Author: Elaine

Hap

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I brought Hap home on Friday from where I boarded him. The person who had been half-leasing him couldn’t do so for a while. Hap has lived here at home before, and gets along well with both Smoke and Rags. All three horses are free to wander except during meal times, when Hap and Rags get closed in stalls.

Better than Obedience School

As a cheaper alternative to sending your dogs to obedience school, agree to dogsit a year old, hyperactive, fifty pound puppy that can scale five foot wooden stockade fences. We lost Gracie from the dog run three times in the same morning. (Obviously, she is a faster learner than I am.) After I gave her back to her owners Monday morning, our dogs looked like miracles of canine deportment.

St Mary’s Cathedral

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Saturday, we went to the wedding of the son of some old friends, which was held at St Mary’s Cathedral in downtown Colorado Springs. The snow was very decorative, but made for a tense day, since at one point we heard a report that the freeway home was shut down with weather related accidents. However, after the reception that evening, we were able to make our way home without too much difficulty.

Gracie

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We are taking care of this year old pointer cross for some friends for a few days. She is a affectionate, friendly puppy, but an exhausting reminder of why our last few dogs have been adult adoptions. Lody and Dudley like her, but seem to be as appalled by her energy levels as I am. Fortunately, she was quiet in her crate in the corner of the bedroom throughout the night. More or less.

I just found her playing with my teddy bears.

Denver Art Museum

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For her Christmas present, yesterday I took a friend to see “El Greco to Picasso”:http://www.denverartmuseum.org/microsites/elgreco/highlights.html#highlights at the Denver Art Museum. Tickets to the special exhibit were sold out, and I had purchased the tickets previously via the museum’s website.

The most famous painting in the show is probably Renoir’s Luncheon of the Boating Party. I had seen many reproductions of this painting, but the reproductions lacked the impact of seeing the original, which is quite large. I can imagine gazing at it for hours, each time seeing something new. I also enjoyed seeing the Klee’s, Corot’s and the Van Gogh’s.

Afterward, we had lunch in the very crowded cafeteria, and then went to the Asian floor of the permanent exhibit, where I took this photo of the horse, carved in China about 500 AD.