Speed Walking

Jan 312010
 

Another one of those 24 hours periods where we have all types of weather – snow, rain, freezing rain, ice, sleet, and freezing fog.  Makes for some very crunchy snow – not the fun powdery stuff.  Oh well, it did look pretty first thing this morning:

Before the plow

After the snow plow got to our road, we went for a walk.  The weather was still all the nasty stuff, so we were walking pretty fast.  Well, the black and white team was.  The red team was dawdling.

Hey - B&W Team! Wait up for us redheads!

We are catching up with them.

Queen Natasha believes she should always set the pace

Bully Sticks!

Jan 292010
 

In a comment to yesterday’s post, Suka asked, “Who is the poor pup in the cage in the background?”

Moving from the floor to the couch - still acting like the cool dude I am.

On the right is Kiska and on the left you can just barely see Natasha’s paw.  You can see them much more clearly in this picture (Yes, those are our Diggler Scooters you see propped up against the crates):

Natasha and Kiska in their crates

Don’t think they have been singled out.  You will notice in the picture below that Cheoah and Qannik are also in their crates:

Kodiak, Qannik, Cheoah and Rusty

So what is everyone doing?  They are chewing on their Bully Sticks.

But why oh why are Natasha, Kiska, Qannik and Cheoah in their crates and Kodiak and Rusty are not?  Simple answer.  Kodiak and Rusty can be trusted not to try to take a Bully Stick from anyone else.  Everyone else – well, the trust is not there.  So to avoid even the potential of a squabble over the Bully Sticks, everyone is in their crates.

I took lots and lots of pictures of The Herd chewing their sticks so I could show you how good they are.  But every one of them is blurry.  Sigh.  The best picture I got was this over head shot of Natasha:

Natasha focused on the stick

And why an aerial view?  Notice in the second picture of this post that Natasha has her back to the room.  That is because she took her stick and then protected it by turning her back to everyone.

The Herd loves their Bully Sticks!

Lap Dog

Jan 282010
 

When you are 60 lbs (27kg) of Siberian Husky, there are people who say you should no longer be a lap dog.  Kodiak heartily disagrees.  Your human should totally be prepared for cuddle pup – no matter how big you are:

Laying on the floor - watching the human for an invitation

Moving from the floor to the couch - still acting like the cool dude I am.

Snuggling up for some ear scritches.

The cute look always wins!

Who me? Goofy?

Safecracking

Jan 272010
 

Ruby’s counter surfing has been quite constrained lately.  Well, her success rate has been diminished.  She still surfs, just has not made a score since the “sweet potato” incident of a couple of weeks ago.  But that certainly has not slowed her kitchen patrolling instincts.

She is, however, seeking help from all of her fellow canines (ok, and any felines with expertise).  Any safecrackers out there?  Ruby says this is a safe that she has not figured out yet and the humans frustrate her with how easily it opens and closes for them.  How oh how are they doing that?

How does this thing open?

Instigating Corrections and Clarifications

Jan 262010
 

Can we explain the title of our post?

First – Instigation.  Not Instigtation.  Let’s spell that again – Instigation.  We have learned that WordPress does not conduct spellcheck on titles of post and thus our horribly misspelled title of our blog post – Instigtation.  And to make matters worse, we receive an email everytime someone posts a comment to the blog.  And that email includes the title of the post.  So we have received, so far, 29 reminders of how we can not spell.  Ruby says I deserve a slap with a paw for that one -

Oops - Ruby accidentally "touched" Tartok.

Oh, well, it gave me an excuse to use that picture again and it really cracks me up.  Because it is soooooo Ruby.

And now for the clarification.  Glad so many of you enjoyed our picture from “I Walk the Line.”  And thank you for all of the compliments for how well the two of them – Natasha and Qannik – walk together.  How did I train them to walk so well?  I didn’t.  The beauty of a digital camera.  I tried to get that picture over and over and over before it just happened.  In Sibe speak, they screwed up and accidentally let me catch them behaving.

I Walk The Line

And for the other questions.  The road is closed for the winter so there is no traffic.  And Kiska was there, she was just off to the right playing in the snow along the side of the road.

One final piece of news.  Remember the rock slide that we told you about back in October that closed Interstate 40 along the North Carolina / Tennessee border?

I-40 Rock Slide - Asheville Citizen-Times

Well the interstate is STILL closed with an expected opening date sometime in March.  This really, really matters to us because we live off of the last exit that is open in North Carolina.  Well, yet another rock slide has occurred along that route in the closed section of interstate.  Clearing that debris will take 2-3 weeks, so if the interstate had been reopened, it would be closed again.  Supposedly, this will not delay our reopening, but we are watching it carefully.  Trust me that alternate routes are few and far between.  Our hour and a half trip to Knoxville is closer to 4 hours because we have to go east to I-26 before we can go west again.  A better route from our house is 441 through the Great Smoky Mountain Park, but even that was closed yesterday due to snow.  The joys of living in the mountains!

This last picture has nothing to do with anything else in this post, but since we are being somewhat random today, we will leave you with this fellow.  We had stopped at a store in Asheville and he was watching The Herd through his store front door.

Doggy in the Window

Foggy Saturday Work

Jan 242010
 

Saturday was supposed to start foggy and then clear off for a sunny and warm afternoon.  So much for what “they” say.  The fog never burned off for us and actually got thicker during the course of the day, except for when we drove into the valley to pick up some supplies.  As you can see below, we can not even see Cataloochee Ski or the mountains that we normally see:

Our favorite tree is almost hidden in the fog

In one way, that worked out.  We needed to do some work on a fence line (not one of the dog fence’s – those are very secure), so we parked the Jeep with all of the tools and went to work.  The dogs were out on their picket line and thoroughly enjoyed watching the humans work.

The Herd enjoyed watching the humans work - that is the purpose of a "working" breed, right?

Qannik watching while Natasha and Kiska sniff the wind.

Cheoah, Kodiak and Rusty waiting for some more hiking time

P.S. – The harnesses the dogs are wearing are their seat belts, not their pulling harnesses.  We have been asked before when readers see the harnesses on.

Instigtation

Jan 232010
 

The Thundering Herd Annex is much like Chez Herd in many ways – there is always someone instigating a game.  We caught these pictures last night while over at The Annex.  Does this look like your multi-animal house?

Tartok is innocently minding his own business by napping in the floor. What could possibly go wrong?

Ruby would not cause any problems, would she?

Some pups say that Ruby never stops talking. Wonder why she has that reputation?

Oops - Ruby accidentally "touched" Tartok.

And the game is on!

The Life

Jan 222010
 

Over at The Thundering Herd Annex, much is made of Ruby’s counter surfing skills and her ability to find trouble. So do you want to see what an incredibly rough life she leads? Tough, huh?

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