Good Bye Norbert 9/26/2001 to 8/16/2016

I just posted this over on Facebook, so if you're one of those friends, you'll see this in two places.

I have been beating myself up because we came home Tuesday night to find that Norbert had died while we were out. He had coughed a few times earlier in the day and some panting but then would go back to breathing normally. I made an appointment for him to be seen early Wednesday morning. I knew things were possibly nearing the end. But at the time we left, his breathing was back to normal. He didn't want to take a treat I tried giving him, that concerned me, but I really didn't think this was it. Gave him scritches and left with Brandon to see his aunt who was in town and his mom's birthday.

Dawn-Marie had stopped by with potato salad supplies shortly after we had left. She said that Norbert got up to say hi, tail wagging and was up on the couch and got pets from her and didn't seem to be having any problems breathing. Just seemed happy to see her along with the other dogs.

We found him on the couch a couple hours later. The dogs were quiet when we got home. They usually start barking once they here the car door closing and I had a few things to get out, so slow to get to the front door. Looks like he had been on a pillow and just left.

Greta had told me that he may have just been waiting to be alone. I was feeling awful that he was alone. But the other dogs were with him. He had been laying where I sit, so he had my scent close to him. We had almost 15 years with the silly boo bear. He's with his Nessa girl who left us six years ago, all too early. Kieran and Leeloo seem to be sleeping more. Kieran cried with William Tuesday night. Leeloo also tried to console William. The humans, we're struggling too.

William went back and forth on what to do, bury or cremate. We went with cremate, and now need to find a special tree to plant in the yard with his ashes, when they come back. We'll also go do a memorial thing at one of the Dove Lewis events for Norbert and Nessa the Scocker Crew gone now.

For those who didn't know Norbert. He was half Scottie and have Cocker Spaniel. The lady from Eugene we got him from called him a Scocker. He was William's dog. He got me into clicker training and SPT - Start Puppy Training, that I would eventually help co-moderate for a few years. He taught me about dog nutrition and holistic medicine. I thought I had a second Scocker with Nessa as a puppy, until she clearly showed her Schnauzer dna at the APDT Conference and everyone was complimenting me on the cute Schnauzer puppy. Norbert got to take puppy agility classes and if his structure had been more sound would have had fun doing that. Dwarfism and a sports doc said that it would put too much strain on his knees and back. I like to credit getting Heather Christensen started in teaching training as I asked her to take on Norbert and William as students when they were both acting in their teen ways. He got to meet famous people like Melissa Alexander the author, who also had a puppy the same time he was in SPT. Linda Tellington-Jones used him in a T-Touch class. She also cleared a raging ear infection with that. Norbert did enjoy Tracking. He was protective of Nessa and a Rule Keeper. It was hard explaining to lab owners that yes, your big black baby might be friendly, but its rude and not listening to Nessa freaking out and Norbert is going to take its face off because its in her face. So more training experiences for all of us, but not nearly enough tracking I think. The Scocker Crew went to a couple of Barn Hunt trainings. Norbert didn't have problems going into the tunnels, but wouldn't bark when he found the rats. This did not stop him from killing a rat that tried coming into the house. He was quick and quiet and in short order it was dead.

Norbert mourned for six months the loss of his Nessa girl. I still miss my girl. He was already a middle aged man, set in his ways when I got Leeloo. His hearing was starting to go. It took us a few years to figure out that he had a chicken-turkey-duck (I gave up and didn't try pheasant) allergy. With his cocker ears, he was prone to ear infections showing his allergy reactions. He did not like have his Cone of Doom for each of his ear surgeries. He enjoyed going for walks and treated Leeloo like Nessa who needed to be protected from other dogs. The last few years, going the full loop around the neighborhood was much harder for him, so a shorter route was his. He still longed to go when I took Kieran and Leeloo for their walks, just not up to their pace. We would find him sitting and waiting near the front door on our return.

*New from FB**In grabbing a pic to add to this post, I realized I forgot to say how much he loved balls. Taking him out to a field to chase after a ball. Getting the mini tennis balls in the house. We could keep him busy running after those. We knew he had slowed down in the last couple years when he would only go once or twice and then go lay down. Leeloo and Kieran aren't as interested in balls.

He loved his backyard, and would amble around with the other two. There was less sunbathing this summer. He would lay on the vent and let the cool air blow on him. He loved the cold days and would always perk up for those and loved playing in the snow. He was always a picky eater, but with Kieran he learned that if I sit at the kitchen door, I too may get a special treat when mom is cooking in the kitchen, so not so old to learn new tricks. Nessa knew this one. Kieran had kind of moved Norbert off the bed. The "hey old man, you can't warn about danger, cause you can't hear it, I should sleep at mom's feet." So Norbert moved off the bed that was harder for him to get up on and got good sleep without being kicked by mom. He had a pillow pile in the closet that he picked to sleep on. It was his man cave because it was dark during the day, if he wanted to stay in there, instead of out with us in the living room. Kieran would alert us if Norbert went to the back door to be let out if we hadn't noticed Norbert up and out of the kitchen (he started doing loops in there trying to find any dropped goodies). With Leeloo, Norbert had relaxed and would come and check out people who came to the house. He had his preference of people who he liked seeing and who he would wanted pets from. He loved his boy and missed not seeing him every day. I know that William probably has guilt about that now, but wasn't able to have Norbert live with him. Norbert would have been lonely even though living with his boy.

Norbert, you'll be missed, you were loved by all of us.

Norbert and Nessa on a walk at Dawson Creek Park. They loved this park and chasing the birds. Together again.

Beach Weekend - Thanksgiving 2013

We've used the beach house for the weekend before, this time it was after celebrating with my family in Corvallis, Thanksgiving. This trip was a Household trip for the Golden Bees. We had Dawn-Marie with her husband Brent, their daughter Larissa and Jenna along. Turns out that they all came down without having a Thanksgiving dinner. I had received a free turkey that month for shopping, so brought it and some potatoes for making mashed ones. Jenna brought the green bean casserole and Dawn-Marie made deviled eggs and cranberry sauce and brought a small brown sugar ham from Fred Meyer.

Friday we put it all together and had it for our dinner. That was after grocery shopping for weekend supplies and having lunch at Abbey's Pizza. There was also movie watching and taking Leeloo down to the beach at low tide.  She loves the beach! It's a community beach and there weren't a lot of people and its long enough that you can see people. So I felt free to let her run off leash and have fun being a dog.

Before taking leash off

Still dragging leash

Can you see the leash?

Going to dad!

Off leash and running back and forth from mom to dad!

Brandon and Larissa skipping rocks

 He had the camera on a burst - these are us trying to get her to run over the abandoned sandcastle...

I LOVE the BEACH!

Saturday Dawn-Marie, Larissa and Brent went in to look at the shops. They left Devin, their Chihuahua with us. He cried and fussed. So couldn't find his gear so put him in Leeloo's harness and walked him down to the beach. The little sausage could back right out of it if he decided that, no I'm not going forward. You wouldn't think that he'd get cold but after a bit Brandon had to carry him around because he was shivering. Could have been fear too. Leeloo had a blast while we were there, but went back up because he was cold.

She didn't enjoy the baths after because the sink doesn't have a sprayer so it took longer. Plus I hadn't thought about it, so didn't have her shampoo. Small price to pay for all the fun!

Brandon got some sewing done while we were there and I tried out the pattern pieces that Jaime had created from a bodice that had gotten too big for me. Jenna tried cutting out some fabric while we were at the beach, but overall it was just a relaxing weekend. Watching sing along movies - Pitch Perfect, Rock of Ages, and Mamma Mia! As well as introducing Jenna to Cards Against Humanity.

So long as Brandon's Uncle Dave has the house, we'll try for another beach weekend late spring as another household get away.

Bits and Bobs

Thursday evening, SCA friend Dafne walked down with her dogs Homer and Tige to introduce them to Leeloo and Norbert. We were testing the waters to find out if Homer and Tige could stay at our house for West War.

I was so busy keeping an eye on the interactions I was lucky I was able to get one picture:

Tige playing with Leeloo

Norbert got in Homer and Tige's faces a couple of times. Dafne thinks that he would do fine with another visit. Leeloo did really well with both of them. She even played chase with Tige for a few minutes.

With the construction going on behind us, and they often work until 7pm or later, I'm missing some of the changes in my backyard. I almost missed one of my daylillies:

Love that rich red!

I found a white half sheet and put it down in the living room and took some pics of the handspun Barn Raising Blocks in a nine-patch setup. Meaning I tried to group the colors in groups of nine with similar colors.

All of the blocks

Top row: Blues on left, Greens on right

Middle row: Naturals on left, Purples on right

Bottom row: Oranges on left (need two more!), Blues/Purples on right

I think that I want to do the quilt idea of outlining the blocks in a color. I had thought black, but think that white might be better? The three rows of nine patches is long enough for a blanket, but two columns isn't wide enough unless I want to keep it as a couch blanket. If possible, I'd like it bigger!

47 blocks done.

Grand Thing VIII

Memorial Day weekend is the Barony of Stromgard's Grand Thing event. It's held at the Columbia County Fairgrounds. This is the first SCA event that we went to four years ago. It was known as Mud Thing because of the rain and mud from cars driving on the grass (they stopped allowing cars on the grass after this). This year while no mud there was plenty of rain!

Between cloud bursts on Friday we setup camp. We had more people camping with us than we have had in the past. Will and Luke were camping with us again. Andrea has a boyfriend that came too. We have Susan and Danna with her family (fiance Shawn, his daughter Reagan, and grandson Matthew) and this year Jenna was camping. We had 19 people in camp!

Saturday was drier and we all got out and checked out the merchants. There was some archery done by some. Some of us watched the Monastery Raid at the barn. Got to chat with Dafne on the grass. Then it was a matter of getting all the potluck dishes ready for the dinner. I made a rice tart, mushroom pasty, makerouns (pasta and cheese with an added twist of mushrooms), and ryse. I even got the almond flour and made the almond milk from it. Everything must have been good, by the time we got to any of the dishes, everything was gone!

That was a bit of a disappointment about the potluck. They were having rows of tables go up to get their food. People were piling their dishes high with food with heaping spoonfuls of things. When you see piled plates go past you while you're waiting and you're the next to the last row of tables and when you get there and there's hardly any food left? Rude! I was frankly shocked and horrified at what I was seeing.

We stayed for court, since we did have King UlfR and Queen Caoimhe (Keeva) in attendance there was a lot of awards handed out. We also saw Baron Tiernan and Baroness Miranda step down and the new Baron Ivon and Baroness Hlutwige step up. The exciting part of court wasn't until the end when Mike proposed to Sara in front of court. Luckily two friends were right behind her ready because the shock about dropped her right there.

Mike/Hal stepping out 

Sara is the blonde on this side of the man in red shirt

So lovely to see! We had a lovely campfire in camp with two fire pits going. 

Sunday started out wet again and we woke up to find chairs and my sheep skins in puddles of water, so tried to lay things out to dry. By mid-day and checking online with weather reports of more rain, decision was made to pack up camp and go to the pig potluck and then head home. 

Danna had woken up with a sore back and could hardly move at all. So they were going to be packing up and heading out. I tried to help find someone to drive the truck for her because she couldn't even sit down for a couple of minutes without being in excruciating pain. I checked with Duke Almaric, since they were on the other side of us and Danna thinks of him as a mentoring knight. He referred me to Earl Ed. So, trekked off to find Earl Ed over at Iron Ring. He didn't have anyone that would be able to drive her over that might be going home early. So I stopped and talked with the court herald I had seen on my way over. He said that a request could be made at court. Shawn and Jeff made the request and no one stepped forward. He was really disappointed that there weren't any offers. Jeff volunteered, and we find out later he was in a lot of pain himself with a toothache. 

On the walk to Jenna's car so that I could get our car and move it closer to start loading, the encampment across from us had a rat terrier and either a large Sheltie or small Collie. We had escorted the Collie back to its camp when we found it wandering around dragging its leash on Saturday. Sunday as we went by the rat terrier saw Leeloo and came running from their communal shelter straight for her attacking her. I yelled at the encampment that dogs were to be kept on leash at all times! Gerard was coming towards us and one of the squires from their encampment came to help get the rat terrier off of Leeloo. Luckily no cracked heads happened as the three of us were reaching in trying to separate the dogs. I think what kept Leeloo from being hurt was the fact that she was wearing a thicker doggie sweatshirt of Norbert's and a padded body harness. Couldn't find any blood or cuts on her. I was shaking and hyperventilating and took me a few minutes to calm down and take a look at her. Lord Chrodec is the squire who came out to assist and helped me calm down and check things out. He later helped with a couple of other men from their encampment to get out trailer hooked up to the car and he did help me with one of my wagon loads. It was an awful thing to have happen at an event!

This kind of tipped the scales for us to be heading home rather than staying for the potluck. I sent Jenna off with the rice tart so she had a contribution and gave half of the mushroom pasty to Susan to take home. Gave some food to Tyra since she was on our food plan and we were all leaving early. She had a couple friends that had shown up Saturday and asked if its okay if they camped at our site - no problem! More musicians! 

Monday morning I woke up with a fever and stuffy head. By Friday I was in seeing the doctor because my ears were plugged. Turned out I had two fairly bad ear infections as well as a nice sinus infection. High pain tolerance was not my friend according to Dr. Kwon. (I was supposed to be screaming in pain by what she was seeing in my ears.) So antibiotics and bed rest. Thanks Grand Thing!

Capture December: Day 6 - Shopping

I didn't go shopping today, talked with Brandon and he reminded me he had a photo of me shopping at June Faire, I'm in the blue hat:

I did do some online shopping for my son but that was last month and I didn't think to take a photo. ;-)

For a holiday photo, I give you the one that I did take tonight that I like:

Can you tell that Leeloo is less than thrilled wearing her hat?

2012 Beach Trip!

We made the drive to Manzanita, we like the beach there. Its often not as crowded as the others but this trip it had more people than we usually see. I think it was everyone trying to escape the heat. ;-) It was in the low 60s while we were there, compared to the previous days 99.

Brandon running them together

Leeloo's face said that she thought the beach was a blast

The boys have fun going in the water, the girls, we stay out - its COLD!

Towards the end of the beach there is a hillside of rocks. Brandon started climbing, Norbert followed. I took Leeloo off leash so that she could clamber around freely. She seemed to enjoy the rock climbing too, until she realized I didn't come along.

Checking out a log and back on leash. I waited until after we got home for a bath and haircut for Leeloo. Norbert still needs a haircut.

It was a lovely afternoon and we'll have to take them for a weekend at the beach house in October. Hopefully, early October when the weather is still nicer.

Sunbathing

Today its supposed to get above 100 degrees, something that is out of the norm for our part of the world. I know that the rest of the country has been experiencing drought and high heat, but we're not used to it here in the Pacific Northwest. Natives start to whine when it gets above 75 and anything about 80 is just not fun. We do have humidity, nothing like the South though, so we shouldn't complain, too much. ;-)

I had let the dogs out to go potty and caught these pics:

Leeloo had laid down on the mat outside the patio door, and its one of the spots that Norbert also uses for that. He decided that sunbathing was more important than the fact she was laying there.

It's not that they don't get along, its just they don't sleep side-by-side that often. Leeloo would do it more often I think, but Norbert will stretch and kick out in the stretching and she's taken it as a 'keep away from me' type move. As you can see she's definitely smaller than him.

They are both due for trims, but its warm enough that I haven't wanted to take them outside to do it. Maybe Friday though. We're going to try for that beach trip on Saturday. It's supposed to be a bit cooler in the valley, so will be interesting to see what kind of weather we'll have there.

Hope if you're local, you're staying cool!

Holiday Pups of 2011

I took advantage of the last day of sunny weather that was known to me (it was freakishly sunny for a week in December!) and with Brandon's help tortured* the dogs with holiday photos. Leeloo we were able to get photos from each of the three hats we have for the dogs. Norbert we were able to get a couple that weren't showing the whites of his eyes in terror (he was shaking the whole time, you would have thought we were going to skin him or something.)  Leeloo has since gotten a hold of one hat and chewed off the holly and berries off of one of the Santa hats.

There's holly and berries under the flop over.

She thought this would make a wonderful toy to rip to bits. I think its the jingle bell.

It wasn't until almost done that I realized in trying to get the pics and hat on that I realized that the headband had pulled her beard and mustache back oddly.

Norbert desperately trying not to see the evil camera eye.

Looking off into the distance and trying to look dignified.

Christmas tree before all the gifts were loaded underneath. We went to a lovely artificial tree several years ago due to my allergies.

Leeloo has some sweaters in her future, so further dog torture* pictures will show-up.

* Disclaimer - no actual torture of animals happened, or will happen.

Meet Meme!

Nicole came over with Meme, a two year old spayed Pug-Miniature Pinscher. She has a pretty severe underbite issue where her bottom teeth show, but it doesn't inhibit her eating at all!

Nicole and Meme in her Angel Shirt (it has wings.)

Meme in one of Leeloo's t-shirts

That spot in the grass that smells good enough to roll around in....

Checking that Leeloo is just watching and not going to try to take her spot...

Doggie bliss

Meme came to stay a week with us to see if she and Leeloo would play with each other. Leeloo tried really hard but at first Meme's barking scared her and then they both just kind of shutdown around each other. Norbert kind of snarked at her over food issues and so she spent much of the week snuggled up against me sleeping. Leeloo would come bark at her and bring toys to try to get her to play and when she was ignored, bark at me in frustration - Make her play with ME!

Brandon also stuck to his rule of only two dogs that we own, so since it wasn't a perfect fit, Meme went back to Nicole. Nicole picked her back up from me Friday night and we could all see how happy Meme was to see her again. She's back where she belongs. Though if the perfect home became available, Nicole would let that happen. Meme has a luxating patella in her right knee. It doesn't pain her or really slow her down. She just lifts it up and goes on with the other three. Meme would make an awesome agility dog, if she had the surgery done. It's not something that Nicole has the money for, and since there isn't pain, not a priority.

Norbert showing off his fresh haircut

Does that look like the face of a 9-1/2 year old dog?

She loves her back yard

Meme is a smidge taller than Leeloo, she's all legs!

Little puppy baking in the sun

Hair in the face, showing mom she needs a trim. She loves laying out on the patio in the sun for a bit while waiting for a bird to chase out of her yard.

Leeloo has been very affectionate since Meme has left. I'm not sure if she's trying to show me how happy she is that things are back to 'normal', or if she's worried that she might 'go away' too. Lots of kisses and requests to snuggle on my chest.