A series of unfortunate events

This morning Peter and I dropped the car off for the AC to be recharged. When we swung by the house to pick up Robyn on the way to the train station, I went in for one last good-bye with the kids. And found Michael, unclad, slightly scalded, and scuttling up the stairs figleafing himself with his hands. He'd sloshed boiling hot ramen noodle soup over himself. Elizabeth, who was draped over the stair banister, had bashed her forehead on the overhanging ceiling. But Josie, bless her, wasn't adding to the fray by barking. Peter stopped in on them, shortly afterwards, helped clean up, comforted the demoralized Michael, and found a palatable breakfast for Elizabeth.

Yesterday also had its challenges though, to be fair, Puppy Kindergarten in evening was another great session. Only problem was, we missed half of it. It rained torrentially and dramatically yesterday--peals of thunder, crashing lightning, hail in places--and flooding on the parkway. We didn't know about that last bit. Besides, I'm from Houston, so an hour-long drenching rain doesn't seem like much. But it was enough to fill the river and overflow onto the parkway. So we were stuck on rush-hour filled back roads for 45 minutes and missed the early part of the class.

On the bright side, Josie barked only once in the car, upon which Elizabeth offered her a bone and she chewed it happily for the next hour. Sarah also noted that Josie is much improved this week, in fact she may have been the most improved in the class, since she sat calmly much of the time when Sarah was walking us through another technique or changing the collar on one of the students, while the other pups roamed, sniffed each others glands, or wound their leashes around their owners' legs. We learned how to get her to heel, saw the uses of a long-line leash, and heard about how to use a clicker to teach her to come. Along the way, we're having to redefine the way we talk to Josie. For example, only one word to mean one thing. To ask her to heel, we can't also say, "Let's go," "Follow," "Hep," "Come," or anything else. Just "Heel." "Come" means "Be with me and I'll give you a treat."

We were happy to see the other puppies again, too, and noted how much they'd grown, even the Lhasa-poo, Timber. There's also Nod, the fawn-colored greyhound; Jackson, the Portuguese water dog; Duke, who looks like a Bernese mountain dog, but is really a mix; and Stella, the bulldog-mix. Whoopsie is Sarah's large black lab, very calm around puppies, obsessed about catching frisbees.