.
We'll know that things are going well once GiGi starts to put on weight and her jaundice clears. That may take 2-4 weeks. I will then take her back in to the vet for more blood work just to make sure her liver is stabilized and healthy again. Having lacerated my own liver before, I know that the liver is an amazing organ in that it can heal itself quickly and that it is forgiving in the sense that once it heals, it's healed.

Good News!

Tuesday was a spectacular day, wasn't it?


One thing that made it so awesome is that my boob surgeon called in the afternoon to tell me that the mass they took from my rightie was a benign tumor - it's something called a fibroadenoma. There is actually a page on Wikipedia for this if you're interested... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibroadenoma

This is a relief. I really didn't think I had the big "C" but it is still worrisome.

Also, Tuesday marked quite a significant day in American history - the election where Barack Obama became President Elect.

I know I talked in July about not voting, that I am a "political atheist" and that all politicians are full of crap, yada yada yada. But, I actually did vote in this election. Monday morning, before my surgery, I went through the online voters pamphlet and read through everything and made decisions on what vote for or against. Really, I was most passionate about voting on Initiative 1000, but figured, while I'm here why not cast a vote on everything? Plus, I wasn't allowed to eat prior to surgery so I needed something to keep me busy and keep my mind off food.

I timed my visit to the Sallal Grange (my voting location) after lunch but before the afterwork hours. I didn't have to wait in line at all. I had my voters registration card with me to guide me in the right direction, albeit for some stupid reason I never got the voter registration updated from my maiden name, so I voted as Janet Hoke. Whatever - I just can't figure out how the name change isn't naturally carried over since the County has my marriage license, my name change form on file, they also my driver's license was updated with my new name, and when I moved I contacted the WDSL to change my address and at that very same time, updated my voter registration address. But no, do they think to update the name?? Pure incompetence.

Today I drove the hybrid to MLT and paid my dues to the healthcare market research gods. My fuel economy wasn't so hot (a mere 41.3 mpg round trip). Reason why though is that on Wednesday, I stop at the Seattle Humane Society in Eastgate to perform my weekly duty of Shelter Check Volunteer for SPDR.

Basically, I go into the shelter every Wednesday after work with a clipboard and spreadsheet and I record all of the purebred dogs they have (breed, color, age, name, etc.) and report my findings back to a gal at SPDR who puts all the shelter-checks together. Then, the breed reps of any particular breed that may be in the shelter is contacted and then, perhaps, that breed rep will spring that dog out of that shelter and get it into a foster home or adopted through SPDR.

You should check the place out if you're looking for a new companion (they have kittens too). I advise visiting after work on Wednesday evening - they close at 7 and there seems to be a lot of surrenders on Mondays and Tuesdays. If you wait until the weekend, all the super cute ones that aren't on the BSL-lists are gone. It's sad to say that but that is how it goes in animal shelters.

Woof!

Surgery Day

Today the hybrid took me to Overlake Hospital in Bellevue where I "went under the knife." I'm home resting now and find that blogging is just as therapeutic as watching TV.

So, why was I at the hospital today? Well, back in August my doctor found a small lump in my right boob. Thinking it may be a cyst of some sort because it was so small (1.3mm), my first form of "treatment" was to go off alcohol, chocolate and COFFEE for nearly three weeks! Apparently, those delicious foods-of-the-Gods seem to aggravate cysts and make them more difficult to go away. Anyway, after those three horrible weeks, I went back and the bump was still there. So, off I go 2 weeks later to get a mammogram! The nice thing about mammograms and ultrasounds is that you get a picture right away - there's no waiting weeks to learn what they see. So, the "thing" was determined to NOT be a cyst but some sort of solid mass. Yikes. Well, just take it in stride, right? So, three more weeks to wait in order to get a consult with a breast surgeon. Finally, at that appt with the surgeon we determine that I should get this thing removed during a surgical procedure called an Incisional Biopsy. So, that is what happened today. Honestly, I didn't stress much about this whole situation. I've been through WAY WORSE. Not being able to eat or drink for 12 hours sucked but that's what you have to do in any type of surgery.

In my surgery, I declined the general anesthesia and opted for a local anasthesia. I have an extremely high pain tolerance and I am able to relax in some of the strangest situations, so a local anasthesia was allowed for me. Basically, I just napped for the 1/2 hour procedure. They had given me an IV which makes me feel better since I hadn't had water in a while and I got to wear those circulation booties (I actually really like those). While I waited to go into surgery, they gave me this blanket called a Baer Hugger. OMG - this thing is awesome! It's a plastic, disposable air mattress that fills with hot air. It kind of wraps around you when it inflates and it warms you almost instantly. I would like to get one of those for my cubicle at work since the office is always so freaking cold! The IV didn't leave to much of a hole in the back of my hand (I don't think it will even bruise) and the bitter taste in my mouth left from the anasthesia should go away by morning.

The incision looks to be about 1/2-3/4" long. Apparently, it's in a location where the scar will hardly be noticeable and it will heal quickly. I don't really care about scarring. After a car accident broke my pelvis in 2001 and left me with some really interstesting scars on my hips, I kind of enjoy being a contender in worst-scar competitions. Sometimes I win, but lately I've been shown-up: there's the the gal who has a foot-long scar on her chest, a gal that has a a pie-plate size circular scar on her stomach and a guy who has a cranial scar along the top of his whole head. Competition out there is tough!

So, the "mass" is now heading off to some lab to get checked out (the biopsy part). I learn what it is in a few days. I'm feeling pretty confident that it's not cancerous. Jerill says (he's a molecular biologist) that cells are always mutating in all our bodies and sometimes, a mutated cell, instead of being killed off by the healthy normal cells, will sit under the radar and will just start multiplying into a bundle of mutated-clone cells (that is what the mass of anything typically is in the body). Sometimes the mutated cells are cancerous, other times they're not. I'm sensing my "mass" is benign. Usually, when it comes to my health my intuition is dead on, so I'm just chilling out.

It's so nice to be able to eat chocolate and drink coffee. My words of advice to you -- do BSE's, get a physical every year and don't take chocolate and coffee for granted!

Toodles

Howl-oween

Our neighborhood doesn't get a lot of trick-o-treat traffic even though I bet all of my neighbors, and myself included, have full-size candy bars just waiting for the kids. This year, we had NO trick-or-treaters. That just means more Kit Kats for Jerill and I. That doesn't mean that we didn't celebrate the occasion.

What better thing to do on Halloween than dress up your animals? The cats were no where to be found last night, so I ended up just dressing up the dogs. Mattie was a Yellow Jacket and Lucky was a gangsta-pirate. It appears that Mattie actually is enjoying her costume but she really hated being dressed up. She typically only wears a bandana every once in a while. I was surprised that she was being such a good sport about the whole thing, including keeping her antennae on.

Lucky is used to wearing clothes, so he loved wearing his skull and crossbones hoodie and pirate bandana.

Today I was a farmgirl. I am helping out my herding instructor while she is undergoing a significant health setback. So, in leiu of me getting to run one of her best dogs in trials and doing self herding on her sheep and getting free lessons from her, I babysit her dog Kuro sometimes and I help out with farm chores. My first hour today at the farm consisted of working Scott in the Big Field. I am running Scott in a trial in a couple weeks and so I have to practice with him a lot. He and I did great today - he was listening to me the whole time and we were successful in getting the sheep to go where I wanted them to go. Here are some pics...

The Woolies - sheep hate dogs.

Scott on the way to the Woolies (he looks like a Panda Bear to me)

Scott is driving the Woolies away from me (I asked him to do this)

Scott is fetching the Woolies back to me. He's such a pro.

After working Scott, I cleaned kennels, - even used a pitchfork! I fed the six dogs, a cow, a horse, 30+ sheep, ducks and chickens. Then, I worked Mattie in the round pen after using Scott to sort her sheep. Mattie's herding is improving each and every time we go out there. She is getting easier and easier to call off the sheep - yes, we do say "that'll do" just like in the movie Babe. And, she is figuring out how to read sheep and how much distance to give them. Herding is all about pressure and balance and keeping your cool.

Before herding, I had always wanted a working farm with horses and cows and sheep and alpaca. However, after helping out with Diane's farm this past summer, I have learned that farming is A LOT of work, 24/7. I may just be happy with a few chickens and ducks of my own! I do have a lot of new skills to add on the ol' resume though, including things like sheep flippin', hoove trimming (sheep and horse), sheep ear piercing and throwin' hay bales.