Stage fright

Okay, so here's the thing. I don't really get scared in front of crowds. Occasionally I've been known to get the shakes *after* some sort of big performance, but before and during? Never. An example: I played a really fun small coffee house with two good freinds of mine last weekend. We didn't really know what to expect. We definitely didn't expect to be the headline band (funny, as we didn't have a name), but there we were. Nor did we expect the first opening band to be a *very* well rehearsed band, who obviously practised more, wrote more, and generally cared more. None the less, when we stepped up on to a (literally) shaky stage, with questionable monitors (acctually, our drummer Remi's didn't work at all), and me reading a hand-srcawled chord chart, I wasn't the slightest bit nervous, and really, I should have been, My wife and my best freind were in the crowd, and they have long memories.
SO, you can imagine my surprise when, last night, at Boston's first obedience class, I was really quite scared to get up when the instructor asked if any of our Dogs knew any tricks yet. Boston and I fumbled our way through sit and lie-down, and we got a bone-award for our troubles, but there it is: I was quite scared for us. Boston, for his part seem about as interested in the tricks as ever (which is to say, interested until he feels there are no further treats to be had). I was also quite nervous when we were doing what the instructor was telling us. Was he getting it? Did it look like he cared that I really wanted him to eat the treat and then look at me, like he did for the instructor? Why can't I seem to look away long enough to see if all the other dogs are being equally unsuccessful? Next week Erika is the handler, so theoretically, I won't have anything to comment on for two weeks, but who knows, maybe watching our little Beagle sniffing everywhere but where he's meant to will cause me just as much fright as a spectator. He's quite fun to cuddle with while watching tv though

Boston

Well, we got a new dog. Acctually, he's not too new, he's two years old, but he's new to us. This past saturday, through a series of weird, God-led type events, we ended up in a place called Potageville, not far from Canada's Wonderland, walking a fairly high strung beagle along a dirt road. He came home with us and has settled in quite nicely. He had been rescued from a shelter where he'd been picked up as a stray (beagles are known for wandering off). He had then been fostered by a lovely couple called Anne and Pete. They had placed him with a family, but the single mother didn't have time for him, and as he wasn't housebroken, they returned him fairly quickly. While living with them, he was attacked by a large dog, and still has the teeth marks in his back to prove it. The poor little guy had a pretty rough go, but hopfully things will settle down for him now. Here's a few pics to show him off

Kody and Boston

More Boston

Here's the other picture. He really is quite cute. Some of his favourtie things are sniffing jsut about everything he sees, following us around like we're going to abandon him at any second, and sleeping on the couch.

Boston