Dogs!

"Throw the ball. Please, throw the ball! Throwtheballthrowitthrowitthrowit!"

I figure it's been a while since I posted about my dogs, and you were probably losing sleep, wondering what was up with them!

It's been pretty rainy here in Northern California, so the dogs have felt pretty cooped up. Cabin fever was definitely in the offing! On Monday, there was a break in storm fronts, so I took them around the corner to a local neighborhood park, ball launcher in hand.

Those of you who don't own German Shepherds (you poor, poor dears!) may not be aware that the vast majority of them are ball-obsessed. It's what happens when you have dogs with high prey drives, which is what many, though not all, of the Shepherd lines are bred for. It's what makes them great K9s and Military Working Dogs, along with their keen minds and natural sense of protectiveness towards their families.

My Sam and Coda are no exceptions to the ball-obsessed Shepherd stereotype! Sam is always on high alert, and when he takes after the ball, he pins his ears flat to his head and tears after it for all he's worth! Coda is a bit more relaxed about it, but still does a darn good game of fetch.

Although, they do things a bit differently when they're fetching together versus when they're just one on one with me or Mr. ShellHawk. 

As you can see in the below pic, Coda just wants to chase the dog who chases the ball, in order to be a noodge. She's really not all that worried if she gets the ball or not, as long as he doesn't have it. Kind of like that unwritten Dog Law: All balls are my ball, even if I don't want them!

She's a total nag. And even if he gets it, she'll often just take it from him, and he lets her!

Hopefully, the video will play alright, even though it's not the best clip in cinematic history!

They came home happy and tired, just as it started sprinkling again. That evening and all the next day, it was pouring! I'm so glad I got them out of the house!

Sam is four, and will be five in April. Coda is two and almost a half. I can't believe how quickly they've grown and how fast the time has gone!

Five weeks old and adorable!

All grown up. D'aww!

Face-hugger: GSD edition!

I still can't believe she was this small! She's 91 pounds, now, and
bigger than he is!

How could you not love the German Shepherd head tilt?

Dog snuggles are pretty much the best.

Dogs are just the best, aren't they? 

Confessions of an Artist

It's been one of those busy weeks where I can't actually feel like I've accomplished much, even though I have.

Since I've had my foot surgery (and am now out of the Darth Vader boot for a while), it's been necessary to catch up on homey things so that Mr. ShellHawk can get a breather and focus on what he needs to do. Every morning, I've wanted to just get up and go straight out to my studio to make things, but it just hasn't worked out.

Monday, I managed to get out to the studio for a bit, after doing some picking up and general housework. The roses were far past needing pruning and deadheading, so that was most of Tuesday. Yesterday was spent trying to talk AT&T into fixing my wireless network, since my printer keeps popping on and off of it and didn't before they installed U-Verse. (I get to call them again today to fix it again!) I did manage to run the kiln, but in a totally rookie move I haven't done in a very long time, I seriously misjudged how dry my jacks were and blew all three of them up. So I get to go out and make more to replace them. I did manage to get a couple of snake hides done for my herpetologist friend, Sam, so he'll be happy.

I still need to get pics taken and more listings done for my Etsy store. I need to glaze what came out of the kiln. I need to go and actually buy my new kiln. An internationally known clay artist, Tip Toland is in town, and I need to take the opportunity to go see her work and chit-chat with her.

In other words, the days are sliding away with alarming speed, and I just don't feel like I'm accomplishing anything! I know you have weeks like that, too, huh? 

I did manage to make this large (for me) bowl, which I'm quite proud of. I changed the angle of the rim after this pic, though I'll probably make others with this feature. And if you haven't noticed, this is where having a larger kiln will be handy, since this bowl will take up almost half of my little kiln. My jacks are getting larger, too, so I need to accommodate them and make my firings far more efficient. 

I started glazing the things which came out of the bisque firing, plus I decided to finish up some Christmas crap that was lying around and taking up valuable space. If I take care of those things and finish them, I can pack them away for the Christmas season this year.

I've been doing my best to clean up my studio and re-organize it, a little at a time, so that when it's time to bring in the new kiln, it won't be as difficult to make the space. I keep trying to negotiate with Mr. ShellHawk to let me have the bigger side of the garage, but so far, no dice. He thinks he can't get his Corvette into the third car garage, but I'm like, "Hello? our neighbor has one in his third car and he gets it in and out with no problem!" Still nothing. I don't think I'm going to win that particular discussion! Lol.

Coda in the foreground, and her bestie, Sam.

Meanwhile, my tiny little puppy, Sam, turned three this month, and Coda turned nine months old. She is now as tall as Sam is, and has almost two more years of growing to do. She's going to be a really big Shepherd! She's as sweet as pie, and seems to be getting along with other dogs very well, unlike Sam. (Another project for when the screw comes out of my foot is to work on Sam's fear of other dogs.)

Next week I get to find out when the screw comes out of my foot, so yay, me!

I guess that's it for now. More soon, I'm sure!