HAPPY BIRTHDAY TERRA

Yikes

Two years? How can Terra be two years old. Well, she is

Here's the video/slidshow to prove it

TerraBday2Web from Victor Kellar on Vimeo.

GOD HATES MY PONY TAIL

Or something.

I'm not really sure what it is that god hates about me, but apparently, in some way, I've pissed him off. I mean, didn't his son have long hair and a beard? But I've never seen the messiah portrayed with his hair tied back (though you'd think this would be a practical accessory for a guy who was so busy healing lepers, tossing vendors out of churches and walking across water and all) so maybe my dubious fashion sense is seen as being profane ... Or perhaps this dislike is based on about 40 years of me denying his existence, questioning the need for such existence and just generally being a pain in his omnipotent ass

So I'm not really sure why god hates me, I just have proof that he does.

This past weekend I was scheduled to be held hostage by family and friends here at my house. It's a strange and devious act of terrorism that happens every year. It's like a dark ritual, somehow connected to the movement of the stars, the turning of the calendar and how much more grey my hair has become in the interim ...

The previous week or so had been perfect weather; sunny, warm, dry. This boded well, if the weather was warm I may be able to keep the invading horde out of my sanctum santorum Let them erect their yurts in the yard and keep them out of the house; this is always a sage strategy, let them in the house and they're prone to breaking the furniture and covering the wall with graffiti and replacing all my coffee with tea ... the horror!

So we cleared space in the yard and I erected a barbarous stone and wood altar to appease them (ok, it's a picnic table but Costco was all out of altars) and I set my two trained attack dogs on guard duty (they will actually bark when someone enters the house, then they will show you where the dog cookies are) and glanced up at the sky. All was well, the sky was clear ...

But the big ponytail hating bastard in the sky had other plans. And it rained. Roll back to last year's birthday blog ... more rain. If I live another 40 years and this pattern persists, then I predict a flood ... a really really really slow coming flood. Clearly, instead of buying a new picnic table, I should have invested in a few lifeboats.

But the one thing about invading pagan terrorist hordes, they have their own powers. While the rain poured down on me as I sacrificed meat on the fire to appease the rain gods, we built a fire and it scared god's rain back ... OK, technically, the rain had stopped by then, but if you thought this blog had anything to do with technical truth, brother, you're in the wrong place

The next day, the day the horde was leaving was, of course, sunny and hot. At least god was on my side at that point ... no excuse for them to stay ... not that I could have prevented them from hanging around. Nor would I want to

So another tussle with the cranky old bastard up there. Licked my wounds, pressed on, and showed him that year after year, the cranky old bastard down here will never tap

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HAYLEY

Twelve years.

On one hand, that doesn't seem right. It doesn't feel like it was twelve years ago that I put a cat carrier on the lawn and a tiny black and white ball of fuzz crawled out to meet Collette nose to nose.

In that time Collette has gone from child & youth worker to teacher, I've started my own business, we've moved three times. Hayley has become an integral part of our lives. The twelve years have gone quickly and yet she it's hard to think of our lives without her in it.

We loved Gigs. We love Terra and look forward to our years ahead with her. But Hayley is a special dog. Yes, she is border collie smart, to this day she is full of life and energy, but she has a loyalty and empathy that is truly special. When a person is sad, any person, Hayley wants to comfort them; when one of Collette's nephews was distraught to the point of tears Hayley jumped up on his lap to give him kisses

Hayley just loves to be with you, whether it be on a long walk through the woods, driving in the car, or just curled up on the couch with her head on your lap as you watch a movie. We see many of these tendencies in Terra but Hayley has demonstrated these traits time and again, over all these years

This has been a big year for Hayley. We thought long and hard about the affect a new dog, a puppy would make in her life. We did not want her status in our household to be upset and we did not want her in any way to be uncomfortable.

Terra is a strong dog, you could even say dominant and for a while it was touch and go. She constantly pestered Hayley and of course diverted a lot of our attention. But we fought to maintain Hayley's status and as Terra has matured, Miss Hayley has become more comfortable with exerting her authority. Terra is much more respectful of the older dog and it is not unusual to find them sleeping together.

Terra has had a positive effect on Hayley. Since the puppy has come Hayley has lost a little weight and her energy level has definitely increased. She has taken Terra as being her dog. Hayley is a true herder and her favorite game is to chase dogs who are fetching balls, but she never touches the ball. I've seen balls go right under her muzzle but she backs off it, she wants the other dog to take that ball she it can be herded. Terra is an exception. While Hayley loves to chase and herd the puppy, she will often go for the ball, snatching it away from her. I have seen a lot of her playfulness come back to her and there are times you can still see the puppy in my twelve year old.

I'm happy to know that having the puppy not only enriches our life, it has made Hayley's life more pleasurable as well.

Below is a little slide show comprised of images Collette shot over this past year of Hayley's life. with music by our old friend Georgette Fry. This is our old girl. Everybody loves their dog. Everybody should love their dog. But Hayley is a dog that not only loves us back, but really genuinely seems concerned with our well being. Is that me reading too much into her actions? You could think so

But if you did, you don't really know Miss Hayley.

Happy Birthday Terra from Victor Kellar on Vimeo.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TERRA!

Holy crap, has it been a year already? Well no, it hasn't been a year, it's been a year ... Oh stop spinning in circles, let me explain ...

It's been a year since Terra was born down there in Guelph, but it has not been a year since we've had her. That date will happen in March and I'll make a more detailed retrospective blog at that time. You don't take a puppy home the day she is born, well you could but you'd be an idiot and mamma dog would probably bite your ass

I've posted before about doggie birthdays and how my dog trainer buddy John doesn't think "dogs have birthdays" as in, they don't celebrate them. Well kids don't celebrate their own birthdays at first, we celebrate for them and eventually the gift-hungry little buggers learn on their own ....

So did Terra get a gift? She did indeed. Her very first taste of dried liver. Beef liver is the puppy equivalent of Vic getting a Porshe for his birthday, apparently. Happy happy.

Needless to say, Terra has come a long way in a year. Physically, from this ...

... to this ...

I know, scary eh?

Terra is now taller and longer than Hayley and almost equal in weight. The coat still has some growing out to do , I feel, and maybe she'll put on another pound or two, but the physical growing is pretty much done.

The two of them have gone from this ..

...to this ...

Terra's the one on the left, by the ball, I know it's getting hard to tell. If I walk by them on the couch, I often need a second to figure out which dog is which.

The non physical changes are more important of course. Although Terra is still very much a puppy and still has a lot to learn, it's pretty remarkable how far she's come. Again, I'll leave some of this to her "year anniversary" post but besides the basic obedience commands she's learned, Terra has definitely matured, from a dog that was terrified of a bus coming towards her at night, to a dog who happily rides any form of transit from car, to bus to subway train.

It's been a journey longer than the TTC can take you, and longer than I can dedicate to in this post, but stay tuned in March for the full Terra retrospective.

But until then .. Happy Birthday Terra!

THE GOOD SHIP BIRTHDAY PARTY

Yeh, yeh, I'm a year older. Greyer, crankier, wiser .. OK, only two of those assertions are accurate. I'll let you decide.

Not sure I get the whole point of this "birthday" celebration thing. Sure, another year has gone by. I suppose that means physical changes, more notable once you crank past that half century mark. The only changes I'm aware of at the moment are some new calluses on the palms of my hands. That's from hanging on to the handles of two flexi leashes as two border collies take me for a walk .. no, I mean as I take two border collies for a walk .. I mean .. a run .. I mean .. well, I mean I have two dogs that really like to go out.

But these physical changes are not really anything that one should throw a party to celebrate. It's not like I've grown a third eye, or devil horns, or a leathery lizard crest on the top of my head that flares up whenever I get excited. Now for that, I would throw a party.

So what about the mental aspects of getting a year older. Well, I'm sure in some aspects, the old mental acuity has dissipated. My memory is for sure unravelling like a cheap sweater in a rain storm. I'm having difficulty remembering all the stuff I've forgotten. I suppose I'm somewhat wiser. Not many years go by in which I haven't learned something .. even if it's stuff like: Don't use a really good T shirt to open a stubborn beer twist cap. it creates a hole and pisses off the spouse.

Still, again, nothing to really celebrate. Not like I woke up one day this year and solved the perpetual motion dilemma or figured out how to keep boxer shorts from riding up my private business. And yet, I did indeed have a party. Why? Well, it's summer, there's beer, I get to invite my friends and family, there's beer, I can BBQ, there's beer .. yeh, you get it.

So, one of the real reasons I throw a birthday party here is because my sacred event occurs in the middle of July. When it's hot, and sunny and you can stay outside at night, and you make fun of people's tan lines. In other words, my birthday is a great excuse for a summer party ... but that seems a rare thing in Ontario these days. Not parties. Summer. I do believe that, without anyone telling me, Ontario has moved to the tropics. Because we sure as fuck seem to be getting a rainy season.

My birthday weekend was no exception. Thursday I cut the lawn in the rain. A bad omen. I swear I could feel mushrooms growing around my ankles as I mowed .. and that may make you ask what kind of mushrooms, but I ain't gonna tell you. Friday night my sister Tyna came down. I walked Terra in the rain. Omens, people, omens. I believe in them, but I ignore them. See where that gets me.

So you guessed it. Saturday, day of the party, it rained. No, it didn't rain. It deluged .. I know, it's not a word, but it should be. It deluged all over the fucking place. We had a puddle in the yard that Jacques Cousteau would have made a documentary to film. At one point Collette was bailing water out of it. Yes, my wife was bailing the yard. When I started the BBQ I was standing ankle deep in water. Only time I was at the grille that I needed an apron, a set on tongs and a snorkel.

It was wet. This is the point I'm making.

But I intended to party on. Stood out there at the BBQ in my dive mask and snorkel, border collies paddling by me, sipping beer, pondering whether or not I was in a major shipping lane. But, somehow, the rain stopped. The puddle was transformed into a mud pit big enough for a Woodstock II mosh pit, but the rain let up, guests wandered into the yard, pointing up at the sky and whispering "What's that big bright thing up there?"

More guests showed up, more dogs showed up, a couple of tons of animal flesh was seared and devoured, and empty beer bottles were made into a redoubt to keep any further floods at bay. I decided to pull out my metal fire place. What were once ashes in the bottom had been transformed into more mud. I swear, there were a bunch of half dressed teenagers sliding around in there, flashing the rock on devil horns ... Thanks to a valiant wood chopping effort by our friend Kevin, we did get the fire started.

So we spent the rest of the night, huddled around our fire, imbibing and eating and eating and imbibing and in between courses, working on an ark .. After all, from everything I understand, I'm going to have another of these parties next year.

MISS HAYLEY IS TEN

Yup, its a milestone alright. Our Little Girl recently turned ten. Time flies when you are herding pretend sheep in the park.

Sometimes it seems like Hayley has been part of our lives forever. Sometimes it seems like just yesterday that Collette opened a cat carrier on the lawn of our house and out popped this tiny black and white blob, all shy yet inquisitive asking "Are you gonna be my Mom?" For sure, it was love at first sight.

Collette and I often talk about the almost instant bond we made with this little dog. The first night we had her (before we were smart enough to know that the border collie sleeps on the bed) we had Hayley on the floor. She made a small whimper, Collette put her hand down so Hayley could sniff it and that was it, she was part of the pack.

Hayley has gone through three moves with us and never has shown any issue with adapting; as long as we are there, as long as there is a park nearby, all is good in her world. Collette and I have both worked out of the house, Collette has summers off then goes back to work, I am now working at home, we've had roomates, none of that seems to matter: This is Hayley's world and we just live int it ... that goes for you too.

Hayley was definitely an adorable, energetic puppy but I have loved how she has grown into this smart, centered, confident .. and still energetic.. adult dog. Is she as fast as she was five years ago? No, but she still eagerly assaults each new day in the park and stares down the distance for a new victim... er .. I mean playmate.

I am currently working on a video project, going back and editing some of the old video footage I have of Hayley, bringing it up to the current time. In the meantime I cut this little video of Hayley doing her thing in our local park; she is still nine year, this is from about a month ago. Just goes to show, she ain't gettin older, she's gettin ... um .. border collier.