Gang of dogs

Gang of dogs
Originally uploaded by iTripped.

Fall is here whether I like it or not. Yesterday we had the first frost and a lot of the leaves have already fallen to the ground. I was missing the summer weather, and was reviewing some of the pictures we took of Louise during that time when I discovered this one.

This was taken on the day we took Louise to Kal Lake to see if she could swim. There were about half a dozen dogs at the dog beach that day, and this is one picture I got of the group of them. Dogs on a beach generally don't fight, they are too busy running in and out of the water, and generally playing to care about marking territory and stuff like that.

I like this picture because it gives a good sense of how small Louise is when compared to other dogs. She tends to think of herself as much bigger than she is, and here you can see how she feels like this is the group she belongs to. There was another dog roughly her size at the beach that day, but he wasn't interested in the rough play of the bigger dogs and kept trying to wander off to be alone. When she was with him, Louise tended to herd him back into the group.

Louise gets a new bed

Louise in her new bed

Louise used to sleep on our bed, which was okay, except for the fact that she would take up the middle third of the bed. Another problem was that our bed is too high for her to jump up on by herself, so she would need us to assist her up. Of course, she had no hesitations on jumping down, even though it was against doctor's orders.

So we got a little bed for her. Once I got the blanket stuffed into the wicker, she was curious enough to hop in and test it for comfort. Ten minutes later she was roaming the house, bringing toys and bones to the bed, making it her own.

Louise got used to the bed for the better part of an afternoon, so that when it came time to settle down, she already liked it and didn't put up too much fuss about not sleeping with us. Of course, we move her bed close to ours at night, so she doesn't feel isolated, and we have also kicked the cats off the bed. (Yeah, you are starting to get a sense of why we are here, aren't you? The bed was CROWDED.)

Sound asleep

Setting up the bed when we did proved to have an additional use, which we discovered when company arrived for Thanksgiving dinner. One of our guests was moderately allergic to dogs, so before they arrived, we were busy cleaning the pet hair, etc. off the couches and rugs. By moving her bed into the living room, we were able to keep Louise off the couches (for the most part) and our guest was able to enjoy the entire evening without suffering any breathing problems.

Last of the warm weather

Raincoat
Originally uploaded by iTripped.

The grass may still be green in most places, but the leaves are definately turning and the wind is no longer warm.

We are also getting a fair bit of rain these days, which is good in a way - at least it isn't snow, like they had in Winnipeg. It's just too early for that sort of thing.

The reason I know about the snow in Winnipeg is because we got a call last night from my cousins, who got caught in the blizzard while travelling home from Nova Scotia. It sounds like their trip has been quite an adventure, to say the least.

As for Louise, she has never minded the rain. She likes her rain coat, but I'm thinking I need to get her one that is either thicker, or does a better job at keeping the water off. I'm not sure if the picture shows it or not, but this one usually gets soaked through about half way through our walks.