Have I told you that I am neurotic? Yeah, I am. And Rippa's first snow.

Yishai and I took Rippa and Fury to the Sierra this weekend and went on a mondo epic hike. Rippa, as it turns out, love love loves the snow (good thing, since our huge hike in the mountains was about 50-70% snowed in). If she has a choice of snow versus dirt -- snow every time.

Rippa on her perch - bad angles!

Fury and Rippa's first snow:

What?

So coooool:

Yay!

Here I am, trying to go up this super steep snow field, and the danged dogs are running up and glissading down like it's no big thing:

Yes, still trying:

At least one of them is tired:

Daca's still in Santa Cruz. Yishai called her charges for me while we were driving home (I was at the wheel and it's illegal to be on the phone unless handsfree) and it's not all roses and sunshine over there (not that I expected it), but they have a breeder they trust (Shelly Hollen - Shalako Aussies) who is who referred them to me and they've been consulting with her in our absence about what to do. I am "friends" with them Facebook and they have posted some photos and even a video of Daca in her trial home. They like to update their Facebook status about how she's doing. Sometimes good, sometimes bad. The one thing I know is that that is a family full of love and capability - they are too cool. I hope this is the right thing for everyone involved.

I do feel really awful about giving them her. In my mind, I want to dole out perfect, problem free puppies that will be all that everyone wants them to be. I talked about this with Yishai on the drive up to meet them - and he's right. My sense of responsibility is sometimes cloudy, I always feel like I need to carry everything and I am the only one that can do it - it is better for Daca to go to someone that has the time and energy to put into her training, to get her away from Rippa and the constant fighting, and, after all, spread the love.  I sit here fairly powerless to intercede and I am trying not to . . . I keep looking for the right word, but the only one I can find is "hover." I don't know if family life is best suited for Daca's temperament, but I'm very sensitive to these things and I have to trust the other folks involved to make that call, also. They did wonders for their current dog, from what they and Shelly tell me.

In the mean time,  a couple more homes popped up, but the one that's made me feel the most uncertain about what I'm doing is the Missouri stock home. I don't really want to say much here because blogging about yourself is quite different than blogging about your personal interactions, but suffice it to say - this woman wants this puppy. I have reservations about her, just as I do others, but she is quite persistent in letting me know how disappointed she is that I gave her to the family on a trial basis. Like, every day, multiple times a day.

And if you really want to get me, what she's doing is a good way to do it - I tend to feel guilty pretty easily, and second guess myself a lot. But the fact is, no matter what I bred the puppies for or what my dreams for them were, the reality is that for me, the bottom line is puppy/owner happiness forever. I got another email that says that the woman LOVES the kind of personality that I feel like I am "inflicting" on Daca's try-out family and it's like, dang, how do you decide?

They said that they're planning on taking her to positive classes that are specifically for fear aggressive dogs (something like that . . .) rather than just obedience (which is good, and I like that I didn't have to prompt them to, they are not dealing with the kind of dog you can take to puppy class and be all good with - some of the puppies in the litter, yes, but others need a different kind of handling, and I'm glad they recognized it and want to learn how to work with it), and that they have plans to do agility with her when they help get her over her hurdles with some TLC. This is one really great thing - I don't have any resource like that around here for her - we just took her to the dog park and out in public, but nothing structured.

They take nice photos of her, too!

I hope for everyone's sake that Daca figures out how to live in Santa Cruz happily. I think she just may, too. As one of her maybe-owner said on Facebook after their first dog and she got in a fight: "Sorry Daca, not getting out that easy. Welcome to the island of misfit toys. We're gonna love the fear right out of you......"


PS, isn't this photo of Yishai and Daca that they took flipping ADORABLE?