MaraBella Strikes a Pose with Lucky Lindy

It was too cold for the motorcycle, so we took the car and MaraBella out with us on our search for more Oxen.  This is Lucky Lindy.  Of course our silly girl is not so well behaved that she could be off leash, so I had to do a little work to grab her and her shadow.  Made Lucky the background. Then I used the magic wand in CS3 to grab MaraBella and her shadow.  Applied it as a layer on top of Lucky. Couldn't do it without getting some of Furman who was holding her on the leash, in the pick so I applied a Mask and then removed what was not necessary.  It truly is amazing what can be done in Photoshop and I feel that after 2 years of playing with it...I am just scratching the surface.

The Foils and Foibles of MaraBella and Me

In this case it was all about MaraBella and Furman.  I had made myself content knowing that was afraid of the water.  I was not going to force her in and therefore not be responsible for the inevitable clean up afterward.  Furman was intent on getting her in.  She dabbled...in and out.  WHAT IS IT?
She didn't swim, but she got in.

Delaware Cruise on the BMW K1600 to the Hudson Valley Day 1

Gotta rethink this blog.  Been doing it long enough to have more than 41 followers and 700 hits a month.

It's Friday and I figure I'll tell you a little about our motorcycle ride and give you a little doggie love and foodie too.

Left the crossing at about 10 am last Saturday, knowing MaraBella was walked and fed, and would be in good hands with dog sitters.  Aaron has been giving her flying lessons.

 

It was a cool morning and beautiful day for a ride.  I found myself peeling off layers at each stop we made.  519 is a favorite route of ours and I have been wanting to stop at Space Farms which is on this route so it was easy to pick out the first leg.  We picked it up north of Stockton, but you can also pick it up just outside of Milford if you want to ride the river a bit longer.  If you decide to follow this route, I strongly urge you to look very carefully at a map before you go.  You can be driving along checking out the scenery and not notice that 519 might require a left turn, or right at a fork in the road.  We ate breakfast at home, but if you get an early start, I can recommend the Alpha Family Restaurant in Alpha, NJ, or Thissoldous Eatery in Belvidere, two places we have enjoyed before, serving good food at reasonable prices.  Meanwhile, if you do what we did and need a place to make a pit stop there is a Quick Check at the Route 80 intersection, that is clean.  519 gets particularly hairy around Newton, so keep your eyes on the signs.

 

Although we had no intention of visiting the Zoo at Space Farm, as it turned out we arrived just in time for feeding and were strongly encouraged to walk the grounds since all the animals would be in full view to eat.  I'm not a big fan of zoos although I love animals so we took the advice and did see some beautiful fox, huge bears, amazing wild cats, the black leopard was stunning, and a bunch of other critters.  The double fence cages were difficult to photograph through so I did not take a lot of animal photos.  The museum was a real treat with the car collection, a spectacular attraction if you are into those kind of things.   Buicks, Fords, Lincoln, a Jewett, wagons and some real one of a kinds.

 

There was also a nice motorcycle collection, toys, lots and lots of farm equipment, a gem collection, doll collection, taxidermy area, and more.  A real place to get a peak into American History.

 

Our visit lasted way longer than we had anticipated. Lucky for us they had a small little restaurant so we split a piece of pizza to hold us over until our next stop for a decent meal at Emerald Point.  BTW you are not far from High Point NJ, so if your only out for the day you can eat more than half a slice and head over to the highest point in NJ, before returning on the same route home.  Since we were planning a few nights out we put Emerald Point Restaurant & Marina into the GPS and were on our way, heading off 519 and into NY.

  What a fantastic setting on a beautiful lake.  Furman had a crab cake sandwich and I went with the home made vegie burger. Both plates came with fries and pickles and we were both stuffed when we finished.  Service was friendly.  I would definitely want to visit this place again.

 

 

From the restaurant it was a short ride to our Airb&b residence in the town of Haverstraw.  We were greeted by our most delightful host, unpacked, and took a stroll down the main drag to see the moon rise over the Hudson. 

 

 

The Foils Foibles and Follies of MaraBella and Me

Got into a little fight with MaraBella.  I commanded her down and she defied me.  I could not think of any good reason for her to disobey.  After all I was only asking for a few minutes of her time.  Just a moment to comply before I let her drag me on our walk.  I thought about the importance attached to me being boss, dominant dog, alpha and all that stuff.

 

This is how it ended.

The Foils, Foibles and Follies of MaraBella and Me.

Holy good dog.  As indicated before, MaraBella the crazy, rescue, devildog, usually makes three steps forward and a few back before going forward once more.  She has been a real challenge and a delight, as well.  With her head on my lap as I type, and her eyeballs, rolling around her head as she dreams, she brings me comfort.  Outside, she is distracted by everything.  She needs some new distractions which I am sure will give me new things to write about.  Anyway....The best news is I let her loose in the field, once again.  I know, I know, probably stupid, but figuring she would just go home I wanted to give her an opportunity to run off some energy.  I hoped by now, all of the deer had to be cleaned up anyway.  WRONG.  Not only did she find something to snack on, but she found a lone deer bone.   Good news is she brought the bone to me when I called her and dropped it in front of me rather than run home.  Bad news is whatever she ate, made her puke twice.  Nevertheless, upon arrival home she reminded me much of myself.  She rolled onto her back and kicked up her feet, much like I do when I lay down on my couch with my feet up on the back cushion. 

The Foils, Foibles and Follies of MaraBella and Me.

Took a week break from the VIEWS.   As far as I know, only one person noticed!!!  Well that sure is indicative.  THANK YOU RUTHY.  I miss you.

MaraBella is back in obedience school at Golden Grange Kennels and the training is going going going.  I feel like we are always taking 3 steps forward and one back back back.  Literally, as we are working on heeling and back is actually a command to get her into the healing start position.  With treats visible, she can go quite a few paces.  Squirrels, cats, of course other dogs, people and even birds and planes distract her.  Yesterday we had to walk past a fox who was quite a distance away but still an attraction.  Today we walked down a path, with horse and geese in the pasture on one side and 4 deer in the field on the other.  She was so engrossed in the geese, that I don't think she even noticed the deer, following us with their eyes in the early morning light of this beautiful day.

Still she is characteristically sweet!  Aaron adores her and enjoys a good tug game as much as MaraBella.  I know this because he brought her a new toy so they could play. 

 

She LOVES it!

 

Photo taken with iPhone. 

The Foils Foibles and Follies of MaraBella and ME

We have a new puppy in the hood, MAX and he came to visit.  Just shy of two months old the little puppy was at once interested and scared of MaraBella and took position under the grill.  MaraBella was just so excited and wanted to play, but had to be reminded to be GENTLE.  It was a good exercise for both dogs.

 

 

The Foils, Foibles and Follies of Marabella and Me

I have been using positive reinforcement to train MaraBella.  I'm not sure it is working.  She wont eat breakfast anymore opting to wait for the treats she knows she will get on her morning walk.  Simply speaking, she works well for the treats but not always when I don't have them to dole out.  This is what I am faced with when I go to Dogs and Cats Rule to pick some out.

 

Seriously, this is some big business.  We brought MaraBella home in February and I have already accrued enough points at the pet store for a $15.00 discount.  She is expensive.

The Foils, Foibles and Follies of MaraBella and Me

How is it possible that I brought home a dog, that was supposed to be part lab and she is afraid to go across the road, down the stairs, and across the catwalks.  SHE LIKES THE PONTOON.  But does not seem to like the process of getting there.  Even with high value treats its a struggle.  Furman just happened to come up to the top of the steps when I was coaxing her across the front lawn.  She saw him and decided it was OK to go.  I wasn't really prepared to hang out down there so had to borrow Furman's phone to grab the images.

 

Hey MaraBella....you like it?

 

 

The Foils, Foibles and Follies of MaraBella and Me.

Didn't have the heart to take a picture of 2 pairs of sandals, 2 pairs of sneakers, and 2 pair of shoes that MaraBella dug out of the closet and CHEWED, while I was off to visit my mother in rehab.  I would prefer to be able to say it is rather difficult to photograph a black dog in front of a white fence on a sunny June afternoon.  The ISO was set at 250, the exposure time 1/100 and the f stop 4.5  To get the composition I wanted, I got in close with the lens at 35mm and let the Honeysuckle droop around her.  

 

Then, for fun I used the burn tool on some of the orange Honeysuckle to bring some color back into the overexposed buds.

The Foils, Foibles and Follies of MaraBella and ME

I know these are not the very best images but MaraBella is fast like lightning and strong willed too.  And all I had was a cell phone.

A few days ago she got away from me in a nearby field and came home quite sick.  SCARY SICK.  We were not sure what she ate that made her so sick and fearing the worst we googled dogs and MUSHROOMS..BEWARE dogs can die from eating certain types of ground mushrooms.  Well she did indeed recover.  The next day I thought I would let her loose and track her to see WHAT was it that made her ill.  I followed her with her leash dragging all the way to a skeleton of a deer.  As you can see she was faster than me and with her prize ran right past me.   

 

She kept on running until she reached the end of the field at which point she stopped and looked back at me.  I gave it my best and turned around and ran in the other direction with the last hope that she would follow.  But when I turned toward her she was GONE.  I had no choice but to walk home alone.  When I got there, she was happily gnawing this skull in the back yard.

 

I was happy to see her and glad she ran home...so what was I to do?  I let her chew on her prize for just a bit longer before I took it away and tossed it in the trash. 

The Foils, Foibles and Follies of MaraBella and Me

It isn't always about me....candid capture of Furman giving a little loven.

 

The Foils, Foibles and Follies of MaraBella and Me

Only sculpted dogs allowed at Grounds for Sculpture and they were all over. 

 

Sorry MaraBella!

The Foils, Foibles and Follies of MaraBella and Me

She looks so peaceful resting in a garden bed.  With a reasonable size grassy yard, I wonder what makes her choose this place, that is mulched and decorated with shells from the sea and a garden gnome, to lie down and sleep.  She doesn't disturb these things. 

 

Perhaps she wants easy access to the Spider Wort. 

 

 

The Foils, Foibles and Follies of MaraBella and Me

Hard to believe MaraBella has only been with us for 3 short months.  She is really part of the family now. Lying next to me she is giving off little yips, woofs and yaps in her sleep.  She cracks me up.   Her adjustment has been amazing, although not without glitches....needless to say she still needs lots of work, as do I.  This morning I took her for a long walk with little bits of hotdogs in my pocket.  I wanted to bring her to the vets office for no other reason then to get her in the door without having to drag her as I did that very first time.  Plus, I was out of dog treats and thought I might pick some up.  Dang it!  I still had to drag her and she was so anxious she wouldn't even take the hotdogs.
The kind folks at the Washington Crossing Animal Hospital did what they could to comfort her and she did warm up to them and enjoyed their stroking her.

Our experience at the Golden Grange Kennels in Chesterfield has been wonderful and I am really sad that Obedience II is on Wednesday nights at 8:30.  That means Furman, who wakes at 4am, wont go and I wouldn't get home until after 10pm.  Going to have to look for something else because I really want to keep up with her training.  IT HAS MADE A TREMONDOUS DIFFERENCE.  MaraBella is one smart dog and I need the classes to remain smarter.

The Foils, Foibles, and Follies of MaraBella and Me

There seem to be two distinct types of obedience training.  Alpha Dog and Positive Reinforcement, otherwise known to me as treat training.  At Golden Grange Kennel, where all three of us go for lessons in obedience the philosophy is positive.   I have little morsels of tasty training treats that MaraBella can gobble up hardly breaking stride when we walk.  With her front clip harness on, the treat reinforcement and the occasional tug reminder to "leave it" or "lets go",  her pulling has decreased dramatically as we walk.  I keep a handful of treats in my pocket so I can quickly reward her good behavior.  Our  morning walk  is at a clip and we do about 2 miles.  I have lost 8 pounds since she arrived.  So I wasn't that upset when this happened.

Chewed right through the pocket, lining and seat.

I figure I have to take most of the responsibility for leaving those little morsels in a pocket that she was able to reach after stripping for the shower and hopping in, giving her just enough time to get  naughty.  After all, the pants were size 12 and falling off anyway.

The Foils, Foibles and Follies of MaraBella and Me

I sit here almost every morning on the soft grey leather couch to catch the morning news and prepare my posts, and even play a few games of Words With Friends, if time allows.  Next to me on the old pink and grey Mexican blanket lies MaraBella.  Unless of course she is driving me crazy or sitting on the back of the couch looking out the window as she is right now...dang cat.
From the time I brought her home, I noticed that she had a distinct odor that smelled familiar but I just seemed unable to identify it.  It wasn't horrible but it wasn't completely pleasant.  It wasn't puppy smell, and for days I found it frustrating that I was unable to identify this familiar smell.  Like trying to say a word that you know and it just wont pop into your head.  It finally became clear during a web search. Corn Chips...and guess what?  It even has a name FRITO FEET.  That just cracked me up because I never noticed it with any other dog.  I think MaraBella was a bit anxious upon arrival and was nervous and sweating through her feet.  She is much more relaxed now and I have to say I don't smell it as profusely as I did when she first arrived...or perhaps, I've grown accustom to her smell.

The Foils and Foibles of MaraBella and Me

 

Rescuing MaraBella from certain death in a North Carolina Shelter has been a challenge and a major time consumer.  Walking her or perhaps I should say, pulling me along on the leash has become much easier as she learns the "lets go" command.  But she doesn't "stay" long enough for me to snap the spring blooms as I might like.  She is a devil dog, and I love her.  But let it be known: she just interrupted my posting by bringing me a sock from the laundry basket.

 

Delaware Issues Common Cents

I already confessed that it was not common cents at all to rescue MaraBella, who has already cost me a small fortune. 

 

She is dropping short needle like black hair at a rate more alarming then my own shedding of long grey strands.

 

 

This little tool cost around $35.00 and I use it everyday after our morning walk.  Must be helping some because I get a few full comb loads before I quit.  Don't think I did not question the price...the store clerk's answer:  it will last a life time.  Not to mention it is called a FURminator.  For those who know me, you cant possibly miss the joke!

Delaware Considers Common Cents or No Sense at all

Years ago I raised a Shepherd for Seeing Eye in Morrisville.

They suggested feeding Purina One, easily purchased at my local market.

I continued provided that food for my Casper, the little Westie who lived 18 years.  Casper did not make it to 18 without some issues which included allergies.

Yesterday I got some fancy, expensive food at the hardware store. Pure Vita Bison Entree

NO CORN MEAL

That appealed to me.

 

Is it common sense to think that the better the food, the better the health of the dog, and the fewer vet visits and bills.  I'm not sure. But that is my story and for now I'm sticking to it.

She likes it!

 

I'm pretty sure she would like Purina One too.