Grainy Small Photos

I had NO IDEA that I could instagram-ize any pictures in my "camera roll" until yesterday. I thought you just had to take the picture with instagram. I'm a little slow with technology stuff. So I've had fun since then. 

Stormy's muzzle-area is kinda old-looking and wrinkly and lumpy and whiskery and I love it. I don't kiss her on the muzzle, though. Not because that would be gross, because her whiskers are seriously itchy. I kiss her on the bridge of her nose instead.
And that is Katy the sweet mamma kitty and her two babies who are named Rascal and Dancer. Dancer is coming home with me in a few weeks (shhh!)
Next is one of the dilapidated houses on Main st. in Luther, Oklahoma.
And then Stormy again (the first time I saw that face I thought, she's so cute! Next thought was..wow...she's big.) And the last picture is Bella. Doesn't that face just cheer you up? Well it does me.

Basic Obedience

My eldest furchild has graduated from basic obedience school. I have taken her to a trainer before to work on her dog aggression. That trainer was great....however, he lived in Lawton (2.5 hrs away) and his only group class was Fridays at 5pm. Which meant that I would have had to leave work 3 hours early on Fridays to have time to go get number-one-mutt and drive her all the way to Lawton. (Pedro is number-two-mutt in case anyone was wondering.) The trainer was so great he even offered me a big discount and said I could just come whenever I could, and pay per class instead of asking me to pay up front. I was only able to make it once. Since that time Bella never really got any good experiences around dogs outside her "pack" and her aggression which had gotten a little better, started to get worse again. So I started searching for closer trainers that had experience with aggressive dogs. I found Full Circle Obedience School in OKC. She got 6 weeks of great exposure to other dogs. some of which were well behaved. heh. She graduated this past Saturday and my roomie came to the big event and took pictures. Bella placed second in the fastest come-when-called-and-sit race, and won a bumpy green football that squeaks. She placed fourth (I think) in the longest sit-stay competition. She got up when the weimaraner broke it's stay and came over to sniff her butt. AND GET THIS...she didn't try and kill the weimaraner! I was so proud. At another point in the graduation class I had her sitting butt-to-butt to a cattle dog who even hit her with his waggy tail...and she never even glanced at it. It was awesome.

Next I'm planning on getting her the Canine Good Citizen thing. Their CGC class at full circle is supposed to work even more with teaching dogs to deal with other dogs being around it. And I think she would be a good candidate for the kids reading to dogs program, cus she LOVES kids.

Bella got a new seat belt

I think that carabiner in the back fastens to the buckled seat belt. doesn't seem to be as secure as a human seat belt, but I feel a little better driving down Lake Hefner Parkway with her "buckled in." Thanks cuz Kathy for sending it to me! Isn't she a perfect model? OK so it's a little big...she doesn't have broad enough shoulders..


Did I photoshop out the mess in the background? Yes. Yes, I did.

Can you roll your tongue?

My dog can.

destructive dog vent

Not exactly art-related, but I feel the need to vent. A while ago I traded a portrait for a dog collar. A really nice dog collar that I was extremely proud of. Here's bella modeling it:

Well the collar is no more. Pedro destroyed it. (see below mug shot of the little devil)

I left them alone for maybe 20 minutes, and that was enough time for Pedro to convince Bella to lay still and let him chew her collar off (after which she probably actually helped him eat part of it.)