November 2011 Blog Posts (77)

This has been a lovely experience and it is almost over. I have met great new people (the new owners) and have had a chance to spend 8 terrific weeks with the 8 terrific pups--now we must prepare for the big send-off. I will be keeping a few at home a bit longer--they are staying in my breeder's program and will stay here until they go with her or to guardian homes. One is the red wool pup--his official name is now Sorcerer's Apprentice and his call name is Presto!

The other is Honey…

Every year, it seems that we start putting up Christmas earlier and earlier.  When I was growing up, we put our tree up the week before Christmas and my dad passed out funny gifts that he picked out for us based on things we had done that year. One year, I made him spaghetti and the recipe called for a cup of onions. I didn’t have real onions, so I put in a whole cup of dehydrated onions. Needless to say, I think we went out to dinner that…

My daughter and her bf moved to Boston after graduating from college.  Why?  Cause its a great city, lots of opportunities.  yeah sure....... took like a year and  a half till they both found real jobs in their fields of study.  Obviously as a mom I have been very worried.  I send money (unsolicited) but I knew damn well that that 25 pound bag of rice would only last so long. They have lived very very lean, no car, no cable for tv and so forth.  However no complaints nor requests, which of…

I just had to share this...

On my way home from work today I was talking to my husband on my cell phone. He was already home with the pups.  He had let them outside and was having a hard time getting them to come back inside.  They were standing right by the door being their usual snotty selves and refusing to actually step foot in the house.  I told my husband, put me on speaker phone.  Once he did, I said to them, "Seamus, Stella come inside and wait for mom by the door."  It…

I thought this was so funny.  Two of the local pet boutiques in town are advertising turkey day dinner for your pets.  This made me giggle. 

All products are organic...

 …

Yeah,

Bailey passed Basic Obedience Class last night. 

 It has been a tough 6 weeks for us.  Our class only consisted of 2 pups.  the other was a very out of control giant Schnauzer (sp).  I felt so bad for the dog.  The owner had not a clue and you could tell she wasn't working with her at home.  In class last week she actually hit her dog.  I thought "Wally the Trainer" was going to blow a gasket.  He took a deep breath, looked at her and told her in a…

My mom has had Barley for almost 3 weeks now.  He's had all of his shots, been groomed, and been neutered.  He's spent a lot of time with Halas, and they are getting along great.  Halas loves getting Barley to chase him around, and they take turns stealing toys from each other.  I figured Halas would have an influence on Barley, but I think Barley is having an influence on Halas, too.  Barley is either making Halas more brave, or Halas just doesn't want anyone to think that Barley can do…

It was announced that Philadelphia Eagles quarterback and dog murderer Michael Vick suffered broken ribs in Sunday's game.  The "DREAM TEAM" Eagles lost to the last place Arizona Cardinals.

For comments on Vick's injury see here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLl_IOK3dVw

Bedtime is pretty routine in our household.  Riley goes out at around 11 pm and we all go to bed, he goes to his comfy one on the floor at the end of ours and we all go to sleep.  Usually I am woken around 7.30 with a lick or a tiny whine which means he wants to go out.  Last night was a little different.  At 5.30 am  Riley woke me, so I got up thinking he needed to go out and muttering to myself that I must lift his water earlier in the evening.  I usually follow him and he usually heads…

I am getting ready for my Christmas cookie party in a couple of weeks and frankly, I think it is going to kill me. I have been baking and baking and have decided that it is a real shame that when my grandma passed down her recipes, none of them happened to be easy cookies to make like Chocolate Chip cookies. Leading the pack is one cookie that I hate making above all the others. Proving that I come from a long line of creative thinkers and bakers, these…

So my Dh always takes Chloe on an extra long walk in the evening which usually means going to a park about 4 blocks up. It has a nice track to walk around the whole park. Baseball diamonds in the middle and around the perimeter is a skinny section of woods. The far side has a big section of woods. Well, this guy we know always had his dog off leash in the park (not allowed) and now he won't even let the dog in the park. He lives in a house facing the park and saw Dh going there after dusk.…

The puppies are now 6 weeks old and all the people who are buying a pup all came one family at a time over the past three days--it was really fun! They couldn't pick a pup yet because the breeder will not be able to tell them which they can choose from until she makes her decision this week about who will stay in the breeding program--but luckily, everyone felt that every pup would be a good pup to get.

I have been too busy to post much, so i will try to catch you all up--they are…

In October, Halas and I went to a huge flyball tournament in Indianapolis.  Besides ducking out because he's afraid of another collision, he also ran very slowly.  He was really apprehensive, but also tired.  So we got as many positive things out of the weekend as we could, and we worked on a plan going forward.

For the next few weeks, we worked a lot on his drive.  He was apprehensive to leave me to run to the box, so he was running really slowly towards the box.  His speed coming…

DH and I got back last night from a trip to Dallas to stay with my sister and also attend a wedding of a friend from college.  Dood and chihuahua stayed with their grandparents, as usual.  Keep in mind DH and I are big travelers and the dogs stay with my parents at least once a month - they have since Peri was probably 5 months old. In return, we keep their terrier (aka Lucy the Imposter) when they go out of town, which is also frequent! 

Their backyard is walled off and has…

This is my daughter Michele at the shower, greeting friends and family. This is my daughter and DIL on left. She is the mommy of my wonderful grandson Ethan.

This is Michele helping her mom get things ready.…

Camus chewed off his stitches the next day after the neutering surgery. The vet had to put him to sleep and sew him again. Other than that Camus looked happy.

The nurse said: "if your dog doesn't eat very well or don't eat at all, don't worry. It's normal". Camus eat full bowl of food right after coming home. 

The day before surgery we moved to a new house. Painting the house with a puppy like Camus is not easy. Now, not only the house is painted but also the Camus's…

Most of you know that two weeks ago we had to make an unexpected trip to Maine because DH's Dad passed away.  The boys went to Daycare for a couple of days while we were gone.  Of course, I was worried sick about leaving them.  It seems that all that worry was in vain, because they were partying the whole time we were away.  There were a few dogs boarding that weekend, and the owner of the Daycare planned a little Howl-ween party for them.  She had no idea that they were charter members of…

Woo-hoo, my first router! Cool! Should be able to learn how to use it, shouldn't I? Oh well, it makes the guys at work nervous just knowing I have one and that's half the fun!



Dang, gotta assemble the table before I can router something. Is router a verb? Hmmm ... to router ... routered ... oh never mind, I wanna play with it!



Right. Attach the sides to the back. Uh-huh. Which bit you reckon's the back, boys? I love the way instructions always say things like "using 2…

A few months ago, we participated in a walk-run charity event in the park. Each lap participants made, a dogfood company donates a 15kg bag of dogfood to a dog shelter which is under the Royal Patronage of Princess Pa.

One of the photographers there took a picture of us (Chewie, DH and I) and the published it in a leading national magazine under social section. Here's the picture of that page.…