This Morning's Foolishness...

Two years ago, I started training for triathlons in addition to running. It was mainly a way for me to lose weight and get healthy, but somewhere along the way I really started to enjoy myself. Triathlon training isn't for the faint of heart, though, and I would often find myself sore and tired after a hard week of training. But it was a good kind of sore, one that let me know that I had worked my muscles.

In the "off-season" (every triathlete's dreaded time) we tend to go adrift without a race to focus our training. In order to prevent this, I work with a great trainer who keeps me on track. I meet with her every Wednesday and Friday morning for a strength training workout. My favorite part of the workout is the TRX. If you aren't familiar with the TRX, its is a deceptively simple nylon strap system that can kick your butt!

In my mind, I'm a much better athlete than I am in real life - I'm
faster, stronger and can accomplish acrobatic feats. That is the only
excuse I can come up with for the foolishness I found myself doing
this morning...my sleep-deprived brain couldn't separate fantasy from
reality.

My least favorite thing to do on the TRX is a plank. Your feet are suspended
in the air and your hands are on the ground while you try to hold a
plank. Its about 10 times harder than a normal plank and I find those
hard to begin with. But for some reason today, as my trainer was setting
up the TRX for me to do a plank, I said, "Hey, have you ever done a
plank with two TRXs? With your hands in one and your feet in
another?"

My trainer said, "you mean like an acrobat? No.....why, do you want to
try that??"

Me: "Yeah, I kind of do..."

So five minutes later found me straining every muscle in my body,
swinging like a trapeze artist trying to hold a plank. I managed for
about 5 seconds but my trainer managed to get a picture of it. She
ended the session with "I like this - we're going to do it more
often".

One of these days I'm going to learn to keep my mouth shut....

Busy Week!

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http://nebcrfosters.blogspot.com/

PLEASE HELP US WIN!

New England Border Collie Rescue has entered a contest sponsored by Petfinder, World's Best Pet Parent. We need your help in winning $10,000. The contest runs through Oct. 6th and you can vote once a day.

Follow the link below to vote for Kimberly competing for NEBCR:

http://www.tinyurl.com/gonebcr


You will need to set up an account with Petfinder (it is a free account), a user name and password. We are now in the final stages of the contest and less than 50 rescues remain in the competition. This gives us great odds at winning one of the top prizes! Even to remain in the top 10 we would receive $1000.

Thank you so much for helping NEBCR in this venture to win much needed funds. The economy these past years have meant fewer donations and a lot more dogs coming into rescue. $10,000 will help a lot of dogs get the care they need.

VOTING HINT:
when verifying your vote you are asked to type two words. Usually just one word gets you the vote. Ignore any words with punctuation, upside down, huge print, numbers, all caps or symbols. It is a rather annoying captcha that they are using but it keeps people from cheating. If it doesn't accept the first thing you typed in, just click on the "get 2 more words" button and try again.


NEBCR is a not-for-profit, all volunteer organization. We've been around for over 10 years and have an excellent reputation. Please help us continue to help dogs in need.

Life is so hard.....

It is a wonder I have the energy to get through the day...

Christmas Tree Hunting!

This past Saturday we went hunting Christmas trees...for those dogs that don't know what this is - it is a silly human tradition that involves bringing a tree into the house just to tell us that we can't pee on it. Seems silly but the humans enjoy it.

Dublin and I got to go with the humans to find the perfect trees. Limerick and Keely had to stay home because they aren't quite as well behaved as we are.

We got to the place and there were lots of people and even some other dogs! The Boss Lady said none of the dogs were as well-behaved as me, though. She was right - some of those dogs were lunging and growling at each other...and me! I just ignored them and spent the time soaking up the pets and snuggles from all of the humans that stopped to say how handsome I was. It is exhausting being the object of so much adoration, but I managed to get through it...

We took a hay ride way out to the back part of the tree farm and began our search. Some of the other peoples (not the Boss Lady's people, though, because they know better) were worried that Dublin and I wouldn't be able to handle the hay ride. Silly humans. We just hopped right up and settled down in a pile of hay. we were the best behaved of everyone on there!

Once we got dropped off, we started walking all over the back fields, looking for the perfect tree. I am not exactly sure what makes a tree "perfect" in the humans' eyes, because all the trees smelled pretty interesting to me. Finally, the humans choose some trees and cut them down. Then we had to haul them back to the pick up point where we loaded them and got another hay ride back to the main parking lot.

I had a lot of fun doing this, though I did start to limp a bit toward the end. The Boss Lady put me back in her van where I got to curl up on my cushy bed and pass out. She said I was snoring like a drunken sailor!


~Sir Casey GoodDog, Christmas Tree Hunter Extraordinaire

Keely is finally blogging!

Hi Everyone! I'm Keely! I've been with the Boss Lady for a few months now and I am ready to find my forever home. I've had a lot of things to learn...like how to play with other dogs and how not to eat the cats.

In my old home, I spent all day outside in a kennel run by myself, so it was a big adjustment living with 3 dogs. I've figured it out now and have even been known to try to play with Limerick! Limerick thought it was a trick at first (I was a bit...ummm, grumpy...when I first met him). But he eventually succumbed to my many charms and we had a good romp session.

I like to hang out with people in the house but outside I am all Go! Go! Go! I am super fast and can jump really high! The Boss Lady calls me her little pogo stick. Not sure what that is exactly, but she laughs when she says it so it must be a good thing. The Boss lady said I'd make a good agility dog if someone wanted to train me. 'Cause I'm super fast, like I said.

I'm also smart - I'm not bragging, the Boss Lady told me I was smart, honest. My old owners said I couldn't be trained but they just weren't doing it right. I pick up on new commands lickety-split. I'm very food motivated, so anything that gets me a treat is something I wanna learn!

I'm a tiny little thing, just 29lbs. I walk under Sir Casey GoodDog without ducking - luckily, he is usually so focused on trying to get the Boss Lady to play fetch, he doesn't even notice when I walk under him.


Hmm...I guess that's all I have to say for now!

Talk to you soon,
Keely the Brave

Finally...pictures!

Here I am the day after my surgery. I am not sure what was worse - the stupid blue cone or my scar.

Here's a close up of my scar. Looks pretty painful, huh?

I'm made tougher stuff though and I was still trying to get the humans to play fetch with me!

But for some reason the humans just shook their heads and called me Petunia.....