Echo

Last but certainly not least, Echo is our younger dog by one year. She will be 8 years old in November, and is probably almost all Australian Cattle Dog or Blue Heeler. She looks like a Heeler all around. Her favorite things in life are eating, sleeping and giving and getting love and attention. Echo is not so interested in rules or listening to words and commands. She's still a smart dog - she just chooses to make her own path, which can be an issue at times when you're trying to get her to do something you want her to do. She will rarely sit still long enough for me to take her picture, unless she's lounging somewhere. She does not pose for me, and these photos will show that, I think. There are a few good posed shots though - this one in black and white:




The story of how we came about getting Echo is one that might sound impulsive or irresponsible, but quite the contrary, it was the right thing for our little family at the right time. We had been talking about getting another dog for a while, thinking it would help Ellie to have a companion. I should say I was totally sold on this notion, but S was still thinking it over. Anyway, one day when we were about to go out of town for the weekend on a camping trip with friends (and Ellie) I went up to the pet store to get a rawhide for Ellie to have on the trip.


At the pet store was a cat rescue with one dog in their group. The cat rescue is located in Balch Springs, and someone brought two puppies to them, one seriously hurt. They took the dogs to the vet to be checked and mended and were trying to find them homes. The other puppy, the one who had been hurt and required 22 stitches, Echo's brother, had been adopted. Echo was still there. She was 5 months old. As I walked past she popped up onto the side of the cage wall and would not let me walk past without greeting her. She was so friendly, laid back and intent on affection, I immediately knew she would be the perfect foil for our hyper, high strung yet smart Ellie. I went home and told S he had to go meet her. He told me several times I was crazy and to drop it and get ready to leave. But, I said, please go up there and meet this dog and if you don't agree she is the perfect dog for us, I will drop it. Of course, when he met her, he couldn't say no, so we took her home. And on the camping trip. What a weekend.

We learned over the next several months that Echo suffered from extreme separation anxiety - she must have had a tough first 5 months - and we eventually lost, over several months, a couch to this disorder. (Our old house was so small there was no place to crate train.) But, slowly she began to trust we were not going to leave her. Now, you would never know this dog had once been so afraid we were never coming back.



Echo went nameless for a while. In the photo above, you can see the big black spot on her back - it is almost a perfect circle. So, for a while, we thought about calling her, "Dot" and I am sure some other names I can't remember. But, ultimately we settled in on, "Echo" because she did whatever Ellie did and it made for nice alliteration when saying the names together - Ellie and Echo. Is that alliteration? Maybe it isn't. But, you get the idea.

Then, a few years later, Echo got sick. And she wouldn't get well. We went to the specialty doctor, and thousands of dollars later, learned she had an immune mediated disorder. She was put on a high dose of steriods and weaned off. She has never had that issue again. However, now we are battling something else with her - it could be another immune mediated thing, or it could be a tumor in her nose. We don't know - she's having more thousands of dollars of tests. It makes me very very sad that she might be sick again.

Echo thinks our bed is her bed. So, for those of you scoring at home, yes, Ellie thinks the leather chair is her bed and Echo thinks the king size bed is her bed. So, yes, two for bad pet parenting, good pet parenting - zero. Here she is relaxing on "her" bed:



She is also not too excited about going outside, unless it's a fair weather day and there are squirrels to catch or pecans to eat. Otherwise, inside is fine with her. So we often have to coax her into the out of doors. Here are two photos from last fall of her in the back yard, sad eyes at full tilt.





No matter what veterinary clinic she's in, or how sick she is, she ends up winning over the staff of the clinic instantaneously. She comes home with ribbons and bows around her collar, and when we go back, all sorts of random staff members have to come out to greet her. She's an immediate favorite of every veterinary professional she's ever met. She's a very special dog and I'm glad I have had the privelege of having her in my life. She makes me a better person. If only I were as good as she thinks I am! She is one of the sweetest dogs you'll ever meet.

Blues Birthday and More

We had a couple of interesting events this past weekend. I didn't remember to take anything but the camera phone, though. That camera phone comes in handy, but doesn't take the crispest photos. But, here are two. Friday night, a good friend of mine had a birthday party at the Foundation Room at the House of Blues here in Dallas. We were honored to be invited. The Foundation Room is a member's only area of the venue, so we'll probably never be back! It was nice to see friends we don't see every day and to catch up. It was too dark in there to shoot any photos without a flash, which the ol' camera phone is lacking, so all I have is this shot of the outside of the building, shot while waiting on the valet:



Saturday was filled with errands and doctor appointments and visiting with friends and relatives. We got to visit with S's grandmother and then we had dinner with our great friends and old next door neighbors. No photos of either. After dinner, we stopped by S's brother's house, and here he is being painstakingly careful with his niece. No, seriously, she loves to hang upside down - no children were harmed in the taking of this photo. Please don't worry.



Today we had lunch with some other dear friends - no photos of that - did some shopping - again, no photo, and then of course stopped everything to watch the Cowboys home opener. The won. Go Cowboys. Woo-hoo. No photos of us sitting in front of the TV. Whew on that one.

If I'm going to get around posting items in a timely way, I'm going to have to carry my camera around a little more. I mean, once I get all the old stuff posted, you're going to get really sick of camera shots. Maybe that'll be the end of this little blog. Who knows.

Now, back to the daily grind. Monday cometh.

Ellie

Ellie is our oldest dog. We got her from the SPCA in December of 1999 when she was very small. She is mostly an Australian Cattle Dog or Blue Heeler, but she is more white than their characteristic color. She was actually smaller than Norman and Noah at the time we brought her home. Norman takes advantage of this all the time, rubbing up against her and generally tormenting her. And, she just stands there and takes it. She knows he's the boss. He was here first.

Ellie is spastic, high strung and too smart for her own good. We once counted a vocabulary of 30 words she knew. She is also sweet and loves to follow the rules. And, she can catch a mean frisbee. We took the dogs with us to have a family portrait done in February of 2007. I am not posting those here, since I didn't take them. But, since Ellie likes to do what she's told, she poses quite regularly for me. Here are some more photos of her. The first one shows her lip all scrunched up on photo left, her right. She regularly gets that lip caught in her teeth, which makes for a cute look. By the way, all photos were taken with the Rebel (I think - a couple are older photos that I didn't catalog in a way I could tell) except the last two in the post, with varying lenses. Maybe one day I'll talk about the lenses I like. I am sure that will be riveting reading. The last two photos were taken with my camera phone.



Ellie, as you can see, is usually very serious - she wants to know what's up, what's going on and what's expected of her at all times. She also doesn't like it when you take off her collar, prominently askew in the photo below. This makes her very nervous.



I love this next photo - I took it last December. The Christmas tree is just out of the photo on the left. I like how the light is filtering through the front window and how Ellie, once again, is perfectly sitting there, waiting for me to take the shot.



Here's another one on the wood floors, taken a few years earlier, in black and white. Ellie looks good in black and white, of course, since she's, well, black and white.



Here are a couple of Ellie in the back yard last fall. The second one shows her enthusiasm for that crazy ball she has in her mouth - she is decidedly less serious in that photo.



And, last but not least, here are a couple of photos of Ellie on what she thinks is her dog bed - our overstuffed leather chair in the den. We tried for a long time to keep her out of it and off of it. We'd chase her out, tell her no, redirect her, etc. But, then, we realized she was waiting until we were asleep at night and climbing into the chair. So, we gave up. We're weak and give in easily, it's true. And we're suckers for our dogs. Also, the chair is leather, after all, so it's pretty easy to wipe down. The next photo shows her sitting on the ottoman. She'd be in the chair, but because S is occupying the actual chair, his knees making the photo, she's on the only patch of leather still available.



And, then, there's this - Ellie in her natural state - in her leather "dog bed" and with her little paws in the air. She sleeps like this regularly. It took me forever to actually get the photo, though, because since she poses for me when I get the camera out, she'd see me coming and upright herself before I could take the photo. I got this one when my camera phone was with me and I was sitting on the couch. She's so modest, yes? She just loves that chair.

Two by Two

I was thinking of posting some photos of the four-legged furry inhabitants of my home. As I was formulating my thoughts for the post and gathering the photos, I realized I live in a land of TWOS. I live in a house with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, two living areas, two fireplaces, two ovens, and a two car garage. In that house live two people, two cats and two dogs. Following are some images of my pets, often the subjects of my photos.

First, there's Norman. I got Norman when I lived in Austin. I wanted a cat and ended up with two of the cutest kittens in the world, of course. S named Norman after Norm Abram of the New Yankee Workshop. And, the other kitten went through several names, some of which were girl names since the pet shop said he was a girl and we thought he was until we took him to the vet. He ended up being a medium-hair gray furball named Noah, mainly because he had this little goatee of a beard under his chin. Noah got sick a few years ago and he's gone on to the great cat house in the sky. But, wiley, opinionated Norman is still with us. Here is a photo of him:



He's an old man now, and enjoys hanging out near the windows of our house. He also regularly greets you at the door and inspects any package you might have brought in. And, he has this really funny meow that he does that, no kidding, sounds like he's saying, "Hello?". Lots of people have heard it and it's definitely a HELLO. Here are a couple more shots of Mr. Norman:



He's very fond of food, as you can see. He also loves to get attention - a little rub under the chin or the belly. But, he's NOT a lap cat. He doesn't want you to pick him up to pet him or carry him anywhere. I can count on one hand the number of times he's decided to come sit in my lap. Now, come sit nearby, well he does that all the time.



Then, we have another cat that lives here in our house. She's not so much a pet but an animal that lives here and we feed her. When we were selling our last home, the home inspector for the buyer found a litter of feral kittens under the house. I, being the crazy animal lover that I am, thought I could domesticate them and find them all homes. I am not sure how well I did on the domesticating part, but I did find them all homes, except this one. She never left. When we had all the kittens, we gave them little nicknames. Hers was, "Lil' Bit". So, that's her name, I guess. That's what the vet calls her.

She has other names, though, here in this house. She's often just called, "Kitty". S calls her, "Lil' S**t". And, a wonderful house sitter we had recently decided to name her, "Penelope". He felt they came to great world understanding and had general simpatico, often meeting at night for long talks. And, that was the name he felt she should have. She doesn't really come to any name or respond to anything you say to her. She does what she pleases to do. She's still half wild, running off when anyone chooses to come near. But, she lives here, and she does give Norman some company now that Noah is gone. Here are the only two photos I can find in my stash of her:





We also have two dogs. Ellie and Echo. Since I have way more photos of them, I put that in a separate post.

Impostor

Well, it's good to go ahead a get a post in here right in the first month of the blog that proves this blog's title. I am indeed ate up. My brain is addled. It doesn't always work properly. It takes vacations from logic. And, on that rodeo post, it did just that. There was one of those photos not like the others. Did you catch it? Maybe the fact that I couldn't identify what was going on in the photo could have given me a clue. Somehow in my downloading of photos, one photo I took at the Indiana State Fair slipped into the Mesquite Rodeo pile. Yes, there is a dirt floor. Yes, there are horses in the photo. But, upon not-so-careful examination, you can see that the photo below was taken in an ENTIRELY DIFFERENT ARENA than all the rest.


This arena has blue seats and a huge American flag at the end. And, it's overall larger than the other arena - the Resistol Arena in Mesquite, TX - that is because THIS ARENA is an impostor. It is the Coliseum at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. And, this is not what happens before a rodeo. It's some sort of judged competition at the Indiana State Fair. Below is a photo of what happens if you get to the rodeo really early. The Rockwall Sheriff Deputies and other various and sundry characters ride their horses around. This comes, of course, before the Rodeo Zamboni. At the Resistol Arena.



I didn't want to leave those of you planning to arrive early for the rodeo hanging. The photo that can inform you of the festivities has now been included. So, sorry about that little snafu. I have to say though, once my lovely mom, who happened to be at the fair with me the day I took that photo of the horse competition, pointed out my error, I laughed out loud at my desk uncontrollably several times the rest of the day.

But, while we're on the topic of the Indiana State Fair, and in deference to posting semi-grainy camera phone shots in yet another post, here are some other photos I snapped while at the great Indiana State Fair. And, I really do think its great. No kidding - I love it. First came the piglets having a little snack:



Now, of course, right outside the swine building there is a huge tent selling sausage. This just isn't right. They do this at the Texas State Fair too - right there as part of the building is an Owens Sausage kitchen. I would think the swine would get wind of this and protest. Or feel a little uneasy at the very least.

We walked around a lot. We ate, saw the midway, the women's building (where photos are prohibited so you can't rip off someone else's project) the manufacturer's building, pioneer village, etc etc. We eventually made it to the poultry barn which also houses rabbits. They had some very small baby birds of different varieties. Here are Japanese quail. Good thing I got that sign in the shot:


And here are just hatched turkeys. One of my co-workers wanted to know if they would be ready by Thanksgiving. Grow, little birdie, grow!



Here's a lovely hen specimen:



And a couple of bunnies:




And, last but not least, a photo of a good friend I made while there. She's no nonsense. She gets it done. She takes no prisoners. Well, when she isn't a prisoner in that little cage. Here she is:



One last photo at the fair - this is one my mom took. She insisted on taking my photo in front of the covered bridge. So, here you have me in front of the covered bridge:



It was lovely weather and a nice day at the fair. Not to be confused, of course, with the Mesquite Rodeo.

Mesquite Rodeo

I went to the rodeo for the first time last Saturday night. Well, maybe I went when I was a kid in Indiana. But, it was definitely the first time I went to the Mesquite Rodeo, which goes on from April to September each year about 45 minutes from my house. It is definitely something we should take guests from out of town to see. It's what people think Texas is all about, so why not give it to them? Besides, it was fun. We went with a group of people from my husband, S's, new job. It was also nice to meet some of them. This is me before we left the house. S took it with the camera phone:



Because we were going with a group from S's work, we arrived really early based on their instructions. We ate a BBQ meal, walked all the way around the inside of the arena, then took our seats. We were in our seats a good long while before the rodeo actually started. That's why it looks so empty below. This is a self portrait with the phone on my camera. Yes, more people showed up later.



Before we sat down, I snapped this shot below with the phone - this is what goes on down on the floor about an hour before the events begin. Don't ask me what is actually going on. I can't tell you that. But, it looks important and official. And, if you don't get there an hour in advance, you can't see it happening. So, you know, when you get there right when it starts, this is what you've missed.



Since we were in our seats so early, we also got to see this contraption take the floor. I call it the "RODEO ZAMBONI" for, I think, obvious reasons. It goes out there and makes the dirt all smooth and ready for the action. I don't know what the actual name is. Maybe, tractor. I am sure there is a real name for it, but I have no idea what it might be.



Once all the pre-event festivities were over and more people arrived, they started things off with a bang. First up - some bull riding. Warning: these photos are grainy because it was dark in the arena, relatively speaking, I had to zoom in a lot with my little Canon PowerShot, and use a high ISO. Also, warning - if you don't like bull riding or other events with animals, skip the rest of this post.

OK, so, below are some early action shots from the bull riding:



After a short stint with bull riding, which came back at the end of the evening, the next event was a chuck wagon race. They divided the arena up into the east and west (our) side and told us which one to root for. They did this race once in the first half and once in the second half. Surprisingly, each side got to win once. Surprising, huh? This shot was actually taken when the east side won. And, this shot doesn't show that there were two chuck wagons. But there were. And the other one looked just like this one, but it had a different logo on the wagon canopy. And, and different driver. And they raced.



Next up came the funniest moments of the evening. ***MUTTON BUSTIN'***. (Say it like one of those announcers at the fights.) Children attending the rodeo of a certain age and weight range can sign up to participate in this event. They basically come out of a chute like the cowboys do on bulls or broncos, but the kids ride sheep. They have a little helmet on their head and they hold on to the wool to see how long they can stay on. Whoever holds on the longest wins. But, they give every kid who participates a little trophy.

Let me just say we laughed our buns off at this. Some kids came out of the chute and immediately let go, flying off the sheep. (No one gets hurt - the distance to the ground is VERY small) Other kids held on for a while. But, two of the kids held on for dear life, eventually falling to the side of the sheep, but staying "attached" for a good long while - well, 7 or 8 seconds anyway. When this little kid is attached to the side of a sheep with a helmet on, it is funny. Trust me. Because I can't explain it any more than that. And, I don't have any photos of that either. I was laughing, not taking pictures. But, below, is a photo of the sheep. You can see some of the "contestants" with their parents in the background still on the arena floor.


Next up was bronco riding. Of all the events at the rodeo, this one was a little bit disturbing to me. The animals seemed the most in distress and it seemed to take longer for them to relieve this distress, mainly because they were, as stated before, in so much distress. But, I am sure there are plenty of people who would find no issue with this. I'm just sayin', it was a little bit uncomfortable to watch for me. Here is a blurry bronco in action:

Now, somewhere in here, there was an intermission. I can't remember exactly where. But, the broncos were near intermission, and so were the next two photos. The next photo was the audience participation event of the night. All children were welcomed to come to the arena floor to take part in this game where they let out two calves and the kids were to catch a ribbon on the tail of the calf. The children who retrieved a ribbon received a prize. I think, once the kids were all on the floor with some parents in tow, there may have been more people on the arena floor than in the stands. Maybe. Those poor calves. It must be a little overwhelming to see this mass of humans running right at you. The ribbons were retrieved quite quickly and everyone began making their way back to their seat. The photo below shows the mass starting toward the calves. You can even see one of the calves, at least, lower right.

The next competition was an all girl barrel race. Here's one competitor in action. I think this might even be the person who won. Maybe not. There were three barrels. This one was almost right in front of where we were sitting.



Then came this guy who did all sorts of rope tricks:



Then, after another chuck wagon race, a funny game where the cowboys sit at a table and the one who sits there the longest while a mad bull is on the loose wins, and a couple other events I either can't remember or just aren't coming to be while I write this, the action returned to bull riding until the end of the night. Some of the rides here at the end were more fruitful than the rides at the top of the night. But, one of the bulls wanted a few more seconds in the spotlight. When each ride is over, the animals seem to know to go into this center gate back to their stalls. They go immediately. But not this fella. He wanted to stomp around and maybe gore somebody before he was done. No goring took place, unless you count the rodeo clown's dummy, but he was plenty mad:



That cowboy was trying to rope him so he could lead him through the gate. He tried three times unsuccessfully with this plan. There is the "dead" dummy. And, one of the unsuccessful ropes.



In the shot below, there is a rope around his neck. It didn't do any good, however.



Finally, they let a couple other cows out into the arena. And, the unhappy bull followed them through the gate.


A happy ending for all. It was a fun night at the rodeo. I'm glad we had the opportunity to attend.