Cooper is HappyCat’s best friend. It’s unusual I know, for a cat and dog to love each other. Perhaps more unusual for the love to be mostly one sided on the cat’s end.

Cooper likes Happy enough, but Happy does not run when he chases or provide him with treats (beside allowing access to the cat dish without fuss). I’ve caught Cooper grooming Happy. But not following around in complete adoration.

Happy shares Cooper’s bed, follows him from room to room, is excited when the dog returns from a long absence. He is essentially Cooper’s pet.

We adopted Happy to be Audrey’s pet. She didn’t want him. So at least the dog wanted him.

Years ago during my honeymoon in Yosemite National park I stumbled across a strange creature. It was small perhaps guinea pig sized, but looked like a giant hamster. It was adorable. I told Adam about it and we learned about the rare and mysterious Pika on a trip to the visitor’s center.

Pikas are rare, in the Sierra Nevada they are endangered. We did see another that trip, a solitary critter on a hike up mount Dana. Adam was not as excited as I was, but he did acknowledge that “yes, we would never see that in New Hampshire.”

So the rock rabbits remained this elusive animal to me. A creature that hovered on the edge of mythical. That was until we went to Colorado this summer.

The Colorado Rockies are infested by Pikas. In a good way!

Every hike we did was full of encounters with the little furry creatures. And when we didn’t see them, we heard their cries of alarms as we proceeded up the trails. We even encountered families of them along the way.

They are quite quick to hop along among the rocks, so it is difficult to get a good picture of one when your primary goal is to reach a summit before the afternoon thunderstorms roll in. I did get a couple great pictures of a Pika on a rock with a deep background, and I am always excited to see it. The exotic animal from my Western adventures.

As is common when starting a new job, my life has been hectic of late. Not only do I wake up too early, spend way too much time in my car or at work and have to do homework, but I also have responsibilities at home.

A confession, some days I wish I didn’t have to rush home to take care of my pets and spouse. Sometimes I wish I could go out and meet more people. Go to Tweetups, hang out in cafes.  Sometimes I wish I could go out on a date with my spouse after work.

But Cooper needs to be let out. He needs to be played with. He needs to be loved. And sometimes I feel a little annoyed by that.

But then I get home and I spend time with that fluffy pup and I forget that I was annoyed about rushing home during the drive.

His joy at seeing me come home makes me happy to be home. His dog brain is so easy to make happy. A quick run, a quick snuggle, some yummy snacks, I’d rather make him happy than awkwardly hang out trying to meet new people.

I meet people better when he’s around anyways. Poodles are people magnets. As much as people want to pretend they are not snooty enough to like poodles Cooper always puts a smile on their face.

But then I always feel a different type of guilt. The guilt of not spending enough time with him.

Poodles were originally bred as a retriever. The Germans developed the breed and named them after Pudel, which means to splash in water. Well that might not have been a good trait for a water retriever. One must swim in order to get to bird the hunter just shot, not just splash around in the shallows.

So the Germans lost interest in the breed and were going to let them die out. Until one day some Frenchmen were in the area and saw the potential in the breed.

What a great breed to use in our beauty salons to teach hair dressers how to do hair they said!

In reality the French recognized the breed for it’s incredible intelligence and funny looks leading to careers as circus attractions and marvelous family companions.

Whatever the actual history is, I’m glad they kept the breed going. They are truly wonderful.

There’s just something about using the 1960′s filter on Picnik to show pictures from the fair.

If it wasn’t for the crushing crowds and the people complaining about lack of cell phone reception one might feel taken back.

Also, piglets are so much cuter than the fully grown sows. Especially when they have such fun colours.

It’s probably just me, but this 5 month blonde scottish highland cattle bull kind of reminded me of Cooper. Maybe it has to do with the color. Perhaps the shaggy hair is the problem. Or maybe I’m reminded by the way he sprawls out when he sleeps. Of course, before he spread out the calf looked at me with his shaggy face and it looked so much like my pup if you looked at it just wrong.

Maybe that’s a compliment to the cow, or an insult to Cooper the poodle, but I don’t care.

One of my favorite reasons to go to the Deerfield fair must be to see the livestock. I certainly took enough pictures of the cows and oxen.

Some of the breeds of cows have such pretty faces. They are sculpted like the Arabian horses.

I really don’t think I can eat veal.

The farmer and I had a good chat about how you don’t get between a cow and her food.

Some of the Oxen were insanely sized. I think some were at least 6 feet tall at the shoulders.

I love all the different patterns on cows. I heard lots of children commenting on how the markings looked painted on.

And how much the cows seemed to not mind the crushing crowds.

The best part of these fairs in my opinion is when parents are actually teaching their city kids about the source of their food. Mind you, the amount of incorrect information being thrown around was pretty sad. I’m surprised at how many grown ups can’t tell the difference between an oxen and a cow, you don’t get milk from a bull.

You know that proverb “cleanliness is next to godliness”, I think Cooper doesn’t want to imply that he’s even slightly like the man upstairs.

Recently I started been reading a blog called 1000 Reasons I’m a Crap Mom. It is adorable. Being constantly bombarded by parenting tips she is constantly reminded of her failings as a mother.

I don’t have children. I have pets. And even as a pet owner I have my failings. So its probably best that we are putting off having children. So imitating my inspiration I bring you 10 Reasons I’m a Bad Pet Mom.

1. I let my pets self feed. Yes I have a fat cat. But I don’t feel a need to put him on a diet. First my other cat is a skinny little thing, second what is the point of making my poor ex-stray fear he will starve. My dog is self fed and he is skinny as anything. So 2 out of 3 pets are skinny enough, that is a 66% success rate right?
2. My animals have to ask to be fed. It doesn’t matter if I filled up his dish ten times the night before, HappyCat always greets me with yowls as I come down the stairs in the morning. This usually means his dish is empty. This is also the real reason my pets are self fed, I cant really be bothered to feed them regularly enough.



3. My dog feels a need to steal from the trash.  We keep trying to break him of it, but he does it anyways.
4. My animals feel a need to drink out of the toilet. We keep trying to stop them but its so funny to see a cat trying to drink out of the toilet without falling in. I’m not sure what is wrong with their water dish, it is usually full when we catch them drinking from the magic fountain.



5. My dog plays with non-dog toys. His favorite toys tend to be soccer balls too big for his mouth and plastic water bottles he finds on the side of the road.
6. I don’t give my pets routine. Apparently animals thrive on routine. We purposefully tried to keep Cooper off a routine when he was a pup. I didn’t want him to get upset if we came home late, or didn’t take him to a park on Sundays.
7. My pets live a double standard. Cats are allows on furniture, dog is not.
8. I don‘t let them do what they want. Audrey wants to go outside, so shes not allowed. HappyCat wants to stay in the house, so I try to take him out. Cooper wants to be with me at all times, so he’s left alone in the house.



9. I’m terrible with a brush and nail clippers. But they don’t seem to enjoy it anyways so why torment them (mats and sharp claws that is why).
10. I love leaving my pets with strangers. Go on Vacation, get someone else to take care of your animals. Preferably with very lax instructions like, feed them this whenever you feel like it and if they get sick here is their vets number.

Why are you a good or bad pet owner?

On Saturday Cooper and I hiked to the Summit of the highest Mountain of New Hampshire. We came down the Tuckerman Trail, which was so crowded I was thinking that people could link up arms as they climbed up the trail.

• “Did he actually summit?”
• “Do you think that was a full poodle or a mix”
• “Shouldn’t he be in pom poms somewhere?”
• “He’s small for a big poodle”
• “Ohhhhh Cute!!!”
• *Discrete* attempts at taking pictures of dog.
• “Are poodles part mountain goat?”
• “Can I cuddle with your dog?”
• “World energy crisis solution: harness your dog”
• “That is the coolest poodle EVER”
• “Can I borrow a couple of your dog’s legs”
• “If a poodle can make it to the top, so can I”

And the best compliment I can be given:

• “What an exceptionally well trained dog”

A couple questions made me want to give a snarky response:

• “Does he like hiking?”
• “How can you be sure he’s not tired/hungry/injured?”

First of all, we probably do 90%+ of our hiking off leash (thus tons of well trained dog comments). This allows Cooper to set his own pace. He’s been hiking since he was 9 weeks old and has gradually increased in distance and difficulty.

As an intelligent dog he will often run ahead and lie down and wait for me to catch up.

As for feeding and watering him. I regularly take breaks to offer him food and drink. Often he just wants to get back on the trail and looks annoyed that I’ve stopped for any reason at all.

Injury wise, I also pay close attention to his gait/pace. I am prepared to carry all 36 pounds of him down the mountain if I have to. I have in the past. When we hiked Mt Tom this winter he developped ice feet. It was painful enough for him that he sat down on the trail and wouldn’t walk. I carried him down for a mile wrapped in sweaters until his feet thawed out.

And finally, clearly he loves it. Watch him as he bounces around from rock to rock. There’s a reason lots of people compared him to a mountain goat.

So to those who said nice things, thank you. To those who doubted that I had my dog’s best interest at heart, I hope you are now a believer.

Dear dog,

I know you have spent your life from 8 weeks of age on with a high quality, fancy lens, high speed shutter camera in your face.

How about an example:

So when I’m trying to take a picture of you with a low pixel, built in lens, takes forever, cell phone camera can you please keep still long enough for the picture?

Maybe we will have to try sedatives or something… Can dogs have ADD? How about ADHD?

OK, Thanks!