Random Notes

The dog yard has been completely snow packed since mid December. One night at the before bed potty break, Veronica started rolling on the ground, then pushing herself on her side. She gave one big push and slid 15 feet dow the litle hill. We never thought about adding a sledding hill to the kennel before!

Yoda and Tigger are a pair of silky terriers who stay with us frenquently. Yoda is a hoot though, so hyper and likely to jump straight up in the air several feet - with no outward sign of having even flexed his muscles! He's a total litle superball, going every which way. And he's feisty too - he'll engage even the bigest dogs, cause he knows he can scurry away quicker than any other dog out there.

Vislas are a breed of dog known for having a lot of energy. Well, Monte just puts the rest of his breed to shame. The little guy NEVER stops moving! His owner agrees, saying he thinks he's trying to make up for being the runt of the litter. But unlike Yoda who is just a little bundle of fur, Monte is shorthaired and long legged, and somehow coordinating his front end with his hind isn't something he has the patience for yet. We decided he was like two superballs connected by a spring - everything is moving all the time, just usually in different directions.

While entertaining, it actully was a problem in the fact Monte would never slow down. We were warned that he tended to lose weight in play facilities. So we were prepared to increase his food if he started looking thin. Well, we literally couldn't get enough food into the guy. By the time he checked out he was eating more than Mateo, a 180 pound Newfoundland - more than 4 times his own size! And he was downright scrawney. Talking to the owner it was clear he's ben checked for paracites and what not. It's a mystery how he can eat so much and not retain it.

Mateo was the biggest, cudliest Newfie we've had. Really just big playboy. His companion, Gallena, a mere 130 pound Great Pyranese, however, had the bad habit on the of pinning random dogs down to the ground. So we had to watch them closely. They weren't real vigorous players anyway, so they stayed up in the slow yard with the "littles". It's funny that the biggest and littlest dogs often go best together. But Mateo would play right along - lumbering after the tiny dogs who were teasing him.

Zoe's nickname quickly became Ball-Destructor. Within a day of her arriving, every tenisball in her yard had a hole in it. Within two days most were torn in half. This was not a little bit annoying in that we'd just gotten a niece big bag of used balls to be ready for the holidays.