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[click "Play" to hear Ted Hoff on retrievers]

DSC_0176 Telluride Inside and Out's expert dog trainer Ted Hoff is finally emerging from the nursery. To date in his series, Dog's Best Friend,Ted has talked exclusively about bringing up baby: How to train a pup. With this post, he begins to talk about specific breeds starting with the very popular Retrievers, Labs and Goldens.

Author James Michener wrote about the introduction of Labs to Maryland in his novel "Chesapeake":

"A moment later the stevedore appeared on deck leading by a leash one of the most handsome dogs ever seen in Maryland. He was jet-black, sturdy in his front quarters, sleek and powerful in his hind, with a face so intelligent that it seemed he might speak at any moment. His movements were quick, his dark eyes following every development nearby, yet his disposition appeared so equable he seemed always about to smile.

"'He's called a Labrador,' Lightfoot said. 'Finest huntin' dog ever developed.'"

25 July, 2009 /

July 23 to 30, 2009

Visible Planets: Morning: Venus, Mars and Jupiter  Evening: Mercury and Saturn

Honoring a Brother-In-Arms, Walking on the Moon and Feeling Our Cancer-ruled Emotions

Cynthia, Richard We humans are emotional creatures – the Buddhists use the term “sentient beings” – and we are subject to waves, and sometimes even oceans of emotion.

The Cancer zodiac month, and the three consecutive lunations that took place in Cancer recently - two of which were eclipses - illuminate and constellate the strong connection and partnership that emotions have with the human body, mind and spirit. Cancer is ruled by the Moon, and those born under the sign of Cancer are referred to as Moonchildren. Is it any wonder that man walking on the Moon and Michael Jackson’s moonwalk have been subjects of collective awareness lately?

 Synchronistically, both space age and pop icon moonwalkers bring up plenty of Cancer-fueled emotions. The first contrasts the security, familiarity and comfort of our home planet Earth with the austere, life-forbidding landscape of the Moon. The second reminds us of our primal urge for attention, recognition and praise. Both generate feelings of wonder and awe, shining light upon the personal desire for security and stability, comfort and belonging. We are awakened to our inherent fragility and dependency upon a safe, nurturing, life-sustaining environment in which we can develop, blossom and grow. And emotions play the primary role in determining our quotients of well-being.

1 Recently a very good friend – a member of our extended family - passed from this world on to the world of spirit. His 3D, physical-body earthwalk has ended. He is now walking in another realm, flying in a different dimension.

Mother Teresa and Princess Diana both passed on during the Virgo eclipse cycle of 1996. My own beautiful, sweet niece Lise passed on during the Scorpio eclipse cycle of 1994. Captain Jack Carey, Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, Arturo Giatti and Walter Cronkite passed on during the recent eclipse cycle in Cancer.

24 July, 2009 /

[click "Play" to hear Ted Hoff's thoughts on neutering your dog] Men tend to identify with Lawrence of Arabia and cup their tender bits protectively when the subject comes up. As part of an ongoing series, this week, Telluride Inside...

18 July, 2009 /

July 16 to 23, 2009
Visible Planets: Morning: Venus, Mars, Jupiter  Evening: Saturn

Cosmic Cancer Eclipse Energy: Let Mother Nature Nurture

DSC01561 This week, on July 21st, we experience the celestial event of a New Moon total solar eclipse [it will not be visible in North America] at 29º 26’ Cancer. The recent June 22nd New Moon also took place in Cancer - at 01º 30’ - and the Full Moon lunar eclipse of July 7th came to fruition at 15º 24’ Cancer/Capricorn. That’s a lot of Cancer/Capricorn action and reaction, motion and emotion!

Two consecutive New Moons in the same sign is highly significant, and because these two lunations bracket a lunar eclipse and one of them is a New Moon total solar eclipse, it represents a mega-message for the collective regarding the themes and issues of the sign involved. It's as if the cosmos blasts energy and information via experiences, events and circumstance to the people here on Planet Earth.

17 July, 2009 /

July 9 to 16, 2009

Visible Planets: Morning: Venus, Mars and Jupiter    Evening: Saturn

DSC01512 I can’t stop thinking about Michael Jackson. I know it’s crazy, but it’s true. And even while I’m feeling crazy-busy about getting ready for a two week camping trip up in Idaho - paying bills, packing clothes, doing all the funny-nutty things we do before we leave – his story keeps tracking across my brain – and filling up my heart.

It seems to be all about home and family. Children and parents. Love and success. Working to get recognition for our talents. Feeling good when we do. What an incredibly gifted boy and man. And what a sad, sad end to the fairy tale life.

I watched the memorial service on and off while I was cleaning, organizing, packing, taking care of business and wrapping up loose ends. CNN covered the entire event, commercial-free. And then, on into the evening, we continued to have the boob-box tuned in to coverage of the day. All I can say is that I’m blown away, and I can’t stop thinking about Michael Jackson.

10 July, 2009 /

July 2 to 9, 2009

Visible Planets: Morning: Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter  Evening: Saturn

Michael_jackson_casanova_in_concert Once again, this week’s “eclipse window” opens to some rather stunning world news as the Sun and Moon move into the exact opposition aspect of a lunar eclipse on July 7th. Taking place at 3:21 a.m. MDT @ 15º 24’ Cancer/Capricorn, this particular eclipse illuminates themes of home and family, mother and father, parent and child. Also highlighted are the dichotomies and polarities of traditional parental roles and relationships, themes of nurturing and caretaking, family of origin issues and issues related to professional status, achievement and/or failure.

 The most outstanding collectively experienced media event – and one that perfectly constellates the Cancer/Capricorn archetype – is the death of pop-icon Michael Jackson, his multi-dimensional life story and the multi-faceted jeweled legacy he leaves behind. His unique and eccentric lifestyle, whether a direct or indirect result of his aborted childhood and unusual family conditioning, serves as a rich tapestry for all to examine and reflect upon. The love, nurturing and emotional security characteristically found in childhood at home (Cancer) appears to have been sacrificed for the financial gain, professional achievement and economic success of world-wide recognition, wealth and fame (Capricorn).

03 July, 2009 /

[click "Play" for Ted Hoff's comments on continuing puppy training] Young Telluride families are like families all over the world: parents anticipate terrible twos with the same dread accorded to a trip to the dentist. The terrible twos is the age when their adorable babies...

27 June, 2009 /

June 25 to July 2, 2009

Visible Planets: Morning: Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter  Evening: Saturn

GetAttachment Down here in the West End, the baby bluebirds have left their nests and are learning to fly. They are being fed fresh bugs by their attentive parents as they huddle together on the lower branches of a small ponderosa pine tree in our front yard. Across the mesa, on the Full Circle Ranch, baby raccoons huddle together in the top of an aspen tree and a spotted fawn curls up in the tall, green grass below. Baby colts and fillies nurse in the field next door and tiny baby rabbits run in the forest. The Canadian geese are tending to their goslings and my husband even saw a mother bear and her cub frolicking in a meadow next to Naturita Creek from our canyon rim above it. The roses are starting to bloom and the desert cacti are covered with blossoms. Everywhere I see fresh life being sustained by nature.

The Sun has moved in to the tropical zodiac sign of Cancer, and the sizzling season of summer has begun. In the Northern Hemisphere, this is the season of nurturing and growth, when plants and animals depend upon the nourishing rains and nutritious foods of the Mother Earth for their survival and development. And, it’s a time for us humans to nurture and care-take, to water and weed actual and metaphorical gardens, to take care of our children, our families and ourselves.

26 June, 2009 /