I took my blurry buddy for a walk this afternoon at the lake. It was sprinkling when we left, but it turned into a pretty good downpour before we were through. Not that he minded. It’s hard to notice you’re getting rained on when you insist on jumping into the lake every chance you get!
Alki has been worrying me a bit. The other night she didn’t follow me around while I made dinner, and didn’t come sit with us while we ate, which is pretty unusual. Instead she was asleep on the doggie bed in the office. Then last night she was scratching at the front door at 4am, and when I went to see what she was doing she seemed a bit lost and confused. She seemed fine this morning. I don’t know if it’s a side effect of her cancer meds, but I’d swear she’s getting a bit of doggie-dementia. Of course in a few months she’ll be 15, so I guess that’s like 105 in dog years, so she’s entitled!
Look at all the packages Barclay and I packed! We’ll do a few more tonight then have them ready to ship out in the morning. It’s been like this every day for the last couple weeks. It’s good to be busy!
Barclay has been being exceptionally good! He has a very high daily exercise requirement, and with the freezing temps outside and the piles of work inside he has not been getting all the playtime he would like. But he’s been very good and hasn’t really destroyed anything unusual or been too pesky. Several times this week I have kicked the dogs outside and told them to go play without me, and they’ve done pretty good at entertaining themselves. This morning we took a quick walk around the pasture before getting back to work, and he enjoyed stretching his legs and chasing Jack around.
Nothing unusual about working at home, we do it every day! Our toy store has been bombarded with orders since Thanksgiving, thank goodness, because it’s been a rough summer with the bad economy. So I, as chief box-monkey, have been packing my little heart out. But today it was too cold outside, the heaters in the shop couldn’t even make a dent in warming up the packing area. It’s worse than yesterday, and yesterday I did my packing dressed in layers, including my heavy outdoor fleece, wool gloves, and a hat – and I was still cold! So today we brought the party inside. Luckily there’s room in the hobby room (formerly the fish room), so my assistant and I can do our work where it’s warm!
Ah, packing boxes – it’s not glamorous, but it’s a living…
Dave and Barclay and I went for a little walk at Lacamas Creek Park in Camas today. It was our day off, and we could combine it with a trip out to the East end of town for some other errands, so it didn’t seem too far. It was a nice drive through the country to get there.
We turned around at a bridge over a cool waterfall. Dave had already gone for a run this morning, and I took Barclay for a vigorous hike yesterday around the upper rim trail at BG Lake, so we were only up for a short walk. Plus it looked like the skies were going to open up and rain on us at any second. I had to bundle up with about three layers to stay warm.
We could hear the waterfall long before we got anywhere near it, and it was really roaring. It’s amazing how much water was spilling over. It was beautiful, but it looked like it would take you away in an instant!
This morning we were outside playing, and Barclay was at one end of the yard when he spotted one of the cats coming through the gate at the other end. He paused a second and then charged across the yard at full speed. I was sitting in the middle, on the deck, and looked over at the cat to see what she was going to do, when I heard a crash, and looked back and Barclay was still running at top speed, but he had obviously run into the plastic lounge chair! I don’t know if he tried to jump over it, or just had his eye on the cat and ran into it. Either way he made it about twenty feet past the chair and suddenly stopped with a concerned look on his face, and turned around and limped back towards the middle of the yard.
I went over to him and asked him how he was, and he looked at me and flopped over on his side and held up his paw for inspection. I looked it over and it seemed ok, but he just kept laying there, looking at me through one eye. It always cracks me up when puppies first discover they aren’t invincible and something hurts them! He just laid there on his side and I said ‘well, how about we go inside?’ and after a minute he sat up with this ‘I guess so’ sort of look, and limped inside and flopped over in the hallway.
I had to go to work, but I came back and picked him up later and he was back to his usual self, no limp at all (as I suspected). Poor little guy didn’t even know he COULD get hurt! I’m sure he’ll forget and be charging around the yard with a complete disregard for his own safety again in no time.
Barclay and Jack had a rip-roarin’ time playing out in the yard today. It’s funny to watch them start it up, because there will be a bit of growling and posturing, but tails are wagging, and next thing you know…
Big Red and her chicks are mixing in just fine with the rest of the flock (that’s her and her chicks in the back center). I even saw her biggest rooster chick picking a fight with Copper, the baby cochin roo who’s easily three times his size. They fluffed up and jumped in the air and everything!
The cats are never far away when I’m doing chores. Mighty hopped up on the post to see what was going on.
Steff Does Stuff! 