Snapped this photo while we were visiting Claire the day after Christmas. Uschi looks a tiny bit distressed because she popped up when I pulled out the camera and I made her lie back down. The girls get along fine and well, but I was still surprised to see them fast asleep lying end-to-end like this. Usually they jockey for position, resigning themselves to having to be so close. They are pretty hilarious to observe even in these calmer moments.

Last night I had the wackiest dream about the girls. I guess it’s odd, but I rarely dream about my guide dogs. (Well, the last few years or so it seems rare that I dream anything that I actually remember.) This one definitely seems rooted in my current situation with my mother, who is essentially mad at me. It’s sort of an involved story, but it’s not really a big thing and I’m sure it will blow over soon enough. Anyway, for whatever reason I had both dogs here and my mother was all upset about it and didn’t like the idea of one of the girls being home alone all day while I was at work. There was all this stuff about her being scared of the way the dog was acting and at one point I was apparently moved to try and problem solve how to start working Yara instead of Uschi. This seemed absurd even in the dream.

Wacky dream aside, I think I’m coming down with a sinus thing. I thought I was getting sick a few weeks back, but it passed and then I was at Dad’s and I figured I was all stuffy from the tree. But now I’m home and still equally stuffed up. Of course, it could just be the weather, which has finally decided that it is winter and become incredibly cold very quickly. It snowed a bit yesterday even. I am not pleased by this at all.

I’ve linked this a few times before, but I thought I’d post it today since it was taken exactly one year ago. I’d wanted to get a photo done with Santa for years, but the day before I’d received the call about Uschi making Yara’s retirement official and knowing our time together was very short I was quite motivated to get this little thing done.

Yara’s puppy raisers dubbed her their “little supervisor” because she could almost always be found sitting in a good vantage point watching whatever was going on. And it’s still one of her defining traits even in retirement. I have to wonder if she’s actually waiting for something or really just enjoys observing the goings on around her. Either way, it certainly seems peaceful.

I only just got my hands on this photo from May, so I guess it’s rather fitting in a way that I’m over a week late in participating in this particular challenge. Especially since I wasn’t around because I was spending time with my family (specifically my father, pictured above).

Last Wednesday when Dad picked me up there was an ice storm that downed one of the arborvitae trees in the yard. Uschi and Yara had quite a time chasing one another around the large pile of branches Keith made. For all the playing they did the last week, though both dogs were quite uninterested in eating their meals regularly. I was starting to develop a bit of a complex that it was me and something I was doing, but in actuality I think it was more just the distraction of having another dog around that kept them from wanting to focus on actually finishing their respective food.

Anyway, today marks the end of NaBloPoMo. I don’t really have much to say on it this time around, but that’s probably because my participation this year was rather halfhearted given the daily posting I’m already engaged in for the entire year.

Nevertheless with Thanksgiving having passed it’s officially the holiday season. I’ll be sending out my holiday cards within the next week, so please let me know if you’re interested in receiving one. I’ve also made plans with Alice and Josh to go to the Victorian Stroll, which is this Sunday, and I’m quite excited. And in a surprising turn, my mother wants to go to the Capital Holiday Lights in Washington Park. Which speaking of, most of my street has already put up their lights. It’s quite lovely, but I can’t help being somewhat horrified how quickly time seems to be speeding along towards Christmas. Not that I’m complaining. . . .

For now here’s a slightly blurry photo of the girls supervising my packing this morning:

While Hurricane Irene knocked out my power for almost a week, the flooding it created actually washed away a portion of the road my father lives on. It’s been closed for months now and will probably remain so for at least another year as it’s yet undetermined how to repair the damaged road. The plus side is that there isn’t traffic down by the roadblock so it’s an excellent place for a walk along the road. Keith and I took the girls there for a good long walk and so that I could see the flood damage. Once we were passed the drop off areas we also hiked a bit into the woods a few times. We found a very old outhouse at one of the camps and another path we took brought us right up to the shore of the lake where the girls both waded in and had a long drink. (I was very scared Uschi might drag me into the frigid water since she’s a bit of a history with water, but try as she might to tug me along I managed to keep my feet dry!)

It was very pleasant and a wonderful way to spend the incredibly beautiful day. With weather this mild (and the forecast is for several more yet to come) it’s a bit hard to believe that Christmas is only a month away!

This certainly brings back memories. Yara’s grown very attached to Keith since she’s been living here. (Well, truthfully all three of my girls have taken a quick liking to Keith, including Uschi.) So, I was very surprised when she chose to snuggle up with me and fall asleep rather than follow Keith around the house.

Sleeping routines in the house have been quite interesting the last few days. Yara’s been joining me and Uschi until Dad has called her to bed and this morning she woke up when Keith took an early trip to the bathroom and rejoined us until I finally got up. I think she might stay the entire night with us if Dad didn’t both to call her, but it has been odd that she’s not continued her normal routine of waiting downstairs until everyone (i.e., my dad) has gone up to bed before coming upstairs herself. Between the two dogs, though there isn’t much room in the full bed I’ve been sleeping in so I’m not entirely complaining. Even amongst the dogs there seems to be a bit of disagreement over space and where exactly each should be. (Both seem to want to be right up by my head even though both usually sleep towards my feet when it’s just the two of us.)

Playtime between Yara and Uschi is an interesting thing. Mostly there is a lot of running around and jumping on Uschi’s part and biting and growling on Yara’s part. Generally they chase each other about and when Yara gets sick of that she forces Uschi to submit. By then they’ve gotten so noisy and rowdy that Dad, Keith or I have shouted over the din to get them to settle and they go off and lie down until one of them (usually Uschi) picks up a toy and blatantly shoves it in the other dog’s face and the whole thing starts up again. Sometimes they don’t jump right into the chasing thing, though and they instead jockey about for who gets the toy. Most of the time that’s done through a tug-of-war, which if you’ve been around here for any length of time you’ll know that is Yara’s favorite game. She’s a champion at it because she never exerts more energy than necessary against her opponent and she’s also not above cheating. (Her best known tactic was against Fay where she would smack her in the fact with a paw!) Uschi’s almost clued into this, though she still ends up loosing because she lacks the patience to just stand there with the toy in her mouth and eventually she tries to tug with all her might and wears herself out. But now and again she tries to trick Yara by feigning disinterest and only just barely holding on and that is the most interesting thing to watch. When I took the above photo the girls had been in that position in front of me for some ten minutes hardly moving an inch between themselves in the tug, just looking at one another (and subsequently me when I took the camera out).

Yara was quite thrilled to see me and Uschi come home with Dad yesterday. The girls have been playing pretty much nonstop since we walked in the door. As with our last visit, Yara made herself comfy in Uschi’s popup crate right after I set it up and then Uschi squished her way in to join her! At bedtime, Yara joined us. It made for a bit of a cramped but very toasty bed.

So, fun activities are on hold, but that doesn’t mean we can’t celebrate via other outlets. Today, for instance, Uschi is the featured grown-up puppy on DailyPuppy.com! She’s one of the few guide dogs to ever be featured and joins the illustrious ranks with Yara, who was featured last year and the Guiding Eyes puppies and guide dogs.

I love the selection of photos they chose out of the submission I gave; I think they really show both sides of her widely dynamic personality. Doesn’t hurt either that some of them are personal favorites of mine.

On an unrelated note, I’ve extended the deadline for submissions to the fifth Assistance Dog Blog Carnival. I had a few people contact me that they wouldn’t make the original deadline and others who voiced some displeasure at the submission they did make. Plus since reading was making me nauseous yesterday I knew I wasn’t going to get the Carnival up any time soon anyway. So, if you wanted to participate you now have until October 31, 2011.

This is one of my favorite photos of Yara for several reasons. Obviously, it’s almost criminal in the level of cuteness, especially when you factor in that what you can’t see in this photo is that she’s asleep atop a toy that was sent home with her and thus is full of the scents of her sibs. But beyond that I just see all the possibility in this little puppy. Her career as my second guide dog was already a fact when I first saw this photo so perhaps that’s why I equate this sweet, sleeping face with so much potential.

She checked her for fleas and found more flea dirt and a lone dead flea. We figure the K9 Advantix II is doing its job if there are dead fleas. The vet gave her a Capster pill to help eliminate any live fleas. I haven’t been bitten again since we’ve been home, so I’m confident that between these steps and my rigorous cleaning we’ve kept the little bugs from moving in for good.

I was very pleased with how well Uschi did at the vet’s. All of my girls have proven to be quite well mannered at the vet’s and in fact seem to enjoy the experience. I was complimented a few times at Parkside over Yara’s good behavior that even surpassed that of other working dogs who came in. However, Uschi puts both of them in the dust; she was totally unfazed by everything! Being a shepherd, she isn’t too fond of having things shoved in her ear so she did move a bit when the vet examined those. Otherwise, she was the picture of calm. She even gave an unprompted, long sigh when Dr. Kucskar was listening to her lungs!

And yes, she was duly admired for her cuteness. Everyone commented on how adorable she was and her beautiful markings. I think being colorblind I’m missing some big point over her coloring? Someone mentioned red in her coat — and thinking back it’s not the first time I have heard that. Anyway, she was adequately praised up and admired.

My uncle’s memorial was last night and my lasting memory of it will no doubt be that the minister came over at the reception to tell me how impressed he was with Uschi. He said that he often brings his dog to church and leaves him in the back, so he was glad that she wasn’t distracted by dog smells.

Dad also brought Yara, since she’s back on the Prednisone and urinating constantly, so the girls had a reunion of sorts. Yara stayed in the car during the service, but we brought her into the reception with us. Both girls were very good, lying under tables and ignoring each other. We were some of the very last to leave so when the majority of guests had left I let Uschi off harness and they got some crazy fun playtime. Linoleum is not the best surface for a game of chase, but they did pretty well regardless!

The one sad point of the night, aside from the obvious, was that I found out that Kerry Hawver passed away. I’ve known her since elementary school, we graduated together, and her younger brother Frank was one of my uncle’s foster kids. ;_;