My dogs are crazy

I can't believe some of the pictures of the two nuts I took this week. They really do enjoy themselves. First is the Emmi cartoon strip, then the puddle man paradise.

She does slow down, sometimes

Almost "clean" puddles this morning from all the rain last night

Davie's tongue is like Emmi's ears you never know where it will be in the picture

Is this a happy face or what?

It's Cone Chucking Season

The squirrels are getting ready for winter. It started yesterday, they are busy chucking cones from the tops of the coniferous trees in the yard. Currently they are in a tree where a good percentage of the cones they chuck land on the metal roof of the barn which always makes the dogs wonder what the heck is happening. Emmi is fascinated by the falling cones, that is until one almost hits her. She checks them out trying to figure out why they smell like squirrel. There is a bumper crop of cones this year do to the wet spring and hot summer. The tops of some of the trees are bent with the weight. And since the squirrels are busy moving from tree to tree there are lots of trails for Emmi to track and lots of trees for Davie to circle! And lots of cones for me to pick up so they don't ruin the blades on the lawn mower. Because you see, the squirrels are very efficient at chucking them on the ground, but not as efficient in picking them up and storing them. But wait maybe there is a method in their madness. I pick the cones  up by the bucket full and dump them in the bush, getting pitch all over a pair of gloves in the process. So are the squirrels letting me be their gatherer? Then they just have to move them from the pile I make, hummm, will have to see what happens.

So my question is are the squirrels trying to tell us something about the coming winter???

Hey Davie, I smells them!

See told ya.

I'm pretty sure they went this way.

She says they are coming from that way.

Or maybe that way?

Marvin the cat, agent provocateur

Marvin is one of two cats at Lab Land. Smeagle, the smart one, went outside when we arrived and did not come back in the house until the BT and the BC had left. He did come visit me outside when the BT/BC where in the house but he stayed clear of those two.

Marvin (picture curiosity of Erin from Lab Land)

 

Marvin on the other hand saw a chance to play with dogs brains and did a marvelous job! He would sneak inside every morning while we were out playing in the field. He would be sitting somewhere watching and make his entrance as soon as we were out of the house. One of his favorite sleeping places is the towel cupboard above the washer and dryer. How did I find this out? Well Davie discovered him on day two.

I sees him

Ha, cat,  think you are the only one who can jump up here!

Davie is a "tad" obsessed with cats. He wants to herd them so badly. His favorite cat is Floyd who lives in Saskatchewan. If Davie didn't go find Floyd last fall Floyd came to find him. He is a very strange relationship.

Davie and Floyd

I nicknamed Marvin, Stealth, because in the every evening when we where outside he would sneak out of the house to prepare for his nightly hunt. Part of his preparation ritual was rolling all over the sidewalk in front of the window to entertain the BC and the BT. And every morning I would find at least one if not more vole carcasses beside my truck. 

Pre-hunting ritual

So we still cannot say Marvin in this house or Davie thinks he has made a special trip from Lab Land to visit him.

A Week in Lab Land

 We had the honor of being the caretaker at Eromit Acres this past week. Eromit raises wonderful labs, this the link to their web page www.eromit.com and they are also on FaceBook. Five labs and a puppy were going to do a road trip to Saskatoon, SK for Field trials and they needed someone to look after things. So Davie, Emmi and I headed down there for the week. We had 8 labs (Twig, Kimber, Missy, Spider, Glitzy, Jackie, Victor and Ace), 3 horses, 2 cats, chickens and ducks under our care. And all I can say is we had a blast.

There is a huge fenced field, 10 acres in size, for everyone to run in. And in the field there are also two fenced areas for training. And I forgot to take a picture of the field! Oh well there will be enough pictures anyway. The labs are a joy to look after, they have the best recalls ever. Davie was in heaven so many dogs to herd.  At one time he had the typical herding dog issue of, its black, and its in my face and I'm not happy. Seeing any black dog would set him off. After visiting Eromit over a year ago and meeting Verona who wanted to be chased he now thinks labs are the greatest, black, chocolate or yellow. And Emmi got to run and sniff her heart out. Oh and hunt voles with Jackie and Kimber. The highlight of the field runs occurred on our last morning. We met the next door donkeys at the fence line. Emmi wasn't sure what they were so proceeded to sound off which made the donkeys bray. You want to hear loud noise, just imagine a coonie and two donkeys singing.

We ran the dogs in twos or fours morning and evening. In the afternoon everyone got to come and wander around the yard because it was too hot to do anything else except jump in and out of the wading pools. And trying to keep enough water in four pools with labs and Davie splashing in them was almost a full time job. Emmi doesn't splash just circles.  Temperatures were around 30 most afternoons.

I don't have pictures of everyone because too many were blurred no matter what setting I tried. Like the very first picture of Missy and Emmi. They all move too fast!!

Stay tuned for the next post and I will tell you the story of Davie and Marvin AKA Stealth, AKA "Watch what I can do to these dogs brains" the cat.

Run

 

Eazzzzzzzzzzzzz

Davie, Twig and Kimber

Emmi, Kimber and Twig

Missy, small, fast and agile is an under statement. Oh and I forgot very pretty.

Davie, Glitzy, Twig, Jackie, Kimber

Davie keeping the girls under control

Could we have some PLEEEEEEASE

I want it!!!

Newman and Spanky

Water bottles are fun especially leaky ones!

Soo tired

Go away I'm trying to rest

Zonked.

 

We had a very exciting week, stay tuned for our adventures in the Land of Labs.