The Farm Experience

On Thursday we went to a stable to have the dogs meet some farm animals. At first we met them at a distance in the ring and watched them riding around through the fence. Her Royal Highness (HRH) Berkeley was fine with that. Then we went through the stable where the occupants peered over there stalls to see who was visiting. HRH looked back at me to see if these behemoths were for real.


As we got deeper into the stable, HRH managed to look up into the horse's face and make eye contact.



We soon left the horses and wandered over to the pot bellied pig pen. Last year Bingo had wanted nothing to do with the pigs. This year, however, HRH found them interesting and went right up to the fence and sniffed. She stayed there for a bit looking at the pig curiously.



Then we moved on to goats. The goats were very standoffish and this was as close as we got, which seemed to be fine with dogs and goats both.

Overall, I think the experience was out of the ordinary for her, as in her daily travels, she will most likely not meet a goat, pig or horse, but if she does, she now has a frame of reference for them.

We Got An Award! 8-)

Erin and her new puppy Rob just gave us the award above, which was very sweet. Accordingly, we need to list 7 things about Her Royal Highness (HRH) Berkeley to accept the award. Here goes:

1. HRH does the commands she knows with military precisions. Her sits are plopped down precisely. Her switch command swerved over severely. They make me happy.
2. HRH is a tail wagging fool. We also call her The Wiggler because of it.
3. HRH can strain the patience of a saint. Stay? What was that? No, I didn't hear that command. Stay? You said what? I'm sorry, say it again, this time louder.
4. HRH loves to steal paper napkins, but she is a sneaky snake. There is no snatch and grab. No, she will sidle up next to you and gently take a corner and nibble, nibble, nibble until you reach down to use your napkin and it's no longer there.
5. HRH watches TV. She loves the opening credits to Madmen. However, ultimately, their treatment of women might cause her to bite or at least growl at Don Draper. Although, she might just settle for only watching the scenes with Joanie.
6. HRH is amusing. We got her a gigantic nylabone and now she growls at it because it doesn't fall apart like she wants it to. In addition, she also throws it far away from her in disgust and then cries and looks at me to bring it back to her. And she also does forward rolls over the bone accompanied with a myriad of hums, cries and barks much to the delight of the students in the library.
7. HRH recognizes my footsteps.

All in all she is her own dog. A completely different personality and a force of nature. There is another blog that I think is amazing and I am passing this blog award on to and that is guide dog puppy Joey and his family. Go on over to his blog and read all about him!

HRH's First Basketball Game

Her Royal Majesty (HRH) Berkeley had not been to a basketball game before and the boys had a semifinal game against Tampa Catholic on Tuesday night, so I thought it would be good for her to attend. Little did I know it would be a crush, sort of like those parties one reads about in all the Victorian Harlequin romance novels (yes I do occasionally read those. All reading is good reading!)
When we arrived it wasn't too crowded and we opted for a seat near the cheerleaders (who had sparkly pom-poms and was fairly low. Here you can see Michele and HRH settling in for the game.

HRH quickly became immersed in watching the players dribble the ball and followed it back and forth. Where Bingo would have been trying to leap out of the stands and onto the court, HRH had a sense of decorum and merely watched avidly with her ears perked.



As it got closer to game time, the stands got more crowded and soon HRH found herself wedged between two (fortunate for her) dog loving, basketball fans. When the game started, as baskets were scored HRH would lean over and give Janie a kiss. To which Janie would respond with a look back to me, "She just fine!"

Once, HRH turned completely around to give me a look, and stood wagging her tail, in actuality, thumping it enthusiasistically against Janie and her husband. I tried to apologize but Janie's husband stopped me.

"Our dog doesn't have a tail." He seemed amused by her tail wagging. (They have a boxer. No tail.)

Periodically, HRH would turn and look with longing in the direction of the pom-pom girls. She really wanted her own pom-pom. They were metallic and shiny and she loved them. She really does have the soul of Santana. She was particularly annoyed when the crowed filled in and prevented her from watching the girls shake the pom-poms.

As the game went on, the auditorium got hotter. With about 4 minutes to the half, HRH let out a few whines indicating that either a pee-saster, poo-saster or heat-meltdown was going to occur in short order. Glancing around at the standing room only crowd of my school, I figured that now would be a good time to slip out. So I gave a quick nod to my friend and HRH and I slid quietly into the cool, night air.



Once in the car, I opened up a bottle of water for her and she drained it as you can see from the photo above. It was a heat stroke avoidance. She slept the whole way home.

Lacrosse Sticks Aren't THAT Scary

A few weeks ago, (HRH) Berkeley evinced some fear when two lacrosse players ran by her in full costume with their sticks. Of course, looking like the photo at left Impact by Geoff LaRose from Jesuit High School, Tampa, FL didn't help any either!

After the film festival I waited with the kids for their parents to come and pick them up. Carter, who happens to be the goalie for the lacrosse team, had his lacrosse stick with him and was twirling it around. Since HRH was a bit skittish, Carter happily twirled the stick for HRH to see if she would get comfortable with it.

Darth must have emboldened her.



We will still be attending a lacrosse match at some point in the future. Something tells me that twirling the stick and a full on match are two completely different things.

Darth Vader Meets Her Royal Highness!

It was a moment for the history books. Darth Vader and Her Royal Highness (HRH) coming together.


Here they are at their first meeting. You would think that HRH might be a little freaked out by the mask and weird voice, but true to her Santana (GLEE) nature, she recognized another dark soul and someone with whom she could conquer the world.



In fact, Darth and HRH began detailed world domination plans soon after meeting. It was all going very well. Then a familiar call came from across the room.

MOM!

World domination would have to wait. Who knew Mom actually was in control of everything?

Monster Scooters

Wednesday as I was getting Her Royal Highness out of the car, she saw something that startled the bejeezus out of her. In fact, it looked like this amazing piece of artwork by David Palmer to the left.

It was, a monster on a scooter. See, we have these new neighbors. They have small children and their children evidently like careening around on a scooter. Menacing scooters like this one below.


Notice the ghastly, garish purple and pink colors! See the sparkly stickers designed to wink and attract your attention, essentially luring you to look someplace else while the scooter MOWS YOU DOWN! And don't get me started on the beast riding the scooter. (This is what was going through HRH's pea brain.)

HRH had leaped out of the car and attention caught by sparkly stickers, she immediately began to growl and bark at the wheeled beastie. The hair stood up on her spine making my delicate flower princess look a tiny bit larger. It must have helped. The beastie turned around and headed back for the trees.

What actually happened was that our nice little 5 year old neighbor girl saw HRH hop out of the car and and rode over to pet her. HRH freaked, neighbor girl freaked and they both went their separate ways.

I took HRH and all my work paraphernalia into the house and then proceeded right back outside with her. Wee beastie was up in the tree.

"Hi," I waved. HRH was by my side. I could see the monster mobile at the front of the house. Wee beastie called out.

"Can I pet your dog?"

"Of course! She's very friendly." And so she was. Lainey, which was the wee beastie's name, was delighted to make HRH's acquaintance. She was a bit perplexed as I tried to explain that HRH was afraid of the scooter. She gave me quite an odd stare when I asked if I could go and show HRH the scooter.

"Sure."

We walked slowly to the pink monstrosity. HRH took her time. I touched it. HRH backed off. I spun a wheel. HRH backed off. Then she came forward. Tail was wagging. She sniffed. Looked at me. Glanced at wee beastie. Glanced back at the pink monstosity and then over to our house.

It was enough. I took her home.

The Morning Routine

Every morning we have the same routine: Arrive at 7:30 am out of coat. I get settled into my office or the main library as Her Royal Highness gets settled in or has students come to say hello.

Last Wednesday, I was working in the main library and had HRH connected to my chair with her bone nearby. I always have a big crowd of kids in the library in the morning. HRH was playing with the bone, which involved a great deal of rolling around on the floor, flipping over and then in deep despair, howling at the temerity of the bone not falling apart as she wished. When she did this, Carter, who was sitting two tables over leaped to his feet and cried out,

"I've got this!" and ran over to HRH carrying only his chemistry book. Then he proceeded to calm down HRH for the next 20 minutes until classes started at 8 am, all the while continuing to study his chemistry (our students are compassionate and focussed! 8-).

Here's a shot of the two of them. HRH actually did calm down. She doesn't do that for most people. Carter has the touch.