This is Tweed

This is Tweed.

This is Tweed now that he's REALLY MAD!

"???"

Good question! I'm glad you asked!

On Sunday, My Special Little Guy got his third and final Masters Standard Q to successfully complete the requirements for the title of Masters Agility Dog of Canada!

This is, dear viewers, nothing short of a miracle. For starters, Tweed's performance is usually severely retarded by his handler, who has all the skill of a coma victim who lost all her limbs in an unfortunate sledding accident.

Secondly, keeping this deficit in mind, Tweed likes to average one Titling Q per year. He got one in September of 2007, and then blessed us with another surprise Q in September 2008. So we consider this second Titling Q in a two month span as The Food Lady's Christmas Bonus.

Traditionally, Tweed has brilliant performances when no one has a video camera handy. I have loads of really really super shitty runs recorded for prosperity. And while this may not have been his (or my) finest moment, it's definitely one of my proudest!

The sound on this video is off by a second or two, and I can't get rid of it, but you can hear the barn erupt in cheers, if a bit prematurely. We've been chasing this title for an awfully long time!



So ... congratulations Tweird!

In other perfectly lovely news, we are celebrating birthdays tomorrow at Casa de Food Lady. It's my birthday, and it's also the imaginary birthday I gave to both Piper and Mr. Woo since both have pasts shrouded in mystery, but birthdates sometimes around November.

Miss P is a ripe old 6 years of age.

And the family clown, Mr. Woo, reaches a milestone of a whole 3 years.

Happy Birthday Monsters!

WIN!

I feel like I have been waiting my whole life to take this photo, and finally today I did.
Bless Mr. Woo for his weird and wonderful ways. I threw no ball. I gave him no instructions. We simply were visiting MacDonald Beach today and Wootie swam out to a little clump of rocks for no reason at all, and then decided to SPROING back to shore.

I like that photo so much I almost don't want to post anything else!

But I don't want to upset Tweed's fans.

Or Piper's.

And to think I was worried I wouldn't get anything decent, as I left our walk until kinda late today.

It started out with some blue sky and sun peeping through the clouds.

But it started looking rather ominous before too long.

But this brave soul was not worried, he was just really enjoying his walkies.

It was even warm enough for some light swimming ... and posing.

But Piper says no matter how warm it is, it's never okay for Tweed to beat her to the ball. Because that makes her angry.

This is something Woo thinks about carefully.

He's been on the other side of that fence.

Piper thinks it would be a good idea if you were to adopt this dog:

from Inland Northwest Rescue in Idaho.


Because she thinks one of her is plenty, and that The Food Lady doesn't need to adopt her doppelganger.

And speaking of doppelgangers, we have also found my dearly departed Briggs' stunt double.

Bailey has more white on him than Briggs did, but they share a remarkable resemblance!

Bailey was adopted (yay!) as a senior (yay!) from a shelter in Colorado. You can read more about him here.

Now everyone has a doppelganger except for Tweed.

I guess he truly is one of a kind. A very strange and kind of annoying one of a kind.

"What?"


Please don't be concerned, but Nutz is going to hunt you down, and then kill you.

Just for fun.

Art That Barks

Looking for something to do tonight? Stop by the Heaventree Gallery at Fraser and 15th for
ART THAT BARKS.

It's an animal-themed art show. I'll be stopping in (I'm not in the show).

More info? Look here.

Also, I'm hunting for a dog sitter over Christmas. My usual sitter is not available. If you've got any sitters you like and trust, please drop me a line!

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Blech.

It's disgusting out - it has been peeing rain all.day.long. And it's cold. I know, I know ... I live in Vancouver. What did I think it would do mid-November? But it's a day off for the Food Lady. She wants to flop around the house in her pajamas, not going swimming in her galoshes at the dog park.

STOP STARING AT ME, DOGS!!

So, time to bust out the camera and amuse us all. I'm a masochist, so once again I attempt the Family Photo, and I get this:

Apparently nobody wants to sit next to anyone else.

"You suck Tweed."
"What? Why?"


Then I get Mr. Woo on my coffee table. He's pretty sure I put it there as a perch for Himself, since we never had one before and he can't imagine what else it could possibly be for.

Okay, scrapping group photo. Moving onto portraits.

Piper volunteers to be first.

Keener. Nerd.

And then Tweed, who cannot figure out the mechanics of footstool-on-sofa.

Best to just hunker down and hold on for the ride / gaze hopefully at Food Lady for a cookie.

However, before long everyone is *terribly* bored with the portrait taking.

Now I'm desperate. Time to break out the big guns.

"Does anyone want to play Bitey Face Smackdown on the forbidden land also known as the Food Lady's bed?"

"OOOOOH! Me! Memememememememe!"
Why are they all on my coffee table??


Okay then.

Ready ....

Set ....

SMACKDOWN!

Then Piper gets worried.

You'd be worried too, if your opponent could do this with his tongue:

I can hear you thinking "Where's Tweed? Why doesn't he get to play Bitey-Face Smackdown?"

Oh but he does! Piper invites him to play, but he's skeptical.

It's just that he knows he's going to get ganged up on by the Terror Twins, who are all too eager to kick his ass.

But in a surprise turn of events, Tweed shoves Wootie aside and takes on the Bitch Queen herself. He's going straight for the ringleader!

At first I think "Oh shit. Tweed's toast." Because Piper immediately gets angry.

But in another surprise twist, Wootie turns mutinous and joins forces with Tweed. Now it's Piper's turn to look worried.

Instead of defending her position, she gets in a snit and leaves. Woo (fickle boy) follows her and they leave Tweed sad and lonely on the bed :(

It seems wrestlemania has pooped out the puppers, leaving me free to toil for them some more by chopping and bagging two months of dinner for dogs.

If you ever wondered what $100.00 worth of turkey necks looked like, it's your lucky day! It looks something like this:
That's 150 turkeys. You might eat the rest of one at Christmas! (I won't, because I'll be in Cancun. Woot!)

In honour of Remembrance Day, the dogs salute those who have fallen for our country (although Tweed did feel in necessary to mention that he is American).

Except Woo, who is hopefully and carefully watching turkey necks.

Help me out, readers. Who are your favourite affordable artists? Where can I see their work? My last apartment had almost no walls, but this one has an abundance of rooms and walls and they are bare, because I have nothing to hang on them. What do you suggest?