Pix from 10/20-21 WAG CPE Agility Trial

Well, it took a while, but the CD from David Wong, the photographer who shot the Oct 21-22 CPE trial at Elk Grove, arrived last week. Well worth waiting for! There were over 100 photos, most of them in sequences of 3 - 5, giving me a good look at Miko at several points along the approach-airtime-landing continuum. When you shoot this way, not all of the pix are aesthetically pleasing, but all are instructional and there were plenty of "pretty" ones to choose from too. Here are a few of the best.

You can read an account of Miko's fabulous exploits at this event in an earlier post. However, I see that I forgot to brag that he finished all of his Level 2 titles, which makes him officially Miko, CL-2, CGC. And he's halfway to his Level 3 Standard title (CL3-R).


The A-Frame and the Teeter-totter are 2 of the 3 contact obstacles in agility (well, 4 I guess, if you count the pause table); the other one is the Dog Walk. The dogs must put at least 1 paw in the yellow "contact zone" both going up and coming down. Otherwise it's 15 faults.

Moxie's debut

On 10/28, the Moxerati made his agility debut at a fun run at WAG. Fun runs are for practice only; they aren't competitions. I wanted to see how he'd do in a completely new situation, and I wanted to see if he'd be any more comfortable on NADAC style slatless contacts (specifically, the A-frame) than he seems to be in practice at Ace. His A-frame performance is a mystery -- he's so fast and so fearless about everything but that. I thought it might be something physical -- his shoulders, perhaps, but he's been x-rayed and all looks normal. I ask myself if he's worried about "stubbing his toes" on the slats ... one reason for wanting to try the slatless equipment. (And a reason to give him a pedicure, too.)

Slats or not, his A-frames weren't exactly stellar, but all in all I was extremely pleased with his performance. He had never run a full course before; the most we'd ever done in class was maybe 5 or 6 obstacles at a time. I had no idea whether I'd have any control over him at all! As you can see in the movies below, control wasn't our strong suite, but we were able to correct our mistakes pretty easily, and a good time was definitely had by all.

One of the things I was working on specifically was his start-line stays. He's not supposed to move off the line till I tell him to, and he's so eager to run that it's hard for him to sit still. Another focal area was solid down-side contacts on the teeter, dog walk etc. If it looks like he's just standing there, half-on, half-off while i dance around and pretend to run away, he's doing exactly what he's been trained to do -- wait for me to release him.

Something I *should* have been working on, and will work on in 2 weeks when we go to another fun run, is getting myself properly positioned as we run the courses. He's so much faster than Miko -- I kept finding myself in the wrong place, except that it would have been just the right place for my other dog! Gotta work on the timing...

Jumpers, round 1 ... a little wild!


Jumpers, round 2 ... a little better.


Standard, round 2, with a few extra trips over the A-frame. Note: he doesn't usually blow his weaves! Honest!


Tunnelers, round 2. This was a lot of fun!

Miko strikes again!

I'm waiting for a CD of photos from the Fun Paws CPE agility trial 10/20 -21 at WAG (and yes, it does seem as if I'm wearing a deep rut between Oakland and Elk Grove!). David Wong was there all weekend, taking pictures in the outdoor ring. He uses a motor drive, so there are multiple shots of your dog at each obstacle. Not only a great way to be sure you get just the right shot -- studying the series is also very instructional, almost like viewing a film. I'm tapping my fingers impatiently, and keeping a sharp eye on the mailbox.

Meanwhile, boring ol' text: Mr Meex had another perfect weekend. He Q'd in all 8 of his classes, got 4 blue ribbons, 3 reds and a yellow (that should have been blue, if I hadn't completely blown it at the end). Maybe the high point of the weekend was racking up 66 points in the jackpot (gamblers). Not only was this nearly 3 times the points we needed to Q, it was *almost* the high score out of all the 80+ dogs (all levels ran the same gamblers course). I didn't see anything higher on the score sheets posted after the class, but when the results were actually published there was a 68, earned by a very experienced handler and champion-level dog. Didn't make me any less proud of my boy!

I camped in my tent again; spent Friday night re-pumping my brand new air bed, which turned out to have a slow leak. Found a replacement for it Saturday and expected to sleep soundly that night. Instead, I watched the sides of the tent belly and ripple in the gusting wind and listened to the sound of other people's shade canopies being blown over, too close to me for comfort, so got up at about 1 a.m., found the extra tent pegs, guy lines and a hammer, and battened down the hatches. I don't really think the tent was going anywhere. On the other hand, I wasn't 100% sure it wasn't going to try. I'm used to little backpacking tents with low profiles. My "dog tent" is over 6' high in the center -- nice for moving around in, and airy in hot weather. But not designed for wind, no way.

More when the pix come...

CPE Agility Trial at WAG

Miko, the Mox and I had a lot of fun last weekend (Oct. 6 & 7). On Friday, we drove the hour and a half to the WAG (Western Agility Group) facility near Elk Grove. Miko was competing and Mox was along for the experience and socialization. We set up camp in my wonderful new REI tent, which is big enough for crates for both dogs, plus my sleeping bag and all our stuff, with room left over. A BIG tent! but easy for me to set up by myself, at least when there isn't much wind.

I had brought along the camping stove and some propane bottles, planning to at least make coffee and breakfast each morning, but after learning that there was a Starbucks less than 3 miles away, that opened at 5 a.m., I quickly bagged the camp kitchen idea. The Starbucks, plus a Round Table Pizza (Friday nite dinner) and a Chinese restaurant (Saturday nite dinner) and a bunch of other businesses were grouped around the perimeter of a huge parking lot that was nearly empty every time I went there. Until pretty recently I guess the area was mainly ranchland -- the streets have names like Machado Ranch Blvd, etc -- but now is subdivided; big houses on tiny lots. Not many people, or maybe they were all inside. For sure they weren't having pizza, Chinese food, or lattes!

Miko had a fabulous weekend. He qualified in all 6 of the classes he entered, with 4 first places and 2 seconds. He earned his very first agility titles in the process -- his Level 2 Standard (CL2-R), and Level 2 "Handlers" (CL2-H, which involves obstacle-discrimination games).


Moxie had a pretty good weekend too. He didn't bark or whine AT ALL, he walked (fairly) calmly on leash all around the arenas and crowded warm-up areas, and when I worked him he was focused and attentive. The first couple of times I took Miko out to the ring to compete, I put Mox in his crate. But then I figured he'd behaved so well I'd try just leaving him loose in the tent. So I gave him a chew toy, crossed my fingers, and off Miko and I went. Golden silence :-) Even when the dog in the tent next to ours started to fuss, he didn't join in.

This is the first time I've been camping since I took myself off to Tuolumne Meadows for a week in September 2002 or 2003. One thing that's changed is that my older bones no longer care for sleeping on an Ensolite foam pad. Before the next trip 2 weeks from now, I'm buying an air mattress!

Just one last quick note on Moxie -- he's been doing really well in class, and in his practice sessions between classes, so the plan at this moment is to take him to a fun match at WAG on Nov. 17.

HumDog CPE Agility Trial, 8/18-19/07

Tunnels! I love tunnels!

We hauled up the coast on Thursday 8/16, spending the night in ridiculous luxury in Mendocino. Then on to Eureka for 2 days of competition interspersed with visits with friends I don't get to see nearly often enough. Miko the WonderDog had an excellent trial -- Q'd (qualified) in 4 of his 5 classes, with 3 first places and a 2nd. It was my fault, totally and utterly, that he wasn't 5 for 5. We ended up taking the Moxerati with us at the last minute. He barked and whined some at the trial, especially when other dogs were being exercised in the field behind our tent, but he wasn't nearly as bad as I'd thought he would be. When I took him out to work, he focused on me pretty well. All in all, I think it was a good experience for him.

This was my first experience competing in agility games (as opposed to standard and jumpers type classes, where there's a set course that everyone runs). I tried "snooker," "colors" and "wildcard," fully expecting a complete mental meltdown as I tried to work out the best/fastest way to sequence the obstacles. To my great surprise, all went smoothly and Miko Q'd in all 3 games.

Here's a little video of our weekend. It was made with the Canon Elph; I couldn't find the battery charger for the real and actual video cam :-( Not great, but maybe you can get the idea...

Moxie gets a new name, sort of

Our long, low little speedster is now known as the Moxerati. He's that quick! He's had two 6-wk sessions of beginning agility at Ace DogSports, and is ready to move up. He still has mental meltdowns occasionally, but he's way better than he was -- just thinks every turn should be his turn, and all the other dogs and their handlers should just get the hell outta his way.

Here's a link to some movie footage of last week's agility lesson.

Meanwhile, he would like it known that on occasion he makes Elsa a pretty good lapdog too!

Skunked again

Another slightly tweaked email...

So last Thursday night, or rather very early that morning, I'm deep in the land of zzzzzzzz's when all of a sudden the dogs started going crazy, and then somehow they were outside on the patio. It had been hot that day, and I had left the bedroom sliding door open, but the screen was supposed to be locked. Anyway. The screen was open and the dogs were outside. I got them back in, closed the screen, lay back down, and then realized that a dense, oily cloud of stink was rolling in thru the screen door and the windows. Not to mention that Miko was making this weird yurking noise and sort of scraping his tongue
with his front teeth, and part of the dense, oily cloud of stink in the room was rising up off of him. Uh-oh, thought I -- I'm not the sharpest tack in the wall when I've just woken up -- uh-oh, I think we just might have a Skunk Issue here. By this time, Miko was blowing frothy bubbles. Stinky frothy bubbles. He looked like he'd eaten a tube of skunk toothpaste! I guess he got sprayed in the face.

I don't know why he didn't just invite the critter into the house so it could stench up the last few corners that weren't already reeking. And I can't imagine how Moxie managed to avoid getting sprayed. I am grateful for favors, small and not-so!

Fortunately I had kept an old email from a friend with the Kansas State vet college recipe of peroxide and baking soda. This is the 2nd time I've had to use it on Miko, and it does work quite well. Unfortunately, the back of the house was full of Pepe le Pew's "perfume" so nothing to do but set our fans in the window facing out, and turn them to high. We slept in the living room. :-(

Friday there was a strong breeze, which helped to clear things out. So did the baths I gave both dogs. I threw away the old dog bed that Miko rolled and blew bubbles on, likewise his leather collar, which apparently received a direct hit. The house really doesn't smell too bad now (she said hopefully). I'm supposed to have an editorial meeting here on Sunday....

The thing about skunk stink is once it gets inside your nose it stays there -- takes up residence in your sinuses, or nose-hairs or something. I kept smelling it all day Friday, even at the gym. I even asked someone in the locker room if she smelled it too (what I meant, of course, was "do I smell like skunk?"). She said no. And then she launched into a story about the time her dog had gotten sprayed a few weeks ago.

Once was enough, i told Miko. "You're supposed to learn from your mistakes!"

He gave me a pained look. Didn't I realize that he had protected the house from a vicious predator?!?

At the dacha

Several times recently we've spent weekends at our friends' "dacha" (friends are Russian) in the wine country. This entry is a slightly-tweaked version of an email I sent to other friends after the first visit, with Moxie's misadventures on the 2nd tacked on at the end.

Our dogs and our friends' dog get along just fine, and ours pretty much ignored the 2 cats, tho I did catch Miko standing at the foot of the stairs a few times, looking up and wagging his tail at a grumpy little grey face scowling down at him from a ledge on the landing :-)

We had a thoroughly relaxing 2 days doing nothing much (I recommend it!). Elsa and her friend Helen drove out to a nearby fruit stand where the strawberries were in full season and came home with a flat of the most delicious berries I ever put in my mouth. They were minutes off the plant, still warm from the sun.

The dacha is a rambling, much-added-onto house that started out long ago as a little 2 story box and expanded to accommodate family and visiting friends. There are now about 5 bedrooms and at least 3 baths, on 5 fenced acres of fruit trees, scrub oak and garden. Helen is a serious Rose Person -- has about 40 different varieties, from pure white to deep purple, palest lemon yellow to rich orange and of course red, redder and reddest. I helped her for a couple of hours on Sunday, deadheading blossoms and cutting back suckers, and she sent us home with a wastebasket filled with blooms. No, not thrown away -- a plastic wastebasket was all we could find to put water in that would hold all those flowers!



Perhaps the thing I enjoyed most, other than having a chance to hang out in a relaxed setting away from home, was watching the dogs do their doggie thing. not surprisingly, Miko's and Moxie's doggie things turn out to be quite different. Of course they both had to tear around for awhile, after being cooped up in the car for nearly 2 hours, and they had to get sorted out with Reggie, Helen's dog. Then Miko went on patrol. He checked the fenceline. He checked the brushpile where the groundsquirrels live. He checked the fenceline some more and dug under a fallen tree to get at whatever was under there. Then he checked the fenceline yet again. Then he checked the entire orchard, nose down, "quartering" the field the way i've seen hounds and pointers do. Then he re-checked the brushpile. etc etc etc. Even when he came in the house, he sat or lay in the doorway, facing out, keeping an eye on things.

Moxie, meanwhile, did a lot of plain ol' running around. He found things to play with -- a pinecone, a big stick -- and when I wouldn't throw them for him he figured out how to do it himself. He followed Miko on some of his (Miko's) forays, but he seemed to be along more just to be in on the action than because he was really looking for anything. From time to time he'd approach Elsa or me, offering a toy or a paw, wanting human interaction. The difference between them was fascinating.





We had to bring the dogs in at dusk, because there are a lot of deer in the area and both Miko and Helen's dog are confirmed deer-chasers. Also, there are coyotes. That night we slept so soundly, dogs included, that we didn't hear the coyote chorus that Helen told us the next morning had gone on just under the windows for quite some time. I'm astonished the dogs didn't wake up, but they didn't.

Our 2nd visit was more of the same, except that poor Moxie got a foxtail up his nose and spent Sunday afternoon at the emergency vet clinic in Santa Rosa. Foxtail removal involves a general anesthetic and set us back $270, but those things are nasty! The vet showed me what he took out of Mox's nose -- 3 hard, sharp, barbed-shaft little spears, each close to 3/4 inch long. Good riddance.

Foxtails seem to be unusually bad this year. A friend's dog got one embedded between 2 toes; it worked its way in and then got infected. Several trips to the vet and many hundreds of dollars later, he's okay again. Our beloved park, Pt. Isabel, is undergoing serious renovation, a project that will take until the end of the year, at least. Meanwhile, big sections are fenced off and unavailable to the dogs while work is being done. The largest field that is still open is, unfortunately, overgrown with foxtails. It'll be great when the work is finished, but meanwhile some of the pleasure has gone out of the park. I took Miko and Mox there yesterday evening. It was lovely and warm; the water was high in the channel so they got to go swimming. But Miko prefers the gopher population on the far side of the bridge, AKA Foxtail City, and I had to keep calling him back.

Updates & brags...

.. but no pix.

Since my last post, Miko has been to his first 2 agility trials; Moxie has begun formal agility training AND passed his CGC (canine good citizen) test.

In late May, Miko and I made the 90 minute drive to Elk Grove, near Sacramento, for a DOCNA trial at WAG (DOCNA = Dogs on Course North America; WAG = Western Agility Group). I drove up by myself on Saturday, to scope things out -- I'd never been to an agility trial before and wanted to get a sense of things. I volunteered to set jump poles, and run leashes from the start line to the finish, which got me entered in the workers' raffle -- I went home with some very nice prizes! On Sunday, Miko and I left the house at the crack of dawn, because he had to be measured by the judge before the first class. He's 21 1/2", which is about an inch smaller than when I measured him myself but makes no difference in jump height.

My goal for this competition was to complete at least one course without getting lost and wandering off into the desert. I entertained no thought whatever of Q-ing (having a clean run w/in the allotted time). Miko was entered in 4 classes -- 2 "standard," with the full complement of jumps, weave poles and contact obstacles, and 2 "jumpers," with nothing but jumps. I decided against any of the games, figuring it would be hard enough to negotiate regular 16-jump courses when I could study the maps beforehand. Do you get the idea that mental lapses are a major concern for me? :-)

Anway ... brace yourself for a major brag! Miko Q'd and finished in 1st place in 3 of his 4 classes. In the 4th, I got momentarily confused and just stopped dead: where now? Miko stopped too and looked at me in confusion. Then he turned and jumped the nearest jump. The rest of the course then reappeared in my brain and on we went. He was clean but had .04 time fault. No Q, but still good enough for a blue ribbon, so we went home covered with glory.

I can't say enough about the WAG facility and the people who run it. Everyone is so friendly and helpful, it's just a pleasure to go there.

Miko's 2nd trial was another DOCNA at PDIA (Performance Dogs in Action) in Pleasant Grove, on the other side of Sacramento from WAG, on June 2nd. It was a hot day that probably seemed hotter to those of us from the Bay Area than to the "natives." Miko's a low-melting-point dog and I was worried about working him in the heat. Long story short, we entered 2 standards and 1 jumpers. Miko Q'd and placed 2nd in the jumpers and first standard run. By the time the 2nd standard rolled around it was 85 degrees and rising. Due to some start-line confusion, I wasn't ready when Miko's name was called, which meant he wasn't ready either. He was clean, but just loafing along, and picked up .5 time fault. Good enough for 3rd place, but no Q.

Our next outing will be the Bay Team's CPE trial in mid-July. (CPE = Canine Performance Events.) It will be in Petaluma, and probably HOT. After that, we ride out the heat until mid-August, when we head for the (hopefully) foggy, cool north coast for a CPE trial in Arcata. Elsa will go with me to that one -- we'll make a little mini-vacation out of it. I guess Moxie will go too, for socialization. Everyone bring ear-plugs!

Speaking of Moxie, to nobody's surprise he's taken to agility training like he was born to it -- and maybe he was! He did a foundation course with Sandy Rogers at ACE (Miko's teacher), and now is at about week 12 of an ongoing beginners class taught by Blancett Reynolds. He's wildly enthusiastic about everything, including the nasty weave poles. I have to be careful when I'm practicing not to get carried away and ask him for things he's not really prepared for, just because I think he'll probably do them. He gets really amped up, and he has a low frustration threshhold. If I'm not absolutely clear about what I ask him to do, or if I'm out of position on the course, he lets me know about it -- throws a barking fit. So I'm learning all about that fine line between high drive and hysterical melt-down.

Ah well. Keeps me off the street and outta trouble (except with my wallet!)

What a difference 8 months make!

We just found this picture taken of Moxie a day or 2 after we adopted him last September. Contrast this with the one below, taken in late March, while we were taking a few days' vacation on the Russian River.

Sheep, water sports & other fun stuff

Last week Moxie got to meet some sheep. We went with our friend Susan and her dogs out to a ranch near Pleasanton. Susan's dogs had worked sheep before; Moxie had come along for an instinct test. Not surprisingly, he knew just what to do. It really was amazing to see the genetics kick in. This probably isn't something I'll pursue, at least not in the near future, but it it was enormous fun, for me as well as the Mox.

After sitting on my hands for a couple of years, I finally broke down and bought a digital SLR camera -- a Canon Digital Rebel XTI. It was sitting right there on the front seat of the Forester while Moxie was in the pen with the sheep, but I forgot to tell Elsa, who was using her trusty, venerable Olympus point'n'shoot. No shutter lag, a longer zoom and way higher megapixels would have been nice! (I'm not dissing Olympus cameras, please understand; Elsa's is 7 years old and still does a good job, but it wasn't the tool for this particular activity!)



Okay, new subject:

Those of us who live in the San Francisco Bay Area are lucky enough to have access to a number of nice dog parks where our critters can play off-leash. I like Cesar Chavez Park in Berkeley and the Alameda dog park. But Point Isabel, in Richmond, may just be the best dog park in the country -- 21 acres of grassy fields bordered on one side by the San Francisco Bay (killer views!) and bisected by a tidal channel. There's a café that serves good espresso, pastries, homemade soups and sandwiches, and Mudpuppy's Tub & Scrub, where you can bathe your dog or buy treats and toys. If you don't feel like paying for a clean dog, there's a rinse-off hose where you can get the salt and mud off for free. The park is about 16 miles from where I live, but Miko, Moxie and I find our way out there 3 or 4 times a week -- there's a Costco right next door, with the cheapest gas in the area; I use that as a partial justification. But mainly, I love Pt. Isabel and so do the dogs. Moxie only wants me to throw the ball for him, but Miko, rennaissance boy that he is, not only chases the ball, he also hunts gophers, digs holes, climbs trees and swims. Yes, that's right. I said he climbs trees. The proof is below.



Depending on the tide, there may or may not be stretches of rocky beach on the Bay side of the park. (One of the little beaches gained notoriety a few years back because that's where Lacy Peterson's body washed up!) At low tide, even non-swimming dogs can venture quite a ways from shore without having to paddle, or they can play in the thick black muck in the channel. When the tide comes in, though, the swimming is great. Moxie is only beginning to enjoy swimming; the one time he won't fetch a ball is out of the water. He kind of paddles around in circles -- maybe he's herding fish and I just can't see them! Miko, on the other hand, is a swimming fool. The one place he absolutely reliably will retrieve the ball from is out of the water.

Did I mention that he dives?

You've seen those bumperstickers that say "A bad day fishing is better than a good day at the office" -- that's how I feel about Pt. Isabel. I've been out there in the pouring rain, and when the wind off the bay just about knocked me flat. Doesn't matter. It's beautiful. Even when it's crowded it's peaceful. (Dogfights are really rare, and nearly all the people who come to the park are pleasant.) I used to listen to music or podcasts, but rarely do anymore. I go there and walk a couple of miles and just ... be. And the dogs have a blast and get a good workout at the same time.

Next week Moxie starts beginning agility classes at ACE, and Miko and I go to PowerPaws agility camp. I dreamed I was sent home from camp in disgrace, for being such a klutzy handler. Miko got to stay, of course. In my dream he was sitting on a table wearing a gold cardboard crown, like for a kids' birthday party. I woke up sweating! Miko swears he'll take good care of me, though ... and I expect he will!

Uh-oh, this is getting serious!

Miko has been in school, of one sort or another, pretty steadily since we got him in Sept. '04. He had basic and intermediate obedience, several sessions of rally obedience (a fun and interesting sport) and a class in tricks and utility skills at the Berkeley East Bay Humane Society, where we got him. He started agility classes offered through the city of Albany's rec department. This served to introduce him to the equipment, and me to the idea that this could be a lot of fun. We moved on to classes with Kathryn Horn, and then to Sandra Rogers at Ace DogSports, across the bay in Brisbane (indoor facility) or Pacifica (outdoors), depending on the weather. Sandy is very successful with her own dogs, and she's a terrific teacher. Miko has flourished under her tutelage ... even I, world's klutziest handler, am improving!


Next month (April), we'll be going to PowerPaws Agility Camp! I never went away to camp as a kid -- too busy with horse shows every weekend -- and this isn't sleep-over camp, but it'll be 3 days of intense activity, plus I'll get a Power Paws T-shirt!

Meanwhile, Moxie has had basic obedience and a trick class at the Oakland SPCA. He has recently started foundation work with Sandy. Foundation work is the training you do to get a dog ready to start actual agility training -- a lot of heel-work, stays, getting the dog to stand on different things (box, teeter-board, etc). Moxie was born to do this stuff. He literally drags me from one obstacle to the next so he can try them all. If he had his way, he'd get to climb on the "real" obstacles -- the dogwalk and A-frame -- that are shoved out of the way against the wall. His attitude is ME! LET ME!!! EVERYBODY GET OUTTA MY WAY!!!!!

So here's what my life looks like: 3 times a week I'm driving across the bay bridge, either to lessons or practice. Let's see -- the toll recently went up to $4, so that's $12/wk, plus about 2.5 gallons of gas per round trip in my Subie ... premium gas is now back up to $3.25/gallon AT COSTCO! Somebody else do the math; it makes my head hurt!

Might as Well Meet the Cats Too :-)

Scrabble, AKA Enormo-Fluff wants it known that he is Numero Uno in this household. Sky the Kitty From Hell doesn't care what I say or don't say about him. He's too busy hatching plots to make life miserable for Fantan, our housemate's cat who lives in the apartment downstairs.

Scrabble came into my life on August 26, 1996 -- a slightly belated birthday present maybe. He was maybe 6 weeks old, a ball of black and white tuxedo fluff sitting under the downspout by the patio gate, watching a parade of ants. I picked him up, he purred, that's all she wrote. I've had a lot of nice cats over the years, but Mr. Scrabs is the best. He's my guy. (Don't tell Miko, but it's true.)

When I got him, Elsa had 3 cats, and I sort of had one too, a semi-feral tabby called Bandit (cuz he had a striped tail like a racoon, sorta) who slept in a little doghouse outside on the porch, kept the ivy-covered back hillside free of rats, and wouldn't let anyone touch him but me. Elsa's cats were old, and one by one they died; Bandit met a sad and untimely end, and that left Scrabble as the only cat -- the only animal -- for a number of years. He grew into a 16-pound fluffy handsome fellow, an old soul with a sense of humor. Things strike him as funny -- I can tell.



He was horrified when we brought Miko home, and Miko wasn't quite sure what to make of the idea of sharing space with a cat. We kept them completely separated for a week, let them smell each other under the door and check out each other's scent in the living room, one at a time. Later, we blocked doorways with chairs so Scrabble could come and go while Miko was more confined. I kept dog treats in my pockets at all times, and whenever Miko would start in with the "that thing looks good to eat" stare I'd toss kibble on the ground in front of him to redirect his attention. It didn't really take long -- within a month and a half I felt confident about leaving them alone together. They get along fine, but I can't say they've ever become friends.


There was never any question: Scrabble was "Sara's cat." Wherever I went, within a few minutes there he'd be as well. Not wanting to sit in my lap, not demanding that I pet him; he'd just be there, feather-boa tail wrapped neatly around his front paws, watching me.

Enter Sky, the Kitty From Hell. What can I say? He's Frank Sinatra reincarnated, with gorgeous blue eyes. Since Scrabble's such a one-person cat, Elsa decided to get one of her own. Sky was about 9 months old when we got him from the Feral Cat Foundation, and the very clear message I take away from this experience is that the "socialization window" of kittens and puppies is even more important than I thought.



Sky was born to a feral mother and lived the first 5 or 6 months of his life in a community of stray and feral cats that an elderly woman was feeding. When she became ill, the FCF people stepped in, socializing and finding homes for as many of the cats as they could. Sky had been adopted and returned before we got him. The story was that his first family had a 2 year old, and Sky was afraid of the child. At any rate, he spent his first 2 weeks with us hiding under a dresser. We'd been told that he loved other cats, and indeed he did want to make friends with Scrabble. Unfortunately, Scrabble wasn't having any. So Sky turned his attention to Miko, and the 2 of them became great pals. They'd sleep together and groom each other -- it was really cute.


Scrabble's nose was definitely out of joint; he had enjoyed being the only cat. He and Sky had several noisy fights and then came to an accommodation of sorts. But Scrabble clearly holds me responsible for this disruption to his idyllic life.

And then, of course, we got Moxie. Cat's don't have particularly expressive faces, but I'm here to tell you that when Scrabble saw "another one of those things" coming through the patio gate, he looked aghast. And then, perhaps thinking of Miko's lengthy break-in period, he puffed himself up to twice his considerable size, unsheathed his front claws, stood up on his back feet and advanced toward Moxie, hissing. The poor dog was terrified and hid behind my legs. Satisfied he'd made his point, Scrabble sat down and gave himself a thorough grooming.

From Sky's point of view the addition of Moxie was not such a great thing either. Moxie monopolizes Miko's attention, so the sweet Sky-Miko friendship has been back-burnered somewhat. They still like each other, though. If Sky hasn't come in by the time we want to go to bed, I leash up Miko and we walk around the corner to the neighbor's yard where Sky hangs out. Sky wears a bell and we can always hear him coming, running up to his old buddy to say hello. And then he'll follow us home.


Sky's an odd one. He has a kind of street-urchin charm. I wish we'd gotten him when he was younger and could have socialized him better. Or maybe it doesn't matter; maybe he'd never have been the lap cat Elsa wanted. Several times we were at the point of taking him back to the FCF people because he was so aggressive with our housemate's cat. But he's getting better -- at least Fantan hasn't had any unexpected trips to the vet lately!

The final word of this post has to be Scrabble's. It is "Hrrrrumph!!

Take Two, They're Small!

I'm the non-dog person, remember? The one who was persuaded by a TV program on Animal Planet to get a dog, after not having had one for more than 35 years -- after never having had one of my own, that wasn't "the family dog." The one who wandered into a beginning agility class with Miko the WonderDog just to see what it was like and did her best to resist the appeal and the challenge and is still doing her best to keep from getting caught up in the competition end of it all because BT,DT with the horses, and didn't much like the person I was back then.

So yeah, that person. So what happens? We go for a drive on Labor Day weekend (hey, why not?!), with the vague notion of looking at a miniature poodle at a shelter in Santa Rosa. Really, it was just a destination. We wanted to get out of the house for the day. We took Miko; maybe we'd drop in on friends in Guerneville, let him swim in the river. Or maybe we'd go to the beach.

The poodle was a cute little dog, but some other people were there first, and besides he didn't like cats. Oh well. But while Elsa was looking at some other small dogs, one of the shelter workers found out that I did agility with Miko. Weren't Border Collies supposed to be good agility dogs? Yes indeed, said I. "You got a BeeCee?" They did, or anyway a BC/Australian Shepherd mix. Cat friendly, people super-friendly; he and Miko played happily together in the field behind the shelter. And so, although I'd said I didn't want a border collie (too OCD for me! the best thing about Miko is that he isn't a BC!), I went home that day with one in the back of the car.

He was pretty skinny because he'd been in the hospital with kennel cough (and later turned out to be giardia positive -- yikes!), and had really, really bad hair. I expect his coat had been badly matted and maybe full of burrs, so someone took the kitchen shears to him. In the pictures on this page, he's gained nearly 4 lbs (bringing him up to just a little over 40), and while his coat isn't exactly great, it's much better than it was. I'm hoping that in the spring when he sheds out, his summer coat will look shiny and nice.

All we were told about Miko's life before we got him was that he'd been picked up as a stray. He was housebroken and pretty well socialized, so he'd been some(careless)body's dog at some point in his young life. We don't know much about Moxie's past, either, except that it must have been sad. How he came to be in the shelter was like this: One night in July '06, a car was observed driving slowly down a road. It stopped. A door opened. A dog came flying out head over heels, over a fence into a back yard. The door closed, the car sped away. There were witnesses, but no one got the license number. As it happened, the owner of the backyard sometimes fostered dogs for the shelter. She kept her sudden visitor for 2 weeks, during which she learned that he was sweet tempered, affectionate, housebroken, crate-trained, and would sit and lie down on command. Who on earth would literally throw away such a great little dog?

I imagine it was a case of someone being beguiled by a cute little black puppy, and having no idea what an adolescent border collie would be like in an apartment, or house with small yard -- not enough exercise, not enough mental challenge ... Moxie is a handful even now.

He is not the small couch-potato 2nd dog we probably should have gotten. But Miko would probably have made that dog's life miserable. He and Moxie are well matched, size and energy-wise. Try as they might, they can't quite tire each other out, but they do take the edge off till it's time for a training session or a trip to the park.


Come on and throw the freakin ball, wouldja??!!

Moxie hasn't started formal agility training yet, but I take him to the practice field with Miko most weekends and he's gonna be a pistol. He's fast, of course, and focused, and fearless. Best of all, he loves the whole process. His favorite things are the contact obstacles, especially the dogwalk; he'll self-reward by running back and forth over that 6 or 8 times if I let him (not that I always have much choice!) He likes the tunnels too, and even the teeter, which a lot of dogs hate. I think he'll be a good jumper too, though right now he tends to run so fast that he flattens out. We're working on it.

How this all came to be...

Everyone who knows anything about me at all, knows that I'm a Cat Person who used to be a Horse (and Cat) person, who has no use whatever for dogs. None. So how on earth did I end up with not one but two high-energy canines of the train me and give me jobs to do or I'll destroy your house variety? I swear it's from watching Animal Planet! There was a program, kind of a mini-series, on late at night a few years ago, called "Cell Dogs." Maybe you saw it. The show highlighted inmates in various prisons who were in a program in which they learned to train dogs rescued from animal shelters to be service dogs for the disabled, or in some cases just good companion animals. In the first show I watched, 6 or 8 guys with little or no experience in dog training were paired with dogs straight from the pound, with the goal of turning those dogs into helpers for disabled people. The dogs learned to open and close doors, turn lights off and on, pick up dropped objects, take laundry out of the dryer and all manner of other useful activities. I thought it was about the coolest thing I'd seen in a long time, and I knew there was no way I was going to get Scrabble, my cat, to lift a paw to help me. Maybe I should get a ... dog?

But where? How big and what kind? Male or female? My cats have pretty much all simply found their way into my life, kittens dumped on my doorstep. They appeared. I fed them. They stayed. About dogs, though, all I knew was to avoid the puppy mills. There are a number of excellent rescue organizations around here, so we went to a mobile adoption one Saturday in September of 2004. We were charmed by a comical-looking corgi-german shepherd (?) mix, but he had some health issues and by the next morning when we had decided we wanted to take him anyway, someone else had given him a home. I was surprised at how disappointed I felt.

Long story short, we ended up that afternoon at the Berkeley East Bay Humane Society,where Miko was waiting. He was about 9 months old, a maybe shepherd mix, maybe dobie mix, the shelter people said. Later we learned he's an Australian Kelpie mix. (I'd never heard of kelpies -- they herd cattle and sheep in the outback. We don't know what the not-kelpie part is; some kind of hunting dog -- pointer or hound, perhaps, because of his talented sniffer and high prey drive.) About 45 lbs, a bit bigger than we'd planned, playful and energetic but sweet tempered. We jumped through all the necessary hoops (BEBHS is really careful about where they place their animals), and the following Tuesday our new dog came home with us.

Getting him and Scrabble to co-exist took some time, and is worth an entry of its own.

Miko started basic obedience classes immediately after we got him, and he's been in school one way or another pretty steadily ever since. He's an exceptionally smart and very willing dog. But while he as learned a few utility skills -- he'll pick up things I drop, he'll bring me my shoes, turn on a pressure-sensitive light with his paw etc -- and some cute tricks, for the past year or a little more we've been concentrating on the sport of agility. This seems like a natural progression to me, since when I had horses, they were jumpers. Makes sense to train my dog to jump too! And run through tunnels and climb A-frames and do all that other fun stuff.

And here we are.