chocolate covered golden doodle...

I have the last fair of 2014 Sunday. Great things are happening in the studio (see below), and business has been excellent all year (you hope that formula works out:  great pots = great sales, right? :). I am already working on stuff for 2015! Which is even MORE thrilling.  More on that next week....

OK, but here's the thing, my sideline, my hobby?  Dog walking and cat sitting?  What was an occasional thing has become this BIG thrilling beast of a 2nd career. Starting now I have to say NO to any new customers, and here is why:
Except for the chickens (who will probably need me over Christmas), I will see ALL of my clients this week, for example.  Usually  it is one here and there, walk a dog, say hello to a cat, but here in early winter at the end of the retail season I need to see ALL of them (if it was last month I would have been a quivering bundle of retailer nerves):  Yogi, Soupy and Nook the dogs will all need walks, both Scoop and Puffy the cats (remember Puffy from long ago? No?  Don't worry, I'll blog her won't I?) AND the icing on the cake will be Kiko, a new dog needing nearly daily walks for the foreseeable future....

OK, here is my crazy Friday.  I had Yogi in the studio or outside playing with Penny all morning and went out to meet a new customer, Kiko!  When I got the call on Kiko I was like "oh gosh, can I handle ANOTHER?" and our Penny was like "go for it, I need my walks, but not in THIS crappy weather" and I was like "OK Penny, you'll still get walks but pottery is quiet in the winter, I CAN HANDLE adding Kiko".

So I go over there and have the awesome visit--the house is full of POTTERY.  I have been hired because the family wants a potter who walks dogs (how many of THOSE are there, right?).  And we walk and talk and I agree to start Monday and....Kiko disappears.  Kiko has a perfect fenced in yard...what...?  Kiko's owner drives off in one direction, I in the other, to circle the blocks...it is all pretty tense.  Kiko is a sweetie, nobody wants an accident! And guess who finds Kiko.........ME.
I am the hero of the day, Dog Whisperer extraordinaire!  You better believe I am hired ;)

OK, but wait, after that anxiety attack I get home and need to take Yogi out...and WTF?!  Yogi smells like Hershey, PA, the house smells like Santa's chocolate factory and he is lying in a pile of....cocoa powder all over the carpet.  Yogi got into a HUGE bag of cocoa powder.  I make the calls, get him out of their cocoa infested house and take him into the snow at our place.  He is not off-white, he is now a big chocolate doodle.  The family runs home to care for him....he is fine, but oi, what a mess, what an adventure.....in 2 years there has never been a pet mishap, in one hour there were TWO.

Dig these recent pots, have a great weekend, come see me if you can :)

(new pottery by Gary Rith)