Birthday

Today I am celebrating Fluff's 11th birthday. I don't know her exact date of birth, but this day 11 years ago was a very special one to me, so I use it as her birthday. Here are some pictures of her from the past year.

Here she is playing her own invention, the "Silly Stick Game," where she takes a large stick and scoots it around. This game is only played near water, preferably in sand. She almost always plays after she is wet, so her skirts and tail can hold the most sand possible. And that's a lot.



After playing the Silly Stick Game, she has to swim again to rinse out her skirts. She loves big sticks, but sometimes they're so big I'm afraid I'll hit her with them when I throw the stick. Fluff loves retrieving sticks from the water. Only when she was 10 did she decide that maybe the water (much of it snowmelt from the Cascades) is too cold in December & January for retrieving to be fun.



This is the intent Fluff face, hoping I'll throw the stick into the water again. She locks her eyes on mine when she wants something.

These are pictures of us at an obedience trial. We only went to support a friend and hadn't practiced in years. Our performance was overall hysterically funny, but these shots show the kind of attention she can give me when I ask for it. Ironically, I dislike heads-up heeling, when dogs have their heads cranked like while moving with the handler. These two pictures are courtesy of brisbeethewhite.