April 29, 2013

Molly


Today at Norms we walked with energetic Molly and her peep Sharon.  My dogs, including Finnegan were unusually rough on Molly for some reason.  It may simply be that when Molly first came to us I was sitting down.  If I am sitting, Blanca will keep all dogs away from me.  This may have set the tone for the day.  I was really surprised that Finn was even mean to Molly.  Molly is a sweet, soft girl.  I do not want my kids being pushy.  Molly is beautiful, and amazingly energetic.  She is a Labradoodle.

April 27, 2013

Beautiful Day


Update; As I have been looking at this picture the last few days, it has occurred to me; this is one happy bunch of dogs
We spent almost four hours at Norm's this morning.  We were lucky to see many of our favorite friends, both peeps and pups.  We walked a really fun 2 hour lap with Mike and Diego, Rick and Marne, Maggie and Spice Girl, and Petra and Addie.  All that after a quick lap with Steve, Brisbane and Shanti. We had a great time.  We kept meeting people and stopping for the pups to play and to talk, and for Mike to throw the ball, simply a marvelous time all around.  I have a bunch of photos to post, I will try to get them all up today.
Mike was throwing a tennis ball the whole time and I lost my usually dedicated boy dogs for the whole day.  Above is the Dog Piper of Norm Schoenthal Island leading his dedicated followers.  He does this while never carrying treats. He even got the girl here.


Chillin Diego.  Needing a moment of relaxation after hours of chasing the tennis ball.


This is a baby here, we did not write down the name, but he was great.  Maybe someone can inform me as to his name.


Wow! Maggie May.  We never get photos of Maggie May.  She moves alot, and of course she is the dreaded by photographers black.  She is the sweetest girl.  We really like her, though because of Blanca I can never tell Mags how much I like her.


My boy Chunky Chocolate.  Choco is Diego's main protege.  He idolizes Diego, and has learned ball from him.


Beautiful Marne.  I really like Marne, I know I say that everytime I post a picture of her, but I do.  She has a great presents.


I am proud to call Rick my friend.  Here he is with Maggie May and Beautiful Marne.  He was workin on getting a photo of Diego walkin on the leaning tree.  He had the problem that his lens was 4000mm, so all he could get was Diego's eye.  But it was still good.


Here comes Brisbane.  Beautiful boy. Australian Shepherd who walks with his friend Shanti and his peeps Steve and Bronwyn.  I like this photograph.  Try as I might I have very few good photos of Bris.


I kept my camera pointed at Addie the whole time we walked together, this is all I got.  She never stops.  Addie was very much on Finnegan's case to play, and he would not, he was busy with playing ball with Mike, Diego and Chocolate.  Annoyed Addie to no end.  Addie is very lucky to be with her very good for her peep, Petra.


We met this beautiful boy today.  One of the advantages, amongst many disadvantages, of walking on Saturday.  One meets dogs and people that one has never seen before.  This boy is, like Blanca, a victim of Merle to Merle breeding.  He is deaf and partly blind.  He seems to do quite well, and it seems he has a very caring mom.  He has the same pink rimmed blue eye ans Blanca.  He is lucky though, he has black nose. Because of the black on his ears I wonder if he does not have some hearing in that ear.
I hope I get to photograph him in the studio, he was beautiful, though he pays a high price for being so beautiful.


Looking back on a very busy day, my beautiful Nina Blanca.

April 24, 2013

Lucy's Day at Norms


We had a special treat today because Lucy came with Missy and Emma to Norm's Island.  She is good at getting us to maintain a reasonable pace.  Here we caught Lucy seeking a better vantage point on top of an outcropping, watching Emma and Chocolate foolishly splashing into the Yellowstone after sticks.


Lucy getting a ride from her very faithful servant, Missy.  Missy is one of my favorite people.  I think that Lucy would concur.


Best Friends.  Missy and I were discussing how Finnegan will like a dog when he first meets them, play very hard with them, but the next time they meet he will ignore them.  Well, this is not the case with Emma.  Finn absolutely loves Emma, and they wrestle and tussle, taunt and tease and posture every time they see each other, and love every minute of it.

April 20, 2013

Great Saturday at Norm Schoenthal Island


As always, if you click on the photo, it will get really big, which especially in this case is really good.

We had a great time at Norm's this morning.  We walked a long slow lap with our friends Rick, Marney, Maggie May, and Spice.   But then it got really fun, really, as we were leaving we met an old playmate of Nina Blanca's, Kaya.  They did not seem to recognize each other, or maybe Blanca was hoping Kaya did not recognize her, she gave Kaya a rough treatment when they were puppies.  But Kaya held her own.  Well, here is Kaya grown into a beautiful high energy three and a half year old.  Blanca and Kaya are the same age.

Yes, that is a rainbow.


Outta here, she says.  I am lucky to get these two photos, Kaya never stopped running the whole time we walked with her.  She has a buddy named, I think, Spenser.  They play constantly.


Just playin around. It is two Kayas. The rainbow in motion.  This is what Kaya looked like most of the time, constant movement.


For me this is a really fun posting.  Here is Kaya at about 3-4 months.  I love this.  She and Blanca used to play alot, they were very energetic.  Kaya still seems to have the high energy, Blanca has become layed back. Maybe she is laid back.  I think she has become more wary of the world, not being able to hear.

April 19, 2013

Ready for Spring


Constantly I am overwhelmed by the beauty I see at Norm's, just in the textures and colors of the trees and grasses and here of the Red Stick Dogwoods.  But seldom am I able to capture what I want on film.  I have done so a few times.  I like this one.


My friend Little Big Man on a slanted tree trunk.  You know where it's at.  Just west of Dog Beach.


Blanca had to get into the act.  This picture I took today (Saturday) and the picture of Finnegan I took yesterday.  I was trying to show the Finnegan photo to Rick and he exclaims "Hey, look at Blanca" She took the cue from Finnegan from yesterday and climbed the tree.  She went a body length higher than the little man.  It was really funny the way it happened.

Blanca Makes Happy - Here is Proof


One grumpy looking bunch here.  Warm, fresh air, gorgeous sunshine, a beautiful wonderful spring day, walking with good friends at the paradise that is Norm's Island, enough to make anybody grumpy.

But then along comes Blanca to save the day;  Woof, hey you guys life is good.  Life is wonderful. Let's be happy.



Weak posting, I know, but I wanted to show the photos of my good friends I am fortunate enough to be able to walk with at Norm Schoenthal Island.  That is them in the second photo with my Nina Blanca.  I have no idea who the grumps in the first photo are.

April 13, 2013

Curious Girl and Friends


Beautiful Sweet Bally.  Bally and I have a thing.  We really like each other.  She is absolutely the sweetest girl. She is very similar to Chocolate, very soft and gentle.  She is always eager to see me.


Luckily, Blanca likes Bally.  It seems that Choco and Blanca favor very much other dogs of their breed.  There best friends on Norm's Island are all Aussies.  It is a wonderful thing when we come upon Kay and all four Aussies greet and play with each other.  Kay's Rollo seems to keep aside.  Of course Finny jumps right in the middle of it all, being especially rowdy with Selkie.


Blanca being curious about a new comer.  This is Skippy.  Love his ears.  We see Skippy quite often.


This picture is from this past December, but it is one of my favorite photos, so I include it here again because I mentioned Selkie and Rollo, and here they are.  L-R;  Rollo, Selkie, Nina Blanca, and Sweet Bally.

April 11, 2013

Aawwwwww


We are sad today because today is the last day we will see the beautiful girls Karla and Koda.  They are  moving back to Washington tomorrow.  They have been walking at Norm's for I think it is one year now, about how old Koda is.  We will miss them, they are one of our favorite peeps and pups to walk with. Finnegan likes to play with Koda.


Koda will not miss Nina Blanca I am afraid, Blanca was always nipping at her, telling her to stay away from me.  Blanca is not very fond of energetic dogs, which Koda certainly is, their erratic behavior puts her on edge.
As always, if you click on a photo, it gets BIG!


Koda's studio portrait. What a beautiful girl.  I was never able to capture the wiggleness she displayed.  She is always flipping and jumping.  Very fun dog. We will miss them both.  Good Luck Girls.

April 7, 2013

Chocolate Sunday


A pleasant photograph of my boy Chocolate.  He does not always photograph well, but I really like this one.  After my last post which was heavy on pictures of Nina Blanca, I figured that Choco deserved a post of his own.
We have been hanging out in the yard a lot yesterday and today.  It is raining a little, but the light is fantastic.  This was taken with the Nikon 1 V1, which I am beginning to like more than I initially did.  I have been working with it, learning its parameters.  It did a really nice job here, I think.

April 4, 2013

Beautiful Early Warm Spring


We have been spending long hours at the Island the last few days, it is gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous.  It is kinda worrisome that it is so warm so early, but we are enjoying it.  The negatives of course are we are already doing tick inspections several times a walk, and I am feeling ticks on me all the time.  So far we have not found any, just fantom ticks.
My fans have probably given up on my ever posting anything again on this blog, well fans, here it is.
Blanca cares little for sticks, unless of course Choco has one. She takes them from the softie all the time.  He seems to be content with his role in life and does not fight it.
I like how the light is bouncing off Blanca and lighting the end of the log.


Blanca is smart, I cannot get Chocolate to carry sticks at the middle. He has a strong preference for the ends, probably because they are where he likes to chew.


Linda calls Blanca Princess, suggesting that I favor her.  Ha! no way.  Do you think?  She will walk away from this stick is 7 seconds and Chocolate will come and get it.


Princess, opps, I mean Blanca, up a tree.  We have been working on walking on logs.  This one is at 45 degrees, and they all three will go up it, it has bark and it is big.  Blanca will walk on most anything, as will Finnegan, but Chocolate usually will go around, no matter how many obstacles he has to negotiate.
This photo shows one of the issues with Blanca's eyes.  They are set low in her eyeball.  This, with limited function of her pupils, restricts her sight.  Wish they had eye charts for dogs so we could tell how much.
Looks like this has turned into Nina Blanca's post.  We had a wonderful time at Norm's.