Izzy Girl

Wow, has Izzy come out of her shell. She wanders around on the floor with the dogs around, is determined to catch Ben, our Betta fish hanging on the wall, and if none of that works, hanging out on the counter and/or kitchen table are almost as good. We ordered a window ledge platform for her, its in the mail as they say.
I am hoping that will somewhat satisfy her urge to be "up" and also give her the opportunity to be entertained by watching the birds outside the window at the feeder.
Izzy is one of the most "balanced" cats I have known, check our her balancing act on the basement stair railing.

Zenny's First Official Therapy Visit

Zenny had his first offocial Therapy Dog visit in October. It went very well, we have 2 more to go as "supervised" visits and then we can be on our own. See how handsome he looks in his vest! He's pretty convinced that he can't move once the vest is on but I"m thinking he'll get over that soon! I hope,......

The Izzy Adjustment Period

Our new cat "Izzy" is adjusting well. Too well perhaps since she has now turned into a frisky never predictable kitten that you just never know where you will find her. Last night we heard a noise in the kitchen and went to investigate, looked all around, nothing. I see that Lucy is looking up with a very curious expression on her face, there is Izzy on top of the kitchen wall cabinets, in other words she is about 4 inches from the ceiling. Have no idea how she got there, well, I know she jumped, but would have loved to see that. We removed the glassware that she was sitting amongst for management sake.......

Izzy and Lucy are coming to an understanding as can be seen by the picture. Best when Lucy is tired, she was exhausted this particular day. Its fun to see them figure each other out. No one else really cares about her and Lucy is getting more used to her, still, the "chase" is the most fun........... In the basement, we see that Wookie, our other cat, has come to terms. Dinner time, Izzy runs around the basement leaping over Wookie like she was some moving leap frog.

Its fun, everyone should get a kitten, keeps you on your toes. We've gotten much better at picking up stuff from the counter and putting things away, otherwise we find them on the floor the next morning.

Perhaps I'll get better at laundry also, but I doubt it!

the Beach! Silver Sands State Park

We went to the beach on Sunday. In the past, the only beach that I have become familiar with for taking my dogs to is in New Hampshire. A little bit of a drive and we got a late start on Sunday. Al suggested a beach in Milford, CT where he used to live. We headed out, beautiful day.

When we got there of course there are many signs indicating no dogs on beach, dogs on leash, etc. I always respect those signs during the beach season, but off season usually things are pretty loose. We checked it out and there were quite a few dogs on the beach. We put Zenny and Lucy on long lines and off we went. I'm very glad that Lucy was on a long line, she is very birdie and was extremely interested in the seagulls. Not to be negative, but I"m pretty sure I would not have gotten her back out of the ocean if she had been loose. I used the opportunity to work on "no bird" and reward her for returning to me. Lots of work needed on this before I"ll feel comfortable letting her off the line. Too bad, but every dog is different and I just need to remember that. Zenny was very into the smelly seaweed and dead horseshoe crabs. We spent over 2 hours on the beach, got some ice cream at a local Marina and in general had a beautiful day. We packed clothes for coldness on the beach and could have used shorts and sandals instead!

click on the title of this blog for more information about Silver Sands State Park.

Our WC

I have no pictures of the Working Certificate (WC) event that we attended on Saturday. As anybody in CT would know, it POURED on Saturday, buckets and buckets and buckets. Not good picture taking or video taking conditions.

This was Lucy's second WC attempt, she passed last year but we are still working thru some challenges so I entered her in the WC again. She passed but with different issues then last year. I obviously have more training to do. It was Pip's first WC attempt. And as I think about it, I only started training her for this type of work about 5 months ago. Pip does a great job of marking and racing to the bird, but I discovered this week that she is not comfortable picking up birds. She does awesome with the bumpers. She refused to pick up the bird on land so I was unable to continue. I"ll need to get creative with my training with her. Probably do some using her dinner and/or chicken necks, her favorite high value treat.

I did discover that my LLBean Rainjacket is no longer waterproof. I"ll be going to LLBean today to see if there 100% guarantee is really for ever! The water soaked right through my jacket. The pants were fine - probably because I haven't worn them as much. Who knows! Brrrr, nothing worse then wet raingear.

Zenny's new friend Otto

I have been lax in introducing Zenny and Lucy's new friend Otto. Otto is a german shepherd who came to one of our puppy k classes. Otto has the best of all worlds in our minds, he gets to walk out of his back yard into my favorite hiking place, Bolton Notch. We are lucky enough to have become friends with Joanne and Ron, Otto's parents - and get to hike from their house quite a bit. What a treat.

Pip's First Night (NOT New Years Eve!)

Last night was Pip's First Night at class. I am fortunate to have a job teaching family dog and puppy classes at Tails U Win Canine Center in Manchester, CT. Classes consist of 8 1 hr sessions, with the "first" night ( or session) an informative one with just owners, no dogs. But we as instructors bring a dog or dogs if we want. I like to bring a dog or 2 to show what I love to do with positive reinforcement training and to talk about how I have incorporated it into my many different dog personalities. Pip has never been to first night. She is rather impulsive and I've always been concerned about how she would reflect on the training. Its always been my goal so I took the plunge and went for it. I have been working on having her lie down on a grooming table. Gives her a "place to be" and being up high which she lives, also keeps her from getting to enthusiastic with folks. Between that and tired Lucy we had a pretty successful evening. More things to work on for the next time.