Coming soon…
Friday, June 11th, 2010 | Ozzy
Two weeks from today, this little guy, Ozzy, will be joining our family.
I was going to hold off until we had him, but the cat is out of the bag and many people know. So…what the heck.
We are currently getting ready-which means we’re hauling crates upstairs, getting new beds (even for the other dogs), cleaning carpets (it can stink having a 13.5 year old basset hound), getting collars and tags, making sure we have enough food, etc. The puppy proofing will probably start next weekend. I guess the new fence (which got finished on Wednesday night) is part of this process too.
So check back in two weeks for sure. The pictures and stories will be plentiful. And the pee will be flowing.
No fence!
Monday, June 7th, 2010 | Beowulf, Indigo
I must tell you about all the fun this weekend. We’re having a new fence put in this week, so the old one came down on Saturday, and the new posts were sunk in concrete. They need to dry for another day still, so we have no fence right now. Which means that we have to take Indy out on a leash, and she is not always quick about doing her business. That, and she’s extremely interested in the other yards she can see. I can’t say I blame her – those yards have dogs, and she’s never seen them before. Lucky for us, Beowulf can go out off leash. If he bolts, we can catch him without even jogging. He’s old, you know?
The absolute best part of this whole deal is that it rained on and off the entire weekend. Let me tell you how great it is to go outside with your dogs in the rain at 5am on a Sunday morning. It is freaking fantastic.
That’s all for now.
GSMD National in Springfield
Thursday, June 3rd, 2010 | Indigo, Litter Mates and Swissy Friends
Yes, the National event was last week. Yes, I am just writing about it now. Yes, I am hanging my head in shame.
The event was held in Springfield, Illinois at the fairgrounds. Because I have a few things coming up that require me to take vacation, I wasn’t able to make it for the entire week. That’s ok, though. I didn’t have any dog to show, and we haven’t been competing in any working events. (Yet.)
Indy and I drove down on Wednesday night and made it early enough to see some of the Top 20 event. The building was quite warm, and the area outside was very wet and muddy from all the rain they’d had during the week. We stayed for a little while and spoke to a few people, then headed back to the hotel.
Getting into the hotel room for the first time (with Indy) was rather interesting. I had already carried our stuff into the room before I took the last load (computer bag, purse) and the dog. Well, we got to the room, and Indy decided she didn’t want to cross the threshold. She braced herself on the ground, pulled, and was out of her collar. As she ran around the parking lot freaking me out, my hotel room door was wide open with her leash and collar on the floor. In hindsight, I should have picked that up first and then hauled arse to get Indy, but I wasn’t thinking too clearly. I just reacted as I was worried about cars in the lot. We played chase for a bit. I caught her by the scruff once, then lost her and caught her again. My (cheap but favorite) Crocs sandals were muddy and ripped. Yup, ruined. But I did finally get her in the door after much embarrassment and perhaps a bit of anger. Go figure, nobody helped.
After things calmed down a bit, we wandered around the grounds and ran into a few people. We met a cute Entlebucher named Kip. Yes, I want to steal him. And I learned that his breed is pronounced “entleebucher.” I still want to steal him.
The next morning, we showed up for the “how to” weight pull event, and then watched the weight pull. I’ve never been able to make one of the Lake Shore Club pulls before, so this was great. I was able to try on a harness and determine what size Indy wears. I wanted to get her to pull the big cart since we’ve tried tires and other smaller things, but I didn’t want to do it during the event because I thought that would stress Indy a bit too much for her first time. Well, that never happened. I’ll get her at the next Lake Shore event…
It was a lot of fun to watch the event. I took some pictures (to follow) and pretty much passed Indy around to strange people as much as possible. Well, I guess only one of them was actually a stranger to her. She did very well. A wonderful Swissy named Bridger (check out the skijoring article for more about him and his human), won the event pulling 4009.8 pounds, which is over 35 times his body weight. It was fantastic watching the two of them–they are a great team.
So, I did take a few pics. The lighting was poor, and I have been too lazy to touch them up. My apologies. But I don’t want to wait any longer to post, or it just won’t happen.
Here’s Monty in the “intro to” part of the day. They start them off on a smallish tire to get them used to the harness and having something move behind them.
Indy and her nervous ears posing.
Our friend Tank resting between pulls.
People will do all sorts of things to get their dog to pull.
Moose Moose talking back.
Here’s Louie and his human. Brian is trying to convince Louie to pull. It was Louie’s first weight pull event.
Here’s Bridger and Teresa after the record breaking pull. I cannot take credit for this picture…
That’s it for now! Thanks for reading.
RIP, Copper
Monday, May 31st, 2010 | Litter Mates and Swissy Friends
Epilepsy really stinks.
Some of my favorite people had to let their wonderful Swissy, Copper, go to the bridge last night. Copper had been suffering from epilepsy for some time now and put up an incredible fight. But it was time.
Copper got to spend some time at the beach yesterday – one of his favorite places. Check out his beautiful Swissy Smile.
Please think good thoughts for Copper’s family right now. He would want all of us to remember the good times, I think.
Run free, Copper. I’m sure Gryffin and Luna were there waiting for you.
His face melted!
Monday, May 24th, 2010 | Beowulf
Well, that’s what it looked like.
After Beowulf’s last storm-phobic incident, I contacted the vet to get some tranquilizers for him (or me?) to calm him down. They instructed me to start with 1 pill, but he may need as many as 3 due to his weight.
Thursday night rolls around. We’re supposed to get rain, but I didn’t know if there would be a storm or not. I decided not to chance it. The vet also said it may take up to 2 hours for the tranquilizer to take effect, so I gave Beowulf 1 pill (in peanut butter, natch) and waited.
Within 30 minutes, he was barely functional.
I wanted to get him gated upstairs so there was no chance of falling, and he gave me a glazed over look from the stair landing when I called him. He tried working his legs to come up, but he couldn’t quite figure out those pesky rear legs, so I provided an assist up the stairs, then Dan carried him to his final destination. The membrane lids were almost completely covering his eyes, and he looked creepy.
Flash forward to Friday morning around 5:30am. He did wake up, but required a little prodding. He was able to get him down the hall, downstairs, through the first floor and outside, but he never moved. I felt guilty. When I let him back in, he plodded up the stairs to the landing and remained there for a while, showing no interest in anything but sleep. He did seem very happy and gave me a nice (small) tail wag every time I walked by.
I got several updates throughout the day from Dan, who mentioned that he seemed to lose control of those rear legs again. Somewhere in the noon to 2pm range he woke up, but the membrane lid was still half up. Dan’s description of Beowulf made me laugh so hard – he said it looks like his face melted! The funny thing was that he finally looked all droopy like a basset is supposed to.
I still feel a little guilty because there was no storm. Next time is half a pill only.
Dog Park Trip
Tuesday, May 18th, 2010 | Indigo, Litter Mates and Swissy Friends
We had one of our favorite guests this weekend – Basja the Blue Dane. Since the weather was gorgeous on Sunday, we opted for a morning at the off leash park (Katherine Legge Memorial Park) with our Swissy friend, Vasey.
Basja and Vasey spent a few days with each other back in February. Remember when we were dog sitting for all the people fortunate enough to spend time in Hawaii? So they know each other. They did the whole air kiss thing upon meeting.
Of course there was butt sniffing with each other and the new dogs they met.
And there was general silliness and playing.
And of course, Indy poses for pictures. We have her trained well.
Diego the Dane was fascinated with Vasey.
I know this is a boring pic, but it’s just to show you that a lot of people were out at 8am on Sunday at the dog park.
Diego kept coming back to Vasey.
Indy doing her kangaroo impression.
Chew toy? Or another dog?
Tobias the DDB with Indy.
Please tell me why my girl dog loves rolling in wet grass so much?
This is Fred the Newf. He apparently likes kids a lot. As in jumps on them and knocks them over. So he was leashed since there were quite a few.
If there’s a Basset, I will take his/her picture.
Our esteemed weekend guest.
Why is it large dogs are attracted to Beagles?
One last quick romp…
Then it was time for home. The park is no longer considered off leash at 9am. Sad. But the dogs were happy and tired.
Thanks for looking!
Silly Swissy Stuff
Friday, May 14th, 2010 | Indigo
I haven’t had too much exciting to post on lately. I will endeavor to have a more interesting, dog-centered life.
In the meanwhile, you get a silly Swissy story.
For the longest time, Indy would not go into the upstairs bathroom. She would go into the kitchen and the downstairs bathroom, which have the same tile floor, and more of it. I always found it odd because the upstairs floor is EXACTLY THE SAME. A few months ago, she got brave again and started venturing in. It’s nice to have company sometimes, right? (Is that TMI?)
I was in my office the other day shortly after I got home and she was whining and crying. I figured that Beowulf was in her way, had her bone, or perhaps a toy she wanted. Upon investigation, I found her stuck in the bathroom on the rug unable to move. Did the floor become lava or something? I finally got her to exit, but she was so freaked out, she made herself slip.
Swissies are nut jobs.
Search
Categories
- Alex (13)
- Beowulf (56)
- Canine Cancer (2)
- Dogs (50)
- Gryffindor (81)
- Indigo (151)
- Litter Mates and Swissy Friends (17)
- Ozzy (17)
- Random Stuff (77)
- Swiss Lick Swissies Canine Cancer Fund (1)
- Uncategorized (5)