River and Karizma aka Fran and Ollie

NEPR doesn't usually transport Pyrs from outside our own region.  This is for several reasons, including the fact that there are lots of needy dogs and prospective families right here in the NorthEast.  However we do make some exceptions and work with reputable organizations in other areas, especially since rescue organizations of all kinds are full to bursting as the economic situation leads to a record number of surrenders.

One of our volunteers moved to South Carolina and came across two very sweet dogs that we agreed to take.  A group of very dedicated people stretching from South Carolina to Massachusetts worked together to drive River and Karizma to their foster home.  We covered the leg from northern NJ to MA.  River and Karizma came to us after an overnight with a two volunteers who have several other dogs and a lovely muddy backyard.  When they got to our house they were super excite to see more new dogs and Dakota got a little overwhelmed so she hopped up on the couch to get out of the way.

They poor dogs were only about a year old and they were just skin and bones, but lots of spirit.  My parents had very nicely let me borrow the minivan so I wrestled the seats out of the van and wrestled the cage into the van and got on the road.

We had to stop at a pool store on the way and they were very curious about what comes from a pool store.
Our next stop was Todd's mom's house in Kent.  There we met up with another doggie friend - Maggie.  Everyone had a romp around the pool in the backyard before we got back in the car for the final leg of the trip.

We got back into the minivan and made the last bit of the trip to Judy's house in MA as it started to rain.  When we got to Judy's we had a Pyr party with Buddy, Dakota, River, Karizma, and Judy's four Pyrs.  Judy is hidden behind one of those furry bodies.

Judy has this huge fenced backyard and all the dogs ran around until the humans got too wet to stay out.  The Tatro's kindly provided delicious lasagna and a beer and helped to load up the bags and bags of kibble that we ordered from Jean.  It was really satisfying to help two more very sweet Pyrs along to better homes.

I found "Fur Happens"

At our first Pyrapalooza I saw a “fur happens” shirt. As soon as I saw it I wanted one! But then I got caught up in the excitement of the weekend and didn’t get a chance to get one. Then a few weeks ago I came across the site again!

It is the kind of thing that mostly makes sense to Pyr owners or owners of other large, long coated, non-water dogs. As explained on the fur happens site, even one Pyr produces a prodigious amount of fur. This fur collects in little tumbleweeds all over your house. But truth be told, between the cat and the dogs I’ll take Pyr fur any day. Why? Why choose white hairs that can be up to a foot in length? Because they’re actually very easy to see and pick or rub off. Even the tumble weeds are easy to pick up and throw out. Why non-water dogs? Water dogs have oily coats to protect them from the water, but this also makes the fur stick to everything and hard to pick up or wipe up. Pyrs are not water dogs so their coats are usually dry but the individual strands stick to each other and presto! you can get the fur off of your clothing, the floor, car upholstery and more!

To read about the story behind fur happens or to order one of their terrific shirts go here: http://www.furhappens.net/

Buddy made the NEPR 2010 Calendar!

It's official! The votes are in! Buddy will be in the calendar! Thank you to everyone who voted. We really appreciate it.  If anyone would like to purchase a calendar, please let us know and we'll let you know when it goes on sale.

Dakota Update

We are having a wonderful time with Dakota! She is fitting in well. After a few "pack walks" (ala Cesar Milan http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/articles/dogwalk.htm) Dakota is happily adjusting to being in a household with Buddy and Ginger. Ginger of course is at the head of the pack. Dakota is walking nicely on a leash, and has learned to "come", "sit", and "up, up" (jump into the car) and we are working on "down" next.

Buddy are Dakota are getting along famously, including one caper where we left the closet door open a crack and they worked together to wedge open the door retrieve all the bones and raw hides we had in a stash in a paper bag. They have even been known to give each other knuckle bone bits as presents.

Last weekend we took her and Buddy over to a friend's new house where they could hang out in the back yard. They had a great time playing together and "helping" with the landscaping by digging holes while we painted. This past weekend we took them to a beer festival at a brewery where we camped over night. Needless to say people adored them everywhere they went.

Pre-Pyrapalooza

Pyrapalooza 2009 is coming up soon! We are getting ready to go to our 3rd Pyrapalooza.
Pyrapalooza is an annual event where Pyr owners and their furry companions gather for 3 days in Westfield, Massachusetts to talk about Pyrs, learn about Pyrs, and enjoy each others' company. Last year we were part of a spectacular turnout of 80 Pyrs and 140 humans. It is a great event for both the humans and Pyrs, providing support, education, enriching activities and networking. We are looking forward to spending time with the terrific and dedicated people who volunteer with NEPR and meeting all the participants again. This year we will participate in a variety of workshops including Tracking, Carting and Livestock Guardianship. We’ve done the carting before and Buddy even won a harness at the silent auction last year. The other two workshops should be interesting for both us and the dogs. Buddy will also benefit from expert grooming and get to be in the Rescue Parade - hopefully he won’t get so excited that his medal falls off again. Like last year we’ll be tenting with the puppies again. It really isn’t camping when you have a double height air mattress, but we’ll “suffer” through it. It is extremely handy that the sheep barns have electricity! Of course we had to get celebratory Pyrapalooza 2009 shirts and the Berkshire Brewery’s Pyrenees Pale Ale. Attending the event is free and donations are suggested for the individual activities with all proceeds go towards helping out more Pyrs. All in all this is an awesome event that we are really looking forward to. If anyone wants to join us, please let us know! If you can’t make it but would still like to support NEPR you can buy a shirt ($15 short sleeve/$17 long sleeve) or some Berkshire Brewery Pyrenees Pale Ale ($3 bottle / $27 case).

To read about Pyrapalooza 2008 and see lots of great pictures go here.

The festival formerly know as Belgium Comes to Cooperstown

In 2003, the summer after we graduated from college, we went to what I think was the first "Belgium Comes to Cooperstown" celebration at the Ommegang Brewery.  It was surprisingly fantastic.  Fast forward 6 years.  The VIP tickets sell out in 3 minutes.  We are not among the lucky despite getting the tickets into our cart.  The general admission tickets sell out in 3 hours.  We become concerned that this even has become uncomfortably popular.
Despite our misgivings we borrowed the minivan (sorry Tess, Sofia and Clint declined to hold a dog apiece for the 4+ hour ride) and packed up the camping equipment and the Pyrs.  We picked up Sofia and Clint and then made our way upstate in good time.
On our way to find a camp site we came across two people we know!  We found Robert staking out a camp site too and then Liz showed up with a load of their gear.  It was a really nice surprise to see them. We hadn't seen them in ages so it was fun to catch up.  And they are getting married this fall so that is super exciting!
After putting up our tent and watering the Pyrs we headed to the main event to get the lay of the land.  Clint and Sofia disappeared and Todd headed to the registration tent while I provided a Pyr petting station for the folks already gathered in the beer tent.  The woman who placed Buddy with us warned us that walking around with a Pyr is like walking around with Mick Jagger — every one will want to touch him.  And it's true.
We secured a table and had some excellent pulled pork sandwiches for lunch and when tasting officially began at 2pm we tasted until all the interesting beers ran out.  Unfortunately some of the interesting beers, including beers from Ommegang ran out rather quickly.  However I did manage to taste some excellent sour beers that made me very happy.
The difference between the first Belgium Comes to Cooperstown festival and this one is that the first one was an original and extremely Belgian experience. It included flag throwers, a human chess game, stilt walking, lots of seemingly genuine Belgian food. There were also many fewer people so the enviroment was very laid back and the lines to get beer were very short. It had a very nice homey feel and we even got to meet and chat with the brewmaster.

The current incarnation is much more commercial. Sadly no flag throwers or human chess and the good beer ran out disappointingly soon. But there were many many good beers to try overall. And it was a fun atmosphere with everyone obviously having a good time. There were a lot less choices of food, so we decided to go to the supermarket and get lettuce and fixings to make salads to have around our cooler (we didn't manage to make a fire).

We chatting into the evening with Liz and Robert and in addition to telling us what they'd been up to personally, they filled us in on some of the regular happenings at Belgium Comes to Cooperstown for the past few years...including the tendency for inebriated revelers to forget that foam coolers are extremely flimsy. This was demonstrated by a person a few sites over who accidently sat on a cooler, which promptly broke and dumped him onto the ground.

The ride home was *slightly* longer than planned.  The good news is that we stopped at 5 Guys to get delicious burgers (mental note: get the small burger next time).  The bad news is that we ran out of good audiobooks and had to resort to a mediocre one for the last bit of the trip.