THE OTHER END OF THE LEASH

As many of you know, we asked for photographs of dogs to grace the cover of our new booklet on welcoming an adopted dog into your home. Karen London and I are working hard on the text right now (too short?! no, too long!? rinse and repeat . . . ) but I can tell you that the official title is Love Has No Age Limit and after looking at over 700 photographs (wow!) we have settled on the photograph you see below.

So here he is: A dog named Theo, who like many of the dogs whose photos were submitted, came with an amazing story. He was found running loose along a highway in New Jersey, and sat in a shelter for 3 months before Kimberly Wang of Eardog Productions in New York found his picture on Petfinder. Kimberly spent three hours with him at the shelter, and was entranced by his eagerness to learn and his “natural tendency to make sustained, relaxed eye contact,” in spite of being an untrained, goofy adolescent. She brought him home and now he is an accomplished photo model, a Licensed Service and Therapy dog, and a friend to all he meets.  I love that he is named after Theo Van Gogh, the painter’s brother who devoted his life to supporting others, just as Theo the dog is doing today.

But, wait, there’s more . . . So many great photographs came in that we are going to use lots more of them by putting another photo on the back cover and starting every section with a picture. We’re also going to put a selection of photos, and the stories that came with them, on a page on the website, once we get then selected and approved by their owners. That’ll take us a few weeks perhaps, but stayed tuned, we’ll let you know as soon as it’s up.

Here’s Theo:

MEANWHILE, back on the farm: Triplets! Rosebud had the first lambs of the spring, 3 little ewe lambs who are terminally cute. (Check out their photo on Facebook!) More than that, bless them for having full bellies when I discovered them in the morning. I had said that I hoped Rosebud would continue her history of having healthy lambs all by herself, producing just the right quantities of creamy, colostrum-rich milk and being an attentive mom to two healthy lambs.  She did all that but went one better, by having triplets. I shouldn’t be surprised, she had triplets last year too. What a girl.  Next up is Spot (due today, but this line seems to be later than the woolly breeds by 2-4 days, Rosebud was actually due last Friday) and then the noble Dorothy and the piggy ewe, Brittany, who are both due on Saturday.)

Willie is thrilled to be off leash right now, although still no playing outside and no herding. The herding restriction is hard for both of us; it’s great weather, the ground is dry and it would be good for the sheep to move around. We’ll just have to be patient, surgery is scheduled for May 14th. I’d do it sooner but Jim’s family comes first. Willie’s is doing his exercises 3 times a day (with a few exceptions during family crisis days) and he is getting visibly stronger on both shoulders. We’ll post a video of his exercises as soon as we can get them.

Lastly, thank you to everyone who sent best wishes to my family. Jim’s sister is finally back in her own home, under hospice care. We are also incredibly lucky to have a family member who is a nurse, and she is there pretty much 24/7. Jim and I will go up to visit as often as we can. One day at a time . . . a good reminder to all of  us to live one day, one minute, one moment at a time.

See the dog, not the story. This is a quote from one of your colleagues, a blog reader who sent this in as a comment about dogs in rescue. (And who I should credit, but because I’m in a time crisis, I can’t right now, but THANKS! and I will find your name when I can get more time.). I was reminded of the value of that saying by Kathy Sdao at Clicker Expo last weekend. She did a presentation on being a truly good observer of your dog, something we all know the value of, but she made it special for me by suggesting that we toss away our ‘stories’ about our dogs, and work with who we have. I truly took that to heart. I have a story about Willie, about how he was such a mess when he was young, about how he had projectile diarrhea and was pathologically afraid of other dogs and so sound sensitive I couldn’t socialize him, etc etc etc. There’s value in knowing that history, and in acknowledging how far we have come together.

But there is also value in being able to let it go, to look at who is standing or sitting right in front of you, right now. Not the dog as a container of all he or she has been, but simply who he or she is now.  I’ve been doing that with Willie these last few days, and I can’t report any clear and obvious change in our relationship, but it does feel like there is a subtle shift in my perception of him. It’s almost as though I feel a little bit lighter, in some vague, hard to describe kind of way. I think I have to mull on this a few more days to be able to articulate what I’m feeling.

And so, as I so often do, I’m reaching out to you to ask what you think of this, what “looking at the dog, not the story” might do for you. I’ll be off line quite a bit in the next 4 days, spending time with family during a difficult time, but will check when I can, and am extremely interested in what you have to say. I suspect many readers will be interested as well . . .

MEANWHILE, back on the farm: Scrambled all last night to find a house sitter so that Jim and I could leave town. I have 5 possibles on a list and all five are out of town. What are the odds? But at the last minute I found a wonderful couple to sit, and I’m simplifying things for them by bringing Willie with us. He’ll spend a lot of time in the crate in the car, no way around it. Last I checked most hospitals aren’t going to welcome him into their ICU. Another dear friend will check on Rosebud. She is the ewe due to lamb on Friday, that is if Rosebud has read the chapters on when she should deliver.

Here’s a photo, that I snapped in New York with one of those throw away cameras (having forgotten my own) on the edge of Central Park. [And here was a fun surprise: I knew lots of people in NY had dogs, but dogs were EVERYWHERE!]. But here’s a shot of one of the horse drawn carts, during a quiet moment on a sunny day.

Here’s one of the great lessons Ken Ramirez had for us at the Clicker Expo in Chicago last weekend: The basics aren’t really all that basic after all. In his experience, one of the most common mistakes he sees in even experienced trainers is forgetting the importance of some of the basics. Here are some of the reminders he shared, and believe me, I am taking them all to heart.

Precision: Yes, we all know it, timing is everything, but no matter how obvious it is, it is often forgotten. This is relevant whether you are using a marker (like a clicker or ‘yes’) or not, often because we don’t do the following:

Clean Delivery: Ken reminded us that dropping the treat on the ground or fumbling the delivery can be very aversive to our dogs. Say we are on a roll, clicking and treating at a good pace, and then we drop the treat on the ground. The dog has to sniff around and find it, and that might not be so much fun for him. At worst he may feel frustrated, and at best he has completely forgotten what he got the treat for by the time he found it. Not a crisis, of course, but a little bit of frustration can have a lot of effect. Ken reminds us to practice delivery WITHOUT our dogs around (supporting my belief that dog training is a science, a sport and an art.)

Where Reinforce? Are you thoughtful where you reinforce your dog? Do you do it where the behavior occurs (say your dog lies down, so you move the treat down to her on the ground) or, in a location set up for the next repetition. There is no right answer, it depends completely on what you are doing, what’s important is to be thoughtful about your goal and consciously choose where to reinforce your dog rather than doing it randomly.

Stationing: If working with two or more dogs, also be thoughtful about who is stationed where. You can avoid a lot of trouble between dogs if you always set them up to work with one on left, other on right for example. Or take a trick from prof’l performance trainers, and teach each dog to go to a station to work. That avoids the potential of competition or veiled threats from one dog to the other.

Fairness: If working multiple dogs, you must recognize how each animal perceives the session. Is each getting her fair share? What if you have two dogs sitting looking at you, and you ask one to lie down. Who do you reinforce? Just the one who lay down? But the other also did what you ask (stayed in place), why not reinforce him too?

These are just a few of things I pondered on the way home, and that made me glad I was able to catch some of the talks at Clicker Expo in between my own. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this… what are the basics that you think you’d be wise to review?

Such great food for thought. If we could all just live on Ken’s shoulder for a week we’d all be better trainers, I’m sure of it. Check out his website, he really is a great resource. I’m even more excited than ever now about him coming to Madison this October.

MEANWHILE, back on the farm: Here’s the good news — we know what’s wrong with Willie’s shoulder. Besides an inflamed bicepital tendon, his has a bone chip floating around in his shoulder, probably from an earlier injury when part of the tendon was torn and pulled a piece of the bone away. Here’s the bad news — he will need surgery, but I’ve put it off until May because this time of year is the worst possible time imaginable for me to have a dog recovering from surgery, and Dr. Susan Schafer at UW  (who is just as wonderful as everyone told me she is), said the surgery wasn’t urgent in any way. The timing is especially relevant because we got some painfully bad news the morning we arrived home. Jim’s sister has been in a valiant battle with Stage 4 Ovarian cancer and it looked a few weeks ago like she might come out the victor.  But things changed fast while we were gone, and she’s not doing well at all. Jim will be up with her as much as he can in the weeks to come, as will I, although I’ll have to stay home more because of lambing, teaching, etc.

So May it is for Willie’s surgery. Dr. Schafer will take out the bone chip, sever the tendon, drill a hole in the bone and screw the tendon back into place. (She has gone back to this method, as have several other experts, after finding that truly athletic dogs don’t do as well with a simple severing, which is commonly done now.) This is the same exact surgery that Jim had about the same exact time last year. Good grief. That means all trialing is out for this year, we won’t really be able to work sheep until August or September. But it does mean he can be off leash a bit, no herding or hard play, but at least some freedom after five weeks of no fun at all.

Here’s Mr. Will, with his shaved shoulders, a mohawk down his chest and still slightly sedated goofy look. This morning I got to take his leash off! Ahhhhhhhhhhhh.

Many of you have seen the video below, but for those of you who haven’t, here is a reminder that it is not just the people of Japan who are suffering. I don’t want to break your hearts, and don’t pretend that this is easy to watch, but I hope it does inspire some to do what they can to contribute to aid and rescue efforts in this horrific disaster.

Even as Jim and I have been in New York City, and now Chicago, enjoying, almost guiltily, the stimulation and ridiculously easy access to amazing food, I have been obsessed with information about the disaster in Japan, and can’t seem to tear myself away from the news channels. There is so much to think about here, but one of the things, related to this blog, that comes to mind is the progression of reporting, in disasters like this, from a focus on people and their suffering to including that of non-human animals. It makes all the sense in the world to focus first on people–I do the same myself and can’t  imagine it any other way. But I have to admit, that as soon as we heard about the earthquake and tsunami, I thought oh god, how many thousands, tens of thousands (millions?) of animals died, and how many are left now and are suffering?

I remember watching the news about Katrina, and wondering when the first story about the suffering of non-humans would show up. If I remember right, it was somewhere around day three. So far, the only report I’ve seen about animals in Japan is the now famous video below, but I am sure that’s not all that is out there, and I suspect that the nuclear crisis, which has us all on pins and needles, is dominating the news. Somewhere here there is an interesting issue about our devotion to and relation to all living things around us, but right now, all I want to do is hope and pray, send what help I can and keep the people and animals of Japan in my heart every moment.

I can’t write much now (no internet where I’m staying right now in Chicago), but here are some sources for donations if you are able in any way to help. I have read that donations are relatively low compared to other disasters, perhaps because people see the Japanese as so self-sufficient, but I can tell you that without a doubt this disaster is beyond the means of any one country. If you can contribute, I hope you would consider giving donations for both the people and non-human animals of Japan. Here’s a good source for animals, with 6 different sites listed:

Six ways to help animals in Japan.

And for people you could consider: Mercy  Corps,  Save the Children or the Red Cross Japan.

And here’s a link to the video, get out your hanky. It’s on Steve Dale’s blog, a good one to check out.

Dogs in Japan

[One additional note: As a scientist, I have to say there are several explanations of why the healthy dog is staying with the injured one, but I'm leaving that for a later discussion. Here's the good news: the dogs were rescued. Here's hoping their humans are alive and well, and that they are re-united or find a new, good home.]

As many of you know, Karen London and I are writing a booklet for people who have adopted an adolescent or adult dog. We’re hoping it will be useful not just for individuals, but also for shelters and rescue groups, and ultimately for the dogs themselves. Right now our first draft is out to readers, looking for feedback about how to make it as good as it can be, and we’re working on the cover.

That’s where you come in. We’ve been looking at commercial photographs, trying to find just the right one, and so far nothing has struck us as THE picture. And then I thought of you  . . .I know that many of the blog’s readers have dogs they’ve adopted as adolescents or adults, and how cool would it be if we could put one of YOUR dogs on the cover? So here’s the deal:

If you think you have a cover-worthy photo of a dog you adopted, send it to photos@patriciamcconnell.com, paying careful attention to the following criteria: Because the photo is for print, it needs to be higher quality than something that you can send over the internet or your cell phone. The photos need to be at least 300 dpi (dots per inch).  (I first typed ‘dogs per inch,’ apparently if my fingers start with ‘d-o-’ they can’t stop adding a ‘g’). The size should be no smaller than 1500 by 2100 pixels (that’s a 5″ x 7″ equivalent in print photos). The images should be in .jpg or .tif files.  Please, absolutely only 3 photos from any one person of any one dog. Of course, if we select your photo, you’ll have to sign a release for us to be able to use it and please, don’t send any photos that you do not have the rights to (basically, best if you’ve taken them yourself or a good friend took). Please send any photos by Sunday, March 20th.

What are we looking for? Well, our first vision was of a dog’s head, looking straight at the camera. I suspect that might be the best photo for the booklet cover, but if you have a photo that is different, maybe a full shot of your dog, or something special with you and your dog, go ahead and send it. Warning: Any formal kind of picture of a person posing with a dog–the kind in which person and dog sit shoulder to shoulder looking at the camera is NOT what we are looking for, so don’t bother sending one like that.

MEANWHILE, back on the farm: Well, I’m not there, I’m in New York City, talking to literary agents and editors about a new book. I thought I’d be thrilled to leave, and to get a break from all the restrictions on Willie, but it turned out to be ridiculously hard to go. Willie, Jim and I have all adapted (the 3 week rule strikes again) and although Willie’s life is boring and ours is stressful trying to keep him from using his shoulder, we’ve all gotten used to our new life. He does his exercises 3 x a day, and of course that is now part of his fun (although standing on 3 legs, one of his exercises, clearly bothers him so we only do 7 reps instead of 10). He’s given up trying to play with his toys (breaks my heart to write that) and we’ve all adapted to a new routine. But oh, it was hard to go; I’ve been micro-managing his life now for a month, and it’s hard to let go. Must be like having kids! But my house sitter is amazing, she’ll be fantastic I  know and Katie from the office is also being a huge help, going over every day and letting him out to potty during the day. So he’s in great hands, I know. But, still. You know . . .

We are enjoying New York though, and it’ll get even better soon. Meeting with my literary agent for lunch, going to Peter Luger’s for dinner with some great friends we met on the last African safari, going to a Broadway play tomorrow (only been once, and never with Jim,  can’t wait) and getting to visit with Leslie Meredith, the amazing editor of The Other End of the Leash. She taught me so much about writing, is a total dog lover (she has Corgis) and an all around delightful person. It’ll be great fun to catch up with her.  We ate the best pizza I’ve ever had last night (sorry Chicago, you totally lose the pizza wars!). All this is damped down by the heartbreaking news from Japan; I am holding everyone there in my heart and don’t go a minute without hoping for some good news. (And of course, that’s not enough, we’ll donate what we can, as we did for the NZ earthquake.)

Here are some photos of mine, just some images that might get you thinking about the photo you’d like to send in!

I’ll grant this is as much for me as it is for you all, but I imagine I’m not the only one who could use a good laugh around now. You may have seen this already, and you may have mixed feelings about putting animals in the place of humans . . . but, oh, oh, did I laugh at this video!

Anyone know much about it? Meanwhile, enjoy! (I tried to upload the video itself, but the file is too big, so I’m stuck with just providing a link… (although on preview the video played directly, hope you can see it!)

It does bring up an interesting issue which we’ve been discussing in my UW class: that of putting animals in the place of humans for the sake of humor (or making ourselves feel superior?). I’m normally not a fan of such practices, it just doesn’t make me laugh at best, and sometimes it is offensive (sunglasses on Orca whales for example), but the video above had me in stitches.

MEANWHILE, back on the farm. We had a typical March snow a few days ago, the kind I always enjoy because they are so pretty and melt fast. The weather has warmed up a lot since then, and it’s beginning to seem possible that there really might be such a thing as spring. Hard to imagine right now.

Willie is beginning week 4 of life in the crate or on a leash. I won’t belabor it, but it’s no fun for anyone. Hardest on me and Jim, besides feeling heart sick that we can’t explain to him why his life has become so boring, is trying to avoid any movement that might stress his shoulder. Those of you who have been there understand. Some dogs are easier to restrain than others, and I’m afraid Willie is about as hard as a dog can get. But we have our UW appt in a week and a half, all paws crossed, and our house sitter is a vet student, super reliable and dedicated. Whew.

Jim and I get a break, lucky us, we’re going to New York City for a few days. Whee! I have a few meetings, but mostly we’ll be acting like tourists with some good friends. Then it’s back to Chicago for Clicker Expo, which I’m truly looking forward to. I’m speaking Saturday night after the banquet and giving the closing talk Sunday afternoon. On Saturday I talk about Canine Cognition, and on Sunday I’ll be talking about emotional, and why we love dogs so much . I’ll have to get out my own hanky, cuz I’m feeling pretty gooey about Willie right now.

Here’s a photo of the snow from a few days ago:

Pictures of Cardinals in the snow are so trite, but if you’ve been living in black and white for 5 months, I can’t tell you how gorgeous they look!

This weekend I visited a wonderful woman doing rescue for small breeds, mostly bichons from puppy mills. I had somewhat randomly discovered that she lived close to me, and went to visit in hopes I could help out a bit. I also had a selfish motivation: as many of you know, Karen London and I are writing a booklet on adopting an adolescent or adult dog, and we are always looking for input from people in shelters and rescues.

There were 4 or 5 dogs from puppy mills that were terrifically shy; so much so that they ran  away from people, even after being there for a very long time. Obviously, this is a very common problem in dogs who grew up in almost total isolation, and was one of the challenges she was facing I hoped I could help with. We had one session, and it looked like it might be very helpful to use the methods described in The Cautious Canine. We put all the dogs away except 2 of the cautious ones, and I sat on the floor and tossed treats toward the dogs, who started a good 15 ft away from me. At the end of 20 minutes, the dogs were within 3 or 4 feet, and most encouragingly, they followed behind me when I got up and moved toward the door. Of course, this is going to take a long time, but we were both encouraged at how well they responded.

In my experience, how the dogs ultimately respond depends on their genetics. All of them have had no socialization (at best, at worst been abused by people) and how they cope with a new environment is mediated by their genetics. If they are naturally shy they are probably never going to be comfortable around strangers, but could learn to be comfortable around their ‘family.’ If they are naturally a bit bolder, who knows how far they can go?

The key to getting this to work is to not go too far at any one time. I never leaned toward the dogs, never tried to pet them, and never threw the food too close to me. If they had to stretch to get the food, back legs planted and body ready to bolt, the food was too close and I’d be careful to throw it further away the next time.

I suspect it also helped to have 2 dogs there at once, acting as a bit of competition, and perhaps also as a bit of a role model. As one dog would come closer, it encouraged the other to do the same. Too many dogs would probably end up causing trouble, and of course you’d want to avoid 2 dogs who were aggressive over food, but I like the “model/rival” aspects of this. We’ll go back when we get back from NY and Chicago (Clicker Exp, oh boy!) and keep it up.

I’d love to hear your stories about helping dogs from neglectful or abusive situations: Besides patience (we mention that so often in the draft of our booklet we are afraid people will lose patience with us….), what did you find most helpful?

MEANWHILE, back on the farm: Willie got to be off leash a bit on the weekend; based on the vet’s instructions to let him move a bit more before his appt at UW on Monday. Oooooh, what a joy to see him finally free, eyes shining, body spinning and mouth happy. But all that ended after our PT appt on Monday: the PT was able (yeah for her) to see him favor his left leg and she advised that he go back on leash for a long time. We still don’t know what’s wrong, so I am getting a second opinion from UW’s orthopedic shoulder specialist (oh yes, I am very very lucky to have all these resources close by!) That appt is for March 21, so we’ll have to wait til then to see if the condition is surgical or not in her opinion. Even if it’s not, best estimate is it’ll be 3-4 months before Willie is recovered, and lots and lots of leash restrictions until then. If surgical, could be longer.

Tough news for Willie, he looked absolutely miserable when he came back to the house and had to stay on leash. Tough news for me; I don’t need to tell you how hard it is to not be able to explain to your dog why you are taking away all his fun. And I had entered him in a wonderful herding dog trial (the Bluegrass) in KY in May. Been wanting to enter that with my own dog for 20 years. No chance for that, looks like trialing is pretty much out for the season. And Jim and I have agreed to start fostering again; we actually had a dog lined up to come to the farm any day. (No, not from the place I mentioned above, but who knows someday? Every farm needs a Bichon? But for right now, that’s out too.)

Yes, you bet, we’ll play lots of games with Willie and I’ll figure out new tricks to teach him, but his greatest loves in life are 1) to run, 2) to play with toys (which he does so vigorously that we have no choice but to take them away, and 3) to work sheep. Ah, I know that soooo many of you have been through this; we did this for 5 weeks when Willie was 10 months. We’ll get through it. But ouch. So, it’s on leash and PT, acupuncture, chiro, supplements and meds (western and eastern) for 2 weeks, then hopefully we can at least figure out what we are dealing with.

Here’s good news though: Saturday was great fun. 10 students from the UW Small Ruminant Club came out and learned how to use ultrasound to do pregnancy checks on ewes. The shearer also came out, so they also got to help with that, along with hoof trimming and vaccinating. The ewes are all well along (first one due 3/25)  so it wasn’t a mystery that they were bred, but still there was lots for the students to see. (Me too, it’s a fascinating technology.)

Here’s Lady Godiva being ultrasounded, and illustrating something related to the fearful puppy mill dogs discussed above. In person she actually looked quite  ‘relaxed,’ which is typical for sheep in this position. As did she, they often stay still on their own, relax their forelegs and heads and look almost sleepy. But outward appearance isn’t always a good indication of internal state, and research at UC Davis found that sheep in this position are flooded with cortisol, suggesting that they are in ‘tonic immobility’ rather than relaxed. That can also be true of our dogs; they seem ‘calm’ but are actually frozen with fear. Very typical of puppy mill dogs I’m sad to say.

How many times have you heard that “dogs have no sense of time”? I’ve heard it and read it over and over and over again, and always wondered why anyone thought they knew it to be true. Or not. How would we know? I’ve been asked this question often, and always answered I simply didn’t know, but that it seemed reasonable that they had some sense of time, even if it wasn’t exactly like ours. So yeah for researchers Therese Rehn and Lindsay Keeling for doing a study, published in Applied Animal Behavior Science, that attempts to answer that question. (“The Effect of time left alone at home on dog welfare,” Vol 129, 2011) In brief, they recorded the behavior of dogs left by their owners for 30 min, 2 hours and 4 hours, and found that if the dogs had been left alone for 2 or 4 hours they greeted their owners with more ‘intensity,’ and were more active and attentive, than when the duration of separation had only been 30 minutes. However, there was no statistical significance between the dogs behavior if left alone for 2 or 4 hours.

There are many ways to interpret that, but one is that the dogs perceived a separation of 2-4 hours as not being particularly different, but very much different from a 30 minute separation. For what it’s worth, my observations, which are just anecdotes, are that Willie’s greeting behavior varies tremendously based on how long we have been away. When we returned from  New Zealand, after being gone for 3 weeks, he ran between Jim and I, whining endearingly, flipping in circles, licking our faces raw . . . a very, much more intense greeting than if one of us had been gone for a day or two.

What do you think? Granted, none of us are doing research, but I’m still curious about your observations. Do you observe that your dog greets you differently when you’ve been gone longer? And, of course, here’s the kicker: If they do, how much of it is a response to a difference in our behavior?

MEANWHILE, back on the farm. Poor Willie is still on leash restriction. I gave him a bit of freedom the day of our vet visit (Wednesday), and he was soooo happy to be free. He lept and spun and shiney-eyed his way from the barn back to the house. And sure enough, his limp came back. But not in the vet’s office. For that 45 minutes he looked as sound as a dog could be. I actually had to have one of those “Really, honest, doc, he was limping this morning….” discussions. His radiographs showed no signs of any kind of OCD or a torn Biceptal tendon, and there were vague indications of maybe, maybe (maybe?) a torn Supraspinatus, but not likely. (By the way, this is not your general practice vet, it’s an orthopedist specialist who has been a great resource for me and many of my friends.) The vet recommends anti-inflammatories, PT for 3 months and then re-evaluating. I’m still considering more testing, MRI, etc, but will meet with the PT first.

Luckily, I got an appointment with a fantastic physical therapist at UW Vet School on Monday. I’m so curious what she says, can barely wait til then. This weekend (vet’s instructions) I’m going to give Willie a bit more freedom to give the PT a better sense of what is going on … walking a fine line not to set him back, but giving her enough information to figure out what is going on. Meanwhile, I’ll continue his exercises, anti-inflam meds, chinese meds, fish oil and glucosamine/chondroitin.

Tomorrow we should have a great time. Students from the UW small ruminant club are coming out to learn how to do ultrasound pregnancy checks on my flock. The shearer is coming too, so we’ll be in the barn all morning, then back to the house to eat chili and summer berry pie. The pies are in the oven right now, better go check them before I burn them!

Here’s Willie and Sushi, hanging out in the living room with Jim tonight, waiting for me to stop writing and come to bed!