I’ve been up since 6am working with my colleagues at the School of Journalism, fixing tech problems and tutoring the poor guys who have to pretend to be sys admins until someone gets hired. I’m feeling extremely sleepy, but I just realized I forgot to make coffee. That’s how tired I am.

It finally stopped raining yesterday, at least long enough for me to grab my camera and take some pictures of the dogs we’re working with.

This is my favorite dog in the yard, Pumpkin. She’s always very excited to see me. Whenever I approach her circle, she sits down, stretches out her front paws, leans back, and looks like she’s going to have an aneurysm if I don’t stop and play with her. As you can see by my sleeve, it gets a little hairy out there.

A lot of the dogs like to jump up and put their paws on you, and with the bigger dogs, it can push you off balance if you’re not careful. With smaller dogs like Pumpkin, that’s not usually a problem unless it’s muddy or you’re off balance already. However, the smaller dogs are faster, and I’ve been inadvertently punched in the junk a few times. She didn’t get me this time:

This is Xerox, one of the old fellas. He’s 14, and spends a lot of time digging a giant hole, dropping his food bowl in, and then filling in the giant hole. Then he watches with great interest as I dig around trying to find it. If he’s feeling good, he’ll run around and do a dance after we pet him, then come back for more love.

Next is Tiger, one of the bigger dogs. He sits on his house and lifts up his paw when I walk towards him, like he’s waving “hi.” Unless he’s curious, like when I’m holding food or a camera. Then he’s right there, as close as possible.

Tiger has a sister, Mouse. She looks a lot like Tiger, only smaller. She’s also a head-butting ninja. She acts all friendly and nice as you pet her. Then, just when you least expect it, she jumps up to lick you in the face. Her aim is pretty bad, so usually the top of her head connects with the underside of your jaw or your forehead if you’re leaning over. Ouch.

The final dog for this post is Can Can. Can Can loves to have her chest and tummy scratched. So much so, that when we walk by, she runs in front of us and flings herself on her back. How can anyone resist?

I’ll try to take some more pictures today, if the weather and dogs permit it.