A girl and her dogs: Come one, come all to the Freakers' Ball

Last night I went to the university pup with Meg and Libs to hear Libby's boyfriend's band play. The pub is actually more reminiscent of a high school cafeteria but at least there's beer on tap. I was at the bar waiting in line when a guy I kind of know (I always thought he was quiet, shy guy. Wrong.) approached, inviting me to a party this weekend. He handed me a CD and a very detailed description of what said party will be. Some of it's a little too racy to repeat but here's a little snippet: "...munchies at 4:20, drinks throughout, massacre social mores, irreverently earn the disgust of the general public. We'll see you from sunset to sunrise if, and only if, you're willing to accept responsibility of the degradation of civil society."
Sounds interesting, no? Anyway, the whole exchange was mildly creepy and I abruptly ended the conversation with 'Ok, bye!' Well, I got home and played the CD and it's really great music, complete with the Phish version of Snoop's Gin and Juice. Good stuff. Listening to the cd made me almost want to go, but reading the description again, well, I chose no. 'Come to the Freakers' Ball, a celebration of....deviant behavior.'

The music is so damn good, though. Sigh. I would have to find someone daring enough to go with me.

* * *
I ran dogs with Gwen yesterday. We took two puppy teams out and threw my dogs in the mix. This was the first time for my Sneaky Pete and Parker and oh my, they were SO GOOD! My heart was bursting with pride. They didn't falter, they didn't look back, they just ran. Now, I have put them in harness and hooked them up to logs to pull down the driveway for practice, but mostly they just thought the log was chasing them and wigged out. So, I really wasn't sure how they'd do in a team of 10 dogs. I couldn't believe it. It was like they've been doing it for months. We had to stop a lot to let the pups rest, and each time I’d run over and smother Parker and Pete with hugs. I was so proud. Really, really proud. I'm taking them out again tomorrow and I can't wait. Sister and Hazel were great at usual, though Hazel was so excited to run, she beat up a large male named Bruce, who’s about twice her size, that was hooked up beside her. He had no idea what hit him. He went down like a sack of potatoes. She's feisty and that's why I love her.
Ok, I'm still listening to this CD and it's SO GOOD. I feel like I have to go the party. If people were able to find and actually like these songs, they are of my own heart.
So anyway, back to the dogs. Bully, Gus and Strider were a little insane. They were lunging and barking and fighting (with each other...nothing serious, just a lot of yelling) and scaring the crap out of the pups. Gwen would try to calm them down but they just wanted to go and couldn't understand why we had to stop so much. They alone pulled the hook (parking brake, more or less) three times. I was little embarrassed at their behaviour, but it was quite amusing. Dogs feed off the mushers' energy. When I hook my dogs up I'm always a little anxious and therefore my dogs get a little (lot) hyper when getting ready to go. Ken and Gwen's dogs, on the other hand, are very calm because Ken and Gwen are when they get a team ready.
It was a beautiful day and a lot of fun. So, now I have seven bona fide sled dogs, one old biddy (Ruffles) and the cripple (Raven). I gave the three yearlings back yesterday and though they promised to write, I'm not expecting much.

I just remembered. I’m a part-time member of the working-stiff club and have a shift at the News-Miner Saturday night. At least I got a good CD.

Peace.

Hazel screaming to go. Notice how Bruce is as far away as he can possibly get from her.

Some loose dogs came with us on the training runs. This is old Amberlin running behind. She's notorious for biting strangers in the ass.

My babies! My babies! Parker on the left and the Sneaky One on the right. Notice the tight tugs, every mushers dream. (Tugs, or tuglines, are the lines attached to the harness that the dogs pull off of. In this case, they're the green lines.)

Gwenny and I after the second run. Look behind Gwen's right shoulder, the three dogs lying down are mine: Bully, Gus and Strider. They sure do have a lot of energy at the start but fizzle out quite quickly.