learning to spin all over again

The Saturday before Memorial Day, I took a spinning class from Sarah Anderson at the Weaving Works in Seattle.  The class was billed as teaching drafting, which is something I can only do one way (short draw, sort of inchworm style), so I was very excited to learn more techniques.  I packed up my Sidekick and a lunch and went off for the day, leaving Chris to manage our farmers' market purchases and the dogs.

The first thing Sarah taught us was how to do thick-and-thin (aka slub) yarn on purpose.  The trick is to note your fiber's staple length, and then make the slubs just a bit shorter than that, so that the ends of the fiber are caught and spun on both sides.  I didn't particularly like doing this exercise, since I don't like slub yarn, but it was definitely valuable to practice paying attention to staple length and drafting and how they relate to each other to get to the yarn diameter that you want.

Next up was long draw spinning from the fold, using a soft prepared top with a good staple length.  This technique is SO COOL once you get it down, but it's also only going to work by spinning from the fold or from a rolag, which is why I didn't figure it out before.  The neatest bit is that as you draw back with your left hand and control twist entering with your right, the thicker spots will thin out to match the rest, and the result is a really springy yarn.  It's like magic!  I definitely need more practice with this technique, but I've got the basics down for sure.

After teaching the long draw method, Sarah passed out rolags she'd made ahead of time as well as offering short instruction on how to use hand carders to make your own.  I made mine in purple and lime green!  I don't plan to card my own fleece or fiber very often, but I do have a small and precious bag of Curzon's undercoat that I want to spin with some red wool to make yarn for a bracelet, so I'm glad to have gotten the practice.  Plus it's the best fiber prep option for doing the long draw method for a springy woolen yarn, so knowing the trick is pretty neat.

Later in the afternoon we tried spinning cotton for the first time, using these punis (basically cotton rolags) that Sarah made ahead of time using silk noil blended with the cotton.  We spun these using a similar technique to the long draw learned that morning, although with much more twist to accommodate the shorter fibers.

It was interesting to spin the cotton, and it was definitely a lot of work even with the "ease" added by the silk noil that helped bind the short fibers together.  I can see why there are so many specialized cotton spinning tools available (tahkli spindles and charkha wheels), as it was not easy to spin these well on my Sidekick!  I don't think this is something that I'll do much of in the future, but I'm glad that I got the chance to give it a shot.

The end of class was left with the option to work on whatever we wanted, including carding either wool or cotton, spinning with the additional fibers, flick carding wool locks, or playing with the luxury fiber Sarah brought along.  The brown is prepared camel down roving, and the silver is the most gorgeous extra-long-staple alpaca I've seen.  I really enjoyed spinning them both, especially the alpaca which was so long that I could spin thread nearly effortlessly.  It was also nice to enjoy spinning camel down, as my only experience with it so far was in a mixed batt and the camel down bits were horribly neppy and ugly and not at all pleasing.

The instructor also brought all of the yarn samples she spun for her book, The Spinner's Book of Yarn Design, and left them out on the table for us to examine throughout the class.  There are a lot of neat ideas and a ton of work incorporated into that table, and I enjoyed touching and learning from the different samples (even if I still think beehives are ridiculous).  Overall, I really enjoyed this class and I'll look to take another one from Sarah if the opportunity presents itself.

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It's been five weeks and four days as of today, and I still want Curzon back so badly it hurts.  I've been working on the photo book I'm making for him, and last night was the first time I could do it without ending up crying at my desk while looking at the pictures.  I've been going through our photos one year at a time, last night going through 2009, and then putting them in the book and into an album on Facebook as well.  We decided to add more pages to have more pictures, so interspersed with the story pages are solid collages of pictures of that wonderful boyo.

Martok is continuing to be a comfort, even as he shows personality traits that he could have learned from Curzon, which both make me smile and want to cry at the same time.  He's such a bright and inquisitive little guy it's amazing, and the way he throws himself into everything (often literally) is a delight.  I so wish we could have had more time with both of the boys together...

all about the puppy

   

Yesterday was Martok's second time going to the therapy pool to learn how to swim, and he was a very tired little boy when we came home!  Of course, flyball practice in the morning followed by an hour of wrestling, chase, and bitey-face with his brother Sirius helped in that regard as well.  I took the tack that I used to teach Curzon how to swim, and had a whole bowl of cut-up cheese weiners as my ammunition to bribe Martok into coming into the water.  I did have to pull him into the water with me the first few times, then had him follow me around swimming to get more weiner bits.  He still didn't want to come in on his own, until I started taunting him with a flyball "reeeeadddddyyyyy?" call and a couple of toys, and after a bit of whining and shrieking he launched himself right into the pool!  After that first leap, he was good to go - fetched toys to me then turned around and swam away to get another, got out of the pool by himself and jumped in again, it was great!  Apparently he likes jumping into the pool more than going in by the stairs - perhaps a secret Curzon told him in their short time together?

Martok's had a few challenges in his short time with us so far, including his first ER visit two weeks ago after a friend's dog (who hates puppies for some reason) snuck up behind the gate and eeled through it as it was opened to go after him.  Martok had a nice puncture wound on the bridge of his nose and a few other abrasions, so off we went to the ER for three stitches and antibiotics and painkillers.  He did very well, including being smart enough to run away after the other dog was pulled off him, and was very good at being treated for his wounds both at the vet and at home.  He did so well that his stitches were popping out early and we had them removed...only for him to kick the incision open again the next day.  Crazy puppy!  A little superglue fixed that right up, and it's all healed up now and we'll just have to see if his fur comes back to hide it.

Sleepy puppy from Friday, twelve days after the bite - you can hardly tell!  Once the superglue and scab bits came off, there's not much left to see and it looks great.  Martok spent a few days being sensitive about other dogs not his sisters or brother, but he's doing fine now and even wanted to play with the brother of his attacker on Sunday (who looks very similar) so we're pretty sure he's going to pull through with no lasting damage of any kind.  Of course, we'd prefer it had never happened, but it was an accident and he's doing just fine, so we're moving right along as if nothing had happened.  And hey, all Klingons have to have battle scars, right?

The new crate tag that I ordered is complete and we'll pick it up at the tournament this coming weekend.  I'm planning to put it on the door below Curzon's nametag and leave them both in place, at least for a while and possibly permanently.  I still have a bit of a hard time sometimes putting Martok to bed in Curzon's crate, especially when the oval bed was in place - looking into the crate, all I could see was my boyo.  Martok doesn't like the oval bed very much right now and kept trying to sleep next to it, so I pulled it out this weekend and set it aside for the time being, and that is helping us both.

Martok is a champion traveler so far, with two tournaments under his belt involving trips up to Canada and a third scheduled for this weekend.  He is behaving very nicely with the girls in the back of the truck, usually curling right up for a nap and snoozing with Ezri while Jadzia does her anxious dog thing over by the window.  He did figure out he could jump the baby gate in the RV, which is where he had to stay because he hadn't had his shots yet, so we'll have to work on showing him how that's unacceptable.  He got his first puppy shot last week (at 14 weeks and 17.2lbs), so he may be coming into the facility with us this weekend to get exposure to the tournament atmosphere.  Or we'll bring a crate, one of the two.

And to wrap up the post, Ezri's new custom collar came in the mail last week - it is from Ella's Lead and is the "Dragon McStolly" design with three dragon settings and purple rhinestones, all set on a thick deep maroon leather with a bright purple suede lining.   It's a beautiful collar and is perfect for my princess, even if her fur hides some of the pretty factor - when he's full grown, assuming he stays smooth coated Martok will have a collar from the same maker and show it off to even better effect!

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Chris had to work an overnight manager shift on Saturday, and for the first time I didn't have my boyo there to sleep with me and guard me in the night.  Ezri took care of that job for me, and I love her but it just wasn't the same - Curzon would wait for me to settle, then lay down and snuggle up against me, but Ezri doesn't do that.  I miss him so much, and I'm still getting stabbed by this deep need to have him back, and this tiny belief that he isn't really gone and that I will have him back again some day.  I don't know if that's right, or if that's the desperation in my brain talking, it's all so confusing and upsetting in general.  I've been wearing my locket every day and that helps some, but it's not the same...even holding his collar or touching the box of his ashes isn't enough and it never will be.  It's all I have now, however, so I will just have to continue to learn how to deal with this as best as I can.

the magpie strikes again

Last year I learned how to spin, and quickly picked up several spindles and a wheel.  As I have magpie like tendencies, and some disposable income, this collection has grown quite a bit.  I'm up to about a dozen spindles, and yesterday my third wheel arrived - a Schacht Matchless double treadle, in the cherry special edition released this year for Barry Schacht's 70th birthday.  I'm a serious sucker for pretty wood and anything marked "special edition," and I'd been looking at a Matchless since last fall...and that's that.

 

Jadzia supervised the photo session after I was done playing with it for a while.  You can also just barely see Martok in the background by the patio doors, he was very interested in the wheel and nearly got his nose clipped by the drive wheel prior to this photo!

Special edition medallion - it says Special Edition - Barry Schacht - 2013 - 70th on it.  With a sheep!

The treadles had to be attached to the wheel when it arrived, which while not difficult was definitely interesting.  The wood of the treadles even has a bit of chatoyance, which can be seen when I'm using them to drive the wheel.  Really pretty, even in indoor lighting!  Also, those are dog toys on the floor behind the wheel, because we've got a house that's classy like that.

View of the back of the wheel, showing more of the beautiful wood and fabulous craftsmanship that went into the wheel.  The leather portions of the footmen needed oil already, so the break-in period is well underway!  I'm glad that I got "free" fiber with my purchase, however, as the double-drive wheel is definitely going to take some getting used to before I'm good to go with it.  I saw improvement with just a little time yesterday, as the wheel breaks in and I get used to working with it - plus, if it turns out I don't like double-drive, I can always switch it to Scotch tension.

Another shot of the back of the wheel, with more detail on the beautiful wood.  So, so pretty!

And finally, a shot of the serial number - which indicates that the wheel was made on May 16, 2013, and it was the 2nd Cherry wheel made that day.  Very cool!

Another miracle happened yesterday - Ezri let Martok lay down on the same bed that she was occupying, and even stayed there long enough for me to grab my phone to take a picture!  She's slowly starting to warm up to him and accept him, although he's still got his puppy annoyance moments where I'm pretty sure she wants to knock him through the wall.  She played tug with him a few days ago, and he was well tired last night without any energy to be annoying, so she let him snooze next to her.  Martok and Sirius both had their first shots yesterday (parvo vaccine), and they got to play together for about five hours worth of tug, bitey-face, chase, fetch, and running, so both boys were very tired by the end of the evening!

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My memorial locket finally arrived on Monday, and it is so beautiful I almost cried.  I found the artist on Etsy, and she sets a bit of fur/hair/cremains in resin inside this small locket (it's about the size of a quarter) and then makes the nametag and crystal for embellishment.  She accidentally attached an orange crystal and is sending me a red one in replacement, as red was Curzon's color and is my strongest association with him.  It's not much, but it's something, and it's given me some comfort to wear it this week.  It's not strong enough to wear every day permanently, so I may end up hanging it next to my bed after a while and only wearing it on special occasions, but for now it's often worn all day at work.

I still miss him so much it's like a hole in my life, but the emotional gut-punches are slowly starting to fade.  The framed studio photos from about 2005 up on our hallway wall caught my eye last night, especially the adorable one of Curzon licking Chris' face, and I was able to study the photo and smile a bit without crying.  I still want him back so badly it's ridiculous, though, and I don't know if that will ever change.  *sigh*

the redhead is back!

Last weekend was the summer no-frills tourney hosted by the Dogwood Pacesetters up in Cloverdale BC, where we attended with two teams including our full A team of Ezri / Danger / Savage / Sprite.  Ezri has gone through a lot of changes in the past year, from adjusting to the loss of her sister and other teammates when our friends moved to Boston last April, to changing clubs in December, and of course the personal upheaval of losing her big brother Curzon and gaining a pesty baby brother in Martok.  With all of that listed out, it's probably no surprise that she hasn't run under 4.0 seconds since the last tournament with Indy, where she ran her personal best of a 3.84 and was part of a 15.69 second lineup.

That all changed this weekend.  My redhead is back, finally confident that she's safe in start position again, clicking very well with her teammates, and flying down the lanes.  She ran multiple runs under 4 both days, with a best time of a 3.92 on Sunday, and quite a few 3.94's and 3.97's on both days.  I got a lot of great starts, mostly in the 0.02-0.05 range with one 0.003, Ezri is so much more consistent when she's happy!  Our club even ran a new club best on Sunday morning of 16.243 over 10" jumps with that lineup - woohoo!

 

 
From left-right, Ezri, Sprite, Danger, and Savage.  Danger and Savage are littermates, and Sprite is related to them, and all three are border staffy mixes from down in Vegas.  Sprite is our height dog who sets 10" in NAFA and 8" in UFLI, and we're now considering taking a road trip to a UFLI tournament to see if we can push down below 16 seconds on the lower jump heights.  Plus, we earned second place in Division 2 both days, and made the top-seeded team work very hard to keep their position ahead of us - yeah!

I also got a new pair of flyball shoes on Thursday, as you do, these are obnoxious hot pink Merrill "barefoot style" shoes that I saw at Nordstrom a week ago and went back to buy for the tournament.  They are very light, with minimal padding/support and a wide toe box so the toes can move around like a barefoot runner, which I was interested to try after reading Born to Run recently.  As it turns out, I did run completely differently in these shoes than in my usual trail runners...and I'm sore in weird places today to prove it.  I think this is a good thing, I certainly felt like I ran faster (who knows if it's true), and my feet don't hurt at all which they usually do after a tourney on matted asphalt.  Of course, given that we're in Seattle these are not year-round shoes, but hopefully I can find some with gore-tex to use in the winter.

Several of our friends worked together over the past few weeks to put together these buttons for the tournament, in honor of our beloved Curzon.  It was incredibly wonderful to see so many people wearing them, and of course to have the chance to share good memories about the brave boyo.  Our regional director even called out the buttons and why they were around at the awards ceremony on Sunday, which was very kind.  Oh, how I miss him, especially at our first tournament without him, held in the location where he first saw and taught himself flyball at the age of five months.

Today marks four weeks since we lost him, and I'm starting to be able to breathe again.  There are situations that hit me just the wrong way, of course, and I had two of them this week.  The first was when we put Martok into Curzon's crate for the night for the first time, which made me start bawling as that was the first time his crate has been opened since well before we lost him (he was sleeping in our room for a month or so prior to that day).  And the second was Saturday night, when I was lying on my bed in the RV and looked at the fleece blanket I keep on my side, only to see all of those black hairs from when he and Ezri slept with me on our trip to Nationals last October.

This isn't easy, and really I wouldn't want it to be even if it was.  I miss him so much, and probably will for the rest of my life.  My beautiful, brave boyo, even twenty years with him would not have been enough to bask in the warmth of his bright spirit.

To not end on a completely sad note, here's a picture of Martok being crazy when he was chasing and playing with his brother a few weeks back.  He's growing like a weed, learning fast, and is generally a delight to be around when he's not being piranha-puppy with those needle teeth.  Another post this week will have more about him, he certainly deserves his own entry at this point!

bits and pieces, crafts and puppies

Today's post is a lot of photos, because I've done a lot of stuff recently and it's always more fun to post and write about photos than it is to just put together large blocks of text.  Plus, I've done that way too much at work recently and I'm sick of it!  So here we go, in themed order...

Dogs!

My irises in the front yard are incredible this year - there are TWENTY flower stalks up, all with multiple buds/blooms on them, and they are just phenomenal.  They're the only thing in my yard that really is amazing, and I am enjoying the heck out of them right now.  Jadzia wasn't quite so sure, however, but she gamely hopped into the flower bed for me to take a photo.  I think this is the year I need to split the irises, so that will be a new adventure later this summer or sometime into the fall.

Martok hasn't learned how to play fetch in the rotation with the girls, so I've been taking some walks with him to get both of us some exercise.  I have also been taking Ezri with me, much to her dismay, as Martok is preferring to walk thisclose to her, as the photo shows.  Ezri is also not a fan of being walked on leash, so she's been pulling a lot, so we got her a harness last weekend to help minimize the effects of her pulls on her own body.  We'll see if that helps!

Craft Projects!

Back in April, I finally got around to getting an ink pad and nice paper to do pawprints of the dogs, and after I was done I used one set of them to put together this frame.  The prints came out really well (and the dogs were surprisingly good about it), although it amuses me that their feet-fur shows up so much in the prints!  The frame is an inexpensive floating-glass frame, so I can easily add one of Martok later, remove them to put together into a bigger frame, or just make a whole new one in the future.  I really like having it up on the wall, it's across from the door to my office so I see it every day.

And of course, I've picked up more spindles, as they're just a big an addiction as fabric for quilting.  These two are Bosworth spindles, both special order.  The smaller dark one has a whorl made from live oak (and a shaft made from bocote) that was harvested in the 1700s and then kept in ponds for use in repairing the US Navy ships at the time.  These ponds were eventually forgotten about and reclaimed by the forest, until they were recently found and the wood reclaimed and used by various craftsmen.  The larger red one has a whorl made from flame box elder and a shaft made from cocobolo, and is stunningly beautiful.  I've coveted something made out of flame box elder for a while, and I am thrilled with this particular spindle.  Both spindles are great to use and have small Phat Fiber sample projects on them right now.

Just this past weekend I cleaned up my sewing room and pulled out the materials to work on Aidan's quilt again.  I have just one panel done so far, though all the pieces are cut out already, and I designed another panel this weekend and it's ready to piece together.  This quilt will be the sibling to Averie's quilt, done very similarly, and hopefully completed in time for his birthday in September.

I finished knitting two pieces in February and March and they're shown here after a wash and during blocking.  The cowl is made from a single skein of fancy variegated yarn I bought from a store going out of business, and I love how the colors pooled to form large blocks in a slanted pattern.  The scarf is made from a skein of Manos merino singles, knitted up on size 9 needles in a simple garter/stockinette pattern I came up with on the fly.  It goes well with our new flyball club colors, and I have a second (nearly identical) one almost done to give to one of my friends on the team.

My first sock has made it to the "turn the heel" phase, and there it languishes.  I'll need to pick up stitches as I continue on, and my pattern isn't very detailed about that so I need to pick up a book or tutorial to figure out how best to make that work.  It's pretty cool, though, and I love the needles I'm using (Signature DPNs), so I plan to pull this one out and figure it out soon.

Still spinning as well, and I set aside my interminable fine spinning of the brilliant red Targhee wool I bought at OFFF last year to ply these two batts together.  The yarn came out very well, one batt is dark purples and one was cream with purple and blue, and I think the overall effect is very nice.  These batts taught me that I'm not so much fond of spinning chunky things, especially uncontrolled chunky things like mohair locks, although I do think the plied yarn came out well.  I still need to wash it, however, as I plied it back when we were still deep into the rainy season.

The last craft for this post is one I did not do myself, but one which I will benefit greatly from - my friend Kristie made me a set of "Unpaper Towels" using the best cheesy Star Trek fabric you've ever seen.  The towels are made from terry backed with quilting fabric, serged into squares, and set with snaps so you can roll them up onto a paper towel roll, then use them instead of paper towels.  I have used them for a few days and I like them a lot!

Miscellaneous!

Between the nicer weather appearing through the last few weeks and my attempts to increase my step count, I've been taking walks along the waterfront at work during my lunch break.  Most days I also take a spindle with me and spin as I walk, garnering several odd looks but no comments as of yet.  Such beautiful views are just a small part of why I love to live here.

 

And then there was this - I had the bottom couple of inches of my hair dyed a rich vibrant purple.  I LOVE the effect, it's fantastic, and sadly it has already faded away to a pale lavendar after just four weeks.  I'm having it redone this weekend, and will see if there's anything else the stylist can do to help it last longer - I'm already not washing the ends and rinsing them in the shower with as cool water as I can stand.  If not, I will probably keep it up until I am ready to cut my hair again, then just trim it all off and go on with my regular golden blonde.

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Today marks sixteen days since we said goodbye to Curzon.  Last Friday we picked up his ashes (or cremains, as they are called in the industry) from the vet, which was a very difficult thing for me to do.  I held him in my lap the whole way home, making Chris drive us, and wished so hard that I was hugging Curzon for real instead.  I know that won't happen, but the thought of that keeps hitting me anew every so often and it's like a punch to the gut every time it does.  For now the nice cherry box that his remains are in sits on top of one of the dressers in our bedroom, along with the blanket I made him when he recovered from his surgery and his collar.  Perhaps it is strange to admit, but I do talk to him even as I hate that he's in that box, and I have hugged the box more than once.  It helps, a very tiny bit, and that's all I can do now.

I've also been thinking more and more about the time we had between when we brought Martok home and when Curzon passed, that too-short span of just eleven days.  Curzon was so amazing with the puppy for the first few days, and we had such a good time with our photo session on that Saturday.  He had a great time at practice on Sunday, even as we realized he'd lost the sight in his right eye.  Monday was very difficult, but with more pain meds he seemed back to his old self and we had a good time all week.  Saturday was a beautiful day, and the rest I've already talked about.  I don't like to append too many human emotions or decisions to animals, but I also do think they are wiser and more perceptive than most people believe.  I'm coming to the conclusion that Curzon had been in pain for a while, and when we brought Martok home that was the signal he was waiting for to release himself from that pain.  Curzon had that wonderful Saturday where he played, saw lots of people he loved, and had steak for dinner, and I think that was his way of saying goodbye to us all.

It was too soon for me and Chris, and maybe it was even too soon for Curzon.  But I could never countenance his bright spirit suffering without hope of respite, and I would not want to hold him here in pain - that's why we had the vet come on that sad day.  I can only hope that his spirit will visit me upon occasion, and continue to inspire me in the future.

three weeks of a new puppy

Three weeks ago yesterday, Chris and I took a day trip to Chicago to pick up Martok (Ignited's Order of Kahless) as well as his brother Sirius (Ignited's Expecto Patronum!) to bring them home to Seattle.  We arranged for a friend to come get the adult border collies for the day, as we'd be gone from 4am until almost midnight, set up a meeting place with our friend who was eagerly awaiting Sirius' arrival, and we were off.  The flight out was uneventful, and while it took some time to get our rental car, we were on our way and on time to get to the breeder's house south of the city.

Three of the six puppies were picked up the day before we arrived, with just our two boys and the girl the breeder kept still there.  Little Martok was a bit suspicious, but soon played with us and his siblings with great enthusiasm.  I even got to watch Chris' reaction to a house of ten adult border collies racing around...after that, four seems pretty calm!

Martok took to us pretty well, as evidenced by this photo of a man and his puppy.  :)  We put collars on the boys for the first time, and their sister thought this was great as she could grab the collars to drag them around without them being able to do much about it!  After a few hours of playtime and chatter, we packed up the two boys into their carriers to begin the journey back to Seattle.  Neither one of them were very thrilled about this state of events, and there was a lot of shrieking in the van on our way back to the airport. Luckily for us, this abated once we got to the airport (I think they tired themselves out), and they were well behaved going through security, and both slept through our dinner in the terminal.

As we boarded the plane, we let them stick their heads out of their carriers, which got lots of "awww" remarks from our fellow travelers.  We were lucky enough to have a row of three seats to ourselves, so even with the puppies in their carriers we still had room.  Poor Sirius was very hot, with his double coat inside that carrier, so once we were airborne we picked up his carrier and put it on the seat between us, where he quickly passed out and slept through the whole flight.  Martok snoozed through the whole flight as well, including takeoff and landing - a welcome change from the shrieking his aunt Ezri treated me to on her flight home!

 

We did have a few days with both boys in the house, and one night that week while they were both sleepy I was able to get the above picture.  Curzon did play with Martok a good bit in the few days they were together, enough that I have video of it, and the photo shoot we did with Artis produced some incredible shots as well.

Much to our surprise, Martok managed to convince his sister/aunt Ezri to snuggle with him on the ground level of her princess castle - most of the time she hangs out on the upper level, which he's too little to reach just yet.  I had to sneak around in the garage to get this photo, but it was worth it!

Ezri has had to play auntie quite a bit recently, such as last Saturday when we took both of the puppies to swim for the very first time.  There's a place in Woodinville called Mega-Dogs, which has a small indoor pool that is available for therapy swimming at very nice rates.  That's where I took Curzon for his rehab swimming last year, and it's the best choice I could think of for a warm pool where we could swim with the puppies to teach them how.  It didn't go quite as well as we hoped, neither of them immediately took to the water, but they did well and had no problems swimming, so now we just need to convince them it's fun.

The boys definitely have fun playing together, even something as simple as playing chase-and-bite while racing around the pool.  This is a great picture, especially with the expressions - Martok is definitely up to no good, while Sirius looks a little too innocent...

This week has seen a lot more puppy discipline in our house, as shown by Ezri's Mad Teeth in the photos above.  Much more growling, removal of toys, and general loss of patience has been shown by both Ezri and Jadzia - nothing out of the ordinary or dangerous, of course, but amusing to us humans all the same.  Ezri is still willing to play with Martok a little bit, but she does not want him chewing on her toys.  She's actually rather devilish, and if he has something she wants, then she'll go play with something else to get his attention, let him take the second thing, then go get the original item (or spot!) that she wanted.  Smart girl.

And of course, we've been taking Martok to puppy classes once a week at Ahimsa in Ballard - the same school I where took Ezri through puppy kindergarten.  Part of this week's lesson was body handling and grooming, including putting clothes on the puppies - Martok did really well with that, even if he does look sad in this photo.  He actually ran around with the clothes on without a care in the world until he ran right out of the socks!

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It's been eleven days since we lost Curzon, and while I'm not over it (and may never be), it is just starting to get easier.  I can breathe better, and thinking of him doesn't automatically mean tears every time, just some of the time.  This afternoon we will go and pick up his ashes from the vet on our way home from work, and bring him home where he belongs.  I know that one day we will scatter his ashes, probably in the ocean where he so loved to swim, but I don't think I'm going to be ready to do that on our vacation this year.  For now, having his physical remains home with us will be a comfort, as odd as that sounds, and hopefully it will help us continue to heal.

endings and beginnings

Last Monday's loss of our beloved Curzon overshadowed the other major event of the week, which was Jadzia's flyball retirement on Sunday, May 5th.  Originally she was scheduled to retire in April, at her anniversary tournament hosted by the Kings where she debuted in 2004, but the kennel cough outbreak in the region caused that tournament to be cancelled.  Instead, Jadzia ran with her Jet City Jumpers teammates on the lovely "Farewell Flight" team and had a great time on both Saturday and Sunday.

All photos in this post courtesy of Liz Werner.

Beautiful shot of Jadzia waiting for me to play with her in the runback after a heat - we gave up on tugging for anything but a recall long ago, instead I toss the ball and have her spin and beg and play once she completes a run for her reward.

Flying over the jumps, beautifully flat - not bad for an eleven year old girl!  :)

And racing down the jumps in her final race, where she was put in start position for one last time.  Jadzia had great starts all the way until the last heat, when the other dog false started first, then Jadzia false started with a -0.005, then we had a clean race on the third try.  She ran in the high 5's and low 6's all weekend, clearly feeling great and enjoying herself, which is a great way to retire.

Jadzia retires with over 60,000 NAFA points and the titles FGDCh-60k and Iron Dog from NAFA, and with over 6,000 UFLI points and her TFE-II title.  She started her career as a 14" height dog, ran in a total of 95 tournaments,  and competed in two countries (USA and Canada) and five states/provinces (BC, WA, OR, CA, AZ).  Jadzia was our first flyball dog, and she's the reason we are border collie people now and is why we play flyball to this day and moving into the future.

We will still let Jadzia play a bit at practice with our new club to help train the newer dogs, as well as hopefully sending her in to play with her old friends in Veterans classes once or twice a year for fun.  Her active racing days are over, though, as her stamina and strength is slowly waning with her age even as her heart and attitude are still as bright as ever.  I look forward to many more years walking and playing with her and her happy smile.

In addition, I haven't posted much about our newest puppy, Ignited's Order of Kahless, call name Martok, who is out of Singed and Fetch.  Singed is Ezri's 3/4 sister (Race/Dazzle to Ezri's Race/Prancer), so Martok is essentially Ezri's nephew.  He was born on February 27, 2013, firstborn of six (four girls and two boys), and we brought him home on April 25th.  Here are a few photos taken at the tournament last weekend, showing his beautiful markings and his goofy puppy antics.

Flailing around and trying to bite/chase a leash on the ground...it rattled and he found this fascinating.

He's coming right for us!

And pouncing on the leash again - Martok is very much a play-motivated puppy, even more than his littermate Sirius (who also lives in Seattle), and it's pretty funny to watch him a lot of the time.  Look for many more posts about him in the future as he grows up and goes through flyball training in preparation for his flyball debut next spring!

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This past week has been one of the hardest of my life, as we adjust to a life without our bright, beautiful boyo Curzon.  The hole in my heart is still raw, and I still look for him to come to me when he always did, like when paying bills as he hoped for me to run the shredder for him to bark at.  Both Chris and I are working on a memory photo book to keep his memory alive, and that is helping but it's not enough.  The girls and Martok are lights in the darkness, but they're not Curzon and they never will be.  It's a whole new reality for us, one where we must live without that handsome brave boyo, and navigating these waters will take time to learn.  We're concentrating on appreciating the other three for their own special personalities and abilities, as we know none of them can replace our boyo, but it is still hard.  Right now, I'm mostly thankful that Martok's eyes are nothing like Curzon's, as I don't think I could bear it if they were.

I miss him so much.