Wanderings

I walked Shady over to the Kaysville ponds today. There were a number of pelicans in addidion to the usual ducks and geese, and I always enjoy looking at pelicans. Unfortunately they were nervous animals, and this is the best picture I could get. The large white bird near the reeds is a pelican.
Last night we took our walk in City Creek Canyon in Salt Lake. I had never been there before so it was something of an adventure. Apparently the paved road goes all the way to the top of the canyon, but we didn't walk that far. It is closed to traffic so there are just a lot of walkers, bikers, and joggers. It is a little crowded for my taste, but not as bad as the Legacy Parkway trail. I am on the Enrichment Committee at work, and they have asked me if I would perhaps start a dog walking group, so I am looking for a spot where a bunch of people can get together to walk their dogs. I know a lot of good places out here, but not many in Salt Lake, so City Creek Canyon may be the spot.

I also had an adventure on roller blades last week that I forgot to blog. In my never ending quest to wear my dog out I decided to try roller blading with her. I took her over to the trail that runs between Kaysville and Farmington one afternoon and we set off. As you start on the trail on the Kaysville side you have to go up a little hill, then the trail is fairly flat. We did really well until we came back to the little hill on our way back to the car. There were three teenage boys walking a ways ahead of me, so I waited for them to reach the bottom of the hill and get far enough ahead of me that I thought I could slow down before I reached them. Unfortunately with an excited coonhound pulling me I did not slow down in time. I yelled to the boys to get out of my way, and they just glanced back at me and stayed where they were, so I had to throw myself down on the side of the trail. It wouldn't have been a bad fall except that the side of the trail was covered with puncture weeds. I ended up with about 20 puncture weeds broken off under my skin on my right knee as well as some on my hand and elbow. It took me several days to get all of the thorns out and I decided that roller blading was probably not the best idea for me. I will stick with walking from now on.

Ramblings

Okay, so I really don't have much to say, but I feel like I should post something at least once a week or I might end up like JoLyn.

I saw this truck in the parking lot at Wal-Mart today. Junk/Furniture Moving and Entertainment! What kind of entertainment do junk/furniture movers provide? I have a few ideas......

I've been walking Shady out in West Farmington quite a bit. There is a nice dirt road that runs from Glover Lane in Farmington to Parrish Lane in Centerville. It provides access to the fields, and I almost never see anyone else out there. Today I noticed that someone had dumped a fax machine and a copier next to the road. Seriously, someone could load that thing up into their vehicle and drive it out to a remote dirt road to dump it, but they couldn't pay $5 to actually take it to the dump? Both machines were small enough that they would have fit into a regular garbage can. People really amaze me sometimes, and not in a good way.There was a little dead shrew on the road this morning. I am not much of a rodent person, but I have never seen a shrew before, and I thought it was actually quite cute. It was only about the size of a quarter.

In other news, Shady acquired an electric bark control collar today. So far the barking seems to be less, but it has not been eliminated. I'm not sure that I am thrilled with it, but I figure I should give it a couple of weeks. The collar has to be really tight in order to work, and I don't like that. Probably just because I don't like to have anything constrictive on my neck. Her fur is short but it is quite thick, so I may need to shave a spot on her neck in order for it to work effectively. I am also considering an electric training collar.

Mom sent me the Dog Whisperer book and I am about half way through it. I am trying to project calm authoritative energy around my dog, but she doesn't seem too impressed.

I was cleaning my bedroom the other day and I noticed a shirt wadded up in the corner behind my recliner. I occasionally leave clothes on my bedroom floor, but that was in an odd place and I knew I didn't put it there. When I picked it up I found a rawhide bone hidden under the shirt, and Shady raced over and grabbed it. I thought it was funny that she would take one of my shirts into the corner to hide her toy.

Sweet Freedom!

Right after I got home from work today an Animal Control officer came out for what I thought was just a home visit, but he ended up releasing her three days earlier than expected. Even though we hadn't been abiding by the quarantine rules it was still a pain, and I was always worried that I would be caught when I had her out, so I am very glad that we are free to go about our business as usual. We celebrated the release by going hiking. It was a very warm day today, and even though the hills don't yet look like spring I did see tons of butterflies and a small snake that was very pretty.

Rantings and Ravings

We had our first home visit from Animal Control yesterday. The first thing the gal said when she walked in and got a slobbery excited greeting from the coonhound was, "Well there's certainly nothing wrong with this little girl, is there?" NO! THERE ISN'T! So why in the &^*% are we going through this!

I tried to talk her into releasing Shady from quarantine one day early, but had no luck. "That's just our policy" was her only reply. Oh, and by the way, I looked up rabies on the internet, and the average incubation period before symptoms appear is three to eight weeks! In rare cases it may be as short as two weeks or as long as six months. So again, what the $%#$% is an 11 day quarantine period supposed to do?

Does this look like a dog who is enjoying her quarantine? No! It does not. Things got so bad today that we risked going out for a walk 1 hour before dark. Luckily we did not encounter either of the Animal Control officers who know that she is supposed to be quarantined. Keep your fingers crossed that my luck holds for another 5 days.

And here is the Sleepy Weasel herself. The photo isn't very good, but for some reason she did actually remind me of a weasel in this pose.

Quarantine Update

Well, I guess the quarantine is going alright. I mean, it's not like I'm sneaking her out for a walk after dark, or taking her up to Ogden to go hiking or anything. Or am I? She is used to going for a walk right after I get home from work, so for about the first 3 hours that I am home she runs around the house whining, barking, and pawing at the door and windows. Eventually she quiets down a little bit.

I bought this big bone hoping that it would keep her occupied, and also hoping that she would keep it outside. She occasionally chews on it, but it is not the time consuming treat I was hoping that it would be. She has only dragged it into the house once so far.

I stole this idea from Jef's blog thinking that I could also use $5000, so if you want to vote for one of my dogs just follow the links. I may have disqualified myself by entering 2 photos, but I'm not sure.

The first link goes to Shady's photo and the second one goes to Tick's.

http://www.showoffyourshedder.com/?pet=hSQhQppx3surgy5ue7Qlcg%3d%3d

http://www.showoffyourshedder.com/?pet=EkXdBDFHPO4WDB7fpMcgWA%3d%3d

Quarantined

The Shady Lady and I were walking down Fairfield today. We were walking on the west side of the street, and the houses on that side all back Fairfield with a vinyl fence separating their back yards from the sidewalk. So we were walking along, minding our own business, when we came to a place where one of the fence panels had come loose from the post, and there was about a three inch gap. My coonhound stuck her nose into that gap, and was immediately bitten by a yellow lab on the other side. It was not just a little nip, but a ferocious bite. I hit the lab in the head several times before he let go of Shady's muzzle. She has a big gash along the top of her nose as well as several smaller gashes, and there was blood everywhere. When she shook her head she sprayed blood all over me.

We continued our walk down to Blockbuster so I could return a DVD, and while we walked I debated whether or not I should do anything about it. I realized that the lab was just defending his property, but at the same time I wondered what would have happened if it had been a small child who stuck their hand or face up to that gap. I decided that I would stop on the way back and talk to the owner about fixing the fence. When I got back to the house no one was home, so as I walked home I debated whether or not I should call animal control. Again, I decided that I should do something before someone else was hurt, so I made the call to Animal Control.

They sent an officer to my house to make a report, and as she was getting ready to leave she informed me that MY dog would have to be quarantined for the next eleven days! Oh, and since that day falls on a Saturday, my dog will actually have to be quarantined for the next 13 days! If I'd had any idea that MY dog would be quarantined because of this I never would have made the call. My life is going to be a living hell for the next 13 days. You have no idea how destructive this coonhound can be when she is full of energy. These next two weeks may very well be the worst two weeks of my life.

A Gristley Discovery

On Monday I took Shady down to check out the Legacy Parkway trail. It turned out to be an absolute disaster. There weren't a ton of people on the trail, but I learned that my dog does not share the trail with bikers. Casual bikers aren't that bad, but the serious bikers don't slow down or share the trail with anyone. One of them came tearing around a corner and Shady was at the end of her leash and he nearly ran her over. He yelled something that I didn't hear, but his tone was definitely not friendly. After less than a mile I gave up and went back to Glover Lane. There is a dirt road that runs from Glover Lane to Parish Lane in Centerville that is just an access road for the fields between Legacy and the Bird Refuge so we walked along that for another couple of miles.


Today I decided to take her up to the Upper Bonneville Shoreline Trail above Kaysville. It's not really a strenuous hike but I don't often encounter many people on that trail so I enjoy it. We walked over to the canyon above Cherry Hill and I was just getting ready to turn around when Shady came romping out of the shrubs with a gristley deer bone in her mouth.

I had to play tug of war with her to get her to give it up, and I was not happy about having to touch that thing. I then noticed a larger part of the carcass on the other side of the trail. I didn't see the skull, but I did find an antler. Since tomorrow's preschool theme is deer, it will be the perfect day for me to take the antler for show and tell.