The Turner Family

For the past couple of weeks we had been finally considering another dog, Otis having passed in June. Evenings found us as an easily-lampoonable suburban yuppie couple, each of us window shopping on our respective laptops on the couch. On our Sunday bicycle ride we earnestly began discussing the characteristics that we wanted: mature dogs, no puppies; a rescue from a shelter, not something for which we had to pay. But Tiffani spotted Izzy on CraigsList and all that criteria gladly went out the window. Contact with the owner was made, and we drove ourselves to Belding yesterday afternoon with the kids to see if the dog and our family would be a good, two-way fit. The owner was forced to get rid of her due to a breakup and she was sad to see her go. She's a Catahoula Leopard , of which we'd never heard , and the breed seems to have a colorful, if not completely fantastical story. The kids all played with her and Cori walked her, so Izzy slept well in a crate overnight, I hard

Video and description coming soon.

It seems like we don't often have much to contribute to the blog but I've gotten some photo's lately that may be of interest. Jenny had been wanting to take a personal defense type class since the purchase of our households first handgun last spring. While exhibiting at a show in September I ran into a business acquaintance and it turns out that's all he does for a living nowadays. Arrangements were made for a surprise B-day outing for Jenny to get some one on one training. She was able to shoot various handguns, shotguns as well as this mean looking rifle. She loves shooting firearms that hold lot's of bullets, note the smile on her face as she pulls the trigger to her hearts content. It's safe to say that her shoulder was sore for some days afterward! Shortly thereafter we went on her first waterfowl expedition. Dad was kind enough to help as we wanted to float the Grand River. We parked our truck downriver and he took us (and the canoe) back upriver to drop