Phase One catching up

Let's see . . . Wyatt narrowly avoided having a very expensive surgery. He had a lump by his hock on the inside of his right hind. I had called for a quote and after recovering from the sticker shock began to figure out how to come up with $600. Wy had been licking it and had been threatened with the balloon collar so he would not mess with it when I was around. Pretty much it popped, it began to have better color and today is back to normal. Huge sigh of relief!

Joyous days! All dogs are now on the same dog food. Even with Pixie's piggy help, it took Wy took quite a while to make it through the rest of huge bag.

Smudgie has a bump on her belly I just noticed - hoping it is a bug bite. She is a bit sparsely hair. Speaking of the pup . . .Smudgie is the BEST agility dog :)  We practice weaves with guides at home and she is now able to weave at class without missing. We are now able to do serpentines - that is if I give turn indications and go ~. If she does miss we run back around and she slows at the end to be careful and get all the poles. I purchased a book that is giving me better instruction for handling. We could practice a bit more if it were not a kagillion degrees outside.

Josie has had a lazy summer. We were just building up our endurance and it got hot, miserably hot. Between Smudgie's agility class on Fridays and working at the track on Saturdays and the extreme heat I just haven't been getting out as much as I would like. She has shoes back on and we are waiting for a old abscess area to grow out. The nail just got loose this past week. She is getting her nails done probably the 18th. We had a little issue Sunday the 8th. I cooled her off with a shower and was going to let her romp a bit before trying to ride bareback. I let her loose in the indoor and made my way to the end with the fly screen covering the door - see I meant to not let her go through - she had never tried before. She was going round and alternating between bucking and full gallop. I had her change direction which took me away from said fly screen and she blasted around heading straight for the opening. I told her WHOA! and she started to apply the brakes, she then ducked her head and went for it. She stood outside and was a bit startled. I called her and she swiveled her head to look at me, I called again and she walked a step to me. What a good girl, even when she is naughty.

Last night I gave her a full bath and banged her tail. Managed to let her go with her fly leg wraps backwards. Dipsnit! She let me catch her even though she was having a happy reunion with one of her pasture boyfriends, Sly. While I was fixing them, she was low nickering, telling him she would be right back and she was his :)

New job requires being on call for the month. The first week was the hardest - VPN issues. self induced stress, the unknown - the usual. Once this was addressed (VPN), I have been having no issues and being on call is less stressful. I do hope they realize after 5Gig they will be paying the extra for my Internet access.

Visited what I hear is the third biggest Fleet Farm. It is HUGE! The one thing I wanted to check on I never found. Oh, well. Cow knuckles were $4.99 - will have some happy dogs soon.

Some where I lost five pounds, not British pounds but actually fat pounds! Woot hoot! Trying to get 10,000 steps a day to get to Silver status so I reduce my medical payments by $60.00 - yes