Target called again!

Today I got to skip out of work to spend a fun day with the little dogs. We got a call from our "agent" on Sunday telling us that Target was interested in the Klee Kai for their yearly costume shoot again. Last week was their big week where they were shooting from Monday through Friday and this week was pretty much just getting the stuff they missed.

Last week I was just dreading a call from Barbara. Not because I didn't want to do it (duh), but because my work week was just horrendous and filling up with meetings day after day. I knew there was no way I'd be able to get out of work and the last thing I wanted to do was to have to tell Barbara/Target, "no." I was so glad when Barbara called on Sunday and said that she needed us for Wednesday. I did a quick mental check of my meetings for the coming week and I was pretty certain Wednesday was wide open. Hooray! We could go!

Then it proceeded to get very warm... It was 54 degrees on Monday! Everything was melting and muddy -- and here I was, needing to give two Klee Kai a bath -- AND keep them clean. Argh. Lucky for me, I guess, the temperature dropped last night and froze everything up again. The dogs all got locked out of the big yard last night to keep them from going through the 4" puddle at the gate, but this morning I was able to open it again for everyone. Thankfully everyone stayed clean for our big day!

I wasn't sure what we'd be modeling today. Remembering back to our experience last year, we went up during the main week and Kaiser wore five different costumes for them. Then we got called to come back the following Wednesday or Thursday, where he ended up wearing the winter jackets. Because of that, I was pretty much figuring they wanted the little Northern breed dogs to model the winter wear again, but nope, they were still wrapping up costumes.

Kaiser was batting clean-up and was the last dog to be shot. They were actually calling and canceling other dogs that were scheduled for the day because they ended up getting everything they needed ahead of schedule. That meant that Kizzy ended up not getting her chance to shine in the spotlight this time, but she did make a good impression by being a good girl the entire time we were there. I played tug with her while we waited our turn and she was a SUPER good girl sitting in the crate by the production crew while Kaiser got his photo taken. I made sure to step over and give her treats during breaks to reward her good behavior.

Kaiser ended up just wearing the one costume -- a dinosaur -- and then we were done. We thought they were going to do a second costume -- the hot dog -- but it turns out the other set had gotten a couple of dogs in the small costume already and they figured they had enough to choose from. Bummer. Oh well, we'll look for Kaiser on the dinosaur costume this fall! It will be much easier than digging through the five costumes he wore last year to see which one he was chosen for (reminder, he was a bee!).

They did things differently this year, which surprised me. They kept taking pictures of Kaiser just wearing the body of the costume (without the head piece). At first I was like, are they just doing this to test the lighting? Then I learned that they have decided it's "easier" to take the shots separately and then Photoshop them together. Seriously! So they took the body shots, took the costume off, put the head piece on and then shot that. They said they feel it's easier on the dog to do it this way, but I was like, don't you even want to try to do it all at once and save yourself all that post-production work? Oh well, that just makes me even more interested to see the final result. I'll be looking at all of the packages in a new light this year!

We made a special trip down to Northfield, MN on our way hope to stop at CakeWalk bakery. This is the favorite part of our photo shoot journeys.  :o)  Okay, probably mine more so than the dogs since they just sit in the car. Yesterday was my dad's 60th birthday and we didn't even so much as get him a cake, so this was my way to make up for that. I sent half of the cupcakes home with him tonight because lord knows I don't need six. Okay, I don't need three, either, but whatever. I always lament how La Crosse doesn't have a cupcake store, but it's probably a good thing that we don't.

Considering she didn't really do anything all day, Kizzy was amazingly well behaved. She did her usual little yodel in the crate at the start of each leg but then settled right in for the trip. I felt bad that she was stuck in a crate by herself, but I borrowed my parent's car and wasn't able to actually get the big crate into the back seat (well, maybe I could have if I assembled it in the car, but I didn't think it was worth the hassle). So Kizzy was stuck in the small crate while Kaiser got the spot next to her.

Pretty sure he thought this arrangement was just swell.  :o)

Our last stop on the way home was to hit the car wash. I recently got a handful of free car wash tokens when the car wash broke as I was waiting in line, so I figured I'd share the love with my dad for letting me take his car for the day. Kaiser acted surprised when the sprayer went by on the highest pressure setting, but they were both pretty unfazed by the whole thing.

We got home around 3:30, which left us plenty of time to squeeze in a nice walk before settling in for the night. I was back in a hat and gloves because it's still chilly, but the roads are clear and it's so nice to be back out again! Monday was our first time out walking again and everyone was a bit nuts from being so happy to get out of the house. Everyone was still very excited tonight (aren't they always), but it wasn't quite like trying to fly four kites at once this time.

It will warm up again over the next couple of days. There is still a lot of melting that needs to happen in my back yard, so I'm expecting that we won't get to do much back there for at least a couple of weeks. It will be so nice to have winter behind us and be able to start training again!