Happy Birthday, Golly!

Today is Golly's 13th Birthday!

Happy Birthday, baby princess!

New member of the family

Yesterday I did something I only do about every 10 years. I bought a new car! It's a Blue Honda Element. It's cute, distinctive, and rated the best dog car around. (Sort of the leitmotif of our lives, isn't it!) Tomorrow I'll be measuring and planning and building a platform for the dogs' crates in the back. And removing the back seats - probably not to be seen again until I go to trade it in in 10 years.

I don't know how many people name their cars, but I tend to. Strange names - the last one was Broccoli (Green Grand Vitara). So I'm talking to Fran and ask, "what should I name it" and she says "Blueberry." It stuck. So - welcome Blueberry!

Buying Blueberry was sort of surreal. Last time I bought a car the internet wasn't really a factor. This time, I built it online, asked for quotes, went to the dealer with the best one, got a good deal (I think - please don't disabuse me of this fondly-held notion), great financing, and drove away in my new car. Weird. Pleasant, but weird.

Relaxing?

I'm taking this session of Agility classes off - hopefully rest my knees and hips. Because, as fun as it was, walking miles around Disney World and then a trade show did not help. Fortunately, Ceilidh doesn't know that yesterday was Thursday, the day she usually goes to class. As long as her routine doesn't vary, she's pretty happy. I'm the one feeling the guilt. But, I know in the long run this will be better for me, and better for us.

The raking begins...

and continues for months.

Because this is the tree in front of the house this morning:

And this is the tree in the back today:
The front is the first one in the area to lose its leaves, the back hangs on until New Year's Day some years. Whoever planted these - what were they thinking?

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

It's been a fun, busy time around here. We grabbed a few vacation days when we could, came back to the shop for two days to catch up (thank you for your orders!), then dashed off to the Pet Industry Trade Show. It did seem smaller this year - a sign of the times. So maybe instead of getting together with 10,000 of our closest colleagues, it was only about 9,500. An intimate gathering.

It was, as always, fun, fascinating and totally exhausting! The best things about going to a trade show in your home town are not having to travel and not having to spend a fortune on lousy convention center food. The worst thing about going to a trade show in your home town is that you have to go to work before the show. Imagine two floors, each floor with 30 aisles packed with vendors. And we have to see them all, or we might miss something wonderful!

Back to the routine

I like routine. You pretty much know what to expect. You know what you have to do, and customers know where and when to find you. Of course, I love vacation and am looking forward to the next one! But I feel good knowing that I helped some people's little dogs today! There are going to be some happy little dogs when their mail comes with their Bow Wow Beanies. And some little dogs are going to look pretty spiffy in their new Soft Harnesses!

What we did on our autumn vacation

We had our portrait done. That's Fran on the left (slightly blue that day), Hope on the right. And yes, if you were wondering - those are absolutely our abs. Jedi never lie.