A Day in the Life of a Mutt

Sunday, June 20, 2010

A Fake Father's Day Fishing Expedition

This past Wednesday, for fake Father's Day (since my parents are somewhere on the East coast right now, we had Father's Day early) my Dad, Grandpa, and I went on a little fishing trip. (if my brother is reading this, he should know that he is currently on the sh*t list for not showing up to any of the fake Father's Day events)

Since Dad and I haven't figured out just exactly where in the world we would keep a boat if we got one, we still have to rent. (My kayak only holds one person and a dog or two.) We went to Dittman's rentals and got an aluminum row boat on Shawano Lake. I'm not just speaking for myself when I say we didn't really expect to catch much in the way of fish. We never do. Papa and I were in charge of picking out the boat and we immediately agreed that the one right next to the dock with a big fat night crawler in the bottom of it was a good choice.

Apparently, the key to fishing for us is to come totally unprepared. The first "big catch" happened only seconds after I dropped my line in the water. I yanked a bit too hard to "set the hook" and launched my line clear over the other side of the boat. I could have sworn I saw a tiny fish fly off and land in the boat. It was on Dad and PaPa's side and they told me I was crazy, they didn't see any fish in the boat. Five minutes later, sure enough, they finally discovered it. I'm sure I gave that poor little perch the ride of his life.

Not long after, Dad baited his hook with the free night crawler from the bottom of the boat and caught a nice 18" Large Mouth Bass. PaPa caught a nice Crappie, too. I was the Queen of the baby fish (but I did catch a few nice pan fish). According to Dad, catching those little tiny fish takes skill because they're hard to set the hook on. I'm not sure what exactly that skill is useful for since you don't actually keep the babies, but I'll go with it.

We had a blast!

On a side note: this picture was taken using my old broken camera. It takes pictures, but you don't really know what you're taking a picture OF. So, you just point it in the general direction and pray. It took about 10 pictures, but I finally got this one. I miss my camera. It's somewhere on the East coast with Mom and Dad right now. (and of course, we had a gorgeous sunset here the other night)

What, you ask, does any of this have to do with my dogs?
Well, none of the fishermen actually have any plans to eat any of these fish themselves. They're all in the freezer waiting to become dog food.
As PaPa wisely said, "I ain't cleanin' no fish. If I want fish I'll go order a perch plate at the supper club."

Happy Real Father's Day!
~Lioness

Friday, June 18, 2010

Our first Rally Trial

A couple years back, I remember talking with a trainer-friend of mine who told me about a hunt test she and her dog had been to the previous weekend. Her dog had performed beautifully on what turned out to be an extremely difficult test. She mentioned that her dog's achievement rivaled the feeling she had when her kids graduated High School. She had a tear in her eye and frog in her throat when he finished his final retrieve. Just listening to her tell me about it, I could hear the excitement in her voice.

Non-dog people don't get that. They think we're crazy. We probably are. But only a little.

Truth be told, I'm more excited about my Lilly getting her Rally title than about getting my bachelor's degree. I realize that in the grand scheme of life, my ability to get a better job and make more money for us is a bigger deal, but my excitement level is not in line with reality.

I'll probably tell you about my graduation when I officially graduate in August; but for now, let's talk about more important things. ;)

Last weekend Miss. Lilly and I headed to Ixonia, WI for the Milwaukee Dog Training Club's Obedience and Rally trial. (Let it be noted I now know how to get to Oconomowoc WITHOUT getting lost.)

We were going to head to the campground at Kettle Moraine State Forest on Friday afternoon, but the weather man promised a doosie of a storm. The weather man pretty much lied. We left on Saturday morning anyway.

Since I'm already getting impatient and can't hold it in any longer, I'll just tell you how we did:

Saturday we took 3rd place with a score of 94 (out of 100)

Sunday we took 3rd place with a score of 97 (out of 100)

In Rally, a 70 out of 100 is passing. I knew my girl could do it, but since she's never even been to a show before I was VERY pleasantly surprised at how awesome we did our first weekend out. I expected to be "happy we qualified" rather than "I can't believe we placed".

After we collected our first set of pretty ribbons we headed to the campground and got set up. It wasn't long before Miss Lilly was wondering if perhaps I had forgotten she had not eaten her lunch yet. I commenced to making some hot dogs after starting what turned out to be a nightmare of a fire. It may not have been raining, but the air was heavy with moisture and nothing under the sun was completely dry.

I call this my "hands-free" weenie maker.

Miss Lilly was glad to get her weenie.

But for a dog who eats raw meat every day, she sure had some issues. She kept setting the darn thing down in the dirt. Then making "the face" because it had dirt and pine needles stuck to it.

I felt bad for her, so I finally brought it over to her mat, and broke it in half so she could figure it out.

After eating I thought she might like to take a walk around the campground so we headed into the tent so I could change and get ready for a walk. Little Miss was so tired she hopped right up on the air mattress and curled up for a nap.

After our walk, the poor girl could hardly keep her eyes open. We went to bed extra early. I bought a magazine to read in bed, but was far more tired than I thought - I only lasted for about 5 pages.