Of Turkey Hotdogs and Cars and Things

Yay! Finally another update! If Mom weren’t so busy, I’d get at the computer more, but, I guess I should be happy that she doesn’t just sit around and watch Law and Order re-runs all day. Oh wait. Sometimes she does do that! Teehee! Kidding, Mom!

I think when I last got to the computer, Mom and Dad had just finished their first autocross of the season, but Mom hadn’t brought the camera, so she didn’t get any pictures. Now, they have finished their second autocross, and Mom and Dad both got some pictures.

But before I get to the last autocross (which I didn’t get to go to again because the House With Wheels is still down south), hmmm. I’m not sure if I did anything too exciting. Mom and Dad have been taking me and the Little Monster (Little Monster and me? And I? Since I didn’t go to Puppy Class, I never learned these things…) on lots of walks – it is good for Dad to get up and moving around a bit, so we generally get to go on two walks a day, which is pretty cool. And Mom and Dad have decided to start walking us together (we were walking with Mom about 20 yards behind Dad so Abby didn’t get distracted, but now we walk together and it’s me who gets distracted by Abby…), and that’s fun. Mom hasn’t taken any pictures of the walks, though, because she’s too busy making sure Abby “pays attention”. I’m not sure what this “paying attention” thing means, but I’m sure it’s something that puppies must do.

Since we have no walkie pictures, I'll give you a gratuitous tug-of-war picture...


So, on to the autocross. Even though I didn’t go, Mom told me all about it, and so I can relay all the excitement. For those of you who don’t know what autocross is, it is like Agilities for Humans in Cars; they set up a bunch of cones in a parking lot or airport tarmac, or anyplace that has a lot of open paved space, and they try to get their cars through the pattern of cones (which varies for every event) as fast as possible without hitting cones; every cone is a two second penalty. Mom hits a lot of cones, but apparently has fun anyway.

Uncle Charlie and family brought down the Big Yellow Car so all Mom and Dad had to do was show up. Here’s the car when it was all nice and clean (and before Mom it a bunch of cones with it!)


And Mom was very happy when she saw these two cars parked near them (because there is a tiny part of Mom’s heart that wants a “muscle car” – even though she LOVES the Big Yellow Car, and she knows it has more horsepower, and it out-performs either of these ‘tanks’ and she even likes the way is goes “vroom”, but she says there is “just something” – I think it’s a kink in her DNA…)


The course way very challenging; they raced at a place called the “E Center” don’t ask me why which has a pretty hilly surface for a parking lot and is very slippery. Which meant that Mom (and Aunt Linda) spent a lot of time going sideways in the car. Or, in Mom’s case, spinning it. Twice. In Mom’s defense, so did Aunt Linda… Mom also hit A LOT of cones; 7 on one run, I’m told. Which is like a world record, I think!

Here's Mom trying to keep the car going straight...

Here's Mom in the start line; this is one of her favorite pictures just because of the angle of the car.

And here's Dad:


When it was all said and done, Mom said she had a lot of fun, even if she didn’t go as fast as she would have liked, and she hit more cones that she wanted to; she said she ‘learned stuff’ which is good, I think. Maybe one day she’ll learn to not spin the car…. Heehee.

And while Mom and Dad were gone all day, Jessi, (who Mom calls The Greatest Dog Trainer Ever – me? I call her the Greatest Human Trainer Ever, as she taught Mom to feed us turkey hotdogs!) came by the house three times, and took us outside and played with us, and took care of TaiChi, and Abby.

Oh. Yeah. Abby has a bladder infection – very late Saturday night, when Mom was trying to sleep for the autocross, Abby got up and peed. And then got Mom up an hour later, and an hour after that, and on and one. When Mom got up the second time, she caught on, and gave Abby some of TaiChi’s antibiotics. Because Mom started Abby on antibiotics, and because a bladder infection isn’t life-threatening, and because it was a Sunday, Mom figured that it wasn’t urgent enough to take Abby to emergency care. Jessi, along with her Amazing Hotdog Skills, is also a holistic dog healer, and gave Mom some advice as to how to help Abby feel better along with the antibiotics. As an update, Mom took Abby to the vet today and got her on some other antibiotics (because Abby is now a whopping 28 lbs, where TaiChi is 11 lbs (maybe) and TaiChi’s aren’t strong enough). She should be feeling much better in a couple of days. In the meantime, she’s loving the peanut butter that “hides” her pills. Who knew cranberry extract came in a pill? Anyhoo, the Little Monster is doing better.

So while it would have been fun to be with Mom and Dad at the autocross, the next best thing was having Jessi come by. Can anyone say “turkey hotdogs”? Heehee.

And speaking of Jessi. Today was another turkey hotdog receiving day dog class. Mom says this might be the last one for a little while, as she would like to get to southern Utah so we can pick up the House With Wheels, and maybe spend a little time down there while it is mud season up here. However, Mom says that we will DEFINITELY be going back to PetCo for more classes because 1) I need to be “socialized” (um… does that mean I have to move to Canada?), 2) Mom thinks that there is a lot more for us to learn, 3) she thinks Jessi is just the best trainer in the world, and 4) Mom needs to keep practicing her turkey hotdog delivery technique.

But…. Here are a couple of pictures of today’s class.

Here's Abby, totally sucking up to Jessi. Mango, you were right about these little puppies being suck-ups. *sheesh*

This one is out of focus, because we were all moving so fast, but it pretty much shows how things went in play time...

Although Bella (the other dog in the class) wasn't a complete pushover...

School's out!!!


*whew* Long post. I guess that’s what happens when Mom doesn’t let me at the computer for a while!

*kissey face*
-Fiona

PeeEss: Now I'll try to catch up on everyone's bloggies; forgive me if it takes a while!