…well, the attic of my CDs. I’m currently re-archiving all of files, and I came across this little morsel, compressed in the early days of digital video!
Jon’s 16 months here, still chubby from the steroid treatment he had 10 months prior that brought back our happy little goober.
Now compare and contrast this with the fact that he got new shoes the other day, one half size smaller than his mother’s.
Jon declared that he was going to be a ghost for Hallowe’en months ago. (For those of you who haven’t seen previous costumes, here’s the 2006, 2005 and 2004 versions.) This year’s version featured a glowing full moon and optional ghost dog (Photon rarely allowed the costume to sit on her).
Jon really got into his costume this year, moaning like a ghost for many of his benefactors o’ candy. As with last year we brought the costume to school for him to participate in the costume parade:
…but we have an ulterior motive: it allows us to steal off to the physiotherapy department and let Jon get a good solid look at himself in costume in the huge mirrors. That really makes all the difference in his perception of who he is for the evening-to-come.
Jon had an absolute blast trick-or-treating this year. Socially, he’s very comfortable, he knows the routine, has points of commonality to chat about and everything is great.
After reading the tombstones, Photon suddenly has a bad feeling about her first Hallowe’en.
Our one problem is that since we stayed out having fun, we missed all the traffic and there weren’t too many kids around later when we got home. In short, for the first time ever, we have a ——Â CANDY GLUT! Volunteers?
My paddling/cartooning pal Paul is on TV tonight, taking Rick Mercer and Bob Rae whitewater canoeing down the Ottawa River. CBC, 8:00 Local time. I’ll post the web link tomorrow.
Update: They’ve posted it on the Mercer Report site, and it’s the first one up in queue this week, so just let the player do its magic.
Okay, neither of these is new, but they’re topical, and star Jon.
One is the perennial Turkey Song, recorded by Jon two years ago and animated by Laura and year and a half ago.
The second is Ze Frank’s thoughtful reflection from last year’s American Thanksgiving co-starring Jon. Also worth watchng is his hilarious take on family Thanksgiving from the day before, and his thoughts on Scrabble the day after.
A couple of us dog-owners near Riverdale Park West got together to take pictures of our dogs at play. Let’s introduce the cast of characters.
You already know Cobalt and Photon:
And this is Callie:
And Milo:
Photon and Callie have been friends since they were much closer in size. Callie plays rough, but has a soft spot for Photon and sometimes treats her like a favourite doll. Very adorable, but didn’t happen today, with the cameras around:
Milo likes to play tug with Photon
Milo and Callie teamed up on Photon for some exciting, intense wrestling. Photon handled it easily.
Cobalt gets to the frisbee first
Teasing her sister
Our heroine
Couldn’t decide which picture to use, so you get both.
Laura and Photon (with new tug toy prize)
Photon has now just graduated from “Step Ahead”, her third Who’s Walking Who doggie training class and what a finish it was! On the last night of classes, they do some review, and then they always play games for Bonus Bones, which are little slips of paper that are later entered into a draw (the better you do in the games, the better your chances in the draw).
Previously, Photon has been sharp in class, but in the games…well, she has been known to completely forget everything she ever learned, ever. There’s nothing like being in a timed competition with your teammates staring at you and having your dog looking at you absolutely blankly, as if it just met you. Add to that the fact that one of our classmates was an off-duty instructor training her super-well-behaved Italian Greyhound Phoebe, and we sensed defeat again!
It wasn’t so bad. After a rocky start (a game of “Sparky Says” which was—let’s face it—a test of the attention span of the owners), Photon did really well in games like:
Musical Chairs is about to begin. Laura is hidden in the interlaced chairs
Musical Chairs: Everyone sits in a chair, then walk with your dog around the circular course around when the music plays. One chair is taken away. When the music stops, have your dog sit and stay some distance from the chairs and then go to take a seat. If your dog gets up or lies down while you are sitting you must leave your seat and go towards your dog to get it to sit again. Referee calls time each session, and the person without a seat is out. This goes until one dog is left.
Mid-Musical Chairs.
There was some subterfuge, as one of the owners of her playoff rival Milo surreptitiously snapped his fingers to try and break Photon’s concentration. Nice try. But it didn’t work and she took the prize. 😀
Owners, prepare to Bang. In the field: Piper, Duke, Milo, Photon, Phoebe.
Bang: Sit and stay your dog, then walk to the middle of the room with your back to your dog. The referee calls out “Bang” and the owners turn and tell their dogs to go “Down” from their position (called “down at a distance”). Photon won twice! We realize today that this was a bit rigged. We were sitting nearest to the well-trained Phoebe, and farthest from the less doctrinaire Piper, a big hairy fellow who decided that if his owner had her back to him, he wasn’t on duty, so he charged over to take earnest beagle Duke and the two snowballed over to take Milo out of the play. If the two keener dogs had been away from each other, who knows what chaos would have ensued. Cheque’s in the mail, Piper.
Food on the Floor: Down and stay your dog then walk to the middle of the room, leaving a piece of food about 12 feet away. If a dog gets up to get it, he/she is out. Then return and treat the dog. Repeat with food only 8 feet away from the dog. Then about 3.5 feet away, with a wager of already won Bonus Bones to make things interesting. Photon co-won!
At the end of the night came the draw. Photon had good odds, but better yet Jon was the official drawer—he’s been to each class, actually, and we had yet to win—but this time Mr. Integrity drew Photon’s name from the basket. She won a brand new tug toy, which she’s now happily tearing apart!
