Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Jake's New Friend

I wasn't planning on giving Jake one of my ACDRA stuffed cattle dogs but he spotted it and he HAD to have it. He jumped clear off the floor and got it from my shoulder where I stuck it for safe keeping. Luckily, I ordered four so I guess Jake can have one.

Introducing Jake's new buddy:



Let's go for a walk:



Don't worry, buddy, I'll make sure no one hurts you:



Let's rest in the pretty, non-poisonous weeds for a bit:



This is a great fundraiser for ACDRA (Australian Cattle Dog Rescue Association). I've been wanting these stuffed ACDs but didn't want to pay some toy store $13 for one. Paying $9.99 AND it benefits ACDRA is awesome! You can visit their website at www.acdra.org and order some for yourself!

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Knitting: A New Source of Humiliation for Jake

Taking our winter break from agility was too much empty time so my friend Elizabeth and I took knitting classes for fun. Fun. Hmmm, once we stop crying and pulling our hair out, I'm sure we can label it as fun. Until then, our Type A personalities are trying to figure out this whole knitting thing and not giving up easily! We've got scarves downpat and are branching out into wraps and baby blankets. I've even bought yarn to attempt my first sweater! I needed a model for my red scarf and Jake's the only animal in our house that would hold still for modeling.



Thursday, April 10, 2008

April Showers Bring Jake Flowers

I was hoping I could get this spot of the yard before the landlord mowed and it seems that I beat him to it. I have no idea what that stuff is but it looked exotic and deep enough to hide a Jake in. Jake is always willing to indulge Mom in a photo session if it involves mini marshmellows.







Sunday, April 06, 2008

Animal Fair

On Saturday Carolina R&R hosted a booth at the Glenforest School's annual Animal Fair here in West Columbia, SC. The school holds the fair each year to allow rescues to raise funds and to help educate the public about animals. One of our goals as a rescue is to help with public education so we signed up and hoped for no rain. The event was to be held outside but with the rain, we all headed indoors to the rather dark auditorium. Since I was first on the scene, I procured two spaces by the front door and unloaded our fundraiser stuff in the pouring rain. I got done in enough time for it to stop raining and for Janet to arrive with her girl Pepper and the tables, display racks, and tent frame. Sara arrived with some festive hats and ACD breed info sheets. I then headed to go get another rescue member who lives here in Columbia, Karen, and her two ACDs, Diesel and Curry.

We got the booth set up in about a half hour and began to try to dry off. That's hard to do when all the dogs are wet and shaking off on you! Jake especially got soaked several times from walking back and forth to the car and taking potty breaks. My shoes were soaking wet from navigating the puddles in the parking lot. Regardless, we were proud of our booth!

Table set up with photos of our rescue at work, ACD breed handouts, and one corner of tugs on display:


Table set up with Buddy Biscuits and second corner of tugs on display:


Prizes for our dog trivia contest and hot dog eating contest (someone bought the remaining stuffed animals so gave away Buddy Biscuits as contest prizes, too!):


We got to see Hank, one of our fosters that got adopted here locally. He's growing like a weed and is only six months old! His new family adores him and we're so happy to see that.

Our gang of ACDs were among the best behaved dogs there and made all of us really proud. Jake preferred to sit on my chair and watch everyone go by. He sat there eyeballing the crowd until he caught someone's eye. He'd then pop up on the table with his front paws and lean forward to dole out kisses and be petted. We thought all the dogs were gonna explode from the amount of treats they were fed and the fierce competition of the hot dog eating contest (won by a little Dachschund actually). And, no, I have no pictures of the dogs. The lighting was terrible in that room and my camera wouldn't even focus on Jake's spots in that bad light.

The auditorium was crowded with dogs and people but the turnout was not the 500 people that came last year. So next year we'll hope for no rain and make more tugs!