Monday mornings, particularly after a long weekend of traveling, used to be the worst, but now we have reason to get up early and start the day! That’s because every Monday for an hour and a half, we work with our dog trainer, Frank Cahill.

Frank started working with us two weeks ago, after we had a problem with fear-based aggression with Linus. As a rescue dog, who knows what Linus experienced during his previous life. He seems to have been hit because occasionally will whimper, cry, and lie on his back if something spooks him. He had also bit E one morning when E was putting him in his crate. When I spoke to Frank, he mentioned that building Linus’ self-confidence with obedience training could help quell this problem.

Frank began working with us two weeks ago, where we worked on “sit” and “heel.” Frank arrived with a 15-foot training lead and also a training collar for Linus. After meeting Linus, we went outside and actually trained on the city streets. Frank said this would help Linus learn to deal with distraction and was because it’s the environment he’ll be exposed to day in and day out.

This week, we worked on “stay,” and “come.” To learn “stay” we would tell him to sit and stay and then perform a series of maneuvers with the training lead. This included walking away from Linus with back turned, walking back towards him, behind him, and also stepping over him. Finally we would walk away from him and “tug” the lead without calling him and see if he would remain in the “stay” position. Linus did great! He messed up a few times but by the end of the lesson he was getting it every time.

Next week we’ll be doing “paw” and “down.” I’m excited to teach “paw” because it will help Linus put his harness on! Every time we put it over his head, we have to lift up his front two legs, so if he could raise his paws up, it would make it a smoother process.

Eventually while working with Frank, we hope to get Linus qualified for the AKC Canine Good Citizen’s test, and down the road certified to do therapy dog work in hospitals and nursing homes.

If anyone is looking for a dog trainer in the Manhattan or Long Island area, I would highly recommend Frank Cahill. His calm-assertive energy, extensive knowledge and also true love for dogs is a huge asset. Earl and I learned a lot just by watching and emulating him interacting with Linus.

Secretly, I’m hoping after a few more weeks to have Linus up to painting, like this corgi, shown left. Anny has won just about every single dog training award possible! Apparently she does therapy work and paints as part of her show when cheering up hospital patients and nursing home residents. Super cute!

Our four-legged dumpster diver spent his first five years living on the lam in West Virginia. Earl and I were talking, we doubt he had ever seen the beach! I’m not sure how much open water there is in the rolling hills of Appalachia.

I had an inkling Linus would *love* the water. When I’ve been taking him to the dog park at Carl Schurz, he will put both his paws in the large-sized water bowl and splash around like crazy. It’s very cute, although a tad embarrassing because he gets water EVERYWHERE and there is none left for the other dogs (I always grab it and refill it at the fountain).

So last weekend we loaded his crate in the Jeep, procured sustenance in the form of egg salad sandwiches from Lennys, and headed due north to beachtown, CT. Here are the photos:

Someone is all cute in his crate on the way there

What’s this soft white stuff under my paws?

My sister’s dog, Sammy, shows him how it’s done. (Hey, you’re a corgi! Aren’t YOU supposed to be the one herding HIM?!)

This beach stuff is pretty fun!

Where are you going? Don’t leave me here! I’m coming!

The drip-dry method

Swimming’s fun and all, but I’d rather race around on the sand

shake shake shake, shake shake shake, shake your corgi! shake your corgi!

My niece helps towel him off

Back home he gets his first bath! HA HA HA HA HA. We basically just hosed him down, added doggy shampoo and tried to rinse all the sand off. It was hilarious because I mostly didn’t contribute and stood around giggling whenever Linus would shake water all over Earl and my niece. It was super-cute.

At the campsite, Linus with his new “fan club,” two of my nieces. I will add here that he is extremely well behaved around kids and seems to know that they’re special and he has to be extra-gentle around them. He let my niece Bailey literally poke him in the eye several times while she was trying to put a necklace she made on him. It was, unfortunately, way too small (the reason he kept getting poked was because it wasn’t big enough to fit over his head!), but she’s going to make him a new one soon. But I was happily surprised to see how great he was with them. With a new dog, it’s always a little worrisome because when these little kids are petting him, you’re thinking in the back of your head “Oh my, all it would take would be one little chomp….”

My bro in law knows how to grill some awesome meat

snuggled up in the tent for bed. It was COLD that night and also most of us got woken up in the middle of the night by a pack of coyotes yipping which sounded like they were steps outside the tent! But it was such a fun weekend and when we got home, our guy was EXHAUSTED.

Lucy gettng her eye drops

Our little clan has a history of crazy eye infections.

• Court: I’ve had cellulitis in my eye, conjunctivitis repeatedly and have a family history of graves disease.
• E: Has pigmentation sloughing off of the back of his cornea which is an early warning sign of glaucoma
• Lucy: (shown, above), had crazy eye issues this spring, which lead us to frequent one of the two Veterinary Ophthalmologists in NYC and spend thousands of dollars on her. Apparently she had an optic nerve which was releasing fluid into the back of her eye, which was making her vision cloudy. She was treated with shots and aggressive steroid treatment and ointments. She was NOT a happy kitty. You can see E, above, trying to give her the medication and how much she struggled. For an old, blind cat, she certainly had quiet a bit of spunk in her to try and fight when she did not want to take her eye drops!
• Linus: For the past two days he has been having green gunk oozing out of his eyeball. When I noticed it was green and not going away, I got worried and finally took him to the vet. He had also been scratching at that eye with his paw. The diagnosis was canine conjunctivitis which is apparently not contagious and could be the result of dust in his eye or picking it up at the dog park. He’s now on drops three times a day and also an eye-bath. They asked me if I wanted to put him in an Elizabethan Collar, but I declined… for now, he’s been pretty good about not pawing at himself. Poor guy. If he is continuing the scratching I’ll get one for him.

Taking a page from Gala, I’m going to start doing a weekly entry of Things I Love Thursdays. There are just so many wonderful things going on now, why not give them all a little shout?

Things I Love Thursday

• The NYC Season Change — You can almost pinpoint it to the exact day. It seems as though, year after year, there is a certain time of year when summer’s wrapping up, it’s humid, it’s humid, and then WHAM- just like that, it’s fall. Two nights ago we put an extra blanket on the bed, and while lounging after a shower today I swapped my silk robe for the jersey one. Break out the boots and sheerling because it is finally here!
• “The Turn” – Along the same lines, this was summed up in a post over on TGR, that “the Turn” is the moment when you feel winter approaching and start to get amped for ski season. Almost like you have a shortness in breath because you know soon snow will be falling and shortly thereafter you will be heading up north and strapping on your boots. That feeling.
• Corgi slobber — Love a toothless wonderdog, love his slobber.
• Swing Dance Lessons — Our new series of classes start next Tuesday and I couldn’t be more excited. We’re up to “Intermediate” level now, which means triple time steps and faster spins and turns. I had a little “prep” lesson with our instructor, Margaret Batiuchok, today when I stopped by to pay her for the next series of lessons. It was sort of funny because she showed me some of the new turns in the lobby of her building, and I had Linus with me because we just dropped by while I was walking him. So her and I are swinging around as she is showing me a double turn, and people are coming and going because it is close to rush hour, with Linus sitting there tied up to a luggage trolley. I was amazed at how easily I remember some of the steps from our first series of lessons!
• Contemplating moving, and not freaking out — Years ago, my former self would flip out at the mere prospect of moving a dozen blocks (yes, one of them was a 5th floor walkup, but still). Now, facing the prospect of relocating to San Francisco, I am surprisingly mellow about it. I’m proud of myself. There’s a lot of things here that would need to be squared away (like aforementioned months of swing dance lessons which we just paid for!), but I’m taking it in stride. We’d get it all done. And moving could be really cool. Now it’s just a matter of bunkering down and waiting to see what offers end up on the table, which could really make the decision for us anyways.
• My Dragon Mask!- I ordered this beautiful dragon mask custom made on Etsy, and received it last week. I have something really special up my sleeve for Halloween, and this is just a small part of it, but WOW what craftsmanship. It’s an exquisite piece.

Shot these the other night while snuggling up with my four legged man.

He was all relaxed and cozy while we were napping, yet decided to be squirmy and impossible to shoot once I tried to snap a few shots. Hence, these are kind of all over the place. But fun. I like how our hair colors “match.”

Attempt #1: Cute, but hair in the face

Attempt #2: His best shot, but cut myself out of the frame.  I like how you can see his slobber on the couch.

Attempt #3: A little blurry, but my favorite of the bunch!

When we were looking to adopt a dog, I got into the habit of browsing Petfinder most evenings while wrapping up for bed. Even now that we have Linus, I still peruse there occasionally (Linus is now listed on there as a “happy tails” case!).

While reading Petfinder this evening, I saw two upsetting things. First of all, Jake, who we met at the Tri State Corgi Rescue home, passed away. RIP, buddy. You seemed to be in a great deal of pain when we met you, so I hope you’re feeling better and chasing endless squirrels now.

Secondly, I saw the fattest corgi I have ever seen listed as up for adoption. This poor guy, Dilwyn, is even larger than Spunky, who we also saw at TSCR when we picked up Linus.

At that time, Spunky was the fattest corgi I had ever seen and truly looked like a fat walking sausage as he darted around. Dilwyn, as shown in the above photo, probably has 10lbs on Spunky! Eysh.

It’s just sad that people would let their dogs get to this point. Can’t they recognize that the weight is a burden? Our cat got up to 14lbs last fall, but it was because Earl’s old roommate constantly fed her/gave her treats while Earl was at work. Now we are strict about feeding her twice a day and that’s IT (aside from the occasional treat), and she is already down to 12.4 lbs. Her ideal weight is somewhere around 9 or 10 lbs.

Linus, as per his vet checkup last Wednesday, is still 2lbs underweight.

I hope Dilwyn finds a loving home where they give him some exercise and diet dog food!

is cuddling for spontaneous naps on the couch!

Hey is there room for me on there too? Shortly after this photo was taken, I squeezed my way up onto the couch as well. My poor $600 LazyBoy cannot take all this abuse!

On September 7th, 2008, Earl and I adopted a 5-year old rescue corgi who we found on Petfinder. Linus had been homeless for over a year and living in a dumpster behind a grocery store in West Virginia.

This is the trip report from the day we got him.

The eve before we go to pick him up, Lucy checks out the new additions to the apartment.

Ooh, wuzzthis? A new bed for meee? Aww, guys, you shouldn’t have.

Gee, and a new cat climbing apparatus, too?

As “comfy” as she is up there, little does she know that her Mortal Enemy will soon be housed inside.

After a seven and a half hour drive, we arrive at the Corgi Rescue associate’s home. She has fostered and placed over 60 dogs. Currently had 6 fosters at her home, in addition to three full-time corgi pets, who she trains for agility. This woman knew her stuff. She was a certified corgi maniac, and dog and humankind are extremely lucky that someone with her kindheart and passion for the breed exists to perform this much-needed service.

These two guys stood guard at the door.

One of her foster corgis, Spunky. He arrived as an abandonment case at a kill shelter weighing 61 lbs! He’s a purebred (with AKC papers), and corgis are supposed to max out around 35lbs. Oof. He has been in foster for a few months and already lost 9lbs. He’s still erm… pretty plump. He was let out of the pen and ran around when we were there… he looked like a big rolly sausage running around! It was pretty comical, but also sad that someone could let their dog get like this.

This is infamous “Help Jake”. I had read about Jake’s sad situation on Petfinder many months ago, and was surprised to see him in person living out his days in the kitchen of this woman! Poor Jake is the just the scrappiest dog I have ever seen. He was sitting in his cage just panting. He has an entire shelf of meds to himself on the wall. Apparently Jake does come out a few times a day, walks around the kitchen wagging his “tail”, and looooves to eat. He seemed pretty grumpy to us, but I can say with confidence he absolutely gets a superb level of care. It was heartwrenching seeing Jake in his condition, but also warming to realize this woman cared enough to devote so much energy and attention to him!

Another photo of Jake. He has cushings, is on thyroid medicine, an eye ointment for dry eye, and Enacard + Norvasc (blood pressure medicine) once a day. He gets his teeth brushed regularly but is missing most of them. He gets bloodwork done every 3 months, too. He also shows some signs of kidney failure but is on a regular diet, with vitamins. While we were filling out all the paperwork to adopt Linus, I was looking over the counter at Jake thinking “gee, I hope Linus doesn’t head down this road. ”

Three hours of chitchat, paperwork, Q&A (I tried to ask everything I could think of about raising a corgi, this woman was a wealth of info), and a signed check later, we are official owners of Linus! We are asked to keep in touch over a lot of things- how he does in the car trip home, the first two bowel movements, once we have his introduction meeting with his NYC vet, and also have to promise to send her a Christmas card with dog updates every single year for life. Lol. Talk about passionate rescue dog maintenance! It’s very reassuring to know if we do have any problems, we will have an expert on call.

We load our new best friend up in the back of the Jeep!

As we pulled out of her driveway with him in the crate, I teared up and tears of happiness rolled down my face. I’m just so excited and happy and overwhelmed to have this guy to love. I would look back over my shoulder about every three minutes
Me: “Is he still back there?! We really have a corgi?!”
E: deadpan: “yes, he hasn’t escaped the crate, which he is locked in, nor the Jeep, which is locked and driving.

He quickly falls asleep in the car and snoozes on and off the entire way home.

We stopped and walked him a every couple hours. We also got lost trying to find the Wendys in Cumberland, Maryland, this very ghetto old rundown Appalachian Mountain town. While we were walking him around the parking lot, these gang bangers came over with a spike-collared pitbull, who barked and lunged at Linus. Linus just kept bopping around sniffing at the ground and didn’t cower, growl, or really react at all. At this point, I am asking Earl “maybe he’s retarded? he just seems so happy and delusional and not really reacting to that big mean dog.” Earl assures me our dog is not retarded, but does pause to question my own IQ at this point.

Get home around 12:30, put him in the crate and try to go to bed. I can’t fall asleep because I am STILL so amped up and excited. I keep looking over the bed to see him in the crate, and then grin like a fool. I have a problem. The cat is PISSED and stays in her amazon.com box all night.

The following morning I took him for a 3 mile walk/jog to Randall’s Island. We stopped a few times for water twice and stretching, but by the afternoon he was dead tired.  I think perhaps 3 miles off the bat was somewhat overambitious. Going to try and work him up to that. We bought him some “tuffpaws” for his feet for running, but still I am thinking we overdid the jog. He perked up a bit following a snooze, although he did want to take the elevator instead of the stairs (we are on the 2nd floor… so tough!) after his nighttime walk.

Helping me read the paper:

Playing “fetch” with his soft fleecy ball. We’ve been careful to only get him softer toys that won’t hurt his mouth with no teeth. This is awesome because they get uber slime-coated when he gums them.

His breath is freaking RANK. Guess that is a side effect of having no teeth? Yiesh. I brushed his toofuses for him – the meat flavored toothpaste wasn’t exactly a joy, either!

A few things happened which made me think he was probably beaten before in his earlier life. When we got back from jogging, I was closing the patio door with my running sneaks in my hand. I turned around, and he happened to get softly whacked on the snout with my shoe (very softly) because he was right behind me. I didn’t even really feel him get hit it was so soft, but he YELPED and WHIMPERED and ears completely flattened back immediately rolled over on his back, belly exposed and paws in the air, crying at me. Poor guy. Also he is clearly intimidated by/submissive to the cat… so I guess that is good the two of them have their power structure worked out. I am guessing a run-in with a non-declawed, meaner kitty while he was a stray?

He likes the cat! He wants to play with her, she wants to growl at him. He is mainly seems curious about her.

You can see here some of his scar tissue on the side of his face from when he was a stray (he also has a dime-sized piece of scar tissue on his snout, right in the middle above his nose) and a couple of what the adoption agent referred to as “hot spots” where he chewed off his own fur on his legs and knees due to stress. She said in time, they may grow back, but not sure.

By the end of the day, the two of them made peace and both snuggled up on each side of me as I was uploading some of the 8 zillion pics I took of our adventure. Right now I think I am the happiest and luckiest girl in the world!
We love ya, Linus!

1. run the entire Long Path- not all at once, but in sections (status: have run the first 12 miles)
2. run 50 miles
3. get to an advanced level of swing dancing
4. learn to do aerials in swing dance
5. finish all of my tattoos- buffalo, dragon, De la Vega, Ironman
6. volunteer at a 100-mile race
7. double Century road bike
8. out and out own an apartment in NYC w. no mortgage
9. have permanent cedar planters surrounding our patio
10. paint a cute scene on the bathtub planter
11. get birds to live in a birdhouse on my property
12. learn about Manhattan flora and fauna, be able to name trees and flowers while walking around the parks
13. go on a Central Park Nature Walk
14. ride on a double decker bus tour
15. take Earl to Babbo
16. have my nieces visit us in NYC
17. go on a long weekend to visit my parents in New Hampshire
18. maintain yoga classes 4x per week
19. weigh under 125lbs again!
20. patch up a few waybegone friendships
21. hike the Appalachian Trail
22. heli ski in the Chugach Range
23. visit Kellie in AK.
24. own a farm in Argentina, perhaps near Bariloche or Mendoza
25. become and ophthalmologist or a nurse practicioner
26. go on a scaffold in NYC cleaning windows, be up over the 50th story
27. Do not kill Herman, my very first potted plant! (Accomplished: he is alive and thriving on our patio after 5 years of living with me in NYC).
    
28. Own a corgi (Accomplished: we now have Linus the rescue dog who lights up our lives!)
    
29. have a professional photoshoot with Earl on a fall day at the beach
30. Do something anonymously nice for two of my friends who are having a rough time (status: 1/2 accomplished thus far).
31. track down my Japanese exchange student, Akiko Minoche, who I lost contact with when she moved to Tokyo and her parents left Nagano
32. build a birdhouse
33. run the Badwater 135
34. run 100 miles
    
35. Own TWO corgis! (status: 1/2 accomplished)
36. have alpacas on the farm in Argentina, teach the corgis how to herd them
37. have 500 readers/day for Dances with Corgis
38. meet Gala Darling in person!
39. be a Big Sister with Big Brothers/Big Sisters (status: applied and denied because they have too many volunteer mentors and not enough students in need of Big Sisters, will revisit in 6 months)
40. write a bunch of wishes on pieces of paper, fold them up into paper airplanes and throw them off the roof of a building in NYC all at once
41. cook 250 meals from the NYC cookbook by Molly O’Neal (status: have done 2/250, oy)
42. learn more about gardening
43. grow plants from seeds
44. go dogsledding
45. shop mostly or entirely with locally grown products
46. volunteer for a week or two on an organic farm
47. ace all of my post baccalaureate classes
48. gogo dance at a NYC club
49. take an intermediate level hiphop dance class with Luam
50. take a hiphop dance class with Eric J
51. stay on top of my reading, read a lot
52. Read the NYTimes most Sundays (accomplished!)
53. stay on top of writing in my journal
54. own a sex swing
55. teach kids to play chess/work with a Chess in the Schools program
56. start playing competitive chess again
57. make sure my parents are taken care of and happy in their golden years
58. love Earl! (status: ongoing!)
59. grow old with my beloved
60. get married and have it be a fantastic party
61. road trip on The Blues Highway, New Orleans to Chicago via Memphis and Nashville
62. write a book
63. ski at Taos
64. climb a tree and take photographs in it
65. camp on the beach for a week again
66. Take my mom to a broadway show (Accomplished, took her to Phantom)
67. be an old lady and wear lots of crazy hats all the time
68. do a running race in the desert
69. go to antartica
70. travel in South America from Mexico to Argentina on the PanAm highway either via roadbike or car
    
71. huck a 15 ft cliff while skiing (status: at about 6ft but have yet to really stomp a landing)
72. do Nurses or Doctors without Borders
73. have Linus train for and pass the Canine Good Citizens Test
74. do a race or join the NYC Harriers
75. go on a hot air balloon ride! (status: bought a gift certificate for Letchworth State Park balloons but have yet to make it up there for the weekend)
76. play chess for $$$ in Washington Square Park
77. play masters level Go (status: attended classes at NYC Go Center but am still on the small/training level)
78. see otters in the wild!!!!!
79. stomp grapes for wine
80. throw my parents a fabulous 50th anniversary party
81. be in a food-eating contest, could be for anything
82. eat a giant burger in Pennsylvania with Steve
    
83. do something really special to remember Nils other than drink PBR and tell stories about him with friends
84. do a few more alleycat races with the NYC Bike Messengers (we did Cranksgiving last year and it was so fun!)
85. have a Progressive Dinner with friends in NYC
86. Design a nice website for Danceswithcorgis.com (accomplished!)
87. write thank-you notes consistently. Forever. (status: accomplished, but ongoing)
88. never lose my sense of wonder
89. do a long ocean swim (status: registered for the 5k sea swim with Wendy, Brent and Jenny)
90. take Earl marlin fishing
91. hogtie Earl and tickle him mercilessly
92. take an across the USA food roadtrip, taking cue from Roadfood by Jane and Michael Stern
93. take a ride on Famous Fat Dave’s Wheels of Steel
94. continue the annual Apple Orchard Ride tradition!
95. check off more restaurants in my NYC-eatery checklist
96. go to Blue Hill at Stone Barn
97. pace my friend Nick at Leadville 100
98. visit 1 new country per year
99. skydive NOT tandem
    
100. make a tradition of going Bemelmans after every NYC black tie event (status: ongoing, but accomplished thus far!)
101. make my own pickles
102. ride the tractor on Earls parents’ farm
103. make more wreaths to hang up in the apartment
104. make pasta from scratch
105. go to Russia
106. take Earl on a date in the back of my old Tacoma
107. own a videocamera and learn how to edit (status: 1/2 accomplished)
108. keep working on these and checking them off as I go!

One of the books I’m currently working my way through is Goals! by Brian Tracy. This was recommended by hiker/explorer DonkeyLegs, whos hikes I had been following on the Appalachian Trail. Seeing as I had been in a bit of a rut, the 100 Goals list concept intrigued me.

One of the exercises in the book is to create a list of 100 things you would like to do in your lifetime, and no matter what you do not stop listing until you reach 100 items. So on a balmy summer evening this July, I enlisted Earl to join me and we sat on the patio under candlelight, splitting a bottle of wine while writing out our goals.

I was surprised at how easily the list came to me. I wrote furiously and quickly surpassed 100. Some goals were small and silly, others were big essential life-changing items. A few where X-rated and some were family oriented. Many where deep seeded goals which I have been harboring for years, whereas others struck my fancy right there on a whim. Very many of them are seemingly frivolous yet are surprisingly important to me. Happily, more than couple of them have already accomplished between July and today!

Later while perusing the web I also came across the website of Ian Usher, who earned international acclaim when he sold his life on ebay. He’s now continuing the momentum from his last endeavor and attempting 100 Goals in 100 Weeks. I poked around Ian’s site and was inspired how he listed his goals out in the open, upping the accountability factor. Ian’s website reminded me quite a bit of the style of my friend and triathlete Felix Wong, who posts of lists his goals and notes once they are accomplished. I’ve always admired Felix’s site and aspired to create something akin to his checklists. Aspects of each Ian and Felix site’s reminded me of why I initially started my Ironman blog, partially to document all the training out in the open and make sure I actually DID it all!

Paying homage to DonkeyLegs, Ian and Felix, I have posted my 100 Goals. A few of the more risque goals have been toned down with an editor’s eye for this site. Listing them all out was not only fun and rejuvenating, but also a bit grounding. It was almost as though creating the list helped center me closer to my purpose; I found myself reenergized and ready to start checking them off. I believe Brian Tracy would be proud!