Fun With Fido

My dogs have started playing "king of the hill" on the largest snow piles, where I've thrown the snow and ice where I've shoveled. The object of the game is, the last one to climb on top of the pile and pee on the very peak of it, wins.

Well, today at noon when I came home to let the dogs out, Bogey happened to be the one to win the "king of the hill" game. As he poised on the very top, one leg hoisted aloft, the once-frozen crust of snow on top suddenly gave way and three of his legs punched straight through the pile, all the way down to his chest, which stopped his descent. He dropped with perfect dignity, however, and completed his mission before bolting out of the snow pile at about 30 mph!

SHORTCUT

Rosco, my beagle, decided that to get to the door from the other side of the room, it is easier to jump on the couch, run across it, jump back down and trot to the door. It doesn't matter if my husband and/or I are sitting on the couch. He just walks over us.

Fall agility practice started and I decided to try taking both dogs to training and teach between Sidney's Advance class and Rosco's Beginning class.

While I'm working with Sidney, Rosco waits in a x-pen covered with a shade cloth. While I'm teaching, both Sidney and Rosco wait in there. And of course, while I'm working with Rosco, Sidney waits in the x-pen.

Sidney does not like being by himself very much and when any of the dogs are in the x-pen covered with the shade cloth you can't really see them.

While I was working with Rosco out in the middle of the practice field, I noticed everyone else had stopped and were watching a covered x-pen moving toward the middle of the field. It's not everyday that you see a pen moving on its own. As the pen got closer to me it started reshaping itself into a rectangle from an octagon more and more until it was a straight fence and fell over and puff -- out comes a Australian Shepherd.

Puffin was a toy poodle-she came to us when we arrived in Malta at 4 weeks old.

When she was 2 years old, we returned to the states. At that time, she weighed approximately 3 pounds. Malta was a rabies free country, but England has a quarantine law-a dog must be kept for 6 months in quarantine to prevent any chance of rabies entering the country. If traveling through with a plane
change at Heathrow Airport, the only way to avoid this is to have the police meet the incoming plane, take the dog, and deliver them to the departing plane. So upon arrival, the police picked up Puffin-- but when it came time for me to board the flight for Chicago- there was no dog!!! I freaked out-refused to leave without my dog, and in general, threw everyone into an
uproar. After a while- here came a police van rushing across the field-finally with Puffin in her little box. As it turned out, by mistake she had been put on a plane bound for Cairo, Egypt!!!!! Needless to say, I would probably never have seen her again.
Airport personnel said "is this her?" When I said yes, they said "grab her and lets go." So she rode in my lap to Chicago. After take off, the plane captain came on the speaker with the "Good evening, Ladies and Gentlemen,"etc. Then added "Due to the uh misplacement of a-uh-uh- package-we are 47 minutes late in take off---.
Later he came back in the cabin and stopped by my seat, and said " I just had to come back and see something this small that could cause this much trouble".
When I landed in Chicago, an agent of the airline met the plane, took me to the head of the line to clear customs. I thought I was being arrested!!!!!!!!
Instead, he had a cable from London to meet me, assist me, and make sure me and my dog was o.k. So that was my first and Puffin's first experience of traveling together.