This is my entry for Shannon @ Kenleigh Acres’s felted sheepie contest. He’s made out of her wonderful Jacob wool, which is the NICEST fiber I think I’ve ever worked with- it just feels lovely in my hands.

His horns and eyes are made of polymer clay.

Just click on the photo to biggify!

This is the first Pom (or Spitz) I’ve actually finished (I’ve got an Eskie and a Lizziespitz in my workbasket but haven’t finished ‘em.) I love, love, love the way the blending on this guy came together, and I hope his new home likes him very much!

More pics behind the jump!

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One year. I still miss you.

Gina Spadafori featured the flatcoated retriever and Shetland Sheepdog pieces I made for her today on Petconnection!

Look!

Kaylee and I have been attending a drop-in rally class at Houn House on Mondays, and having a whole lot of fun. The class consists of two courses (we’re in the Novice Group for now, we may start sticking around for the A/E group too) and last night, we just had a GREAT time. I haven’t scanned this week’s course map, but it was a cool course inspired by some of Barbara McClatchy’s courses, which use a diagonal (usually with a serpentine) as one of the challenges. It really felt GOOD, and it really felt like we were working as a TEAM. I’m hoping she’ll be ready for the UKC trials in Lousiana next month, although I’ll have to get her UKC registered before then. (Coincidentally, Barbara McClatchy is judging!)

Jessica brought her American Eskimo dog Sadie (Lizzie’s Good Twin) to class for the first time, and WHV puppy Reed along for the ride. She’s a fantastic trainer but hasn’t done much rally yet, so it was really fun to watch her and Sadie learning the signs and learning to work together as a team in a new venue.

Who won our Help For Haiti Auction with a pledge of $50!

Dee, an email is headed your way, but if you see this post first, just drop me a line via email at trainsdogs@gmail.com

Corgi-Aid, for poor unforutnate people who have never heard of it, is a 501(c)3 organization that funds major medical help for corgis in rescue- HD surgeries, complicated spays or neuters, or just weird medical problems in general. Their goal is to make sure that no corgi is ever NOT rescued for a lack of funds for medical care on the part of the rescue.

Corgi-Aid turns 10 years old today, and has helped hundreds (thousands? Surely well over a thousand) of corgis in the last decade.

Corgi-Aid turned 10 today. Go Corgi-Aid!

I made my donation already, but I want to do more.

So I’m auctioning off a custom needlefelted sculpture of the buyer’s choice- cat, dog, dragon, pony, goldfish, whatever- in exchange for a donation to Partners n Health, the Red Cross, or other responsible charity group currently helping in Haiti.

How this works: You post a comment with the amount you’re willing to donate. Once the auction’s over, if you’ve won, you make that donation and either take a screen capture of your receipt (if you donate online) or take me a photo of your check (block out the bank information) and tell me you’ve mailed it if you want to mail it that way), email it to me, and I’ll make your item.

Winner will be the person who has pledged the highest amount as of midnight, January 22, 2010. (Edited because I’m a dope and forgot to add that! If you liked my corgi in the corgi-aid auction, well, this is a chance to get one of your own!

Bidding starts at $20.

I’m also doing a second auction on the Livejournal HelpFor Haiti community, so there are two items going for offer.

Edited to add: Newman’s Own is doing a grant for the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation -

Joanne Woodward Newman and Newman’s Own Foundation just announced a combined $100,000 challenge grant in support of SDF’s Search Teams, inspired by their work in Haiti!

Help SDF meet the challenge – you can donate online or call (888) 459-4376. Please share the news of this challenge with all your friends.

This would be a GREAT charity!

I hate this time of year – it’s so grey here in Texas, and it’s usually bitterly cold but without the compensation of snow- it gets just warm enough to be very muddy and still frigid outside, which just makes things worse. There’s no holidays to look forward too till February 15th (St Markdowns, the feast of the patron saint of chocoholic cheapskates everywhere ;P) and it’s just blah.

The girls have been going a little bit stir-crazy too. Kaylee burns a fair amount of mental energy working as my service dog, but it’s not fair for that to be her only ‘exercise’, and Lizzie is an intense little dog who gets really snarky when she has been cooped up too much. So what do we do when it’s too cold to stay out for a long time at the dog park and too wet for a good hike?

We play with the flirt pole, of course!

A flirt pole, for people that aren’t in the know, is basically a giant cat toy, only for dogs. You take a stick, tie a sturdy string to it, and attach a toy or a lure to the end. Flip it around and encourage your dog to chase it in circles, leap after it as you flick it over their head, and just in general torture them with it. I use a lunge whip from Tractor Supply (purple, even!) with a de-stuffed toy tied to the end, and they go nuts.

Here’s a video from last year of Lizzie with her flirt pole… Lizzie <3s flirtpoles

Merry Christmas, Happy 2010, and all that good stuff. Lots of work-related boringness right now and my brain just hasn’t been going.

I’ve also been gaming again, which is a ton of fun – one Chaosium game run by my friend John, and I’m running a D&D game (3.5) again for the first time in a long time. We’ve been playing on this cool opensource app called Gametable.