Kate's first look at the dog park

Kate and I went to check out the dog park at Osbourne Metropark yesterday. This park was constructed by volunteers, including Ron and Bob. The first donations collected were in memory of Max, our first standard poodle, from the library staff. There is a large photo board featuring the dogs that were memorialized and next to Max are photos of Alex, our beloved schnauzer,and Beau, beloved standard poodle and brother and BFF of Jack, who belonged to Bob and Paulette. There is  also a photo of Brandy, Janet's lab that Ron found for her. So many memories of wonderful dogs! You can just see the photo board on the sturcture in the shot below.

Kate decided the park looked a bit intimidating and passed on the adventure for another time. Jack can't visit the park very often as he has an embarrasing habit of trying to run down other dogs as prey, scaring the owners and dogs alike. Louie does much better, making friends with everyone as if they are all part of his big family. The park is four acres of fenced area and is about to be tripled in size.

 Kate and I discovered a cool treehouse in the adjoining wooded area. Can you see it in the middle of the photo?

Some bunny loves you

Kate is visiting the Library today. I don't think she is exactly thrilled to be wearing rabbit ears, however. What is it that makes people put funny hats on their dogs? I can't seem to resist doing it.  Give me a silly hat and I have to put it on Kate. It isn't as if she isn't all ready cute enough.

 Her next visit to Purrfect Paws Grooming Boutique is on Tuesday, so, today, I'm enjoying her scruffy look.

The bunny ears looked pretty swell on my sheep,too! This rocker is available once a year at this time from Pier One Imports. I've had mine for quite awhile and love it.  

This afternoon I'm taking my needlepoint rabbit canvas to Wool & Willow to be finished on an antique footstool. I started the piece 2 years ago and completed it last month. It is a 10 pt painted design kit from Beth Russell and is based on a William Morris tapestry. It is 14X14 and uses Appleton's 100% wool yarns. I haven't done any needlepoint since the early '70s when it was very popular. I was pleased to see how popular it is now and there are some fantastic shops that deal exclusively with needlepoint. I will say that it is much more expensive than knitting or spinning even taking the wheel price into the mix. I love that Kaffe Fassett is into both and his books on the subjects are true works of art.

Kate's first birthday

Kate sports her birthday hat especially made by Allison and Marilyn

Kate joined us late in June, 2011, after  Dana, our toy poodle of 18 years passed away. I called the number in the ad and was delighted to learn that one female remained of a litter in Greenwich, Ohio. Ron and I set off with our gps to find both Greenwich and Kate's home in a trailer park- Lot 26, to be exact. Unable to navigate the maze within the park, I suggested that we just roll down the windows of the car and head toward excessive barking, a sure indication of where  Miniature Schnauzer's live. Yep, that was all it took to find her.  We know about that special characteristic from living with our beloved, Alex, a Miniature Schnauzer for 12 years. As Alex would bark at any and everything, driving us to distraction, Ron would say, "Alex, you are the last of the Mohicans!" In fact, of the 156 AKC breeds, Miniature Schnauzers top the list for most barking. Kate's breeders, husband and wife, were both deaf, so they were completely unfazed by the din. Enough said. Kate was thrust into my arms, and we conversed via a whiteboard about her diet, age, inoculations and so forth. She never touched the ground, we just headed out the door and back to Sandusky to introduce her to the boys, Jack and Louie.

As hoped, Kate holds her own with the standard poodles, barks not too much, is smart and loveable-except when asked to don a birthday hat.



Picture perfect

Kate's best friend is Louie. She loves to get him revved up to the point where I yell at Louie to calm down. This is the classic drama that all siblings recognize. The older one gets blamed for everything. A few days ago I actually saw Kate curled up with Louie, but, I couldn't get to the camera fast enough to record it for posterity. Today was a great spring day of 68 degrees. Perfect for dog walking, but, alas, instead, I went shopping for a few things needed before leaving for a library conference this week. Not needed, exactly, but, it's nice to have a few new things to toss into a suitcase.

I've always read that dogs can't tell how long you've been gone. Doesn't that seem like something people would make up in order to feel less guilty about leaving? I'm sure Ron will take good care of the pups while I'm away, but, I already am thinking about missing them. Maybe a long walk for each of them tomorrow will help me feel better about it.

A few weeks ago, I started sleeping on the leather couch in our upstairs library. I thought I had a better chance of getting enough room there then trying to stake my claim of part of the bed that all three dogs were crowding. Guess what. This really hasn't worked out at all. Jack takes up half of the couch for the first part of the night, then he leaves and Louie gets on it with me. Kate is small enough to stay on the couch throughout the night. I don't really think I've gained any space at all, but, it somehow seems like I did. Sometimes we'll all traipse down the hall back to the bedroom in the middle of the night. Ron never knows where I'll end up on any given night. One time, when my parents were visiting, I met my dad in the upstairs hallway, apparently doing the same wandering/room switching thing as me. Made me feel better to know where I probably got this night time habit in the first place!

Daylight savings time change was last night, so, in spite of the hour, I'm really not sleepy yet. At least some of our clocks are now correct again-the ones that I never could figure out how to change in the fall. We have 2 cuckoo clocks, 3 mantle clocks and 1 small grandfather-like clock, all chiming, and one clock that makes loon sounds on the hour. Ron has them arranged for one to follow the other almost like an song.  We didn't have to change the tv clock, or computers, phones or alarm clocks. Those magically change. I won't even tell you how many watches Ron has, but, it is not just two or three. He has my dad's WWII pilot's watch, several pocket watches, several vintage watches and a few modern watches. I've changed the clock on the microwave and the one on the oven. I have no idea how to change the Wave radio clock and I'll have to reread the info to change the clocks in the cars. I haven't even mentioned the clocks in each bedroom and in the bathroom and the 2 clocks in my office. I wonder how many people ignore the whole thing and make mental adjustments instead of clock adjustments.

M.I.A. Almost

This evening, I decided to pop in at the Library to get my desk calendar. No good reason,really to do that, but,there you are. We have our backyard double fenced to be sure to keep the pups safely within. Little did I know that while I was gone, Kate slipped out of gate one, butted open the door leading to our garage, and waited for me to return home. When I drove into the garage, Kate slipped out into the back alley just as I was in the process of closing the automatic garage door! Of course, I wasn't expecting to see her scamper toward the closing door and hooray to the fellow who invented doors that stop when the beam is crossed. A quick hello to Kate and she stopped in her tracks and came back to me. All is now well. This,however, bring to mind a narrow escape that her predecessor, Alex, had several years ago. Alex, master of our universe, was a 10 year old mini schnauzer, that by that time was both deaf and blind but otherwise in good health. Some time earlier that day, a repairman had left gate two open. Ron didn't notice that when he came home from work and let Alex out into the yard. Next thing Ron knew, Alex was G O N E. Ron ran everywhere in the neighborhood looking for him. Crushed, Ron didn't know what to do, and the phone rang and without any greeting,he said, Did you find him? yes,said two guardian angels. They found him in the middle of the road in the dark in front of a bar that they were about to enter. Whew.

Our first day

Well, off we go! Our first blog is pretty exciting, and, would you believe it, Kate is sound asleep beside me on the couch. That's a good thing, actually, because I can type without being nibbled. Kate's first birthday will be next week, altho, we didn't know her until she was 12 weeks old. She joins big brothers Jack and Louie-two standard poodles, ages 6 and 4. Kate is really my husband's dog, but, he's pretty well resigned that Kate and I are a duo of epic proportions. Maybe it's our joint love of fiber. I love to knit and spin and Kate loves to make lots of tangled messes of both. We both love to take naps, walks, go for rides and hang with BFF, Paulette.

Kate often accompanies me to work and creates mayhem all through the Library before taking a nap break. As with all little ones, the naps come on all at once after rousing play.

I've been a librarian for my entire career. Even before personal computers, fax machines and cell phones. Really. I learned how to type catalog cards (the spacing is crucial), look up answers in books,  and do book talks for interested readers. With a personal muse (Samantha, brand new librarian and social media guru), I've ventured into the world of twitter, facebook, YouTube, and, as you can see, blogs. Yep, this blog is dedicated to Samantha. As soon as I can figure out how to insert photos (well, let's be honest here, as soon as Sam shows me how to insert photos) I'll introduce you to the list of characters in our blog. So, until next time, bye and woof!