Tristan is on the injured list

Tristan hurt his paw playing football today. I'm sure he'll be okay but he's limping right now so, of course, I worry.

We were at the boat launch today when four young guys roared up, hopped out and then did a double take at Tristan. Hmmm. Tristan soon disarmed them and was happy to retrieve properly thrown sticks (meaning at great distances versus my wimpy tosses). Soon he joined them in a combination football throwing/keep away game. Tristan tore back and forth as the football was thrown but woe to anyone who bobbled the ball - Tristan was right there to claim possession and would speed off with the ball until called back to relinquish it. He was scoring big time and the football was taking a bruising until one of the guys spotted Tristan's paw was bleeding.

It looks like Tristan ground a nail down to the quick with all his skidding stops and turns on the concrete but he sure had fun until the injury. The guys thought Tristan was pretty cool and he certainly loved playing with them. We made a hasty exit to get Tristan home for treatment.

The goats are gone from Magnuson leaving a very well browsed hillside empty of blackberry bushes. I really would love to have a small party for several goats at my house. I have some lovely hors d'oeuvres for them.

5/1/09 Update on Tristan:
Tristan's injury is worst than I thought. It looked like the quick of his nail initially because that's where I saw the bleeding. Instead the pads on both of his back feet are torn. He can barely walk and has only made it outside once.

Tristan's such a sweetie and a trouper about it. I know it hurts him but he lets me change his bandages without any fuss and even offers up his paws for me to do it.

Azaleas

My neighbor's azaleas are gorgeous but I couldn't get Tristan to smile. He's keeping an eye on workmen at another neighbor's house.

Happiness is a water fountain

The water fountains are turned back on for the season and Tristan is a happy pup.

Desperate no more

Thank goodness! The camera is finally back, repaired and ready for more pictures of you know who. Now if I could just find the memory card, wrist strap and case that I carefully put into a zip lock bag and stored in a very safe place. It's safe - so safe that I can't find it. I have a roll top desk with lots of cubbies but every cubby whispers back to me "not here".


I may have found a solution to Tristan's dislike of open grating. Sections of the boat launch at Magnuson Park have thin openings to the water below and Tristan didn't resist navigating them at all. Now I just have to find walkways with wider and wider openings so Tristan can work his way up to actual open grating. I really need to get him comfortable with it since I can't lug a 95 pound GSD around even in an emergency. Tristan is fearless in virtually all situations but open grating is his hated nemesis.

I could say fearless but goofy. Tristan checked out the water all around the concrete deck.


The goats are still at Magnuson but were on their break when we stopped by today.

Got your goat?

These goats are hard at work at Magnuson Park eliminating blackberry bushes. We came across them on our outing there today. I was on my way to an appointment so only had time for a quick conversation with the goat herder. Tristan was way too interested in them. I'm sure he thought his help was needed for herding. We'll go back tomorrow to check them out. The goats are really cute.

Happy birthday, big boy!

Today's Tristan's birthday so we had a picnic of chicken (shared), dog treats, (not shared) cheese (shared), strawberries and champagne (not shared) at his favorite spot. A big timber washed up in honor of the occasion (also not shared).

Tristan seems determined to remind me that he's still just a big pup. He's started in again on stealing my shoes to take out in the backyard. I'm planting a container vegetable garden; and whenever I'm working on a pot, Tristan drops in a ball. He's probably hoping for a very prolific ball harvest.

Dash Point State Park

Tristan loved the beach at Dash Point State Park today. The tide was in and the tide flats are shallow so he frolicked about making great sweeping arcs further and further out. I think he was surprised that the water wasn't deep enough to swim in.

We finally found popular Saltwater State Park too. Here's the entrance:


Say what? There's a tiny little brown sign that says "State Park" at the road into the park. Blink and you will miss it. I suppose it's a concession to the neighbors as the park is in a residential area but, really, it's a bit silly. We'e tried to go before when we were wandering about. There's a big sign on the I-5 exit but then nothing as far as I can tell. Today, however, we had GPS so we followed the blue dot. It's a pretty park but there was no running around for Tristan since it's a busy park.

Sunny training day

Even the dandelions are pretty.

With and without Tristan

Even I concede that the photo of this lawn is better without Tristan in it (blasphemy!) so you get both views. I love these plantings of different flowers and colors and they make such a pretty welcome.

My camera is still in the repair queue and I need it badly. Spring is finally here and there's lots of gorgeous flowers for Tristan poses.

Let the egg wars begin!

That was the rallying cry today at the 11th Annual Egg Wars. Every Easter friends host a wonderful, wild and crazy Easter party. The highlight is the egg wars. In case you haven't done it, everyone is given several gaily colored hard boiled eggs. The goal is to tap and crack (or smash and crush) opponents' eggs while keeping yours intact. Last one with a uncracked egg end wins.

The prize is a delightfully tacky gold sprayed bunny trophy and your name added to the scroll of annual winners and runner ups. I won one year but soon decided runner up was the best position. Most of the glory but the winner HAS to take the trophy home for display and safekeeping. Here's Susie, last year's winner, taking a final walk down the runway.

We added another competition one year - a raw egg lob and catch. That game was retired after a party goer and good sport's elegant attire got a head start on Caesar salad dressing.

It's a blast and gets decidedly competitive. I was greeted with hoots and a pat down upon arrival. Seems they remember last year when I tried to compete with a plastic egg ringer. It was a joke, guys!

The food and wine were fabulous as always. The host husband is a restaurateur and sommelier and another guest is a wine distributor so it really was a feast. I can't even begin to describe how wonderful the wines were - so many and so divine.

Here's Charlotte doing her own tasting. Just kidding about the partaking although she seemed quite willing. After all, she is French.



Katie only had eyes for the carving of the meat.




Tristan made an appearance but spent most of the time in the vehicle. He might not have been nearly as polite as Charlotte and Katie around low hanging food. He got to show his good manners, however, outdoors doing his party tricks and he had a great time playing with everyone.

Foster mom

One of the club member's GSD had 10 puppies last week but, sadly, the mother died suddenly. My friend was trying to bottle-feed the pups but fortunately found a volunteer foster mom (or mum per the Australian mutual friend who sent the photo). Ironically, the St. Bernard's name is Milky. Doesn't she look like a great mum for these tykes?

I'm so sorry for my friend. His female was a really great dog and very special to him.

It's never going to rain again

That's what I always say on glorious sunny days. Perfect weather days seem so natural and just as they should be; hence, surely they will remain so. I believe my snow rant on Friday was very effective. The day turned nice and it's been lovely since. I take total credit for it. The weather gods must have heard my displeasure.

Training on Saturday was really nice. Quite the contrast to last week's soaking rain which totally overwhelmed my "rain resistant" raincoat. I was the wet puppy then.

We spent a lot of time at the boat ramp today. For all my brags about Tristan, he is never going to be a dock dog. Usually he seems to forget he can leap out into the water and will run to the shallow part to swim out to chase the stick or ball.

#@%!#@! snow

Yes, the bad language is coming from yours truly, the ultimate snow lover. There is a time and place for everything - but snow in April is not it. I woke up to a snow sprinkled lawn and I am not amused. Tristan and I have been holed up because of the miserable rain so I probably should be grateful for the change of pace but really it's just too much.

No excuses

Here's a motivator. It certainly eliminates any excuses about doing Schutzhund. This is the BH routine and apparently the competitor also passed his SchH1. I love how happy and spirited the dog is. The last third of the video is the critique.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSqmD15X2_U

I'm having problems with the link but it works to copy and paste. It's worth it.