Typist: Bethany
The day that cleaning up my dogs poop almost killed me was one of those pet friendly adventure days of the highest highs and the lowest lows. Literally. I was high in the mountains of Cascadia and took a dozen or so rides on a ski lift. Then I was laid out in the parking lot on top of where I had just picked up after my dog. The parking lot that day was a thick sheet of ice dotted like Swiss cheese with potholes of slushy, smelly mud puddles. When we arrived at the ski resort, I quickly but carefully shuffled the dogs across the dangerous frozen muck so they could play in some of the lovely, freshly fallen snow the mountain had to offer. Cascade mountain peaks jutted into the sapphire blue sky 360 degrees around the dogs and I. The white, glittery trees weighted with snow sparkled like friendly ghosts in the late morning sunshine and the dogs blazed furry trails through snow drifts often higher than them. Well, especially higher than dachshund Wilhelm. Once all three dogs seemed content, we braved our way back across the dirty ice rink parking lot with a quick stop at the dumpster so I could dispose of the journey's full, blue plastic bags of dog poop. I settled the dogs safely in for a few hours of car rest while I did some downhill skiing.

It was a glorious day for skiing! I was so happy on the slopes but eventually it was time for lunch and to give the dogs another chance to also enjoy the mid-winter snow. I dined with the dogs and had my fill of ski replacing calories before leashing them up to again brave the harder than concrete, more slippery than an oil slick parking lot. We warily made it safe and sound to the glistening, deeply drifted fresh snow trails where Wilhelm, Brychwyn, and Huxley could safely sniff, romp, and wrestle. Once all three dogs had long tongues dangling joyfully from their heavy fog producing mouths in the cold mountain air, and my hardy lunch felt like it had done enough digesting for me to comfortably get more fantastically smooth ski runs in, the dogs and I turned back towards the dangerous drudgery that was the parking lot. The dumpster and the car were within view as we carefully crossed the slippery void when little dachshund Wilhelm began his "I have to poop" sniffing circles at the end of his leash. As Wilhelm squatted, I removed the glove from my right hand, tucked it firmly under my left arm, and ripped a poop bag from my roll.

My next, obvious move began the chain of events that lead to my near death dog poop scooping experience. It began with my hand going right through the bottom of the poop bag. Now, I had other poop bags with me, but really? This never happens! And my hand was already cold. I looked at the tiny pile of miniature dachshund poop and decided to fold the dog poop delicately into the torn bag and place it carefully, contamination free, into my left glove. I glanced towards the near-by dumpster. It was less than one hundred yards away. I could make it! I was wrong. The last thing I remember seeing was that precariously not-contained-in-a-tightly-tied-bag in my gloved hand. My next step was a doozy.

I was not going to let an iced over parking lot and the sound of broken bones echoing through my head stop me from properly disposing of this poop! What seemed like twenty hours and four hundred miles of walking later, but was in actuality was only a few minutes and a dozen steps, I confronted the dumpster. Still afraid to move what I thought was my broken left arm, I gently pried the formed blue plastic crumpled poop bag from my left glove with my still bare right hand. I vaguely remember asking the dogs not to get to near the stinky dumpster as I cracked it open and disposed of Wilhelm's poop. Turning my gaze on my next goal, the car, is an injured shock blur but I do remember exclaiming, "See! I'm okay!" to the dogs, of course. After all, the poop had been scooped and properly disposed of. What is more okay than that? Walking back to the car as if across shards of glass with bare feet, I wiggled my left hand, moved my left arm slowly and discovered that it was fine. Upon getting the dogs back into the car and sitting gently with them under the open back hatch, I braved moving my arm enough to decide that my shoulder may be injured but it was not broken either. Struggling to breath while examining my left arm movement, I remembered that same feeling from another fall I had a few years ago. A fall that, among other things, caused a few cracked ribs. Ah-ha! Honestly relieved that my arm, wrist, and shoulder seemed fine, but beginning to worry about the life threatening complexities of broken ribs, I remembered, at least I had scooped that poop. It was too bad that the days skiing was obviously done. The highest of highs was behind me except for a decent back to Seattle's sea level. But the lowest lows of the day had been worth it. These mountains are too beautiful to have left dog poop laying around!

My broken and separated, front and back, ribs from my fall that day are healing slowly, but I am impatient about these kinds of things. Thank you to my family, friends, readers, and followers who have wished me well and helped me care for five pets while recovering. I am truly thankful to "the poop grip," as it has come to be known, for preventing me from breaking my wrist, arm, or shoulder! I have discovered yet another reason that constantly cleaning up after my dogs, no matter what, without fail, is always the right thing to do.

Have you ever risked your life to do the right thing, cleaning up dog poop or otherwise?

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Typist: Bethany
I love this time of year in Cascadia. I love the temperatures, the rain, the snow covered mountains, the stormy waters, the myriads of cloud types, and the light beaming through. What I do not love is being so sick that I cannot enjoy every second of my spectacular bioregion's winter beauty. But I accept that with the good comes the bad, and vice versa. I have endured fourteen days and counting of miserable head, throat, and lung congestion, all while still healing broken and separated ribs, but I have managed to enjoy a little storm watching with the dogs. And, of course, capture some fantastic photographs of our adventure.

Dogwood Photography Photo Challenge Week 5, Landscape: Black and White
Look for a scene with great contrast that will make a great black and white.

More difficult than bundling up and venturing out with dachshund Wilhelm, corgi Brychwyn, and collie Huxley between Pacific Northwest storms, has been choosing photos to post through blurry eyes and between sneezes. Thanks to the stark beauty of a storm looming over Puget Sound, the varied viewpoints at Emma Schmitz Park in West Seattle, and my three creative canine models, I had a large amount of heavily contrasted storm photos to choose from. I think I finally managed a clear enough head to choose the best of the black and white storm watching dogs bunch. We'll see what I think once I am 100% again but for now, I have to go back to using every bit of energy I have making sure the dogs keep being as happy as they are pictured above.

This post is a part of the Dogwood Photography 52 Week Photography Challenge. Please see more of our photo challenge posts here.

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Typist: Bethany
It was my first training class with Tynan when I heard the instructor give her speech about the word "sit" for the first time. "You might want to consider using a different word, one that your dog understands as 'this is my trainer cueing me' as opposed to a kid at the park or a clerk at the store ask you dog to do something cute," she urged. Yet in all the times I heard that speech, in classes with Tynan, Wilhelm, Brychwyn, and Huxley, when the instructor would go around the room after asking "what word will you be using?" I only once heard someone say something other than "sit." And, unfortunately, it wasn't me. Now, I have three super smart dogs who can go anywhere and be adored, but not one of them knows "sit."

One flaw in my dogs "sit" is that I used the word "sit." If I had used any other word, a word that isn't said to them dozens of times a day by neighbors, shop keepers, mail carriers, etc, my cue to lower the tail end may not have been poisoned. But I chose "sit." Yet if I had worked harder in proofing the cue before they heard it over and over again from people all over in our travels, people who rewarded them even if they didn't obey, the cue may not have been poisoned. So my true training confession is that I am terrible at proofing.

I am not a bad trainer. I am just way more focused on socialization than proofing. Back when I was gung-ho about titles and competitions, I was horrified when a child at the park told my dogs to "sit." Yet, I didn't like horrified trainer me. The being able to take the pets anywhere happily trainer me, even if the dogs don't obey every random "sit" they hear, is a much more fun trainer me. Happy, well-socialized pets matter more to me than perfect, consistently compliant to obedience cues pets. The only exception to this lazy proofing attitude is I insist on a speedy recall and, like all good pet owners should, the pets and I work on it daily. I know that if I gave "sit" a new cue word and the same attention as our recalls, the dogs would learn it in no time. After all, they are smarter than me! I am really the one that does not know "sit."

Just because I am bad at proofing skills doesn't mean you have to be! Here's a great resource on proofing. Do you have any proofing tips to share?

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Typist: Bethany
When Tynan died, I realized that he and I had been on all kinds of amazing adventures together and I rarely ever took even one memorabilia photo. So when Wilhelm and I headed out on our first road trip together, my heart told me to do something to document it. But even I don't want to look at my boring photos of some place I visited. I was terrible at taking landscape photographs. The second day of our trip, as Wilhelm and I explored an interesting, random historic site we'd stopped at to stretch our legs, I had an epiphany; if Wilhelm is in the photo, he automatically makes it not boring! And so began my photographic journey of putting my pets in the foreground of landscapes that I wanted to remember in a picture.

Dogwood Photography Photo Challenge Week 2, Landscape: Traditional Landscape
"Shoot a beautiful landscape and share it with the world. Find a nice foreground and don't forget the sky."

I still take pretty bad, boring landscape photos. I can either never get the horizon straight, the depth depicted, the color like I want it, or the foreground interesting. Yes, even when the foreground is my adorable pets! Landscape photography reminds me of every other art form I have tried- painting, sculpting, drawing- it never turns out like I imagined it would. But I am much happier trying and failing at getting good landscape shots than having no tangible memory of where I have been and what I have seen. I do love to just enjoy the scenery yet it is nice to have a little souvenir once in a while. This weeks photo challenge shots are from Grandview Off-Leash Dog Park where the view is truly grand but I am not often able to enjoy it due to the chaos of dachshund, corgi, and collie off-leash shenanigans. Fortunately, Jason was with us when we went last weekend and we were there for this lovely Cascadian sunset.  I know that I'm no Ansel Adams, but I do know I have cute dogs and a lot of fun!

This post is a part of the Dogwood Photography 52 Week Photography Challenge. Please see more of our photo challenge posts here.

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