Sad Day

Yesterday, I came home, and found the puffer had passed away. :( It was probably a combination of the isopods attacking him and the stress from being moved back to the quarantine tank. Talk about a real bummer.

So last night, armed with a spark of vengeance, I decided to try to catch some of the nasty bugs. I attached a long pipette to a hose and tried to siphon some of them out, but they were too fast. So then I cut a hunk of raw fish, and set it in a trap and put it on the bottom of the tank. Unfortunately, they didn't go for it.

However, the raw fish seemed like it might have drawn out the big bug, because a little while later, I spotted it sitting out front among the little guys.

Just seeing the big one made me mad, and I was determined to get my revenge. So I picked up my pipette and hose again, started a siphon, and reached in to try to suck it up. It didn't even move when I got close, probably being too satiated with food. At first I couldn't seem to suck it up, but then all of a sudden it went "whoompf!" into the tip of my pipette. It was a little too big for the opening, and got stuck, but after a second it went all the way up.

I took a photo of the nasty little beast.

I considered putting it in the microwave and nuking it, but by that point I was just too grossed out by it that I ended up just putting it down the garbage disposal. Good riddance, ya little fucker.

Agility

Before all that exciting bug hunting, we had Bandit's last agility class. We tried out the teeter for the first time, and Bandit nearly slipped off. This, of course, scared him, and it was hard to coax him over. He went over a couple times, reluctantly, but slipped again, at which point he refused to go on it anymore.

We also linked all the jumps and tunnels this time, to make one long run, and except for him stopping at one spot where someone had dropped a bunch of treats earlier, he made it through the whole thing. Everyone said it looked great, and boy, does he have a lot of speed. I was so out of breath by the time we were done (the handler has to run alongside the dog to tell him where to go).

We ended up signing him up for the next class, which starts next Monday. All in all, it's turning out to be a pretty fun thing to do with the dog. It's pretty neat feeling like you're working as a team (even if one half is just working for treats).