Lawful neutral

 

That's a gamer thing:  lawful, chaotic, good, evil, and neutral.  Note the carts are sorted, the little ones together, the bigger ones together, and they are in the corral.  Neutral because it's outside the store.  If they were returned inside the store, it would be "lawful, good".  I don't know why, but the shopping cart analogy gave me something to hang my hat on, and when I returned my cart at the store the other day and found this configuration it reminded me of the meme.

For those of you who remember last year's chaos trying to fight the woodpecker while raising young puppy?  The blasted bird is back, knocking a fresh new hole in my siding.  I'm not worried about Ember eating the insulation and getting sick anymore, she's grown beyond that phase, but I am going to have to call out the handyman again!

Ember got a longer than usual leash walk Saturday morning, clocking in at 1.2 miles.  I was hoping to at least take the edge off her energy before the family event.

The Saturday afternoon Easter Egg hunt was a success.  It was a beautiful day for it, which is good because Easter Sunday is supposed to be chilly and wet.

During the Easter Egg hunt we swapped off holding Ember's leash, since I don't quite trust her to not go after things on the ground.  Sometimes my son held her, other times it was me, or my daughter in law.  I've got it in this shot, since my son was busy doing a dad thing, helping his foster son reach they egg he could see but needed to climb a tree to retrieve.

The kiddo had five cheerleading adults giving him conflicting advice on where to look next, but the inevitable result was that he found ALL the candy and money-filled eggs.

The egg hunt was followed up by foster dad and son shooting hoops while Grandma Barb watched the two dogs, who exercised one another well, and took rest breaks in the shade from time to time.

Dinner was ham, mashed potatoes, and asparagus spears, and dessert was carrot cake from one of the better bakeries in town.  A tight basketball game on the TV ended with the team son was rooting for taking an overtime win.

It was easy to let the time just slip away while we enjoyed one another's company, and Ember settled in at my feet and began to snooze.  At this point I looked at my watch and thought "no wonder, it's nearly 6 p.m."  At this point, I bundled her into the car and brought us both home with leftovers in a bag.

There was a protest planned for the State Capitol from 3 to 7, and there were still a couple of die-hard protestors in front of the State Capitol when I drove by.

Easter Sunday, April 20, 2025

Brrrr!  Chilly and drippy.  How is it that a temperature that would have felt "mild" six weeks ago is now "cold"?  The wheel weaves as the wheel will.  (That is a reference from The Wheel of Time fantasy series, for those of you who aren't geeky in that genre.)

As dark and overcast as it was, and as tired as Ember was from her very busy Saturday, it was pretty easy to ask her to crate in time for me to drive over and meet my elder sister for church and brunch.  Easter is our big catchup day, and as it turned out it was just us ladies, as her gentleman friend opted to go to the church to which he belongs.  He and she hold membership in different churches, across town from one another.

As every year, the music, the message... masterful.  I love seeing the things that are the same and the things that are evolving, year after year.  I teared up a bit during a couple of the traditional hymns.  Yes, this is my cultural heritage.

We'll have another sister catch up day in just six weeks or so, when we drive up together to a family wedding in Omaha.  

And "little" Ember?  Stayed patiently in her crate for four full hours, and we even napped together for a bit in the afternoon as it kept on dropping rain from on high.  We are grateful for the moisture!

Marathon Monday, 2025

I tend to use the Boston Marathon day as a day to remember and honor my brother, who so many Sparkers knew as MOBYCARP.  His screen name, in case anyone is curious and doesn't already know, is a punny reference to being a big fish in a small pond.  A "fish" comes from his chess playing days, smart enough to recognize the bait, and dumb enough to swallow it.  

Kevin ran and finished the Boston Marathon 3 times, beginning in 2016, at age 60.  The last time he finished was in 2018.  In 2019 he and I were there together as spectators, as he had qualified but was injured and unable to run it.  My laptop's wallpaper is from that year, when I ran the 5K, and he was in a boot.

Sunday evening, I got a text message conversation with Laura, who some of you remember as STRONGDOG.  She met us in Boston all four years and kept me company as a spectator the years he ran.  She showed us the sights.  Not just me, but our mutual friend OVERWORKEDJANET came up a couple of those years as well.  The Boston Sparkmeets are still big in my memory book.

This morning as I read the news of the passing of Pope Francis, I thought of Laura again, as she is a devout Catholic.  It's a huge reminder, the two things happening so close together... we are all mortal, and will one day leave others we care about behind.  

As Kevin always ended his blogs, here's your message:  Life is good. 

Cherish it and Spark on!

The week leading up to Easter

 Sunday April 13

My two fur-loves!  Emberville had a quietly good day on Sunday.  Mom napped on the couch after Ember's "good girl" leash walk in the morning.  Ember loaded up into the car in the afternoon to go to the foster grand kiddo's soccer game.  She can't be down where the fields are, but I walked her on the grass along the sidewalks between the parking lot and the field entrance ramp.  

She did very well with the situation, though clearly a bit freaked out by the hordes of people exiting the last set of games before our special star arrived.  She walked "easy", paid attention to mommy, and got her training treats for being such a good girl.

When the kids and foster kiddo arrived, she got a bit overexcited and jumped on my DIL, but she gave foster kiddo's soccer ball back, earning a "thank you" treat from me.  And then she was good on the way back to the car, with pauses to look at the people coming and going.  And loaded up perfectly on cue when we got there.

Home, chill time, and into the crate for mommy to have her own supper in peace.  Ahhhh!

Monday April 14

Mom ate too much on Sunday, resulting in a slow start to Monday.  I did things in a slightly different order.  Ember called me on it.  She likes her routines, don't you know?  Typical canine.  But we got a leash walk in, during which she found her "prize", a dead mouse.  She carried it all the way home, where I got it away from her and into the trash.  

She jumped right on into the car on the "load up" cue, so we went for a ride to the drive-thru pharmacy to pick up my eye drops.  Then she complained just two barks worth when she got crated after the ride and settled in to nap when I put her music on.  She knew it was time.  

Later in the day we took another car ride, played fetch with various items in the back yard, and got a second leash walk, during which fine manners were displayed.  The major distraction on the afternoon walk was the wind... blowing the blossoms off trees, making the various human flags flap and carrying scents to tease the puppy's nose.  Mom has begun to notice allergy season (for her) is here!

Checked in with Scott, who is helping with Ember's field training and let him know how much her "load up" has improved, as well as her leash manners.  We might get a Wednesday afternoon session in with him.

The wind was gusty Monday evening.  It did me a big favor.  A few days ago, I messed up a throw of a rope "dummy" I was playing retrieve with.  The toy landed on my roof, in a very awkward place, above the steps down from the deck to the patio.  I thought about how I'd need to place a ladder and whether a broom or a rake might have to be wielded to hook the rope and pull it down.  I thought about the risk of it falling into the gutter and blocking water runoff, too.  I decided I would wait until Ember was next in daycare, which would be Tuesday.

But Mr. Gusty the Wind decided to take care of it.  When I went out to let Ember have her "last call", there, on the patio, was the dummy!  I did a double take, because I have two.  I wondered if this was the other one, not the one from the roof, and trotted back up the stairs to the deck to see if the one on the roof was still there.  Nope.  Opened the sliding door so I could see the counter.  It was indeed the second one!

Together again!  And I hopefully will not make the same throwing mistake again.

Tuesday April 15th

Tax day!  Mine were done last month already, because I have to know for budget planning purposes as soon as I get all the paperwork I need.  But it is a date of significance.  

Ember was happy to go off to her day care program, and she came home to the lawn service guys, who fawned over her.  She ate that right up!  I took her on a walk around the block, as well, and she showed off good self-control.  She demonstrated a calm greeting with a neighbor dog, a child, and the Mommy attached to the dog and child.  She also did a very good "load up" both before and after day care.

Wednesday April 16th

Several days this week have been highlighted by smoky air.  Flint hills region of Kansas doing their annual controlled burns are what the weatherman here blames.  Bad air quality is not good for me OR the doggo, and we were under an air quality warning from 6 p.m. Wednesday to 6 p.m. Friday.  

Ember had a very busy Wednesday.  She got a morning walk with just mom, a lunch hour run with Scott, and we joined the puppy parade at 4:15 p.m. as well.  The "bug guy" came right after we got back from the session with Scott.  The puppy parade was a serene one, with both Barnaby and Ember being well exercised earlier in the day, and Frank being the elder statesman of the canine trio.  

We always let Frank lead the parade. He is a rescue and particular about other dogs who might jump.  When Ember is calm, as she is when she's had her exercise, they seem to get on fine.  When she was younger and jumped more, he would rush at her, and she would flee, but I think they're going to get on fine as fence neighbors in adulthood.  Neither is much of a barker.

Thursday April 17th

The personal trainer has another job as a track coach, and his school had a track meet that interfered with the Thursday schedule.  Ember went to daycare, as this is her routine on Tuesdays and Thursdays now.  I did a bunch of "human stuff".  This included recycling electronics, vacuuming, laundry... the usual stuff, but more of it since I didn't have my trainer workout.

After Ember came home from daycare, I fed her and as she was chilling, I nodded off on the couch.  

Friday April 18th, a.k.a. Good Friday

Thirty-eight years ago on April 18th, I had just arrived home from a longish (at least for me) business trip to Italy.  It was the day after Good Friday, as I flew on Good Friday from Rome to JFK, of Al Italia airlines.  The food was great, but 38 years ago, they allowed smoking on board, and the way they arranged the smoking / non-smoking sections was such that I was bothered quite a bit by it.

Ember and her hu-mom got in two leash walks, and some "interesting" games of fetch, during which Ember tested the rules of the game.

What I threw off the deck is the 4 inch tennis ball.  She raced out to it, picked it up, then spotted something more interesting and dropped the ball to sniff at a piece of lava rock that likely washed into the back yard from the neighbors' yard.  

Ember then seemed to remember that she was in the middle of a retrieve, and raced back to the porch without the ball, but with the rock. She dropped to her belly on the deck to chew on it.  Oh, well!

I put the rock "away" and tossed another ball.  She retrieved the first ball instead of the new one I threw (different colors).

Weekend plans include an egg hunt for the foster grandchild, at the mythical son's house.  Ember will have to behave and stay leashed at my feet during the actual candy searching.  Carl, too.  

Easter Sunday morning the annual traditional church and brunch with my older sister and her gentleman friend will be the highlight.  Monday will be the running of the Boston Marathon.  I remember last year streaming it while dealing with my young puppy.

Here's hoping a good holiday to all who are observing Passover or Easter this weekend.

Life is good.  Chaos is not.  Spark on!

Grilled cheese sandwich day

2024

After I read JustJeanne's post this morning about national grilled cheese sandwich day, a photo popped up in my memories on Google, of the grilled cheese sandwich I celebrated with last year.

2025

I just took a similar picture, featuring today's offering.  What a simple and great day to celebrate.  I love grilled cheese, and paired with tomato soup it was a staple of my childhood lunchtimes.  No wonder it is a comfort food!

It's Saturday as I write.  

Ember had a very quiet Friday.  Well, once the human stuff was done with.  We had the HVAC guy out to do the cooling check.  He arrived first thing, about 8:20 a.m.  He showed me my filthy filter... OMG... and that it hadn't been changed since September last year.

Turns out, I have not been paying attention to the furnace filters.  I had this great big box of them, but in the puppy proofing, they ended up being trapped inside the room I have blocked off.  Well!  Having been chided by the furnace/AC guy, who tried to upsell me some kind of additional filter, that I declined, I shifted the weights and bookcase away from the doors, and got the filters shifted to the laundry room, where the furnace filter access is.

While I was at it, I loaded one tower, keyboard, mouse and speakers, and one laptop into the back of the car.  And when the HVAC guy left, I loaded Ember into the car, and off we went to Staples.  They recycle used office machines and happily took my collection of the day.  There's more where that came from, but it was enough for me.

After that, Ember and I went home, where we had a quiet rest of the day.  She wasn't even much interested in playing fetch, and I nodded off on the couch while she sunned herself on the deck.

Saturday morning, Ember was more interested in the normal rounds of fetch, but we were both sleepy, and she napped with her head on my lap even before I made my own breakfast.  I was not about to disturb her.  I am more willing to dislodge The Prisoner when he's purring on my lap than I am to disturb Ember.

After her first puppy nap, we went on a neighborhood walk on,  this warm and blustery day.  I can't even begin to say how good she was!  No pulling, keeping up, no wanting to stay in one spot for very long, a calm greeting for Willa, the pooch who lives a block away, who at the time was off leash on her way to getting tied out by her hu-mom.  They were both stellar in their doggy behavior, while their humans chatted a bit.  One house later, we encountered Millie being walked by her hu-mom, on the opposite side of the street.  Ember did NOT pull on the leash, but sat patiently while a car passed, then calmly walked "cross-cross" the street with me, at my pace.  So proud!  

We turned the opposite direction from the way Millie had gone, and proceeded past Zach's house, where his mom, Fran, a friend of mine from my Jenny Craig days, was out working in the yard... and Ember did not pull on the leash, although she did take some sniffing time on their yard.  We crossed the street back to our own house without complaint.

When I opened the garage door to come in that way, Ember was easily enticed to "load up" into the back seat for a human thing trip.  I had to drop off some unused meds at the local pharmacy, having been reminded of this community minded thing by a TV commercial.  Ember stayed in the car while I quickly went in and dropped them off.  As a reward, we went through the coffee drive-thru, and I got her a milk-bone, but no whipped cream.

She's now in her crate for puppy nap #2, and I'm about to take a human nap myself.  What a good girl!

Life is good!  Keep Sparking!

Human stuff and puppy stuff

 Tuesday

OK, I lied.  Just puppy stuff.  Not ready to vent about the human stuff just yet.  (I did, after a couple of days, get back to it.)

Ember:  See my pretty bandana, Prisoner?  I got my groom on today while I was at day care!

Prisoner:  What?  Are you back already?  I thought I had more time to own the house!

Mom:  You came home with your harness on upside down again, Ember.  

It was the alternate harness, mind, and more folks have trouble figuring it out, but the problem is still the same.  The Tuesday version had her chest strap over her shoulders, her belly strap across her chest, and her shoulder strap under her belly.

Such a good girl.  She greeted the kitty but did not harass him.

After supper Tuesday, gnawing on a bone.

As close as we got to a "pose" after day care.  "Really, Mom, why isn't supper coming faster?"

At "last call" on the day of grooming, what do we do?  Lay down in the dirt, of course!  And chew on a BIG stick.  That thing has lasted as a toy for over two weeks now.  Last call is now light enough for outdoor photography, too.  It's definitely Spring as far as the sun is concerned.

Wednesday

No run with Scott (we knew this a week ago, that he had out of town things to do today).  No afternoon puppy parade, either.  As it turns out, Ember and I had taken the longest walk on leash that we have in a while. 1.27 miles Wednesday morning.

She got balky the final three blocks, and I expended more treats to jolly her along the rest of the way home.  There were lots of distractions: other people, other dogs, street traffic.

I did get her bandana off Wednesday morning before that walk.  Tony does tie great knots.  It took me three minor sessions to finish the job.

Thursday

OK, I'm finally ready to dispassionately vent about my human stuff.  On Wednesday I took the burnt-out TV to Best Buy to recycle it.  I was confident that they would take it, because I bought it from them and it's a flat-screen smart TV.  I was informed by the young man at the front of the store that since it wasn't their house brand TV they would charge me $30 to recycle it!  That's 25% of what I paid for it to begin with!  I was not a happy camper.  As I was standing in line behind another upset customer, another youngster told me I could set the TV down on the counter while I waited.

Well!  I continued my slow boil.  I'm usually pretty compliant about just about everything.  I'm a rule-follower.  But when the same young man who had met me at the front of the store came and was going to take down the information and charge me the money, I protested.  I said it wasn't right.  And I turned on my heel without giving him my name, started to walk away.  He said something about what about the TV?  "I'm just going to leave it right there," I responded, walked out of the store, got into my car, and drove off.

I was still that upset when I got home and messaged the small family group:  "If you see my picture on Crime Stoppers"... and told them what I had done.  I suppose they could come after me for littering, abandoning this non-functional piece of equipment.  But it's their problem now, deciding how much effort to put into chasing down the old lady who had reached her limit and was protesting by walking out.  They had not yet performed any service, so it can't be "theft of services".

After sleeping on it, and getting some nice cuddle time with Ember, I'm back in balance and can laugh over the experience.  But it was stressful at the time.

Oh, to add to the giggle collection, the day care put Ember's "Easy Walk" harness on at the end of the day so wrong I had to laugh.

The gray strap is supposed to be under her belly.  They had it over her shoulders.  

That loop with the D-ring on it is supposed to be on her chest, and her shoulder strap isn't visible but it's under her belly!  Notice only one leg is inside the chest strap, which is not across her chest.

The giggle part about this is that despite essentially wearing a "collar" around her belly, not a full harness, she walked nicely outside the building, sat on the sidewalk, and accepted pets from a family coming in to collect their own dog, including two children.

Add to that, she jumped right on into the car to the "load up" command!

She licked the platter clean for supper.  She fetched the dummy rope toy for me a few times in the back yard, and she cuddled up on the couch before willingly going into her crate before "last call".

My princess / diva /baby is slowly growing up, and I have my fingers crossed for the next lab phase:  "best dog ever!"

Life is good.  Keep on Sparking!

There were protesters locally

Since the "Hands Off" rally was on a Saturday, though, I didn't see anything on the local news about it.  They kind of take the weekend off.  But I drove downtown, with Ember in the back seat, part of her car practice.  The first few are people walking toward the rally point.  All are photos from my car window while driving by, so not the best.

Habeus Corpus sign

Rounding the Capitol building

WTF, GOP sign

Walking on the other side of the Capitol

Across the street at a Catholic school

Somebody blew up the political cartoon to display

On the Capitol lawn

Note the crowd not just in the window, but in the side mirror, too.

In front of the North steps

The rally was at our State Capitol, and I saw on NextDoor that someone estimated the crowd at 3000.  It seemed like a "good crowd" to me, considering it was a pretty chilly, overcast day.  It also seemed like the "aging boomer" generation was well represented.  Funny how having your retirement savings lose a lot of money in a week will put a fire under the middle class.

"The kids" have their entire future at stake, but they have more time to recover from the big stock market drop than we "Boomers" do.  In the past month I've been to a couple of informative sessions with my financial guys and am happy that I'm in some "hedging" things that help shield from the downside of this slide.  Never entirely, of course.  If the goal is to have your money last the rest of your life, every time it takes a hit like this last week, no matter how large or small your "nest egg" is, it's serious business if you are (like me) already retired, or if you're getting close to the time you'd LIKE to retire!

Ember did well in the car but clearly is not entirely over her anxiety related to it.  It was both a longer trip than most of what we do, but also different look to traffic and road construction.  We almost got home when she lost her breakfast.  She whined at the garage door while I cleaned up the results, then had a pretty quiet rest of Saturday.

We are continuing the dietary change, and the increased performance for each treat, in the hopes of helping her drop some of the excess weight.  I may be imagining things, but it seems like she runs better in her fetch games when she's a little bit on the hungry side.

Ready for my walk, in my alternate harness, Mom!

Regardless of news and such, life goes on, and Life is by definition a Good Thing!  Choose wisely to live well.

Spark on!

Training day 2 and Gnawing day 11

I think Ember might have some beaver in her background.  Longest lasting toy we've had in a while!  And the cost was perfect!

Wednesday morning I made it to and through the financial appointment.  My son met me there and got to meet my financial advisor in person for the first time.  He also got far more financial information about my situation that he thought he really needed to know.  Certainly more than I knew about my parents' financial situation before they passed on.  My brother had done this with his daughter a few months before he died, and of course at the time neither of them thought it would be needed for many years.   

What came of it was an idea about what he does need more information about, being as he is now firmly in the sandwich generation.  Professionally he deals with aging veterans and the issue comes up for them.  He wants to review what I have in terms of long-term care coverage and how to access it should the need arise.  He's concerned that if/when such a situation occurs, he would be under a good deal of emotional stress.  I concur, knowing how I felt when my parents got to the point of needing help, and I had a brother and three sisters with whom to share the load.  He does not.  Better to set aside time now to talk about and review those aspects, before a time of duress.

As I was leaving the financial appointment, I got Scott's message to meet for the dog training session.  Cues I am to work on between now and next Monday are "easy" (for slow down) and "heel" (which is to come to and sit on my right side).  Wish me luck.  The other two are to get into the car "load up", and out "unload".  Ember did all of these just fine for Scott, I don't know how well she'll do them for me.  We shall see.

The thing I was most impressed with was his body language signaling to her when she "lost" the dummy, out about 25 feet from him.  She correctly read his signaling, found the dummy and earned high praise.  Oh, and his "loose leash" showing off once she was tired out from running.  She stayed with him as he dangled the leash loop on his thumb.  

We came home to meet the lawn dudes who are setting up my lawn sprinklers for the watering season ahead.  

They turned it on, double checked the scheduling, and tested, finding two PVC "couplings" that had given way over the winter of freeze/thaw cycles.  They fixed those.  We are ready to "Spring" into action.

The 4 p.m. puppy parade happened, and Ember and I joined it partway through.  She was a good girl, especially as she was tired out by her workout with Scott, I'm sure!

That was one exhausting Wednesday, and the hu-mom fell into bed and slept very well.

On to Thursday

This is day 2 of the transition to a new training diet for Ember.  For breakfast she got the last 1/2 cup of beef chunks from the can, plus 1/4 cup of the salmon/sweet potato kibble, and 10 green beans.  She left a little of the kibble behind, covered in gravy.  She is not too crazy about kibble once it gets "wet" with gravy, so about a half dozen of the kibbles got tossed, but good job on eating your green beans, girly!

We played 3 rounds of glow in the dark fetch, 5 fetches per round, 1 treat at the end of the five.  Worked on the release, which, unfortunately, her words for "drop it" are "bring me".  It was a mistake in training on my part, but it has stuck.  I throw the ball, she runs out, brings it back, but if she won't give it to me automatically, I say, "bring me" and she drops it.  If I say, "drop it", she doesn't quite get it.

We tried the "heel" command a couple times at the start of the puppy parade (before we joined the others), and I'd call it a start.  She's not as quick about it with me, as she was with Scott.  This morning's "load up" was kind of a mixture of the ritual we HAD been following, and what Scott is training.  He had her loading up in his Silverado at the Y Wednesday, my little Honda isn't nearly as big a jump!  But she got in.  I have her in the alternate harness today (the Easy Walk one).  And I warned the day care folks that she's now "in training" and on a diet, so go light on the treats during day care.

My trainer waved off today's session, so I mostly did human things at home.  I broke down the cardboard and took a load to the recycling center.  Looked like retirees' day there this morning.  Also did dog laundry, swept up the results of a dog that sheds a double coat (I felt like I was working at a beauty parlor, there was so much of it), and appreciating the sunshine as I shook out the Muddy Mats I have scattered around the house.  The Prisoner opted to stay outside all day.  And I got a little bit of a nap before going to pick up the pup.

There is something about the harnesses with chest connecting clips (which I use).  Newer day care workers often put them on her "upside down" so that the clip is on top when I pick her up.  I think I know why... I suspect when they take the harness off for the day, they leave the leash attached, and then it just makes sense to them that the connection should be on top.  Anyway, that has happened with both harnesses!

Ember's supper after day care.  1/3 cup salmon and sweet potato kibble, 2/3 cup chicken and rice kibble, and 10 green beans.  I warmed the green beans in the microwave and allowed them to cool to a safe temperature for her mouth before giving her the dish.

She joined the clean plate club!  We shall see how Friday goes.

Here's to surviving whatever each day brings, all in its own time!

Life is good.  Spark on!

Training Day 1

Connected with my triathlete friend, Scott, Monday morning, and he got to meet Ember for the first time.  He pronounced her a dog he can work with, and one that will be great for me.

What did he do with her?  Observing that she's both overweight and strong, he took her leash and took her for a run to wear her out.  Then he tested her sit, stay, and retrieve (with a dummy).  She did well for him, and other than wanting to bring the retrieved dummy to me, rather than to him, passed the initial test.

The plan is for him to work with us on Mondays and Wednesdays when the weather is good for it.  He can do this after his swim (and chiropractic appointments).  He's willing to just do this to help me out!  OMG.  I have seen what the locals charge for field dog training, so this is a big deal.

Here's Scott with Ember working at her identification of this new human.  Threatening to eat his beard, while she's at it.

Yep, she needs to be fed less.  One cup kibble morning, and one cup evening.  He recommends Salmon and Sweet Potato formula.  He was using it for her training treats today.  He says add green beans for volume.

Scott took a selfie of the two of us, as well.  Sunny day with breeze in our hair.
Scott is blessed in his life and willing to help out a friend.  When my brother died, he was one who reached out to me while I was still in New York state helping my niece with arrangements and things.

He is also the one I mentioned in an earlier blog, who lost his hunting dog, and then his buddy left a hunting dog behind and now the two are together, the man who lost his dog and his friend, and the dog who lost her favorite human.  Meant to be, one might say.

Scott promised a play date at some future point for Ember and his own overweight lab Miley.  Miley, though, is 12 years old, and Ember is still a young dog, so we simply must get her in shape.  The plan is to get Ember whistle trained, one tweet to send her out, two to call her back.  This will help in open field training, where my voice might not carry far enough for a recall.

I'm kind of hoping I will get a little more jogging fit in the process, too.  Lots of dummy fetching, too, says he.

Tuesday at the vet

Ember got all her shots today, in addition to the Bordetella squirt up the nose.  I had the vet look over a couple of spots on her coat that I was a little worried about, because this kind of coat issue can be many different things.  She confirmed it is NOT ringworm, so, whew!  

She weighed in at 93.5 pounds, which is 3 1/2 pounds up from when I had her at the vet in December.  The vet approved of Scott's recommended diet, and of my new plan of "five fetches to earn ONE training treat".  Bottom line, she has been pronounced fit to train.   

I left her there to play with her doggy friends and came home to clean and do things I usually do on Tuesdays.  Life is proceeding as life does, and it is good.  Spark on!