Unflattering Portraits of What Are Usually Nice Looking Dogs

You know ‘they’ always talk about the ideal handsome man and his rugged “square jaw?”  I don’t think this is what they had in mind.

I realize it looks like a did a really bad job of photoshopping a ball into his mouth, but hand to doG, this is just his face being his face.  I have no idea how he manipulated physics to accomplish this.  He is an amazing creature sometimes.

Another photo that does not flatter my poor dog.  Although you notice that Piper looks EXTREMELY pleased to once again be the best looking border collie in the house.

Piper shouldn’t be too smug though, because when she gets senior-face / the crazy eye, she’s not all that and a bag of chips either.

Winter went through a short-lived phase of deciding that The FaeFae was extraordinarily humpable.  It was short lived, because Fae was singularly unimpressed and twice as angry about it.

Is this a dagger which I see before me? The handle toward my hand?

The sheer indignity of the whole situation did nothing for what is otherwise a very adorable FaeFace.

Sister Spring is difficult to take a bad photo of.  I mean, she can bend space and time:

and she is incredibly athletic.

But when she sticks her face where it doesn’t belong ….

Oh how the mighty have fallen!

Poor Spring.  I don’t know what foolishness she poked her nose into last night during our evening play session, but whatever it was, it did not agree with her!  And of course I was out of Benadryl – here is my PSA for the week:  do an inventory of your first aid kit and see what’s missing!!  I apparently can treat just about anything with the stuff I have on hand, but had run out of Benadryl and failed to replace it.  Thank doG for landlords with toddlers, as I popped across the lawn to their house and they kindly gave me a bottle of children’s Benadryl to de-puffify the Springlet.  After laughing hysterically and taking a photo for posterity, of course.

My dogs threatened mutiny if I didn’t stop taking crappy / mean spirited photos of them, and mocking them on the interwebz, so I took some nice ones instead.

Oh Peetie Pocket Collie Rocket. So pretty.  SO annoying.

We are making some good gains in the training department and developing some drive.  But what I have discovered about Peetie is very irritating … she’s just not that smart.  She is lovely, and sweet, and cuddly and stuff, but she is not a scholarly dog by any means.  It’s been weeks now, and she still hasn’t caught on to simple phrases like “where’s the toy?”  I ask, all the other dogs turn and look at the toy like “it’s right there, stupid biped, are you blind?” and Peetie just stands in front of me with her head tilted and a little light bulb over her head rapidly dimming.  She has learned some stuff – she now has the most amazing recall, off of anything, that you ever saw – but when it comes to that back-and-forth between dog and handler that I expect from a border collie, I just get white noise.  I suspect it’s because she was raised with two little kids who nattered at her endlessly, so she’s not really into conversation.

And she is a Needy Peetie – she is forever trying to climb inside my skin.  When I am working at the computer, she sticks her head under my arm a thousand times an hour, and then tries to crawl up into my lap.  Ignoring her doesn’t work as I just end up with 30lbs of border collie on my knees and/or stuff on my desk knocked over because she doesn’t really fit up there.  Telling her to go away doesn’t work because |blankness|. If I get up and walk away (hard to do when I am trying to get work done) she follows me, licking my hands and then repeats the whole thing when I go sit back down again.  Just annoying stuff.  And we won’t even talk about how glued to my right arm she is when I eat (also usually at the computer).

So why haven’t I put her up for adoption yet?  Good question.  I don’t feel like exploring that too deeply right now.  And also because:

Pretty (vacant)

OH COME ON PEETIE!!

Oh well, she’s not the onlydog around here that can be annoying.  Try and get a photo of another dog jumping for a cookie and you’re bound to get an Addypants in the picture!

These two are the cutest, but also the naughtiest!

Last week (way back when it wasn’t peeing rain) we took a trip to the beach with our friend Claire and her Aussie puppy Paisley.

She rivals the Woo for Orangedness,

Everybody liked Paisley, event bitchy terriers!

And especially big-toothed swamp monsters.

And even Littles thought she was fun!

(There are no photos of TWooie thinking Paisley was fun, you notice.  Because TWooie.)

Speaking of the Littles, we really need to go oceanside more often.  They are really getting their beach on this year!

hehehe. They look like two tiny little knights singing a drunken bawdy tune after a successful battle.

Addy isn’t a *huge* fan of swimming, and prefers to walk on the water instead if at all possible.

But she does like to chase the spray and droplets she or other dogs kick up!

And since discovering the art of swimming at our previous trip to the beach, Fae absolutely LOVES the water now.

Everyone else had their usual fantastic time.

So sandy afterward.  I’m still finding sand in strange places!

This past weekend we went for a doggie walk with friends and Dexter was reunited with his most beloved Ghillie.

(Photo by Corey)

It’s been such a lovely, laid back, friend-filled summer so far.  If the rain would just go away, that trend could continue!

Because when the weather is nice, sometimes I just stop and think “Wow.  I live here.  This is my home.”

Sometimes I forget how lucky I am to walk out of my front door into this every day, my own private playground.  I need to remember to be more thankful, more often.