Rufus gets an office mate

Rufus and I recently were joined in our office at Amazon Web Services by Matt and his boy, Julius the Springer Spaniel.

Julius is a bit older and a bit smaller than Rufus, and the two of them tend to go at it non-stop. They seem able to spend hours at a time mouth jousting and paying "steal my toy".

Today, the four of us went down to the grassy doggy play area below The Fortress of Solitude for some fun time on this, one of the last summer days.

We were soon joined by Baron, the Belgian Shephard...

and by Rufus's old buddy, Homer

Homer quickly initiated a game of "chase me, catch me"...

Homer also took the opportunity to pick on the big dogs...

It's a bit awe inspiring to see how much Rufus and grown relative to Homer in only six months...

Rufus today...


Rufus six months ago...

Rufus's Weekend

Rufus had a busy weekend (most of which I neglected to take pictures of). I did manage to capture a few images of Rufus once he slowed down a bit...

Rufus's Weekend

Rufus and I had a pretty busy time over the past two days. We've been taking care of Dolce

Dolce belongs to one of my co-workers, and Rufus will be staying with them next week while I'm away at an adventure race in Canada.

They have been having a great time at Dolce's house, which is equiped with a doggy door. They have been sharing toys and going for car rides.

Today, we visited Magnuson Park, which has a fantastic off leash area. There, Dolce played in the water.

Rufus found another Ridgeback to wrestle with on shore, and then ventured down to cool off in the lake.

Later in the evening, Rufus and Dolce partnered in an attempt to disassemble all of Rufus's toys

Rufus training for his show career

Rufus will take a whack at a career as a show dog this fall, and has been training for the show ring. He and I have been working on "stacking" in which he stands and lets me rearrange the position of his feet into the correct show stance.

Rufus the Adventure Racing Dog

Rufus has been nagging me to update his blog so that "his public" will be able to keep current. I've been in the midst of the peak of adventure racing season, and Rufus is looking forward to participating in next year's racing season (he will hit 18 months next May, after which he will be able to go running and mountain biking with me). He recently came with me to the Six Degrees of Navigation race, and cheered my team on to a first place overall finish.

Although he was not able to participate in the race with us, he was there in spirit and stepped in as the team mascot to be in our team photo at the finish.

Why Ridgebacks Seldom Survive Shipwrecks...

Rufus has visitors

Rufus entertained Miriam and Janet at our house last weekend. Miriam as kind enough to show Rufus his own videos on the internet.

Rufus had a hard time reconciling the fact that he was both on the couch and on the computer...

After repeted questions, Miriam's patience started to wear thin, and Rufus found the whole thing tiring...

Later, we all went to the park, where Janet and Rufus played chase. Janet chased Rufus...

Rufus then chased Janet...

Afterwards, we went down to Alki Beach to work on our Seattle tans. There, we encounted a remarkable sand sculpture.

Rufus found a person made of sand mildly confusing. We had to stop him from giving her a slurpy kiss to cheer her up...

After this disturbing incident, Rufus felt the need for a stroll by the sound to collect his thoughts.

Rufus Attends Ridgeback Fun Day

Rufus was recently invited to a "fun day" held by the Northwest Rhodesian Ridgeback Club. Rufus was quite curious to know what a fun day was (his life is pretty fun in general, he questioned whether any more fun would be prudent... such a practical pup). We loaded up a on a beautiful, warm spring day, and headed out to see what this was all about.

Turns out that "fun day" is code for RR owners to get together and blather on about their dogs (something of which I'm more guilty of than most) and for RR's to generally have a good time. Hence, "fun day"...

Rufus took the opporunity to get reacqainted with old friends. His brother Razi also attended, and Rufus and he had their customary wrestling session (Rufus is on the right, Razi on the left - a senior member of the RR clan looks on...).

Rufus also met a charming young lady named Jika and her owner Nora Ormerod of Glehaholm Rhodesian Ridgebacks. After they were introduced, they calmly posed for photos.

However, predictably things quickly turned to wrestling...

All this activity in the sun left Rufus ready for a bit of time in the shade.

The grass was so cool and pleasant that he crashed out and took the opportunity to chew on his leash...

A bit later, Rufus discovered the wading pool, which turned out to be both cooling and fun (he discovered the blowing bubbles through his nose was quite entertaining).

If you can't see the video, click here

Rufus Does Si

Rufus had been giving me a hard time about the fact that he has to wait until he is full grown (at round 18 months) before he can start running and mountain biking with me. I finally consented and took him along to hike Mt. Si with me (8 miles up and back, 3,000 feet of total elevation gain). Predictably, he took it like a champ, and scooted up mountain so quick it was hard to get a shot of him.

He insisted on stopping to enjoy the view

When we got to the top, Rufus asked someone to take our picture, making sure to pose so as show off his ridge to best effect...