May 13

Happy Mother's Day!!  I am getting ready to meet my kid and spend the day!!!  YAY!!

Here is a pic from 2008.  And I am not drunk in this picture, in fact, I was drinking water all weekend and not putting any poison or unhealthy food into my body.  The previous fall had been a tough one.

Let's see.  Yesterday I took Hoss to rattlesnake avoidance training.  It was interesting.  The kid that was leading him around weighed in at about 100 pounds.  The trainer follows as he leads the dog through the course.  

They strap a shock collar on them and then introduce them to three kinds of rattlers.  One with a rattle, one without a rattle and the third one I don't know because he is a quick learner.  

Be vewwy vewwy qwiet, we ah hunting wabbits......

They give him a few minutes to calm down and go again.  This time they walk him through a path with no snakes.  They have him on one end, me on the other and as he starts to come to me on that same path, they throw a snake between us.  He hightailed it out and the kid couldn't hold on to him.  He ran all the way to the car and waited there for me.  

So, lesson learned.  That makes me feel better about walking the trails.  I don't generally approve of shock collars, but it simulates a snake bite and is better than learning from a real one.  So now I know if we encounter a snake on the trail he will beat me home cuz I won't be able to hang on to him either.

He is so high energy.  People can't believe he is six years old, they think he is a puppy.