Relaxing before the storm

 

With the Fourth of July coming, we bunkered down and prepared for fireworks. Of course the fireworks never just happen on the Fourth, they happen for the entire week preceeding it! With that in mind we headed out to the dog park one day to get some extra exercise in hopes of calmer puppies come nightfall. 

Unfortunately as we took the 1/2 mile walk up to the park, a pair of teenage boys in the back decided to set some off. I decided to keep it short, but wanted to give the dogs some times to run it off a bit. 

Cody doesn't mind the noise but Sappho does.

Sappho does find a friend though!

Cody checks out another dog here for some pre-fireworks exercise.

Hot dog and ready to go!

Green Feeder

Cody's reflux has improved so much that we don't have to feed him out of food puzzles anymore, but that doesn't mean they have lost any value! Food toys still are fantastic for engaging his brain, draining off energy, slowing down how quickly they eat, and overall just a lot of fun for both human and canine!

One of the longest lasting food puzzles is the Green Feeder, and when you toss in slippery, frozen lima beans to bulk up the mean it takes even more effort to get all the food out!

Kong Quest Wishbone

Janell, our state coordinator and fellow foster mom, turned me onto a new toy for Cody. He loves food puzzles and toys, and after seeing what a hit this was with Janell's product-tester, Frodo, I had to try it. As you can see, the Kong Quest Wishbone is a hit with Cody too!

Honest Kitchen Beams

Two pairs of ears hear something interesting...

A third pair thinks it sounds tasty...

It was new treat time! I've had a box of this treat for a while but kept forgetting to use it. Finally I grabbed the box on a weekend afternoon and decided to see how they liked it. So what is it?

Catfish skins!

The Honest Kitchen Beams are dried icelandic catfish skin sticks. They are low smell, and come in small or large size.

 We headed out into the backyard for try these scaly treats out!

Kickin' Ash in Kelso

Sunday we headed down to Kelso, Washington for Kickin' Ash in Kelso, a wonderfully fun day put on the Jack Russell Club. They had a variety of events including go to ground, terrier races, lure coursing, and brush hunt!

It turned out that will all the excitement Cody wasn't interested in the events, but he did have a wonderful time sniffing, and meeting people and other dogs!

Cairn pups and a very excited momma.

Cody meets Roo, a 5 month old terrier mix.

Cody comes in for a closer look.

Cody growls nervously, and Roo does perfect appeasement signals.

Sappho, Maya, and Roo paid lots of attention to the lure coursing and other events though!

Lets go!!

Victorious.

Roo is a rescue girl from a local shelter.

And she's in training to be a flyball height dog!

Is that....lure coursing?

It is!

Let me go play!!

That was fun. Lets go again!

We finished off the day with terrier racing!

Spring Evening

We had a beautiful Spring evening to relax in the yard, and everyone came out to enjoy it!

Cody locates a ball to be his special toy.

Sappho heads for the slopes.

Cody considers joining foster sister.

Sappho gets sidelined by an itch.

And Cody gets sidelined by a roll!

And of course, no evening is complete without lots of ball chewing and chasing!

Foster Dad Love

We spent the day trying to repair the lawn, part of which involved de-thatching the grass. Cody spent some of that time hanging out around foster Dad, supervising. But what Cody really wanted was some foster Dad love!

Fence Repair Celebration

The aftermath!

Two months ago a person driving by our home had a seizure, passed out, and plowed into our fence. While he ended up ok, I couldn't say the same of our fence!

Only some of the set up to secure the yard!

This was a huge breach in our fence security, and we had to quickly set up a way to make the yard safe for the dogs. We needed to prevent them getting out through the hole, so we used a variety of supplies we already had and new supplies to fence it off.

Another part of the arsenal!

The result of this improvised fencing worked to keep the dogs out of the slopes and down in the lower portion, providing two barriers - one against getting on the slopes and one blocking the hole in the fence if they did get up the slopes.

Two months of restricted hard access was frustrating to everyone. So when the insurance check came, the fence company was called, and the fence fixed, it was time to celebrate!

Cody immediately checked out upslope. 

 But no one was happier about this than Kezi, who finally got to go outside again!