It’s Hallowe’en, the Lamp is Lit

 

I apologise to everyone.  I’m a poor sport.  I get into a snit and there is just no getting me out of it.  This photo should be of yours truly in a cowgirl outfit.   Great idea right?  Well the costume  arrived and it didn’t fit over my fur coat.  It is too cold to shave my fur off to help that  darn thing  slip on easily.  You should have seen me…. I would have had to break  a front  leg to get it through one of the leg holes.  She tried though!  I never said a word just let her fiddle away until she gave up in disgust.  Why should I help her anyway?   Look at what Boris got to wear. He got a damn gun. What did I get but  a silly little fringed vest and a hat!  Is it not bad enough I periodically cope with dog prejudice  must I now handle  dog prejudice with a sexist twist!   Boy dogs get Sheriff’s hats, bandanas, holsters with guns and I get a froufrou bonnet and fringed vest that doesn’t freaking fit.  It will be a long time before you  see me get into another Hallowe’en costume….probably about 365 days  if I have my way.  Wait a minute, that would make it Hallowe’en again….oh well, whatever.

My  new friend Shiprock sent me  his photo where he is dressed as Superman.  He’s looking pretty studly I must say.  If I hadn’t been tinkered with maybe we could have gotten it on. My motto is “no man like a man in uniform! “  Apparently he  put up with the costume for a short time but absolutely refused to move around the room to demonstrate how it set off his musculature!  Come on Shipper……strut that stuff.

 

 

Rolo here has been a good sport for years with his owner Maria. He had a few health issues this year so his costume has been put to rest for the moment.  It seemed too much of a struggle to dress the little guy up.  Everyone can tell he is  angelic – so he can get by without a halo this year.  Gotta love those wings, eh?  Why can’t I have wings?

 

Here’s my good friend Teddy dressed up as a Knight in Shining Armour.   I wonder if Jon, the medievalist, could borrow his chain mail?  Teddy’s  wagging tail can act like a weapon, take you down in a flash.

My favourite photo is Louis.  Now he gets right into the spirit of the day.  Not only will he put on a complicated costume,  he sits patiently by a pumpkin and has his photo taken.  Of course he’s  patient because he knows he’s in control with that lasso.  See…boy dogs get to play with the big toys.  Completely unfair.   Louis is a quiet guy.  You’ll never hear a word of complaint cross his little dog lips.  Mind you he’s a Basenji…they can’t bark!  I wish we had one of those living behind us rather than the noisy, barking (breed shall remain confidential!) pain in the (censored) dog we have behind our house in Texas.  Could we turn that dog INTO a Basenji?

I’ve spent a lot of time wondering what I’d look like if I was a jack o’ lantern.  I think a lot of dogs do.  We just think on a more spiritual plane than  humans.  A sample thought?….what  if  I had been born a fruit or  vegetable instead of a dog?   What if my owner had been born an eggplant…these are my deep philosophical musings.  I haven’t found any evidence of what I’d look like but I did find this!  Now, this isn’t Lilly as this  little guy  is a pug not a bull dog  (I’m not brilliant  knowing all the dog breeds) …but don’t you think that’s potentially what Lilly would looked have like as a puppy if  she had been born a pumpkin?

 

  And I know there’s a little dog in Telluride called Tilly.  She’s small, cream coloured,  a bit rough around the edges because of her wiry fur!  but she knows her way around the bus, the streets, pretty much everywhere in town. She’s a tiny bit heftier than this, however,  if she was a jack ‘o lantern I think she might look like this…..

So happy haunting to you and yours.  Keep your dog out of the Hallowe’en treats unless you want us to fill the house  with unappetising results.  I promise to be a better sport next year. In the meantime, although these guys aren’t from Telluride I think you’ll get a kick out of them anyway.  Enjoy.  See ya later.

Can you go home again?

 

(photo of Casey taken by Wildcat Studios in Telluride—they are so good at what they do that they snapped this one of me in five minutes!  My owner nearly fell over she was so impressed with how they effortlessly captured  my inner beauty)

How on earth would I know if you can go home again?  I never get the opportunity.  In fact not only do I not go back to my old home with my owner,  currently I am  not even in my new town let alone home.   It’s a little hard to get postings out to you when I have no access to any information. Let’s face it….my guardian, Lane, is no gossip. Yes, this is an admirable quality but it allows me  no hard intel on life in Telluride at the moment.   Sometimes feeling lost and adrift, however,  is beneficial. You aren’t bombarded with new events, new impressions, new dogs, new adventures which allows you time to  remember the good old days. This has certainly been my experience this past week.

Going back to The Woodlands would be an adventure  if only to catch up with old friends.  It is true the walks back in Texas  can become  stale;  there is only so much walking around the neighbourhood sniffing the same old smells that one dog can do.

Here in Telluride there are more walks to choose from so my owner doesn’t groan when we have to head outdoors.    Since we don’t have a car we are limited to whatever our legs can handle.   I have four  legs, am  low to the ground,  and quite svelte.  Without bragging walking is my forte. I’m always in a chipper mood when the word WALK is uttered and I’m great company – so I’m  out and about Telluride  every single day.   At the same time there is something to be said for the old familiar haunts of my previous  life,  and I wouldn’t mind getting back there to sniff out what’s been going on in my absence. You know what they say about being born in the lone star state….how special we are! My owners, being Canadian, just don’t get the whole Texas identity thing but Texas  is in my blood.

There are a few friends I’d like to drop in on for a visit.  One of my buds  had a  tough Summer and Fall.  We’re not super tight  because Rusty can be standoffish.  He spent considerable time in Britain and it appears  he picked up some of their qualities….good friend when he gets to know you but you have hoops to jump through  before you get the old butt sniff, you know what I mean?    

Rusty’s  odour permeated the air in  our old house   because Benj and his owner, Katherine, were dating.   I got so used to Rusty’s  scent, and he to mine, that when we met on the walking trails we just hit it off  like old friends without all the formalities Rusty tends to prefer.   Anyway, long story short,  Rusty recently spent about ten days in quarantine.  Rumour spreading is not my thing  but I’ll whisper this sotto voce….he had a mandible malfunction, an incisor incident, a jaw jab…get my drift?  I don’t want to say the real word because it just makes Rusty sad.   The details of the little tooth tete-a-tete are rather murky.   He hasn’t been able to get complete details up to Telluride.   Got to take his side though, I’m loyal to my pals.   His reputation took a hit  but he’s  on the rebound and holding his head high and moving forward.  Actually  he’s not moving forward as much as he’d like because, almost as if in punishment, he had to have a toe removed.  OUCH!  OUCH!! It would have been nice to be around to give him a little shot of courage……but maybe this Spring I can get back there and see how he looks and how he’s getting around.  Hope you’re back on the trail soon,  Rusty!

Daisy is a completely different kind of canine.  She’s aloof, note how she shiftily avoids  looking you directly in the eye, but loving. She’s only  guardian of the homestead  if I approach her property,  but  demanding as a pussycat for attention  from all  other visitors.   We’re cordial  on a walk but I HATE HER ASS on my lawn.  She runs  around free in the neighbourhood  and  I have  always been envious of her.  Apparently it is because she’s a herding dog and needs room to roam.   Well la dee da da I say…I’m from a hunting line and I need to run free too! It stuck  in my craw when I saw her running around loose. She KNEW full well I could  see her out the window and she KNEW  it irritated me to see her lie down  or  pee on my lawn but she apparently felt the urge   every time she dropped by.  I peed on hers too whenever  I passed  No. 30  but that is completely different, mine is payback.  This is not a chicken and egg question.   I have been known to whirl on my leash like the infamous Tasmanian Devil, gnawing at the leather that keeps me tied to my owner, frothing at the mouth to go after dear Daisy for a second….but then we go on a walk together and we are as happy as two dogs can be.   Go figure?  Twice I was allowed into the hallowed hallway of her home.  I left  as much scent as possible just to wind her up.  I dropped a little fur,  shook my head to leave a few sprayed droplets on the newel post.   No idea if it bugged her or not but I slept with a smile on my cute little  dog jowls  for a few nights.

Teddy, the gymn rat,  is the dog of a Personal Trainer.  Can you imagine how much exercise that dog gets?   Not only that but he hangs out at the gymn too.  OK, he doesn’t get inside but he does sit patiently in the truck waiting for his Katy to emerge and take him off on yet another 5 or 10 mile walk. His owner is  scary because she has no limits,  no “early morning” issues like we do.  It was  nothing for  Ted’s owner  to  call and say, hey, we’re heading out at 6:30 a.m. to beat the heat  and walking to Galveston and back want to join us? (that would be about 150 miles)  OK, maybe I exaggerate but even I am not at my best that early. It’s hard to keep up in the Texas heat, even if I am a native.     Ted is an interesting dog;  he  has no shame.   He has been photographed in  a suit and tie (photo conveniently lost, maybe Teddy ate it?) ….he looked good but I like to tease him about it!  Now that I see this picture of Teddy with his fish…I think he  and Lilly, the Telluride  fly fishing dog would get along great. They definitely  have the same interests  Maybe Ted will get up to Telluride  some day and they can hang out and swap “the one that got away” stories. And obviously Lilly  will wear anything also as here she is in a hoodie.

One of my old buddies died recently. I loved hanging out with him at his house.  I’m not too good at sharing  my family as you shall soon learn.  He,  too,  was named Teddy and the love of  Silvia’s  life.   We looked after him around the time of Hurricane Ike.  Here he is hiding out in our safe haven…the pantry.  He was ill then and we knew he didn’t have long.  Due to incredible stress from the hurricane and knowing my friend was down to his last few months of life I got a bit carried away with jealousy.  I’m not proud of myself.  OK, I cannot tell a lie….I am proud of myself.  I took the opportunity to fill several pairs of my owner’s shoes and her new Ugg slippers with a ton of poop. Funny how she never  noticed I had not been unloading, so to speak,  for a few days.  It took a lot of effort to create my masterpiece  and  in retrospect I was quite artistic.  I even managed to hit some new socks she had lying on the floor and then leave a Hansel and Gretel trail to lead her to my  work of art!   My Van Gogh career ended with me  tranquilised.  The vet felt it would help calm my jealousy and  stress from Ike.  My memory of that time is foggy.

Just thinking about my old friends and some of the walks and talks we had has made me nostalgic for the old days.  I’m pretty sure you can go back.  It may not  be the same but it will be familiar and comforting.    It seems  unlikely that my old buds  would throw me out of the neighbourhood if I dropped by for a pee and a sniff.  Maybe I’ll get back in  April and skip mud season so I can  get in a few jaunts out and around town.  I miss them.  I hope they miss me. See ya later.

 

Flickr Tags: Telluride,dog,Wildcat Studios

Even a repeat can be new again!

 

Hello everyone.  Travelling has made it hard for Casey to get her blog out. For the first time in almost a year you will see a repeat.  The good news is that with over 80 readers on Facebook alone many of you will not have read this post.  This is an opportunity for you to get a few ideas of what it is like to live in Telluride.  Once Casey gets home, minus a few teeth that had to be pulled,  with her diagnosis of thyroid or lupus problems and her kidney infection, she will once again get her postings out regularly to all her loyal fans.  Really she’s doing fine, don’t worry.

If you can’t tell, that’s me getting up close and personal with my favourite water source on a hike!  It just makes so much more sense than the water bowl thing that my owner has to carry for me. I hear she’s thinking about me carrying my own water next year; personally, servants are the way to go but you can’t always get what you want.  And, to get what I need I’ll do what it takes.

At any rate  we headed out recently on one of our  jaunts and halfway up the hill there it was, the white cold stuff.  Ah, Nirvana I say.

How great it is to live somewhere where the natural world is always in an obvious state of flux. Change is right before your eyes.  Texas is where I was born and raised you know and although it can cool down we rarely get this stuff.  It has happened twice in recent years.  Both times I was already here  rolling in a  thick white carpet of snow  so I missed all the excitement back at our old homestead.

Snow changes everything.  Smells change, views change, people’s moods change.  This town has a long history with snow and it is one of the most welcomed events of the year.  Most of the time  people walk around  town smiling  due to the sheer beauty of our location.  Snow, however,  makes the grins wider, the hellos heartier, and   hearts beat just a tiny bit faster.  Everyone is  dreaming of their big run down the mountain…albeit some glide an awful lot faster and crazier than others (I can pretty much guarantee that this would NOT be my owner.)

Now skis I can do without.  They take everyone away from home.  People   rush through the morning walk with me so they can go home and dress up to take off for the day.  The general mood is happiness.  My owner on the other hand  has been known to get grouchy and say things like  “I can’t wait until they invent spray -on ski clothes.”  She then groans, whines, moans and grumbles as she stuffs herself sausage like into her long johns, ski pants, helmet, gloves, goggles.  Even I know how much she is sweating at this point because she has told anyone  and everyone within hearing distance  about fifteen hundred times.     Usually curly haired  tries to ignore  her and wanders away on some urgent matter.  I’ve watched him…he’ll see if snow has gathered  under the car or he’ll act like counting icicles is a logical thing to do just so he can get out of her vocal  range.  Many is the time though that he has patiently helped her stuff her “I know they are going to freeze off” feet into those gigantic moon boots they wear to go skiing.

Then they disappear and I’m left lying on my mat wondering when they’ll be back .  I lie there knowing  I will  have to cross my back legs for an hour or two before I get out for a pee break and some checking of the neighbourhood  pee-mail.

Anyway, we are still a long way from ski days.  I bet Bobbi at the bookstore could tell us exactly how many hours and minutes are left until the lifts open – depending on the snow. Knowing her mania for skiing she likely hikes up huge mountains to ski down them long before the ski area opens. 

Although I’m not in town I hear some snow  has fallen a few times and everyone is getting wound up.  As I said it is early days yet and  you never know what is going to happen in  our beloved San Juans.   So for  now I’ll wait for my owner to come back home to Telluride.   I’ll dream fondly of wintertime  and the snow we had just before I moved down to Lane’s house to hang with my second  family.

( Not to complain but my family has done their fair share of dumping me this year….well maybe just a tiny complaint.  Family, what the heck are you thinking?

 

It can be Paris, Israel, Canada, and a jaunt to Maine or ME? I mean look at that camel’s ugly mug!  You are not making intelligent decisions guys.  I should always be more important than a vacation.So you made some cool memories…what about the cool memories we missed out on? huh?  eh?) 

So when I do get home  count on me to give you lots of great photos of snow, ice, frost, cold toes, and frozen noses. Yes, they will all be of me and hopefully the photos won’t all be of me eating my way through a snow bank.  As you can tell, I do love frost…. I love what it does to our everyday landscape.  It keeps me excited about what is headed our way.  What storms will we have, how much snow can I actually dive into and manage to dig myself out of without floundering and  looking ridiculous?  Will I smell a mouse under the snow bank?  Oh so many great things to dream about over the next month or so.

 

Some of you have never lived in the mountains.  Just so you know what kind of snow I’m talking about --last year in the month of December we received 110 inches…..talk about happy skiers!   There weren’t quite so many happy  people shovelling snow  but that’s the risk you take when you decide to live in a snowy fairyland. So I leave you now.  I shall continue to sit and and wait patiently to go home to Telluride. My dreams will be full of magically falling champagne powder.   See ya later.

 

 

Flickr Tags: Telluride,ski,San Juan',snow

That Darned Elusive College

  If you didn’t know…I’ve been left behind yet again.  However,  I’m  coping.   If I had had to go to Texas for three weeks I probably would have lost a lot of the fabulous work I’ve accomplished  growing  my winter coat.  It gets pretty hot down there and my fur just falls out in hunks.  Not good!   However, the owners aren’t only in Texas they took off to Maine. I heard her chatting with someone that they were going to check out College.
Now that! I would have loved to do.  Ever since Benjamin left me for College I’ve wanted to see what he had to offer that I don’t.  However, I didn’t get invited along on the trip.  I’m back down with Lane at Wash-n-Watch Dogs and trust me this is not a bad gig. More on that another day, you’ll be shocked to know all of the things we get up to at dog camp.
  Flying is not something I’ve done often but when I did it was locked in a cage deep in the bowels of the plane.  No one offered to take me on board and gently place me under a seat.  Not for me my own personal carried-in luggage.    And I have always believed I’ve been well treated and loved.  But get a load of this!  My owners were so taken with this little pooch that they forwarded on a photo of a dog they met in the waiting area at the airport.  This little dog (looks a lot like my cousin Aspen in Canada)  could check out the facilities  and then be carried on board in style!  Sad to say but that little floaty feeling we dogs get on Ativan or whatever is not tough to take periodically.  Just takes the edge off so we can settle in and get through a new and unusual or stressful, situation.  Her eyes are a tad suspicious wouldn’t you say? Everyone in the airport was apparently  cooing and drooling over this darling little shih-tzu?  How on earth has she tricked her owners to allow this to take place?  Her future as a lecturer looms large, Everything you wanted to know about travel for Dog Dummies.   Hey if you are interested  Juno, we could do some bartering….I’ll teach you how to chase squirrels in the wild for some tips on owner bamboozlement.
Luckily a bunch of photos were emailed to Lane so that she could see what the owners were up to.  I hopped on line last night when no one was looking so I could get a good look at the guy.  College  is an elusive little devil.  I finally figured out my owners have no idea what he looks like either since there were no shots that hollered, Yeah, there’s the person that got Benj to move across the country and abandon me.  It sure looks differerent up there.  Telluride this ain’t.
Most likely they want to see who he is so they can figure out how to win Benj  back  full time to our house.  He is coming back right? Jon and David left forever but surely Benj isn’t going to do that too;  he’s my constant.
What’s really weird is that I made some jokes about swine flu the
  other week and then poor old Benj caught it.   I think I cursed him.  I can tell from this photo however that his visage hasn’t changed all that much. His nose and ears look just like they used to.    Thank goodness!  He ended up quarantined in his room because too many people at Bates were sick with the flu.  Luckily he had a friend who was willing to drop off food for him periodically, maybe that was College?  Who knows.  Benj didn’t name him in his email to the family.  Anyway, he got well just in time for the big family visit and that was appreciated by all.
The place he’s hanging out looks pretty nice.  I’ve never seen the ocean and although it looks cold and scary – not my cup of tea – I can understand its appeal.  I wouldn’t want to fall in to it though.  One time I nearly drowned in  the San Miguel as it flows through town in Telluride!  The Atlantic Ocean…..I’d be dead. 
Our trees were beautiful this year but look at these.  I didn’t know so many trees could turn different colours all at once.  Fabulous.  Maine looks like a pretty cool place….well actually it looks down right freezing but still cool.
There is even a silly little  pond they call a lake at Bates.  Some very strange kids actually chop holes in it in the winter time and hop in.  Now Benj says he hasn’t done that  but he thinks he should before he leaves school.  I say No Way Jose!  Are you nuts?  As you all know even I shower in warm water…why would he want to hop in that thing  in the middle of winter with ice all around?  Humans are so bloody weird.

He obviously likes it up at Bates because we’ve hardly seen him in four years.  That College guy has a hold on him and it has to be broken. Perhaps when he comes back for turkey season we can chain him in his room and bring in someone to deprogramme him.  Maybe Midnite Schulthies would come over.  He’s a local;  he went to Bates  but he loves  Telluride and calls it home.   Come to think of it his wife,  Judy, went to Bates too!  Yeah, got to drag them into the loop somehow and have them give Benj a talking to. 
The buildings up there look old!   They even have their own seagulls….sure love to  catch one of those?  So what if he has tons of friends up on the East Coast,  he has friends here so what’s up with that?   Maybe my owner smothered him too much?  Maybe she didn’t smother him enough?  I wish she had figured out the right recipe so  he would have hung around us a little longer. I like the owners you know but he’s so much more adventurous and fun.



Hey, wait!  Is this College? I think I found him.
  For Pete’s sake I think he left me for a Bobcat!  What does that silly feline have that I don’t have, I ask you?   OK, no one has made posters about me before but they could. It is within the realm of possibility you know.
Hmmph! Think  I need to stay online just a little longer.  I’m going to fire off an email to Benj.  Surely to God he would never have left me for a member of the cat family. See ya later.

Flickr Tags: Bates,College,Telluride

I’ll be good, please NO!

Flickr Tags: Dog,Telluride

  Every once in a while my owner goes a bit nuts. Life will be going along just fine  and suddenly for no reason….I’m in trouble and punished.  Not “go to your dog bed trouble” but punished  just the same.

The first thing that happens is I’m sent to a special room   and  my collar is removed.   Now my collar might as well be part of my body.   It even has my name and phone number on it so I won’t get lost.  If my collar is lying on the floor then my owner is up to no good.    It is the only valuable piece of jewelry I own.   My bell gets attached to it when I’m going out on a hike,   my leash is attached to it for neighbourhood walks, so  when it comes off I’m frightened.

The next thing that happens is I get locked in a glass box.  It would not surprise me to learn that  this room has played a historical  role in torture.   I’ll ask Jon, our medieval specialist, next time he comes  to town.  Then my owner climbs in  the box  with me.  This is a sure sign we are not just taking pictures of the little glassed in room to share with friends.  Serious business is underway.

Warm water is sprayed all over me, suds are rubbed into my fur, and I start to look like an overgrown rat.  Surely you sense my humilation as I turn my face to the wall.  A  photo  of my degradation was recently  leaked to Facebook,  paparazzi I’m sure.  My friend Shiprock dropped me a note to let me know  he was mortified for me.  

Does this mean my dog pals don’t get baths?  How does that work? I  overheard Anya and Scott say that Robbie  gets infrequent rinses under the hose…OK….that does sound like torture, at least I get warm water.  I will say that Robbie  looks like a much tougher dog than yours truly, however. Tough cookie is my outer persona and delicate flower is my inner nature.

A good drying  with a towel comes courtesy of the torture time in the shower.  Now this I like.  Towels are fun because you can play hide and go seek with yourself and the dog versus man wrestling games are fun too.  Don’t rip the towel…this can end up with you going to your mat!

We just got a giant drowning pool put in our downstairs bathroom.  She took me down to size me up against it.  When she tried to lift me in I turned myself into a dead weight.  I’m not stupid. Trust me – she puts me in that thing and I bite!

 

Only as I write this does it occur to me that it is always the owner that puts me in the glass box for a scrub.  In all my nine years the curly-headed Alpha has never even shown me what the glass box room even  looks like.

 

It took me a while to figure out why but it is because   he  doesn’t worry about what he looks like.  He barely has more accoutrements (Benj’s favourite word that he taught me a year ago) for dolling himself up than I do. 

She, on the other hand, is loaded for bear as they say. Her products line the shelves of the glass box room, fill a cabinet, and she even has special mirrors with which to examine her face.  I’ve tried to tell her, “you’re old, let it go.”  No way in hell was her response.  “Let the hair go grey”….caused her to start mumbling under her breath about  over dead bodies.  Does that mean MY dead body or hers?  For what it’s worth I dropped the subject. 

   

The last laugh is really mine though, isn’t it. She can take me in that glass room and cover me with shampoo.  She can brush me until I shine.  But as soon as I get outside my nose can smell every disgusting thing known to man and before she can say Jack Robinson I can stop, drop and roll all over it and make myself smell  just the way I want to.   See ya later.