Courtney and Po

I went to DFW Airport last night to pick up Adam and took Fred with me. Fred mopes when Daddy is gone…as seen here:

He also gets anxious in the car and new places, but he’s pretty happy to get to go somewhere so I took him. Plus Adam loves to see him! I’ve taken him before and Adam always seems to land at Terminal D, which is a big shiny new one. I was walking Fred into the baggage claim from the garage when I spotted this:

Pretty neat! Of course some loser left trash in there, but I am sure many traveling or service dogs appreciate this area just the same.

It’s been a bit since I have spent time on the blog here. I started to focus on other things and haven’t been back. Sorry, blog! Here are some things I have been doing…

• Finishing the ABC course and becoming a certified dog obedience instructor. For the final part, I had to work with shelter dogs and went to the now-closed Forney Road shelter in Dallas. A really great, if challenging, time.
• Went to Italy with Adam and his family. Fun, but also really stressful at times. Tip: Don’t drive in a foreign country, at least not without a GPS. We did love Rome and really want to go back. One of my pics from there was published in the Schmap Rome Guide! It is one of Trajan’s column.
• Started working on a redesign for CTDR.org.
• Got a new camera! I was lucky enough to find a used Nikon D70. I’ve really tried to learn a lot more about photography and it’s a new hobby, though I’ve been super l a z y with it lately.
• Went to PARIS with Kendra, her sister, and Kendra’s friend Judy. It was a blast and I’d love to go back there too. Was a nice chance to break in the new camera!
• Still working on that CTDR redesign. It has taken a long time, but I think the wait will be worth it. I really want to get it done ASAP so I can really dig back in to photography and blogging among other things.
• Oh, and I did expand a bit on courtneypo.com. I hope to continue that too!

The one who stands there and whines the whole time I’m in the shower?

How much is that doggie in the window?

I do think that doggie’s a brat!

Oh, superlatives! Their claims of greatness are hard to resist. How can you not want to visit the World’s Biggest *Whatever,* or order something on a menu named “The Best” of its kind? So I was tempted to attend Sunday’s PetsMart Dog Bowl. It was, after all, billed as Texas’ largest dog park!

But all the event promos also stated: “Owners will be asked to observe all current city of Dallas Dog Park policies while at the Cotton Bowl.” Since most owners pay no attention to these policies while at the other dog parks, I decided I wasn’t about to find out how it would play out when they ignored them on a football field.

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“It’s Me Or The Dogs” is a new show on Animal Planet and I watched it tonight. I was pleasantly surprised! All the advice in it is spot-on….I mean exactly right. It didn’t need any disclaimers that you shouldn’t try it at home, unlike a certain other popular show.

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Why does it always pour like this on Fridays and the weekend!? It turns me into a loon. I obsessively check the radars all afternoon to see when the storms are hitting my ‘hood. Of course Dallas was dry ALL day. I finally decide to skip out of work two hours early because Monday is a holiday and hey, it’s my birthday, AND because I thought I could beat the really heavy storms home. Nope. Of course not.

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I hope you understand why we sent you on your way today. Your body was broken and we couldn’t fix it. I tried so hard and I feel like I fought so hard for you, but there wasn’t anything that could have been done. It is even more painful because your spirit was never broken. You were the best dog - everyone loved you, and you loved everyone. You endured pain just to be near everyone when they came over. It hurt them to see you fall down because your hips were so weak just as much as it hurt me. But the important thing is that YOU are not hurting anymore. Thank you for going so peacefully. I had hoped you would just put your head on my lap and just go to sleep, and that is xactly what you did.

I can’t imagine that you are “running and playing” at the Bridge now but I bet you’ll be doing a lot of sunbathing and snacking. I hope they have lots of Easy Cheese for you. I will miss you, big boy, and all the little dogs will too. Someday we will see you again. Bindi will lick your face, Fred will snuggle with you in the sun, you can nudge me all you want, and you can still tell those annoying puppies to go away. Goodnight Otis.

Here are some very sweet pictures I took of my angel Otis this week.

So, it snowed today! Okay, so it ice-pelleted, really. But in Texas, this is what snow is.

Yes, this is enough to cause minor panic and allow me to work from home (THE ROADS MIGHT BE ICY!).

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We had this little stuffed rat toy that crinkled….this one to be exact…

I say had because Otis ate it tonight.

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I picked up a dog at a shelter a few weeks ago. And not just any shelter - the Oak Cliff shelter, which is in my opinion the worst shelter in the Metroplex. The people who run it of course do the best they can but they don’t have a lot to work with. It smells like pee and worse, and the smell lingers in your nostrils for hours after you leave. No dogs have any bedding of any kind, and the place is perpetually being cleaned so it’s damp and dreary.

The dog was an owner surrender, about 5 years old.

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