bella

Two doggen

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Bella hates Annie. Annie tolerates Bella. That's pretty much the way it's been for the last four years. Bella was first, and thinks she's the alpha dog. Annie was second, but knows how to use her size and weight on Bella. They don't really play together, and usually each does her own thing.

Recently, the frost between the two of them has started chilling. Not really warm yet, but warming.



Evil ducks watching you

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Bella needs to be more careful. The Evil Ducks™ are watching her.


Still get that face

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When we first adopted the dogs, Kris would faithfully take them for walks every morning before work and every evening before bed. I would join him on some of the walks, which would then be wonderful together time when we'd talk about our days coming up or our days just past. The walks would range from the I'm-in-a-hurry 20 minutes to the usual 60 minutes walk through the neighborhood to find houses for sale but not yet on the market. Eventually the 60 minute walks twice a day drifted into 30 minutes twice a day into 20 minutes maybe twice a day.

Not nearly enough exercise for a beagle. Not by far.

When I found the all-day, off-leash hiking opportunity for Annie, and Kris arranged to make it happen, Annie started getting enough walking in on that one day for us to feel less guilty about the shorter walks Annie was getting, but not so about Bella. Guy's being around this summer helped a lot with Bella, one of his tasks being walking the dogs, but he's now back to school, and the girls need their walkin' again. Worse, on Tuesday mornings when I leave to go to work, Bella knows that Kris has left with Annie, and that I'm leaving her for the day, so she sits at the door and looks up at me with the saddest look on her face. She's cute. She's adorable. And she's doing her damnedest to break my heart so that maybe, maybe!, I'll take her with me and not leave her alone all day.

This morning, I decided to skip my usual yoga-pilates fusion class and take Bella for a hike at a local open space preserve. She needed the exercise. I needed the exercise and, more importantly, didn't need to see The Face™ as I left for work this morning. A hike would do the trick, I figured.

We went where we go frequently enough that I know the hike would be less than two hours long, more likely like one hour long. More importantly, the trailed we'd be on is one I feel comfortable going on alone, or with just a dog. I nearly wimped out this morning, having been sick yesterday, but realized the guilt over not going would be worse than any stress of a time crunch from going, so off Bella and I went at 7:35 AM.

The hike was mostly uneventful. The lighting of the morning was much different than the lighting of our usual hiking time that I didn't quite recognize some of the paths, which is odd, as I figured I knew the trail fairly well. The trail is a hike from the lot to a loop, around the loop, and back down the trail again to the parking lot. Bella pooped on the way up to the loop and, rather than carrying the poop in a bag for the upcoming two and a half miles, I set the poop bag down on a post to pickup on my way back down. Unfortunately, by the time I arrived with Bella at the post after the hike, the poop bag was gone. Kris and I are particularly good dog owners: we pick up our dogs' crap. We even pick up other dogs' crap when we see it at the school. We've also been known to pick up poop bags (like the one I left) from other dog owners, so that non-owners won't have cause to complain about dogs and potentially revoke dogs' rights to be on the trail.

Apparently, someone else is also a good dog owner and picked up Bella's poop bag full of her poop. To this person: thank you for picking up my dog's poop bag. I'm sorry you managed to get there before I did, as I was going to get it on my way down. Please know that, yes, I do clean up after my dog, and that, next time I have the chance, I, too, will pay it forward.

We drove home, Bella doing her best to dirty up my car with her dusty little feet, and my trying to stop her with various seat covers and towels. She won.

After showering and eating, I started packing up to leave for work. It was then that I turned and noticed Bella sitting in the living room watching me. I gathered up my stuff and walked to the door, watching her as I went. When I opened the door and turned back to say good bye, I realized the walk had been in vain: she was still giving me the saddest dog in all the world face.

She was still giving me The Face™.

Doggie tales

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Took Bella for a walk today after my pilates/yoga class this morning. When I arrived home after class, she was jumping and barking and generally excited, so a walk was in order. Clearly.

We walked up to the school, where she ran once and walked around the perimeter, cataloging each and every smell on each and every tree and ivy leaf from the corner to the street before I stopped her. I leashed her up and off we ran for a while, the wind blowing back her ears, and breathless smile on her face.

Instead of heading back home immediately, we walked a few blocks away from the school before heading back around home. We walked along a new street, to give Bella a chance to catalog some new smells.

As we turned the corner to head back home, Bella crouched, and entered her slinky, I'm-sneaking-up-on-prey pose, moving slowly towards a parked truck.

My first reaction was, "Come on, leave it alone!" I tugged on her leash for a bit, dragging her away from the truck, before I thought, "Eh, why not?" If she wants the cat under the truck so much, let her have it. She'll get a swipe on the nose and be less likely to attack the next cat. Yes, I like this idea. I let up on the leach and unlatched the lock.

Bella immediately crouched back down and started slinking towards the cat again. She stepped closer and closer. Closer... Closer...

The cat didn't move. When Bella was about two feet from it, it turned to her and meowed.

It didn't hiss. It didn't arch. It didn't even stand up. It lay there and meowed a "hey, how about scratching behind my ear, will ya?" meow.

Bella jumped and rushed away, stopping behind a truck tire and peering back around at the cat. I chuckled, unwrapped the leash from the various truck underbody parts and started to pull Bella away, to continue on our walk.

Bella wasn't quite done, however. She resisted, and, when the cat stood up and started walking towards us, pulled her way back to the cat.

Holding Bella back, I reached down and started petting the cat. After a few moments, I stopped holding Bella back, and let her sniff the cat while I petted it. True to dog form, she went straight for the butt, sniffing it for a moment, then jumping back, sniffing it for a moment, then jumping back. It was almost as if she knew she was supposed to attack this smell, but the smell wasn't threatening, or even interesting (which sounds wrong, given Bella's a dog and ALL smells are interesting to a dog. Except alcohol. Yeah).

After freaking out at the cat for a few minutes, Bella stopped and just stood there as I continued to pet the cat. It was a great cat, very friendly.

Kris thinks Annie would have eaten it.

And, speaking of Annie, Kris sent me a note this morning about Annie's new adventure today on her weekly off-leash, all-day hike.

There is a new girl walking Annie today. It's her first day. She is with an experienced person, who is her trainer, but I have a feeling that having to walk Annie is going to be trial by fire. If she comes through this, she'll do great. If she breaks down into tears by the end of the day, well, so be it. Maybe they want to see what she's got by giving her Annie! If only she knew what she was in for. The funny part is, though, that I handed the leash to the new girl and the trainer said "Go ahead and load her into a crate." Before the new girl could do anything, Annie jumped into the van then jumped into her crate and scarfed the treat. Amber was used to this behavior, and closed the crate door before Annie could continue the hunt for more treats, but new girl wasn't. Annie jumped out of the crate and went sniffing at another crate trying to get at the treat inside. I just smiled and walked away. Trial by fire...

Should have interesting stories tonight.

Doggen watchin'

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Danger, through his mom, had given Kris two VIP tickets to today's A's game against the Mariners. The Mariners who, by the way, have Ichiro playing (Ichiro being the only consistent hitter I have in the Beat the Streak contest. At Doyle's suggestion, I prefilled Ichiro as my hitter for the next two weeks, in case I forget to pick a player. What do you know? My best streak is at 13 now. Kris' is at only 9.).

Not being exactly the biggest baseball fan ever, I suggested Kris ask someone else to go with him. Yes, I'd go, but wouldn't he rather go with someone who will also enjoy the game with him, and not go and wonder why she was there, thinking of all the other tasks she'd rather be doing? I mean, come on, think of the babies!

So, he called up his new best friend yesterday, and made plans. I offered to watchin' the doggen, so plans were made to leave from here, with two dogs having a doggie fun day at Krikitt Downs.

I'm still not sure what drugs I took to make such an offer escape my lips.

So, this morning, Andy came over with Blue and Shadow. Thankfully, he didn't knock when he arrived. Instead, he followed standard Krikitt Downs' friends protocol and walked right in. I love when my friends know they can do that, and do.

A short while later, Kris and Andy were off, and I was in the house with four dogs. Four dogs that, combined, were double my weight. More doggen that I'm used to having.

Blue spent the first half hour of his visit with me staring at the front door where Andy had gone through. He stared almost as if, by sheer force of will, he could bring Andy back through the door.

When that failed, he sat down next to me and stared up at me.

Panting.

For two hours.

Might have been longer, I'm not sure. I tried to pet him, get him up on the couch next to me to snuggle me as Bella does. He wasn't having any of it, and sat there, staring and panting, panting and staring. At one point, he went back to the front door to stare at it, no panting. He returned a few moments later to stare at me.

And pant.

A strange way to spend the day, to be sure.

Eventually, the game ended, and the boys came back from the game. Blue heard the car door shut and either Andy's or Kris' voice first, and bum rushed the door. He was shortly followed by a Shadow, the Cone-head and the Howler.

That either Andy or Kris made it through the front door with the mounds of doggie flesh piled up behind it, amazes me still.

I still hate dogs

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Even if they are super cute.

Andy's doggie adventure

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Andy volunteered to watch the girls while we were in Boston. I though he was fairly insane when he offered to bring them over to his house for a slumber party.

Turns out, he was only partly insane. He let us know:

Sleep was a commodity in short supply Saturday night, although we had fun.

Blue and Annie ran around in circles in the back yard a bit, while I held
Bella and Shadow so they wouldn't bark. Annie seemed to be having fun, but
might have been a bit stressed about the whole thing. There was one tussle
at feeding time. Later, she spent a long time licking Blue's face (Blue
licked back--it was cute but weird), and then she tried to spend a while
licking my face, which was cute for a minute or two. Dogs will be dogs.

We had one group outing: to Whole Foods Sat evening. When we got there, we
had a vote and elected one person to go in and buy the goods while everyone
else waited in the truck. Luckily I was the only one that voted.

Annie, Bella, and Blue all wanted to sleep pressed up against me. Bella had
at least one spell of howling in the middle of the night. It's a little
hazy--there might have been two incidents. She finally settled down for good
around 4AM when she figured out how to get under the covers with just her
schnoz poking out.

Sunday, I couldn't come up with any plan to take everybody to the park that
I was happy with, so I decided to drop off Annie and Bella on the way around
10am. When I gathered everybody up in the truck, I had to search for Annie,
and realized she had found a hole in my doggie defenses: she was attempting
to consume a bag of mulch that was made from cocoa bean husks. They do smell
nice. Blue went at them a little bit, then gave up the day I got them. I
don't think she was at it long, but it was a little scary. There are no
warnings about dogs on the bag, but I really don't know whether it had any
properties of chocolate. I stopped back to check on her after the park trip
around 11am, and surprised Heather. Annie seemed fine, and I told Heather
what had happened. (I probably didn't surprise her as much as Crystal did
when she squirmed through the dog door to pick up the cones and white
board.)

Anyway, I think everybody had fun--including me--and I don't regret it a
bit.

Practice was very productive. Lots of women this time--we went 4-women about
half the time. Once, the defense ran 4-women by accident, and since they
were playing zone, no one noticed until the turnover. We had a scrimage, and
two games. Dark won the scrimmage 5-4, light won the two games 7-6 and 5-4.

Decisions of youth

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Kris, Bella, Annie and I went to Andy's for dinner tonight. Andy grilled, which fit in nicely to Kris' and my agreement that this summer is going to be a summer of enjoying the outdoors in the evening. We went to the park near Andy's house for the dogs to meet "on neutral ground" before Bella and Annie toured Blue and Shadow's home as Blue and Shadow had done our house two weeks ago. The other thought of heading to the park was to tire them out before a bit so that the dogs would be managable during dinner. Unfortunately, Annie both runs away when she's offleash and doesn't tire very easily. So, instead of allowing her to run run run offleash, and run away, I ended up running next to her, with Annie on her leash. I tired out instead.

That, and the running made me sweat. I'm sure I was ripe before heading over for dinner. Poor Kris. Poor Andy.

Dinner was tilapia (for Andy and me) and salmon (for Kris), rice and mojitos. Andy's growing mint in his back yard, in a hydroponic pod he and his father built, which makes it really cool, and less likely to overtake his garden bed. Before he started the fish, he made us mojitos. I couldn't convince Kris to mash the mint in a rotating manner, so that I could wiggle my hips like the rum commercial. Instead, he just plunged the handle up and down, making my movements more like squats. Not very sexy.

The dogs were very much a highlight of the evening. Shadow likes to circle the yard, barking at birds and rats on wires. Blue and Annie wandered the house, Annie looking for food, Blue making sure she didn't find any. Annie is totally part of the Crews pack. She fit right in. Bella, not so much. She just checked out the house, then hovered around us.

I'm starting to believe Andy knew me in college as much as I knew him in college: which is to say, he knew of me peripherally, knew which house I was in, but didn't much pay any attention to me, as I was outside his world. Which suits me fine, as there are many, many, many parts of college I'd like to forget. The one part, however, that he did know about was my senior picture. "Want to see Kitt's senior picture?" Not that it's particularly forgetable. For some reason, that's what I wanted at the time.

At Tech, each senior receives a half page in the yearbook. A senior can submit one or several photos, and they'll be arranged with other seniors on the various pages, with a quote if desired. When I submitted my pictures, I liked them a lot. When the yearbook the following year had a senior picture in it that mocked my photo, I started to doubt the wisdom of my picture choice. That, and my mother was scandalized when she saw my pictures for the first time. Scandalizing one's mother? Not always a good thing.

So, in the spirit of embracing that which embarrasses me, making it my own, overcoming the embarrassment, I'll post my college senior photo. Imagine what it looks like, if this is the mockery in the following year's yearbook:

Pulgas Ridge hike

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Andy showed us his Pulgas Ridge hike, with an off-leash dog park in the middle.

Andy told us about a hill in the park that he and the dogs run up. It's an insane hill. They run up, rest, walk down and run up again. Last week was a slow week, they managed only two sprints up the hill. Their record is five.

I'd be happy with one.


Shadow and Kris


Bella and Blue


Blue and his indestructo disc

Ticked off, times two

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Kris and I made the journey to the Gulls again yesterday, this time taking the girls for a Christmas hike. We were planning on a long hike for Christmas day, where long is greater than three hours. After the call exposing the amazing gifts from the Gulls, we switched plans and asked if they were up for a hike, too. They were interested, but for a shorter one that Liza could walk, and suggested the trails around their new house. A few minutes later, we were on our way.

Kate had been on the trail we were going to hike. The trailhead was near the end of their road, so we wandered down the road, and turned to head along the trail back around to their house.

Once we hit the trail, Kris was terribly keen on letting the dogs off their leashes. Since the trail was along private property, Mike and Kate could give us permission to allow them off leash. I was a little worried about letting them off the leash: that Annie would take off and not return; that Bella would wander off and not return. When we let them off leash at other park, we're confident we'll find them again because not only is the park fenced in (leaving only about 30 acres where the dogs could get lost), but the interesting smells are centralized so they don't go too far. Annie is a beagle in fur only, she acts more like a lab or collie, in that she'll run away along a trail for twenty-thirty yards, then run back to see that you're following, run forward, run back and check. Bella is a true beagle, she puts her nose down, starts sniffing, and wanders away, following her nose.

After a short way down the trail, I agreed to let the dogs off the leashes, but quickly changed my mind when we had to stand around for ten minutes waiting for Bella to wander back to us. We put her on a leash, but left Annie to run, since she seemed to be following us.

Definitely a mistake, as she caught a scent and took off. We kept walking for a bit, as Annie's howls followed us as we walked along, but had to stop again when she seemed to be running along the top of the ridge instead of near us. Some of her howls were almost desperate, a sound Kris assured me meant only that she wanted us to come to her, see what she had caught.

After standing around for another ten or fifteen minutes, and hearing Annie's howls become fainter, I decided to run back to find Annie. I have no idea what possessed me to think that, after three years of ignoring me, Annie would suddenly stop chasing the delicious smell she was following, and come when I called for her. Clearly just dumb on my part.

I gave up after running a quarter mile back along the trail, and ran back to the group, telling Kris he had to go get Annie, she wasn't listening to me. Shock. Mike went with Kris as Kate, Liza, Maeryn and I went back up along the trail. We waited for close to half an hour before Kate gave Liza and I trail directions and instructions on how to break into the house, so that we could turn off the oven, saving the Christmas turkey. Mike hadn't been on the trail before, so Kate didn't feel comfortable just hiking away from Kris and him. She went back to find the boys, as Liza and I went home.

Liza was a trooper. She walked the whole trail, complaining only briefly in the last quarter mile or so. However, even that complaining wasn't really complaining so much as telling me she was tired, and, heck, so was I.

Mike and Kate asked us to stay for dinner, which was a tasty, tasty meal. We went home a little later. After we checked the dogs for ticks, I went to take a shower. That's when I discovered the little hitchhiker.



The poor shadow placement, not withstanding.

I'm really beginning to hate ticks. This is number two in as many years, and, as far as I'm concerned, two too many.

Especially since both are from chasing the dogs into the bushes.

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