When I left work today I lamented having to walk Dahlia out in the weather we're having. This afternoon it was windy, about 40mph, blowing the recently fallen snow everywhere. My coworker said "She won't want to be out in this anyway."

I walked outside with Dahlia tonight to discover it was quite the blizzard. Near white-out conditions, snowing heavily, blowing still at around 30-40mph. Lovely. Just lovely. Dahlia ran out into it like this was the BEST STUFF EVAR OMG. I was hoping for a quick pee walk and I got a dog who looked up at me with this look of "wow mom how did you bring this awesome white stuff down!!"

So off we go, Dahlia with a spring in her step, me trudging after her, hoping she'll pee quickly.

She doesn't.

And then as we're coming back around the corner, out of the whiteness and darkness, comes a guy running with two dogs off leash. I can't really tell who it is. But he leashes up the dogs and moves out into the road with them. And as he comes closer I realize it's the guy with the Rottie from down the road and he's walking our neighbor's pit bull puppy. The dogs all know each other so he lets them back off and they come back over to Dahlia.

And play time ensues.

They run around and sniff and dance (and she finally pees!). And then we go see Callahan, a wonderful yellow lab who is sadly rarely walked and usually just tied to the back porch. He's a nice dog despite all of that. Bentley and Bailey are already up with Callahan when Dahlia and I head over. She freezes and I know her next move will be to fly to them. So I call to her and tell her slow and she walks slowly with me up to them, each time she forget herself and starts to rush forward I tell her to slow and she does so. Finally we reach them and the four of them run around (Callhan as best he can being tied to the porch while the others are free) Bentley (the Rottie) takes to humping Callahan, but his owner manages to stop it and Callahan calls him off. Dahlia, of course, plays her proper roll of "police dog" and when Bentley starts to hump, she barks to get his attention and distract him and then herds him away from Callahan. She really is brilliant with that. The people at the dog park love how she sort of seems to defend the dogs who are dealing with a somewhat ruder, more aggressive dog. Luckily Bentley has never tried to hump her or he might get a quick flash of the teeth. Girl knows how to handle herself and does it quite gracefully.

When we decide play time is done, I call Dahlia off and she's awesome as always, following me, though she does start to veer off to chase Bailey and Bentley who are running off in the other direction. I call her back and she's excited and it's play time!! So I toss my glove, which she promptly kills like the predator she is. And then I tell her to bring it inside to Daddy and she does. She brings it right into the house and drops the soaking wet, covered in snow, glove right on top of his dissertation papers.

I love my dog!

amaroqwolf_inc made this awesome macro from one of my pictures.




LOL awesome.

I also made this one based on the same idea:

We finally had a sunny day here. I think it's been a month or so since I've seen sun. Seriously. So I took Dahlia out to the park to get some pictures in the snow.

( Pics back here )

Someone just posted this video in one of the dog communities.

WTF

This guy makes Cesar look like a good dog trainer, one who is kind and gentle, and who has no ego.

We bounded out of the apartment tonight. Me with happiness over going for a walk with my dog; Dahlia with a big grin at the sight and smell of more snow. We rushed down the steps as we often do. You see, walks are fun. Dahlia gets to race through the snow, stopping to sniff when she wants to and then rushing to catch up to me or racing ahead to find the next bit of interesting snow to stick her snout in.

And me? I get to laugh with pure joy at watching her. She makes me happy. Walks with her make me happy.

When we got down off the porch I saw my next door neighbor coming up the sidewalk with her German Shepherd, Krieger. "Stop," I said to Dahlia. She froze in place. Even her big doggy grin froze in place. I came up next to her and asked her to wait. We waited.

My next door neighbor has her dog on a choke chain or a prong collar. I can't recall which, but it ultimately doesn't matter. They serve the same purpose. Krieger stepped slightly away from her and toward us. She jerked him with the leash. Not instantly. But a few seconds after he moved.

He whined.

She jerked him again and turned to walk in the opposite direction, again jerking him when he didn't follow her.

Dahlia and I stood frozen to the spot for a moment and watched them walk off. Each time he moved away from her, she jerked him with it. And he whined. We would hear his whine from several houses down.

Finally, when they were far enough away, I released Dahlia. She immediately headed in the direction Krieger had gone.

I didn't want to go in that direction. I called to her. "Dahlia, wrong way!"

She turned on a dime and rushed back to me and then past me, sticking her face into the snow as she went.

And then we started the race down the path. Dahlia pausing to sniff, me calling excitedly to her and watching her race with joy to me.

The grin had returned.

As had mine.

Walks are a joyous time for Dahlia and I. We race along snow covered sidewalks. We trudge through snow-choked fields 2 or more feet deep. I let her off leash in the park to play the "wait/come" game and to play fetch with a snow-covered tennis ball. We jump and play. We meet other dogs and she plays.

I walk along with a smile on my face that matches Dahlia's. Walks are her time, but they're also for me. It's my time to watch my dog be a dog, my time to watch her enjoy herself.

Krieger doesn't have that joy. He moves with much anxiety, his back legs bunched up awkwardly as he moves down the sidewalk. My neighbor once told me that she's working "very hard" on his training. She walks with a scowl on her face and is continually fighting her dog. It's a war of wills. She's been told she has to be alpha. She believes it. And so it's a constant fight between her and her dog. She MUST win, you see. Or else he will control all.

I believe Dahlia and I are companions, that I take care of her, that we are partners in our joyous walks together. Training is fun. It should be fun. When it becomes not fun it's over.

We returned to the apartment the same way we left it, with smiles on our faces. Dahlia raced up the porch and into the house. I followed slightly behind, shutting the doors and turning off the lights.

My neighbor is still out with her dog, still struggling with him somewhere on her walk. It's not his. Never his.

Dahlia and I are happy and content inside after our lovely, companionable walk.

I like it that way.

David is out for the night at a rehearsal (that, sadly, I'm supposed to be at too but I'm sick with a nasty cold!). So it's a girl's night on the couch watching Law & Order: SVU.

I had a couple videos planned for this today, but recent news has made me alter which youtube videos I'm going to post.

The first is one I just found about the Dog Chapel and features Stephen Huneck talking about the chapel and his artwork.




The second one is one I've posted before but seriously, if you haven't seen this amazing video (and you're a dog person), you NEED to.

For those of you who don't know this man's wonderful artwork, I've put some photos I took while at the dog chapel behind the cut. He was amazing. His art was whimsical. It was sweet. It made a lot of people smile and his loss is a huge one. I received more information and it saddens me even more.

It is with great sadness that I share with you the news of the death of my Husband , Stephen Huneck, Thursday January 8th. Tragically Stephen took his own life. Stephen had been despondent for some time now and was being treated for depression.

Like many Americans we had been adversely affected by the economic downturn. Stephen feared losing Dog Mountain and our home.

Then on Tuesday we had to lay off most of our employees. This hurt Stephen deeply. He cared about them and felt responsible for their welfare. I could see how devastated he felt and tried to reassure him that the most important thing to me was that we were together. I told him how much I loved him, that he had accomplished so much in his life he should feel proud not ashamed.

I said how, I was constantly being told by visitors to Dog Mountain how much they loved his artwork. They also told me how meaningful the Dog Chapel was to them and how grateful they are that Stephen had created it.

Stephen and I discussed his feelings of despair and he said he would be seeing his psychiatrist the next day and would talk it over with her. He seemed to be looking forward to his session. He got up early Thursday morning to go see her. Stephen drove to the doctor’s parking lot and while parked in his car, shot himself in the head.

I wished I could of reached him some how. Stephen gave so much love and joy to the world through his warmth and openness as a person and a great artist. I hope he will be remembered as that joyous soul.

One the last page of the “Dog Chapel” book Stephen wrote “you too can build a chapel, in a place that’s always open in your heart.”

Please remember Stephen in your hearts.

Yours truly,
Gwen Huneck

( Pics )

It really was a wonderful place. I can't describe how happy we were there.

Ages ago I found a recipe in Readers Digest for "Sparkling butter toffee cookies." It sounded SO GOOD that I saved it and hoped my friend Jason would make it. LOL Seriously. I didn't cook. He did. I wanted cookies! He never got around to making it so one day I decided to try it. They were the first cookies I made and they were delicious! I've passed the recipe on to many people and everyone seems to like them. So here's the recipe.

1 cup sugar
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 cup English toffee or almond bits (I recommend the Heath Bar with almond bits)
Sugar

1) Heat oven to 350F
2) In large mixer bowl, combine sugar, butter, egg, and vanilla
3) Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until creamy (1 to 2 minutes)
4) Add flour, baking powder, and baking soda; reduce speed to low. Beat until well-mixed (1 to 2 minutes)
5) Stir in toffee bits by hand
6) Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll in sugar.
7) Place 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet
8) Flatten each with bottom of glass to 1 1/2-inch circles (if glass sticks, dip glass in sugar)
9) Bake for 9-11 minutes or until edges are lightly browned (DO NOT OVER-BAKE)
10) Sprinkle with sugar while warm. Cool completely.

As some of you may have noted, I love taking pictures. Now, mostly all you've probably seen is Dahlia. Nothing wrong with that I suppose. She's my current favourite subject (sorry to those of you who thought that would die away after a little while!). But I do also enjoy taking pictures of scenic things. So I want to share some of my favourite scenic photos.

You can see some of my absolute favourites here. Starting at the The Twin Falls ones are scanned copies of 35mm pictures, so the quality may not be as good (not a great scanner!).

A few of my favourite dog pictures (not all Dahlia!) are behind the cut.

( Some doggies back here...oh and wolves, lions, and penguins! )

I meant to post this one yesterday with the other quotes from the Beethoven book I'm reading.

From Grillparzer's Oration at Beethoven's Funeral
March 29, 1827

As we stand here at the grave of this departed, we are, as it were, the representatives of a whole nation, of the entire German people, mourning the fall of the one highly celebrated half of what remained to us of the vanished splendour of native art, the flower of our country's spirit. True, the hero of poetry in the German language [Goethe] is with us still--and long may he remain with us! But the last Master of resounding song, the sweet lips that gave expression to the art of tones, the heir and successor of Handel's and Bach's, of Haydn's and Mozart's immortal game, has ended his life, and we stand weeping beside the tattered strings of the silent instrument.

Of the silent instrument! Let me call him so! For he was an artist, and all that he was he became only by virtue of his art. The thorns of life had wounded him deeply, and as the shipwrecked cling to the shore, so he fled into thy arms, glorious sister alike of goodness and truth, consoler of the suffering. Art, whose origins are above. He held fast to thee, and even when the gate was closed through which thou hadst entered into him and hadst spoken to him, when he had grown blind to thy features because of his deaf ears, still he bore thy image in his heart, and when he died still it lay upon his breast.

He was an artist, and who can bear comparison with him?

As Behemoth rushes, tempestuous, over the oceans, so he flew over the frontiers of his art. From the cooing of doves to the rolling of thunder, from the most subtle interweaving of the self-determined media of his art to the awe-inspiring point where the consciously formed merges in the lawless violence of the striving forces of Nature, all these he exhausted, all these he took in his stride. Whoever comes after him will not be able to continue, he will have to begin again, for his predecessor ended only where art itself must end...

He was an artist, but he was a man, too, a man in every, in the highest sense. Because he shut himself off from the world, they called him malevolent, and because he avoided sentiment, they called him unfeeling. Oh, the man who knows himself to be hard does not flee! The finest points are those which are most easily blunted, bent or broken. Excessive sensibility recoils from sentiment. He fled the world because in the whole realm of his loving nature he could find no weapon with which to oppose it. He withdrew from men after he had given them everything and received nothing in return. He remained solitary because he could find no second I. But even unto his grave he preserved a human heart for all who are human, a paternal heart for those who were his kin, himself as a heritage to the whole world.

Thus he lived, thus he died, thus he shall live for ever.

Some of you might recall my posting a bunch of quotes from the book here.

Here are two great accounts of Beethoven from near the end of his life.

( Back here...kind of long but interesting for anyone who is a fan )

David took Dahlia out to get some pictures in the snow.



( A couple more )

Dahlia's not a real dog. You guys know this. She looks like a dog but doesn't act like one. She doesn't show much interest in balls, doesn't bark (like ever -- even when someone knocks at the door), and when we first got her she didn't even play with toys, didn't understand a dog play bowing at her. It was like she was the confused wallflower who didn't quite know how to act around others of her own kind. She was dog friendly, but didn't GET IT for the most part.

She's getting it more and more, but she's still growing.

We took her on a walk together on Sunday. I love when we do this. We play a "run back and forth between Mommy and Daddy" game where we keep getting further and further apart and calling her to us. She runs from one to the other and back and forth. It tires her out and she seems to love it.

This time we found a stray tennis ball laying around and David threw it for her without trying to hype her up first.

SHE CHASED IT.

OMG really. She ran after it and grabbed it and brought it back near us. She tried chewing on it for a moment and then set it down in the snow and nosed it away from her. She still tried to grab it when we went for it (she likes this game; I'm happy to play it; she doesn't have to play fetch or tug or anything by anyone else's rules but her own and it's fun faking her out to get it away from her). We threw it multiple times. And each time she went after it.

We were interrupted at one point by the arrival of a German Shepherd named Max. Nice dog. He took off running and Dahlia was all too happy to give chase (chase is her favouritest game EVER). They played for a bit and then we parted ways. We found the tennis ball again and tossed it and once more she ran after it. She did several times but eventually stopped picking it up. She would try but then immediately drop it. I think it was too cold all covered in snow. She tried to pick it up by the fuzz but that didn't work, so eventually she'd run to it, pick it up, drop it, and then stand over it as we came to get it to throw it again.

But still. She played fetch. Real fetch. Not a half-hearted racing after a toy once or twice and then settling down to squeak it.

Maybe there's a real dog in there somewhere after all.

Dahlia and I spent some time curled up on the couch. This was the result.



( A few more )

Dahlia and I were involved in a Secret Santa Paws exchange. We just got her gifts today, so we took pictures as we opened the presents.

( Dahlia has a blast! )


Dahlia was a very happy pup!

I signed up for this transport over two weeks ago. Who would resist puppy breath x 2? Which then became puppy breath x3? Not I, of course. I love puppies. Who doesn't? But when it comes to these little special needs guys, I just can't refuse those transports.

You see, all three of these pups were special needs. All were deaf; two were visually impaired as well. Charlie and Charlene, the older pups (8 weeks old) were going to be put down for their visual and hearing impairments. Their idiot BYB was selling his puppies in an open air market and these two were going to be put down. Luckily someone was able to convince him to turn them over to her and so now off to rescue they go. The third puppy, also deaf and visually impaired, was Chai. I don't know her story, but she's a bit younger than the others (6-7 weeks old) and so no doubt came from a pretty awful place. Despite where ever she came from, she was just the sweetest little ball of fluff ever.

I picked them up in Binghamton in the last light of the afternoon. I tried to frantically take pictures in the lousy light in the hopes of getting some good shots in. Lucky for me the flash made some pretty good pictures up in Syracuse. We loaded all three of them in the car pretty quickly and easily. Charlie and Charlene just wanted to play; Chai just wanted to curl up and sleep. They had very different personalities.

The trip up was pretty easy. One of them kept crying and I felt bad, but eventually all three settled down. When we arrived I had the biggest scare of my life. Charlie and Charlene were moving, but Chai was not. She was pressed up against the backseat and not moving at all. Prior to Charlie and Charlene getting up, they had been squished in there with her. I reached out and touched her. And did not get a response. I nearly panicked, afraid they had somehow suffocated the little girl and I didn't know. So I started to really push at Chai. And she woke up. Phew! Wow does that dog sleep hard. She didn't even try to snap at me or anything when I pushed her around and shook her a bit. You can't imagine my relief upon finding her alive and well.

I got all three puppies out of the car then. Getting them to the grass was a bit of a challenge. Charlie wanted to forge ahead, but Charlene was more cautious and Chai just did not want to move. Eventually I picked up Chai and let the other two walk. Charlene was a bit more bold than Chai with her brother at her side.

Once there, the puppies wanted to play and play and play some more. Charlie and Charlene were mostly interested in each other. And Chai was interested in me. She spent a lot of time crawling around my lap, playing tug with my pant leg, and trying to untie my shoes. So cute. I loved that little dog so much. Seriously. If I could have taken her home with me I would have. She was just so really awesome.

The most amusing thing about the whole situation were the Gulliver and the Lilliputian moments. They kept getting their leashes tangled around my ankles and they'd cross and go in the opposite direction around me, therefore coming close to knocking me over. It was amusing. Frustrating, but amusing nonetheless!

The person I was meeting finally showed up. He was a bit late. He had heard that the transport was running behind. That was yesterday's. Oops. It was kind of nice though as I got to play with the puppies.

I cried when I handed over Chai. I really loved that dog and I barely knew her.

( A bunch of pics! )