Jam Packed

We sure did do a lot today, humans and canines alike.

First -- and this was the big surprise I was talking about on Tuesday -- Marge got to meet up with her brothers Homer, Midnight and Fergus (left to right) for the first time in a long time. We had spoke about a reunion last year, but between bad weather and busy schedules, it never came into fruition.

None of the dogs really wanted to do much of anything, and the only interaction was some sniffing. Otherwise, they all kind of just laid around by themselves. Fergus and Midnight are the most outgoing and have come out of their shells; Homer is a little more reserved.

Marge was somewhat grumpy and VERY hot. She observed Fergus digging a hole under the bench and thus learned this behavior from him today. I have NEVER seen her dig before. She dug herself a nice, dirty hole where she wanted to stay. Hopefully she doesn't start digging in the backyard.

Overall, I'd say it wasn't a success, wasn't a failure. Marge did not feel like interacting whatsoever, but neither did the others. She gave a few warnings when they got too close at the wrong times, but nothing major. I suspect the heat had alot to do with it. We did not stay long at all; we may set something up again for the cooler weather and hopefully they'll all be in better moods.

Later on in the day, we went to the Agility Field for our Rally run through. It was.. interesting. The heat was really getting to Marge so we snailed our way through the course a few times, but Marge absolutely needed the motivation of bologna to keep her going. She was so out of it that she openly accepted - and even seemed to welcome - ice cubes being rubbed on her back. And this is a dog who doesn't like water. In terms of her performance, we have some decisions to be made regarding the trial coming up on August 23, but I'll save that for another post.

She was impeccably well-behaved otherwise. There were only a couple of other dogs around and she was either dying to sniff them or simply kept away. I am sensing a shift in Marge's preference for dogs.. the two dogs she interacted with today were intact bitches (Standard Poodle and Irish Setter), and she seemed to ENJOY being with them. Maybe they smell interesting.

All day, she was very friendly with people. She allowed pets with no hesitation from Fergus' dad and Homer/Midnight's dad, even lying on the floor at one point. Yay men! At Rally, too, she was eager to go up to people and got very excited when Susan asked her if she wanted to "go weave." (She loves the freakin' weave poles.) She has definitely become more of a people's dog lately and much less of a dog's dog.

And that was it on the Marge front.. I did, however, go out to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince at night. Afterwards, we delivered the newspapers for Sunday morning. So, I am running on 4 hours sleep and I've been up since 7. You know what that means.. goodnight (morning) everybody!

BTW, thank you all for your comments/suggestions on my last post. If I do wind up speaking with my vet this week, I will take all of these things into consideration. Thankfully, the past couple of days haven't been as bad, though we haven't been doing any regular streetwalking to accurately gage her status.