Update on the grapes

Left to right: Bug(Meritage), Zin, Merl, Caly
Everyone is doing great and loves the new puppy gruel they are now getting. Puppy formula and rice cereal. Hattie continues to be a great mom and eats voraciously. She is eating over 2 cups of high quality food a day and not gaining any weight! Puppies are barking and growling and playing like little warriors. Very cute little critters!

Jar Jar has gone to be a Cowboy!

Our sweet Star Wars boy has gone to live in Montana with Dawn.
We said good-bye to him on the last day of The Stumptown Cluster.
We miss him, but know he is riding the range with his Daddy Jock.
Love, Nanny and Zoe

My week home, in pictures

I've had a fun and dog-filled two weeks home. I built a dogwalk, which has been on my mind for a few months, but I couldn't find the hinges I wanted. I needed something which I could take apart, so that I can move each section rather than the entrie thing. I finally thought of a way to make the hinges myself!
How-to: Three 10' (regulation would be 12' but I wanted smaller and lighter- I wouldn't go shorter than 10' though because then the angles get harder to make) 12" by 2" boards. Cost: $20. A bunch of smallish screw eyes and two 10" bolts with nuts. Cost: $10. Put together as shown. A note about the screw eyes- make sure that the end eyes are pushed up against each other, with the eyes on the same board on the outside, just as shown in picture. If there is any room between, the boards will slide. I had to re-position once to make it tighter.
Add slats and paint (both of which I already had) and, in less than 4 hours, run dogs over it. Sets up over any two objects of same height. In the pics, it's on rubbermaid tubs, but now I have it up higher on sawhorses.

Next-

Rain went to his first herding trial. Here we are moving sheep like the experts. He passed Herding Tested the first day, despite chasing a sheep around like he wanted to eat it. The second day he didn't do enough "work" to pass, but the course went much nicer- the sheep stayed with me better, and when I left them to get the dog, they stayed in place rather than running back to the pen like the first day's sheep. I am going to buy Rain some sheep when I get back from this next trip.

And finally-

That is Tally after being nearly eaten by one of the roommate's dogs. She has a total of 13 puncture wounds on her, most on her front legs and chest, and only after finding one on her shoulder and starting to shave her did I find the five going over the top of her back. The roommate is officially evicted as of Sept 30, two weeks after I return from this trip, so I don't have to deal much more with this dog.

I'm off for the next seven weeks to save the world. Keep me in your thoughts, I'll be preparing for Montgomory and ready to roll when I get back. Be sure to post about the shows and activities in the meantime because I'll check here when I can.

Happy's a Star Again!

Friday, July 18 was a wonderful day. TAOshow and CRCTC's very first specialty with a banquet at the POrtlander Inn to top it all off. What a wonderful bunch of people we associate with. Happy was entered in the Working Dog class for conformation. I actually think he misses being in that ring, he doesn't have to do much but walk around and look like a big ball of testosterone. Then off to Rally Advanced and Novice Obedience!
His first leg was achieved in both that day, with scores in the 70's and 170's but what the heck, HE PASSED!!! Rally is typically my errors and he is very forgiving. But Friday we were both winners.
Saturday, on the other hand, was not a good day for me, evidently. I messed up 2 stations for a total of 20 points off and between lagging and other little picky-uny things we failed with a score of 64.
Novice OB on Saturday was extremley painful. His "sitter" broke and when he finally did sit at the last of the figure 8 exercise the judge actually sang a show tune, almost forgetting to tell us "exercise finish". :) Funny man, I'd love to steward for him one day. I though we had failed so I almost didn't do long sits and downs but thought we probably needed the practice so we hung around. Sits, no problem at all. The downs on the other hand ... were ok until the Bull Mastiff next to him started "looking" at him. No harm intended, it was just that they were checking each other out. Finally, Happy had enough, pretended to stretch and scooted forward about 6" so he wouldn't get in trouble... I didn't worry about it too much until I saw that if he had stayed put, he would have PASSED!! Oh well, he was trying to stay out of trouble :) Gotta love that doggie.
I practiced with Oz for his first Rally, I think he'll do just fine... Look Out Jimmy, Oz will beat your age record :)

Everyone's has their eyes open!

From the left; Bug, Caly, Merl, Zin. They have their eyes open to see their new digs in the motorhome. Tomorrow we are all headed to Portland for the inaugural Columbia River Cairn Terrier Club designated specialty on Friday. Of course, these guys will have to wait til next year to participate! Kona (their dad) is entered all weekend along with 45 other cairns! Greg has to stay home, but the dogs and I are headed out tomorrow morning.

Me, too!

I also took and passed my CGC evaluator test. I have to say, there isn't much congratulating which needs to be done. A question near the end-
"In the 'Accepting a Friendly Stranger' exercise, the dog should:
A) Give the evaluator a warning bark or growl.
B) Lunge at the evaluator to protect the handler.
C) Hide behind the handler.
D) Calmly accept the friendly stranger."

Yeah.

At my EMT course, they told us the tests would be very, very hard, but they also told us some of the test questions would be so awful we'd want to jump out the window. They were right on both counts.
A few of the most memorable:
"CPR should be done with the patient-
A) Laying on their side
B) Talking you through it
C) Laying on their back
D) Laying on their stomach"

Another asked what the cause of seizures is, and one of the options was "demonic posession."

My all-time favorite-
"For someone to have an ectopic pregnancy, what condition must be present?
A) 6 to 8 weeks past last menstrual cycle
B) History of ectopic pregnancies
C) Abdominal pain
D) Pregnancy"

I kid you not.
But ignore those fun questions, and believe me when I say the course was one of the hardest college-things I've ever done, and I'm glad to be back.

Sammy and I will see you all at TAO.

CGC EVALUATOR

I took my test and passed! I have my official number now and can do the testing. Wouldn't you know that we just found an outside person to do it at our fun days celebration on Saturday.

Maybe I can do it at the Cairn only event on Sunday...hmmmm. That would leave all the slots open to other breeds on Saturday. hmmmm.

What a fun happy thing to be able to do.

Eartdogs! It's in the genes!

Meet the "cluster"

Here they are at 7 days old!
Bug is first, then Merl, Caly and Zin.
Everyone is gaining weight, very active and healthy. Hattie is an awesome mom. She is now leaving the whelping box and watching from a chair or the bed. The minute anyone squeaks she is back in the box,counting noses, offering a snack now and then.
I have taken lots of pictures, but most of them look like potatoes with legs, not future champions of conformation, agility and obedience or master earthdogs....

First Vet visit

The babies had their first visit to the vet today. They had the dew claws removed. Ugh. Hattie went in with us briefly so the vet could look her over, then back to the car for her. She wasn't real happy about that. Actually, that is a REAL understatement. SHE WAS MAD, MAD, MAD. But, it gets even better. When I returned the babies after their little surgeries, they were in the cozy travel box I made for them. They were quite comfy, considering. One small problem. Hattie knew they were right there and she was in her car crate, and the puppies were not. Those are MY BABIES, and I WANT THEM NOW!!!!!!!OW,OW,OW,OW....AH-WHOOOOOOOOOO, I could hear her from her place in the car in the parking lot INSIDE the vet office were I waited for them to figure out how much I owed. Thank goodness we live 5 minutes from the vet office, she didn't let up until I let her out of the car in the garage. At that point, she raced into the house and up the stairs, wait...where are my babies, she raced back and forth between me and the baby room until they got there. She was frantic. Poor mom. Puppies were oblivious, thank goodness. I am sure if they had been upset, it would have been far worse!

Our "Bunch of Grapes"

Here are some pictures of our darling "Bunch of Grapes". Hattie is a really good mom and she is totally enjoying her new role of mom and "Queen of the red room". The room that has recently been converted to the nursery. She is ravenous as she spends her days in the constant role of milk bar! She is extremely happy that she gets to eat so often, and not happy at all when I pick her up and take her out to potty! She does what she needs and then races back upstairs to her brood. She has just figured out how to lay down, maybe now she can get some sleep. Hope so, pretty soon these cuties will be running her legs off.
As near as I could tell without turning him over, the picture on the bottom is Zinfindel (called Zin) He was the biggest boy and as you can see pretty darn cute!
Calypsi (called Caly) is the darkest one in the picture on the top.