Today is Monty's birthday.  He received an entire cooked chicken breast instead of a tablespoon of chicken on his food.  He ate nearly his entire dish of food which never happens.  We have finally retired to the hot, hot deck (large fan running of course, and ice cubes in his water dish)  He thought the Frosty Paws treat was a nice touch. 

How do you spoil/treat a dog that is spoiled everyday?  lol

As some of you may know, our little family is embarking on a 25-hour journey today to New York.  We are making the pilgrimage home to introduce the Milt to the fam.  Last year I went home for the entire summer, but this year I didn't want to keep Milton away from his daddy too long, so it will just be a two week vacation.  This little jaunt is also to fulfill my own desire of a cross country road trip. All of the naysayers who spoke out against it actually encouraged me to do…

As many of you know and have been kind enough to ask about, I have poison ivy and it has not been fun.  In the past, I had no respect for the power of this plant because I have never had poison ivy before.  As a kid, I played out all day and I am sure I came in contact with this plant many times and I guess because nothing came of it, I developed a cavalier attitude and even scoffed at anyone who tried to warn me of the dangers.  Sometimes, when we would hike, my husband would point to…

Called a new groomer, she asked for all kinds of information as I was first time client.  At the end of conversation she asked:" Is Charles neutered?"   I said "Yes", but my dog's name is " Riley".  There was just silence on the line, then she said: " I asked, for the dog's name".  LOL.   My, SNL has been cutting him for the years, she is going in for an operation and had to take him to someone new.  It is just too hard on her right now.   We, will see! 

I knew that already, but just happened to notice my new status on my page.  Such fun to join such an illustrious group!

This past week, my husband was away on business.  Last time, he left me all alone with our daughter, the power went out for the entire weekend and I swore he wasn’t going to get away from me again.  Unfortunately, his work does not seem to think being married to a hapless woman is reason enough to skip a conference.  He also didn’t seem to care when I said, “if you leave me, I might not be here when you get back,” because all he said was that was like telling him if he ate a steak dinner…

So, I have been mulling over what "part 2" would be for quite some time. Ollie will be one on July 29th, crazy right? It

feels like yesterday that I was posting on here with tears in my eyes about a different puppy who I had to pass by, and then with some help found Ollie. People kept saying (on here and in face-to-face life) that there must be a reason why I did not get that first…

I had a conference to attend in San Diego in June and since my DH's son is in NAVY and stationed in San Diego, we've decided to make this a family vacation. So instead of me flying to the conference by myself, we drove from Denver to San Diego with Monty. This was Monty's first long trip and I have to admit, I was not sure what to expect. To my great relief, he did just great. In fact, I believe he was born to travel. He slept most of the time while the car was moving.…

Lee and I are active members of Ebenezer Baptist Church. We attend regularly, and to the boys, the word “church” seems to have its own meaning like the commands “sit” or “stay.” They act as if they comprehend this to be one of a few places totally off limits to them – once a week.

Our Sunday morning routine is unlike any other day of the week, so perhaps that’s what helps them differentiate from a weekday.…

Well, it finally happened, we moved. It actually happened a couple of weeks ago but I haven't been very diligent  in photographing the new place. I decided to just update all of you with the pictures I do have. 

So, we put down our deposit and packed our stuff, and prepared to move. For those of you who don't know, we've been living at the in-laws while we save money for school. It was supposed to be about 3 months, it ended up being 8. While being there was a bit tough at…

Poor Murphy has had a rough week. He started with a flaming red ear last Tuesday morning and then the head shaking, scratching and black gonky ears. Ofcourse we can't forget the smell. So I treated with Zymox with hydrocortisone for a few days to see what I could do at home, which helped about 50%, and as that was getting better, I noticed him licking his paw. This went on for a day or so when I decided its becoming a problem, so I assessed it and found a big tight mat. Ok, cut the mat, that…

It's been awhile since I've been able to run out the door, leash in hand, chasing down a loose, stray, or escaped dog.  Before kids, I was out there quite frequently, running after dogs walking themselves. But this morning the little gray, scruffy, terrier-ish dog who passed by our house, loose again was begging me to get back into the swing of my volunteer animal control gear ;-)

This was the third time we'd seen it pass and I was determined to find out where it came from. …

We have now been on RMB for nearly 6 months and Paddy is doing extremely well.  Last year at this time, he had had one long, continuous ear infection -- we'd get it treated and cleared up, then as soon as we finished the treatments, we'd be back at the vet's with another one.  This year, since January, he has had only one ear infection, and that was in, I think, March.  Yes, he still itches pretty regularly, but he has no hot spots, very little discoloration on his feet and around his mouth,…

A FATHER’S DAY DISCUSSION…

LEO: “So Harley, as far as dad’s go, I think…

I had responded to a post about the loss of news anchor Sue Simmon's.  She had actually did a report about me and my daughter and my unconventional Facebook punishment (she portrayed it wonderfully unlike a LOT of news outlets.  Because of those comments I had a bunch of DKer's message me about our experience with being subject to national news attention...  here is what I posted in the discussion but so everyone that asked see's it I am going to put it out there.

It was back in April…

I was gently nudged by one of my DK friends to write some more musings and today as I watched Riley slosh around in a  muddy stream in the beautiful surroundings of Castletown House it proved the ideal time to let my thoughts drift to memories of childhood.  Castletown (link below)  boasts a large stately house where classical concerts are held on Sundays and hundreds of terrific acres of land which are totally unspoiled. It is the perfect place in which a dog can amble and play while…

They say you always marry someone just like your dad and I don’t know if that is true for everyone, but I can certainly see the similarities between my father and my husband, and I can say with great certainty that my daughter found someone who we all say reminds us of my husband.  My dad was a history teacher and high school basketball coach turned sporting goods salesman.  He had a great sense of humor and loved reading, museums, dry martinis, peanut M & M’s, crossword puzzles, and his…

Ok  - So most nights Takoda sleeps in our bed. There is the occassional night where he does not come to the bed to be picked up and goes under and we don't hear from him till the earrly moring when he wakes me up - about 6:30 AM to be brought into bed to snuggle for the remainding time till we get up.But then there is the ever so chaotic nights that he does sleep in our bed and he turns into a wiggleworm. When the wiggleworm kicks in he seems to move about into a different position every 5…

Wednesday’s can be sort of a difficult day for some of us. Since Wednesday is in the middle of the work week, many people often see it as a “hump” that they must get over in order to get closer to the end of the week, renaming Wednesday as “hump day!”

If Harley and Leo had any inkling about the days of the week, I would bet they’d select Wednesday as their “favorite” day, totally unaware of its “other name”…

If we have a slow start in the…