November tradition

Here it is. My annual "We live north of the 54th parallel and I'm SHOCKED that it snowed in November!" Picture. As if it's some great surprise that it would snow at this time of year in a place that has snow on the ground for a good six months of the year.

But I can't help myself. It's tradition to talk about how late/early the snow is or warm/cold November is.

Still...when we went to bed last night there was no snow at all. When we woke up this morning there was a good six inches on the ground. Definitely worth talking about eh? I thought I'd throw in the "eh" just to add a little more Canadiana. Now I guess I'll go fry up some back bacon and then go out and build an igloo or something. I'm sure my neighbour is already hooking up her dogsled...

Just doing my patriotic duty.

Necessity is the mother of invention

Bruce NEEDED a pillow...

and Buster was sort of available.

The hills are alive!

with the sound of gunfire....

It's hunting season and today was especially "noisy" so Bruce got to take one for the team

and wear a set of festive jingle bells while we were running the dogs in the woods. No one got shot so I guess they were effective!

My grandma...

What big teeth you have!

Brucie's Brags

Generally all the brags here are "Hope did this" or "Stock Dog Trial that". For once Bruce gets to hog the limelight. He'd like everyone to know that he's not just another pretty face and that he's capable of more than just watching Space TV on the couch while eating Cheezies with Travis.

Bruce finished his level 1, 2 and 3 APDT Rally Obedience Titles this past weekend. He did it with style and won a bunch of ribbons and loot in the process. Here he is pictured with his loot and favourite rosette.

Good Boy Brucie!

Decisions

I don't generally dress my dogs up. They're tough working dawgs after all... but my friend Tammy is having an APDT rally obedience trial this weekend down in Calgary and Bruce and I have decided to go. For once the Border Collies can stay home and keep Travis company. It's Halloween this weekend which happens to be my favourite holiday so I dug through my tickle trunk (of things I don't dress my dogs up in) today to see what I could come up with in the way of a costume for Brucie.

Here are our options.

The classic bat bandana


A cute little ghosty number?


Or the Superman costume I used to force his grandfather Mateo to wear. Kind of a family tradition of humiliation...

Before anyone says anything. Yes, I've noticed that there's a "wardrobe malfunction" here. The S on his breast plate is upside. Rest assured I won't make that mistake again.

Being an equal opportunity kind of girl I dragged Hope and Kate over and dressed them up too. Now they have even more incentive to remain great working dogs!

Trick or Treat, smell our feet, give us something good to eat.
Not too big, not too small, Just the size of Montreal!

Finally!

A good picture of the three dogs together. For once Kate isn't beating on Bruce, Bruce isn't annoying Hope, and Hope isn't looking like I beat him with a camera on a daily basis. Generally all of that behaviour leads to me telling them to knock it off etc., which leads to less than happy "family portraits" - kind of like the ones you get of kids when they're told to sit up straight, stop picking their noses, no rabbit ears behind their brothers, and don't forget to smile - a real smile dammit! ;-)

If I didn't know them I'd think they were sweet and adorable.