Anyone want to help raise money for MinPin rescue?

All Miniature Pinscher Service fund raiser - Raffle!!

Instructions for selling tickets (if you are interested in helping out I can email you this in PDF form to print out email me at camy@maine.rr.com) –

Tickets are $1 each. Drawing will be held January 15th. Please sell as many as you can. Checks are to be made payable to AMPS. Ticket purchases must be mailed to -
Amy Carlson
79 Eastman Rd.
Cape Elizabeth, ME 04107
*Please be sure to note preferably an email address or snail mail address of each raffle buyer. If cash is accepted you must write a check to AMPS, making sure to note the cash buyer’s contact info. Amy will record and label all tickets and hold the drawing January 15th. All purchases must be mailed to Amy by January 10th. Any ticket purchases arriving after the drawing will be returned.

Item #1 –

$300 Gift Card from Petsmart!!!! Donated by Dorri!! Wow, thanks Dorri!!!

Item #2 –


Pet Photo Convertible Tote -
A bag designed and made by Pam LeBlanc of OldBagzz.com and a AMPS volunteer.
This bag is approx. 12X14 with a ample 4" flat bottom. The bag can be worn over the shoulder, across the body or can be converted to a backpack. The fabric is 100% cotton that is quilted to a soft underbody making the bag soft but very durable. There is a top zip and a back outside zip pocket. The bag is fully lined with pocketed cotton fabric. 100% machine washable.
Pam will put your favorite dog picture on the front of the bag if you are the winner. The bag will be made from the black dog themed fabric shown. Imagine your dog's picture where "Rosie the Riveter" is pictured on the sample bag shown. A $90 value.

Item #3 –

Full-color GPS, 3 1/2-inch touch screen ensures no-hassle menu navigation.* iGo navigation software with 2D and 3D mapping provides an accurate view of streets.* TeleAtlas maps of the US and Puerto Rico let you travel with ease.* Centrality Atlas dual core promises quick responses to your needs.* Route recalculator points you in the right direction if you deviate from your course.* Car and pedestrian navigation modes offer versatility.* SD card slot allows you to expand the device's memory.* Slim, portable design slips conveniently into your pocket for safe transport.* Details: Unit: 3.54"H x 3.11"W x 0.75"D Screen: 3 1/2 in. Includes: USB cable, DC adaptor, dash mount, windshield mount & quick-start guide. Uses 1 rechargeable li-polymer battery (included) Model no. AZ281MA

Retail value $199.99 donated by Phyllis Salerno

Item # 4 Donated by Amy Carlson. Personalized painted plaque. Size 4 x 6 acrylic on wood.

Item #5 -

20.5 X 27.5 Snuggle sack for your wee pups or kitties!!

Machine washable
Fleece lined
Super soft and comfy
A snuggly soft hideaway for your little one. Your dog or cat is going to love burrowing into this bed. It's like having a fleece lined sleeping bag! Never again will your pet have to lie on the hard floor. With a cover made of a cotton-polyester blend and an interior made of Berber fleece, the Snooze Sack is completely machine washable.
Manufacturer: Caddis

Value $35 donated by Phyllis Salerno


Item # 6 donated by Diana Prokocimer

A Moisturizing Bath Soap bar that has a warm delicate fragrance that leaves
your skin lightly scented. Specially formulated with the finest ingredients
to nourish your skin and leave your body feeling refreshed and clean.

The soap has a wonderful mild cinnamon & clove scent and is made in Fall
River, MA.. The smell is good enough to eat!! Box is delicately designed
and is 5 1/2 X 3 1/2 inches. Soap net weight is 11 oz. Value - $19.95

Item # 7 -

AVON GIFT CERTIFICATE donated by Lisa Farley
Valid for $20.00 of AVON Products.

What November looks like around here

The leaves are gone, the grass is browning, the kale is thriving! I still have beets and swiss chard, too.

That's my garden, full of awesome Kale! We will eat that until snow falls, I bet, and maybe even after. It is SO yummy, sauteed with apple slices and butter. YUM!!!! The parsley is also thriving. And just cuz I think he is the cutest thing........ever............ My delphinium is attempting to bloom again. When the sun hits it I will get a photo. Crazy plant!

Darnit, I can't get the Animal Welfare License plate!

I signed up for one when they were trying to promote them, but since we get Combination plates they are not available for us. With Rich's business we need those. If I wanted to put my car magnets on the truck, I have to have Commercial or Combination plates. Most people don't know that, but especially if I were to drive through other states like MA. The laws are misunderstood and can be frustrating, but states are looking for all kinds of ways to generate income and in MA petsitters are being stopped for not having commercial plates and having logos or signage on their vehicles. There are all kinds of silly laws like that, crazy stuff if you are hauling livestock requiring special licensing and stuff. It's really nuts. Most people don't know that technically if you take your animals, including dogs and cats, over state lines you need a health certificate (within thirty days). That goes for all of us travelling for the holidays with our pets. Yep, technically we are required to inform the state we are taking our animals over state lines. I read the law, it's SO vague and crazy. Homeland security at it's best? Don't worry, you won't be stopped this holiday, I don't think. It's just something that those of us in rescue think about, a little.

When we rescued the MinPins from the puppymill bust that occurred shortly after Spur's bust the state told us we had to inform them of where each dog ended up and that they needed to stay in the state. Goodness, I can't imagine all that paperwork. We simply can not keep track of these dogs once they are adopted. We have yearly check-ins with homes, but what they do after they adopt is not in our control. The dogs very well may have left the state. The paperwork we sent with the dogs stated they were to contact the state if they moved or took their dogs across state lines. Yeah, RIGHT!! I bet that happened!! NOT!!

Somehow I seemed to get side tracked. Wasn't I talking about the really cool Animal Welfare license plate??? OK, so if you haven't gotten yours or didn't sign up and get a voucher you can still get one. Just go to your town hall and buy one. They are $20. Most town halls have them. Cape Elizabeth and South Portland do, so go get one!! They are very cool! I want one! And, no, I can't get one for my scooter, either. Double darnit!!!

Facebook?????

Oi, I feel like I am SO old. Or is it "old fashioned". I hear myself saying how we had to walk a mile for the school bus or that we didn't even have a TV when I was growing up. (we didn't - my mom was a 60's left over hippy librarian and we moved back to the earth - to Maine from MA - no TV) Or telling stories about our party line phone. Yep, we had a party line. Shared it with two neighbors. How we didn't have hot running water. My GRANDMOTHER used to say things like that and it drove me nuts!!! Well, la-tee-da, Nana, you lived in the DARK AGES, get over it!! But, here I am telling these stories. Am I that old???? I am .......gasp.......only 46.......that's not old, is it? I have grey hairs, wrinkles, aches and pains, but I am NOT OLD! Damn it!!! I am "aging"? Good GRIEF! How does that happen???? I thought I could prevent old age, aging, getting old. I thought that when I was 20. :D I run, I eat well, I am hardly ever sick, I am in great shape, I walk about 10 miles/day, sometimes I run (yes, I said sometimes!) but I do feel that old fashioned crap creeping in.............old age..........aging............worrying...........saying things like.......... "When I was young........"... ........but...........I am NOT OLD!! Right? I am "mature". Yep, mature, but my dad always said when he grew up he would get a motorcycle. He is 72 and still doesn't have a motorcycle!

So, being that I am SO OLD, should I have a facebook page for my business? ACK! Rich says YES, I say..........O........M...........G!! Rich is so hip, I'm just old.

I guess......................and why would that scare me? Facebook? I'm going to do it, yep, I am. You watch! Soon............

Yay, Mom brought us CHICKEN for dinner!!!

Can you believe it???? Yep, my friends brought their young (baby, she is only 10 months old) parrot, LeBec over for dinner. I mean, to join us for dinner. Oi, the puns could go on and on. They have been told it is good to get their parrot out for new and different experiences as often as possible. They absolutely LOVE this parrot!! Colby is safely in Steve's arms, but she is KIND OF EXCITED!!! Roscoe had to be crated with a kong. LeBec's feather fluffing and cute noises just BLEW HIS MIND! He couldn't understand how they could bring him fresh "chicken" and not let him eat it!!!!! Spur doesn't have a killer bone in his body. Maybe for a bug or an ant, but he wasn't at all interested other than to wonder about her noises. If she took flight, game on, he would have enjoyed the run, but her wings are clipped and I believe her sense of self-preservation was keen, so she stayed where she was, either on Laura's head or her perch which was on the table. We ate at the island and she stayed on her perch until dinner was done, then she joined us and had some left-overs. Good girlie!

That's the first time I have had dinner with a parrot!

CPE trial over the weekend!! Spur's second ever!

Spur was a little nervous the first day, so I avoided the teeter. It is REALLY loud at this place, but he was trained there as a youngster, so I thought it would be a good place for his second trial. We just haven't been there in a year, so I didn't want to get a pattern going by making him do the teeter the first day. I could avoid it the first day since they didn't have Standard until Sunday. And that was our last class on Sunday (we only did two classes), so that was good. He got better and better all weekend about the sound of it when other dogs did it - BANG - he got tons of cookies. It makes a REALLY loud bang and this is a loud room, very crowded and quite a bit of stuff for him to take in. I was very proud of him. He did great! Not super fast crazy man, but GREAT and he showed that he wanted to go out and run! He is just learning to recover from his worries better and better. And I may have a new start line behavior. In this video we are barking at each other before we get started! He thought that was great fun!!! BARK, BARK, BARK!!!!! Great stress release, I think!! Plus, it's cute and he enjoys it. Well, his bark isn't cute, sometimes he barks in my ears at home and YIKES it hurts those ear drums!! :O But, at a trial, at the start line, FUN, FUN!!

I am not sure what I was thinking, planning a back cross before the second tunnel, but he loves his tunnels and back crossing tunnels is good for him, so I wanted to take the opportunity. But, I should have front crossed. I was standing there waiting for him. It worked OK, though and he recovered from the scary teeter. Trotted some on his dog walk, but it looks like he ran the up part, so that's good! Didn't worry about the recoil from the teeter, which is a pretty loud bang and can really bother him. Good little monkey pants was only 2 seconds behind the MinPins, so that's respectable, really! He won his class. There were only 5 other dogs, but he was WAY faster than those dogs, so that was nice. CPE is a good place to start a worried dog and maybe I will do some more with him this winter. The courses are short and easy.

**Now, I am almost over the bitchy lady with the other mini-aussie, puppymill dog. Almost.........I am starting to settle about it and just say that one other reason I was so worked up about it is that I really, REALLY wanted to say Hi to her dog. I mean, he was one of my charges while I was working there all those difficult days I volunteered. Seriously, I invested a lot of time, energy and emotional output with those dogs. I feel a bond with them. A connection and I was SO thrilled to see one so close to Spur's age doing agility and out and about. But, it wasn't to be. She just shuffled him off to his crate, protecting him from whatever it is she thought she was protecting him from. She really wasn't doing him any favors. I know, Spur was like that and I have worked REALLY hard getting him to come out of his shell and learn that life as a real dog is pretty cool and that life outside a puppymill is A-OK. You all know Spur has had/has his issues! Oh well, at least he is well loved and "protected". I'll give her that, she does love him. I just wish she would get him out and let him learn some more about life in general and not coddle and protect him so much. She might find he does a lot better if she stops doing that. Who knows..........

So, maybe if I vent here all will be well with the world.

I saw him, cute as a button, being gently guided into the building at the CPE trial. I thought, OH MY, that dog must be from Spur's kennel. Yep, my friend I am talking with says so. I track the lady down!!! I can't WAIT to share stories and such, about our little adorable mini-aussie-pap-crazy-monkey-pants-cute-stuff that we rescued from the gates of hell. Well, not really, it was just a temporary shelter and crappy puppymill and these dogs were not THAT bad off, but still it was great to see one that MIGHT be Spur's sister! Nope, it's a boy, so it was probably just a cousin.

I chat and chat, all cheery and excited to hear her stories about him and tell mine about Spur. BANG..........shot to the ground, bleeding and gasping. She shot me!

OK, maybe I am being melodramatic, but seriously she pretty much shot me down. The conversation was essentially over. I asked if she wanted the dogs to meet, it would be fun to see if they recognized each other, I thought. She says she would have to wait, she is working the next class. O - K - the next class, well we still have to finish this other class. We have plenty of time. Oh and also she informs me she may not let the dogs greet if mine is too rambunctious. Spur? Hahahaha, he IS rambunctious, but he is a very submissive boy, to which she looks at him and raises an eyebrow. He is, he is submissive and a weenie dog when greeting other dogs. Anyway, I leave her alone, perhaps she thinks I am now stalking her. I run the next class, with Spur, she is ring crew and watched from her chair in the corner. I can't wait to hear what she thinks of Spur's run. We do share similar issues.

Later I go find her in the crate room. She had just run her dog and I had just run Colby. She was talking notes. She has a trial journal. She makes notes about her runs, her Q's, her titles, etc. I peeked. I gleefully blurt out how great her dog looked and what a nice run she had. He looked kind of down, trotted mostly, but he seemed pretty happy. I am sure he has issues, just like Spur. She asked me to step back, her dog was having his cookie. O - K - I was already about 8 feet away!! I chat some more, starting to wonder if she really does feel like I am stalking her. I ask if she does USDAA, because Spur has done some and we love it. She says....."No, USDAA is too competitive for me and I do this just for the fun." .............BANG!!! Shot again!!! Um? I do this because it's torture?????.....again I am starting to bleed......... I squeaked out....."Oh......, well........., I think USDAA is the most fun!", trying to smile and be cheerful when I really want to bitch slap her..........how rude, I thoroughly enjoy USDAA, my dogs have tons of fun, you slimy, arrogant........and lots of other words I shouldn't say came to mind...........and I slink off, wondering why she never said anything about Spur's run that she watched from her ring crew chair in the corner. He looked pretty happy! I thought.

I realise that she was definitely irritated by my presence. I was interrupting her notes. Her dog's cookie. Her little 10 foot bubble she holds around her "space", ready to cattle prod anyone within reach, to protect her dog and keep him from experiencing FUN, for crying out loud. I started to feel bad for her dog. He is never allowed to visit other dogs, he gets shoved in his crate while she sits there taking notes. He isn't rewarded for being ring side and learning to deal with trial stress and social skills. What fun was he having? In his little bubble of 10 feet, with her to laser beam anyone within reach, pushing everyone away so he can have his COOKIE!!!!! The poor dog thinks life outside the puppymill is all about Mama controlling every tiny little burp!! Her notebook had all her titles and scores and notes. But, rememberrrrrrrr...........she is not competitive. She's having "fun".

Should I have a note book? Should I be more protective of Spur? Geez, I already have Roscoe to worry about, that's enough protection for me for one day. Nah, it's all about the fun and Spur doesn't need protecting, he needs to get out and experience things, sometimes even troubling things. Ribbons, notes, whatever. I do have my little video showing Spur looking pretty happy. Not super great, master agility dog, or super fast zooming around the course like he is at home, but we will get there some day, he's learning. He's learning and experiencing.............. experiencing .........FUN!!!

I hope I meet her dog some day. I hope I never see her again. Is all right with the world? No, but what did I expect. Henry Ford said it best.........."Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you are right". I think I can with Spur.