Here is Magnus, in the Pacific Northwest - one of the beautiful pups from a couple years ago. Thanks, Larry, for sending it on!

Here in New Mexico I've been busy volunteering at the local No-Kill shelter 3x per week training dogs. It's exhausting but interesting to see the differences in the various breeds. They seem to have a lot of pitbull cross dogs, big and strong but not aggressive (thank god...) and then some 'reservation dogs' from the Mescalero Indian Reservations - these tend to be smallish, thick coated black dogs that look like they have coyote or shepherd backgrounds - and they tend to have a lot of interesting personality. So, as I say, I'm learning! We have an appointment to take Una in to the vet next Tuesday to be spayed; she will be 8 this year and we certainly don't have any intention of having this grandma pregnant. Her son Solo is getting in a lot of training, some VST-style tracking, obedience classes indoors and work at the local college for socialization. Trouble and Birdie should be in season this month so we do have breeding plans for them - which will mean puppies this spring! We have some deposits on the litters but are mostly asking folks to wait until they are bred before sending them to us.

Thanks to our friend Betsy for giving us a report on Stryker's new AXJ title! And to Susan for keeping us posted on Noche's progress!

A couple surprise emails today!

First:
My husband got Bigsby and brought him to Chicago ten years ago – I thought you’d like to see him now! He’s happy and healthy and the love of our lives. Thank you so very much!

And here's Lee and Sam down in Alabama! Thanks so much for sending pictures everyone! Sam looks so much like Trouble!

A picture of Noche' up in Minnesota - we're glad to hear it is warming up a little bit as it's been frighteningly cold there. Meanwhile, we're enjoying sunshine and mild temperatures here in New Mexico, taking hikes in the mountains and generally enjoying ourselves. Solo is attending obedience classes in Alamogordo on Saturdays and I continue to volunteer at the local no-kill shelter, training dogs. My son Seth called this morning to tell me that he's going to be delivering a sauna sometime in February down here in New Mexico so Yippee!! We'll get to have a teeny vacation together!

Our Juliet au Clair de Lune from Lark in April, 2009 is a lovely pet for us and the darling of our neighborhood. Here is a recent photo of her sitting on our front porch.

My husband, Chuck, and I and our two girls, Jackie and Juliet, relocated from Louisiana to Pawleys Island SC last summer. Juliet loves the beach. We picked out this location in part because the beach is pet friendly.

I read your blog from time to time. Thought you might like to see Juliet. She is a regular at our local Ace Hardware store where they have named her their mascot.

Carol Ann

A note from Gary - this is Kane from Cyrano x Ruby - and Gary's Malinois Lexi. They live in Michigan; we're delighted to hear from them and to see what a handsome fellow Kane has turned out to be!

We're enjoying more warm weather down here; the dogs all joined me on a walk yesterday in the canyon - we seem to see quite a few pinon jays and this morning a raven was torturing Jet by calling back and forth to his barking...lovely!! I began volunteering at the Animal Village of New Mexico yesterday - and, as I suspected, it is an experience to work a dozen pitbull cross dogs in one afternoon.

I have also been working on painting and repainting in the house; it looks great! And, Solo and I are continuing to work VST tracks using the Steve White hydration method. Next weekend there is a big powwow in Silver City that we're hoping to make time to attend - it's a bit of a drive with 5 dogs though so we'll see what happens there.

This morning I saw a large black spider behind one of the wall rugs - a body about the size of a blueberry!! I had a lunch out with a friend who told me that this year they had seen both a small rattlesnake and 3 tarantulas in High Rolls - atypical since at this elevation they aren't usually seen! Yikes!

We're feeling very fortunate to be in New Mexico this year; it was 66F yesterday ~ I took the dogs for a long hike in the canyon, range cattle safely at bay, the dogs running around like crazies. Solo seems to have finally put together the 3 positions for french ringsport! I was very happy to have him do the series this morning along with some jumps before we headed down here to town. There is a great balloon ascension this morning in Las Cruces, something like 75 balloons but we are missing it, instead choosing to watch the local rodeo kids work horses and calves down at the fairgrounds. It is like something out of the 'real' west which, of course, this is...even so much so that I wonder about my "Wool...it's what's for winter" bumper sticker!

Monday I start training dogs at the local (and very new) no-kill shelter. It will be a new experience for me; many of the dogs have come off the Mescalero Indian reservation and are "indian dogs" whatever they are. It'll be an experience regardless of the dogs and one I expect to learn from. I am also taking some dog obedience training classes of course and am doing VST tracking with Solo ~ great opportunity down here with no snow and all.

Just stopping by the library to check my email - Trouble's OFA hip report arrived with a rating of "Good" so that is always excellent news. All else is going well, we're getting in some long hikes in the warm sun (60F!) and generally enjoying ourselves!

Thanks to my friend Lynn for this lovely picture of Ziva - one of Una's girls, looking lovely in the Minnesota winter.

Before I forget! This year, our mailing address is:

Sunny DeYoung
General Delivery
High Rolls, Mountain Park, N.M. 88325

Amazing that I can actually upload photos you send! Here is Noche' after an extreme buzz job - she is busy with obedience and from all accounts enjoying Minnesota winter!

In the meanwhile, down here in the southwest, we spent yesterday in Capitan, N.M. (home to Smokey Bear) where Jet-the-Kelpie was neutered at Dr. Becky Washburn's clinic - Becky is somewhat of a local legend, ex-racehouse jockey, vet for the Wild Horse removal from White Sands, etc. She also is extremely affordable ($57 for the neuter included a current rabies vaccine!) At any rate, we went to art galleries in Capitan and Three Rivers, had a great lunch of chili rellenos in Carrizozo and motored out way back to the Sacramento Mountains in time to watch the sunset. We got up this morning to another 40F degree day and, unfortunately, some well problems, now hopefully sorted out. The well crew consisted of two extremely polite cowboys, "Yes ma'am, it sure doesn't look good" and a bill somewhat higher than Jet's visit to the vet. This afternoon we're doing some little errands and will head off for a hike once we're done here at the library.

Here in New Mexico we have 60F this afternoon; we are just back from a lunch of onion and cheese enchiladas and dog training and are now winding down the afternoon with some computer time at the library. Our neighbor James Cadwallader brought over a cord of wood ($90) mostly pinion which smells heavenly...he remarked (among other topics) that the elk and deer buck population was down due to the increased mountain lion population. Yikes! The dogs are all doing well and enjoying the long snow-free walks in the mountains with us.

Hello from Tucumcari, New Mexico! The first leg of our trip, Wisconsin to Des Moines was JUST NUTS! as Jim was repeatedly describing it - blowing snow, icy roads, you could hardly see the car in front of you going along I-35 much less the cars across the freeway heading north...we crept along at 35 mph for much of the trip...but finally, after Des Moines the roads cleared up - no snow but huge gusts of wind catching the van and trailer combo - all quite exciting! We got to just north of Kansas City last night and stopped for gas in Liberty, KS - it was dark, around 5 or so and we noticed that the lights were off on the trailer -- well, actually, they were off on not only the trailer but the running lights on the van were out as well. Jim checked and replaced a fuse, grinning as he jumped back into the van only to have them short out again...needless to say, we weren't driving through KC with no lights .... so we drove about a mile down the freeway to a motel (Indian run, having a party in the office, curries and all!) This morning we got up to 40F and sun - a Starbucks across the street and life was looking pretty good. Jim checked the fuse again and reseated it and the lights on the van came on. No lights on the trailer but that's okay, we'll stop at night...we drove straight through, stopping near Pratt KS for a mile walk with the dogs (all 5 of them have been great travelers!) and then again in Liberal where we went to "Super Pollo" for outdoor bbq chicken (very good!) and now are in Tucumcari. It was 55F in Liberal where we ate outdoors, the sun shining, the smoke drifting skyward and all seemed right in the world. We have been listening to public radio some of the time, this afternoon we ran across "The Thomas Jefferson Hour" - amazing!!! It is a weekly program out of North Dakota of all places, which has 2 actors, one being President Jefferson - the other the interviewer - and they discuss topics current and historic. It was wonderful. We are seeing lots of hawks of course and waterfowl, some cold looking meadowlarks and a couple mule deer near the roadside; Jim saw a coyote run across the road but I missed that one. We're having good conversations and are enjoying spending time together...tomorrow we'll be in High Rolls!!