Lock Down

My poor little Rammy... he's on crate rest for at least 2 weeks.

Nothing obviously wrong with him, except he randomly yelps like he is in severe pain.  Yeah, it's a bit disconcerting!  I took him to the vet and he was diagnosed with "sore neck".  She couldn't get any pain response from him and said that when a dog randomly yelps it is generally in the neck area (who knew it was so common?)  After I put my Google super powers to work I'm worried that he could have a ruptured/bulging/diseased cervical disk, which could mean 6+ weeks of rest.

I will admit that I feel like this is my fault.  2 years ago Rampage had a 'mystery injury' that despite multiple trips to different vets had no diagnosis.  Rest resolved the issue.  It was at that point that I decided to move him from 26" to 20" AKC and 22" preferred USDAA (even though I'd rather jump him 22" championship but USDAA jump heights are whacked.)  I swore I would never jump him 26" again.  I never liked how he looked at that height and felt he was not built for it.  Since dropping him down he has been injury free the last couple years but then I thought... "wouldn't it be fun to go to EO tryouts this year?"  Due to the minimal qualifications for EO tryouts he was eligible to enter.  I started jumping him 26" in class and he looked good.  I entered him in one day of a trial at 26" and he looked good.  But then he started running slower than normal in class (and he was never very fast there) and even slower than normal when we do things at home (usually the fastest there) and then the random yelping started.  Yikes!

So, definitely no EO tryouts for me and Rammy and he's down to 20" for good once he's back at agility (unless USDAA smartens up and fixes their jump heights, then he may do 22" again.)  I'm a bit worried that he won't be able to go to AKC nationals this year, but if he can't he can't.

Rampage is by far the hardest dog I've ever had to do crate rest with.  But it isn't so bad, he has his happy moments.

Day 2.  Give me strength.

What to do when your governor declares a drought

Well Jerry Brown has declared a drought for California.  Not really big news for those of us living here.  We've been having a beautiful summer all winter.    But what to do when your state is in the most severe drought of the century?

Might as well enjoy the weather since I can't do anything about it...

One positive aspect of the crazy dry weather is that I'm able to keep up with my yard work.  Generally during the winter my yard gets overgrown with grass and weeds.  And my hedges grow faster than I can cut them back.  This year I've managed to keep ahead of the growth but today I made huge strides in trimming back a tree/bush that has needed some TLC for at least a year.  I massacred it (as I tend to do when I prune) but it's more weed than tree so it'll will come back strong.  So long as the drought ends eventually...

I managed to fit every bit of that foliage into my green waste bin except one big branch.  The dogs were pretty impressed with my powers of reduction!

On Sunday a friend and I went for a hike.   It was hot, gnats and ants were out, water levels were low, but Ali'i didn't care!  It's good to be a dog.

Yay, I'm a dog!

Rampage is more concerned about the water levels (Icon is the most concerned and refused to even get his photo with the pond).  

Speaking of low water levels, I hiked with another friend today since I had a day off for MLK.

We had 8 dogs between us (Just 2 were mine!)   You're always a spectacle when hiking with Tammy :)

The hike was fun, but since it was so hot we decided to take the dogs swimming at the Lexington reservoir afterwords.  The water levels were low, SO low.  But what can we do?  Might as well enjoy the reservoir while the levels are high enough to swim in.

Swim, little ones, swim!

 Everyone played fetch in the water with toys or sticks.

Except for Rampage.  Rampage just swam and swam and screeched and trilled.  He loves to swim.

Tricki wanted Tammy to ignore the cute little swimming Staffy and pay attention to HIM.

Icon thought the water was a bit on the dirty side.

Rampage kept on swimming and trilling.  He loves to swim.

Tricki says, "HELLO?? I'm right here!  Pay attention to me!"

And just because...

Foster!

That hiking thing

I love hiking with my dogs.  I have been doing a lot of solo hiking lately due to mixed schedules with my hiking buddies.  I have really enjoyed the time for solitude and reflection but I have to admit that some Saturday mornings, after a long work week, it's HARD to get up and get everyone ready to go when there isn't someone else waiting to meet us at the trailhead.  So I was happy that today I managed to meet up with Kay and her boxer boys.  And I got to share her birthday with her!  Happy birthday, Kay!

We went to Almaden Quicksiver County Park for an unspoken (but I'm sure silently agreed on) 6ish mile hike.  However, we were so involved with talking and laughing that we missed a turn-off and our hike ended up being 10 miles.  It was such an easy 10 miles with the company, though.  We laughed the entire way! (well maybe 9 out of 10 miles for laughter.  We did talk about Pook a bit and Kay told me a not-so-funny story about a kitty she knew in her childhood.) 

I always try to take lots of photos wherever I am, but I'm having issues with my iPhone camera that only seem to appear when I'm hiking.  But I did get two photos!  

A pretty traditional Icon/Rampage shot.  Icon is always off-leash when we hike because he's just SO good (and he drives me batsh!t crazy when he's on leash).  I'm always expecting to get an off-leash ticket from the rangers but so far, so good (probably because he's just so good).  

Kahve and Stash.  Those boxer boys laughed the whole way.  That's just how boxers roll.

The year of THINGS!

I say farewell to 2013!

It was a good year, but one hell of a boring year.  Aside from work I have no clue what I did with it.  I went to AKC nationals with Rampage (fun!) and a backpacking trip with Icon, Rampage, Tammy and her dogs (sooo fun!) and some hiking and agility in between.  But otherwise...hmmmm.

For 2014 I have plans... so many plans!  They involve things with dogs, things without dogs, things with new dogs, things in the US, things in Canada.  So many things!  With a 6 week sabbatical, 5 weeks accrued vacation and 3 weeks vacay during the year I can do so much with 2014 aside from (blech) work.

In the (almost) words of Allie Brosh...

In 2014 I will DO ALL THE THINGS!!

(still looking for Thing suggestions too!)