Hi all and welcome to Fall!

It's hard to believe it's almost October. Here in Maine we're already seeing highs climbing up only to the 60's most days and dipping down into the 40's at night. The trees are beginning their annual show of fall color, with the greens quickly morphing into reds, yellows and golds -- a mixture of colors like the crayons in a child's crayon box.

This is the time of year we see how long we can wait until we turn the furnace back on, trying to eek out every day possible until finally the house just gets too cold and we break down and turn it on for the winter season.

In our house we delay that day as long as possible, because once we move the furnace control from OFF to ON, the thermostats take over and the furnace is seldom off for long until sometime in June. Those 300-500 heating bills from January to March can be painful. It was such a short summer this year, I'm not sure many of us are ready yet for another long Maine winter.

Our Husky mix, Samantha, might disagree with that. She loves the snow and is often found curled up on a snowbank on our deck in the winter,and she moves to wherever the snow is left in the spring. We haven't seen Barney in the winter yet so that will be another new experience with him. But given how much he pants in the house and his love of sleeping outside at night when it's 40-50 degrees, I'm guessing he likes winter too. We'll find out soon!

In other news, my latest community volunteer projects are related to preserving open space and the right to share public spaces with our canine family members. Read on for more below if you like.

Share Willard Beach!

The sharing of public spaces in this case is specifically related to our local beach and parks. I'm a member of South Portland Dog Owner's Group (www.sopodog.com/) and we're trying to round up support in the community to promote a "Share Willard Beach" campaign (http://www.sharewillardbeach.org/).

The purpose of this campaign is to raise awareness about a move to ban dogs completely from our neighborhood beach during certain months and remove off-leash privileges altogether. The move to ban dogs was begun by a small group of beach front property owners who have recently moved to the area and now want to close the beach to dogs completely in the summer and with limited hours in the winter when the beach is practically empty. This move may also expand to include other parks as well.

Willard Beach and many of our local parks have been open to everyone (including dogs) for as long as people have lived here. Many residents get to know their neighbors via the daily beach walk with their dog(s). I encourage all SP residents to get out and vote on November 3 and vote NO on the dog ban! And if you're not a resident but care about sharing our public spaces then please visit the SoPoDog website noted above for more information and to contribute to the cause if you can. SoPoDog also conducts monthly beach clean-ups to remove human trash and provides volunteers for other community events.

South Portland Land Trust:

Preserving open space for hiking & biking trails

The other group I've recently become a member of is the South Portland Land Trust, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the conservation of open space. The is working toward the ambitious goal of expanding the area's current network of trails throughout South Portland and connecting them, along with connecting to trails in other cities around Maine (http://www.splandtrust.com/).

The photos shown here are from a recent Volunteer Day held to finish building a trail that connects our local mall area to another trail in this commercial section of town called Clarks Pond.

This was very much a family event, and I thought it was great to see so many teenagers and small kids participating. It's so cool to see community service instilled in kids at such a young age -- teaching kids to be good citizens and give back to our world instead of just taking up space in it. After all, this next generation is our next generate of stewards for our environment; and what better way to instill that privilege and the responsibility that comes with it than by leading by example in our generation. I see many families with kids as young as 3 or 4 participating in all kinds of volunteer activities where you don't just write a check or attend a party, but really get your hands dirty. Wicked cool!

The greater Portland area already has many trails throughout the region, and the ultimate goal is to link all these trails together allowing hikers and bikers to travel from one area to another in a safer off-road environment. Since many kids here either walk or ride their bikes to school and other areas (as do many adults), this is especially important in to the many active residents of the region.

If you're interested in more information or would like to see more photos please visit the SPLT link noted above. I've also posted these and additional photos on my facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=105644&id=598089573&saved#/album.php?aid=105644&id=598089573) if you have a FB account.

If you don't have a FB account then visit the travel blog at: http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ctssyount/4/1253383434/tpod.html.

As always, may you celebrate every day with lots of love, laughter, and the happiness that comes from sharing in good works with those you love.

Hugs from our pack here in Maine, Carla

Adventures of Sammie and Barney

Hi all,


In my last installment I introduced our newest family member, Barney, a Bernese mountain dog and border collie mix that we adopted from a rescue a couple of weeks ago. This post is an update on his "assimilation" into our home. Resistance is futile you know!

Chewing a bone in our entry way
Barneyboy (one of his nicknames) is an amazingly energetic 14 -- he's very active for a senior dog of his size at 55 pounds. So far he's been to the beach and several parks, and it's fun to watch him explore new places with Sammie. His little legs may be shorter than hers but it's awesome how fast they can move when he's motivated.

Perhaps you've noticed their names change as I write. Tim and I have always been prone to using nicknames for our dogs (and each other), so they have lots of names in our house. For example Samantha is AKA Sammie, Sam, Samurai and I often call her Miss Muffit when she's being especially precocious. Barney is already Barneyboy, Big Guy (of course), Barn for short when we're in a hurry, and I sometimes call him Barnbarn too just for fun.

Sammie on the prowl

We don't really know if he actually hears any of these very well, because like Kennedy, he seems to be mostly deaf. So we'll be teaching him some of the same hand signals we used with Kennedy. I assume he can't hear but speak to him anyway, and combine it with the hand signals when he's looking my way: a big exaggerated move with the arm up and toward my face to say "come", patting my chest and smiling to say "good boy", and of course the standard flat palm in a stop position for "stay", and pushing the palm toward the floor for "down." It's amazing how fast they learn and how instinctual they are.

I often wonder if the human race wasn't better off before we became so "civilized" that many of our natural instincts and what connected us to nature simply became "conditioned" out of us. In the end, did we gain more than we lost, or lose more than we gained? Sometimes I'm not so sure. But I digress....(imagine that! :>)

Cruise ship arrives in Portland harbor as we chat with visitors and their dogs on Willard Beach

Anyway, Barney is adjusting very well into our home. He is learning our house rules quickly, and we are learning his signals and what they mean. We're all giving and getting a little bit to reach a happy middle ground that works for everyone in the house.

This big red kong is Barn's favorite toy

One of the biggest surprises we've gotten is that he appears to be an outdoor dog. He comes in during the daytime but soon after dark he asks to go outside, and next thing you know he's curled up in a corner somewhere sound asleep. The first few nights he wanted to go out but we'd eventually roust him back in before we went to bed. He'd try to sleep there for a while but sooner or later he'd wake up and want to go out again.

Finally one night I decided to put him out and go back to bed since I was pretty sure I'd hear him if he barked when he wanted to come in like he usually does. He stayed out there all night and each time I checked on him from our upstairs window, he was sound alseep looking very content.

Since then he's slept outside every night. His favorite spot is what we call "Sandy's Garden." That's a shady spot at the corner of the fence where our first boy dog, Sandy, liked to snooze on those hot days. After he died of prostate cancer a few years ago we planted some flowers some friends gave us in honor of him and ever since then it's been his garden.

It's interesting that neither Samantha or Jazzie showed any interest in laying there, but all our male dogs: Sandy, Kennedy and now Barney, seem to gravitate to that spot. I don't understand it but I think it's really cool.

Scouring the rocks with a little friend named Daniel

Barneyand Sam appear to be figuring out their places with each other. We've seen Sam growl and tell him what-for a few times if he gets on her nerves or invades her personal space too much. During the first week she snarled at him a few times but Barney was a good sport and quickly backed off and didn't seem at all daunted by the experience.

In recent years I've learned a lot from watching my friends with small children and how they teach them to relate to each other and work things out between themselves without always running to Mom and Dad to solve things for them. This seems like wise parenting to me, because if we haven't at least begun to learn to negotiate and compromise by the time we're five, it's unlikely that we'll be able to do it any better when we're 50. As they say, it's a process, and the earlier we start that process, the easier it will be and the better we are likely to be at it later.

In many ways dogs are very much like pre-school children that simply never get any older -- like young children they are very instinctual, very bright, and they understand WAY more than we "adults" think they do. We "humans" sometimes make similar mistakes with dogs, and mistakenly believe they can't learn or do certain things.

From my experience, the more faith I have in them to learn something, the more success they have in doing it. Whether I'm talking about children, dogs, or even adults, that axiom seems to apply. Hmmmm....maybe if I use that as a mantra, it will work for me too when I'm learning something new. I think I can....I think I can....

Barney snoozing in Sandy's garden. Notice the left ear laying in his water bowl?

Since Tim and I don't have "two legged" children of our own, it's been fascinating to me in recent years to watch many of our friends with their kids when the second one comes along and they start to fight over things. It's so cool to watch how quickly a child's whine at a parent can disappear when that parent reminds them to "use their words" and work it out together. Mom and Dad are there to oversee that the words are used nicely, not to solve their problems for them.

What a great concept, teach by example and then trust the kids to figure some things out for themselves by doing it themselves. I love it!

Tim is having to jog to keep up!

We use the same "use your words" rule in our house when we have a new dog(s) entering our "pack." They seem to do better in the long run if I also let them work out their scuffles on their own -- as long as its only vocal and there is no biting or blood involved. Or unless the growling goes on too long or things seem to be escalating.

Here's a better shot of the ear in the bowl.
He went to sleep this way and doesn't seem to notice or care.

Since Barney arrived, he's been testing his boundaries with Samantha (and us) to see what he can get away with of course (again, like most children). So far I've only intervened once when I thought Sam snarled at him when he accidentally stumbled into her -- that time her response seemed unnecessary. Other than those few expected "tests" of their boundaries with each other, they are getting along amazingly well.

I've always been a proponent of consistency -- if it's not okay then it's ALWAYS not okay, and vice versa -- that way there is no confusion about when it's okay and when it isn't. Perhaps with children they eventually learn what "later" or "not this time" means, but so far I haven't had much luck getting my dogs to understand that "later" context. If I say, "walk" or "treat" or "no" -- that seems to imply to them "now".

Although Samantha is still adjusting to Barney sort of invading her territory, it seems Barney has completely adopted her already. He follows Samantha around and always wants to know exactly where she is, and lately I've seen Sam looking for him too in that subtle way she has, so the buddiness seems to go both ways. Sam always tries to look so aloof and nonchalant about things, but if you watch her long enough you can see how she looks to see where he's going and always seems to know where Barney is and what he's doing.

It's so cool to watch the dynamics change as they get to know each other better. For example, now Barney always marks Samantha's spots now, which is new after about a week.

And just the other day Tim and I had gone out for a few hours and when we returned home and walked onto the deck we could see Sammie looking at us through the rear window, but she didn't make a sound. Now this was very unusual because typically as soon as she sees us she begins her "welcome home" howls which can be rather......well, loud. But this time all she did was stand there quietly and then come outside as we opened the door. Still no howls. Hmmmm. What's up with that? This is strange.

Willard Beach on a weekend morning

As she heads out into the yard we went inside looking for Barney and we find him sound asleep in the den --- in Sammie's bed. Apparently she knew he was asleep and didn't want to wake him up with her usual howling of our arrival. And she didn't seem bothered at all that he was sleeping in her bed. As they say, it was priceless!

Barney is also picking up some of Sam's mannerisms. He has learned her "down dog" move, and it appears she's been teaching him to howl too. The other day Tim was the first one home and as he approached the deck from our driveway Samantha began howling as usual, only this time Barney joined in. Aaooooo!! Tim thought it was very funny until it seemed Barney didn't want to stop -- even after Tim had gotten into the house -- Barney was still howling away. Sam just stood there looking at him like, "what are you doing?" It seemed like he'd found a new cool skill he didn't know he had, and he was saying "look what I can do!"

The morning beach walk with the dog is also a great time for meeting and chatting with friends and neighbors. Sort of social time for dogs and people too!

Today was Barney's first off-leash outing, as we all made our weekend morning constitutional to our local beach. Barney did extremely well for the first time -- so well in fact that it seems likely he's been off-leash before. He trots ahead happily but looks back often to see where we are and checks for cues on direction.

There is something about dogs and beaches -- somehow they just seem to go together. But then, what's not to like? Soft sand under the feet, easier on the body than pavement, water to play in, rocks to sniff (my personal favorite), and lots of people and other dogs to visit along the way.

These latest pictures were taken today during our morning walk on Willard Beach. During the summer dogs are allowed on the beach from 7-9am and 7-9pm. As you can see it's a very popular time for local residents to walk their dogs, and it's also a great social time where we get to visit with neighbors we might not see otherwise.

There are so many of us that know each other only from the beach with our dogs, when we meet on the street or somewhere without our dogs we may not both recognize the other. Then when someone says, "I have the golden" or whatever, the light bulb goes on and the connection is made. It's true what they say about dogs bringing people together.

After an hour or so on the beach we wound through the neighborhood toward home. Our beach day formula is beach, rinse, dry and rest. That means after the dogs go to the beach they know that is followed by a fresh water rinse (for us too) to keep sand out of the house, toweling them dry and then we all chill out on the deck for a while. I love summer in Maine.
As you can see from the photos, Barney wasn't too sure about the rinse part. He must have had some bad experiences somewhere along the way because he was originally pretty afraid of people, but he's coming along very quickly now. I've worked with him a lot and now he'll let me give him a bath (albeit with some howling now and then), brush him, and sometimes I can even use my hands to open his mouth if I need to look at his teeth or give him meds. He never bites, but he has this howl and bark when he pulls away that can be kind of scary if you don't know him.

But any dog we bring into our house quickly learns that I'm patient, but very persistent. That seems to have worked pretty well for me so it's a strategy I stick with, while learning more and more from each dog we have.

As lead dog, Sam shows Barney how it's done

Like most people who know me, my dogs soon learn that I'm not really one who's prone to give up -- at least not easily. Sometimes I think I'm turning into a dog. I seem to think like them, respond the way they do sometimes, move my leg back and forth when you scratch my belly....well okay, maybe not that last one.....but then again........ :>)

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend and great week ahead.

Cheers, from Carla, Tim, Sammie and Barneyboy

Whee! We're free! We're free!

New canine family member: Barney!

Greetings one and all.


September has already arrived, but here in Maine we are just now really starting to experience summer weather. It appears this will be a short summer.



September is actually my favorite month of the year in Maine: crowds are gone so we get the state back to ourselves, weather is in my sweet spot (70's daytime, 40's-50's at night), and still lots of daylight hours. Sweet.

This September is especially sweet for us because we just added another canine member to our family.

His name is Barney and we adopted him yesterday from a wonderful organization called Dogs Deserve Better, a non-profit organization dedicated to freeing chained dogs and bringing these "best friends" into the home and family (DogsDeserveBetter.com).

Barney was turned into the rescue by a family member who was concerned for his safety (for more information on Barney please see: http://www.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?petid=14482090). He was soon moved to a foster home with a very caring foster mom and had lots of other canine friends to play with.

Barney is a mix between a Bernese Mountain Dog and a Border Collie. From my perspective he is about the height of the Border Collie but has the overall shape of the Bernese Mountain Dog, which I gather were farm dogs which hailed from the mountains near Switzerland and Germany.

He's had a few injuries lately to his head and ears as you can see by

the photos. He has stitches in both ears with one ear literally sewn back on, but he's recovering well and no permanent effects are anticipated.

We have a visit scheduled with our regular vet this week to check his stitches and give him that initial baseline exam. He's such a trooper that if you didn't see the injury you would never know there was anything wrong -- it hasn't seemed to slow him down at all.

He has a very sweet nature and a sense of curiosity that I just love. At the foster home he followed Samantha around as soon as he met her -- it was really cute. At home they act like old companions and seem very comfortable with each other already.

We're unsure of Barney's age. Estimates have ranged from 10+ to 14. I've been doing some research and apparently the best way to guess at a dog's age is by looking at their teeth. The more plaque and brownish the teeth and gums, typically the older the dog. Given his teeth seem to be in relatively good condition, I'm guessing around 12, so we're calling his age 12 + or - 2!

Considering he's been with us for only 24 hours, he has adapted amazingly fast. Last night he wasn't sure about the stairs, so Tim and I ran shifts sleeping downstairs to keep him company until he got used to his new surroundings.

He paced a bit during the night and again this morning after getting up, but he also slept well the rest of the time and even seemed to be dreaming (that tell-tale sign of the little feet moving back and forth). That seemed a good sign that he was already feeling safe and at home.

Today we pretty much went about our normal routine. I took he and Sam for a walk this morning and then we spent the rest of the day working around the house. Tim was painting the outside trim of our house near the deck so the dogs could lay out there with him. I was inside part of the day so Barney went from one place to the other and figured out the stairs to the second floor pretty quickly.

At one point today he wanted to come inside, so Tim let Barney in and then went back outside to continue painting. I was upstairs and didn't even realize Barney was in the house because he didn't make a sound. Later we found him snoozing in his downstairs bed next to his new stuffed toy. What a trooper!

Now he climbs the stairs on his own when he wants to find one of us. As I write this from our bedroom, Tim has taken Samantha for a run on the beach before dark and Barneyboy (one of his nicknames) is sleeping at my feet on the throw rug right next to the bed. Only one day and already he fits right in with our pack and seems right at home there!

Dogs are so cool.

Cheers, cy