Cream of the Crop

Twinky licking the cream.

One day while reading Alison's blog, I read that she got her dog, the glorious Cheyenne, a cup of whipped cream when they went to a coffee shop together.

I've been doing that for Mabel ever since(Mabel sends her eternal thanks, Alison!) and it's especially funny when I do this with one of our hiking packs. But I never had a camera with me...until yesterday.

I've written about the gorgeous trail my friend Kat introduced us too around Christmas. Yesterday, I was having a very stressful Monday when Kat called and asked us to join them on the trail. Being Monday, we didn't get there until 1:30 and it was scorching hot.

The creek is way down with our sudden temperature spike.

Kat also has yet another addition to her menagerie. With four dogs, the heat and me just feeling cranky, we only hiked around two hours before meeting up again at Starbucks. Here's a video of the girls and their cream:


Dialog:

00:01 - OK girls, here we are with Lily our newest pack member... .

00:05 - And Twinky

00:08 - ...and Linguini is the white and black Dalmatian and Mabel... Mabel is the rottie mix.

00:17 - So we're gonna have some whipped cream.

00:22 - So this is Twinky's

00:23 - Kat: These are my pants!

00:25 - This is Twinky's ...yes it is. O.K.

NOTE: I found that if I call out which dog is getting the cream, there is no issue with the others in the pack!


00:30 - Kat: These are my jeans! {She was worried I would spill!}

00:31 - This is going to be 'guini's...yes it is!

00:40 - Next, we're gonna get Mabel. Mabel? We have whipped cream!

00:50 - And would Lily like to try some whipped cream?

00:54 - Kat: I don't know man.

00:55 - Maybe just a little??

00:57 - Kat: No.

00:58 - No, we're not going to do this? THIS IS TWINKY'S!

01:00 - Kat: After (unintelligible)...she got diarrhea... There goes your video!

01:07 - This is 'guini's

01:13 - This is Mabel's... And that's our pack eating whipped cream!

==========
I realized that I really need a wider shot of the girls. As I call out one pup's name, the other's will look at the one. It's so cute that they know each other's names and share so well!

Twinky had cream on her chin for the longest time. She could smell it but would lick UP instead of down!

Mabel was quite the center of attention...It's weird but people often focus on ONE dog! Some boys sat down next to us with Jello pudding cups and a can of whipped cream and Mabel went nuts! They ended up sharing their cream with her to the chagrin of the rest of the girls!

After a hot walk and a snack, Twinky fell asleep in my lap!

Old Age Is Getting to Her

I was asked to set up an email account for a website business for the BFF. We've known each other for more than 20 years so I knew immediately that I could easily pick a password she could remember.

I was on the phone with her helping her set up her email receiving program when I gave her the password - a combination of letters and numbers when she said, "You have such a head for numbers and I'm always fascinated at what they mean to you. How did you pick those numbers?"

Laughing, I said, "You're kidding, right?

"No...how did you pick them? What do they mean to you?"

Laughing harder, I ask, "Really? They mean nothing to you???"

"Noooo."

"SERIOUSLY???"

"No."

It took me a while to stop laughing and explain the numbers embedded in the middle of a Hungarian word were HER birthday!

Finding My Voice

(NOTE: This was originally published on Holly's Folly Bead Blog. I'm having so much fun with this class, I wanted to share it here too!)

I've been taking a workshop on Facebook (is there anything that doesn't go on there??) on finding my voice as a beadmaker led by Sylvie Lansdowne. It's meant to encourage lampworkers to find their own path and avoid copying others.

This is week two of my class and we were to interpret a painting of Sylvie's choosing...she chose 24 for the fifteen of us to pick one. I got to pick first (thanks to my being on FB all the time!). I chose this one by Ford Smith called Serenity Rising.



And here is my interpretation (front and back):

I went for a very literal interpretation and I love the results. I went for this option because I enter a monthly contest on Art Bead Scene and this year, we are interpreting famous paintings into finished jewelry. I've longed to be able to do a literal translation in glass but the inspiration paintings there never "spoke" to me in that way. But this one did...

I was exhilarating working on this bead in the flame for over an hour, praying it didn't all turn to crap. I made a crucial mistake halfway through by putting in my treetops before finishing the water and trunks... that ruined my hope of it looking two dimensional with a flat / painted surface. But in the end, I realized that was sort of silly and I love the dimension I ended up with.

I also love how the devit on the purple makes the back look like a two dimensional version of the front.

This project was fun and eye opening for me! I hope to be able to do more of these. I also LOVE that I have a new favorite painter!

Amazing Tail - Mato's Christmas Cookies

Writing about dogs that growl over food reminded me of breaking our great champion of this habit. Mato was NOT a "normal" dog by any means and I doubt this "technique" would work on any other dog.

Mato came to us from a puppy mill. My brother-in-law had been raising Shepherds and didn't like how much inbreeding was going on in the late '80s - early '90s. So he got this puppy rottweiler. I met her during a hurricane and decided I would hate her...She wasn't the Shepherd I loved and she was apparently too dumb to get out of a hurricane. No, smart girl stood in the driving wind and rain until we brought her inside. She came in and I fell in love - not only with her but with the most affectionate dog breed I'd ever encountered.

Mato had a rather illustrious career as a show dog and went on to be ranked #3 in the U.S. After she got her championship points, she simply refused to be called by her name. If you called her "Mato," she would tilt her head upwards in the air and not look at you. We would call her again; she would look in another direction, acknowledging our voice but not us. Finally, we called her "Champion Mato," and she came running. This went on for two weeks until her ego deflated a bit!

Mato had a horrible time having puppies. Each delivery would make her scream like I've never heard any mammal scream. And each pregnancy yeilded many dead puppies and one living female. After two of these, Mato "retired" and went to live down the street with her Granny, my mom. And a glorious retirement it was.

Mato with her second daughter, Big Bertha. Check out Mato's gorgeous, soulful eyes!

Mother had a much larger yard and within that she built a smaller run for Mato should she need to secure the girl for any reason. This run was the size of maybe 8 kennels and had a huge shade tree and a dog house. But mostly, Mato had full access to both the yard and run and loved sleeping in my Mom's utility room.

One Christmas, I was home. I brought speical Christmas dog cookies for Mato to have during the holidays. As usual, when I woke, I went outside to get a Christmas cookie and have a little wake up time with my favorite girl. She was in the smaller run, gate open, watching a squirrel. I handed her a cookie and she was so excited to see me, she left it on the ground.

Within minutes, Mother decided we needed to run some errands and she wanted them to be over with quickly to avoid Baton Rouge traffic. I locked Mato in the run to make it easier for us to get in and out of the bigger yard with the car. And, as usual, I got her a cookie before I left.

Mato's butt was to the back of the kennel gate and she was now chewing on the first cookie when I tossed in the second. Then I squatted down to scritch her heiny and tell her we wouldn't be gone long. Suddenly, I had a snarling rottweiler inches from my hand! I had known Mato since she was a pup and this behavior was not cool.

I poked her butt hard and yelled, "NO!" And Mato snarled again. With each poke, she got closer to my hand while at the same time, covering those cookies with her paw. My mother finally yelled at me to leave her alone. I left feeling hurt and dejected.

I decided I would simply ignore Mato. We got home and I went in the house and had Mother let Mato out of the run. I no longer went in the yard with her. I gave her no cookies. I spent no time petting her. This went on for days until I decided it was Christmas and I simply didn't want to spend it mad at the dog I loved.

Mato had alays been a dog I could talk to. She would look at me with those deep intense eyes of hers and I swore she understood every word. So one morning, Mother was gone to the grocery store and Mato was in the run. I went in there and sat on the concrete in front of her dog house. Mato hesitated until I motioned for her to sit in front of me. She sat down and looked me square in the eyes.

I started talking about how badly she hurt my feelings. I told her I bought those cookies for her and wouldn't dream of taking them away. I told her how my trust in her was shaken. I talked for over 10 minutes and finally asked her, "Can we be friends again?" She lifted her paw for me to shake.

We played and rough-housed for quite a while and I went in, got her a Christmas cookie and brought it out to her. I gave it to her by the gate and she dropped the cookie on the ground and watched me walk across the yard. Wanting to respect Mato's cookie eating space, I sat back down on the concrete, thinking she would eat it and we would resume playing.

Mato gingerly picked up that cookie, but she did not bite it. She walked over to me, turned around and sat down in my lap. Then, she ate the cookie. I'm certain it was her way of letting me know she trusted me to touch her while eating.

Mato lived to almost 15. She never growled at me again while eating...or anyone else in the family.

When the Dog Bites

The Boy with his boo boo.

I'm really sad because I've heard of two dogs being put down in the past two days, all for being a dog.

The first was a normally happy pitbull. She was in her front yard minding her own business when the brat child next door, decided to tease the dog. The little girl was unsupervised and obviously had never been taught not to tease a dog she doesn't know. When the girl's own small yapper dog rushed the fence, the pitbull had had enough. She jumped the fence, attacking both child and small dog. Both of them needed stitches, but they lived. The pit wasn't so lucky.

The second occurence took place in my own family and has me spitting mad. My little second cousin, a 12-year-old who is more along the size of an eight-year-old, (he was always small for his age and talks like a toddler... really makes me wonder about his mother's wisdom of smoking incessantly while pregnant!) got bitten in the face by his Labrador.

He had just but food in Sarge the lab's bowl when, as my sweet little cousin is apt to do, he decided to hug the pup. Sarge protected his food and paid with his life.

I've always owned older rescue dogs...Mabel was my youngest ever. And many have had the growling while eating issue. With each of my girls, I have worked carefully and cautiously to break this habit. I wouldn't want them to attack a friend or my 86 year old mother when they were feeding my dogs. This takes time, awareness and patience.

My brother-in-law has always trained dogs and worked around dogs my whole life. As I child I was taught how to approach strange dogs or how to "read" one of our dogs that may be acting strangely. I still managed to get bit in the face by a strange German Shepherd at the age of four. And no one in my family took my side. They were all quick to point out what I did wrong to the dog.

I wish all parents took the time to teach their children how to behave around an animal. When my godson was a toddler, he wanted their rescued greyhound to play. Ticket was tired --- they had already played a lot. She ran and got under the piano. The boy crawled under there to try to get her to engage. His mom heard the dog growl and warned the boy to leave Ticket alone. Ticket ran into the kitchen; the boy followed and this time, she bit him.

I had babysitting duties the night the Boy was bit. As groggy as he was, he still insisted on feeding himself.

I've was so proud of my BFF that day. She got her son stitches and used the event as an educational opportunity. My godson learned that when Ticket growls, he better back off. Today he is a happy teenager with a cute scar on his chin and nose. And he LOVES dogs and animals of all varieties. He's one of Mabel's favorite people on the planet. And Ticket was a beloved and trusted part of the family until old age took her.

That's the Ticket!

I wish all parents could take a long hard look at the way their kids interact with their dogs. It's the responsible thing to do and really, if you aren't willing to take the time, you shouldn't have a dog...or a kid for that matter!