Happy Halloween!

We usually go all out at Halloween. Hubby spends weeks decorating the yard, compete with stage lighting, hidden speakers and a fog machine. These pictures are from last year:

If you look closely, you can see Son #2 rising from the grave in a morph suit.
The whole family gets into the holiday.

Our pumpkins have stopped traffic.
Click here for last year's GSD jack-o-lantern patterns.

 

But this year our house is dark. We live in a cul-de-sac at the end of a long street. It use to be filled with kids, but over the past 10 years all children have grown up and moved away. Last year we only had a dozen trick-or-treaters. It's sad. Hubby has decided to forgo the decorations and spend the evening volunteering at the American Legion instead. I'm going to sit in the dark and watch the last season of Dexter.

 

I couldn't completely ignore the holiday, however. I dressed the dogs up and did a photo-shoot earlier. Aren't they precious?

 

It's not easy finding costumes for large dogs. They didn't care much for those hoods either.

Jedi is a handsome devil

And Roxy is a beautiful bumble bee

I'm not sure how I feel about not celebrating Halloween with costumes, spooky decorations and LOTS of chocolate. I think this is the first time in 40+ years that I haven't done something. We didn't even carve pumpkins!

OK, enough pouting. I'm going to order a pizza and check out the Pet Parade. Animals in hats always make me feel better (much to Jedi's dismay). Tomorrow I'm going to get as much discounted Halloween candy as possible. And maybe a pumpkin. Seriously, what were we thinking?!

 

How about you? What are your plans for this evening? -- K

"Other Duties as Required"

So why is it that my Thoughtless Thursday posts always end up being "My Crazy Job" posts? I don't know, but for some reason it fits! This week's post stems from an incident that happened last Sunday. I was writing someone a ticket for his dogs being off leash on the beach. He had been drinking and was unreasonably angry (and probably a bit embarrassed) and started with the whole "I pay your salary" " and "Your job is to . . . " routine. (Two of my top ten Things to Say to Guarantee a Ticket, by the way.) I resisted the urge to bitch-slap the douche bag and gave him the usual response: "No, Sir. My job is to enforce all animal-related City ordinances, including the leash law." But it got me thinking. Perhaps some people really don't know -- or maybe don't want to know -- what my job actually is. I know some think it's like that show on Animal Planet. (It's not.) Others think that I'm "just a dog-catcher." Sometimes I wish it were that easy. Truth is, I do so much more. My regular duties include:

• Assisting citizens with lost, sick, found or injured animals
• Routinely patrolling the city neighborhoods, parks and beach front
• Enforcing City leash, barking and clean up laws
• Investigating dangerous dogs and dog bite complaints
• Ensuring proper animal care and sheltering laws are adhered to by the public
• Performing animal welfare checks
• Investigating animal cruelty
• Issuing warnings, citations and summonses pertaining to animal control and welfare
• Impounding animals at large
• Caring for animals in custody
• Performing routine maintenance of the Animal Control vehicle and equipment
• Maintaining records of citations, warnings, animal bites, animals taken into custody and cruelty investigations
• Preparing cases for court

And then there's the clause on my job description that says "and other duties as required." That's the one that always bites me in the ass. Those duties have included:

• Certified school crossing guard through the state of Florida (Yeah, that's a real "thing")
• First responder (I patrol parks and the beach regularly and have discovered many situations that required PD and EMS; Yes, I am First Aid/CPR/AED certified)
• Emergency Vehicle Operations training (I can serpentine backwards, in 4WD, in soft sand without knocking over the orange cones -- but not without swearing)
• Euthanasia technician
• Chemical capture (a.k.a. dart gun)
• Writing newspaper articles and press releases
• Appearing on the local news (hate that!)
• Organizing and participating in community relations events for children and adults
• Maintaining several City webpages
• Public Notary
• Designing new Animal Control citations
• Attending City Council meetings
• Educating City officials and local politicians
• Appearing before the Code Enforcement Board
• Teaching dog bite prevention to children
• Developing and teaching the Animal Control unit for the Citizen's Police Academy
• Researching and re-writing ordinances
• Finding an interpreter for a deaf defendant (NOT easy)
• Researching insurance policies and comparing them with City dangerous dog requirements
• Departmental "go-for," picking up/dropping off equipment and vehicles all over the county
• Plain-clothes beach surveys
• Undercover vice decoy operations (essentially I pretend to be a prostitute and pick up johns)
• Researching, hiring and assisting wildlife trappers for gators and coyotes
• Accompanying PD while serving warrants (I grab the dogs, they get the bad guys)
• Assisting Sea Turtle Patrol and Fish & Wildlife with dragging dead sea animals off the beach (trust me, ewww)
• Catamaran counting (yes, I have to keep track of boats on the beach)
• Developing an ACO Field Training Program
• Training new animal control officers
• . . . . and whatever the Chief thinks up next

Yep, I do a lot of weird and random things. It keeps life interesting. Unfortunately, it doesn't translate well onto a job application. HR sees "animal control officer," assumes I chase dogs, and then promptly throws me in the "not qualified" pile. *sigh* And my duties are so eclectic that it's difficult for me to articulate my computer, teaching, organizing, customer service and public speaking skills on a resume. I'm afraid I'm going to be an overworked, underpaid, unappreciated animal control officer for the rest of my life. (On the upside I'll have lots of Thoughtless Thursday material!)

Like I said, it's Thoughtless Thursday. Click around and see what others are sharing today. -- K

P.S. Craziest call of the week: I spent way too much time chasing down a pervert* who was exposing and pleasuring himself on the beach. At high tide. While families and other beachgoers were enjoying one of the last warm days of the year. Talk about ewww! Cops got him -- with the help of ACOs who called it in, provided a good description, rounded up witnesses and wrote official statements. Great job, yes, but how do you put that on a resume?!

[*Disclaimer: For legal reasons, I should say "alleged pervert." Our Constitution stipulates that he is considered innocent until a court of law proves he's a sicko bastard.]

Jedi's Thinking Face

We graduated from our clicker class at the Humane Society on Saturday. Jedi worked really hard. How do I know? because this is his thinking face:

Look at that focus!

When that upper lip is tucked under his front tooth it means Jedi's brain is working overtime. It paid off too.

Look at that booty. Good job Jedi!

If you want to learn more about the class -- seriously, it was a blast! -- then check out yesterday's post here. If you want to see what others are sharing on this (mostly) Wordless Wednesday then click on the icons below. Warning: There's always a lot of fun stuff on Wednesdays and you can easily click for hours. You should probably pee first. -- K

And We Passed!

Jedi and I finished our class at the Jacksonville Humane Society on Saturday. The class ended with a series of obedience contests. Jedi walked away with quite the booty! He got a first place ribbon for Fastest Down, as well as second place ribbons for Fastest Sit and Most Puppy Push-Ups (sit-down-sit). Hubby got a picture of Jedi doing his push-ups (below) and yes, he's sticking his tongue out at me.

Even more exciting, Jedi got a trophy for Best New Trick! Much to my surprise he finally figured out how to pivot on the perch. It's not a pretty pivot -- honestly, his is probably the ugliest pivot in our Body Awareness and Targeting class -- but it was good enough to impress the JHS class. What a good boy!

We finished the class with an introduction to basic agility equipment. The dogs ran over dog walks and through a tunnel. They jumped over hurdles and through hoops. They wove through poles and tried out a rocker board and a pause table. Jedi was a trooper! The dog walk and rocker board didn't phase him (I was concerned they would) and he actually enjoyed the tunnel, coming through it with a giant grin on his face. Now I'm thinking "Where does a girl get a cheap agility tunnel?" and Hubby is a bit worried. Jedi did have some issues with the hurdles. Even though the were low, he knocked them down because he has a bad habit of dragging his back feet. *sigh* (But that's why we're taking the Body Awareness and Targeting class in the first place.) This JHS class was lots of fun and I've already talked to the instructor about signing up for her Canine Good Citizen (CGC) class in January.

Weave poles are tough for long dogs!

Meanwhile, we have more exciting dog training news! K-9 Obedience Club opened up a Find the Odor (nose work) class starting in November. I just happened to be online when the email came out and Jedi and I picked up one of the eight spots! I can't tell you how happy I am about this. Jedi is the nosiest dog I've even had and his sniffing can be a big pain in the butt. Maybe this way I can channel his overactive nose into something positive. Jedi's brother, Dozer, does nose work and his owner says he really likes it.

Anyway, it's been a long day. Jedi is napping and I think I'm going to join him. Then I'm going to try to get him to stand in a box -- more stuff for the Body Awareness and Targeting class. Yes, it's kooky, but we're having a blast. TTFN, -- K

Awww...Turtle

 

The days are finally getting cooler around here. (I'm not complaining!) Today I saw a Florida box turtle sunning himself and it made me smile.

 

Start your week with a smile. Click around and see other things that make you say "awww." -- K



 

Me and My Shadow

 

My beautiful boy, just happy to be out with me. No matter how bad the day is, I know I get to come home to this face -- and that always makes things a little bit better. Yep, I'm a lucky girl. 

 

It's Sepia Saturday, where it's ok to be just a little bit different. (Lucky for me!) Thanks Ruckus, Ethel and Earl for hosting this hop. Now friends, hop around and see who else is sharing today. -- K

Painted Jedi

A few months ago I shared my desire to try out the Paint Your Own Pet class at Painting With a Twist. Unfortunately the classes were always on Sundays -- my regular workday. And getting a Sunday off is damn near impossible during beach season. Well, I finally got to go! They offered a Wednesday night class and Breeder and I jumped on it. It was so much fun.

I started with this picture:

 

 

And this is what I came up with:

 

 

So it may not look exactly like Jedi, but at least you can tell it's a German shepherd, right? Considering that I have no artistic talent whatsoever, I'm pretty happy.

 

 

OK people, Thoughtless Thursday. This is my favorite hop of the week, as you never know what people are thinking -- or not thinking -- about. I always find a giggle or two clicking among the blogs below. -- K