New Year's Resolutions!

Welcome to 2020! A new year, a new decade!

Lady said we needed to come up with some resolutions, or a word of the year, or 20 in 20. When we suggested eating 20 squirrels for 20 days as a 20 in 20 goal, she said we should probably stick to resolutions or words.

Lee is up first:

If I was going to pick a word for the year, it would be, joy. I will be turning 10 in a few weeks, and I want to continue to bring people joy. I want to feel joy when I am tracking squirrels, and trying to eat deer poop. Joy, joy, joy!

I further resolve to make sure my Lady gets a walk almost every day when she is not traveling and the weather makes said walk doable.

I resolve to let me peeps sleep in until 7 on the weekends in the winter (when we get daylight earlier, I want to be out spreading my joy!)

I resolve to bark at all the wildlife I want to, when I want to, even it if it inconvenient for my peeps.

I resolve to make sure my belly gets a good rub every day.

I resolve if my peeps leave me in camp, to do a very good job at making them feel guilty about it later. 

I resolve to take my meds like a champ, but I make no promises about my behaviour (i.e. going through walls).

Zaphod is next:

My word for 2020 will be brave. Lady says that I have turned into the world's biggest suck. Hailey has taught me that the weather can be very, very scary. I will try and be braver in 2020.

As for resolutions:

I resolve to play with Precious every day.

I resolve to try not to lose a Precious.

I resolve to allow my people to play a lot of Precious with me outside, when there is not a lot of snow.

I resolve to be a little more patient with Lady when she is brushing me, because I can see the tumble-Phod's my fur makes all over the house, annoy her a little.

I resolve to be the best guard dog I can be and keep my peeps, and Hailey safe.

I resolve to always let Hailey win (or at least think she won). That will keep the peace in the house.

We both join our peeps in wishing you all the best for 2020 and the new decade! 

New Furniture

We have lived in our house for almost 7 years and for 7 years we have said we are going to get some patio furniture for the back deck, and we haven't until this year. Some of the reason for the delay in this is my weird cheapness (I have no problem spending money in some categories but find it hard in others). Patio furniture can be very, very expensive especially when you consider at best it is not going to be in storage for 5 months of the year. I found a deal I liked, with a piece I liked.

It arrived Friday so Friday night after dinner we unpacked it.

Phod did not like that we were doing new things and stayed at the edge of the garage. 

Hailey on the other hand was very helpful and in the garage the whole time. 

Finally a nice place to sit out back. 

Hailey likes it and is happy to sit out with us. The tie out needed on the deck will be explained on Friday's post (short story, she will run away).

Phod is not so sure about the new furniture! But he is enjoying sitting outside with us. 

Next purchases will be a storage container for the pillows so we don't have to use the dinning room table and maybe an umbrella. I hope to have these by 2025:)

Happy New Year!

My Great-grandmother always said the years go by faster and faster as you age (even if some days can feel endless), and I have to say I am sure she is right. Looking back it feels like 2018 happened in wink! To be honest, I don't remember a lot of what happened. We had Emma for 172 days and we had a great trip over the summer and we clearly continued to live. I believe it was the heaviness of my job and how busy the Man was at work that has just made 2018 melt into the past.

Instead of doing resolutions, I am doing word of the year. 2018 was "no" in which I was somewhat successful with. I don't think I said no enough, but when I did I didn't feel bad about it, so that is something. 2018 my word will be 'calm' in hopes of actually getting to remember more of it!

Thanks to Aunt K for this perfect t-shirt!

I spoke to the pups, and they each want to have their own word of the year too.

Phod said it was easy for a word, his word is going to be 'love'. He truly does get suckier and suckier every single day. He slept on the bed with us most of the night a couple times over the holidays. This never happens. He would also like to share his love with the deer, turkeys, etc. who share our yard.

Lee had to think very hard about her word for the year and she landed on 'helpful'. She thought there was more she could be doing to make our lives better, and help make me get to live my word 'calm'. 

She asked I share some examples of her helping:

Watching me cook (I so rarely do it, it was a likely a marvel)

Helping clean up the kitchen when I dropped food while cooking

Supervising my eating - she was there to help me finish it if I needed it.

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To all our friends all over the world, may 2019 bring you peace and joy. 

Not Fair

Lady and Man got this dog (it is apparently from Mexico) at a charity event and it is allowed on the table and we aren't!

Not fair!


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Something New

We were in the house for about 12 hours before we could get the dogs. During that time, we hung up the new mask to go with our collection. (We bring back a mask or other piece of art on our travels). 

Phod went over, stood up and smelt it.  The Man brought it down for the dogs to look at. They were far less interested when they saw it up close!

New Bed

First, thank you for all the birthday and adoption day wishes. Lady spent most of the day doing nothing. She wouldn't even let us read all the blogs we wanted. She said it was her day and she wanted to do nothing so we were doing nothing:(

Secondly, Man ruined one of our beds by washing it after someone whose name starts with "H" and ends with "ailey" peed in it. We got a new bed.

It has been very popular.

pardon the poor quality but I took this from my computer because I was afraid if I got up I would disturb them.
This is Baggy and Lee on the bed

My new bed

When am I getting a turn?

Boxing Day - an Update on our adventures by Lee

Good evening everyone - Happy Boxing Day!

First, our Lady says we should thank everyone for their well wishes when we were in the dark. We would also like to thank our friends who offered hot meals and showers that we didn't take them up on, but we might next time.

Our adventures started on Friday the 21st, the first day of winter. It was our first real snow (we got about 50 cm in 2 days, that is about 20 inches). On Friday we lost our power from 8-10 am, and then from 10-4 it kept going on and off. Then the real adventure began at 4 pm when the power went off and we didn't have it again for 70 hours.

The fireplace that saved us!

Our people set up camp in front of the fireplace. They dragged the guest mattress out and all the blankets in the house. This is where we lived for 3 days. And by live, with the exception of taking us out a couple times a day, eating and using the bathroom, our people basically stayed in bed. They read, played games, sang and gave us lots and lots of love!

Our man was able to go to the local corner store and get some food to eat (someone had to stay home at all times to keep the fire going, and since Lady's hair looked like a bird had made a nest in it, she volunteered). Our Lady learned that being gluten free and not being about to cook or being prepared to not cook is a bit of a challenge, but the reality was she wasn't that hungry.

Things we learned during our 70 hours in the dark:
-always have bottled water in the house (our Lady had planned on picking some up next time she went shopping but the storm beat her to it).
-Baggy finds us dogs a lot less offensive when he needs us for warmth
-the 6 of us do fit in a double bed (my Lady says I should say that I hog the bed and curl up right in the middle of the bed and take the most space - my nickname for the camp out was the Lee-lee centre of the bed)
-The cats like to sleep under the covers
-When our power came back, our living space was 11 degrees C (51 F) and our people's bedroom which they had closed off was 4 C (39 C)

The disadvantage of this big fireplace
it opens above so hot air leaves living
space!

-4 days without a shower and stoking a fire every 2 hours means the bathtub will be filled with ash when the lady is done.
-don't wish for a rustic country Christmas, cause you might get it! [Our people say next year they are going somewhere warm for Christmas, but that may be all talk!]

Our Lady said the hardest part was lack of running water. She has a greater appreciation for running water. She also said that she doesn't think that we could have stayed much longer (it was like -16 C or 3 F outside) and although the idea of packing us all up was daunting she was prepared to do it (the house kept getting colder).

Our Man was out finishing last minute Christmas shopping when the power came back on, our Lady started running around the house and yelling! We didn't understand what was so exciting but we ran too!

Later that evening when our Man went to get Uncle Chris and Emma for Christmas (cause we could host it), when I took Lady outside, I pulled her and she rolled her ankle and now has a sprained ankle. She says Christmas 2012 is one to remember.

So that was the highlights of our pre-Christmas adventure.

We want to spend a special thanks to all the Hydro workers who worked around the clock (and still are cause there are  like 4000 houses without power) to try and bring our power back. There were apparently 900 places the lines were damaged and cause of the snow they couldn't get trucks in and had to snowshoe and snow mobile in places.

We are bracing for another storm tomorrow. Fingers crossed we don't end up in the dark again. [Apparently it is fairly common out here in the country, our people were going to buy a new bed for Christmas, after Christmas, but they think a generator may be in store for us.]

The walking contraption

The Man had this idea, let's make a big coupler for the dogs with a tie out and leash.

Let's see how this goes:

Out the front door

Man holding on for dear life as we head down to the beach

Man at a stand still cause he can't hold on any more

Phod pulling so much he is walking sideways

The good: When at the beach we can let them both off tied together and they stay around. Phod can't swim as far when tied to Lee (and when he is swimming he can't pull her back into the water).

To work on: Pulling when they are walking on it. The pull a lot more than normal. They get tangled a lot (sometimes repeatedly around the same tree). You have to be fast or you get rope burn when they go around your legs.

We will keep trying and see if this can work!

Will it work?

One of my good friends brought this interesting house warming gift (which is exactly what we need):

Dirty Dog Doormat

Living in the country near the beach is a wonderful blessing, however it is a very dirty sandy blessing. We need to sweep the front everyday and the house is still sandy!  

The mat says "it is super absorbent, soaks up to 7 times it weight in mud and water, floors stay clean and dry and it dries 5x faster than ordinary door mats. From footprints to paw prints, the Dirty Dog Doormat is your best defense."

We got it yesterday so let's see if it works. If nothing else, it is a cute mat at the front door!

The Ultimate Dog

Getting read to throw

Lee watching

One of the Man's dreams has been to have a dog to play frisbee with. The Man loves to play Ultimate. Finally, he got his wish and got a frisbee dog! On Saturday evening the Man and Phod had a great time out front playing while Lee and I watched.          

Watching for the disc

The jump

The catch

I'm a cowboy baby

The scene: A nice leisurely walk to the lake so the dogs can have a swim before we have to go into town. The Phod had been being so good he was off leash.

The place: Close to the lake by the barn.

The event: All hell broke lose.

The horses at a calmer time

Mr. Phod had determined he could get under the fence in with those big dogs (the horses). For what seemed like forever, but was likely a minute or so, he ran around them while they stomped and hollered. The man was screaming "Zaphod Come here" at the top of his lungs. Hailey and the Lady stood motionless. In the lady's mind "Do we need to go into the pen and get him? Will they kill him?"

Finally a very happy goofy looking, unhurt dog comes out from the horses to his people. He immediately falls to their feet and curls up like they will beat him. He did get a verbal scolding (because he actually deserved one) and then they continued to the lake. One of the neighbours heard the screaming, hopped on his ATV and came over to make sure all was well.

Lesson: Phod can't be off leash near the barn.

Bodily Functions and other fun and games

Anything I did wouldn't be as bad as Lee, so you love me more!

I am away for 36 hours for work and here is what has happened according to the calls I have gotten.

Hailey did not destroy anything yesterday. She could take the baby gate before I got out of the house so I just trapped her in the basement. However, Zaphod had what appears to be 2 accidents in his crate (poor guy), so the Man had to clean that up.

Both pups did a great job with the horses. Hailey would sit and not bark as long as the horses kept their heads on their side of the fence. When they came over, that scared her. Zaphod will sniff the face of a horse and try and get them to play.

Zaphod had a great play at the beach with one of the neighbour's dogs. We live in a great dog friendly neighbourhood. This is great!

Hailey showed Zaphod the deer across the road and he did run away and took a longer time to come back. So we know if he sees deer he will run. 

The house had a very rough night. Hailey threw up. Cinder threw up.  The man didn't really sleep. 

Today they are calling for severe thunderstorms so the man, who is tired and very cranky, will stay home with them. This will be a temporary solution until the thundershirt comes and we find some sort of steel (not wire) cage for her. 

I hope they have a good day cause I don't want to get home this evening to cranky people:)

The Drive In

On the first long weekend of the summer . . . ok it is not summer for another month, but the weather was fantastic and it felt like summer, we decided to take Lee to the drive in. We had taken our previous pets there but we had never taken Lee and we were not sure how she would do.

Watching for her man to come back

Here is how it went.
She was totally stressed in the car. The Man brought a baby for her and this freaked her out.
While we were waiting in the line to get in, some people were walking on the side of the road. We think these people startled her cause she freaked out. It took some work but we got her calmed down.
She enjoyed the walk around the field, liked meeting new dogs and sniffing.
She was great in the car once the movie started. I am not sure she thought this was a smart thing to do, but she tolerated it well. She actually settled down and went to sleep!

We now know that we can mix our dog and one of our favourite things, watching movies!

Watching the movie

Lee's first bath

Yes after a after nearly 18 months of ownership, Lee needed her first bath. Why? Because apparently while I was at work and she and the Man were at the park, she discovered the puddles. It wasn't the dirt that  bothered us, it was the smell.

Here are some clips from it (sorry not the whole thing but I had to help.

Here is the first time she got wet in the tub.

Let me out, I am done! 

After the wash, it was dry off time!                                             

Finally Freedom! This was then followed by her getting he kong and throwing it at me. Yes I did reinforce this by filling it:) Then she spent the rest of the evening ignoring us!

I must say, this went much better than I imagined! I can see us giving her another bath in the future!

What's that?

We were on our walk and there were some big scary things all over the street. I was nervous to go by them so my Lady took me over to one and let me smell it. Once I smelt it, it just smelt like dirt and tree and I knew it was ok. I wasn't bothered by the other 20 or so we passed.

 My Lady says I will be happy when they plant them cause other dogs will mark them and the walk will smell better. Lady also says it is nice to see so many trees going up. 

That was my adventure today! That and I got to play with 2 little white dogs who would have made great friends.

Spring Fever!

On Tuesday, our lovely LeeLee was suffering from spring fever. She spent almost the entire evening running around the backyard and sniffing the bunny tracks from our bunny visitor. Usually at 8pm, she is done. If our room is open she is upstairs in bed, or at the least is sound asleep on the couch. However, on Tuesday she continued to run around the yard and house playing until after 9:30.

One of the things she wanted to play with was the door stop. Many years ago this door stop had a cat head and tail, but they have fallen off so it is just the stuffed body. This body has a brick inside it. It has been sitting in the exact same place since Lee joined our pack a year and a half ago. Lee has never moved it. On Tuesday, in her fevered state she picked it up and threw it. She did this a couple of times and would have continued to be throwing a brick in the house, if I hadn't stopped her. Oh what a girl!

Her toy brick, with a hole from being thrown!

New way to stress my dog out!

I think Lee thinks I stay up at night looking for fun new ways to make her life miserable! I assure her I don't and that it is just life happening that stresses her out.

Yesterday I had to say goodbye to my beloved HHR (I loved that car!). 5 minutes after picking up the new car it was time for agility. This gave me just enough time to put the seat cover on the backseat (my goal is to try and keep this car cleaner than my old one . . . ). Then it was time for Lee to get in.

She was a little nervous jumping in (the new one is an SUV so she has to jump higher) and she was clearly very stressed as we drove to school. I thought she was going to pant herself to death. Needless to say it was not the most relaxing first drive (in crappy weather may I add). She was a little better on the way home (perhaps tired after agility) and was a little better today when we went to the dog park this morning. It never crossed my mind that she would be so stressed in a different car.

Hopefully both she and I will grow to love this new car!

Stressing the dog out

I found a fun way to stress Lee out, painting.

It started when I took everything out of the closet and the hall. It got worse when I started putting putty on the wall to fix the spots where Gemi ate (as well as picture holes etc). I am happy to report that since I don't say no often to Lee, a stern "No" got her to stop trying to lick the putty off the wall. She had to go and sulk.

At one point she got down the hall, and told her to leave, but she stood frozen. As I approached her, brush in hand, she got scared and backed into wet wall. I threatened a bath, but man was able to wipe the yellow off her bum. She didn't try and go down the hall after this. In fact she just avoided it all (which was good).

She was clearly happy when the project was over and she could relax (so was I, am have never really painted and I wasn't good at it, next time I think I will hire someone) .

The cats didn't seem to notice anything was going on. I got paint on Gheera as he passed through from the basement (I am not going to win awards for being a neat painter), but other than that, they stayed far away.

Oh the fun of a long weekend!

PhoDogragher

On Sunday, Lee had a photo shoot with Brittany the PhoDographer. We had purchased a gift certificate from the Hopeful Hearts auction and were putting it to use.

We meet Brittany at a different park after Nosey Dog. Who would have predicted that every squirrel in the city was there in the trees teasing Lee!  Because of this, she engaged in slightly embarrassing not listening cause there are squirrels behaviour, which forced Brittany to get creative and us to put her on her leash more than I would have like too! Brittany got some great pictures of her, and a fantastic one of her I trying to jump up a tree to get a squirrel.  The stress of getting her picture taken totally tired her out and the rest of the day was spent like this:

Pictures to follow!

Lee's work out

The Man has decided he is going to teach Lee to walk on the treadmill. For a few days they have been working on this together. It is going well.

Here is a video. Sorry about the quality but the treadmill is in a crazy corner in the dungeon (yes, our basement room is decorated like a dungeon).

From Lee: Thank you to everyone who voted for me for pet of the month. I knew the dressed up dog would win. I am afraid this will encourage my Lady to dress me up more.  Congrats Riflio, since you had to be dressed up like that, you deserve it!