She Was a Great Dog...

We said goodbye to Cinder today - after 12 1/2 years with us. It's going to be very strange without her around. For those who wonder, she was 13, and had gotten Lymedisease. By the time we noticed, it was impacting her kidneys, and was no longer curable. She did her best to hang on, but her time was up.

She was an amazing dog - too smart to train, you just had to ask her to do what you wanted and she would. She obsessed over Will & Satchel - I can remember more than a few times, waking up to use the bathroom in the wee hours of the night, and finding her staring at one of their bedroom doors, just waiting for them to get up.

She used to come to work with me, when I worked at Axion. She would run on the sidewalk and wait at the intersections, and I would ride my bike in the street. She was terrible on a leash, but perfect without one. I used to love how she'd make all the other dog owners at the dog park jealous, because all I had to do was say "Cinder, let's go home" and she'd walk right to the car -- while they'd be struggling to catch their dogs and wrestle them home.

Next to watching Will & Satchel, she loved "herding" dogs that were retrieving a ball. She'd beat them to the ball, circle them as they brought it back, and then crouch, waiting for the next toss. It only really worked with obsessive retrievers - some dogs would give up because they thought she wanted the ball, and she ALWAYS got there first. But they were wrong - the ball came a distant third in amusement value. She'd fetch one, but only if there were no dogs or kids around.

It was almost impossible to get a photo of her - she was always MUCH too busy herding the kids, and if she saw you pointing a camera at her she would move off and herd them from the other side, out of your way. All the photos I have of her are incidental - she's usually just on the edge of the picture, staring at the people in the center of it.

She won the "fastest dog" medal at the local dog olympics our Humane Society put on about 8 years ago. She used to just turn on the afterburners and she could beat any dog. We were smart: we positioned myself, Will & Satchel at the finish line. Then, instead of just calling her when they said "go", we took off running away. Whooooosh! She won hands-down. I used to pretend to race her on the field and laugh at myself, because she was so dang fast.

When the cat was little (and we still had two of them), one time I heard crazy running downstairs. I went to investigate, and found one kitten asleep on either end of the couch. And Cinder, running back and forth from one end to the other, staring at one kitten, then running to stare at the other. Even Max the cat will miss her.

When we adopted her, she was just the skinniest, most frightened little thing - and how lucky we were that we got her - she turned out to be an amazing addition to our family.

Good bye, Cinder. We'll miss you.

A Butter Blizzard Tradition

Last year's ski trip.

A year ago, I took Satchel, Carson & Reed skiing for two days during Ski Week (officially "President's week" but who does the school district really think they're fooling?). And it snowed, and snowed, and snowed on us. But we showed our true colors, and skied anyhow - we also learned on that trip that it really IS cool to have 4WD, even if it's a cute little Rav4 "chick car" - one that plows right over snow banks...

So this year, I planned another trip to the snow for during Ski Week. It was tough to pull off - I had to work all weekend to get enough done so I could get away for two days. By Tuesday I was exhausted. Then Will decided he couldn't come with us because it was just too much (he'd have had to do a one-day trip, driving his own car), and then Satchel came down with my killer cold and did the smart thing and decided to stay home too. It seemed like the trip was going down in flames (or ice, as it were.) But we pulled through - my mom agreed to come along and be the extra adult, and I went for it.

And THIS year's trip.
Not quite as much snow,
but plenty cold!

And the weather cooperated! No wimpy sunshine for us! We had our traditional Butterfield Ski-Week BLIZZARD! Once again, my kids showed their mettle, skiing down the hills in a virtual white-out, coming in for hot-chocolate looking like the abominable snow-kids, and skiing until the last run of the day. I missed the older two a lot, but I really had fun with the little guys. My mom stayed in the lodge - but this wasn't HER first snowy ski day! She found the only table by a heater vent and parked there, rigging a mini-clothes-rack out of two chairs and Reed's ski poles, and every time we came in to warm up she quickly dried our things. How cool is THAT?

Another huge milestone: Reed graduated from the Bunny Slope! Hurray! I've spent most of my ski days, since Carson started when he was 3, skiing on the Bunny Slope. I won't miss it! Now I hope that I have a few years where I can still keep up with Carson & Reed, before they ditch me for the double black diamonds like the Satchel has.