Post Covid Fun

One of the things that hit us most personally with regards to Covid was the shutdown of dog events.  Dog shows, lure coursing, Fast Cat trials, classes for barn hunt and scentwork.  All of these things that keep their little brains busy and tired...especially the Phoenix dog! 

Yesterday Luratics has some fun runs.  Well, every run with Luratics is fun because Pat is such an amazing lure operator that the girls are completely engaged from the first time they hear the machine resetting the lure line for another dog. 

The girls had a blast.  Where is Smokey, you ask?  He's home, enjoying the AC and some peace and quiet. 

Here's the link to Luratics if you want to keep an eye on their schedule: https://luratics.com/

Elisabeth smiles for the camera while she runs with her usual focus. 

Phoenix leaps into it with unbridled glee

I can catch it mom, I can! 

Part kangaroo? 

Mom did a thing....

Yeah, I got this one Elisabeth. .
So today it was raining.  And not just a sprinkle, but a real So Cal rainstorm complete with lightning and thunder.

When I woke up this morning, the dog run had standing water.  And, well, I just couldn't do it.  So I did what any experienced Siberian Husky owner would do under the circumstances.  I quickly secured as much of the house as possible and left Smokey, the well behaved Gr. Pyr with house privileges and Elisabeth, are you kidding me, 18 mo old puppy loose in the house with dog door access to the back yard.

I thought about them often during the day, wondering what destruction I would come home to.   Did I really close the bedroom and bathroom doors?  Did I get all of the dishes off of the counters and out of the sinks?  Did I... the list went on. 

I had a thing after work, so it wasn't like I could rush home.  So, driving home I just reminded myself that I'd done what I could in the early hours of the morning to keep them safe (short of chewing through electrical cords I suppose) and left them where they had great shelter from the weather and if they pulled all the books off the shelves, the important stuff was way up high anyway. 

So it was with no small amount of trepidation that I opened the front door and peered past the two dogs who were so happy to see me. 

And I looked again.  That box...well, I left it out intentionally knowing that it would be something they could amuse themselves with.  Pieces of a dog bed cover.  Oh well,  that's no big deal.  I carefully walked into the kitchen.  Nope, no open cabinets.  Nothing pulled down off the counters.

We did it!  We survived our first day of house privileges for Smokey and Elisabeth.   Now, that's not to say this is an every day thing.  But it's nice to know if for some reason they need to not be locked in their run (like it's underwater) I have options.  But I think it'll be a while before it's an every day thing.   I think Ryder and Frosty were in double digits when it happened for them.  Maybe it's the whole being raised by a non-Siberian that Elisabeth is different.  Who knows...I'll take it!

Colorado

We stopped in a place called Colorado today to go potty and stretch our legs.  There were these to things on the ground Momma said were leaves.  Not leave its, but leaves.  And the wind blew them up and I chased them.  Now we're getting some fun!

One Million Miles

So we drove a million miles to get here.  Seriously like a million. I had to sleep in my crate with the other dogs.  I told Mom what I thought of that by piddling on my crate pad one night.  That didn't work out so well for me because she took it away, cleaned up my crate and didn't give me another one! 

After we got to this place called National, we went to sleep.  The next day I went out in a big run and played with my cousins, Jaycee, Schyler, and Via.  I was the oldest and I got to be the boss.  I tattled a lot to Mom when they ganged up on me cause that just wasn't fair.

And then it happened, Momma and Aunt Adele got in the van again and we started driving again.  If Adventure is just driving, it's boring! 

We must have driven 200,000 miles and then we went into the fun store.  But Momma tricked me....Aunt Lori gave me a bath!  A bath!  How is that an adventure?  I had to drive a million miles for a bath? 

More walking, more hanging out in the van, more sleep.....this adventure is not at all what I expected. 

Day Three - A Little Excitement!

So, we had another night in the big van sleeping in our rooms.  I don't particularly like the sleeping arrangements on this adventure.  Tonight I showed Momma, I used my crate pad to go potty and shoved it up against the crate door so she had to clean it.  I showed her!

Once we got "on the road"  (again, is that all we're going to do because I'm kinda over it except for all of the bully sticks Momma gives me) we drove for a million miles (mom note:  it was 30 miles) and then we pulled over because Momma was going to take away the towel I was shredding in my crate.  Hey, she put it in there and it was already torn, how was I to know?   And then we stopped for a long time.

The wind in this windy Wyoming place took the door away from Momma and broke it!  We had to wait for the nice man to come fix it.  And then we had to wait for him to have his friend come give us a ride!

We had to hang around for an hour or so for the door to be fixed before we could...yep... "get on the road" again.  Momma found a fun place for us to play on the grass for a few minutes and I got to zoom around a little bit and then we drove until we found a sleeping place.  I don't know how Momma and Aunt Adele decide where the sleeping place is going to be and why it matters.  It looks like my same room in the same box every night.  

Momma says tomorrow we're going to get to where we're going.  I'm kinda tired of this "on the road" thing, so I hope that means something new to do!!! 

Day Two - a lot like Day One

Momma is way behind on posting these things for me, she said something about it not working from the phone and being tired at night.  Seriously, we're sitting in a big box all day, how tired can she be?

You know what I've learned about road trips?  A girl gets NO privacy!  I have to do all my business on a leash.  This is NOT ACCEPTABLE.

I don't know what kind of adventure this is, but I found this on the ground.  I started to play in it but it was cold and wet, like a bath.

 So I hopped back into my room in the van (Momma said they're not boxes but tells me to get in my house.  This is NOT my house and I miss Smokey.)  so we could "get on the road again."  Getting on the road isn't all that fun, I don't know why Momma says we need to keep doing it.

This was on Thursday.  Since Mom's behind on putting these up for me, I figured I'd better tell you that.

And we are off!

Aunt Adele brought my mom, brother, cousins down to visit with me.. and we had fun playing in the water and chasing.  But then it was bedtime and I tried to tell Momma all night that I wanted to go a sleepover in the run with them.  Then when Aunt Adele loaded everyone up in the van they put me in too!  Momma says I'm off for a great adventure. 

I'm in the 2nd crate from the back underneath that little one that's empty because no one likes getting up and down out of it!  That means no upstairs neighbor!

The chasing thing

A couple of weekends ago Momma and I took off on a trip.  Smokey didn't come with us, so I wasn't sure where we were going because I didn't have to have a bath.  But I am totally up for any adventure that doesn't include a bath!

After a stop at the treat store where Momma got me some new chewies (freeze dried beef tail if y'all are curious...they last a lot longer than bully sticks!) we hit the road.  After a couple of hours we got out and Momma was so excited.

When I was my turn we went out into this big field and they had some plastic bags laying on the ground.  They moved around a little and I was bored, so I went and found a smelly place in the grass to roll around... that was awesome!  Then I heard that sound, a squeaky toy!  Now they had my attention! They wanted me to chase it!  Well, OK!

Then the squeaky toy started moving...so I chased it!  I wasn't on a leash, so I kept running after it!  Eventually it got away from me so I started looking for another good place in the grass to roll around but it came back!  Well, that's never happened before, so I chased it again!

OMG this is FUN!

I ran and I ran and I ran... dang that squeaky toy was FAST!  

But I got so close to it!!! and then, success!!!! 

They didn't let me keep it, but they did let me chase it again.  Then we got in the car and I napped all the way home.  Smokey didn't seem all that excited when I told him about the chasing fun.  He's a poopyhead sometimes.  

Bath Time!

So, Momma's been telling me all week that I'm getting a bath today.  And bath time came and went and there was no bath so I figured I was off the hook.

And then she changed her clothes and grabbed some treats and tricked me into jumping up on the bath table.  She TRICKED me!!! 

The water was warmish, because it's still 100 degrees outside but in case Momma's never mentioned it... I. Do. Not. Like. Baths. 

And the drying!  She grabs the vacuum cleaner noise thing and just blows it at me...for ever until I'm dry.  Tonight was kinda fun because she popped a circuit breaker and stood there trying to decide if I was dry enough or if she had to go reset it.  Because if she had to reset it she had to let me down off the table. 

Ah hah!  And I'm down.  Momma reset the thing ... hey, that box on the wall, I didn't know it was there... and then went inside and got me more cookies... and TRICKED ME AGAIN! 

After she finished drying me off I went outside to show Smokey how beautiful I was. 

And here I am, fresh from my bath.  Momma's crying.  I think baths make her sad and I shouldn't have anymore.

DISPELLING THE TERM "PUPPYMILL"

There is no legal definition for the term "puppymill".

The term "puppymill" is a phrase coined by animal rights activists and supporters against anyone who breeds dogs, regardless of the care the animals receive. The name-calling is a means to turn the unknowing public against all dog breeders and to raise endless funds for continuous propaganda and money-making schemes by animal rights activists and organizations.

There is a difference between professional kennels and sub-standard kennels.

Professional breeders operate legal kennels, licensed by the state department of agriculture as well as USDA, and meet or exceed all guidelines pertaining to the health, care and well-being of their animals. They are active members in good standing of state associations, attend seminars, and earn continuing education hours for lectures on such topics as pre-natal and post-natal care, nutrition, health care, socialization, grooming, kennel management, tax preparation, ventilation, incubation and reproduction.

Substandard kennels are illegal, unlicensed facilities that produce animals with no regards to their health and well-being.

No one supports neglect or abuse of animals. Calling legal, licensed, professional breeders "puppymills" and claiming that they abuse their animals is grossly unfair and unjust, and is not acceptable.

The term "puppymill" is a derogatory word used by animal rights activists and supporters against anyone who breeds dogs, and is no more acceptable than using slur names for those of different ethnic backgrounds. It is as degrading and offensive to professional breeders to call them "puppymills" as it is to call our fellow man slur names. It is not socially acceptable to call our fellow man names, nor is it acceptable to call breeders slur names.

We ask that you refrain from using the term "puppymill", and that you correct others that use the term to describe dog breeders. Animal rights activists use the term to garner support for fundraising, and those funds are being used to eliminate all agriculture, use and enjoyment of animals. Please help us to stop the spread of animal rights issues. Let's all begin by eliminating the term "puppymill" from our vocabulary.

Karen Strange, President & Lobbyist
MoFed

Don't be a joy stealer

DON'T YOU DARE STEAL MY JOY
by Connie Cleveland

On the occasion of my tenth anniversary, my husband asked me how I
wanted to celebrate. I asked that we take a very dear friend, my adopted
grandmother and one of the greatest of all the great southern ladies, out to dinner
with us.
At dinner, my husband, Brian, presented me with a diamond ring. It was
gorgeous and I was speechless, but even as I thanked him, I worried
about the expense and extravagance of such a gift. As if he knew that the
next line belonged to my grandmother, my husband excused himself from the
table. He was barely out of sight when she reached across the table and
grabbed me by the shoulder, "I know what you're thinking, I know you think he
couldn't afford it and it's too extravagant. I don't care if he had to put a
second mortgage on the house to buy it, don't you steal his joy! It's
beautiful. Accept it as the token of his love that it is and say nothing about
how he shouldn't have bought it for you." Then she repeated, "Don't you dare
steal his joy!"

That was the end of the conversation. She sat back in her seat,
smiled at my returning husband, and we had a lovely dinner. I took her advice and
put my reservations out of my mind. The ring has never come off my finger, but
most importantly, I learned a wonderfully important lesson, never to steal
another man's joy.

Are you a joy stealer?
?
?

"You know if my dog hadn't gone down on the sit, I would have won the
class", said, unfeelingly, to the winner. "I sure didn't think your dog worked that high a score." "I can't believe you placed, I thought Jane Oneup and her dog would
beat you."
"I thought I had that class won! My dog had a great performance, " said to the winner.
"Isn't that judge an idiot? I can't believe the dogs he put up!" said to the winner.
"Boy, aren't you glad Mrs Winallthetime wasn't here today or you might not have won."
"You passed that Master test because the water blind was so easy."
"That was the stupidest set of water marks I've ever seen. No trial should end that easily," said to the winner.

Do you discourage or encourage fellow competitors? Do you tell them their goals are too lofty and their dreams too big? Are you trying to be helpful or trying to keep them from accomplishing something that you never had the ability or perseverance to do yourself? It is equally as harmful to steal joy by destroying the dream.

"No Basset Hounds get UD's," said to the owner of the Bassett in Utility class.

"I've never seen a Rottweiler that could do fronts and finishes", said to the owner of the Rottweiler practicing fronts and finishes.
"Do you have any idea how hard it is to get a UD and a Master Hunter? Do you know how few people have ever done it?" said to the first time dog owner setting out to do both.

When FC AFC OTCH Law Abiding Ezra had both his field championships and 65
OTCH points including all the necessary first places, someone had the guts
to come up to me, his owner, trainer and handler and say, "No dog will ever
be a field champion and an obedience champion." My jaw drops when I think
about it. Isn't it unfortunate that I remember this attempt at stealing my
joy much more than I remember all the cards and letters and congratulations
I received when those last 35 points were earned?

If you are willing to destroy someone's dream, perhaps you don't realize
that it is the JOY of pursuing the dream that keeps the dreamer motivated,
not just reaching the accomplishment.

My husband and I travel and compete together. I remember an event, early in
our relationship when I watched his Doberman fail articles. "Darn it, " I said, as he came out of the ring," she didn't even try to find the right one!" "Oh", he replied, "but, weren't her heeling and signals wonderful?"

Unknowingly, I had almost stolen his joy. He was celebrating the improvement on the exercise that had been giving him trouble, and I was focused on the failure. Since that experience, Brian and I have learned that the best response to a questionable performance, "What did you think?" That way, if the handler is excited about some aspect of the performance, you can share that excitement. If the handler is disappointed in another aspect, you can share the disappointment. You are safely removed from being a joy stealer.

I hope you have a lot of dreams and goals for your dogs in (the coming year). Undoubtedly there will be moments of disappointment as you venture through the landmines of injury, failures and other setbacks. Remember that the joy of the journey is worth the difficulties along the way and don't let anyone steal that joy. Guard it well and at he end of the road you can own it and revel in it with all the other memories of the trip.

Wow, it's been a while!

I just noticed how long it's been since you've heard from Kaos Siberians.

There have been a LOT of changes here.  Ryder, Frosty, Satinka, and Robin are still here.  Ice is off doing whatever he's decided to do over the Rainbow Bridge; letting him go was rough but it was time.

We added a new furry family member, Smokey.

Smokey is a Great Pyrenees that we met at Animal Friends of the Valley and fell in love with.  With minimal research into the breed, we brought him home.  The first few weeks I wondered if I'd made a horrible mistake.  But over the last few months, he's become part of the pack.  Smokey and I are taking some basic obedience classes at PetSmart and we're looking forward to moving forward with CGC and therapy dog certifications as well as doing some training to start competing in Rally Obedience.  He's a smart boy and much more eager to please than a Siberian!  

We haven't been in the show ring, except when Maskarade Siberians has dragged us out to help her when she's in Southern California, but we're considering a return there too with a new puppy later this year or next year.

Right now I'm just going to school, staring a new job and spending time with my crew who are, with the exception of Smokey, all senior dogs now and all kinda calm and mellow.  Every day with them is a gift and I'm not going to miss a minute of it. 

Checking in

It's been a while, hasn't it?  So much has changed in my life, almost all of it has been good change for me.  If you've missed the changes, I'm divorced, living with only five dogs and have returned to school part time to finish my bachelor's degree.  Those are the highlights.

And it seems, I've gotten complacent about how Siberians behave.  Saturday morning I left the back door into the dog area open so the dogs could laze around inside.  I heard a weird sound, hollered from the bedroom and it eventually stopped.  So I went back to sleep. Because quiet Siberian Huskies are sleeping Siberian Huskies, right?

Nope.  As it turns out they had decided it was time to explore the garage.  The garage "path" to the yard for them is formed with an expen; just an expen.  So, they opened the end and went into the "unpacked" area.  Frosty found (or someone found, but Frosty had it when I got up) a bottle of fish oil I was certain I had but couldn't find.  It's a little misshapen and has some holes in it but hey, I have fish oil for them now.  That explains the weird rattling noise.

And then I couldn't find Robin.  So I wandered out to the garage.  She was perched on top of an unstable stack of boxes waiting for me to come rescue her.  I was really tempted to let her stay there and see how long it took her to reverse course, but with the broken foot and all, I really didn't want to stand there.  So I rescued her.

Yep, it seems that they've lulled me into that false sense of security that experienced Siberian Husky owners know and dread.

And the adventure continues!

Catching up

It's been a little over two years since I've checked in here...two years in which a lot has changed.

I haven't been active in the show ring in a little over two years now, first finances then divorce.  Things change and after I finish figuring out what my new life is going to look like, I hope to be back in the ring.  We've placed some of the dogs, other dogs are staying with friends and have kept some of them. 

Max, Aleska and Katie are off living their life of luxury with Grandma Sharon.  Tipton and Sage are living down in Long Beach, terrorizing the neighboring cats and small dogs who venture too close and driving their new family nuts.  Robin is up visiting Aunt Lori and may go visit Maskarade for a bit.  Emmy and Satinka are *gasp* learning to live outside, in a dog run...and Ice keeps them company most of the time.  Ryder and Frosty, of course, are still spoiled house dogs and like it that way.

In a few months, I'm hoping to be moved into my own place where Satinka and Emmy can lounge on the sofas again...but first things first, right?

I kinda miss the shows, but then, as I sit here on a peaceful Sunday afternoon not packing up to drive home, exhausted I don't.  I think when I start showing again it's going to be on a much more limited basis. 

My glass is all packed and in storage.  That sucks.  But again, it's not gone away...it's just stored for now. 

That's it in a nutshell!  Kaos is still Kaos and each day brings new and different challenges. 

What do you mean I don't have Cobalt Blue frit????

Well, what's a gal to do when she doesn't have the color frit that she fell asleep thinking about using? I have Cobalt confetti glass (really thin pieces of broken up blown glass) and a smasher thingie from the kitchen dept...and if you look in the bowl there you'll see it.... FRIT! Frit is really just smushed up glass... I can do that!
So, instead of playing with the frit lace one color at a time, I used some ceramic fiber paper to make 3 channels...then weighted it down with pieces of old kiln shelf. Not ideal, and I have an idea what I need to make a more permanent mold...but I didn't want to spend the 2 hour drive out to Pacific Art Glass to get it, I wanted this in the kiln NOW.

From top to bottom, Cobalt on Lemon Yellow, Cobalt on iridized clear and Cobalt on Reactive Cloud (this one I'm really looking forward to seeing).

I weighted down the top layer of fiber paper so that I had a chance of each color staying in its own place...we'll see how that worked. If these three pieces are at all what I'm hoping for, I think tonight I'll be firing the big kiln!

Frit lace

I've been playing with this for a couple days now...and it's fun. The results are sometimes unexpected and a few have already hit the scrap heap.

This one is a violet and irridized clear frit mix. You can't see the iridescence in the pictures..but it's there. I was going to fuse it onto a piece of clear or white glass so that I could work with it...
But then I set it down on a piece of black cardstock....yeppers...this one is destined for black.
This is just a simple pile of large French Vanilla frit. I wasn't anticipating the marbling...and I LOVE it!!! I'm going to simply fuse it onto a strip of French Vanilla to work with it...and put a couple of pieces of frit in that hole to fill it in. I'm totally in love with the way this experiement turned out.

So much so that I thought I'd start playing with topping the large French Vanilla with some colored frit...in this case Olive Green. I love how it looks... And then I turned it over... and THIS is what I was really hoping for. Sometimes you just have to look at things differently, right? I'm going to break off some of those fragile edge pieces to fill in the holes and again, fuse it onto a piece of French Vanilla glass so I can work with it.


There's another experiment in the kiln now... I can't wait to see how they come out!!!

Ginkos in glass...part two

Ok, I admit it, I peeked in the kiln, so I had a fair idea this wasn't going to come out quite as planned....

The two leaves that had the Thompsons' stuff had a HUGE bubble over them (the two on the right)...which left the Pearl Ex completely exposed when it pulled back. Now I can brush the powder off. Of course, I could have also maybe used too much Pearl Ex? I'll have to play with that again.

The Simple Solution leaf (far left) has a bubble too. The one that didn't bubble lost all the color in the Pearl Ex and just looks like burned silver leaf. Not the effect I was going for, that's for sure. But the Stamping Medium did the best in the kiln...that or that's the leaf I put the least amount of Pearl Ex on... so many variables.

I'm gonna try again... but this time i'm going to put each leaf in its own glass sammich...that way if one does turn out, the others won't ruin it. This is gonna get cleaned up and go in the scrap drawer for now. I've got other ideas I want to play with!!!

Ginkos in glass...

Well, that's what I'm hoping to get... we'll see.

There's a really cool technique that involves sifting glass powders onto leaves that you've made sticky with hair spray or some such stuff, sift powder onto them and then you fuse 'em and get a really cool effect when the leaves burn off in the kiln...Fossil Vitra and I've been dying to play with it. Except I don't have any glass powder (there's a mortal & pestle in my future) and well...I don't own any hairspray. But in this HUGE room of stuff, there's got to be something I can use instead.

So, I pulled down some various sticky mediums, Fuse Master's overglaze glue, glass stamping medium, Dove blending medium and Simple Solution from Dreaming in Color. Yes, I could have grabbed the gum arabic and mixed some up, but I was going for already mixed convenience.

The overglaze glue is nice and sticky and spread nicely out over the leaf. Using a stipple brush (yeah, have a few of those around from the stamping days too) I covered it with Pearl Ex.

Dove Blending medium didn't work on its own, it just beaded up on the dried leaf. On to the sticky as heck glass stamping medium..WOW.. they weren't kidding this stuff needs to be thinned. A few drops of the Dove blending medium thinned it enough to spread over the leaf and it too was covered with pearl ex.

The Simple Solution was by far the easiest to spread on the dried leaf.

Instead of setting this aside to wait for a full kiln, since it involved burning off the various mediums, I'm firing up the baby kiln upstairs.

That, of course, means I need to stay up here and babysit the fusing 'cause this kiln has a manual control (oh, poor me, two kilns and one of 'em is manual). Which means I could start some other projects to fill up the big kiln for a firing!!

Scraps of dichro...

These are scraps. I took a huge pile of my scrap dichro and melted them into a big pile on a sheet of black glass. Now, sometimes I wish I hadn't done that because I can think of a million other things to do with that scrap dichro...but it was done and melted and I needed to eventually do something with the resulting chunk of glass. Today was that day.

After trimming some of the edges so that I could measure more easily, I headed over to the ring saw to start cutting up the glass.



After cutting the strips, I played with them, moving the pairs until I got a combo that made me happy...


Next I'm gonna fuse them again, using some dams to keep the glass from spread out too far and will have 4 long strips, instead of 8 short strips (that's the plan anyway). Then they're going to be come design pieces in some plates... I think.

The rest of the day was spent looking at those fused striped pieces. I'm still not liking the pink one, the pink is too pale and you really can't see the pink. They may be cut up and used in something else. But the purple is going to be slumped into a little sushi dish. I'm trying to be patient, filling up the the kiln so I'm not wasting electricity. Gives me some extra time to keep my area cleaned up...

I can't wait to get back up there tomorrow.

Firing the kiln... and the laws of glass

Even I can't overlook the laws of glass. Glass at full fuse temperatures wants to be 6mm thick. That's something that's important to remember if you're mixing different colors...especially when they're not the same thickness.


See those sharp edges and bubbles? Well, that's what happens when you mix 2mm and 3mm glass...don't add enough to make up for the missing volume AND fire it with a piece that is all 3mm and don't add extra soak time for things to smooth out. But that's OK, those champagne bubbles are a sign of hand crafting, right? Some work with the grinder and we'll have those edges cleaned up and be ready to slump this little bugger.



Now the pink one turned out much better. It was all 3mm glass, so I didn't have the air bubble issue...and the edges are nice and smooth. It still needs a little bit of cold working, but not nearly as much as the purple.

Fusing glass is teaching me patience. I put these in the kiln with the electronic controller, so I had no excuses to be peeking in the kiln. Waiting up until the kiln is cool enough to open is not an option when you don't fire till mid to late afternoon. And now I get to fire them AGAIN!!!! I can see the need to have several kilns so you can have several projects going at once....but I don't think that's gonna happen.

I'm certainly going to be less casual about buying 2mm or 3mm glass, that's for sure! And I'll be spending a lot more time practicing cutting my glass so that it breaks in nice, clean lines. Because there are some circle projects I want to play around with....and I KNOW that the circle cutter is going to tax my knowledge of words I can say in other languages.