Wordless Wednesday - Stay On Your Side

Big Suck

For the longest time, our Phod was hesitant to get up on the bed and furniture. We assume this wasn't allowed in his first home. He would stand and wait and look at you with sad eyes and only with a lot of encouragement, would he get up on the furniture.

Hailey has never had such a problem, she knows everything is hers and she will sit where she feels like. So get use to it people.

Over the summer, 3 years after joining us, Phod has finally become comfortable with inviting himself up on the furniture. We now have great snuggles on the couch while we watch TV.

 He will also hop up on the bed as we are falling asleep and as we are waking. He does spend most of the night on one of the beds in our room, but will spend more time with us. He snuggles right up so you can pet him.

We have created a great big giant suck. It is the life my sweet, sweet boy deserves and I wouldn't have it any other way!

Mischief Monday - There Was No Contest

Some weeks it is hard to decide who should get our mischief award, but this was not such a week.

This week's mischief award goes to the Man.

It started Thursday night (like 9:30) when the Man mistakenly, but not too surprisingly, believe there was a fire in the freezer attached to the fridge. He was in the kitchen and heard weird "popping" noises in the freezer. When he opened it, it was glowing red, steaming,  hot and popping - really kind of like an electrical fire. The power was cut, the fridge was moved, etc. etc. No wires were chewed but there was mouse poop (vindicating Hailey who had barked at it a lot Wednesday evening). We moved everything from the freezer to the chest freezer in the garage. While I was exploring new fridge options, the Man was perusing the manual and discovered this was apparently normal. Some web research confirmed this. Apparently sometimes the defrost heater in your fridge can be like that. Who knew?  Anyway, we were just relieved to not have to get a new fridge.

Fast-forward to Friday morning. The Man puts a "magic" type bag that his massage therapist has brought (yep, she comes to the house) into the microwave. I was sitting in the dining room and stood up to get some socks as my feet were cold. I look over and the microwave was billowing smoke. The Man had followed the massage therapist's directions and put it in the microwave for 10 minutes. This was too long and it had burnt.  They believe the bowl she had for it may not have been microwave safe. This left our house smoky and smelling of burnt, but fortunately no one was hurt.

We are now hoping for a few fire free, boring days!

Make Up Your Own Holiday Day

Ranger, the holiday guru, said today is make up your own holiday.

After careful consideration, Hailey has declared today "Sun-puddle Appreciation Day".  So find yourself a sun puddle and enjoy!

Spoiled Pup

Phod would like to thank everyone for the concern over his burrs and ball. Many of you asked if we had a backup precious. Precious 3 was the backup. However, this week happened to be my monthly pet store run. While making a list I asked the Man if we needed anything. He said "better get a back up Precious."  I went, got the food I needed and then went to the "Precious" section. Lucky boy, Chuck products were buy 2 get 1 free, and I had a coupon for another $5 off. So I bought 2 packages of balls (Precious 4-7) and a new disk for the winter when Precious hibernates as it just gets lost in the snow.

All of these items have been tucked away in a sneaky hiding place for if/when we need it.

FFHT - Living With The Obsessed

Today we are participating in Murphy and Stanley's FFTH. The rules are simple, write a post using a target sentence.

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Phod has a ball obsession. He will play fetch until he is sick or can barely walk. We have to limit it to keep him healthy.

We keep his ball aka Precious (we are on Precious the 3rd) in a basket inside the garage door. What is suppose to happen is that while I go in to get Hailey's leash and Precious and the chucker, he is to sit and wait in the front hall.  Sometimes this happens, and sometimes it doesn't. It depends how excited he is. Earlier this week he was so excited that when I came in from the garage with Precious he started jumping around like a crazy dog and landed hard on my foot And that's why my toes turned purple. Ok, it wasn't really my toes, it was my foot, but you get the idea. It hurt like heck! Now I am extra careful to tell him to sit and wait as I am coming back in from the garage.

Phody's Bad Day

One day last week, while playing with Precious 2 (the original is still MIA) a terrible thing happened.  Precious 2 bounced deep into the bush.

Phod, never wanting to leave a Precious behind, dove in after it. He came out with Precious but also covered in burrs. He had a least 20 on his belly. Normally, it is easy to get burrs out, but some of these were very deep. I got enough out that he felt comfortable walking and brought him into the house.

I tried to be as gentle as possible, but removing them hurt my boy. He jumped and cried and hid. He broke my heart by acting like he was in trouble for his reaction. The left over reactions of my previously abused dog, angered and upset me. We took it slow and got most out. I did my best to reassure him he was not in trouble, I was trying to help.

Of course all this happened about 15 minutes before I had to leave for work, so we did our best to remove most and I had to leave him.  I found the last two I couldn't get on his dog bed when I got home. I am glad he was able to get them out himself. It was terrible to have to remove them.

I am trying to be more careful and make sure the ball doesn't bounce into the bush!

P.S. Precious 2 has gone to far under the front porch to be retrieved. We are on to Precious 3.

P.P.S.  As of Wednesday morning 9 mice had been caught.

Wordless Wednesday - Happy Fall Equinox (circa 2012)

High Tech Solution

Operation rid the house of mice is still underway. As of Monday, besides the mystery baby, 6 adults have been trapped. 4/5 trappings have been in the basement garage and one in the laundry room. And one we will talk about below. We believe we know how they are getting in and the Man is working on a solution for that.

While at the hardware store, I came upon the Sonic Pest Chaser. It claims that it will emit a frequency that only rodents will hear and will chase them away.  I thought we may as well give it a try because it seems more humane than trapping.  Also on Saturday morning when the Man went to check the trap (he checks them several times per day) it had been completely moved and hidden under a piece of cloth that had been on the floor. We are not sure what type of creatures we are dealing with!

On Saturday we tested it in the kitchen to be sure that humans and dogs were not bothered by it. While the dogs watched me plug it in, they didn't seem to notice immediately after.  Then we moved it to the basement on Sunday. Sunday night during the Man's last check of traps before bed, he had caught a mouse in the garage. So far it doesn't seem to helped. Sigh!

Has anyone else every used one of these?  Did it help?

Now mouse 6. It appears on Monday, while we were at work, Miss Hailey Bug put her hunting skills to good use and caught it. We don't know where, but we know she left a well licked mouse on the couch. Fortunately, it was the Man who found it, as I, the Lady, am working crazy hours this week. I don't think I could have handled that! The Man said it just looked well licked. 

Mischief Monday - A Windy Night

While I am sure the dogs think the mischief award goes to me this week for being neglectful at visiting blogs etc. etc. (we had a busy weekend), I think the mischief award goes to Hailey.

This is a story that was told to me by the Man because I slept through it.

It was very windy Saturday evening. Hailey did a great job at remaining calm throughout the evening. She didn't even hide in her serenity palace (our basement bathroom). However, after the Man went to bed, she decided she needed to be in the upstairs bathroom barking. Interesting to note, not a window was open in that room.

The Man coaxed her to the bedroom, where she went to one window and waited for him to close it, and then the other. I am impressed she showed the Man what he needed to do to make her feel better. Then she went into the serenity closet and slept the night away.

This is the first time since she has been on prozac that she has been upset in the night. The intensity of it was lower and we were able to fix the problem for her!

Talk Like a Pirate Day

Ahoy Maties!

Shiver Me Timbers!

We think the Lady should have to walk the plank for her pitiful attempt to dress us like pirates. Her pink sleep mask (yes, Princess Lady uses one of those), is not a pirate eye patch. The things one has to put up with! We tried to rock it!

Feline Friday - A Weird Dream

I have been itching to get another cat the past few weeks. It started before the great mouse caper of 2015 (to date we have caught 2 adults and the one newborn), but has become stronger since the great mouse freak out. The Man is a very adamant "No" on the subject.

The other night, I had a dream that we came home and found our Nin had died. We had put him in the garage to bury him the next day. The next day we went and he was alive and well.  He was on my lap purring.

When I told the Man he said a zombie cat would be cool. I think that is the only way I am going to get a new cat, and is highly unlikely to happen as I had the cats cremated.

Angel Nin

Last Days of Summer

It has been unseasonably warm here. I believe I saw that it hasn't been this warm in September for so many days since the 1940s. Given the fact we had the coldest winter on record, we will take it!

I was working from home yesterday. I went to take the dogs out for a late morning play. Out the front door we go and my lazy girl plunks herself down in the sun. It took a lot of coaxing to get her in the grass so it was easier for me to play ball with Phod. What a silly girl!

Wordless Wednesday - Hot Goofy Faces

More Mischief

Since I didn't get my mischief Monday post done last week, I thought I would share a story from Labour Day weekend.

Uncle Chris and cousin Emma came out for a sleepover. A few hours before Emma was to leave, I thought it would be nice to get a picture of all 3 pups. I knew this would be a challenge, but I got the cookies and the camera and started to try and pose all 3.

Somewhere in the chaos, it may have started when I tried to physically prompt Emma to sit, she became   terrified and started to pee all over the kitchen floor. So instead of 3 I ended up with:

2 distracted by the pee

And one who really wanted a cookie!

Mischief Monday - Mouse Invasion

Editor's note: This post is not for the squeamish. Pictures are borrowed from the internet as I didn't capture them.  Hailey gets a gold star for her compliance in this story!

As some of you may remember, we have had a bit of a mouse problem this year. We had one eat the hose to our dishwasher. That was a costly repair. Over the summer. in attempts to solve the invasion, we tried the traditional snap trap, the humane trap, all to no avail.

We hadn't seen any signs of the mice so we sort of forgot about it.

Last weekend, we were hanging plastic on the basement garage ceiling (yes we have two garages, a finished 2 car garage upstairs and an unfinished one in the basement). I moved a box and both my brother-in-law and I were sure we had an encounter with a mouse. We heard it and didn't see it and then there was screaming and jumping. The Man thought we were crazy.

Fast forward to Friday morning. I was doing yoga in the basement and I was aware that Hailey was up to something. I left my downward dog to go investigate. Hailey was in laundry room and she was standing there drooling. I realize she has something in her mouth. I say drop it  and unfortunately she did and out fell a newborn mouse.  I will spare you all the other details. I did not scream. I removed Hailey and myself from the laundry room as quickly as possible. I closed the door and put a blanket up under the door (don't ask why is seemed like a good idea at the time). I ended yoga, brought both the dogs upstairs, blocked off the basement and treated myself for shock. Yep, I went into shock over this. Country girl I am not! When I called Man, he laughed at me, while I admit to hysterical babbling.

Now that I had been completely traumatized, it was time to bring in the big guns. The Man resorted to the glue traps and picked some up on his way home.

I can report that on the first night we caught one mouse in the basement garage.  We will be adding one to the drawer under the oven as I found a lot of mouse poop in it on Saturday. We will continue to leave these traps out for likely a few weeks to see if we can solve this problem once and for all.

Mice at least 21   Us 2

The Man did a huge search of the basement (because I wouldn't go down until he did) and even after moving the couch and everything, he can't find any sign of mice. It is a complete mystery where the newborn came from. I am not even going to think about it because I am still dealing with my trauma.

Black and White Sunday - Cousins

Hailey and Emma

Freak Out!

Hailey: Phod we have visitor!

Phod: Who is it Hailey?

Hailey: I think when our pals Frankie and Ernie were moving, some of their snow freaks escaped and one has made it all the way to Val-Des-Monts!

Phod: I think he  headed north cause he knows winter is coming and he will have a long life here. Although he is a little early, it has been unseasonably hot here.

Lady: I think it is far to early to be seeing anything that looks like snow in our yard, let me get the hairdryer.

Hailey and Phod: NOOOOOOOOOOO, we love our snow freak! It makes us think of our friends Frankie and Ernie who we miss so much.

Phod: Besides I haven't peed on it yet!

Hailey: Let's give him a tour and keep him safe and we can send him back to Frankie and Ernie once they are settled into their new home.

"Snow freak, this is our new park to walk in, what do you think?"

"Hurry up, we don't want you to get lost or left behind again!"

"I am just going to sniff you butt to make sure you are ok!"

"You haven't seen Precious have you?"

Frankie and Ernie - Congratulations on your move. We look forward to having you back, we have missed you. Blogville has been a bit quieter without you!

See Beautiful - Flower Friday

On this day of remembrance, we will see beautiful in some of the flowers we saw in Iceland.

  

Our First Big Hike

Last weekend we took the dogs for their first big hike in Gatineau Park. Gatineau Park is 362 km/224 mi park with 165 km/103 mi of hiking trails. All but 10 km/6 mi can have on leash dogs on them. We live about a 30 minute drive from the north of the park. We have been talking about hiking there for ages and finally got around to it!

Hailey: "Come guys, let's go."

We went Saturday morning. As Phod can't eat before he goes in the car, we had Hailey skip breakfast too. We arrived at the park at about 9:30 and spent 1 hour and 45 minutes there. In that time we walked 6 km/3 mi. When we arrived at the park it was about 14 C/57F , when we left it was 24 C/75F and was really humid. (It ended up feeling in the high 30s C - close 100 F later that day and for most of the weekend). Fortunately most of the walk was in the shade.

We stopped for water breaks and for a break at the turn around point. Hailey made herself at home.

The dogs did really well on the walk. On the way in, we only passed 2 bikers. On the way out we passed a number of people, including people with dogs and children and they were fantastic. They were so hot and tired by the time we got back to the car, they didn't even want to stop for a drink. After a late breakfast, they slept all day.

This is definitely a walk we will do again!

Wordless Wednesday - Hot

5 Year Blogiversary

Today is our 5 year Blogiversary! 

When I started this blog, I had no idea that 5 years later I would still be writing.

Some stats:
This is post 1701.
Our readers have left us 19519 comments (as of 5 pm Monday evening).
We have had 514, 943 page views.

Our pack has changed a lot since I started this. We have said goodbye to Gemini, Bagheera, and Cinder and welcomed Zaphod into our lives. We have gone from city folks to country folks. Really the one constant in this blog has been the girl who started it all, our Hailey.

Thank you to all of you!

For those of you who comment often, thank you! It is greatly appreciated. I love reading what you are thinking.
For those of you who are the flies on the wall, and silently visit, thanks, I appreciate you too!
To my fellow bloggers, thank you for sharing your lives and being a constant inspiration to me. I love you all and all your blogs!

Today we celebrate love, laughter, comfort and adventure!   

To another 5 years!

Hailey, Zaphod and their Lady

Sepia Saturday - Hailey

This is the first picture I ever took of Hailey.

It is not the best picture, but it is special because it was the first one I took when she arrived at our house.

It is the long weekend and we have a lot of fun things planned. We are going on a big hike. Uncle Chris and Emma are coming tomorrow for a sleepover to celebrate Uncle Chris' birthday!  It is going to be fun!

Happy 5th Gotcha Day Hailey!

It is time to celebrate!

Let's jump for joy!

Sing at the top of our lungs!

Today is Hailey's 5th Gotcha Day!

We are celebrating all weekend! 

Caught In The Act!

Phod: Hailey, I hear tomorrow is a very special day for you. 5 years in your forever home!

Hailey: Yep, I have put these people through their paces and all they have done is love me more.

Phod: I love you too!

Hailey: Oh no, Lady caught us, act like you don't like it!

Wordless Wednesday - Love

Working From Home

I am trying to work from home 1-2 days per week. I am doing this in part to not have a long commute a couple days, in part because I get work done more efficiently at home and in part to spend time with the dogs.

Last week I was at home Wednesday. The Man was at home working Thursday (thanks to a bit of a stomach bug) and we were both home on Friday.

Hailey was the perfect supervisor! She made sure we took breaks for the important stuff, like belly rubs.