The continued adventures of Rufus and Julius

Rufus and Julius continue to enjoy sharing an office. Rufus has been quick to establish who is boss...

They both wait anxiously for Matt and I to return from meetings

Sometimes while we are away, the undertake projects together, like the time they took apart Rufus's sleeping matt to see what was inside. They were quite proud of their handiwork...

Rufus even went to sleep over at Julius's place for the weekend. They had a great time, and even went down to Gasworks Park here in Seattle to have their picture taken together.

Rufus's First Dog Show


Last weekend, Rufus and I attended the Wenatchee Dog Show. We got a chance to see Betsy Metcalf, Rufus's breeder, show Sundew, Rufus's sister.

We also got to see some other folks we know (both human and canine) as well...

Afterwards, we attended a gathering of other RR owners at Betsy's farm. Rufus got a chance to play with Mojo, Rufus's brother.

He also took time to frolic with Sundew a bit...

(I'm not exactly sure what he is doing in that last picture...)

With three of the four littermates in attendance (Razi and Larry Serat could not make it), every one had a bangup time...

This resulted in pups that were both thirsty...

and tired...

Chrissy, Mojo's owner, tried to get him interested in the agility course. However, Mojo just thought this was silly - why go through obstacles instead of around them?

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.