Maudie ges a bath

Today was bath day for Maudie...not a big deal, unless you haven't bathed a dog who weighs more than 25lbs in many many years! Of course she was a patient good girl; but like all dogs I know, she looked miserable while being tortured by soap and water and was equally ecstatic when she got out and felt how clean she was.

I lined the bathroom with towels, slapped the suction cup noose onto the tile, heaved her in and off we went....One side at a time, the bathroom turning into a sauna from the heat and the water and the breathing...

M helped me...kept her coat wet while I soaped her up with EZGroom (crystal white). Because she's a mahogany sable (my favorite color collie) it was fascinating to see the range of colors that showed up in her wet coat. Copper and black and mahogany and pale tan and grey and white..... I tried to imagine her a smoothie when she was soaked and her coat clung to her body, but I realized that I've never seen a mahogany sable smooth collie. I don't think they exist....Maybe there is not enough length to each hair to carry all those colors??

Then we brought the rocket powered dryer into the bathroom and dried her in the tub; I ended up climbing in there with the hose to get to all her parts.... still..... I let her go before she was totally dry, so now she's got a little cowlick on her back and she looks kind of fuzzy...I remember the corgis looked like that after a bath..

Its not quite as satisfying as washing a papillon who comes down off the grooming table all sparkly and silky and never looks better, every hair in place and glowing. With these double coated dogs, it takes a day or two for the oils to come back and the coat to settle down...unless of course, you spend the time drying and brushing until...well....they're dry! But she feels super clean and her whites are dazzling. It was SO hot today, I figured she'd dry off pretty quickly on her own. She did.

A preeeeety exciting day!? huh! Well, it is. Tomorrow we have our Dove Lewis interview.

I have such big hopes for us. There's no reason why we shouldn't do well, but I'm excited so I'm nervous. She's snoozin.

GusGus

Yesterday in class I watched M and Gus work on retrieving over the jump for a while. I am moved beyond...well... the moon, say....by Gus' desire to do right by M. He works so hard and with such focus. He is a special dog...
Lucky M, when Gus first came to live with us (I fell in love with him the first time I met him at my friend's house; he had just returned from the show circuit in Montana) he took one look at M and signed on for life. Pledged his mighty little papillon soul. Within the month he got his last major to finish his championship.
See how happy he is on M's arm....

la luna

Early early this morning, M woke me up to see the total eclipse of the full moon. It was a mostly clear dark sky, and the moon looked like an old penny. It was worth getting up for. Only visible way out west...

ah. writing...

There are always 2 struggles that go on for me when I write:
1.to write in my OWN voice &
2.to tell the truth on the whatever level I can find it.
But that is really only one struggle...isn't it. Can you really tell the truth in someone else's voice?
I suppose I might answer yes, if I were a fiction writer....but I'm not.

Titles and Descriptions

You can't be too obsessive about drafts when you write a blog...so I've turned my obsession full on the description under the title...watch it as it changes!!

Recap

When I began this blog, I was just starting on the journey of the 4th dog. An idea had surfaced about another way to serve, to do good, through a relationship with animals.

I have always believed that animals can guide us to our best selves; they model joy, courage and generosity. They can bring us smack into the present, back into our bodies, confer on us a sense of peace. But you know that....

I find myself wanting to embrace people with the same generosity. Like many of us whose lives revolve around animals, I have heard myself say how much more I prefer dogs to people. It was Suzanne Clothier who suggested that a lesson we should learn from our dogs, who love US unconditionally, is to also love us…our own species: human beings.

It was a natural progression to the idea then of therapy work. I could work WITH my dog to help people in various states of need. It is easy to love people who are vulnerable; in fact I think we love others best when they show us that vulnerability. A good place to start.

I started the blog thinking about breeds—probably my favorite pastime anyway—and learned a lot more about various spaniels, shelties, Bedlington and Manchester Terriers…

But when the fog lifted, the way was clear, and there at the gate was Maudie. This was late February. Since then, the focus has shifted to the bonding, the day to day, the next stage of this life together. The Art and Science.

The fact that I have a collie…a collie!!!!......again, has brought me fully into the present, into the possibility of more good work, and it has thrown yet another lifeline to that collie –obsessed girl I was….but more about that later.
(The Mythology. Meet: Albert Payson Terhune.)

Hands in pockets to feel the dust of the earth, eyes to the heavens.

The blog takes shape in the best way...it changes and grows.
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That is a photo of Sunnybank Thane...handsome profile eh?!

Breakfast

I have been feeding a homemade and raw diet for years now...but recently found a kibble I can get behind. Orijen is grain free, Canadian made, and the company appears to have a sense of ethics. (My sense is that in Canada, farms are more important than corporations...I could be wrong...sigh...)

The dogs get this kibble in the am with some cottage cheese/yogurt and for supper they have raw.
When Maudie came to me, she was eating a pretty decent fish based kibble that she seemed to do quite well on, so I went searching for a similiar product of a little higher caliber (in terms of ingredients/company profile). That's how I found Orijen. Not only are all the dogs doing well, but they really LIKE it!! Even the papillons...the wee gourmands...(ewwww, I can't eat that, the tripe is touching the egg!!!)

I can talk about dog food all day, having spent QUITE alot of time reading, thinking and prepping around it. There are lots of good options. Here's one to add to the repetoire.