Jet is Home

I was able to bring Jet home today. She is still not out of the woods. But she does look much better then she did on Sunday. She came home with loads of meds to take at various different times. So I made myself a chart so I can keep track of them all. If she takes another turn backwards she will need to go back but for now she is at home with us for new years.

Second Opinion

I picked up Jet from My sister in laws place yesterday. I was shocked to see how much weight she had lost in only five days. Almost five pounds. Jet maybe weights 30lbs on a good day so losing five pounds is alot. I decided we needed a second opinion. Today I took her to another vet. They decided to keep Jet for a couple of days and put her on IV fluids and IV anti-biotics. Still non the wiser on what is wrong. She has not eaten or drank on a regular basis for over a week. so that is really our first priority. I took this pic of sick Jet last week.

Trekking home

Got home last night around 5:30. Another fun drive thanks Sirius Satellite radio big 80's channel. About a half an hour out from my dad's house Kyle started to get sick. He must have been really sick to let me drive. Therefore I got to pick the music we listened too. Kyle's one rule was I was not aloud to text and drive. Probably a good thing.

I am driving along the trans Canada hwy thinking it was very peaceful at the moment it resembled a goat trail because of all the snow. Then it hit me, a car had not passed us in over an hour. Hmmm weird. Then we went through a small town and I glanced at a sign "did that say road closed" Oh well we will just keep on truckin.

Bam!!!

another closed highway dog park

never a good sign
So happy to be home safe and sound

Kamloops day 3

I usually don't go on holidays without at least one dog. Right now I am missing my dogs terribly. I phone Jerry everyday so he can tell me what they are up to. We decided to leave Jet at home becasue she was doing better but after we left she went downhill again. So I enlisted Kyle's sister to take care of her. Jet lived at her house for a couple of months this summer. She loves Colette and Ty. She has started to eat again and her spirits are coming up again. Thank godness my dad has two dogs so I can get my dog fix.

Meet Bailey

And Pooh Head!!!

Yes his name is really Pooh Head. He is the mellowest corgi puppy I have every met. Dad and Lisa think he is a wired crazy dog. I told them next time I would bring Risk and show them what a real 11 month old puppy is like

Kamloops day 1 & 2

We left home very early Tuesday morning in very cold frigid temperature. Hoping to find warmer temps in BC. No such luck cold here too.

Took this pic of the awesome sunrise leaving Alberta

BC roads were not as fun. Lots of accidents

What to do when the highway is closed for hours. Walk the dog.

When my dad moved here he said it was because of the tropical winters and the lack of snow. That way he could train horses all year around. So we finally get here in the winter and this is the most snow they have had in years. Dad and I went to the liquor store toady and the lady said it is suppose to warm up to above zero.

Bah!!! Bad weather

This is kind of a wrap up of what I have been doing for the last four days. Way to action packed.

Friday Jerry and I made the long trek up to Athabasca to pick up Isla from her week long honeymoon with Hope. We left Calgary at 7:00 Am. I awoke to thundering winds, darkness and sub zero temperatures. Fun Fun. Most of the trip looked like this

Started the morning like this

Yes folks that is Celsius

almost the speed of light

Cars were literally driving off the road in front of us. We made it home safe and sound 15 hours after we started our journey. The weekend didn't get any better. More cold weather and snow. On Saturday Jet came down with some mysterious illness and spent the whole day Sunday at the vets getting various amounts of tests. Came home none the wiser but lighter in our pocket books. She is living the life today.

Also have a little visitor to the shop who needs a little perking up. The dogs are very interested in.

Today I went to pick up my grandma in the city.

Tomorrow we leave for Kamloops to spend Christmas with my dad. Here's hoping for a less eventful week.

Christmas shopping locally

This year I decided to do my Christmas shopping locally. You may think to your self that I am being very environmentally conscious but no in fact I am just being lazy. I really don't want to battle the traffic or the people in the city. So for those of you that may receive a gift from me this is what you should except.

From the local truck stop just down the road

-over priced batteries

-some sort of tobacco product

-Slurpee various flavors

-a coffee mug that says Canada on it

From the local farm supply store

-anything that says carhart on it

-feed for your chickens, cows or sheep

-feed buckets

Other things may include

-Tim Horton's gift card

-MacDonald's gift card

-m&m meat gift card

Ok, all kidding as side I did shop locally. When I was in Nanton I met this charming little dog named Molly who preceded to tear my jeans to shreds while I was shopping in her owners store.

Isn't she cute.

Blogger games

I have been tagged by Jenny to play a blogger game.
WOW!!! this could have been a very dangerous. You all don't really want to know what I do in my spare time. Luckily the 6th picture is actually a more Zen like picture.

In this picture is my doggin friend Corey Perry and his dog Pik taken at my friend Abe's birthday party. It was a bring your own working dog party. Really fun work dogs all day and then eat cake. Could it get any better than that. In all fairness I don't think I took this picture it was one of my two on staff photographers Penny or Lisa.

Now the hard part is picking people that have not been picked yet.

Fionavar k9's

The boys

Corrie Dhu Sheepdogs

Hillcrest Border Collies

Wandering Gecko

One for the book

Forgot to explain the rules of the game. go to your photo archives and go to the 6th file open that file and post the 6th picture. Then tell the story that goes with this picture.

This is a fun thing to do one a cold winters day or in Sam's case a warm summers evening
Stay warm or cool

Fingers crossed

I am not even going to blog about how f****n cold it is here.

After months of agonizing "should I" or "shouldn't I". I finally took the leap and decided to bred Isla. And now that it has happened I am so excited and obsessed about all things puppy. The babies are expected near Valentines day. Colored or not I just want a couple of pups just like their mother. Below is a picture of the soon to be proud papa (Hope).

If the pups turn out to be as sucky and willing to please as both their mother and father lookout.
Stayed tuned for months of puppy talk. The countdown begins.

Winter

Whether it is here or coming does it really matter.

At least this guy doesn't have to worry anymore.

Poor Stuart Little frozen in his tracks.

I think he heard about the -30C coming next week.

Fear

yes, folks its that time again. Another blog from the bottom of the wine bottle.

I like many people am afraid of many things in life:
-Not being a good enough friend or wife
-the very long winter that is hanging over our heads
-blogger pressure

The list is long. But instead of finishing the list I am going to put this picture of Risk and Isla up.

oh no!!

Poor Michael

What's a washed up pop star to do.

this week in review

Alright so I haven't blogged in over a week. Very Sorry, alot going on and then I got a bad cold and didn't feel like doing anything even bloggin. I know hard to believe.
On Tuesday last week Risk, Isla and I drove up to visit with Lisa and picked up some new sheep. It is a five hour drive so I decided to let the dogs ride in the truck with me to keep me company. Driving with Risk is like riding with a toddler. OMG mom whats that? Can I have some of your Coffee? Hey Isla What are you doing? Look cars!! Look trucks!!! Back seat, Front Seat. All for five hours fun fun.

Isla had a more relaxed approach to the drive

Oh Yeah, I followed this guy for two hours before I realized......

He isn't even a real cop. that must have been so much fun for him.

I spent a couple of days at Lisa's working dogs and picking up the new sheep.

our new editions. I can spot the troublemakers already

Lisa and Hope

Isla moving Lisa's range ewe on a cross drive

Got home spent a day cleaning up the mess the boys made while I was gone. Then Lisa came down and we were off to hang out with Jenny for the weekend. We had been planning to go and see the movie Australia for over a month. Not really sure what movie the New York times saw to call it an "epic". Unless "epic" refers to the length on the movie. The movie was Ok but certainly not and "epic".
Then I spent most of this week giving lessons and yesterday hurt my back. Spent last night staring at the ceiling totally at Kyle's mercy to look after me. Well we all know how that went. At least the dogs and sheep got fed.

Sorry missed a step

I got a couple of phone calls and e-mails asking me the story of the wooden lawn jockey. Oops, I guess I missed a step. Sorry.

My little friend is not a lawn jockey at all but a miss guided young man who has been tossed around from home to home and from garage sale to garage sale. The first thing people say when they see him is "is that?", "that looks like", "nah it can't be". Let me assure you "yes it is".

Michael Jackson

Watch for Michael coming to a stockdog trial near you in 2009

Lesson day with the man

I am fortunate enough to have Scott Glen live within driving distance of me. I asked Scott to come here for an all breed lesson day for some of the people that come here for lessons. The weather was super chilly in the morning but by lunchtime the wind had subsided and the sun was shining. Fun was had by all and everyone is looking forward to having Scott back for another day of learning.

Some of us learn lots and one of us learned by watching and hopes one day to be out working his own dog and soon as he can master walking. Right now he will just settle for holding our cameras and stock stick.

It really was a miracle

Lately Isla has been losing her mind. I am chalking it up to her coming in to season soon. Lord knows once I month I become just a little crazy too. She just is doing weird stuff on sheep. Last week I sent her out to bring in my flock from the big field and she proceeded to go out, drive them into a corner, and circle them five or six times. All the while I am whistling my fool head off to no avail. So needless to say I was not feeling very confident going into this years Alberta Stockdog Arena finals. In all truth Isla has never finished an arena trial. She usually grips off in dramatic style like last weekend.
The ASDA finals consists of two go rounds and then top three to the finals. This was my final time running in the ranch class. The first to go rounds consisted of over flaking not stopping and running so wide her hair was being rubbed off on the walls of the arena. All the while I am trying to get her to stop and listen for one second. I hated it made us look so bad. Not really sure how it happened but we did pen our sheep both times and made it to the finals.
I think by the time we ran in the finals she was totally exhausted from running crazily around the arena the first two runs. She decided to listen better and we pulled it off and won. I was pretty amazed that she actually finished each time with out gripping. Good girl.
Now if we could only do that at Calgary for the big money next year.
Then yesterday I went out to set some sheep for a lesson and she was silly Isla all over again.

A note for my friend Mr. M:
Last night we went out for supper and Dion Phaneuf sat at the table beside us. Justice was very excited and could hardly eat. For those of you that don't know who Dion is. He is the star defencemen for the Calgary Flames hockey team. All little on the cute side too.

trial report

The only thing I have to say is Isla now has really clean teeth. Sorry some are blurry.

Photo evidence of the badness. That poor little lamb didn't know what hit her.

Might as well look the part too....

Isla and I are off to the Northlands trial this weekend. This trial runs in conjunction with the Canadian finals rodeo. For those of you that are not aware of the CFR here is a link http://www.canadianfinalsrodeo.com/
You can't get much more country cowboy then the CFR. So Isla and decided we better dress the part as well. I went shopping and picked up a few things. Isla now has the proper collar.

Showtime baby

And I bought a belt for my buckle and finally took my buckle out of its case. I will be sure to get a pic of us modelling our gear. Maybe with a couple of cute 20 year old cowboys.

Enough said..............