Springtime... For Cooper... In Washington...


The weather has (finally) started to get warm, and Cooper has discovered the joys of having one's head out the window on a balmy day. However, in his case, the window in question is on TOP of the car (in the form of a sunroof).




We are not sure which is more entertaining: Cooper's antics as he regally observes the passing scenery, or the gapes, gawfs, and belly laughs he inspires from pedestrians...

Running Rufus

I'm working on getting back into shape (the winters in Seattle make it tough to get motivated), but I recently took Rufus and Cooper on a short trail run in the lush, damp forrests of the Pacific Northwest. Rufus LOVES this sort of thing, as evidenced by the huge grin on his face in the video below.



Cooper even got into the act, and had a blast chasing Rufus through the forrest.

Oh the Weather Outside Is Frightful...

The winter thus far has been dark, cold and damp, even by Seattle standards. This has led to a degree of entropy with our animals, who have taken to gathering on the couch and snoozing for long stretches at a time. Nice to see everyone getting along...



The other evening, I was late in coming to bed, and found that our cheeky monkeys had collectively taken my spot!

Homer picking on Rufus again

Homer and Rufus have been friends for a year and a half. Homer started out with the upper hand:



Although Rufus has gotten MUCH larger, the balance of power does not appear to have changed...



[NOTE: It is well worth waiting until the "money shot" at the end...]

Rufus and Cooper - the movie...

We took this movie on a recent trip to Cannon Beach (see the post below), and it captures the current state of the Cooper - Rufus relationship. Cooper can *almost* keep up with Rufus, and is catching up fast. He is almost as big and heavy as Rufus, but Rufus has way more agility and strength (for now...)

Rufus's Mom on the Agility Course

Catcher rocks! She double qualified on Sat which finished her Open titles, and Sundew (Rufus's sister) qualified in Novice Standard. Which titled her there. On Sunday Catcher missed Q in Ex standard by 1 second, but Sundew double Qed for an Open Standard leg and her 2nd Novice Jumpers leg.

Two weekends ago, we loaded up the boys and headed down to Cannon Beach, Oregon, to attend a wedding. If you've never been there, I highly recommend it, as it is a very special place.

As a bit of trivia, Steven Spielberg chose amazing locato shoot Goonies here in the early 80's.

The drive down from Seattle invariably took longer than we expected, and we arrived after dark. The next morning, Rufus and Cooper were rarin' to get out to the beach, so Kelly and I bundled up and headed out (together with her brother-in-law Bob and his elderly Basenji, Toby).



The morning was crisp and cool, and the tide was out, leaving a vast expanse of firm, wet sand.



Rufus spotted a bunch of gulls picking through the jetsam on the beach left by the receding tide. Ever the optimist, he went pounding off to see how close he could get, Cooper in hot pursuit.






Not surprisingly, the boys did not have any luck getting a gull (Cannon Beach being a very popular beach for dogs, and these gulls having played this game before), and watched in dismay as the birds casually winged down the beach to settle again at the water's edge.



Rufus then decided there MUST be something interesting buried under this all that sand, and set out to find out what it was.





Cooper took this opportunity to find a friend to go romping around with. Cooper chased his new buddy...



...and was chased in return.



Rufus finally tired of trying to dig up the beach, and invited Toby to play.



Toby is not a young dog, and so Rufus was forced to entertain himself while Toby trotted along behind.


Cooper wandered back over, and Rufus too this opportunity to whale on him as only a big brother can...



Note that Cooper is now taller and longer than Rufus, and only trails him by fifteen pounds or so. Better get your licks is while you can, Rufus...

The next day, we loaded up and headed for home, the boys were pretty beat, and watched the passing scenery with drowsy puppy eyes...



After such a big weekend, Cooper was pretty worn out, and wanted nothing more than to curl up on the couch.

Kelly, Rufus, Cooper and I recently visited Norah Ormerod of Glenaholm Kennels to see her litter of 11 pups. FUN! Here is a short video made of the pictures from our visit (I used Animoto)

The Long Lost Update

A lot has been happening at our house since my last post months and months ago. One of Rufus's fans finally chided me for not posting in a while, so I decided I'd better get back on it...

First of all, Cooper is growing at an astounding rate. Below is a picture of him at 9 weeks back in May


Here he is in June 24 (around six weeks later), and he is almost as big as Rufus!



We think that in a month or so (i.e. by the time he is six months old), he will be as tall as Rufus, and should weigh as much as Rufus by the time he is nine months old. Yikes!

Given the fact that he has been around Nikita ever since he came home, they have developed a pretty close relationship. Here, he and Niky spoon on the couch. Note those feet - that is NOT an optical illusion.



Bear in mind that he was not that much bigger than Nikita just a few weeks ago (scroll down for a picture of him, Rufus, and Nikita on the bed)...

We also added a new member to the household - Max the Savannah Cat. Unlike Niky (who is only 4% Serval), Max is 50% Serval, and his wild ancestry shows through in his coat and in some aspects of his personality.



We were initially concerned about how Nikita would react to this interloper into her domain, but she immediately took Max under her wing and began treating him like the little brother she'd been waiting for. Among other things, Max has become her favorite toy...



Like Cooper, Max is growing at a crazy rate. In a few short weeks, he has become almost as big as Nikita, who is six months older than him.

Cooper and Nikita
It has been highly entertaining to see the relationship between Cooper and Nikita evolve.

Cooper tends to treat Niki as a furry chew toy. Niki responds with ungodly yowling and squirming.



After repeatedly chastising Cooper for gnawing on his little sister, we realized that, as a Great Dane puppy, he is not that hard to get away from. Thus, either Niki is not that bright (yeah, right...), or this was some sort of elaborate interspecies game (and they really love each other).

As if to prove our point, the next time we saw Niki on the couch with Cooper, this is the scene which greeted us: