Working-K9: April 2010 Posts

Friday, April 30, 2010
Police K-9 Trials

We missed it last year due to another obligation but this year we were able to attend for at least a little while. My human and I both have the same weakness for men in uniform so naturally the Desert Dog Police K9 Trials are hard to pass up.

My human gets to drool over the human males in their police or military uniforms and I drool over those stud K9 dogs who wear nothing at all except the occasional harness.

We both enjoy watching the dogs in action as they search the field for the bad guy, whom this year was hiding in a port-o-potty (poor fella). Then they race across the field to attack the tasty treat in the bite suit as he tries to run away. Some of the dogs really get in to it and don't want to release when given the command. That's when the officer comes over to pry the dog off the bite suit.

Ya that's my idea of a stud, well built, athletic, brave, and well trained. Who wouldn't want that!

While watching the event we sat next to a very nice couple who flew in from Maine to watch the event. Apparently their son trains some of these dogs back east and they fly out every year to watch it. The man we sat next to was very nice and he let me sit under his chair to escape from heat of the sun, he also kept my water bowl filled.

Yet even with the shade and water it was very hot and my human kind enough to take me in to the air conditioned shop where she bought a t-shirt to help support this event.

Friday, April 23, 2010
Tea Party Pooch

Being a dog I don't really understand all these events I attend with my human but I do enjoy going, especially because people pet me and tell me how beautiful I am. I could listen to people prattle on about my greatness all day long. The rest of the events are spent with me simply trying to stay out of the way and hope some kid drops something yummy right in front of me.

For my human these events are a bit more entertaining or educational. The latter being the case this time around. You see my human says she has no problem paying taxes, she's all for that money going towards the military and infrastructure of this nation. What she can't stand is watching the ones in charge of using that money for said purposes and wasting it on frivolous endeavors or projects that in the end result do nothing or cause a bigger fiscal problem leading to yet more taxes and regulations and yet more pointless protocols which lead to committees to solve the problems they themselves just caused. It's a vicious cycle, even more vicious than I can be when I don't get my dinner on time.

On this tax day, my human and I attended a tea party in Tempe. It was a rather large gathering of people with signs and patriotic attire. I had heard about how mean spirited and hateful these gatherings were; the news folk said it so it must be true. However my human showed no fear as the masses of people greeted her with smiles and fliers and greeted me with ooo's and aaa's. My cuteness must have more of a calming effect than I thought.

Vendors were selling shirts, buttons, flags and other memorabilia. The concession stands were open and selling food and drinks. I saw no riots or even arguments, just people chatting and sharing points of view; but I will admit by this point I was more focused on the smell of those hot dogs over there.

We found a cozy little out of the way spot to watch the speakers. My human chatted with people around her and listened to the various people running for office and those who sponsored the evening's events. Naturally my intolerable adorability came up in more than one conversation with the people sitting near us. I was trying to pay attention to the people around me but those darn hot dogs kept walking by right in front of me.

I digress. The event was about the government not wasting my humans' money and with that I agree. Either spend it wisely or give it back and let her spend it on me!

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Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Erins' Visit

The very same day, only 6 hours later, Erin arrived in AZ. Erin is one of my humans friends from back when she was a young pup herself. The two gals had planned to attend the Arthritis Introspective conference together. It was a 3 day long event in Tempe starting Friday night.

Arriving Thursday afternoon gave the girl's time to chat and do a little shopping for groceries so Erin would have what she needed for the weekend.

Friday morning we headed out sight seeing as this was Erin's' first trip to the Phoenix area. My human made arrangements for Peyton to spend the weekend with one of the AZG sitters so she wouldn't be stuck in the kennel all day for 3 days in a row. I thought I'd get to lounge about on the sofa and just relax but my human had other plans and I went along on the sight seeing trip.

It was fun getting out; it would have been even more fun if my human had let me chase after the quails, lizards and rabbits I saw while at the large parks. We stopped at the Iowa Cafe for lunch and to cool down. I'm quite the celebrity there so I was given my very own bowl of ice chips!

Then we were off again and heading to the mountains. Ok not the supper big ones, just little superstition mountain. We got a little lost but saw some nice desert landscapes. We went up to the Lost Dutchman's Mine Park and took some pics, then over to a ghost town. By this point it was getting hot and we needed to rest before going to the AI events that evening so we headed back home.

And that's when it happened. My human got sick. Though after vomiting a bit she felt better and we all went to Tempe for the AI conference. However as the night went on my human started to feel more and more sickly once again. Finally telling her friend that she needed to get home and get home soon.

By 9pm that night my human was vomiting once again and this time it didn't stop. She was so sick and I couldn't do anything to help her. She did make arrangements for her aunt to get Erin to and from the conference for the weekend but that was all she could do.

I remember when I was sick like this, puking every hour and my human stayed up all night with me. I stayed up with my human, wandering in to the bathroom each time she got up to be sick again.

We both stayed in bed most of Saturday. My humans' aunt brought over 7up and fed me; her uncle dropped off crackers. We didn't really see Erin much until Sunday night when my human was starting to feel a little better. She still wasn't eating much but she wasn't puking her guts out anymore. Monday was the last day of events and it was a trip to Tucson which my human knew she couldn't do so again we stayed home. Probably for the best as by this time I was limping and just not feeling well either. My human being sick makes my valley fever symptoms return.

In a way it was kind of a nice weekend. It was a quiet weekend of mostly napping and resting on my humans' bed along side my human. The bed is one place I'm normally not allowed to be, something about my being dirty and smelling like a dog, but when she doesn't feel well she'll invite me up on the bed providing I don't try to push her off the bed. For the record the whole time she was sick I only tried to push her off the bed once. Ok so I may have tried to steal her pillow a few times too but that's it, I swear.

Bright and early Tuesday morning Erin flew out and back Iowa again.

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Friday, April 16, 2010
Moms' Mom is back

Oh my I'm a bit behind once again. Let's start with my human and her mom.

My humans mom came for a visit. Now I do enjoy having this human around but normally when she shows up my human has a surgery and I'm home alone for several days to a week. So I was naturally skeptical of the mother humans' presence in my house.

After a few days however it became apparent that she was not going to take my human away from me. Rather she was going to take all the greenery growing in my back yard and throw it all away. Now I like this greenery. It's fun to chew, as I often like to pretend I'm a goat quietly grazing in a field. It's also quite fun to roll in, especially as it starts to die and little bits of brown itchy grass get lodged in my fur. My human hates it when I bring in all that dead grass and weeds then rub it all over her sofa.

Naturally I tried to save some of my greenery by getting in her way, sitting on the weeds she was trying to pull and by trying to distract her with some fun toys. It didn't work. So I talked Peyton in to helping in my endeavor. Between the two of us we were very annoying and in her way frequently but she wouldn't relent and often Peyton would trot off and return to my human after only a few minutes of separation from her. Total momma's dog.

It wasn't all yard work mind you. My human made Peyton and I take turns on outings as the humans ran errands. The neighbor kids came over frequently to see Peyton to help her with her fear of children issue. That kind of sucked because I was often put in the kennel while they were over. Apparently my rambunctious enthusiasm got in the way and made Peyton even more timid... Ya, Whatever�.

The next big project was turning the aviary which once housed all the finches in to a dog proof garden. This involved more digging and playing in the dirt and once again I was not invited to help. So I watched from the other side of the wire as the humans worked. The dug, they planted, they bought more seeds and plants. They reactivated the slightly plugged up mister and dripping system from its' winter long inactivity. The strawberries started producing fruit before the plants were even in the soil. With all the commotion the tortoise Sputnik woke from his winter hibernation and feasted on greenery and strawberries. Peyton was terrified of Sputnik at first but eventually got over that too. I don't know why she was so afraid. I look at him and I see a potential chew toy! Which is probably why he stays on the inside of the once aviary turned garden enclosure.

It all ended as quickly as it started. My humans mother had to return to her home and my human and I were all sad and the house was quiet once again. Well for about 6 hours, and then Erin came for a visit. But that's another story.

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