Forever A Fangirl

Schipperke 'Raven' & Corgi/Pug Mix 'Obi' - Black Dogs in Mid-West Winter Sun - 1.04.13 (PHOTOS)

 

Raven, Sunbathing in Winter Light - 1.04.13

(Above)  Schipperke senior female dog, age: about 16-17 years. She has scars on her hind legs from when she got clipped by a car in the street when she was about 6-years old and was 'helping' with bringing in the groceries. Luckily, she healed up with no limp and learned to 'stay' after that.

I like this photo as it shows the true colour of her eyes; she has a slight blue cast over the dark brown, caused by age.

 

Obi is probably a "Porgi" --a Pug- Corgi cross. He's oddly built, with a lazy eye to boot.  He uses his big paws, which are attached to very short legs, like hands. We adopted him at age about 2 and now he's 5-years old. I think he looks ferocious but he's really a love-bug, easily turned to putty by affection, a treat or a toy.

Both Obi (l) and Raven are very aware of my presence and so have stopped napping so cutely (which was the shot I was trying to catch). Obi's moving towards me. All day, he sticks to me like glue. Raven is going to resume sunning.

We've had Raven since she was said to be 2 years old and adopted from the no-kill shelter as an abandoned purebred dog with indications of future hip dysplasia. I think her 'run-in' with a car in front of our home actually made the dysplasia not as bad as it would have been because she's handling it like a champ. She moves carefully sometimes but so do I and she's much older than me! :)

Why Not Try a FREE Sample of Rachael Ray’s Nutrish just 6 Dry Dog Food?

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Nutrish for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.  
I've  been a pet owner for much of my life--mostly dogs--and despite hearing that a dog does not care what you feed it, I disagree.

Dogs of course, are not people--but they are like us in that they have specific nutritional needs. Sometimes the foods that help maintain a balanced diet for our dogs are very similar to foods that do the same for we humans. That's why the ingredients in a dog food such Rachael Ray Nutrish just 6 sound so yummy!

Over the Mother's Day weekend, both my dogs tried new Rachael Ray Nutrish just 6 dry dog food and they loved it. They gobbled it right up as you can see in my photo (above).

Obi, the younger, larger boy was so cute tonight. I heard him sniffing about in the kitchen late in the evening, even though the food bowls were emptied and in the dishwasher, which was running! Obi was so intent on finding the tiniest piece of Nutrish just 6® dry dog food that he held hope that he might find a little bit left behind from when both dogs were eating. No luck for him sadly, even though he was sniffing the dog bowl areas like crazy. I've never seen him so intent wanting more food--never mind dry dog food--ever!

Raven, an older female Schipperke rescue, loved her new Rachael Ray Nutrish just 6 dry dog food, too. Generally, she only eats when she feels like it but she could not resist the Nutrish just 6!

The reason Nutrish just 6 dry dog food is called 'just 6' is because it is made with something you may be familiar with from 'people food'-- a limited ingredient recipe.

New Rachael Ray Nutrish just 6® dry dog food is made from 6 basic ingredients beginning with, in Raven and Obi's sample: Lamb meal, brown rice, ground rice, beet pulp,  poultry fat & natural chicken flavor-- which combined with vitamins and minerals are complete and balanced nutrition for my dogs.

Another fact about Nutrish just 6 that many pet owners care about is that Nutrish just 6 has no corn, wheat or soy (another name for these is 'fillers').

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Too soon to go

Getting ready to leave and I don't want to go. Even though everyone says this was the worst summer ever I've been happier than ever here in this little cottage. Life is very simple. Our water is unfiltered and comes from the lake about 100 feet from where I sit now. One cannot drink it, rather one must fill up big container of spring water which can be obtained for free near the tiny airport about 2 miles from here.The airport and a now-shuttered resort are what brought people from Toronto to this lake in the first place in the first half of the 20th Century.

We do a lot of our grocery shopping at a little market with one butcher and one bakery lady. All the dairy and meat products are fresh, obtained locally as is much of the produce.

For the first time ever there is a local radio station, "The Moose"--they play a lot of Rush-- and they'll show up to almost any little event. Today spouse went to buy grass seed and they were there broadcasting at the Not Home Depot, raising money for some lifts for the two hospitals in this massive county. They thanked my spouse as "Roger from Chicago" on the air which tickled him.

The counter lady at the brand new Rexall drugs recommended a local photographer for my son and I to get our Canadian passport photos taken. She'd had no trouble she said, last winter when she and her children had theirs done and sure enough, it went off without a hitch for us, too. Afterward, we got milkshakes, possibly the best anywhere, at a local ice cream stand that's been there at least 30 years, maybe more.

On that trip into town I ordered the rustic wooden sign I've wanted made--don't know where I'll put it but it'll be hand-carved and ready to pick up when I come back to close the cottage in September. It's says "Alice's Place" and will have two little hearts as embellishments, in remembrance of the woman to whom I can thank for the privilege of being here--my grandmother. My grandfather outlived her by 35 years and after he died at age 101 the county put a road sign at the end of our dirt and gravel road--"Frank's Lane" --which is nice but I want to make sure that we are reminded of her, too. I think of her often but many folks though they know of my grandfather don't have any reference to my grandmother.
There is a teevee but it only gets one channel so we never use it and don't miss it. We play Uno at night or watch movies. In the evening too one hears the nearby haunting call of the loons, which scares our little dog.

 

Spouse spent much of his time building a groin to better build the beach and when he finished that he secured the bank down to the lake with the many stones that had been buried in the sand--some almost the size of boulders. My grandfather had them hauled in many, many years ago. Spouse also fixed both sets of stone steps which take you down the 15 feet or so to the beach and the lake. It's peaceful through the week and because of the wet and cool weather even weekends have been  more quiet than normal.

 

We are in the woods on a lake. I've had this privilege all my life and I realize how very precious it is. After dinner tonight spouse and I took the canoe out further than he'd ever been and so got a view of the lake which was completely new for him. We saw the ever-present common loons and a beautiful blue heron that swooped by us.

I have to leave this life, go back to suburbia as school is starting and my son is turning 16--both on August 20-- and I owe that to my son but I do not want to go--at all.The one concession to modern life has been what facilitated me being able to stay here for a month--the satellite internet. I've gotten a lot of work done--but on my own schedule. I did a conference call today which involved pulling up visuals on the Internet and it was totally awesome to do so in my swimsuit and shorts. Heaven if there is one, could not be any better than right here.

How do you keep yourself motivated to exercise?

Two things: Our dog, Raven likes long walks because she really likes to sniff things that are up to 15 inches above the ground.

Second thing is that if I don't exercise I get stiff and I get reminded that I spend entirely too much time in the sitting position.

Second-and-a-half thing: If I don't exercise I feel guilty and exercising feels better than feeling guilty.

Beware! Meme and Johnny Depp 2008 Ahead!

I blame Broke and Angry for all the time I spent on this. Fun, but time-consuming!

To do this meme:

Go to your search engine and type in your answer to the following questions. Then click on the "image" results and pick one photo from the first page of results.

1. Age at my next birthday (not fair! I just had a birthday!):

2. Place I'd like to travel: Paradise Island

      

                              3. My favourite place:

4. Favourite object(s): (mine is zinc yellow tho')                              

5. Favorite food (I picked holiday food):

         

Pecan pie

6. Favourite animal:

Schipperke dog

This little guy looks a lot like our Raven when she was younger. So much that I'd think it was Raven --but of course, it's not. heh. (Plus, Raven doesn't have boy parts.)

7. What my pet's name is:

I like "Raven's" cape. :)
More after jump...(Click--->)

Hilarity Ensues (Christmas Day)

A rarity: Acting like sibs--though they are shooting each other with Airzookas. :)

 

Which breed of dog is your favorite?

I have to be loyal to our rescue dog, Raven. She's a Schipperke, a Belgium barge dog--a ratter. Extremely quick and quite fierce for a wee smidge of a dog. Very good watchdog. And too smart for her own good.

 

           

   

       

                

                                            

            

               

Ravenbluecoatsnowmuzzle

            

           

   

           

   

       

                

                                            

            

               

Chris.raven.christmas.05

            

           

   

But if we didn't have Raven...it would be a dog with a sort of mellow temperament--a bit of a change from the Ravenator.

 

I would like a Labrador Retriever like this guy:

 

           

   

       

                

                                            

            

               

Black+lab

            

           

   

But we don't have a big enough place for him or her right now.

Besides, we would get a rescue dog and I doubt sincerely that my number one choice of dog breed will be found at the first shelter we go to like it did with Raven. I had  the Schipperke breed picked out as a probable "good fit" for us but had others picked like a Jack Russell Terrier 'cos I never thought I'd find a rescue Schipperke.

Surprise, Surprise.

My Dog Blows

Our Schipperke dog, Raven has been blowing for the past few days and it's really not pleasant. Forgive the non-PC-ness but she is like chemo-dog with great clumps of her undercoat  just dropping from her  body to the bedspread, couch, all over the house, whereever she goes. Two times so far--fur in my eye--yuck and it hurts as I wear contacts.

And no matter what they say about brushing you can do that until you are blue in the face and she still sheds and will continue to do so in great volumes until she gets herself fully prepared for winter.

The Schipperke dog is small, with oval brown eyes, triangular upright ears and a face that resembles that of a fox. The body must appear to be square when viewed from the side while the chest must be wide and should reach the elbows. It also has a distinctive double coat – a soft undercoat covered by a rough, shaggy outer coat. A long ruff also surrounds the Schipperke’s neck, particularly the nape, the chest as well as the back of its hind legs.

Raven looking sulky...

Raven busted through the doggy barrier in the den and bounded upstairs so she could commence barking to no end. The end came eventually though when she woke me up from a very good sleep--the kind I only have when I wear myself out (in a good way) physically. We have the same routine every morning which I must have blogged about before but in case not, it's this. When she was new to us. I would get up in the morning--pre-coffee, still in my jammies,and let her outside on her long leash because she had issues with confusing the carpet for the grass.

Often, I'd put her on her leash and she sat there on the deck and stared at me, not budging.

Having had two children I knew very well of the powers of "treats," so I bought a package of bite-sized ones and after I put her on the leash and opened the door--she'd be out in the grass before I could wing the thing outside. It worked like a charm. But today, since she knew she'd woken mommy up--a very big no-no, she was sulky going outside. She still wanted the treat mind you, but when she saw that I was on her heels (as the weather is still balmy) she refused to look at me. She has this thing where if she's in trouble she won't look at the person who is mad at her. I think she figures that if she doesn't look that she can't be seen. Impeccable logic, lol.

So here are a couple shots knocked off of our flowers in the back of the house and of Raven looking ...sulky.

Ifidontlookatyoumaybeuwontseeme

Oct17

Notlooking

Oct17.2

Shout Out To Raven

This is a shout out to my dog without whom I wouldn't have exploited an "opportunity" to make a video advertising...shrimp.

I am quite lucky that Raven throws dignity to the wind when tempted by T-Bonz dog treats.

Normally, I give her one treat a day based on a ritual she and I have that upon my waking she marches up to me and impatiently waits for me to get out the zip bag of T-Bonz, hook her up on her long leash tethered to our back deck, and toss a T-Bonz outside. She charges after it and while outside does whatever she needs to do on our little patch of grass.

This ritual started as a ruse that I used to get her to go outside, period.

As I've mentioned, Raven was adopted from a shelter and had been abused by her previous owners. Everything scared her including me trying to make her go outside whilst I brewed some coffee and put some clothes on. I keep a very different schedule than her other people. On a normal work/school day they've left the house by 7:45. I wake up about four hours later and my first concern used to be to get her outside as she was not housebroken.

At first I begged. No go.

Pleaded. Not happening.

Cajoled. Getting warmer.

Flung a treat out the door.

Bingo.

Now, even if she's been let out 2 minutes previous to my appearance ( like on the weekends) she still marches right up to me, and fixes her round, brown eyes upon me.

I cannot not give her a treat or she will quite literally hound me. So it's our little thing. No one else got duped as I did so she just gets the one small treat each day.

Tonight was an exception. As I mentioned above, I took an "opportunity" which paid $20 to write a 50-word advert touting shrimp. I was pretty pleased with myself as a 50-word advert is at most three sentences.

After accepting the job, I read a little closer. They wanted a 50-word advert alright but they also required a 30-second video. Gulp.

Helpfully, they recounted how last time when they put out a request for the touting of shrimp they received a short video that they really dug. They included the link because they were looking for something similarly "cute"--something with a "shrimp dance."

Anyone that knows me knows I don't--I can't do cute.

As is my way, I panicked for a few minutes, a zillion ideas running through my head--then I thought to take the path of least resistance--Raven. She's cute and will try to please anyone who she thinks may give her a treat (occasionally, one of her other people does so for me). So I found some super jumbo shrimp photographs, cut and taped them up, and pinned them to her harness. I got the bag of treats and broke several them into little bits.

Then I remembered.

I had not clue one as to what to do because I'd not ever taken a video with my camera.

I went riffling through the quick start manual and not unexpectedly they referred anyone wanting to go beyond snapping photos to the master manual. I'm not exactly sure where that is so I dithered around waiting for my son and spouse to get home from acquiring a fancy graphing calculator for Algebra II ( he started sophomore year today).

Chris has taken mini videos of Raven before though I'm pretty sure he did it accidently. Just the same he's ahead of me on the learning curve. Unfortunately, after he came home I got distracted and before I knew it he was showering, readying for school tomorrow. Shouted instructions through the door did not get me on the path to getting this video made so after I reached panic point (my deadline was looming) he finally emerged and showed me the button to press. One button for stop and start. I had already wasted a lot of time by trying to get the video made without any solid knowledge of what I was doing. But it turns out I accidentally did make a video.

The video is quite awful but it's not worse than the one that the shrimp people really liked.*shrug*

The worst of it is that I stumbled over the word "cholesterol." ( Did I mention that it required a voiceover?)

Raven did fine though I would have really appreciated a bit more "dancing" for treats. Still, I'm quite grateful to her for allowing me to pin jumbo shrimp to her harness and for showing some spirit.

Another first tonight was my posting a self-made video. I've posted YouTube videos plenty of times but upload a video from my camera then somehow get it onto my blog and have it function? Improbable.

Despite the fact that I had to write some actual code I did it and made my deadline and now it's out there for all the shrimp lovers/fans of shrimp dancing to see.

On to the next "opportunity."

Pet Project

Raven

Do you have a pet? What kind of pet do you own, and why did you choose it? 

I'm not sure if we "own" Raven, our 12-pound Schipperke dog.

She's more a furry member of our family.

Raven has been part of our family since 2000, when we adopted her from a shelter. She had been abandoned, left in a cage in front of the shelter for the shelter workers to find when they came to work in the morning.

We picked her as she was on a list of dog types that I thought would be least allergenic and would fit other criteria such as being smaller due to our living in a condominium and being long-lived. I also wanted an intelligent, active breed that was good with families as our son was 7 years old at the time.

Schipperkes are described thusly: ...an agile, active watchdog and hunter of vermin. In his native Belgium the Schipperke was a ratter and riverboat watchdog, probably developed from the same roots as Belgian shepherd dogs. His name is Flemish for "little shepherd."

I was shocked to have found her as I was not looking for a purebred but there she was at the first shelter I visited.

She seemed sweet of temperament yet at the same time feisty. (When I returned to the shelter with my son in tow so he could meet her as per the shelter's rules he tried to pet her with his finger through her small wire cage. She promptly nipped him lightly. He was undeterred and very good with her.)

Raven (the name the shelter gave her and to which she answered after spending the enter summer there) turned out to be a bit of a basket case for the first two years we had her. She had obviously been abused. If one just picked up a newspaper or magazine she cowered in fear. Though estimated to be 2 years old, she was not house broken. She also grew terrified at the tiniest provocation so it took loads of patience to make her feel secure enough to become housebroken and less afraid.

Raven is still extremely high strung but being a watchdog that is bred into her. She's very loyal and loving--she will not fully relax unless all her people are home. In line with her watchdog status she barks a lot. Since I'm home the most I tend to tune it out though sometimes I appreciate it because she lets me know whomever is in the vicinity--like if I'm waiting on a package delivery, she gives me the heads up whilst they are still down the street.

Reading my blog you'll see that she gets mentioned quite often as she's much like another child. I find it very endearing that though my son is now 6'2" at age 14, she still recognizes him as the child of the family and goes the extra mile keeping an eye on him. ...............................

                                                                                                  Catching winter rays...

We're Home...

...as of about midnight.
Everyone--even our dog Raven is wiped out.
Thankfully, the trip home was uneventful save for the awful time we had with the traffic getting out of the city of Toronto. It reminded me of  Chicago gridlock--and it was mid-morning--not the time that I'd have expected such a jam.

We stayed in Chinatown for our last two nights in Canada. I've heard that there are four Chinatown's in TO--we were in the one about 6 blocks in from the CN Tower.

We stayed at a Hotel Super 8 in the Chinatown Centre Shopping Mall complex. It was so new that they hadn't yet installed all the services but it was a lovely place just the same. Our room was sumptuous with cherry wood furniture throughout, scads of space, and very firm mattresses on the beds. Both son and spouse seemed to really like that touch.

The neat thing was that there was a Chinatown street festival just below our 3rd floor digs so we were able to walk right out and have abundant choices in Chinese notions, souvenirs, and best of all, food.

I'd picked our hotel it for it's proximity to the CN Tower and The Hockey Hall of Fame. We'd also planned to go to Casa Loma--a real castle-- in the one day visit. Unfortunately, two things got in the way way of being able to do all that we wanted.

One, due to the festival and construction closing down many roads in the areas of the hotel, we spent a great deal of time on the night of arrival just trying to access the hotel which we kept driving by, looking in vain for any way to park near it. Just as in many American cities there were plenty of one way and no turn streets and it made it all the more challenging.

The other cog in the machinery was that though the hotel accepted "animal guests" one could not leave said guest alone in the room for more than 10 minutes.
With the temperatures predicted to soar in the the high eighties with high humidity there was no way we could've brought Raven with us to Casa Loma which was where all three of us wanted to go the most.

So while the guys were sleeping I decided that I would stay at the room with Raven. By the morning there was a steady drizzle outside which was fine for roaming the castle. Raven and I stayed behind, sleeping, then reading Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows (more on that in a post to come).

***All photos of Casa Loma by my son.

Really Random

This is from Stumbleupon

Save the Vowels!

And from tonight:

Roger  & Raven by the firedancer.  Both of them look pretty glum. What's wrong, guys?

This 2004 Delicato Shiraz was pretty tasty.

Nice cool night, perfect for firing up the firedancer and having a glass or two of wine on the mini deck.

Salt Creek: A New Trail in Rolling Meadows

A few days ago my son and I intended to take our Schipperke dog, Raven for a walk in what we thought would be a patch of woods then through a clearing where the path curved 'round one side of a man-made pond--then home.
But when we arrived at the point where the path veers off west to the pond we saw that it now splits and a second path continues north. About 50 feet down the new path we were surprised to find a newly-constructed walk-bridge over Salt Creek. It allows one to cross and begin an uninterrupted journey through the woods for the better part of a mile.

What an upgrade for our neighbourhood!*edit/After I wrote this I thought of the woods that were felled in making this new path. I feel badly about the trees and the animals, too--but I feel worse when I see a subdivision full of extreme(ly expensive) homes go up--gobbling up what little open space remains in this neck of the Northwest Chicago suburbs..
I am totally jazzed. Even though we have lots of places to walk, they are next to something other than just trees, like trees...and the road, or greenery and a field...which borders on a  highway.
This path though is in the woods. Granted, on occasion one can peak through the thinning fall foliage to see houses in the distance or even closer in spots but it is still uninterrupted nature for about a mile and it starts within feet of our home.

I am very happy about this for several reasons.
Who doesn't love a walk through the woods? And being every inch a suburbanite I don't need to slog through the woods--a neat bike/walk path is fine for me.

 Also, I've been a bit bored for a long while with the scenery pickings in our neighbourhood as well as very dismayed watching so much of it fall prey to developers banking on the  greed of the long-time Palatine mayor who endorsed so much of the over-building of everything from crappy-looking condos to McMansion monstrosities.

The photobug in me is actually looking forward to snow as the opportunities after a new snowfall are bountiful and I've so needed something new to photograph. And all this can be tied quite literally to our little dog as she is the one who is our excuse to go for a w-a-l-k (we spell it when she's around though I'm fairly certain that she recognizes "walk" even when spelled out).

All the photos that follow were taken with our new "A" series Canon.  My son and I are trying out both the new path and the camera for the first time.The first & last photos are by  my son. The rest as usual, are by me.

Part of Salt Creek--it gets much, much bigger when it rains. :/ and it's already many, many miles long.

The pond from a new angle.

My son took this shot after we were "out of the woods."   

We have few trees here that get truly colourful ("here" was once just prairieland with access to some important waterfront) but as my spouse said tonight--we now have a mini-forest preserve right on our doorstep. :) :) :)

Because I know you care... a Raven update

This is yesterday which was day eleven, post-getting-hit-by-a-car for Raven, our Schipperke.

She has a guilty look here as she is barking--quite a bit-- as a number of service providers in front of our condo come and go.