Blogville Election

It is time again for a Blogville election. While our American friends head to the polls in November, Blogville will also head to the polls.

At this point in the race, we are remaining non-partisan. Some of this is because we don't want to take sides and some of it is because we want to explore the issues and see the platforms of the candy-dates first. Also, we only get one vote, so that means we all have to come to an agreement . . . . this could take time.

We have known Arty the longest, as his blog was one of the first we found in Blogville. Lady also knows she is a little biased toward a shit tsu because of our angel Loki.

We just met Christmas a few months ago and are getting to know him. Now, while we are still undecided voters at this time, Zaphod has joined Christmas' secret service. All the candidates deserve protection from vacula and the squirrels.

Finally, we only met Lexi when she announced she was running. (Clearly our Lady has kept us living under a rock). We want to know more about what she will bring to Blogville if elected.

We think it is going to be a fun race and look forward to seeing what everyone brings to the table before we have to make up our minds in November.

At this point we have no idea!

Busy Friday - Show and Tell and Flowers

Before we begin our very busy day, Lady wants to thank you all for your kind words about her FAIL yesterday. When it all went down, I think Miss Hailey Bug was soooooo busy doing her own thing she didn't even notice. We have had a week of good walks, so that helps. (If only it would be above freezing in the morning).

Today we are participating in 3 events.

First up: Bacon's Show and Tell

This month, we have recorded it is more embarrassing pictures. Now Lady is very careful not to post really embarrassing pictures, but here is one that is from the cruise in January. Here she is trying to learn the moves to the Thriller dance. That may not be too embarrassing (even though she has 2 left feet), what is more embarrassing is the fact she realized she has never seen the video. After being scared by it at age 9, she has never re-watched it. She is that whimpy.

Lady in blue dress

Second, we are joining Dory for Flower Friday.  We searched our yard (which is almost 100% snow free) and found these as our only flowers:

Perhaps this is also embarrassing - Gardening is something Lady wishes she enjoyed

We should get a few flowers soon:

Planted by the previous owner. Alive because it is low maintenance

Off the dozens of bulbs Lady planted a couple years ago, this is the only one that is coming up

Because our flower showing is so sad, we are adding some of our trees to brighten this post up!

Last, but definitely not least, according to Ranger's Wacky Holidays, today is Greenie Day. We hope all our pals get to enjoy a Greenie (and not the one we get every week from failing to guess Sammy's teaser!).

Project Hailey - A Fail

Before our tail of woe, we want to help spread the word about an upcoming auction to help Lilly Belle. For more information click HERE.

Also, for a happier tail visit our feature at Bacon's.

Now onto our story!

Saturday Hailey and I had a fail in our relationship. On a normal day, the first thing we do (after I throw on my sweats and visit the washroom) is walk. On Saturday, it is the Man's morning to take the dogs out if they are up before I want to get up. This means we do our walk after breakfast.

We headed out for our walk  after breakfast. I stupidly didn't put Hailey's harness on. She was very excited when we headed out. But by the end of the road had settled. She had a few moments of excitement, but I was in control.

Spring is in the air

Then we turned up her favourite street. The wind was strong (and may I say cold). There was clearly something in the air or something I couldn't seen had been around. Hailey went crazy. I could barely control her. I have not seen her so out of control since we first got her over 5 years ago. I did everything I could to try and regain control, but I could not compete with the smell. It was made harder by the fact that her excitement made Phod excited. I knew I was losing the battle and after a really ugly moment where I yelled at her (didn't help and didn't make me feel better), I broke down and called the Man to come and get her.

It broke my heart. I was in tears. While waiting the 2 minutes or so for him to hop in the car and come get me, I ended up face first in the ditch. This made me both cry more and realize I had made the right choice in calling the Man. He arrived, put her in the car and Phod and I continued to talk home. He was an angel. I could have held his leash with one finger.

In the short-term my IT band, which has been giving me a lot of problems, was very, very sore. The next day, the band felt better, but my quads ached from all the times she was trying to pull me into the ditch before she did. I spent most of Saturday feeling defeated (made worse by the fact that I wasn't feeling well from a food challenge). But Sunday I felt a little better and I hope this one time incident isn't a set back for both of us.  In a timely post KB wrote about embracing your dogs challenges. I will embrace my crazy girl and we will move forward (but hopefully not face first into a ditch).

Who can stay mad at this face

Wordless Wednesday - Waiting

Tasty Tuesday - Nutram's 30-day Optimum Transition Challenge

We are teaming up with Nutram for the next 30 days to take their 30-day Optimum Transition Challenge.

Hailey very curious about the big boxes that arrived

There are so many choices of dog food on the market, I often feel overwhelmed trying to find the healthiest food for the best price. I am also always hesitant to try a new food incase Zaphod (Hailey is far less picky) doesn't like it. I really don't like to waste food. I was really excited to be asked to join Nutram for this challenge. The company is based in Elmira, Ontario, Canada. (Not to far from where I grew up). They can be found in 25 countries and have food for both dogs and cats. All the meat they use is raised without hormones and each recipe is naturally preserved. When I was reading about the company, I really liked the emphasis they placed on an overall healthy lifestyle. We all know that food alone doesn't make you healthy, you need to be active too!

My very active boy! 

The next step was determining what food (there were 21 formulas) would be best for Hailey and Zaphod.  Nutram  made it easy with their "What's your Nutram number?" (You can click HERE to find your number). I ran this for both Hailey and Zaphod and one food came up for both of them, T-26. I have decided that in order to keep my life easy, they need to be eating the same food. I knew if I tried different foods, I would spend meal time running interference as they tried to eat each others!

One of our bags

About T-26:

For a full list of ingredients click HERE

It is a grain-free, lamb and legumes food. There wasn't one ingredient I didn't recognize from the label. 

This formula also has Omega-3 fatty acids to help improve mobility. This is important for Phod who at age 5 has already shown "stiffness" if he is over exercised (and regular readers know how much he loves to play fetch).

How does it taste?

We can't say yet. As many of you are reading this (Tuesday morning), it will be the first time I feed the dogs this food. Nutram sent us a detailed chart on transitioning, and we will be following it for the 10 day transition. I have never formally transitioned a dog food like this, so it will be interesting. I can say that the bags have been sitting in the garage for a week, and Hailey has been seen many times trying to open the bag. It clearly smells good! 

Next week on Tasty Tuesday we will check in and tell you how it tastes and how we are enjoying week one!

If you want to join us in the challenge click HERE to learn more.

To find out more about Nutram you can find them at a lot of places on the web.

Not that you should pick a food based on packaging
but I love the back of the Nutram bag. I thought it
was very clever. 

Twitter:​ www.twitter.com/nutram
Facebook:​ www.facebook.com/Nutram
Instagram:​ www.instagram.com/nutrampetproducts/
Pinerest:​ www.pinterest.com/nutram/
Online:​www.nutram.com/faq

Disclaimer: We were provided with a month's supply of food and compensation for sharing our honest experience of Nutram's products. We only share information we feel may be relevant to our readers. 

Mischief Monday - She Wouldn't Let Us Keep It - by Zaphod

Dear Pals,

You know I am a very good boy. I am the nicest boy Lady knows. Last week on our walk, I found a very special treat. It looked and smelt a lot like the chicken's feet they Lady gives us. If you look closely at the picture below you can see it. (Not the best picture but Lady just had the phone).

I picked up this delicious treat on our way down the road. Lady told me to drop it and I did. I remembered exactly where it was, and when we came back up our road (see, it was just down from our house so I had to pass it again), I picked it up again. Lady again told me to drop it. I did. I was sad. Lady said she was very happy to not have to take that from my mouth. She told the Man I was a very good boy. I was glad about that.

It is gone now. Maybe some day I will find and get to east such a delicious treat.

Lady has no idea why Hailey, who sniffed it and eats everything, didn't try and eat it. She said she was happy with that because she would have had to take it out of Hailey's mouth. She wouldn't have dropped it like I did. She isn't as good as I am.

-Phod

Silent Sunday - Together

Silly Saturday

Some dogs have spring fever! 

Being a Polite Country Dog – Etiquette Tips for Country Walks

Today we are teaming up with the dog-walking service, Rover.com to share our country walk etiquette tips. (Pop over to their site to learn more about them!)

We live in rural Quebec. About half the properties in our area are cottages, meaning May through October there are twice as many people around as through the rest of the year. Given our isolation and how early we get up, we rarely see people or dogs on our early morning walks. However, we know there are a lot of dogs around and want to share our tips.

Things to do to be a polite country dog:

My handless poop bag system

•  Stay on leash – there is nothing more stressful than walking by a house with a dog, to find a stranger's dog is now following you down the road because it isn’t on leash. Also, being on leash prevents your dog from sneaking onto other’s yards to do his or her business. Further, it will also prevent your dog from chasing or possibly harming the wildlife. We have lots of wildlife around!

• Pick up your poop - The spring thaw has shown how much poop our neighbourhood dogs have left this winter. It is gross and unhealthy. It takes less than 10 seconds at most to pick it up. You can purchase a poop bag holder that clips to your leash (so you always have bags) and has a place to clip the filled bags (so you don’t even have to carry the poop). We can’t train the deer and other wildlife to pick up their poop, but we can clean up the dog poop!

• Pick up your litter – If you are going to take snacks, cigarettes, take out coffee etc. on your walk be prepared to carry the garbage home. There are no garbage cans on the country roads, so if you take it out, you must take it home.

• Walk on the side of the road, or move to the side of the road when cars are coming – We need to share the road, so be sure to be mindful of cars and move.

• Wear appropriate reflective clothing – half the year, there is a good chance you are walking in the dark. Be respectful of drivers who may not see you out all in black. The reflective vest is not stylish, but it may keep you alive!

•   If we do meet and your dog isn’t friendly (or you don’t like dogs) say something – On the rare occasion we do meet another dog or person, my two go crazy! Last year we only encountered other people about 10 times (we walk nearly every day – only missing days we aren’t home or days below -20C). The dogs are going to be excited and as soon as they sniff you, they are going to completely lose interest. But if you don’t want this interaction, just let me know!

Those are our country dog etiquette tips. Follow them and you can be a polite country dog! Do you have any other tips to share?

Spring Has Sprung - Mostly

While we still have some snow in the yard, the day time temperatures are closer to normal this time of year (about 11C/52F). Last weekend we had the first amazing weather weekend. Sunday it was about 18C/65F. We started to get the yard and garage ready for spring. We had some great help.

Hailey on her favourite rock

When we wouldn't play fetch, Phod dragged out the entire Chuck to try and get the ball

Hailey bathing in the sun

Phod helping with the sweeping of the garage

Cooling down in the snow

Insisting on playing fetch when the work was over

Truly Canadian - bare feet and snow:)

Wordless Wednesday - Still Have Snow

Snuggly Girl

On Saturday night Hailey was particularly snuggly. I am not sure why, but I enjoyed 2 hours of her sitting on or next to me snuggling.

Here are some of her poses (captured only on my phone - clearly I couldn't get up to get the camera!)

Mischief Monday - Wildlife Invasion

Why do we have to be in the crate when there is a bird!

The Scene: Saturday morning - the Man and Lady were getting ready to go out. Hailey was insistent that there was something in the living room. The Man checks it out.


The invader: A bird in the chimney

What happened next: Extra doors were closed, the pups were put in the crate, patio doors were open, Man opened the fireplace doors.

The bird, flew towards patio, but hit the door. It flew up and hit the fireplace. It flew into the dining room and bounced off a window before
flying out the patio door.

Until next time bird!

Lady's attempt to photograph the bird:)

Other wildlife encounters this week:
-The deer - we saw some every day
-The wild turkeys - we saw them a lot
-We tried to chase a woodpecker
-Lady saw 2 foxes
-Lady had to stop to let a duck cross the road
-Lady saw someone trying to coax their run away sheep off the highway
-The Man checked on a bird that hit the window (he was stunned but then flew away)

Spring is in the air! 

Silent Sunday - On Our Walk

Get Well Soon Easy - by Hailey

As I am sure many of you know, my beloved French boyfriend Easy has been feeling under the weather.

I am sending him POTP and get well soon vibes by showing my destruction skills with the heart he gave me for Valentine's Day.

I am so fast you can't capture me on film

Hold it steady while I empty my heart

What?  Easy would want me to destroy it

A very cute destroyer

GET WELL SOON EASY! 

Flashback Friday

Angels Nin and Gemi - September 2010

Wacky Holiday - International Moment of Laughter

According to Ranger today is International Moment of Laughter.

Lady, look out, there is a monkey on your back!

BOL!

Day of Pink

Gluttony Girl

Since Hailey was diagnosed with gluttony, I have been singing "Gluttony Girly won't you come out tonight, come out tonight, come out tonight, Gluttony Girl won't you come out to night and eat by the light of the moon."  She tolerates my singing if I have food.

Getting dinner ready

Hailey has always acted like she is always starving. We purchased the slow bowl because of it. When she went on her prozac we were warned that it was likely she would develop gluttony, as that was the most common side effect. What happened was she actually slowed down her eating. The first few weeks, she didn't even eat all her food. The vet couldn't believe it.

When we took her off her meds, her gluttony came back and was worse. It was like she needed to make up for all the times she ate slowly. She was eating so fast, even with her slow bowl that she was throwing up. 

We have had to instituted the 2 courses at meal time. She gets her softy and half her hard food and then the rest of her hard food. It seems to be working, she hasn't been sick in weeks. I have almost not given them the second half several times.

I accidentally gave her the full amount Saturday night (I put Phod's scoop in her bowl), and I am happy to report she ate it slowly.

Now the next thing we are going to be taking on: Counter Surfing. So far it is Hailey 87 million, Lady 0, but we are working on having her sit on her bed when we are in the kitchen. Will keep you posted if we get a win!

Not impressed to be on her pillow