Fall Festival

Saturday night, Georgia made her acting debut in the Fall Festival Worst Talent Show Ever. These are pictures of her in her clown costume before the show. Her act was supposed to include catching balls, a few tricks, and the Hokey Pokey. Dave decided to forgo the ball part of the routine because it got her a little too hyped up. When they came out, he took her on a lap around the crowd so everyone could see her and so she would focus once they got on stage. On stage, she did Sit, Down, Spin, Up, and catching treats in the air. They ended with the Hokey Pokey, which they did twice because the crowd loved it. I think all 200 people were singing the Hokey Pokey for her. She did wonderfully!! Only once did she try to lick a little boy, but that’s because he came in late and sat on the floor on the front row. Otherwise, she stayed right with Dave the whole time and did everything he told her. He got some really good, smelly treats to keep her attention, and they worked like a charm.

I was able to video her while they were practicing backstage, but I only got her entering the stage for the actual show. I promised Dave I would run interference in case she decided to run through the crowd, so I had to turn off the camera once he took her off the leash. It wasn’t necessary because she did great, but you never know. These videos are only a few seconds long, and there isn’t any sound because I took them with my digital camera.
Catching balls: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTpLrOr-b_0.
Hokey Pokey (sing the song in your head): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtPApwjDBSA.
Entering the stage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Do7-Vb30OZ0.

Georgia only got to go to the Fall Festival for her part of the talent show. We were going to let her stay and socialize with the kiddies after, but she was the first act and the crowd got really loud after she left the stage. She looked miserable with her ears back because of the noise, so Dave took her home.

I had to paint kid faces for the remainder of the evening, and that was a pretty funny job. Those kids wanted every exposed surface of their bodies painted. I had to tell some of them no. The first kid who sat down in front of me wanted camouflage. I said, “Camouflage what? Your whole face?” He nodded. I told him I would do his cheeks. Note, I’ve never painted anything camouflage and it wasn’t on our poster of things we could paint. When I finished splotching him up with green and black, I said, “I hope it looks like camouflage.” Dave said he saw him later and he thought that his paint had just gotten smeared. Oh well. Painting kid faces is interesting, especially when you have a really tiny kid and they pick a big design. It’s fun to try to figure out how to fit an airplane on a tiny kid face - especially when you don’t do airplanes well at all. Hmm. I think most of them got painted just because they like the attention, because they just kept coming back until there was nothing left to paint. Even after all the other booths had been cleaned up, we still had a line for face painting. I finally started telling them they wouldn’t have time to scrub it all off before church the next morning. Dave got a mustache painted on his face, but he washed it off right after. There were some jokes about body painting and leaving that at home, and I think it go the better of him. (Apparently, it made me turn pink, too. I HATE that.) All in all, we had a great time at the Fall Festival. All the kids were cute in there costumes, and everyone seemed to have a great time.

Sunday, we took Georgia to the baseball fields to play. She ran herself crazy chasing the football while we were throwing it. She’s not allowed to put her mouth on it, or play with it at all unless we are, so it’s her favorite kind of ball. She goes nutty for a football. She loves the wide open space, that’s why we take her to the baseball field where we can contain her and just let her run. She was running around like a wild thing. We also taught her how to play on the playground equipment at the park. I wish I had taken my camera for that part, because she learned how to slide down the slides and climb back up them again. I think she’d be a good agility dog – because agility courses are basically just playground equipment broken up into separate stations.

The sweet kittens are locked in the house until Halloween is over. Let’s just say that they aren’t so sweet when they are all locked inside together. They are bored out of their gourds, and so they pick at each other. Like children, I guess. I’ve been trying to provide them with distractions, and it works for a minute, but then we get back to hissing and spitting and growling. Two more days…. The good news is that they have all been using the litter box – I was worried about that since they’ve been going out to potty. Let’s all just hope there are no protests before they are allowed to go out again. I think they are trying to get kicked out of the house, too. Last night I caught Jewel E. trying to re-file Dave’s file folders in his office. She was using her sweet kitten hands to pull the hanging folders out of the plastic bin and she was trying to pull the papers out of the folders. I later caught her on the brink of jumping on the counter, and when I scolded her she narrowed her eyes and flipped her tail at me. She hates my guts right now. Oh well, it’s for her safety. As crazy as you may think I am, there is usually evidence of Satanism and animal sacrifices found around our town after Halloween, and I’m just not taking the chance of someone stealing one of mine (especially Squirt!) for such a purpose. Many shelters don’t adopt out black cats during October for that reason, and so mine aren’t allowed outside until it’s over. Plus, the trick-or-treat traffic will be heavy and I don’t want to worry about them getting run over.

I guess that’s all I have to report.