the apple of my eye?

you know we could be doing agility?


'Tis apple season around these parts ... our school house has 4 ancient apple trees around the perimeter. The dogs love the windfall apples (as do the bunnies) ...



Sampson celebrates his one year anniversary with us this weekend. He fell into our laps and while our year has had some significant challenges (rude, adolescent, never been played with or walked on leash, never met dogs or cats or toys before, borderline SA, had some health issues) he is turning out to be a DELIGHTFUL soul.



Kizmet the little black and white shi with brain lesions has made it through a full year plus a little (2 weeks maybe?) with us. He is not what anyone could call a normal dog but with a solid routine he spins less and takes pleasure in simple things like a chin scratch!



Sally celebrates FOUR years with us as of tomorrow. This dog has aged me like no other. Like most everyone here she kind of fell into our laps. We didn't want a puppy - in fact we placed both Sally's sister Sophie and brother Duncan after fostering them through the summer. They were amazing puppies and I would happily have kept either of them if I had been looking for a one. Sally was placed in a home too. A good, loving, nurturing home. But she was sick. And getting sicker. The home decided they couldn't face losing her - and death seemed imminent so she was returned. Big T and I do palliative fostering, in fact often it's our speciality so we were asked if we could take her in. The expectation was we would love her and she'd have a couple of quiet months with us then we'd be euthanzing her; likely before Christmas. We said Yes. Life has never been the same.



She came to work with me daily and had weekly vet visits. She ate every 2 hours around the clock for about 2 weeks. (Yes, I got tired). We developed a special diet for her. Home cooked and with supplements. A Canine nutritionist developed the diet with my vet's cautious blessing. Monica Segal (the nutritionist) was amazing to work with (as was my fabulous vet Dr Au). I do NOT recommend home cooking for a puppy generally. I believe the diet is too hard to balance correctly however Sally was out of other options. (At that point Sally was actually known as "Oh Daisy Doodle Carmel Been Sick" which became "Oh Sally Daisy Doodle Carmel Been Barking" a good sign really. She got named Sally abot u6 weeks after coming to us when Big T said - daises die in the fall we need to rename her again - it was her third name in her short life -apparently third time was a charm in this case!)



It wasn't all a bed of roses - until March I wasn't sure she'd survive. She had great days and weeks, then dreadful days and hours. I'm still not sure she'll survive - she tests herself and my heart often still ;) even before I was certain she'd survive puppyhood I started taking her to classes and letting her enjoy life as much as she could.



She's got that down to a fine art!



Thea joined us in a June - a perfect time of year to adopt a perfect puppy! her first adventure with us included sneaking into fancy hotels and resteraunts in Montreal in a bag as we couldn't leave her but we had this trip booked and paid for way ahead of time.

Brody came to us in a January - a HORRIBLE time of year to adopt a baggage filled adolescent!



I couldn't pick one apple of my eye - all are fabulous in their own ways!



And yes we've been doing agility all weekend - yesterday we worked serpentines and threadles pretty much. Even Thea was doing them. Today we worked this routine , the speed trap one, from Bud Houston's blog (except we had to use jumps and the weaves as we don't have contacts here yet.