Mission Squirrel: SUCCESS

Winnie has finally fulfilled her lifelong dream of catching a squirrel. Twice.

No joke!

On Thursday she actually caught a squirrel in the Arts Quad. In the squirrel's defense, it was either a) really really stupid or b) slightly injured and thus unable to run fast enough. It might've been a combo of both, since the squirrels here tend to be pretty smart about avoiding or not avoiding potential threats.

Anyway, Winnie managed to catch it. And then she let go...and started herding it!

Uh, yeah. She started herding the squirrel. This is where the whole "the squirrel is an idiot" comes into play- instead of just running up a nearby tree, the squirrel decided to instead run in circles. Winnie decided it would be fun to herd it and bark at it...*roll eyes*. After some time Winnie got bored with this squirrel who was making a half-ass attempt to run away. Eventually it just ran back up a tree.

Then on Friday night, we were back on the Arts Quad when it was really dark and slightly rainy. Winnie managed to find another squirrel, although I wonder if it was the same one from the day before, since it too was slow and slightly stupid.

Anyway, the gist of it is that Winnie caught a squirrel. Twice. And the squirrel(s) didn't die. Which I'm slightly relieved about. They are kind of cute. At least, when they're not dropping acorns on your head when you walk under a tree.

Today we had graduation for obedience class. Today was admittedly one of Winnie's worst obedience days. She broke her sit/stay and down/stay numerous times and her heeling was pretty bad. Despite that, she did better than the other dogs and scored a 1st place (and a nifty little trophy). Hah. Not too deserving since both she and the competition kind of sucked today, but who am I to complain? :P


We also showed off one of her tricks- backwards circles- and won a squeaky toy, which was promptly ripped just moments after we won it from her constant tugging.

She had a grand ole time running around the fenced-in agility arena during the post-graduation party.


And...it seems as though my pictures are finally uploading! Here are some pics of Winnie on the campus Arts Quad. I had planned to upload these earlier but wasn't able to until now:

Winnie at Ezra Cornell's statue. Some visiting tourists saw this and also wanted to take a picture of Winnie next to the statue for their friend who is a Corgi lover, lol!

Small dog, large campus

Don't worry, I'm alive!

Hi everyone! Sorry for being MIA this past week. I only just got Internet in my apartment yesterday (would it be bad if I said that not having Internet really really sucks? LOL).

I moved into my apartment this past Sunday. Winnie and I have adjusted pretty well, except for the fact that There. Is. No. Air. Conditioning. In Ithaca, where it's rather humid, not having air conditioning during the summer can get pretty nasty. I bought a tower fan and 2 smaller fans, so it's not too bad. I'm still on the lookout for air conditioners on sale on Craigslist.

Here are some pictures of my new place. My roommate's moving in tomorrow (yay) so I finally won't be so lonely anymore, lol! It's crazy how different an apartment is from a dorm.

First of all, you actually get closets. Large closets.

You also get bigger beds.

And couches, yay! (the other one is not shown)

The kitchen. For someone who loves food and cooking/baking it's smaller than I would like, but it'll do. And yes, that is Winnie in the background.

The dining area. The windows on the right lead to a nice, large patio! Too bad it's unusable for most of the year because of all the snow...

And there you go, a tour of my apartment. I have some cute pictures of Winnie from this past week, I just don't have my camera with me at the moment. I promise to put them up on Monday!

Anyway, aside from working in the lab and such I've been taking Winnie around campus, mostly North Campus because it's close by. North Campus is where all the freshman dorms are located. It has a lot of nice grassy areas, and Winnie has been having a blast peeing on every single lawn.

We did meet some deer face-to-face the other day! It was Winnie's first time seeing deer. She and I stared at a doe and her 2 fawns for a good minute or so before they took off. It was like a nasty staring contest! And of course, Winnie tried to run after them when they ran...silly little turd!

Speaking of North Campus, today was Move-In day for the freshman. I remember myself being in their place exactly last year. Frantic parents and students rushing around with maps...asking students for directions...trying to lug all their items into the dorms with 20 people crammed into one elevator...

Boy, I'm glad I'm not a freshman anymore.

Classes start on Thursday the 27th. I just got my booklist today. There goes another $250-300 down the drain. Sigh.

Winnie's whining at me. I think she needs to pee. Good night, everyone!

As summer nears its end..

It's going to be a sad 2 weeks for Winnie and I. My friend, Hansel's mom, and our other friend, Juneau/Ava/Brandt's mom, are both going to their respective veterinary internships. Hansel's mom is going back to California to do a small animal/clinic internship for 2 weeks, and Juneau's mom is going to Virginia to do a wildlife animal internship for 4 weeks. Hansel is staying with Juneau's mom's husband (yes, this gets confusing, sorry!) for the time being. This means that Winnie and I will be Sheltie-less for 2 whole weeks, yikes! I think we'll manage though :)

Tonight the head (PI; principal investigator) of my research lab, Sutter Genetics Lab, invited all of us to dinner and games at his house as kind of an "end-of-the-summer" type of thing. He allowed me to bring Winnie because he has a black lab himself. We had yummy taco salad, homemade ice cream + fudge, and s'more brownies.

Good stuff! Lucy, the 1 yr old lab, was quite excited to have a canine visitor in the house. They spent the evening/night chasing each other around the backyard and entertained the rest of us. At certain times Winnie wasn't so keen on having an exuberant young lab constantly pestering her to play. It seems as if her personal bubble has gotten "larger" these days; she gets grumpy and barks if a dog gets too "in-her-face". I don't think Lucy minded it so much, though, as she was quite relentless in her attempts to get Winnie to chase her, lol!

It was nice but weird (in a good way, though) seeing everyone in the lab in a different sort of element (i.e. not-consumed-with-research-stuff). On the downside, this means that summer is near its end. I start school on the 27th.

Say whaaaaa----??!!

I'm actually kind of excited to start classes and see everyone again (I especially love shopping for school supplies, I'm a nerd!) but I know that the novelty will wear off in a week and the stress will hit me like a ton of bricks.

Sigh.

I'm also moving out of my sublet and into my new apartment this coming Saturday, the 15th. It's bittersweet because I absolutely love my current sublet complex (VERY dog friendly and considered one of the more "luxurious" apartments in Ithaca) but I'm excited to finally be able to have my own place where I can actually store my stuff away instead of keeping them in boxes! However, I've considered moving into Hansel's mom's apartment next year when she graduates from vet school and moves. If you all remember, she currently lives in the same complex as where I am subletting. It'll be an easy move since I can just buy her furniture from her! But that's at least a year from now, so we'll see what happens.

Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures tonight for your viewing pleasure. I do hate writing blog posts without some cute pictures of Winnie, so here goes:

Winnie curling up on a comforter (she's doing this as I type this blog post)

Tomorrow starts another week. Hope you all have a good one!

No longer itching (for the most part)

Hi everyone!

I just wanted to add a follow-up post in response to all your comments!

You guys are right in that I shouldn't get another dog for at least a few years. I think the practical side of me would have eventually kicked it, but for the time being the not-so-practical side of me.

I also wanted to clarify- I wanted an adult, housebroken, neutered, sufficiently-trained dog. I never intend to breed dogs, now or ever. I'm just not interested in that kind of stuff! I prefer training and participating in dog sports rather than the whole breeding/conformation thing. Anyway, the ideal dog I was thinking of was a retired show dog from a breeder or something along those lines. And believe it or not, I actually wanted a Sheltie, not a Corgi. I think the great experience I've had with Hansel and Juneau this summer really warmed me up to the breed. I was even considering contacting Hansel and Juneau's breeder to see if she had an adult sheltie available!

Anyway, just a thanks to you all for bringing me back to my senses (although I probably would've come back to them sooner or later)! I think I'll stick to my original plan, which was:

Enjoy my time with just 1 dog for at least 1-2 years, then start fostering occasionally when I have time (like during Thanksgiving/Christmas break, when I'm free). Then get another dog (preferably a rescue) when I'm a senior or when I have graduated .

I did feel guilty about wanting a breeder dog for the past few days when I have always told myself that my second dog would be a rescue!

Anyway, sorry about all the rambling. I just didn't want to clear the air leave you all hanging, LOL!

Someday, when I settle down (uh, yeah...) and get a nice house with a fenced-in yard, I will have my little dog herd with Corgis, Shelties, Border Collies, and Australian Shepherds.....

*ahem*

In the meantime, I think I'll settle just fine with Sheltie playdates with Hansel and Juneau! I go over to their house enough anyway, LOL.

NomFest '09

Some highlights from the Sterling Renaissance Festival. Dogs weren't allowed on the festival grounds so Hansel's mom watched Winnie for the day.







Yes, we ate a lot.

Bad weekend

Ugh, this past couple of days has not been the best weekend. Yesterday morning I semi-totaled the university's fleet car on the way to a horse farm (a measuring trip for our research lab's equine size study). I, like a complete idiot, made a really bad turn and crashed into the telephone pole at 7 in the morning. Can I emphasize enough that I was a complete idiot?


Thankfully neither our dear lab manager nor I were injured (save one or two bruises and a sore neck). Needless to say, our trip for that day got canceled. In the battle between the Impala and the telephone pole, the telephone pole walked away with a small scratch. I don't think I'll be driving anymore fleet cars anytime soon...

And then today (Sunday), Winnie decided to go into the grassy/weedy/marsh-y/ravine-y area (I really don't know how to describe it) next to the grassy area in our apartment complex. The grasses and plants in the ravine are so tall that you really can't see ANYTHING. Winnie refused to come out of it for a good 10-15 minutes, despite my calling and whistling. All I could hear was the rustling of her collar as she made her way through the marsh doing dog-knows-what. There are rabbits and other critters that wander in this area so I think her prey-drive had kicked into high gear.

Anyway, when she eventually did come out I saw that she was BLEEDING from her bottom eyelids, as well as slightly on the sides of her nose! I freaked out and called my friend (Hansel's mom, the 4th year vet student) to come out and take a look. It was just the strangest thing ever. Her bottom eyelids were very swollen and bleeding, even though her actual eyes looked completely fine. Hansel's mom and another friend of ours eventually decided that it was a contact allergy from whatever plant she was going through while she was in the ravine. They were still pretty stumped, since it's not common to start bleeding from the bottom of your eyelids. Crazy.

I wiped off the blood with some water and gave her a Benadryl pill per my friends' advice. She's acting normal, and now I'm just waiting for the swelling to go down. I'm just really glad that she's okay. I don't think I'll be letting her off-leash in that grassy area anytime soon, which really sucks because it's like a mini-dog park within our apartment complex. Sigh.

What a weekend! Here's to hoping for no more car accidents or weird eyelid bleeding.

4am

It is 4am. I got back an hour ago from the 12:10am showing of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (I'm a huge Harry Potter fan/nerd).

It is 4am, and I am blogging. What better time to do it? Poor Winnie's sleep schedule has been completely distorted- I just took her out to pee and now all she wants to do is play tug and fetch!


In other news, I received my CafePress prizes in the mail today! They're awesome- I can't wait to use them :) Thanks, Kelly and Gibson!


So, um...I should probably head to bed now.

Yay!

Remember that giveaway from Gibson's Corgi Butts blog? Gibson's mom randomly chose the winner...and we were chosen! She generously gave out a $25 gift certificate to her Corgi Butts store.

I decided to get a mug:

and a tile coaster:


A big thanks to Kelly of Corgi Butts for holding this giveaway! Winnie sends Corgi kisses and thanks :)

Routines

We have a little routine during the work week. I get up, eat breakfast, then take Winnie out to pee and run around for about 10-15 minutes. I then put Winnie in my room and leave for work. This has become so predictable that by the time I get my keys to leave I find Winnie already in my room, laying on my bed.

Before I even close the door to my room, she peeks outside to watch me leave. It's really amusing. A couple times I have closed the door to my room and then opened it again to see her staring out through the window even though I'm still in the house!

Funny dog, this one.


Does anyone have fun plans for the 4th of July weekend?

Last Dose

Tonight I had my last [rather large] dose of Korean food. I can't believe it has already been two weeks since I've come back home- I'm leaving for Ithaca tomorrow night, yikes! My mom has done quite well on her part to stuff me with whatever Korean food she can think of while I'm here. So well, in fact, that I've gained a couple of pounds. Sigh.

We took out our tiny grill, which we've had for dog-knows-how-many-years, and filled our stomachs full. We did some serious nomming, Asian-style!

Grilled marinated chicken and beef kebobs with pineapple, asparagus, and mushrooms.

You can't have Korean BBQ without some spicy side dishes, yum :)

Since we only do this once in a while, I purposely gave Winnie a smaller raw meal earlier today so that she could have her share of the goodies.

Watching the grill from afar

Staring at the plate of raw duck, LOL.

Winnie and my mom. If you enlarge the picture you can see that she's slightly drooling. LOL.

Winnie brought on her best behavior, even throwing in a few tricks here and there.

"Oh hai. I can has some scraps?"

She would fetch her ball and drop it at our feet, as if she was offering it to us in exchange for a piece of meat. Little pig.

"Will fetch for food"

"Sit Pretty"

Anything for marinated meat, I suppose!

Passed out after a long day.

Winnie is totally conkered (is that a word? I feel like I just made that up) out. She hasn't had a chance to nap all day, so it's going to be a long night for her.

As for the humans, two words: FOOD. COMA.

Die Happy

Squirrels are the absolute bane of Winnie's existence. No, seriously.

I actually think they're kind of cute (except when they're dropping acorns on your head), but don't tell Winnie.

If she could catch a squirrel, I think she would die happy. Metaphorically, of course.

Squirrel patrol

What would make your pup "die happy"?

Persimmon Tree

Winnie has recently discovered that the barely-fruiting persimmons from our persimmon tree are quite delicious. I found her nomming on the ones that had fallen to the ground.


They're still tiny and green (the ripe ones are orange and the size of a tomato) but still have that persimmon-y taste, as I found out when I smelled it.

Nom nom nom.

Bwahaha, the little pig is drooling while I make her Leave It.

My Evil Mom-ness makes her do silly things like this :)

Have fun with your pup(s)- it's almost summer!