The Book of Ramblings

The day started off with taking Dahlia to the vet's (at 8:30am on a Saturday morning...argh!) for another lyme titer. Another $80 down the drain. I'll find out on Monday if the levels have come down far enough to not worry about it or if she needs more antibiotics. I hope this is the end of it. I know Dahlia would very much like to avoid another blood draw until her heartworm/lyme titer in April. And my purse would very much like to avoid it as well! We also found she had gained 1.4 pounds. I was afraid she had with the addition of the wet food so we're going to try to redo that a bit, give her a bit less in with the dry and see what that does. She's getting more active with the drop in temperature so she ought to be able to easily lose some weight this winter.

Then we visited with my folks for a little while, gave my Dad his birthday presents and just relaxed with them for a little while. By about 9:30am Dahlia was getting antsy and ready to get on our way, so we headed off to the Erie Canal Park for a 2 mile walk/run.

She had a blast! She only met one dog (the rest were either too aggressive or just too busy running with their owners to get to meet). The dog she met was some little schnauzer/poodle/something or other named Boomer. He looked like a tiny fat little sheep. Dahlia was off leash when we saw them coming and so was Boomer, so I let her stay off leash. She did something she's mor and more doing. She remained calm but then dropped into a sort of border collie crouch and froze. Absolutely froze. And then took off running at the poor little creature. Stupid me didn't tell her to stop and she barreled up to him like a crazy dog. Luckily she immediately set to sniffing and all calmed down but phew! Boomer's people were really nice and just adored Dahlia. They were a little freaked out by her intensity at first, but then saw her come out of it and relax, so they were fine. We met them on the way back too and I kept Dahlia under better control the second time around.

Dahlia ran a LOT of the two-mile trail. At one point she was sniffing and I kept walking. I was a couple hundred feet away from her when I called her name. She came barreling after me, then whipped around me and spun to face me, laying down. Then she jumped up and rushed me, trying to get the leash I was holding. We played a lot. IT was great fun.

On our way out we ran into an old family friend and a woman who just thought Dahlia was an amazingly awesome dog.

After the park, we ran to Petsmart to get some canned food for the Vermont trip (well those Nutro toppers so she can just have the one topper and nothing that needs to be saved for the next day). We got chatting with the Blue Buffalo rep for awhile who was very impressed with Dahlia's soft shiny coat and her personality (we feed her Blue as her kibble). The Nutro rep was almost most impressed with her and both oo'ed and ahh'ed over her. It was nice to have her so appreciated. At one point while they were petting her she just laid down and they both thought it was cute.

We met a 6 month old Aussie mix puppy there whose person asked if she could meet Dahlia (she's in the puppy class there and trying to socialize her pup with adults too). They met and had a nice time. Dahlia also met a nice boxer and a Pomeranian who growled and snapped at the puppy and the boxer but who was fine with Dahlia since Dahlia approached and immediately laid down in front of her. Cute.

So overall an exhausting morning of running around, but a lot of fun.

This afternoon, not so much fun. I spent WAY too much time at Walmart getting my oil changed. Ugh they were SO unorganized! But now the oil is changed, I have new windshield wipers, and new floor mats. All set to leave for Vermont!

Tomorrow I transport two 3-month old Aussie puppies. Can I keep one?

First of all, happy mother's day to all the mother's on my friends list. I hope you had a lovely day!

It was a hard one at times for me, and especially for my mom, as it's the first one without Grandma. She went out to Rome this morning and put periwinkles on her grave. Periwinkle was always a joke with my grandmother -- it was one of her favourite colours and she loved to tell everyone about how her outfits were not blue...they were PERIWINKLE blue. For some reason, it always made us laugh.

This weekend Dahlia had the first "test" of her Canine Good Citizen status. We had a gig at this place called Kellish Farms. It was on an actual farm in a semi-converted barn. It was a really odd sort of place and the woman who runs it (and owns it) seems a bit unhinged. After every performance she gets up and makes some big announcement in a voice that can only be described as the female Bobcat Goldwait's and she goes on and on and starts getting all weepy. She is an odd woman.

At any rate, last week I had written about bringing Dahlia. We were supposed to have session (which ended up being canceled in the long run) and then the gig in the evening with little time between the two. I didn't like the thought of leaving Dahlia home from basically 1:30pm to 9pm. The decision was either she goes with us to the gig or I don't perform.

I got permission to bring Dahlia because she was a CGC and friendly and well-behaved. Well, Dahlia passed with flying colours! She met almost everyone there. She was quite popular. People kept coming over and petting her and ooing and ahhing over her temperament and soft fur. One woman said she reminded her of her deceased dog. Everyone was impressed. When it came time to go on we decided that, instead of leaving her with a friend to watch her, we'd just bring her on stage with us. She did amazingly well there. She laid at my feet the entire time, completely relaxed. I saw a lot of people pointing at her during the performance and a couple people who came in while we were on stage didn't even notice her until she moved.

When someone pulled out a camera to take pictures of us though, she immediately stuck her head up and no doubt struck a pose. Silly girl.

After the gig, more people wanted to meet her. Several people asked how many performances she had been on stage with us for and were amazed that it was her first time. Overall, I'd say she was a great advocate for dogs!

Today we had my parents over the apartment for the first time. Sad, I know. But the place has been SUCH a mess. We've been awful at keeping it clean and then about a month ago we just got sick of it, cleaned the whole place, and have actually managed to keep it pretty neat for a whole month! Amazing. My parents were pretty impressed with our humble abode. It really is a large apartment (bedroom, two studies, a huge living room, dining room, and kitchen) and we've furnished it nicely with a lot of antiques and a ton of books. I think it looks quite nice, if I do say so myself.

They're also quite impressed with Dahlia. My Dad is certainly taken with her and both my Mom and Dad were into giving her little bits of dinner (and pie crust...lol). She rolled over for them and soaked up all the love.

I made dinner -- chicken parmesan and my folks were amazed that I cooked it! David followed it up with a lovely coconut custard pie. All together it was a lovely meal and it was nice to have them over for a couple hours.