Photo Project

I started with twenty photographs of my subject; Wilma. Tough to get macro shots, because puppies seem to be excited by cameras and move even more wildly in their presence.

515WilmaDog

Then I cropped, edited the photos to make myself look like a better photographer:

515WilmaEdits

And finally I went crazy with the editing features on a program called GIMP, which is exactly what it made me feel like until I shied away from the left had tool bar and worked with the filtering options. A very powerful program, but it would take a long time to learn how to use it.

WilmaEditsArt

Pod-Cast project

Google Earth PowerPoint YouTube movie Blog assignment

This post is on a subject other than Wilma, but don't tell her that. The migration of pronghorn antelope in north-western Wyoming is chronicled in two formats, both involving Google Earth.

Start by watching this Google Earth navigation;
20100212174649-4b7604890fed48.87989914.kmz

Once you have seen the bird's eye view of their trek this video highlights sights and obstacles along the way:

Wiiilllmmmaaa!!!!!

We are working on many different commands. The most important of all is Come. This one saves dogs lives, in the presence of cars, wild animals, etc. It also saves owners from embarrassing situations where they obviously can't control their dog. This morning we went on a walk up Waterworks Hill before sunrise when there would be minimal distractions to our practice. It was beautiful with the sun rising above, while the inversion cloud smothered Missoula in gray dimness. Wilma is doing a beautiful job of racing back to her dad who has just yelled her name.

A New Look

A few weeks later she looks at me like this. I think it means; Hey! come wrestle. Also pictured is Porcupine, her favorite toy. They gave it to her the last day she was at the shelter kind of like a going away present. She played gently with it for a while, but soon the noises inside needed investigation, so she pulled all its guts out. Then somehow she turned it inside out, all by herself, can you believe that? What a genius.

Herstory

Wilma was turned in to the shelter in Dillon, Montana towards the end of November 2009. That's where i saw a picture on the internet of a very cute dog sitting for the camera. What a nice dog I thought, filled out the adoption application, and drove up to Dillon the next weekend to meet her. When i got there she came into the room and ran around crazily saying hi to everyone she could find with a lick in the face, including the 24 toed cat that hangs out in the office there. So we went for a walk and she stared at me all suspicious like this-


I decided she was a keeper, and I'm sure she remained suspicious of me when she had to stay in the shelter for a few more weeks while I finished up some seasonal work in Jackson.

Then the big day came, January 2nd, I picked her up on my drive to Missoula and we started our learning experience together.