Category Archives: Cap’n Windy

Wordless Wednesday: The devil you say

Posted on October 29, 2014 by Donna Black-Sword

At seven months old, Holly’s growth is more mental than physical at this point.

I may be handy with the camera, but it’s a challenge to capture the essence of her gray matter maturing as it is. So now would be a good time to adjust the weekly Holly photos to a once-a-month kinda schedule.

And speaking of the Canon, I should have put that word handy in air quotes.

What is the number one rule of photographers? What? I don’t know. I was hoping you did. Anyway, one of the big rules is … watch your background.

Don’t wait until you’ve uploaded your photos on the laptop before you notice there’s a pumpkin stem growing from your puppy’s head. Or that rogue propane tank that’s messing with the mood of your fall scene.

Propane tanks are so summer.

And wait, what on dog’s green earth is that in the window? Son of a … that’s Cap’n Windy. How did she get on the porch when I had her decorating the living room in her Halloween getup.

Read the rest of this entry →

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Wordless Wednesday: California Blonde Calendar Girl

Posted on January 1, 2014 by Donna Black-Sword

Miss March (with sister Ella). And because there’s too much
Euka to handle, she doubles as Miss December.
Just don’t tell her. I’m already dealing with the ‘tude.

Got a match?, she asks her friend.

Not since Marilyn Monroe died, the friend answers.

___________________

We pause here just a moment and await the groans to subside.

I’d apologize for the poor taste except for two things.

It’s not my joke. It’s not like I can make up stuff like that on my own.

And I did snort-laugh the first time I heard it.

And, um … there’s something else.

I have to share this with you. Ok, not that it bothers me, but the Husband got a Marilyn Monroe calendar for Christmas. From his brother. A different brother received a Sunsets calendar.

Sunsets.

I’m not sure how to process this information.

But I will say this. The Man Cave concept is starting to look a little more real at our place.

Because I’m not gonna start my mornings with Marilyn’s perky face on my kitchen wall.

And yeah, there’s yet another thing.

I already have a calendar for the kitchen wall.

Every morning as I pad my way to the coffee maker, my sleep bleary eyes will come to rest upon puppy goodness.

2015 will be my calendar year, vows
Cap’n Windy.
Yeah, good luck with that, says Euka,
tossing her blonde ears back.

Because I scored me a 2014 Limited Edition Puppy Calendar from Canine Companions for Independence and Eukanuba.

But unlike my Cap’n Windy winnings, no need to be jealous, y’all.
It’s ridiculously easy to get one of these way too cool calendars starring the extraordinary E litter for your own.

A gift of $25 to Canine Companions for Independence will net you one of these limited editions. And because CCI is a non-profit, your donation is tax deductible.

Just click on this link for the 2014 Limited Edition Puppy Calendar to be included with us beautiful people. I feel prettier already just telling you about it.

The Good Stuff Jar Project

Posted on December 29, 2013 by Donna Black-Sword

The 2013 Good “Stuff” Jar.
Censored for sensitive readers.*
You know who you are.

Food Lady! Micron yells from the kitchen. Bodine has his litter box feet on the counter again!

[random scurrying sounds] And he’s taking a bite out of every apple in the fruit bowl!, he says.

Ok, I say. Thanks, buddy.

Who does that anyway? says Micron. Every apple? Like the next one will taste different?

Don’t worry about it, Mikey, I say. I’ll take care of it in a minute.

Hey, that’s a sign of insanity, right? Micron says, walking into the family room. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting …hey, are you ok, Food Lady? You haven’t hollered at the cat even once today.

Yeah, I’m good. I say to my card carryin’ certified pet therapy dog.

Micron jumps onto the sofa to snuggle and I stroke his noggin until he closes his eyes.

I’m just getting a little melancholy. I say.

Micron’s eyes pop back open and he looks at me with brows furrowed into worry lines. You’re getting a what? Nuh uh. Is that really a good idea, Food Lady? he asks. I mean, don’t you always tell people that you’re just four paws away from being an animal hoarder? Even a little dog needs a lot of attention and chew bones and they still poop a lot and stuff.

Well, you know how moody I get around the holiday season, I say. And …what? Little dog? Oh, I get it. A little Melon Collie. [eye roll] That’s an old joke, my love.

I wasn’t joking, says Micron, closing his eyes again. So anyway isn’t it time to open the Good “Stuff” Jar? That might cheer you up a little.

Micron, you sweet thing, I say. You’re smarter than I look. That’s a stellar idea and I’m glad you reminded me of it.

Read my lips, says Micron.
No more puppies!

My sensitive dog remembers that I started the Good “Stuff” Jar at the end of last year while immersed in my annual post-holiday funkitude. And it’s a lofty goal, this project. What with keeping up with the burden of writing down the occasional happy events that we encounter throughout our days. That, and the challenge of remembering to do it.

It’s oh too easy to plod along our daily paths and never give another thought to the bright moments once their shine has faded. And next thing you know, you’re going about with heavy sighs and enigmatic lamentations of cantaloupes and Lassies.

So this year on December 31 we’ll open the Good “Stuff” Jar in celebration of a year well spent. I imagine a bright ray of light to escape the mouth of this former sauerkraut jar. Perhaps some angelic singing as we lefty loosie the lid of the thing. Yeah, I know, I know. Best not to set the bar too high lest we face the disappointment of reality mingled with vague sauerkraut fumes. But really, at the very least, I think there’s a smile or two awaiting us in there.

I’m counting on it, actually.

And with the end of year looming on the horizon of our Gregorian calendar, this seems a fine time to take a look back at our last few months of dog inspired adventures here on Raising a Super Dog.

This post aglow before you is the final of 2013. I’ve challenged myself with a minimum of two posts weekly, with Story Sunday and Wordless Wednesday being the feature stories. Although sorely tempted to slack off, I can stand (yeah, I’m sitting) before you and say that I never wavered even once. I totally met this goal and then took it out for drinks. I’m jazzed to tell you that we slapped out a full 110 blog posts intended for your entertainment.

And I’ve enjoyed sharing every story and photo with you, my faithful readers and fans of all things Dog. Thanks for hanging with us on our life’s journey with our canine heartmates Euka, Micron and Jager. Y’all are great.

I spent some time going through our dog adventures this morning, which turned out to be a mood lifter for my weary soul. The Blog Archive in the panel to your right will take you through each story month by month. I invite you to lose yourself there for a while, should you find yourself wanting to wax nostalgic for the dogs’ derring-do of yore. But as ain’t nobody got time for that, allow me to throw you a bone, so to speak, and I’ll highlight my personal favorites of 2013.

Donna’s Top 20 of 2013

Euka II

Um, Food Lady? Don’t look
behind you.
(Micron is playing yellow
submarine in a mud bank. True story)

We started things off in January with our New Year Goals for Miss Euka. At a three months old, we had a lot on our plate to get this little girl ready for her Advanced Training at Canine Companions for Independence. And we’re almost there, people. Less than five months to go now, can you believe it?

After starting life as a celebrity, being on the Eukanuba livestream for her first eight weeks of life, Euka uses her star status to rub hocks with other well known folk. We had the pleasure of meeting Temple Grandin and author Jenny Lawson (The Bloggess). Photo ops included, of course. So we got proof that I didn’t just make this stuff up.

The extraordinary E litter celebrated their first birthday in September. We got the Ohio E’s back together for a photo shoot. Cute, cute, cute. And cute. There’s four of them, you know.

Aaargh, this puppy! Not the best of timing, yet a true adventure trying to get a Halloween photo of this puppy before she went off to The Spa at CCI. It’s a Then this happened kinda story.

The Mighty Micron

In Pet-it Jury Trial Micron serves as judge and jury. And witness, counsel and defendant, too. But not well. Something about jack of all trades but master of none.

They’re all guilty. Don’t ask.

I’m thwarted in a yet another warm and fuzzy photo session with the mighty Micron at That ain’t chocolate. Never turn your back on a water dog.

Micron masters the art of being a literacy tutor at Tutelage in relaxation and Time flies at the library. He also falls in love with a pair of boots, so there’s that.

Not to be outdone by Euka’s infamy, Micron stars in his own short Indie film of Mutiny of the Bounty. That title is not a typo. The paper towels fought back.

We ran Micron through a series of canine cognition games with Dognition. Prior to each session, I tried to guess his results. That didn’t work out well for me. His three stories are Here, and Here, and final profile results are Here. Spoiler alert: the goober dog is more clever than I gave him credit for. Again, don’t turn your back on him.

What is this word fixation? And why are you looking at me and not Micron? A special project was in the works at Fishin’ balm. And it’s not lowering my standards, people. It’s dialing down to realistic goals, that’s all.

Jager

I’m kinda of a big deal.

We give Jager his moment in the spotlight with Master of the Hunt Part I and Part II. I’d intended to stir up some intrigue with an unsolved mystery in Part I, but really it’s more just a curiosity of the style of an itch that can’t be scratched.

More profound thoughts from our little knobby headed friend is found at Jager’s dog nose wisdom.

Volunteer Puppy Raising

Five things I stopped doing was a popular post of the past and so was put out as a rerun in May. This takes you into the life of a volunteer puppy raiser just a bit.

Then for a slightly darker look, we gotcha some cautionary tales on Not all sunshine and rainbows. Poop walking is involved here.

And the random stuff

Let the wookiee win.

I won a new dog in a raffle! Kind of. Well, I won it. But it’s not really a dog. She just looks like one. Pretty much, anyway. Introducing Cap’n Windy on Raffle me this. Pfft to the naysayers. Everybody was just jealous of my good fortune.

This one just makes me laugh. It’s the last photo in the post that gets you, actually. You may not see it coming at Pareidolia has landed.

Wait … is that twenty one? Gads, I’m not good with numbers. I’ve counted three or four times and come up with a different number of links each time. See, I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve tallied these up.

But no matter. I hope you find something enjoyable on the ride.

Any other favorites from you all? Please do let me know. Feedback is the fuel that keeps a blogger’s life blood pumping, after all.

All of us at Raising a Super Dog wish you and yours a blessed, fortuitous and Happy New Year. One that is filled with adventures and stories to share. So glad you’re hanging out with us for ours.

___________________________
*The Good Shit Jar. Because good shit happens too, you know. Easy to make your own for this upcoming year. You need an empty jar, some scraps of paper and a pen well secured so nobody walks off with the damned thing again. Depressive state of mind optional.

Raffle me this

Posted on September 22, 2013 by Donna Black-Sword

Oh yeah, bring it on, cotton brain, says Euka. I am the Master of Eye Contact.
[must . . . not . . . blink . . .groan]

Let’s start off today with a quick test. No worries, y’all. This’ll be easy ’nuff, like those magazine personality quizzes. You know, like if you could be any celebrity, what would be your favorite color of food? So, I’m just gonna toss out a couple or three questions and the first one is a total gimme as a multiple choice.

Question 1. Ok, this friend of mine, let’s call her Dee, won an awesome raffle prize at a pet adoption event. She is thrilled, because it’s been years upon years since she’s won anything, awesome or otherwise. What do you suppose was the most common question asked of her by friends and family in lieu of a congrats?

a) It’s supposed to be a what, exactly?

b) What the [bleep] is up with the tail anyway?

c) Does anyone else think it’s creepy how it stares without blinking?

d) Since it doesn’t have a neck, can we say it has a good head on its shoulders?

e) Hey, you wanna see how much my dog hates it? Watch this . . .

f) What are you going to do with it?

Answer: yep, the answer is f. What are you going to do with it?

Bunch of naysayers, I say. And to these naysayers, I say nay to you, because horses eat . . . wait, no. That’s not what I mean.

I mean it’s ok to be jealous, y’all. There was only one lifesize German Shepherd stuffed dog in the raffle and, dogs be good, it is now mine, bwahahaha. Or my friend, Dee’s, that is. Because Dee won the thing, right?

So anyway, here’s your second personality test question. Bumping it up a notch with a Fill in the Blank query. It’s a two-parter with that run-on sentence in there.

Question 2. Are you the kind of person that would name a lifesized stuffed dog? Let’s consider you might be, especially since you haven’t named a pet in countless years since you either adopt or raise service dogs and they always come with their own names? And when you think about it, you haven’t given a moniker to a pet dog since Sh** Jack in 1988. We’re not counting the fish, Bob II, because obviously he’s not a dog even though you did get to name him. So, what would you name a lifesized stuffed German Shepherd dog?

You can tell by the face this is a female, right? Oh, don’t go on about looking at the wrong end, because this is a stuffed animal, people. We don’t have a lot to work with here. I’m pretty much just making it up as I go along.

Well met, Cap’n Windy

And speaking of making it up, I will refer to this prize winning beauty as Cap’n Windy*.

Why would you do that, you ask? Well, because I can. And adding to that, I may just be a bit rusty in this dog naming business. But just like the gender decision, it just seems to suit her, I think.

Now for your final question. This is requires more of an essay-ish response.

Question 3. If you were as amazing as Dee, an individual who had her stars in order and could actually win such a treasure as life-sized German Shepherd stuffed dog – well, what would you do with it anyway? Any ideas, people?

No really, what would you do with this thing? I want to know. So I can help my friend Dee explain it to her family. She’s struggling here trying to justify why it should be on proud display in the family room while the kinfolk have less spectacular ideas regarding where it should be available for public appearances. Because Dee doesn’t agree that she needs an ersatz guard dog in the walk-in closet.

This is not just another way to get a fourth dog in the house, but you have to see the benefits to having this kind of thing around, right? Considering the low vet bills and lack of biological clean-up moves the needle on the Attractive Meter into the green zone. Then we gotcha the obvious.

Like home protection, of course. Heck, once I put Cap’n Windy on the front porch and started taking photos, even the neighbors started to look on edge. Ain’t nobody messing with us now.

To build on the personal protection theme, here’s an idea for when you have to drive through those sketchy areas. I mean, who doesn’t respect a dog looking out from the moon roof? Nobody, that’s who.

Oh, but it gets better from here. Finally somebody who’ll play a game of Scrabble with me without being a sore loser.

Because Jager cheats. Ok, I haven’t actually caught him, but still. He’s all sneaky, with those street smarts of his. Not keeping an Ace up his sleeve, because this is Scrabble, remember? And dogs don’t wear clothes while playing Scrabble due to the cheating. It’s in the rules. But I do suspect there could be a vowel or two under that wily tongue.

I don’t usually need help in the kitchen, the space being somewhat limited anyway. I tried putting Cap’n Windy to task to see if perhaps I could step back and do the crossword while dinner was on the stove.

All for naught, that little fantasy. All she did was stare at the peanut butter jar. Probably for the best, seeing the chicken broth and dog hair lint roller in near adjacency. I don’t think you’ll find these ingredients together on the same page in the Joy of Cooking.

At least I want very badly for this to be true.

Color me desensitized, says Euka. I think that
would be pink or something.

I do have to admit that Cap’n Windy’s destiny is still up in the air [snort windy air]. We might need to find the chick a higher calling. I mean besides desensitizing CCI puppies to novel objects and putting it on the kid’s bed so when he comes home and turns on the light, Cap’n Windy is there to say Good Evening. I hope you made good choices today. Yeah, besides those things.

What am I going to do with it?

____________________________
*Does that name nudge a long-forgotten memory, my southwestern Ohio friends? How ’bout The Uncle Al Show with Captain Windy? Remember now? She was introduced on every show with her flying on screen, cape flapping, like Supergirl only more wholesome. Yep, naming the stuffed dog after her is messed up on a couple of critical levels.

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Go. Do. Be Dog.

Category Archives: Cap’n Windy

Wordless Wednesday: The devil you say

Wordless Wednesday: California Blonde Calendar Girl

The Good Stuff Jar Project