Country Life

So I was driving down a country road today when I spied something out of the driver's side window.


I had exactly 11 seconds to stop and take a couple of photos before I had to continue on since traffic was coming up behind me, and there were no shoulders on road, and I was pretty far away so these are heavily cropped. So I apologize for the quality. Even if I could have stopped, it's pretty hard to sneak up on a coyote in an open field.


He's probably hunting something that would make Mr. Woo EXTREMELY jealous.


And Mr. Woo deserves to suffer a little, believe me.

I suffer. Oh how I suffer. Hey, is that a rabbit?


He deserves to suffer because he is R.O.T.T.E.N. to the CORE!!! Yesterday we were taking a nice walk in the fields around our home when Wootie just vanished. One second he was standing beside me, the next he was nowhere to be seen.

At first I was all "Wootie, where are you? Get over here, right now." And after about 10 minutes of nary a sighting, I was like "Wootie? Sweetie? Where are you, pumpkin?" and then 10 more minutes passed and I was all "WOOTIE! WOOTIE! WOO-HOO! COME YOU BASTARD!!"

Still no Wootie.

I bushwhacked through fields and thorny things for about 45 minutes, getting progressively more frantic, until my heart basically just stopped beating altogether. What if he got run over by a car? What if someone found him and just, you know, kept him? What if he followed his nose all the way to Abbotsford? I ran home.

Where I found Wootie. Sitting on the porch.

BAD DOG!!

Looking for something?


*shakes fist at Wootie*

I know it's hard to believe, but he is a really bad dog. I was so angry that I hugged him and kissed him and sobbed and was all "oh I was so scared! Where'd you go?!" instead of giving him the beating he deserves.

Next time: more beatings, less love.


Today we were bored with our usual routine, so we tried out a new (to us) dog park in Langley. It's just a big round field, with a path circling it so people don't have to get their feet wet. It's not very exciting, but it IS fenced, so I didn't have to worry about losing Woo two days in a row.

*shakes fist at Wootie. Again.*

Tweed felt it was kind of meh.

Meh.


But he got a lot more excited when I pulled out the Chuck-It.


I tried to get a family portrait, but Wootie refused to join us, as he was busy eating dirt. Unusual, I know.

Mmmmm dirt. Wonderful, tasty dirt. Mmmm.


As for the other dogs ... well, I just don't think it's natural for two dogs to have these kinds of thoughts about their sister's shapely rear end, for crying out loud. She's their SISTER!!!!


What? We weren't doing anything!


We had to have a little chat about the birds and the bees, and how some feelings are just not appropriate to have. I guess I embarrassed them, because none of the boys would even look at me after that.



I know they're looking at my butt. I don't care. Throw the ball plz.


Tweed was quick to agree with his sister.


And Dexter was all "Wait, aren't we looking at her butt anymore??"


We played some Dumb Ball


Until Wootie tore up enough of the turf that I thought someone might notice.


So we packed up our hockey ball and our (ridiculously) long tongues, and headed back home.


Now we are snuggled up together ready to ring in the New Year.

Happy New Year! Wishing you all the best in 2010!

Fitting in

Listen kid, if you want to be a part of this family, you'll listen to my advice.

First things first - you can't be afraid of Mad Teeth (tm). No hiding.


Face your fears


And give 'em as good as you get 'em.


Ha ha! That's my boy. He's learning the ropes around here pretty good already!

And so am I. I have resigned myself to the fact that muddy feet are just a part of living in the stix, and that I'll just have to become a little friendlier with the mop. And thanks for all your wonderful landscaping suggestions - over time I will definitely implement some of them to make our little space in the country more user friendly!

The dogs are loving it for sure. While we miss our our old haunts, there are some new ones to explore. Yesterday was beautiful, so we went and relaxed at the local dog park for the first time.



We made lots of new friends. Except for Wootie, who made no friends. He has taken on the roll of Dexter Protector, and he beats up anyone who tries to play too rough with "his" puppy.

And if I don't feel like loading everyone up in the car, we just play on our own property, which backs onto the dikes.

In the Jungle


The Mighty Jungle


The Puppy Creeps Tonight


Somebody comes from real sheepdog stock.


Now that he is getting kind of coordinated, like a real dog, he is all crouchy, creepy and stalky. It's very amusing to watch.

And he is getting braver too. He now tumbles merrily down the hills without fear. This is because he wants to follow his big brother and sister into the grass pit. The grass pit is this huge basin flanked by four hills, about the 2/3rds the size of a football field, and full of grasses that are about 5 feet tall. I can amuse myself for eons by lobbing a ball in there from the top of the hill and watching the dogs hunt for it.

Are you sure it's in here, Food Lady?


Tweed always finds it though.


Hours can pass without me seeing more of Wootie than this:


He's usually hunting wildlife. And there's lots of it too!

There are, of course, lots of ducks


Blue herons (this one was standing on my lawn and took off as we approached the house)


Yesterday I saw 4 snow geese circling the farm way up in the air. And two nights ago I could hear an owl "who who-who whoing" in the trees, so I went outside with a flashlight and saw him sitting at the top of a pine right outside my front door. How cool is that?

Yup, we are really liking it out here so far, kind of a surprise to The Food Lady, who likes her city comforts.

I always knew this would be awesome. I'm smart.


Are you just going to let him tell lies like that, Food Lady?


Come on, kid. Let me give you some more advice. Follow me, and you won't go wrong.


Should I be listening to this guy??

Tweed and Piper Picked A Peck Of Pickled Peppers

Except it was just Tweed, not Piper, and it was blackberries, not peppers.

This afternoon we took a trip out to Dog Heaven in Ladner to walk the poocheroonis. The weather started out kind of sour, but soon turned quite lovely. DH is gorgeous at this time of year.

It was also the land of plenty. We came home overflowing with juicy and tiny little plums:

And loads of the sweet purpley goodness that are blackberries:

Like the world's most awesome, and totally free, farmer's market. They even had frogs available.

How cool is that? And, umm, what kind of frog is that? All I know is that as I asked Auntie Jackie "think it's poisonous?" I was already reaching for it. My sense of danger is smarter than my brain-body connection, apparently.

But anyway, back to the blackberries, the inspiration for today's title.

Today I watched Tweed work something out in his little pee brain: he watched us pick blackberries and put them in our little buckets. He watched the other dogs get fed blackberries from the little buckets. A lightbulb turned over his fuzzy head.

Hmmmm .... I haz an idea ....


He then decided to bypass the middleman (ie, the buckets) and help himself to blackberries right off the plant.

Nom.

Now I know lots of dogs eat plants out of the garden and whatnot, and even Woo has helped himself to blackberries from time to time. What was interesting to me was watching Tweed's brain work out the connection between the purple yumyums in the bucket and the source - he glanced from me to the bucket a few times, then from the bucket to the plant, then he left the crowd o'canines jostling at my feet and headed straight for the blackberries on the vine and started chowing down. That's deductive reasoning!

Previous to this, the blackberry bushes were just annoyances that tried to grab his wiener when he lifted his leg for a whiz.

Yay! I am so smart!

Me too! Wait, what?

Dog Heaven is a great place to walk the dogs, but it's a pretty far drive just to canoodle with the canines. Don't you wonder what we were doing way out there?

The berry bushes are that way, guys. Why are you walking away from them?

Well, I woke up this morning and decided that more than anything in the world, I needed some Peanuts. In fact, I was absolutely determined to lay my eyes on 8 peanuts before noon.

Lucky for me, Tess the TDBCR foster dog, had 8 peanuts to share!

Meet Lucy, Sally, Patty, Linus, Charlie, Spike, Schroeder and Franklin!

ZOMG!

Tess had her puppies this past Sunday - 3 females, 5 males, all perfect and wonderful little tri colours.

She is being a great mum - a little confused and stressed, but mostly doing wonderfully.

What happened here? As doG as my witness, I will never have sex again!

Well that's true. Tess is going to be spayed once her pups are weaned, and then she'll want a home of her own too.

In the meantime, she is working hard at keeping her little Peanuts safe.

Enough photos. Take facebox and vamonos plz.

I'm rather partial to this little gentleman, Linus:

But they are ALL lovely!

The other 4 boys:

And the little ladies:

I WANT ONE!

You might too - but please, we are not accepting applications for the puppies yet. It will be several more weeks before they are old enough for us to start finding them homes. Also, I need time to find a new home for me so I can have first pick ;-) *sigh* If only that were true.

So. Much. Want.

Oh hai! Don't mind me, I'm just passing through this entry ...