We're Iditarod bound!

Well some of us any way. 

Remember these guys?

A few of them have made their way all the way to Alaska with Karen! 

They're a little easier to manage now...

 

Sheepsicles

Keep track of Karen and the North Wapiti team at iditarod.com  The race starts March 6th.  Good luck Karen - have a great race!
 

Who says cats are lazy?

Just watch Buster. He did all of what you see below in a space of five minutes or less.

..

 I get tired just watching...

My teachers always said that I talked too much.

I was one of those kids. Branded. That stuff follows you around from report card to report card, school to school. Little did they know that I'd wind up essentially talking for a living - singing for my supper so to speak - for a good chunk of my adult life. One man's blessing is another man's curse...or something like that. 
What this is all leading up to is that apparently one blog just isn't enough for me. I've got SO MUCH to say, that I've decided I need two blogs. The new blog Sheep Thrills is for all the other stuff that I'm interested in.  Stuff like gardening, eating, and sheep.  Feel free to pop by. 

I knew we were spending more on groceries

Antonio and Buster are used to their winter nick names - Lard Butt and Rollie Pollie, but even so, we've been going through quite a bit of cat food this winter. 



We've had our suspicions...and today they were confirmed. 

Meet the new guy on the farm.

Being cats, Antonio and Buster put on a great show. Normally on a warm, sunny day like we had today, they are complete sloths.  Now that they've got turf to protect though, they were totally into the "we pay the mortgage and buy the groceries - so get off our land varmit!" 

The poor little guy eventually got chased out of the pole shed by the cats, only to discover that his escape route was blocked off by these guys. 

 

Yep, out of the frying pan and into the fire. Lucky for him the dogs are better behaved than our cats. 

At any rate, we're fine with new comers who are willing to pull their weight - and not take up space on the couch. Welcome stranger.  

Travis said

look, the dog and cat are playing together...

and this is what I saw. 

Take one husband who obviously has too much free time, one toy obsessed Aussie, and one unimpressed cat and I'd say there was play all right - Travis playing with fire...


Incredibly, there were no injuries which means we'll probably see a repeat of the above "play session" until Bruce swallows the cat's head "by mistake", Bruce loses and eye "by mistake", or Travis finds out what it feels like to have 10 cat claws embedded into his inner thigh "by mistake".

Always a lady

I've had quite a number of dogs who liked to lay down with their feet crossed. Especially Aussies. It's one of the quirky "cute" things I like about them.

Kate however, has taken the "crossed legs" thing to a new level. She's the first dog I've ever owned - possibly ever seen - who manages to sit with her legs crossed.

She definitely takes "quirky cute" to a whole new level.

However, if you think this look is all "sweetness and light"....

Do I NOT look all sweet? Be sucked in by my look of innocence...

understand that she's sitting this way because she knows that Bruce is going to fly by her to her right (Aussies are soooo predictable - Kate's own words, I swear) and she wants to be ready to grab his butt as he shoots by. They have a 3 Stooges kind of relationship and it works for them.

Here Brucie Brucie Brucie...

Experiments with Hope

As you know, I've had a little extra free time on my hands lately. Rather than waste it, I've kept myself busy with productive work and education. I've always been interested in science and now I have the time to explore some ideas that have often kept me up at night.

Like, what can I get Hope to eat?

Hope is not an Australian Shepherd. Aussies will eat anything...without thinking. If I offered Bruce a rock he would have it swallowed before it even occured to him that it might not be food. Hope is a kibble eating kind of dog. A meat and potatoes, hold the potatoes kind of dog.
However, he's also a desperate to please kind of dog. I wanted to see just how far he would go to make me happy. Hence, the following series of experiments.

No animals were harmed (physically at least, I'm pretty certain that the Border Collie needs therapy now) in these experiments and the scientist was highly entertained for at least an hour - objective achieved!


Cranberry

He's all innocent and trusting here. Sweet.

The cranberry went down fairly quickly. Happily? Maybe not, but gone none the less.

Pecan

Somewhat more careful this time.

Maybe if I hang on to it for a while it will improve with age.

5 minutes later, with a whole lot of pukey looking faces - mostly gone with a few crumbs left over for the rest of the family. Hope's a sharing kind of guy.

Grape

No need to send me emails telling the grapes are toxic when fed to dogs. It was one grape. Four days later and he's still running around so I think he survived the experience. Before grapes and raisins were pronounced toxic to dogs I happily fed them loads of them. Ignorance IS bliss.

I'm pretty sure I've heard through the grapevine that you're not supposed to feed us these things...

Loyalty did win out and eventually the grape disappeared. I haven't found it stuffed into a potted plant either.

Celery

Definitely the piece de resistance.

Are you KIDDING me??

Behold the power of a dog's jaws.

Failure. In the end he just couldn't do it. He gave it a good college try though.

Good boy Hopey! Looking forward to another couple of months cooped up in the house with me?