This post is not for the faint of heart

Yesterday I brought Olney to Ruffia so he could run around like a crazy pup.  Maria Pia met me there and we dusted and put away these chairs they bought from the Irish Cave.  Everyone got something from the pub closing!  So Maria Pia and I were inside and Olney was outside running around with his cow bone from Epiphany.  He had buried it outside and knew where to find it.  Then Fabri called to say he was on his way to Ruffia from the hospice and I looked out the window to check on the pupper and saw Olney running around with a dove in his mouth flapping its wings!  I told Fabri that I can't talk, Olney has a bird in his mouth and ran outside to get him to drop it.

Well, he didn't drop it, he killed it and ate it instead.  It was pretty disgusting.  Eventually we got a couple pieces away from him, the head & a wing, but the rest he ate.  I was mad because he was not being obedient and I didn't want him to eat a whole dove.  I don't know how he got it in the first place.  I was worried it was sick, but Olney's always been VERY interested in birds, and if it had been flying low or not paying attention he wouldn't have hesitated to go for it.  Also, it had just been eating (lucky me, I got to see the stomach full of corn) and if it had been sick, it probably wouldn't have just had a large meal.

Then the rest of the afternoon Olney was not listening.  He put up a huge fight about getting in the car to go home and I almost left him in Ruffia.  But when we were back home he was being his usual self and listening to commands.  I think he is less likely to listen when Maria Pia is around because she lets him get away with anything and gives him treats for it!  But I have to reinforce to Olney that my word is law, and he better listen!

From Saluzzo Carnevale

So this post was supposed to be about Carnival in Saluzzo.  This year I went to the parade for the first time with Anna and her peeps.  She goes every year and said this year was the smallest and the fewest people she's seen.  The weather was very bad switching between snow and rain, so I can't blame the crowd for not coming out, also we were at the end of the parade route.  But it was cool to see all the floats.  Also, the whole thing about Carnival is that the people in the parade throw confetti at you and in your face so that you're picking up the little pieces of paper off your floor for weeks!  Thankfully I was warned, and stayed away from the fence when the people were walking by.  But there was one cool float that had a confetti cannon that shot confetti up to the people standing on their balconies watching the parade!

There was a Dante's Divine Comedy Float.

There was a crazy Berlesconi cowboy float.

And there was my favorite, a crab float!  Go MD!!