On Mountain Time

 

Too busy having fun; so no updates for a while until we have a report from the Big Sky Field Trial Club's Montana Open Shooting Dog Championship in Circle, August 17-23.

Setters in Blue

Maximus is growing at an alarming rate - can you tell who's who in this picture? He'll soon be taller than me, Mingus, and he's definitely got a very finely honed bird finding instinct. Too bad he's mostly finding crows and magpies, but this morning he did discover a pheasant in the reeds before I caught his scent. Maximus suddenly went all quiet, froze, fixing his attention on the bird, and our human responded mirroring his pose, honoring his moment. There we stood, transfixed by the god of setting hounds, happy, the pheasant all quiet too. Then a movement broke the spell and the bird flew off in a flurry of feathers.
Tomorrow we'll be at Långtora where pheasants are aplenty, and Maximus will be taught how to raise birds on command, crouch until told to fetch the game, and how to make best use of the wind. Ah, the pleasures of puppyhood!

Setters modeling Cheny & Friends collars

Aren't we magnificent? Our human found us these smart and very comfortable collars, handmade in Germany by Cheny & Friends. Maximus will need to grow and fill out a bit but my collar fits snugly, made-to-measure as it is.

Birthday Setter

three-year-old with toys

       

Enter Maximus

Today is Valentine's Day and it is indeed a day of love! I have a new friend, setter puppy Maximus has joined our pack. He is still young, but already true to his breed - yesterday we went for a long walk across the snow clad fields, and Maximus kept up with us. Snow- and ice crystals coated his fur and clogged his feet, but he just curled up in the snow like a little fox and bit off the snowballs, then continued running with us. My human picked him up at one point to carry him, but Maximus wriggled and made it very clear that he wanted to run with us. That's the spirit!

Back home he collapsed and was dead to the world, but I know we'll have lots of fun. My human thinks of herself as a runner, and I'm far too polite to let on that I can outrun her without half trying (but then again she only has two legs where I have four). So Maximus' presence is welcome, and I'm sure he's going to grow into an amazing bird hunter, following my example.

Setter on ice

Ah, what a lovely Sunday morning! Early morning walk round the block followed by cheese bun at Gateaux, and then when the sun was making patterns on the floor, we went for a walk on the ice.

Grandma came along, so I was on my best behavior (she cannot run as fast as I and i made a point of returning to her regularly to make sure she's all right).

Ah, but how I ran! Across the ice, making the snow veer around me, and on the sound of the whistle I was slipping and sliding before I came to a halt. A piece of sausage came my way - "Off you go!" and then the two familiar sounds calling me back, more slipping and sliding, another piece of sausage. This is fun, one of my favorite games. At first we were alone on the ice, but then more and more people, most of them with dogs, appeared, and I had a chat with my hero Nelson and with Nova, and a lovely cafe latte colored saluki bitch - she loves to run just like I do, and is a new resident here, what happiness!

The superdog's family

                                                                                                                                                                               This is Mojo, the Pixie Bob. He's my legend cat, and a real blue-blooded royalty since his bloodline goes back to the legendary Pixie, a barn cat who mated with a bobtail. This is why Mojo looks like a lynx - big paws with thumbs, and the typical coloring. Mojo is a sweetheart and never misses to kiss me when he passes by. He's supposed to be  is an indoor cat but likes to go for walks down to the seaside, and in summer he joins us on the jetty when we go swimming. Once he caught a snake and brought it home, but our human wasn't amused. Not to worry, I told Mojo he's a great hunter.

Freckles is the youngest of my family, a silver bengal who is simply gorgeous. His real name is Solitaire, because there is only one of him, but we call him Freckles because that's what he looks like - a silver freckled cat. He only drinks water from the tap, and he likes to sleep cuddled up to me. We might call him Feckless because his tail got caught under a cupboard when he was a kitten - curiosity is supposed to kill the cat but in Freckles case it only maimed him - so his tail is all twisted in one spot. Freckles has the fur of a desert cat and dislikes the cold, and in summer he's enjoying the sun stretched out on the deck. Today he ventured out for a few minutes with Mojo and me, lured out by our blackbird, but ended up curled up in our human's eiderdown.

My human prefers to be behind the camera, but this picture captures her most prominent feature - her hair. I believe it's been taken in Amorgos, one of her favorite places, where she was sailing one summer and, I believe, had just lost her heart. I'm glad to say she has found it again, but I'm not sure she agrees.