The Ugliness Continues

The ugliness continues, and it's absolutely amazing. I am totally blown away by the responses of the losing side in this election, or at least some of them.  I never realized how much bigotry, racism, and hated still existed in America, and I am particularly upset that the flames are fanned by those at the top who COULD make a difference if they chose to.  What's wrong with these people?  And the party is blaming everything except their platform - they seem incapable of accepting the fact that women and minorities do not want to be second class citizens, and the middle class is tired of the income disparity and the erosion of their purchasing power.  No doubt they will continue to do all they can to block the President's efforts to get this country back on its feet, just as they did during the previous four years.  I'm so proud of my fellow Minnesotans for voting like Minnesotans again, except perhaps for the 6th District, but they may be space aliens rather than real Minnesotans.

On a much more cheerful note, we're celebrating Como's TD - Tracking Dog title.  Como is from the Argus/Nikon litter that included GCh. Penny and Ch. Charlie.  She went off to Pennsylvania as a puppy to a "tracking home" with Phil.  This was the first of what we hope will be many tracking titles.

On another cheerful note, Jana received Holly's CHIC number, for the completion of all her health testing, plus her entry into the Complete Dentition database.  Holly's pups are due in a bit less than two weeks, so this weekend I get to scrub the basement and set up the puppy pen and whelping box.  Trying to decide if I want to do an x-ray so we'll know how many pups to anticipate.  I don't normally do that, but don't normally do Ultrasounds either, and I did one of those this time!  

We Did It

I don't think there is enough coffee to keep me awake all day.  Sat up way past my bedtime following election results.  Was pleased that Minnesotans voted like Minnesotans this year, and defeated the Marriage Amendment so strongly supported by the Catholic Church.  Hopefully the Tea Party mentality will slowly disappear from this state, but unfortunately MB will probably continue to fan the flames - even though her constituents finally appear to be waking up.  Just not quite enough of them yet.

The level of animosity on FB last night absolutely astonished me.  I expected some of the ugly, mean-spirited comments but a few normally mild-mannered, seemingly-civil people really surprised me.  I sincerely believe that my Democratic-voting friends would have lost far more graciously than so many of the Republican-leaning friends - some of who are probably now ex-friends, if they unfriended me last night.  So be it.

I continue to feel that the major problem with this country is the animosity and hatred.  IF we could put down our swords and work together, we could accomplish so much more . . .

Undecided? Really?

Is anyone STILL "Undecided"?  Hard to believe that anyone would not have made up his/her mind long ago on how to vote on all candidates and issues.  After months of being bombarded by ads that were entertaining, offensive, encouraging, disparaging, positive, negative, informative, factual and outright lies - how can anyone not have decided long ago?

I came down this morning and turned on the radio expecting to get news without political ads. Silly me.  Apparently if there is money to be spent for ads, the stations will be glad to accept it, and if anything there were more ads than on previous mornings, although it sounds to me as if they contain more last-minute-lies.  Then I heard that one candidate was campaigning in New Hampshire this morning, and a Facebook friend in Texas noted there were campaigners outside the polling places down there.  WHAT?

Either I've forgotten that we've always had ads and campaigning on Election Day, or things are even more screwed up than I thought.

Please remember though, that no matter who wins the races, both the local races and the national ones, we will prevail.  We'll still all be Americans, and the American Spirit will live on.

Fun With Fern

Having such a good time with my puppy!  Fernly is turning into a really cool dog, fun to take places and extremely entertaining to live with.  Far less mischievous now too, and much more trustworthy.  I no longer feel as if I have to watch her every single minute, although we are careful not to give her too much freedom. She needs to earn that and still assumes everything is a toy, something that must be carried around and played with.  Last night it was the strainer that goes over the floor drain in the basement, full of dried aquarium plants and algae (from water changes).  Found the strainer, along with dried up green stuff, on the dog bed in the family room. "Perhaps" it wasn't Fern who brought her prize upstairs, but . . .

I've been trying to take Fern running off leash as often as possible so she can burn off some energy.  A tired puppy is a good puppy.  I tried the Dog Park last week, and although she enjoyed it, I decided she was not ready yet.  Like Letty, Fern loves to be chased, but unlike Letty she can not yet turn sharply and come up running.  Fern's fast, but not very agile at this gawky, leggy age.  She would encourage dogs to chase her, try to corner too fast, do a double somersault, and end up on the bottom of a pile of dogs.  That made ME nervous, but she was determined to be chased.  Guess we'll wait until she's able to stay ahead of her pursuers, or decides on a new game.

On Saturday we went to Hidden Falls Park which is fairly empty this time of the year. I had a pocket full of high-value treats, so we worked on recalls too and she did really well. Fern had great fun chasing sticks and racing around with her squeaky hamburger.  She particularly enjoyed running through the leaves that were arranged in concentric rings.  I've heard of Crop Circles, but Leaf Circles?  We checked out the falls which I assumed would be dry, but apparently it's spring fed, and Fernly had fun racing up and dog the creek itself, splashing in the ice cold water.  We were joined by another woman and her huge Goldendoodle "Yogi".  We had a nice chat while the dogs played - but am so glad I was not the one who would have to get the mud, leaves and sticks out of the Goldendoodle's furry coat.  Love my Wash And Wear dogs.  Fernly was a bit spooked by the huge furry dog at first, but they quickly became best buddies and she burned off a lot of energy playing with him.

The weather wasn't perfect, but my dog and I had a wonderful time.