Seafair Hydroplane & Air Shows

Almost every year since moving to the Seattle area we've done Seafair stuff - run in the Torchlight 5k, gone to see the air shows and hydroplane races, eaten disgusting festival food, and so on.

This year, I was out of town.

But, luckily I just found some long-lost pictures from the 2008 events still on a memory card!

So, here you go. And if you don't like planes.....well, sorry.

First, some disgusting festival food:

Then some hydroplane races:

And some air shows:

Never complete without the Blue Angels:

Oooooooh!

Aaaaaaah!

and then PUPPY!

Oh my gosh, isn't he freaking adorable??

He was sitting next to us.

I loved 'im. :)

Oh wait.

This was supposed to be about airplanes wasn't it?

Right, sorry:

Kappa!

Wow.

The puppy mill Eskies are quite a pitiful bunch. My own little Eskimo has some crazy behaviours that unfortunately are proving quite common for the rest of the group too.

She barks. All the time. No kidding, this little girl barks like, 24/7. She also walks in circles while she barks. Just around and around and around. She also loves to tear up my clothing, but that's a forgivable puppy thing.

After a few baths and about 16 hours of brushing (that's not exaggerating), she looks pretty decent. Pretty darn cute even.

I named her Kappa.

For two reasons - the first because Kappa are old folklore creatures who are described as "mischievous troublemakers" (a very accurate description of this little pup!) and secondly I named her after the Phi Theta Kappa honour society.

Now that I've had her awhile, she is settling down. I've been able to interrupt the barking and teach her some of the basics like sit, down, leash walking, housetraining, and of course a recall.

While she doesn't bark at me or at the walls anymore, she does still bark at Daz.

Although she's really smart and caught onto clicker training instantly, she still hasn't caught onto is the fact that Dazzle hates her. Honestly, I don't blame Daz because Kappa frequently does stupid things like, oh I don't know, jump on her head:

Dazzle isn't shy about expressing her opinions.

Anyway, after a month here little miss Kappa has actually turned into a wonderful, well adjusted, little dog. Upon returning to the Humane Society she got adopted almost instantly. Perhaps because she's so darn cute.

I will certainly miss her, but truth be told, I do hope my next foster is not an Eskimo.

Are they cute? Yes.

Are they sane? Not so much.

I think I've seen enough of these white fluffy dogs for a little while. There are still quite a few living at the Seattle Humane Society waiting for homes, and plenty more getting some much needed TLC in foster homes before they go up for adoption.

Are they photogenic? Well, yes.

Again? So Soon?

Nobody thought it would happen this soon - but once again Washington has busted a puppy  mill.  A big one.  We worked late tonight at the shelter getting as many dogs as we could processed and sent out to foster homes.  You can read more about the raid and watch the news story video here or here.

I did end up taking one home.  She is a four month old female - and she's in need of a name!  If you watch the video in that second link, she's the pup shown cowering in the back of her crate.  She is definitely a cutie...

I'll get some pictures of her soon - Dazzle and I are off this weekend to do the filiming for her first movie.

On another note, you can now follow Daz on twitter!  Here is the link for that:

http://twitter.com/KatnDaz

Photos of "Puppy" soon, I promise!  And please, send me some name ideas.  :)

Oh yes, and last but not least - Bu, my foster from the last puppy mill raid, got adopted within a day of her becoming available!  Congratulations little one!

BOO!

Says Bu.

Bu who??

Who the heck is Bu?  

And is that pronounced like "Buh" or "Boo" or "Bou" or what?

Bu, - pronounced like Boo - is my new (and actually my first) foster dog.  Many of you probably know about the various puppy-mill raids that have been going on.  Well, little Bu happens to be one of the nearly 600 dogs that are victims of those puppy-mills.  You can read a little about the situation here.

Bu is a three year old Yorkie (one of the Skagit dogs for those that care to know), weighing in at a whopping 5 pounds.  When we picked her up from the Humane Society for Seattle and King County her name was Buttercup.  Now, don't get me wrong, Buttercup is a cute name - but what are you supposed to call the dog as a nickname?  "Butt"?  We also tried out "Buttskie" and "Cuppie". 

Yeah.

That's just not going to work here.  Thus, her name quickly shortened to just Bu and it has since stuck.

When we picked her up she was a bit of a mess.  Shaking, scared out of her wits, and smelling strongly of urine.

Dazzle's reaction....stunned horror that I actually brought that thing into the house.

But never fear.  She'll get over it.

Peanut was slightly concerned as well.  After all, she has always been considered the "baby" in the house and despite her slim figure, is nearly twice Bu's weight.

The little Rat (as she is affectionately known) got acquainted with everyone and then began trotting all over the place checking everything out.  I got tired just watching her!

As I learned when walking her from the car to the house, she was not leash trained.  Nor did she much appreciate wearing a collar.

Note Peanut's eyes bugging out of her head as It approaches.

It was drizzling outside (in typical Seattle style) and Bu was most definitely not impressed by the wet outdoors. 

Oh hi there - my toes are freezing.  We go back inside now please?

After investigating the house, yard, and other canines in the house - it was bath time.

My gawd, get me out of here!

It suddenly became very apparent that, when her hair is flattened, her ears are in fact...huge.

Ok ok ok, I promise I be good.  Just no more bath-times please...

Once she dried off and puffed-out she was much happier.

And that much cuter....

Within the first day, she became hopelessly attached to me.  She is so friggin' small that she can squirm out of the gates we have set up in the house and she does so whenever I leave the room.  If I somehow manage to escape her for a few minutes, when I return she bounces up and down like a bouncy ball, little body wiggling the whole time.

Training has begun.  She has figured out stairs, leashes, crates, food time, and grooming.  Housetraining is going surprisingly well (I think Dazzle's look of disgust when she pottied in the house helped).  

Because I like training with play, we've been working on building some play drive.  She isn't really into dog toys but I can play with her if I have some scraps of paper handy.  For whatever reason she really enjoys playing with paper things (most of all those annoying paper bracelets you get when you go to museums and such - she LOVES those!) 

So far we've got a nice snappy down and a decent sit and recall.  We also have the start of a stay, spin, and release word.  I'll try to get some video of that stuff.

I am currently trying desperately not to fail at my first foster attempt.  She sure isn't making it easy for me.

How Good is Your Hand/Eye Coordination?

How about Mouth/Eye coordination?

Today I taught Dazzle a new trick - the classic Ring Toss (or Ring Drop) game.  They say it is good for very young children to improve hand/eye coordination.

When I started teaching her this my plan was to break it down into very simple steps - first pick up the ring like this, then go touch your nose to the top of the pole, then drop the ring.  I figured if she did all that the ring would fall onto the pole, right?

Well, appearently that kind of learning was beneath her.  She, quite simply, just learned that she had to put the ring on the pole to get a reward.  She understood the concept perfectly!  And she figured it out in less than half an hour, less than half of a half hour actually.  Golly Pete, sometimes I underestimate this dog!

Here is the video of her new trick, be sure to watch the bloopers at the end. :)