Dog Day Weekend

It was all dogs, all the time, this weekend.

Saturday dawned blustery and overcast, with intermittent drizzle. Up with the day, to get my daughter ready and run her off to her morning at the University of Delaware's Children's Chorus' Song Fest - six hours of singing and drumming with a wide collection of musical groups all under one roof. She'd be picked up later by my wife. Once my daughter was dropped off, it was my turn - With Suka in-tow - to run off. Off to The Farm, for an open house. MABCR runs open houses roughly twice a year, or as resources and weather permit. This fall, the open house was being held despite the weather. For a late October day, it was warm, and the rain wasn't heavy - Not yet, anyway.

I brought with me some home-made salsa to share; I make some mean salsa. I *know* I make mean salsa - I accidentally rubbed my eyelids after playing with the hot peppers. They were better-quality than I expected, and the oil soaked off my fingers, and through the skin on the tops of my eyelids. Oww! Not an eye-opening experience - more of an eye-closing one! AKDD is calling me "Squintyboy" now, and with more than a bit of accuracy. :p Anyway, good salsa is a partial offset for bad weather. I also brought along some StinkyKibble(tm) for Suka.

Got to The Farm to find that an agility clinic was on-going, so made myself at home, hanging out and walking Suka about the farm, away from the clinic. Suka's still a bit freaked out by The Farm, though her stress reaction is quite manageable. The HBIC, Sarah, showed me some tips for helping get her reactions more under control, and I spent a good chunk of the day walking Suka about and acclimating her, socializing her, and just enjoying being at the farm without any real chores. Silly me! I should know better...

Sarah ambushed me and asked, pretty please, as I was the only one not attending the clinic, if I could clean & feed. OK, no problem - I can do that! Crate Suka up, get my nasty boots on, and off I go with scoop, hose, and cleaning supplies. There are relatively few dogs at The Farm right now, so it was pretty straight-forward. Clean the runs, scrub the water buckets and food bowls, and chivvy the dogs into their runs. Feed the dogs, clean up the outside area, haul the trash. Takes about an hour and a half, if you've done it before. In mid-clean, was surprised by a drop-in visit from Animal Control, come for an inspection of the kennel area (which passed with no complaints!), but still managed to get done in plenty of time to share in some excellent pot-luck lunch. The salsa was a hit, but the best dish was some kind of chili pot-pie, for which I will definitely need to beg the recipe!

Back outside for more agility work, but the wind blew, and then the skies opened up - rain was coming down hard, and sideways! That was pretty much the end of things - When it's raining harder than standing under a hose, and the agility equipment is blowing away, it's time to call it off! So, toddle back home, the pair of us wetter than drowned rats, for a good lie down in a nice, dry nest. Well, a nice lie down in my favorite chair, Suka curled up under my feet, and heavy blanket thrown over the pair of us! May as well be a nest, anyway!


Sunday couldn't have been more different, weather-wise; Sunny, warm, and cloudless skies. Newark has parades every chance they can come up with an excuse - Halloween is a great excuse! So, Main Street is blocked, and everyone and anyone whom can think of a reason they should be marching shows up and marches! It's basically a street party, with a parade as the excuse. Thousands of costumed spectators, thousands of costumed marchers, fire brigades, National Guard units, high school and university marching bands in costume (one brass unit completely co-ordinated as a Pac-Man game!), politicians, beauty queens, old cars, fancy hotrods - All the makings of a stereotypical small-town parade! Even Mike Castle, our US Representative, was present, marching along as Frankenstein's Monster. He looks the role, too. ;) The only thing missing was a mounted unit. Eh - Next time, I'm sure!

My daughter was marching with our church's unit, as were my nephews. They'd apparently lost the plot as to where to meet up after the parade, according to my sister, so I stepped off the curb and joined the unit as the marched past - Hey, this is a small town! Anyone can play!

Did I mention I'd brought Suka along? Well I did. She needs exposure to the wide and varied, and to people, and to crowds. I couldn't be more proud of her - She was wonderful! Yes, she was a bit stressed, but the biggest stress on her seemed to be standing still - She wanted to smell everything, greet every dog, and in general explore until her legs fell off! She was the hit of our church unit's march - I was walking alongside, rather than in the middle, so she wouldn't trip anyone with her lead, and the result was that we were right on the edge of the crowd where people could get a good look at her. She's a beauty in my eyes, of course, but it sure was nice to hear so many people saying the same thing, too! She trotted along the parade route, licking faces, greeting people and dogs, and hunting for every new scent she could find - A really wonderful day for her, getting out and about and showing how truly good she is!

After the parade, it was mass trick-or-treat all up and down the street, with every merchant giving out goodies to the throngs of children. Catton candy and balloon venders stalked up and down the street, and people overran the downtown with a will. It says something about the town, that the motorcycle cops had as big a crowd around them as the guy playing Ronald McDonald did. Through all this, I walked Suka down the middle of the street, stopping to talk to her admirers, letting her greet dogs, and generally moseying along, keeping an eye on the kids as they did their level best to fill their bags to over-flowing with loot. My daughter didn't do nearly as well as her little brother, though - There's something about a four-year old pirate that just makes people extra generous. Must've been the hook he was brandishing at them! :D

After a long afternoon of walking and partying, we returned home - Where Suka and I nested up in my chair again. :p