Stair Master!

Congratulations to Robin the Good! She finally mastered descending the stairs! Robin was ace on running up the stairs but going down had eluded her. It was that first top step that was a killer. She'd dangle her paws over the edge and make frustrated moaning sounds. It was imperative that she learn to go down the stairs as she's getting bigger and heavier: Lil' Robin has gained 10 pounds since she came to live with us. I was at my absolute upper weight limit for picking her up as she is heavy AND squirmy. (30 pounds and growing at her last vet appointment.)
Bob worked very diligently at assisting Robin in mastering the stairs. He began by carrying her down the stairs and putting her down, then carrying her down except putting her down on the third lowest stair and then half way down... until finally she just did it. It was such a conceptual leap; you could see the gears grinding in her head. But she committed and the next thing I knew, she was halfway down. You have to imagine that her legs are very long and still ungainly- her back end tends to overtake her front end. But she did it!
Now, of course, the stairs are a great source of fun and entertainment. Up and down and up and down; great exercise and great help for her coordination. (Sometimes, she can't find her brakes in time and over shoots and crashes into things like trees and glass doors. Ouch.) Thank god for carpets (even ugly, stained carpet) as it makes for better traction that wood.
Today, we're having a puppy play date so we're expecting utter exhaustion come this evening.

It's Show Time!

Yes, it's time for another edition of Bob and Rita play Famous Artist and have a show! This time, we're actually showing together with a very good painter named Megan Marden. Years back (which no one but Bob and I will remember), we vowed NOT to show with each other for a variety of reasons I won't go into here. But time passes and opportunities arise... The show looks great but there are some obstacles to presenting work in an alternative space. Like there's no heat and it may be chilly and possibly rain/snow shower. But artists are made of sterner stuff and the show must go on! There is no art on the walls and my studio is empty so I chose to insert the above photo; art courtesy of Robin the Good.
(I think Robin shows great promise as a sculptor (she takes after Bob) although her work tends towards manipulation of the ready made, as opposed to carving or welding. She carefully "painted" the end of her gnawed rawhide chew with a liberal application of teething puppy blood. I was perplexed when I almost stepped on the above treasure. I thought the light in the room had a rosy glow, until I discovered that Robin was nursing an incoming molar. Kind of gross, but that's life!)

(That's my newest book, in artist's proof form! I'm still tweaking assembly and some details, but it's getting there. Isn't it about time? This monster took months.)
So the update is as follows: no snow or rain for our opening (Yay!) but freezing temperatures and an inscrutable location made for a sort of arctic goose chase evening. Brave souls, our art viewing friends! Some wandered through the depths of the Danbury industrial wilderness, searching for signs and landmarks. Others faced down pneumonia and everyone dressed for polar exploration (a re-visitation of down parkas and fur-like hats and woolly scarves). The show really was well received and Bob and I (and we certainly hope Megan) came away feeling numb (feet) but satisfied.
The success of our opening- and a big thank-you again to all of our intrepid friends!- coupled with the excellent news that Bob sold an interesting garden object (the moss table) yesterday makes for a really pleasing day after glow.

April Fool's (A Day Early)

At least I had one smart moment the other day and I "fixed" the computer. Last Saturday, when we tried to turn on the computer and it seemed frozen: the tower light was on, the monitor said "Dell" but nothing worked. After numerous attempts at rejiggering and replugging every possible cord and cable, it was off to Staples for a fix. We were informed that (despite having a McAfee anti-virus installed) we harbored many spyware, malware and viruses. We left the computer to be debugged.
Two days later, we picked the computer up having paid $160 to have 161 (apparent) viruses removed- about a dollar a virus! But imagine our consternation when on arriving home, we set it up and the same thing happened, ie; nothing.
Bob and I again replugged and even tried other outlets, new surge strips etc to no avail. I took it back to Staples, oozing indignation. But not only did it boot up and operate just fine (making me feel super stupid) but they tried to charge us more than initially quoted for the new anti-virus install. After fixing the evil eye on the young man waiting on me (with a line starting to grow with other computer customers piling up behind me) I was granted discounted service. I left the computer for installation.
Okay, so you see this coming. I return to Staples, get the computer home, we hook it up and... nothing. Bob and I are drawing straws to see who will be the sacrificial lamb and call Staples and confess to our complete idiocy as we both agree it HAS to be a very simple problem. At that point I believe Bob abandoned ship and I was left to fool with connections on my own. I decided on a very un-Rita solution. I began to methodically push each and every key on the keyboard, thinking just maybe a magic button would re-engage our machinery.
And it worked! I tapped the key that has a sort of windows image and the computer sprang into action. The key had been stuck all along!
I happened to be back at Staples a day later, getting a collage laminated for the cover of one of my artist's books. On my way out the door, I spied the corpulent young man who had assisted in the diagnosis and repair of our computer. "Hey", I said, "We got home and the computer still didn't work- until I discovered a stuck key!" "Yeah", he answered, "I noticed that when we worked on your computer." Ooooooooooooooooooohhh! That made me mad! Couldn't he have mentioned that? Bob and I almost lost our minds and it was all so simple... Now we're left to wonder whether the computer really did have viruses!

And Yet Another Puppy Post!

Robin lost two teeth today! She has a goofy gap-toothed grin as her two front lower baby teeth fell out. She probably swallowed them. But teething is a way serious issue for little dogs: wake up and let the chewing begin! Here's another action shot:

Yes, that's an actual, untouched photo of her mouth in action. But just when you exclaim, "What were we thinking?" and decide that little Robin was pick of the litter at Satan's Puppy Mill, she falls asleep on your stomach and has delicate puppy dreams and is all warm and squishy..

That all occurs in the space of three minutes. It does keep you on your toes. (Of course, an entire blog entry and inquiry could easily be devoted to considering just what a puppy dreams about. Robin has been alive a grand total of fifteen or sixteen weeks and would not seem to have a huge range of life experiences. But dream she does: howling and twitching and eyes rolling wildly. Curious!) But she is a grade a student when it comes to house training. Not one accident yesterday at all!
But I have a vet appointment today for puppy booster shots and an ear check (seems to be shaking her head and rubbing her ears). I realized that with the exception of the harrowing eight hour odyssey that she endured on her Pennsylvania to Connecticut adventure, she has no car experience. So I bundled her into the car, thinking to drive around the block and prepare her for Thursday's excursion. No sooner had I rounded the first bend than I thought, "Gee, she's awfully quiet" and I glanced into the rear view mirror to see her nose becoming visibly longer and pointier and well, greener (no mean trick for a black puppy!) and her tongue came out and she drooled prodigiously and the next thing I knew her lunch was on the seat along side her. Poor little Robin! We'll see how she fares today on a half hour journey...
But despite the puppy preoccupation, she's a good kid and has been helpful while I clean up the garden. She likes carrying sticks around and has done a fine job of jumping on the piles of leaves I've raked. She's been really good in my studio, too, where there is no end of excitement and danger. Bob and I are both preparing for a show upcoming at The Trailer Box Project in Danbury. I think Bob's pretty much on top of things, but I lost a month when mourning Jules and have a bit of catching up to do. (Mostly sewing backings on pieces and tweaking a book I hope to complete). Thank the stars that Robin has been mostly cooperative!

More Puppy Appearances and What to Eat for St. Patrick's Day

There have been repeated calls for more pictures of our charmer Robin. But she is in constant motion when awake and looks very much like a black blur. Once asleep, however, she presents a calmer study, although her penchant for sleeping on her back provides us with eccentric shots, like the one above. Crashed out indeed!
Robin has progressed nicely in the house training department. She had a single accident (liquid) yesterday but we have mastered the rapid evacuation out the door two seconds after she finishes eating so we seem to have the solids department under control. Bob maintains she's the smartest puppy we've ever had. She is a quick study but I am currently more aware of the sharpness of all those little puppy teeth.

This is the Noble Seated Robin. There is a quality about her that's mature. I mean, look at that face: she does present as a grown dog. That is, when she's not biting and chasing her tail and running around like the little banshee she really is...

Here's the other side. I think she was watching Maggie- everything that Maggie does is fascinating to Robin. The other night, Maggie decided to play Rodeo Girl and run, bucking and snorting ferociously
from one end of her pasture to the other. Robin was terrified but couldn't look away. Robin is fascinated by everything; she's only 14 weeks old, so everything is new.
But lest I forget, it IS St. Patrick's Day and Bob and I are in a quandary about what to eat. Many vegetables are green but we don't eat beef so corned beef is out of the question. Pea soup? If anyone has any ideas, send them along. In the meantime, Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Liquids and Solids

Yes, I stole the title for this post from a book someone else wrote ages ago, about their dog and (you can guess) the excitement involved in house training. Get it? It's all about liquids and solids. Bob and have had more discussions in the past week about canine bodily functions than most people have in an entire life. I have taken to keeping a note pad, complete with time and location of puppy byproducts. It certainly makes for fascinating reading!
Robin- despite having arrived at our house 100% NOT house trained- is doing remarkably well. She sleeps most of the night and it is me that rouses her at 2:30 or 3:00 to make a little trip outside to eliminate so no surprises happen on the bedroom floor. She is smart and doing a good job.
But she has been most unhappy when we attempt to leave her alone, an unacceptable state to a young dog! Let's face it: her entire thirteen week existence has been in the presence of her mother and litter mates and the other adult dogs at the breeder's house. So she has had zero experience on her own and has protested in all kinds of inventive ways. She sings, she howls, she leaves the above mentioned liquids and solids, obviously signalling her displeasure.
And she has proven to be quite the escape artist! Bob and I barricaded her in the kitchen (with plenty of toys ad blankets and reading material appropriate to her age and interests) but she pushed through a three foot high plywood partition blocked by kitchen chairs with ease. We then made a four foot high barrier on the stairway, with a board wedging the barrier tight. Somehow our little Robin- in an imitation of Spider Man- scaled or flew over this obstruction, and Bob found her upstairs. He sent an incredulous email to me at work. I dreaded coming home, and we both worried she'd hurt herself trying to escape the stockade that our house now resembled.

(The pictures, by the way, are of the very end of Robin's very funny tail. It looks like an etch-a-sketch drawing of a dog's tail, except at the end where there is this eccentric little twizzle. Totally endearing!) In any event, today we debated crate training (I've always been opposed) and Thunder Shirts (supposed to wrap the dog in a snug embrace and relieve anxiety) but decided to live dangerously and just leave her with the run of the kitchen and the upstairs hallway. We went out to run errands, hoping that she'd be happier with more room to situate herself where she felt secure and comfortable.
We came home and she was okay: at the top of the stairway squeaking and looking a bit perturbed, but happier than she had been. I went out again this afternoon, and Bob was in his studio, leaving Robin on her own once more. And do you know, she was once again better off with more run of the house... and no surprises in the form of the famous liquids and solids to clean up! Maybe we've found the charm.

Welcome to the First Robin of Spring!

There she is... Robin! A glamorous puppy- our puppy! We are expecting her to be delivered by the stork (actually a dog delivery service) early tomorrow morning. I took a vacation day off from work to be here for the delivery. I requested that it be noted as "Maternity Leave" from work! I had tried to get her delivered on Wednesday or Thursday (my typical days off) so that Bob wouldn't have to play Single Parent (with all the accompanying little surprises like accidents and chewed objects) but when it became obvious that Robin was coming on Friday morning, I decided to rearrange my schedule.

I can't wait to meet her. She has gotten raves from the breeder (who actually considered keeping her out of the litter) and she looks perfect. Mother and Father dogs (Chloe, and Gunnar, respectively) are "pure breds" but fortunately, neither is a popular breed (like Poodles or Labs) and therefore not over bred. Chloe is a Blue Long Haired Weimeraner and Gunnar is a Llewellin Setter (the Field (ie, hunting) version of the English Setter). Don't even get me started on all the weird genetic disorders that plague popular dogs! Goldens are now considered (along with Yellow Labs) the dumb blondes of the dog world, not to mention that they now frequently die of cancer and suffer from heart ailments at alarming rates. So, no pure breds (whatever the fuck that is anyway!) for us!

Here she is, vogue-ing again. I can't wait to be photographing her in our backyard... her empire!
I miss Jules so much that it's astonishing. But I am hopeful and certain that having a new she-devil in the house will help to heal the gigantic hole left in our lives.
I'll post updates!