This Gorilla Prefers to Walk Upright

Crystal is slightly creeped out by gorillas because of their human-esque qualities.  They have very emotional faces with very human movements: mouth expressions, eyebrow movements, nose twitches.  Not to mention they have 10 fingers and toes... As Crystal says, "very ugly humans" - haha!!  Now take a look at this gorilla walking upright like a normal guy... this is creepy for sure...

International Rules Football vs. Jack Russell Terrier

Here's a funny video involving a game of "International Rules Football" and a Jack Russell Terrier.  I am not sure of all the rules, but it seems that the little guy is part of the game.  Why doesn't someone blow the damn whistle and pick this guy up off the field???

Moonrise

Here's a picture from yesterday when the sun was setting over the Pacific and casting red colors on the hills in Milpitas.  The moon had just started rising above the hills.  It was a very calming view after a hectic day at work.  This is a time where the thought of living somewhere other than California is far from my mind.

The other bright light in the sky is just that, a light.  Sorry for the picture quality, I only had my iPhone.

West's Agility

West has been doing very well in his puppy agility class.  He is definitely the star of the class, and is advancing through the skills faster than his "classmates".  We're really excited about his agility ability (thats fun to say!).  Here's a video of his class on Monday where he ran a sequence of jumps.  As you can see, there are no bars on the jumps, the puppies are still too young to be jumping on their joints.  Besides, at this point just getting the pups to run between the jump uprights is an accomplishment.  But watch the video and see little West run!

The video was taken at night, so it's dark, and Blogger compressed video and reduces quality, but you can see the fast puff ball running in loops at least.  Enjoy!

Also, during class our instructor Anne Kajava (who runs Jumpin' Java Agility which we train through) asked Crystal if she'd be interested in teaching private agility lessons to other students in the class.  So starting this week on Thursday, Crystal will be teaching two private lessons, one with one student and another with two students.  We think this is a really great opportunity for her to get some experience instructing and training, and will if nothing else, give her more exposure as we figure out how to make working with animals a part of her every day life!

iPad Drawings

One really fun element of the iPad are the drawing apps.  Theres this great one I've been playing around with recently and ended up with these pictures of the pets.

"West on the Water"

"Lion King"

"Sonoma Claus"

Funny Pictures of West from Vacation

Here's just a random assortment of funny photos we got of West during our trip back East.

Meeting/tasting Grandpa John.

"Can't catch me!  Whoa actually you're close!"

Batdogs.

Haha such a frantic photo.

Jumping up for the ball, flying squirrel style.

West Running Series

I think these progression shots of a game of chase and fetch are pretty funny.  West really loved being in Massachusetts for the holidays.

This first series is a game of chase with Lilly.

The second series is a game of fetch on the frozen pond: