it’s the simple things

If it’s round, I like it.

If it’s round and squeaks, I love it.

If it’s round and squeaks and I can take it to the park to play fetch & tug, I FREAK!!

So far it’s been a good winter, I went to see the Scoofadoofalous

And he came to spend Christmas with me

I got a new walking light

And it works like a charm for night time walks with slightly crazy seesters

but don’t you worry, i’m still making it to the field for long runs and exploration

So you see winter has been full of simple pleasures for this ruff & tumble pup and at the end of the day I still get a chance to relax with my baby.

Sick as a dog

It’s been a tough week in my little corner of the family room.  I started coughing Tuesday morning and the rest of the day went down hill fast.  Mom & dad were very worried so Wednesday morning mom took me to the doctor and low and behold I’ve managed to become infected with some version of “kennel cough”.  The doctor visit was a little scary since I generally don’t like visiting the doctor but a few good things did come out of the visit.

First we discovered I’ve lost a few pounds.  I’m a svelte 89 lbs of lean mean fightin’ machine:). Second I got to see a few other dogs (I love all dogs and impromptu visits are always a plus). Third everyone loved me and lastly the doctor prescribed some antibiotics that have made me feel a whole lot better.  So I’m on the mend folks and I’ll be good as new by the weekend

too sexy for myself

I was just going for the ball and never even realized how incredibly sexy I looked.  Then I saw the pic and just had to share it with everyone. Yep I was back in Canada (not braggin’ or anything but it was my 3rd time and I’m not even 3 years old).  In fact I even attracted a white fluff of a dog, who was just drawn to me like a magnet.

This is Hunter who ran to greet me the moment I emerged from my first swim in the lake.  He was pretty cool and hung out for a while but we stay for 2 weeks and he only stayed for a couple of days. In fact I got some new things just special for this trip.

Mom thought i needed a new travel bed with a secret zippered pouch to hide baby in.  It turned out to be pretty sweet for sleeping at camp.

And here’s the water toy that I love so much most of the pictures of me include this toy in some form or another.

I liked this ball so much(it is Clancy’s) that when we got home mom & dad drove all the way to cabelas to get me my very own ball.  I love it and so does Scoobie Doo btw.

Speaking of Scoobie, I’ve been going to Pittsburgh quite frequently.  It’s a fairly quick drive and I really love Rach’s house.

She hands out goodies pretty easily.  Scoob tells me that he’s the boss of his mom.  We go on long hilly walks and I’m getting much better at stairs.

Actually this has been a summer of change for me.  I’m learning alot of new skills.  For instance, I can jump pretty easily out of the boat now.

I shake when ever dad asks me to.

and I am still the KING of retrieving the biggest sticks eva.

And my parents love me more today than they did yesterday and the day before that and the day before that!

come on in . . .

the water’s great.  and it’s actually warmer once you put on your fur coat and swim awhile:)

so finally we hooked up the boat and headed to the lake for the day.  Yippee.  I’m so happy every time i look out the window and see the boat behind us because i just know it’s going to be a day of fishing and swimming and running around.

the water level at the launch at Elijah was more than a little high.  the road leading to the dock and the dock poles were all under water.  i didn’t see the problem but mom was a little concerned because she has to back the boat in the water and she wasn’t as confident as she usually is (all braggy and stuff).  but all went well and soon enough we were on our boat heading down the lake.

and the sun was out for once.  so we cruised up the lake in search of brian, megsie and the mouse.

we found brian and megsie but no mouse!  they gave some lame excuse that the water was to high and they didn’t know how he would get on the boat and yada yada yada.  sounds like a lot of bull to me but not my loss, sucked for the mouse though. so we just tooled around for a while then headed back to the launch where i knew i would be swimming like a fool

and i found sticks and chewed sticks

then we headed home where i knew it would be time for my dinner and butter

and after a weekend full of sun and swimming and i did visit the mouse on Saturday, i was so tired that i simply crashed on the deck.

it was a really good day.

baby steppin’

i’m doing the work, i am.  baby steps (literally) but there are a freakin’ ton of them

my first trip to the big city and i do stairs. woo hoo finally able to start to conquer one of my phobias.  a couple of weeks ago we took a trip to Pittsburgh to visit Scooby Doo and i was a little excited and nervous on the trip down cause we were in Meg’s jeep and i didn’t quite recognize the route we were taking.

thank God mom brought baby so that i had something to calm me down after we got there because i’ve got to admit i’m not the most laid back pup you’ll ever meet:)

But i do like to try new things and new places as long as i bring my mom & dad and my baby.

spring’s been a little wet in our neck of the woods too and dad thought he would rope off some areas of my back yard so that he could get the grass to come up and eliminate some of the mud but . . . .

he didn’t tell me i wasn’t supposed to go into the roped off areas because it’s not as easy to get out and you can see Tiger (my cat sister) taunting me from the deck.

i did finally manage to escape and mom was hanging on the deck so i found my favorite outside toy to roll around till i got tired

all in all there have not been many nice days to write about so mostly i have to find ways to entertain myself inside after our walks.  usually i can con dad into playing with me

until we both get tired and take a little snooze

then i have to endure a photo shoot with my camera obsessed mom until she gets “just the right close-up”

lemme go, lemme go

i’ve been dreamin’ about this for awhile now and i just wanted to tear up this field.

we even stopped on our way to the field and picked up the Hubbard’s & Clancy ‘cuz a run is always more fun with a buddy.

most of the snow has melted, the ground isn’t too soft and muddy and the sun was shining. this is about as close to a perfect day as you’ll get in our neck of the woods in March.

all in all it has been a long winter but that just gives me more time inside with my rents.  we’ve bonded, they spoil me rotten and we have some pretty sweet routines.  for instance, dad comes home from work and sits on the couch to scratch me while i wake up from my nap, then it’s dinner, butter and mom gets home.  then we walk and hang out and some nights i get a bone.  right before bed both parents lay down on the floor with me and massage and scratch me some more.  i get brushed a couple of times a week, toweled off when i’m wet or muddy,

run errands in the car,

visit my buds, Mickey & Maddie and i’m going to Pittsburgh soon to visit Scoobie Doo. so expect to see a lot more action here because i’ve got big plans comin up.  for now a parting shot with my favorite lady . . . MY MOM

winter blows!

it’s not that i mind the cold weather or snow or wind or ice or even the short days, it’s that the ‘rents can’t take me to the field every weekend and i can’t swim and i went to see the vet and she said i should lose a few LBS!  Whoops, did she not read the first sentence of this post, I’M NOT GETTING ENOUGH EXERCISE PEOPLE!!

everything started quite beautifully in december when Scoobie Doo came to stay for three whole weeks.  mom went shopping one day and just came home with him. man was i surprised.

he set up his “station” upstairs

and stole my favorite bed

but all was forgiven when we got to playing.  Scoob likes to play outside as much as i do.

Scoob is also a “humper” (porn alert) scoob was relentless with the humping and we tooks pics so his mom (who thinks scoob is a saint) would believe the humping.

then Christmas came and we got toys to rip up

and extra marrow bones to chew and then (hold your excitement) we went to the field!! can you believe it??

we ran and found sticks and Scoob is even more fun in the field.  so the holidays zipped by with mom home, scoob & me rippin’ things up and ringing in the new year with a bang.

and then IT happened . . . scoobie went home:( and the doldrums ho hums set in for me.  however, mom was baking cookies like a mad woman but dad wasn’t allowed to eat any and megsie was bossin’ us all up.

but time passed and January was coming to a close when all of a sudden mom stayed home during the week and scoobie doo came back.  but he was with his mom this time. i was so excited to see the scoobster that i even went upstairs to play while he was here.

then the big event where all the cookies were going was about to happen.

and me n scoob were headed to dog camp.  scoob was a little nervous but i’ve been there lots so i was excited.  i knew i could show scoob around and he would love it and i was right, again, and we spent the weekend and we both had a blast.

now January is over, my seester is married

and my vet report is an unfortunate truth so i’m cutting back and changing to peanut butter/pumpkin mousse filled frozen kongs, less food, barely any cookies and Tony isn’t allowed to throw treats over the fence.

let’s just hope the snow slows and the sun continues to shine, February flies by and i’m wallowing in a mud puddle in the field soon.

catch ya on the flip side peeps xo

Thankful

i want to take a moment before all the hustle and bustle and cooking and cleaning and seesters arriving to be thankful.  i’m healthy and freakin’ happy and generally in God’s good graces 99.9% of the time (we won’t talk about the 0.1% k?)

so here we go . . . i’m thankful for toys to shred

and a dad to play with

and crazy sisters

who dress up their dogs (Scooby this is just wrong in so many ways)

Thankful for normal buds like Mickie Mouse (thanks for helping me go upstairs)

we can’t leave out the bridezilla who appeared this year (shhh sneak peek at the dress)

thankful that Louie & Lindsay & Hillary like me (and are coming for a visit this weekend I hear)

thankful for peanutbutter and bones and walks and scratches and kisses and Tony & Gary

& Clancy

and shoes to threaten with and having 3 beds (okay one is actually the couch) and having a boat and fishing camp and lakes and a MOM that loves me so much that her heart is bursting out of her chest when we’re just hangin’ around together.

So don’t forget to love the ones you’re with each and every day.

fallin’ back

“whereas in autumn the clock jumps backward from 02:00 DST to 01:00 standard time, repeating that hour, and that day has 25 hours.”

So you’d think that would give me more time to update you all on my life, but alas that has not happened.  I’ve been incredibly busy peeps.

Fall always brings lots of hikes in the field where mom has to start by photographing our trek and dad complains that she’s taking too long snapping those pics but secretly he likes to look at them when he’s missing me.

And all my ‘seesters’ came to visit. Wow was that wild and crazy having all those girlie girls in the house.  Now I know what it must have been like for dad before I came along.  That’s alot of makeup and jewelry and pretty clothes and shoes with really high heels and there was a little black dog with them.

LOUIE!! He’s just a smidge crazy.  He kind of gobbles when he gets around me.  Not sure what that’s all about but dad says I should just be nice and ignore the gobbles.  I did and it was pretty easy cause the girls were keeping me busy.

We’re still walking the town route every night.  And even though I don’t get to run, I do get to walk right between my rents for about an hour each night and now that we’ve fallen back, i have a really cool light (pic below and you can get one here) I get to wear so every one knows it’s me, Mr. Coupe De Ville, comin’ through.

So fall’s been really good to me, watching the corn be harvested in the fields while running with my dad.

Hangin’ on Sundays to watch our favorite football team

Making a few road trips

Ripping into new toys

Whining just a little for attention

And after all the fun weekends I get to take the time to get my rest so we can start this party all over again each week.

Life is good peeps, life is really good.

it’s a dog’s dream vacation

in my wildest dreams

i could not have imagined a vacation as fun as this one

we fished (mom’s blog has more details on that)and swamand chewed retrieved sticksand although it was hot and i mean really hoti was able to stay cool by hangin with my mom on the boat

and we played silly games sometimes (i’m hiding behind the bush)but mostly i got tons of attention (love my chest scratches)while the Clance-man got in trouble for getting in the mud

i would sleep like a baby on my new bedso even though there might have been a few mishaps (getting out of a maze is harder than getting in)i really was king of my world (for a couple of weeks anyhow)and because i take after my mom here is a list to sum up 2010 vacation

• having a four-legged friend (aka Clancy) along makes neck biting playing a lot more fun
• you still get a frozen peanutbutter filled kong every night on vacation
• you get more food on vacation
• you can swim anytime you want (as long as you pretend you’re just going for a potty break and then when no one’s looking beat feet for the water)
• you really should shake off the water at the shore not in the cabin
• there are lots of tennis balls that other people leave behind (you just need to know how to sniff them out)
• fans keep you cool and aren’t as scary as they first appear