Birthday in Katonah

Over the weekend, Mom, Shamus and I headed to Katonah, New York (home of craft gurus Martha Stewart and Kristen White) to celebrate Krissy's 29th birthday. Shamus had his spring shots early that morning at North Kingstown Animal Hospital, and then had a three hour car ride, so he might have been a little under the weather by the time we reached Katonah. Significantly, in Katonah, Shamus's cousin Ranger, a six year-old Viszla was waiting for play and exercise.



Shamus and Ranger have an interesting relationship. They are both red dogs. They both love to play tug (with everything from a piece of rope to lacy panties). They both love to walk, hike, visit dog parks, take car rides, and run through fields. While playing tug, Shamus and Ranger have different styles, and these styles kind of highlight their personalities. Shamus (who is about 20 pounds heavier than Ranger) is a stoic tug player - he clenches the object and settles back into a bowing position and just holds on. Ranger, on the other hand, uses his intellect to try to outsmart Shamus into yielding his grip. It's fun to watch them and interesting to see their strategies.



Anyway, on this trip we took a five mile walk on a dirt path the leads right past Martha Stewart's country home and past the Katonah reservoir. I liked seeing Martha's Fresians poke their heads over their stable doors. Along the way, Krissy told Mom and I some Katonah lore - apparently Martha once tried to trademark the name "Katonah" but angry locals formed a campaign to stop her from doing so. Despite this, her property there is magnificent, and Kris tells me that's where the greenhouses are that supply plants and flowers for Martha's TV show and demos. The next day, we also visited the Katonah Dog Park.



Unfortunately, I neglected my camera over the weekend and don't have pictures of these two rambunctious dogs enjoying one another's company, but I will try to post a picture of them soon.