Lucy, how the heck did you get to level 4? (By totally ignoring the non-compliant members of Team Monster, that's how.)



CATS can do this without knocking bars.

Wrestling!

Lucy & Alice, wrestling in the living room tonight. In the dark, actually - I used the flash to take these pictures.



( Lots more pictures! )

While Lucy is off tracking, Alice is helping to make her birthday cake and spending some quality time with Andy.

Lucy and Alice are dressed as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles this year for Halloween.

Lucy is Raphael, and Alice is Michelangelo. (If only there were two more dogs to be Donatello and Leonardo!) Lucy is Raphael because she is hot tempered and impulsive, and Alice is Michelangelo because she likes pizza and is generally easygoing.

The girls wore their costumes to an agility trial today, but I am not sure that the other folks at the trial were up to date on their Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle lore because they did not seem to understand the costumes.

I made these costumes using turtle shells from Target, craft foam, fabric, and a bunch of sewing. (I finished this morning!)

Lots of pictures!



Alice is not as pleased to be wearing a costume as Lucy is.


I love the little tail.






This is the field next to the trial where we took the pictures. (Knoxville MD)

Today Lucy turned 4!

We made a dog birthday cake from a new recipe. This one would make a great practical joke cake for humans, since it looks like a real cake, and doesn't smell bad, but tastes DISGUSTING. Unless you are a dog, in which case it tastes AWESOME.



Dog Birthday Cake
* 3 cups flour
* 1 T. baking powder
* 1/2 cup butter, softened
* 6 eggs, beaten
* 1/2 cup vegetable oil
* 2 jars strained chicken baby food
* cream cheese for frosting
* strips of chicken or bacon for garnish

Grease and flour an 8" cake pan. In a small bowl, combine flour and baking powder, set aside. In a medium bowl, beat softened butter. Add eggs and vegetable oil, stir. Add strained chicken, and mix until smooth. Add flour & baking powder and mix thoroughly. Pour into prepared cake pan. Bake at 325 degrees for 60 minutes. Let cool completely. Spread cream cheese on cake and add garnish.



( Happy Birthday Lucy!! )

Today we all went for a walk. (They have a 4H farm at Kinder Farm Park)



( Corgis & Cows, Chickens, etc. )

Lucy has figured out the minimum necessary amount of work that will get her a cheeseburger. That was quick. I am yelling at Lucy in the middle of the video because she is about to go into the tire backwards. (It worked; she didn't.)



This is my favorite dog agility place, because it is so pretty, and there are fewer people. In this video at the beginning, you are looking at Maryland, in the middle, you are looking at West Virginia, and at the end, you are looking at Virginia. (The mountains in the distance - the actual agility field is in Maryland. But barely.)

We also got a new roof put on this past week - Lucy was in charge of supervising the roofing crew (clearly the only reason they were successful), and Alice was a big scardeycat wimp. (You can see them in the doorway.)

Today we all went to the March for the Animals that benefits the MDSPCA.


There were a TON of people there (more than last year) and it was a little bit stressful for Lucy and Alice to be in such a large crowd. It was also pretty cold.
Here are some pictures of us doing the walk.

( March for the Animals 2010 )

We have a deal with Lucy - if she manages to heave herself over jump bars and through (ALL OF THE) weave poles and qualify in any standard run in any venue of agility she gets a cheeseburger. (So far, we have only had to provide one cheeseburger.) If she manages to heave herself over jump pars and listen to me and qualify in snooker she gets a cheeseburger. (No cheeseburgers.) If she qualifies in two standard runs or one standard run and one snooker run she gets a double bacon cheeseburger.
And today Lucy did it!

Standard

This one was messy because of the weave poles and the fight about the tunnels. Whew.

Snooker (now FINALLY out of Level 2)



Waiting for the Cheeseburger




Burger!


Going


Going


Gone!