Birthday Party

I just realized I completely forgot to post about Lance's 1st birthday party!  He turned a year old on August 22, and we celebrated on August 21st.

It was a good party, or at least we had fun.  I think everybody else did, too.  There were only 10 or so guests due to the fact that we inadvertently planned the party for the weekend of the Canadian Shiloh Shepherd Nationals, but quite a few of them commented afterward that it was a really interesting mix of people, so we were pleased.

The guests included neighbors and people that are in Lance's life--his trainers, his groomer, a few of the friends who'd help socialize way back in the beginning, and so on. And Lance had a canine guest, too--a chocolate lab puppy by the name of Hardy.  And Kai, of course.

The party and the prep went fairly smoothly, although we had a bit of a panic when, after working all day to prepare the new patio and the back yard for company, it started raining about 1/2 an hour before guests arrived.  But we got everything moved into the garage and under a dining tent, so it all turned out well in the end.  And the rain cooled everything off, so we didn't have to worry about humans or dogs overheating.

And Lance had a lot of fun.  He had so much fun in a game of chase that he broke a hurricane lamp on the aforementioned patio 'cause he couldn't make the corner!  LOL!  And so much fun that he wore both Kai and Hardy (who is a few weeks older than Kai) out by the end of the evening.  They both had to go to bed early, so Lance wound up having the human guests all to himself.  :)

The only thing I regret is that I was having so much fun I totally forgot to get any pictures.  :(  We took some of the aftermath, but it's just not the same!  I'm thinking next year we put out a few disposable cameras to make sure we get some DURING.


All in all, a very good memory!


p.s.  We did make it to Nationals the next day, and Lance took second in his age class.

December 21, 2012

End of the world?  Chaos & cataclysm?  Death and destruction?  Meaningless superstition? Something in between?

I've had this on my mind lately, as I try to learn how to save seeds from this year for next.  Am I wasting my time, or is this a vital skill I need to learn?

I, personally, am of the opinion that the world AS WE KNOW IT, will end sometime near the titled  date.  I suppose that could mean that we will all die in a nuclear war, or be wiped out in world-wide natural disasters, or that aliens will come down from the sky and enslave us all, but none of that is really what I believe will happen.

I think the "end" will be much more subtle than any of that.  The pessimistic side of me wonders if the last bee will die, with our crops and ourselves slowly following.  The newer, much more hopeful side of me thinks maybe it will simply be a shift in human consciousness--a new, more positive way of looking at things, perhaps.  In my wildest dreams, I imagine that the number of Pagans will outgrow the numbers of more established religions, which would certainly bring a new worldview to humanity.

I suppose only time will tell.  If nothing happens by the Winter Solstice in 2012, I'll begin to believe the Mayans were wrong.  If nothing happens by 2020, I'll know they were.

In the meantime, I'll follow the old saw and hope for the best while I prepare for the worst.

Pussy

I write about our dogs all the time, even one that is no longer with us.  I write about us, both in our personal and our Pagan lives.  But my tag line mentions 2 Pagans, 2 Puppies, and 2 Cats!  And I really haven't been giving our cats a fair shake, so here goes.

We have two cats, a small, gray domestic short-hair, and a rather large, black, medium-haired Maine Coon mix.  Audrey is bad-tempered and very, very smart.  Dale is sweet, laid-back, and not-so smart.  If you come to our house I can almost guarantee you will see neither, they are both so shy of strangers.

First and foremost is Audrey.  We usually describe her as 8 lbs of concentrated malice.  For a while we worried that there was something wrong with her feet because she never drew her claws in.  When she walks across a hard surface you can hear "click, click, click" because she won't put her claws in.  (We found out she CAN, she just chooses not to do so most of the time.)  I have multiple small scars across my legs because she walks across you with her claws out.  Dale and I are scared of her because she's so quick to take offense, and those claws are always ready. When she was about 10 weeks old, and weighed about 2 lbs, it took me, a vet, and two vet technicians to hold her down to have blood drawn.  Two of the humans ended up bleeding, too.

Despite all that, she CAN be sweet, and her purrs are treasured because they are so rare.  She can figure out any obstacle that doesn't require thumbs, and she is the absolute ruler of her domain. 

Or she was until we got the puppies.  At that point, her maternal instincts seem to have kicked in, and she won't hurt them, no matter how much they bother her.  We're glad we haven't had to rush to the emergency vet with a bleeding nose or scratched eye, but at the same time it's made teaching the dogs to rein in their prey drives and not chase the cats all the harder.  Talk about mixed blessings.

Dale is the polar opposite of his 'sister'.  His claws are rarely out, his frequent purrs are loud enough to hear two rooms away, and he usually has to be shown the way around obstacles.  He is a gorgeous, 20+ lb male with fur that is a deep, deep black tinged with chocolate brown at the very tips.  He will lay on your lap through an entire movie, purring any time he's not asleep, and not clawing you once.

Of course, when his claws DO come out, he can do a lot of damage--he has serious muscle and mass to put behind his rather large claws.  And you'd think he was slow, because of all that size, but you'd be wrong.  He may not be as quick as Audrey, but we saw him take a fly out of the air with one swat a couple of days ago.

He has no maternal instincts, nor even any paternal ones, as far as we can tell.  Both dogs have a healthy respect for him, and won't mess with him if he's facing them.  (They still will chase if he runs, but we're working on that.)

And in case you can't tell, I love both my kitties very much.  :)