a99kitten's Musings

Took the huskies to the beach this morning and they had a GREAT time! It was super low-tide so there was a ton of open beach to run on. I let them off-leash when they saw their friend Marley (ginormous black lab.) Actually Marley saw them first and he took off running full speed down the beach to meet them – he’s pretty darn cute. I let them off so they could meet him half-way! They ran around and had fun. Then we met a border collie named Maverick. This dog was FAST! And the huskies were tearing around chasing him as he chased his frisbee. Then he would drop his frisbee and chase them back.

Storm even went into the water to cool off! He has not done that in a long time. I guess with so many missing fur spots, he doesn’t get as hot as Angelus anymore. But he was chasing Maverick and they both just ran into the water and then a small wave came up and they were both belly high in water and Storm had this HUGE smile on his face. So, so cute.

Angelus wanted to play with a little dog who wanted to say hi to Angelus but then got scared and ran away at the last second. Well…to Angelus this means “Chase me!” Oops. He chased the little dog into a small alcove by the bluff and was like RUFF! Tail-wagging and smiling. But the little dog Mom saw it more as a “he wants to eat her!” No…he doesn’t. Little dog people are so funny. I grabbed him so she could grab her dog (Francesca…of course) and even as she did Fracesca was leaning out of her arms to sniff Angelus. See – everyone is fine. Then Angelus got bored and came back to the chase game with Storm and Maverick.

We were down on the beach for 2 hours playing! Angelus started getting warm after about 1.5 hours. The sun was shining so even with ocean dips, he was getting hot. He was making it clear he was done and wanted to head back. But Storm kept wanting to play!! I finally had to say enough when I saw Stormy’s back legs shaking a little. I think with everything he has been through this past year, he muscle tone is still not at 100% and he gets tired. But after 2 hours of running and chasing – I’d be tired too!

While we were out there, everyone wanted to talk about the tsunami. Was quite the event here. Maverick’s dad told me that they had an evac area set up on top of 92 (at the highest point.) I did see a bunch of cars and the state police there when I drove to work but apparently the news showed it as basically a parking lot with tons and tons of cars parked there and along Highway 35 too?! Who knows if the news exaggerated (as they like to do for drama and effect) but when I drove by the area there were about 20 cars and the cops. So I’m sure between 7-9am, there were a lot more. I do know they evacuated the houses on the west side of Highway 1 as well as the beaches and harbor. I guess safe is better than sorry but seeing how the tsunami was when it hit Hawaii, I was pretty sure anyone not actually standing on the beach would be just fine. But on my way home from work around 8pm last night, there were STILL cars parked there with people just milling about. Really??

I tend to not worry about most things. I think I keep all of my stress and worry focused mostly on the huskies. So as I was walking around yesterday AM and the highway was closed, fire trucks and cop cars lining the highway with lights flashing, cars and trucks just parked on streets and people walking around, helicopters buzzing around…it was a bit eerie. I thought to myself “Am I not as concerned for our safety as I should be?” But I figured the huskies didn’t seem concerned. They wanted to go to the beach. And animals have much better senses about this type of stuff (notice how all of the animals in Indonesia ran AWAY from the coast as the tourists walked towards it..) so I was taking their lead.

Even this morning, while we were on the beach, there were tide surges. It was super low tide but then all of a sudden, like ALL OF A SUDDEN, the tide has come up right to the bluffs. I managed to jump on a rock both times to avoid wet feet! And the huskies like wet paws! But it was SO fast, that I can’t even imagine it at that same speed with much more powerful water/waves. And it goes out just as fast. Very cool effect to see in real life. But I am totally OK with that and yesterday’s wave and tide viewing being the extent of my tsunami experience.

It’s a gorgeous day here today. Sunshine and a light breeze. Angelus argues much too hot but even he is lying on his lawn right now with a smile on his face :) He loves, loves, loves the snow but Storm tends to get cheesed a bit when we are in Tahoe as he gets cold faster so gets shorter walks. I was all packed and ready to go to Tahoe last night but I was SO tired after 2 nights of very little sleep. So I bagged the idea right as I should have headed out and decided to stay here. Plus the weather said it might rain up there. Yuck! I think I made the right call. The huskies had a BLAST on the beach today and Stormy got lots of playing and running in which he probably wouldn’t have in Tahoe. I think Stormy likes the snow and loves the beach. Angelus loves the beach but loves the snow more. So I need to make sure both are happy :)

So last weekend we spent in the snow. This weekend we are chilin’ at the beach and next weekend we will head back up to the snow as a new storm is expected to drop another 2 feet!

Snowy mountains, tsunami warnings, sunny beach…just another week in California…

We got up to Tahoe last night but it was after 11pm and really dark out – no starry night or bright moon to light the way. Of course, the huskies wanted to go for a walk as soon as they got out of the car. Since they are stuck in the car for 3-4 hours on the drives up, I usually take them no matter what time we get in. Just a short walk down the street so they can sniff everything, pee on stuff, say HI to Tahoe :) But last night we could only go a short ways since it was really, really dark out.

And normally when we get here, I let Angelus out on the back deck so he can play in the snow but husband didn’t want me to do that since it was really heavy snow, and had rained a bit on Thursday which made it icy and it was going to be a pain for him to remove, and Angelus paw prints and husky-dug holes everywhere supposedly make this harder as they harden/get icy. I don’t necessarily believe it will make that much of a difference with the snow blower but he is responsible for snow removal so it’s up to him.

So needless to say, Angelus was annoyed. He was like “you bring me to the snow and then I can’t play in it???” He even tweeted about it! :) So this morning, bright and early, I had a wet nose in my face :) Took the buds out for their short walk after their breakfast and brought Storm back home when he wanted. Then it was Angelus time! We walked pretty far (about 1.5 hours), met Jake the GIANT lab and Cash the sweet pit/boxer mix. They liked Angelus a lot! Cash even started to follow us away from his house – doh! We also met 2 Russian guys on our walk and they loved Angleus. Every time we meet Eastern European people, they really fawn over the huskies :)

Anyway, on our loop back home we climbed the snow mountain (about 12’+ up) in our greenbelt area and I let Angelus off leash…

Now we are home and he’s a much happier husky :)

Please forgive my winterized, gopherized front yard. But Angelus loves it :) He’s been hoarding this bone since Super Bowl Sunday. What buddies.

It was howling wind and rain this morning. The huskies didn’t seem in too big of a rush to go out. I thought “Yay – no wet and cold walk for me!” But once they ate their breakfast, they charged for the door. Doh. Ok…out we go. I wore my bright pink J Crew rain boots this time since my sneakers took 2 days to dry after the last rain walk. I looked pretty sexy in my mismatched rain outfit…in that “there is no way you could look any unsexier” kinda way ;) BUT – I stayed warm (ish)!

Storm doesn’t typically like to go out in the rain so I figured it would be a short walk. Angelus? Well, he would make an excellent postman. Rain, sleet or snow – he doesn’t care! But the huskies (both of them!) wanted to go to the beach. Sigh…ok….we are already wet at this point so we might as well. It tapered off to a light rain and then rained off and on the whole way there. We got to the beach and the wind was blowing and even the harbor was pretty choppy. Low tide was just starting so there was some more beach to run on and a TON of seagulls hanging around.

I let the the huskies off leash and they took off – both of them! To chase the birds and each other! Stormy was running around and having a good time!! Yay! He got a bit cheesed up in Tahoe last weekend since he can’t stay out in the snow as long as his brother or go in deep snow due to his naked belly. He wants to go out a lot but then gets cold after like 20-30 minutes so I take him on a lot of short walks and not the deep snow running Angelus gets. So I was very happy to see him running around on the beach having a fun time!! I wished I could have videoed it but it was raining and my phone was safely stashed in a pocket :( Would have been a very cute video!!!

It started to rain harder so we decided to head back. No one (including Angelus) is a fan of the sideways rain. Although I will have to say, when you wear rain boots you can have a lot of fun jumping in big rain puddles :)

We aren’t going to Tahoe for this new snow storm today, which makes me pretty sad. Who knows if it’s the last big snow of the season? But husband is driving up from San Diego where he was picking up his newly-made surfboards for an upcoming surf trip to Portugal. He was going to swing by here and get us and we’d all drive up to Tahoe. But the storm is just hitting now and he doesn’t want to take the extra time and get stuck in the traffic and snow. But he doesn’t want me driving up in my car alone since I have high-performance tires and not snow tires (don’t get me started on that) which means I wouldn’t go till tomorrow AM sometime. And that just seems silly to then come back Sunday night or Monday AM. Especially since I want to be there during the snow! I don’t know why people don’t get how much I love being there as it is snowing – not only when it’s all over. *pout* But I think Storm might be OK with is since it’s also supposed to drop to about -2 and possibly even colder up at our house. He says brrr with missing fur!

Plus CalTrans says do not drive up there today – wait till Saturday. Bad weather. Heavy snow and wind. Alert. So you absolutely, positively know some ass clowns in their Prius’ and Hondas and other teeny tin cans will be heading up and causing traffic at chain control and likely spinning out into a snow bank. Good times.

So the huskies and I are desperately hoping we get to see a snow flurry here! It can happen. I think highly unlikely (I am truly AT sea level so it would be a rarity!) But I do believe the huskies are working with some powerful forces to get it here :) So we will stay awake late and up early to try and get the coldest parts of the night/morning to see if their magic worked….crossing fingers and paws!

I almost didn’t take today off. My original plan was to take last Thursday and Friday off to have a 5-day President’s Day weekend with the snowstorm dumping tons of snow on Tahoe. The snowstorm had been predicted by the local weather guys for a couple weeks so I was looking forward to it. Tahoe hasn’t really gotten much snow since I the Christmas/New years craziness so I was very excited to get the huskies (and me!) into some fresh snow. I was going to leave Wednesday night for 5 days of snow!

Then some stuff came at work and I didn’t feel comfortable not being there Thursday or Friday. The CEO said it was OK to take off but I felt like I shouldn’t. Then the weather changed a bit and the heavy snow was coming Wednesday and Thursday so I was bummed to miss that. But they closed the highway so had I left Wednesday night after work, I would have been stuck in the closed highway and probably got up there at like 3am. I would have been tired and grumpy. The CEO insisted he could do just fine without me (that might be a very bad thing for him to realize!) on Friday so I planned on leaving the office around 11am after getting some stuff done and that way still missing any holiday weekend Bay Area traffic plus the snowstorm coming that night.

I did leave at 11am and sailed through the Bay Area (avoiding the as usual accident on the Bay Bridge and taking 92 to 680 to 80 instead) as well as hitting no traffic through Fairfield, Davis, Sacramento, etc. Was actually kind of weird for a holiday weekend Friday. It was pouring rain the entire time so maybe people didn’t want to drive in it? Hit the mountains and rain turned to sleet. A little more up the mountain and sleet turned to snow. And clear sailing turned to loooooong line of traffic inching along at 2 mph. It was traffic created by all the goobers that drive their little tin cans up to the mountains during a snowstorm and so they need chains. Ugh. Go rent a 4-wheel drive SUV if you plan on coming here during a snowstorm.

Anyway, it only added an extra 75 minutes or so. Not so bad considering I was hearing the previous nights’ drives were taking 8 hours or more. Yeesh. So I didn’t get much fun use out of my day off but did get up to Tahoe before the crazy storm that hit us on Friday evening/night. White-out conditions driving around town. And our street had 1 skinny lane of plowed snow through it. It was very Shining-like :) And I think they closed the highway again. BUT, the storm was done by late Saturday morning so it’s been sunny with a mix of high clouds ever since. And no snow falling. Boo. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a complete winter wonderland up here and the snow plows are just now getting all caught up with the roads and there is so. much. snow. But I love to watch it fall too.

So because I didn’t take Thursday off, I decided to take Tuesday off. But then have been going back and forth about it all weekend because the next snow storm coming isn’t coming until late Wednesday or Thursday so I’ll miss fresh snow falling so maybe just use my day off for a 3-day weekend next Monday or another upcoming snow storm. I pretty much decided to not take it off and just drive into work Tuesday AM until late last night. Changed my mind right before bed. Like literally, my mind just switched gears. Had been packed and everything. Decided to take advantage of the snow here and now and can always take another day off if I want for the next storm.

This was a very long-winded, convoluted rambling way to say pretty darn glad I did….

Angelus and I were out for about 2 hours this morning. He was running around back and forth and then we turned around and ran the other way and jumped through untracked snow like a deer! Then rested and “drank” snow and ran some more! I thought I was videoing that too but turns out my gloved finger didn’t press the start on that. Boo. It was damn cute. But I got to see it and Angelus got to live it :) It was 9 degrees when we went out. His kind of weather :) But then it warmed up to 15. We were both pretty hot in the sun by the end of our journey. He had a great time and is now happily sleeping and getting ready for the next outing this afternoon :)

Definitely a good use for a day off :)

On my way to take Angelus out for his 2nd walk this morning, I took an excellent digger on the icy entry way. I’m sure it looked pretty classic. Knee and hand smacked down on the icy stone. Cut on my hand. The instant sharp pain in my knee made me want to cry but Angelus coming over and sticking his nose in my face to see if I was OK made me smile instead :) Then when I got up and said OK buddy let’s go – he walked slowly next to me as we crossed the icy part. What a buddy :)

Later on in the walk, as we were passing some houses, Angelus started slowing down and sniffing in the air like he smelled something around. Then we came upon a driveway where someone had left their garage door open, either overnight or from this AM, and you could see the garbage can tipped over in the garage next to a car and 2 big plastic bags of garbage ripped open and strewn around the garage and driveway. Oopsie. There is a full bear somewhere. Angelus was walking around slowly and sniffing the air there too.

I got him going again and we went off the street onto a trail that we like that is basically a single track right now going through walls of snow in the forest. But cross country skiers pack down the track well enough so we don’t fall through the snow. About half way into the forest on this trail, Angelus just stops cold right in front of me. And starts growling. I didn’t see anything but trees and snow and didn’t hear anything. He moved up a tiny bit and started growling again and then turned us around. At this point I’m thinking OK, it could be nothing. Or it could be the bear. Or a ghost. Either way, we’re listening to Angelus who has the better sense of smell and hearing. No one is going to accuse me of being the dumb girl in the horror movie you scream at the screen saying “listen to the dog!!!” right before she gets mauled or killed.

So we took the same trail back and as soon as we got back to the road, Angelus immediately took us in the direction of home. I decided he can be in charge of this walk from here! So we got home safe and sound, no more icy falls, no bears and no ghosts. And now I have hot coffee. We’ll try again later :)

This was upon arrival yesterday :)

And this AM

And more playing!

This morning the huskies and I had another excellent beach adventure! We wandered through the neighborhoods and then made our over to the beach. Storm’s friend Charlie was there and he seemed pretty happy to see her :)

I don’t let Storm play with just any dogs off-leash. I have to know them or watch them play for awhile. Storm needs the perfect mixture of just out-going enough to be fun and crazy but not aggressive or too alpha as that gets Storm going on his “need to prove I’m boss” (well…under boss really since everyone knows Angelus is the boss dog!) Plus we want to be nowhere near the bitey, agro dogs either. He definitely does better with girl dogs too. No need to be dominant at all.

Charlie is great! She loves to run and play but is super sweet and fairly submissive. So I let him play off-leash with her. This video is the first couple minutes of what was about 40 minutes of them playing today, along with Angelus and their other friend Pearl. Vry happy to see him wanting to play more and more with other dogs and being back to his happy self. :)

This morning on our walk, we came to a point where we could turn and go back to the bluffs we did yesterday (where Storm was attacked) or the other way towards the harbor. Storm always wants to go towards the harbor. That’s his routine. Storm is very much a creature of routine. He does not like when the routine is disrupted. He’s quite funny that way :) Plus, whenever he starts out on his walk he is on a mission. He walks with purpose. Go, go and go. Angelus likes to take his time to stop and smell the roses (and pee on them if he can ;) )

Depending on what direction we leave the house, which streets we take, he knows what the walk will be and does not allow deviations without an argument (he stares at me with a HMPH! look.) So the particular way we went this morning left us with really only one option which was the harbor….in Storm’s mind…usually. We crossed Highway 1 and where we could turn right to go to the harbor, Storm takes an immediate left. This would take us right to the bluffs. This is not the way we go when we want to go to the bluffs. In fact, he usually starts pulling/veering right before we’ve even finished crossing the highway to go towards the harbor. That is his routine. Right turn here Mom.

But not this morning. This morning he knew exactly where he wanted to go. He decided he was going back to the bluffs to find that little putz who attacked him yesterday morning. When I said “Storm – this way”. He just stood there and stared at me, tail high in the air like “I’m ready.” He looked over to the bluffs and back to me. Like “Come on Mom. Let’s go find that jerk for some husky payback.” I said “Come on buddy – let’s go to the harbor beach. That little dog is too scared to come back here and meet you guys again.” He looked back a final time and seemed to get that and pranced right over and started his march towards the harbor.

I think he’s doing OK :)

and then later…

I like the fact that as I posted these to Facebook, I had Buffy playing….some eps with Angel/Angelus in them :)