New Year’s Day hoopla bores me. All the hopes, all the resolutions, feel too much like a mate who acts like an @#$@# all year long and thinks flowers on Valentine’s Day or diamonds at
Xmas makes up for it. I don’t buy it. But, it’s not that I don’t believe in new beginnings or new goals. I simply think that every day is a fresh start … for that matter so is every hour, every
minute. …
I admit it. I’m frugal. I do enjoy shopping when I have the cash and the need, but I am not a fan of unnecessary monthly bills. So, I’m always looking for places to trim the budget,
either to make room for something else or to eek out a bit more savings. For 2008, I’m seriously considering dropping Lilly’s health insurance. It’s less than $20 per month, but the more I look at
our policy, the less useful it seems. …
Because of the holiday and because it’s been freezing-frickin cold, we didn’t do much training this week. We even skipped class last Sunday — mostly because I had some pre-holiday
crabbiness. I didn’t think it was fair to take Lilly to class when my patience was running so thin. Plus, class was slated for a busy pedestrian mall 2 days before xmas, which takes an already scary
environment for Lilly into another realm, and I just wasn’t up to it. …
It finally stopped snowing here around 10 pm last night, so we got off the mountain today after plowing the driveway. The canyon was snow-packed and icy for sure, but not terrible. We
got Ginny home safely, but we did NOT do any after-xmas shopping … other than to pick up some bags of wood stove pellets since another storm is coming tonight into tomorrow. …
This week’s class took place at a different dog park at the very north edge of Boulder. It’s a nice, pretty new one with 3 fenced areas (one for big dogs, one for not-so-big dogs, one
for small dogs). Our group used the not-so-big one since it was empty. Lilly did grumble once at a dog that blew off his recall and began bounding around, but the real wake-up call was her LEAVE IT
work. Those duck treats were just too much for her. …
A fellow dog gal in Wyoming recently wrote to an online group about friends not really getting the positive training work she’s doing with her dogs. They also are very critical of
people who try (and often succeed) to rehabilitate so-called “aggressive” dogs. It comes back the question I raised recently about people telling me to give up on Lilly. …
While sorting through some archived photos, I came across this one of Ginko from March 2003. We’d had an incredible blizzard that dumped like 5-6 feet of snow very quickly. We were
stranded at home for about a week. That’s how long it took to clear our football-field-long driveway. …
Lilly is both the noisiest dog I’ve ever had and the most silent. Lately, it seems, every time I turn around … there she is under foot. I bet I’ve stepped on her more in the last
month than I have in the last 3 years. And, I’m not sure why. …
Tom swears that the pads on the back of Lilly’s forelegs are oversized — like thumbs. Since she *is* good at gripping things, opening things and general dexterity, I’m inclined to
agree. If we don’t watch out, soon she’ll be climbing ropes, scaling ravines and other mischief. Check it out. …
This week’s Sunday class took place in and around Whole Pets, a specialty pet store located (of course) near Whole Foods. I had hoped to tell you that all this relaxation training paid
off, but I can’t. There was too much noise and movement for Lilly’s delicate sensibilities. During the hour-long class, she relaxed for maybe 15 minutes of it. Mostly, she just freaked out and blew
me off. …
