My Work is Never Done - Bet

Howdy Ho Everybodies!!!

It's your not roving, not reporting Border Collie, Bet, here!

Winter is fast approaching so we have chores to do here at North Wapiti to prepare for the oodles of snow!

Of course, this type of work requires an officially official supervisor... namely ME to get things done the right way... today we had to put the tractor away or something.

This is the tractor (no gratuitous advertising... unless they want to sponsor us... we like sponsors... hint)

We had to move the tractor away from all of the snow (see background)... and my feets are cold.

Due to regulations, I'm not allowed to wear any FABulous ensembles near the machinery... which is a pity because I have some rocking ensembles that would look FABulous with the green of the tractor... alas... rules is rules.

The Musher insists on driving ever since that small incident where the pedal got stuck and I just brushed against the garage ever so slightly.  Not my fault the garage walls are paper thin and I told you I'd pay for the damage with my allowance whenever I get out of the hole after our Fantabulous Alaska adventure...

I'm pretty sure the tractor goes faster than .00000001 MPH Musher... no, seriously, there's this pedal thing that you stomp on.

See, it's right there... you stomp on it... really hard... try it... also try brushing the oogie things off the foot rest while you're at it.

Here, let me help you press the pedal harder... I'll just reach down there and rest my head on your warm leg.... and... zzzzzzz

Eventually we were able to park the tractor and get it all situated and stuffs and things, and guess who came along to take all of the credit...

There's something wrong with that cat... something horrible.

- Bet

The Mighty Tawatinaw River Clearing - Bet

Howdy Ho Everybodies!

It's your roving nature reporter, Bet, here!

If you've been following along on the Facebooks, you'll know that the fantabulous Julia was here visiting, helping out, and learning the ropes about mushing.  We love having Julia visit, she's very good at opening and closing gates.

She was also very good at helping train the Pretty Curly Tails, and the lessons they learned on this visit was "water crossing".

Now you may be asking yourself: "Self... why would Pretty Curly Tails need to learn how to cross water, or get in water, or even have anything to do with water when they race in the snow???"

Well, there actually is water on the Iditarod sometimes, icy icy water, and gushy watery conditions and such, and the Pretty Curly Tails need to know that water is fine, it's good, they can just run right through it, and they need to find out that information during training, not unexpectedly like while they race, so running them into and through water is a vital training thingie.

Here they are running and then oopsies, there's water:


See how easy they make it look?

Unfortunately, the icky beavers of the MIGHTY Tawatinaw River have built all of their icky dams and have made the level of the river very MIGHTY for the Pretty Curly Tails, as you can see here:

You can clearly see that the Pretty Curly Tails were NOT at all thrilled with the prospect of jumping into the MIGHTY Tawatinaw... and who can blame them.

My favorite part is when Ryka body slams Boo into the river... way to go, I taught her so well.

Anyhooooo, it was pretty clear that we had to do something to lower the level of the river, so that meant Supervisor Border Collie time!

Yes, clearly the river is too deep

I was slightly disappointed that I was not allowed to wear my high-viz jacket... or given a floatie coat... I could have fallen in or something... at the very least given some waterproof booties for my delicate feets... but I digress again.

We sent the muscle out to determine just how high the river was, and to scope out the icky beaver dam things.

Go out farther, Bear... farther!!!

No, I was only joking about the sharks, there aren't any sharks, get out there!

Once Bear found the icky beaver dams, we set about destroying them...

Ok Bear, push this out of here, move this over here, and squish all of this down and stuffs

Yes, yes, it smells and tastes like Beaver poo, I get that, just squish it down so the water can flow!

OH, OH NO, SERIOUSLY???

Clearly we needed someone with opposable thumbs to help with this bit of a mess, so we had Julia come over

She used her stompy boots to get the water flowing

Ok, Bear, test out the waters to see if its getting lower...

I said TEST the waters, not TASTE the waters... oh euw, that's gonna make me hurl

urp

After a lot of icky, sweaty work, we finally declared victory over the stupid beaver dams... take that you icky beavers!

Now the Pretty Curly Tails can do their river crossing training without getting dunked... until the stupid beavers build more dams... sigh.

Bet

Telling Us Apart - Bet

It has come to my attention that some peoples are having a hard time telling me apart from the Molly Toddles.

Harumpf!

First of all, clearly I'm a Border Collie, and I wear the most fantabulous bling collar around.  Sure the Molly Toddles are getting pretty big, and sure some of them are black and white like me, but they're Pretty Curly Tails, whereas my tail is not curly, although it is very pretty.

As you can clearly see in exhibit #1 above, I'm clearly NOT a Toddle... but since we seem to have a lot of people getting confused, I'm working on a way to clearly identify each of the Toddles.

Unfortunately my first attempt did not meet with Carbon's approval, and Pete destroyed my decorative flower.

Back to the drawing board.

- Bet

My Most Fantabulous Dog Park Adventure - Bet

Howdy Ho Everybodies!!!!

Last weekend the Musher thought that I needed a little break from my duties as the official Pretty Curly Tail herder and scheduled a "date" at the Dog Park for me!!!

I must admit that since I'm the official herdy Border Collie of the Pretty Curly Tails, and it's not appropriate for me to become friends with the Pretty Curly Tails because they have jobs to do, and Cricket is in charge of security and rarely has time to sit down and talk girly dog talk (she works nights, sleeps during the day, and isn't really into painting nails and trying on fashionable ensembles), and the cats... well... they're CATS, so it can be kinda lonely without any doggie friends.

The Musher thought that I would appreciate a whole day of doggie companionship with another girlie working breed that also needed some off time to discuss the trials and tribulations of working and just have a fun day off the clock.

Off we went to the famous Terwilliger Park that has a FABulously huge off leash dog park!  I was very excited to be going, but felt a bit naked without any of my fashionable ensembles.  The Musher assured me that I looked fine with just my stylish purple collar.

When we arrived, there was the very adorable Splash and her woman Lori!

Splash is what is known as a "Golden Retriever", which means she retrieves things!  Apparently her job is to get things and bring them back.  I'm not really sure what the purpose of that is, so I asked her... um... what's up with that?  If they throw something... why can't they just go get it... after all, they threw it!

Splash explained that the whole "throwing things away" part was to keep her in fine peak physical condition for those times when she had to go retrieve things they don't throw... like pesky ducks that fall out of the sky, or tennis balls that fall out of the sky, or a beer from the fridge that fell out of the sky.  Um... I tried to explain to her that beers just don't fall out of the sky and into a fridge, but she is a lot bigger than me, so I didn't push things.

We decided to do some running around.

It was really fun just running around with Splash without having to worry about herding her, and Splash said it was really fun just running without running to go get something to bring back.

When we stopped for a quick breather, I asked her why her name was Splash.  She kinda laughed at me, and at the very moment, her thrower of things tossed a tennis ball and...

Dang!  Seriously?  She just threw herself in that... euw, water!  Dove head first into that stuff and grabbed that seriously mud covered... icky tennis ball thing!!!!  I was both intrigued and repulsed.

Wanna know what happened then....

She wanted her thrower to throw it in the water AGAIN!!!!  It was like the tennis ball was a waffle or maybe even some shrimp and pasta, but seriously... I wouldn't throw myself in water for waffles or shrimp and pasta... SERIOUSLY, I KNOW!!!!

Over and over again Splash went into the water for that icky tennis ball until she was very, very worn out, and I'm all like "um, isn't this suppose to be a day off, why are you working?"

Splash said she couldn't help herself, she LOVED retrieving stuff and if there was water involved, even better.  I said, but how do you get clean after stomping around in all of that mucky water.  Splash laughed and said, oh no, here's how you dry off...

Um... but you're rolling in grass and mud... you don't get a bath????  Splash said she got baths sometimes, but this was the best way to get clean... she also suggested that I try jumping in the water and playing in it, it was fun!

Um... erm....

 

In the water?  The icky water that has goop on the bottom of it?  There may be fishes and things in there.... look at how shiny and white my coat is... my collar would get dirty....

Ok, fine... ahem... here I go...

Now see, there's really no reason to get your feets all wet because there's this stick bridge thing here that you can just cross over and .... what?  jump in?  Seriously?  sigh... FINE.

EUW, EUW, SQUISHY MUCK BETWEEN MY TOES EUW, EUW, DIRTY WATER, EUW....

There, I did it, I jumped into the water, see!

Splash didn't seem very impressed with my display of water navigation...We agreed to disagree that retrievers like water, and Pretty Curly Tail herdy Border Collies didn't like water.  She was fine with that after I shared my recipe for Shrimp and Pasta, and after sharing a Vanilla Bean Frappacino at the Starbucks™ (MUSHER!!! HOW HAVE YOU NOT TOLD ME ABOUT THESE GLORIOUS TREATS ALL THESE YEARS????)  the Musher and I drove home... it was a very tiring but fun day, so thank you Lori and Splash for a wonderful day out!

-Bet