We have achieved snow. Finally! And a few inches of it, too.
Harriet says, "Everything smells different, now, so I must spend 3x
as long as usual sniffing things." She also got an opportunity to
practice "leave it," because someone threw a bunch of bread out for
the birds (of which there are a blue million).

For those who don't remember what snow looks like:

http://cat-sidh.net/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-1504
http://cat-sidh.net/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-1503
http://cat-sidh.net/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-1501
http://cat-sidh.net/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-1500
http://cat-sidh.net/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-1499

--
Shelly
http://www.cat-sidh.net (the Mother Ship)
http://esther.cat-sidh.net (Letters to Esther)

I have forced myself to contradict myself in order to avoid
conforming to my own taste.
-- Marcel Duchamp

in thread . 4: Shelly
whittled the following words:

We have achieved snow. Finally! And a few inches of it, too.
Harriet says, "Everything smells different, now, so I must spend 3x
as long as usual sniffing things." She also got an opportunity to
practice "leave it," because someone threw a bunch of bread out for
the birds (of which there are a blue million).
Believe it or not, I was held up by snow in Texas. They got it before we
did. Some of those people had never seen snow before and they got dumped
on. We cancelled our plans to come home several days earlier because
Texas isn't prepared with snow blades, sand, salt and gravel. A bunch of
people died down there during the snows, so we just stayed put.

It was pretty interesting stay though and we certainly enjoyed ourselves.

I just came in from Laredo Texas. I was delayed several days coming home
because of SNOW. A friend and I were taking a rescue down to Border Patrol
for training. The training center was very accommodating, and they kenneled
our dogs for us while there. We were told NOT to get cheaper motels (That
would accept dogs) because those were the scenes of a lot of gun fights.
(Wow.. The old west still lives?) and because the more expensive places
did not allow dogs, they kenneled our dogs for us. I have a tracking test
coming up in a couple of weeks (Should find out today if I'm in or not)
and didn't want to miss working my dog. I wanted to acclimate my dog to
warmer weather (since the test is in Alabama) so I took Tuck along.

Border patrol was very accommodating and laid tracks for Tuck. They have a
confidence course that is much more aggressive than our agility courses.
Tuck got to play on the course, scaling walls and running through elevated
duct work etc. He loved it.

All the time we were there, they always referred to Tuck as that "fluffy
Foo-foo thaang" out in the kennels. I wondered what Tuck had done wrong
that they didn't take him seriously. The last day we were there, they
allowed Tuck to test on narcotics and explosives identification. They gave
him a sniff, and then turned him loose in a compound with narcotics of
various types and explosives were contained in boxes. Initially they
started with ANISE OIL. When he passed that, he went to the narcotics and
explosives test. He indicated correctly everytime.

He was still referred to as that "fluffy Foo-foo thaang"

I thought he did well on everything he did.. I couldn't figure out why he
didn't get the respect I thought he deserved. The other dogs that came with
us did not come close to passing, and the Belgian Tervuren that was my
friends dog did so badly that they simply told her to get another dog.
(At least they didn't tell me that!) Until we went home. They said to
leave that "fluffy Foo-foo thaang" here. They would buy him. (OVER MY DEAD
BODY! -They knew that)

They were impressed with his individual merit, his obedience, his self
confidence, his heart, his abilities and his drive. They said they had seen
one other of those "fluffy Foo-foo thaang" breeds on TV, picking up trash
along the highway for an anti-littering campaign.
Danny did a video some years back with the Ohio Solid Waste district, and
he was along a highway picking up trash and putting it in a barrel. Texas
(State of) took a clip of that video and have used that in their anti-
littering campaign. Danny is commonly seen on TV. And it turned out the
dog they were talking about was MY dog, Danny, Tuck's father! Small world


Believe it or not, Texas Border patrol wants to do Agility and put a team
together. They are going to build equipment to specs.

Another interesting thing (I thought anyway) was that they sent a dog back
with us that will be working in the Sandusky shipping freight yards. She
was a trained narcotics and explosives dog on her way to her new job. They
needed to get her to Ohio, and asked if we would take her on the return
trip to Ohio. We were honored to give her space. She was a very nice girl,
and they picked her up yesterday afternoon. The dog that we took down is
also probably going to work in Sandusky when she finishes her training.

on Sun, 21 Jan 2007 15:39:49 GMT, Shelly wrote:

For those who don't remember what snow looks like:

We were supposed to get a few inches. Instead I woke up to freezing rain
and a nice coating of ice on everything.

Yes, I'm bitter.

--
Lynne

On 21 Jan 2007 15:39:49 GMT, Shelly , clicked
their heels and said:

We have achieved snow

We are due this afternoon and evening. 1"-3". I'm hoping we're far
north enough to avoid the ICE that it may change to this evening. I
dressed for the occasion - I have snowflake earrings, snowflakes on my
sweater, and on my socks. Hey - anything that can do the right
incantation!

The dogs already have "snowballs" (made by Planet Dog). I made sure
they came inside, because they'll get lost out there otherwise!

--
Janet Boss
www.bestfriendsdogobedience.com

On Sun, 21 Jan 2007 11:05:17 -0500, Janet B
wrote:

On 21 Jan 2007 15:39:49 GMT, Shelly , clicked
their heels and said:

We have achieved snow

We are due this afternoon and evening. 1"-3". I'm hoping we're far
north enough to avoid the ICE that it may change to this evening.

Here in southwest Missouri, we finally got home yesterday after an ice
storm knocked out our power for 7 days, 12 hours. We roughed it for
the first 3 nights, then had to find a motel room.

I'm from farther north, where we have rain OR snow. Not this
in-between stuff.

OB-dog: Baxter was well-liked by the motel staff. He doesn't make
noise, has decent-enough leash manners, and an owner who does poop
patrol! He is sooo glad to be home now, though. He's 13 and does
like his routine.

Anne
and Baxter, the contentedly snoring beagle

on Sun, 21 Jan 2007 16:05:17 GMT, Janet B
wrote:

We are due this afternoon and evening. 1"-3". I'm hoping we're far
north enough to avoid the ICE that it may change to this evening. I
dressed for the occasion - I have snowflake earrings, snowflakes on my
sweater, and on my socks. Hey - anything that can do the right
incantation!

That was our forecast, 1-3" of snow. I have to fly to Baltimore tomorrow.
I really really really hope the ice that we got doesn't hit the area before
I get there.

We were so ripped off! Roxy is not amused.

--
Lynne

Janet B wrote in
:

We are due this afternoon and evening. 1"-3". I'm hoping we're
far north enough to avoid the ICE that it may change to this
evening.

We were, and I'm very thankful. Ice is scary stuff.

I dressed for the occasion - I have snowflake
earrings, snowflakes on my sweater, and on my socks. Hey -
anything that can do the right incantation!

You do realize that Chris' Law of Booties means that it will *not*
snow? You've jinxed it!

--
Shelly
http://www.cat-sidh.net (the Mother Ship)
http://esther.cat-sidh.net (Letters to Esther)

We live in a rainbow of chaos.
-- Paul Cezanne

elegy wrote in
:

chance of snow here today. i'll believe it when i see it. i love
love love snow and have found this winter to be a big
disappointment so far.

See, that's how I felt yesterday, looking at the weather report.
We've been promised snow several times this year, and haven't gotten
more than a flurry. And I mean *a* flurry. Even after looking at
the radar last night, I didn't really believe we'd get substantial
snow.

--
Shelly
http://www.cat-sidh.net (the Mother Ship)
http://esther.cat-sidh.net (Letters to Esther)

It is a mistake to think you can solve any major problems just with
potatoes.
-- Douglas Adams

diddy wrote in
:

We travelled all the way to Texas in pouring rains. Everything
we owned was saturated. I have never seen as much rain in such
as large an area coming down so hard in my life.

The winter monsoons! We usually get a stretch of that sort of
grossness in the late fall. Jaunuary, though, is for snow storms and
blizzards, not endless rain and flooding.

Everything was
flooded from Ohio to Texas, but the Bloomington Indiana area
seemed to get it the worst.

It was disgusting here. The worst thing, though, was that it meant I
didn't get to see comet McNaught. I'm bitter about that.

Just be glad that came down as rain and not SNOW! The Wabash is
pretty unbelievable. It looks like the Mississippi River.

I can imagine. I was glad not to be in Spencer anymore. A bunch of
roads were flooded there, and they stayed that way. I'm sure the
river was huge, too.

--
Shelly
http://www.cat-sidh.net (the Mother Ship)
http://esther.cat-sidh.net (Letters to Esther)

If you see a tree as blue, then make it blue.
-- Paul Gauguin

Lynne wrote in
m:

We were supposed to get a few inches. Instead I woke up to
freezing rain and a nice coating of ice on everything.

O ick. When I looked at the radar last night, there was a band of
pink (the Dread Wintry Mix). I'm thankful that it didn't hit us.

Yes, I'm bitter.

At least ice is pretty. I hate it, but it provides a good
opportunity to get outside and take pee-churs.

--
Shelly
http://www.cat-sidh.net (the Mother Ship)
http://esther.cat-sidh.net (Letters to Esther)

Merz is a smile at the grave and gravity on cheerful occasions.
-- Kurt Schwitters