Too cute

A Mouse in the House

Keeps Epic very busy.

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Unfortunately, the mouse seems to enjoy the dog food cupboard. It has been emptied and filled with mouse traps. BUT... to start, we tried the good ol' fashioned, organic method of pest removal.

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*I smells it mommy*

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Which really means... we put Epic in the cupboard.

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This was very exciting and funny, until he started to deconstruct the cupboard to gain access to the space underneath the stairs.

Epic kills a lot of time looking at the cupboard now. We haven't seen any signs of mice OUTSIDE of that space, so that's kind of nice. I find myself a little squeamish about the monsters. Luckily, Epic doesn't feel the same. Heaven forbid he ever sees one.

Return to the Wild

We haven't been to the offleash park in quite a while, basically, because I'm a big wuss about the man-eating mosquitoes that live there. We finally braved it the other day, and found the park to be blissfully empty. I suspect that has to do with the ridiculous height of the grass, and the swamp-like nature of the ground after a wetter-than-normal summer.

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BUT... an empty park meant that Dixie got to have her first run offleash, and she behaved fabulously.

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^See what I mean about the grass? There are THREE dogs in this picture!!

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^Two dogs. One of them is Epic, and damn is he cute.
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The park also has a lovely slough. TONS of fun for the four-leggers. I *maybe* should have bathed Epic after, 'cuz he suffered with a rash on his undercarriage for about 3 days. Ever try to keep a teenage JRT from scratching his 'little epic' raw? Not fun. Sometimes kinda funny... but not fun....

The End of Crabbiness

Hooray! We have pictures!

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Unfortunately, we haven't been up to much in the last little while. Rally-O, flyball, and some schoolwork have kept us busy. So busy, in fact, that all of us really enjoy our time just sitting around in the new house. Some day I'll get off the couch and paint, until then... I'll throw Dixie's toy.

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*Oh hi! Throw my toy. Not asking.*
Incredibly subtle, no?

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When Epic's not running around like an idiot or noshing on... well... things that shouldn't be noshed on, he can be found doing this ^^.
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^^This is even better, 'cuz he can see out the window too. Yes, laying here does involve a fair amount of skill, and the mashing of one's boy parts... but the payout is so worth it. We live right near a large park, where plenty of people walk their dogs. So no cats around here, but plenty of dogs to tell off from ones throne.

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Prince Attitude has been a bad boy lately. He's destroyed a few articles of clothing (I know you know what I mean), he pulls stuff off my bookshelf, he broke the roomie's closet door, and he pulled out some attitude at a doggy demo the other day. How am I ever going to survive the terrible twos?

Homeless

As mentioned before, Epic, roomie, roomie's dogs, and I, are all camping out at my parent's place while we wait to move into the new house. We've been here for a week now. Considering there are 7 dogs in this house right now, it has gone fabulously well! Mom and Dad have a really large yard which the dogs are taking full advantage of. It would be better if it would stop RAINING SOMETIME THIS $%$#@ING CENTURY, but hey, i'll take what I can get... without TOO much complaint.

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These pictures were taken early last week. It's considerably grosser out there now

^^ Notice the only crazy dog in the picture is Epic. This is my life.

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PLEASE let it stop raining. PLEASE. In the last month Saskatoon has gotten something like 7 inches of rain. 7 inches of rain makes for a LOT of muddy feet to wipe, or floors to mop. Epic and I were at our first Rally-O class last Thursday, watching a big ass cloud roll in over the trees. One torrential downpour later, and so-endeth Rally-O class. I'd REALLY prefer if it didn't rain anymore this week... I'd like Thursday's class to be less wet, and I really don't want to move in the rain again :(

News Flash!

We're moving!

*Wait... what's moving?*

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That's where we go live in a new house Epic... but don't worry. It's not far from here.

*Oh. Can I keep my bed?*

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Of course! You can keep everything! But we're actually going to stay with Grandma and Grandpa for a while, so you'll have to do without for a little bit.

*WAIT! Can I keep my stick!?*

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No. All you do is eat it, anyway.

*But I loves my stick! nom nom nom...*

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We don't get ownership of the new house until June 11th, so that'll be a bit challenging. Good thing there is family nearby willing to take Ep and I in!

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In other news... Epic starts Beginner Rally-O on Thursday! It'll be nice to have something else to do, as playing flyball once a week just isn't enough to wear Epic out. And he needs to be worn out. We've had an insane amount of rain here in the last month, which means some moisture has come into the basement. So the sump pump is running. It has been for two weeks. This went unnoticed by Epic until Tuesday night, when he decided the sump pump was a demon-cat-from-demon-cat-hell, and spent the ENTIRE NIGHT in the basement barking at it. Just thinking about it makes me want to kill him.

Tournament Update

Well, Ben did fantastic. I love that dog. I never realized how 'easy' he had gotten to run until AFTER I got Epic. He used to make me crazy at flyball, as his ball-lust often outweighed his common sense. This meant I could never quite be sure where Ben was going to go... his box? The ball box next door? Would he come back to me? Chase someone down in the runback? This is ridiculously frustrating when you're running a (half) Jack. The terrier side tells him to do bad things, and he often got himself in trouble on the lanes.

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This weekend's Woof Wars tournament marks the beginning of Ben's 4th year in the sport he loves, and the boy is a gem. I now KNOW he will always go down, get HIS ball, and bring it back to ME. At 8 years old, he runs 4.7 so consistently that those who generally follow him complain that Ben has 'wrecked' them, as they can't seem to pass anyone else. He's easy. He'd run for anyone, anytime. He's a good boy.

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Also a good boy? Epic! He wasn't exactly a superstar this weekend, but he did soooo much more than I was expecting that I'm still over the moon. He recalled like a pro, and completed three successful runs during warm up... bringing the ball back and everything! He ended up getting thrown into a heat (!!!), but his box turn sucked, causing him to go wide and miss the jumps on the way back. I'll take it. He's my hero.

1 Going on 8(0)

For a 1 yo Jack Russell Terrier, this guy sure gets a lot of sleep in.

He never fails to amuse me. He loves the back of the couch, but the soft pillows make for some interesting sleeping positions.

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This coming weekend is my flyball teams annual tournament. Epic is going to hit the lanes for warm-ups on Sunday... and that's all I'm going to say about it. I'm not going to get into it, because I don't expect *amazing* things. I think he'll be fine on the recall, but beyond that I'm not sure.

I is Gonna Eat Your Head.

*Hey! Hey! You there!*

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*Yeah! You!*
*I is gonna eat your head*
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*Um nom nom nom*

Happy Birthday Eppers!

Well, today is the real one... Epic is now a year old! It's so hard to believe that a year has passed already. Sure, some of my days with him have been long and trying (very, very trying), but I love this little boy in a way I never knew was possible.

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To celebrate, his grandma and mommy each bought him a toy, and some sardines to put in his supper.
^^Toy. In the tree.

The quarry has been spotted.

May the tugging begin!

^^Tug, tug, tug, tug, tug. Flap. Tug, tug, tug.

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Below is a full year of Epic portraits! Make sure you click on it to view it larger. I can't believe how big my little dog has grown. The middle photo is his one year portrait, and it makes him look like such an old soul.

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So Happy Birthday my Eppers! May you never cease to surprise me.

Prison Break!

So the little rescue made it into general population today. She has previously had limited access to the pack, as she LOVED to chase the little boys. I let her out into the yard with them today and she did very well until Epic got the zoomies... then she thought chasing sounded fun. HOWEVER, I only needed to say her name to call her off!

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Epic thought the new playmate was a great thing... actually, a little too great. He was a bit annoying at first and would NOT let her be.

^^Note the eyes.

A couple quick corrections from me, and we've settled in. They are generally just pleased to share the yard with each other, and there have even been some overtures of play! Good girl Dixie!

^^Dixie's idea of a joke.

Flyball Fanatic

I'm done my thesis! Not really! But I can pretend that I am!

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I've sent my thesis to my committee now for revisions, and I have a bit of time to myself again... I'll be meeting with them sometime in the next three weeks. Three weeks! That's a lot of time!

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There's nothing really new on the Epic front, but it occurred to me that I haven't updated you all on Ep's flyball progress lately. Little man can do it! I've had a lot of trouble getting him to return to me with his ball (getting ball = game over), but last week was a smashing success.

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His lovely aunty took some pictures of him on the box for me... photo-evidence that the puppy is more than teeth, tongue, and stinkiness.

You'll notice that he's looking directly at the camera in two of those pictures. Such a poser!

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Also, if you look closely at that last photo you can see a tuft of hair along his back... long, long hair. The boy is shedding/growing coat like a maniac. I cannot adequately express to you how much I love this dogs coat. He does have a 'problem' with some whiskers on his, um, 'willy' though. They're quite long and mess up his 'flow' if-you-know-what-I-mean. I'll leave you with that thought.

11 months!

It's the 15th! That means that Epic is 11 months old today!

11 months! Old!

Epic thinks to his future:

*I'm done with cookies. I need more snap peas.*

Oh Hai!

Mommy asked me to update the blog as she's too tired. Something about a thesis I guess... it's the same thing that keeps her from playing with me, so it makes sense that it keeps her from blogging as well.

^^ This is me and my tongue.

It was hanging out like that because I got to go out to Allan and visit my Grandma and Grandpa recently. I got really excited.
^^ This is me playing with Callie. She's not too sure about me.

^^ This is Benny and his toy. Which I wanted. He wouldn't let me take it. He's a bad big brother.

^^ This is me today!! We went to the offleash, and guess what?! We found spring!

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Mommy said I'm supposed to tell you she'll be back to blogging soon. In the meantime, I'm going to go bark and Bailey. It's really fun, and it makes mommy look up from her computer and chase me!!! WEEEEEE!!!

Dumb Ass Dog

attempted to eat our roommate today.

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Apologize Epic.

*Me? What? No. Never happened.*

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I swear to doG... some days I just want to string him up by his toes and let little kids tickle him.

*Mmm... maybe a little sorry. Yup, feelin' some sorrys over here. No tickles please... kthnxbai.*

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If he keeps going like this, I'm going to get a lot of use out of that "Bad Puppy" label.

Don't even THINK

about waking that puppy. You'll make God cry.

I swear, I SWEAR to you dear blog readers.... this dog has not had a nap in a week. A whole week. A week the included offleash walks and not one, but two, TWO, flyball practices. A whole week of nice weather for outside zoomies and nothing has tired this boy out. We play. He plays. He barks and torments the other dogs. He barks and torments ME. My cute little puppy is an adolescent, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to strangle his cute little self.

I miss the way he used to run and run and run, and then fall over exhausted and sleep for 3 hours. I miss how 1o minutes of ball throwing and a little bit of training would put him in a little puppy coma.

Mostly, I miss my sanity.

Do NOT be fooled by those eyes! He does NOT want to cuddle with you. He wants to lure you close, and then eat you.

10 Months!

Epic was 10 months old yesterday! Happy Birthday big Epic boy!

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I didn't get any really fantastic photos to mark the occasion as there is sucky light inside, and the mountains of snow outside make everything look sorta blue.

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Epic wishes I had marked the occasion with cake, not pictures.

*Mommy's suck*

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We got outside today for some photos, but it ended up being a series of FAIL.

Cute fail, but still fail.

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We thought maybe we'd play some stick instead.

*Why'd you throw thish schtick away? Thish a good schtick*

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Random booger interlude:

Mmm... tasty.

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AND... to end off the play session outside, the near demise of my camera.

*Close enough now, Miss BossyPants?*

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I'm still in a holding pattern with my thesis waiting for the list of revisions to make it back to me. I figure this down time sort of makes up for the abandonment issues the dogs were suffering while I was finishing up the writing. Everyone got my attention out in the yard this morning (playing stick! And cleaning up nasty things), now we're settled in for some naps that may or may not suck me in. It is very hard to keep one's eyes open when everything around you is snoring.