Tuesdays with Tigris - Hunt Training

 Dear reader,

As Lady and Man have mice in the house every year, they are hoping we are going to be able to help with this. We have started hunt training.

I shared with you my butterfly that spins and you can catch.

Me and my butterfly toy

Lady has upped her game and brought home a few other hunt training toys.

The next one to add to our collection was an electronic mouse. It has a rechargeable battery and it runs across the floor and you can chase it.

Caught it and am chewing the feather

Her latest find when buying me food on Saturday was this all in one toy. It is a ball, that dispenses treats. It also has a battery so it wiggles around and you can get the bee on top. There is also a laser to chase when it is moving around.  It is an everything toy. It is also fun to play with when it is turned off.

Styx enjoying the treat feature

Checking it out

 

She may not be the perfect Lady (wanting to pick us up when we don't want to be and all the singing), but she is a good provider of the toys. Some might even say we are spoiled. I would say I am fairly compensated. 

Tigris, who loves to play and hunt

Mischief Monday - Celebrating Without Us

 Last Thursday, the weather was finally cleared up enough for Lady and Man to drive the 1.5 hours to see Grammie and the Big Guy and Aunt C and the kids and Uncle Chris. We did not get to go. We had to stay home and guard the house.

We did an ok job as a parcel guy wouldn't leave a parcel for Lady (he came back the next day) and we made sure the big mouse only peed on the blanket in front of the fire.

While we want to be very mad, we can only be a little mad because Grammie sent a little something home for us. She sent one home for Emma too. We got new babies!

The babies

Patiently Waiting

Mine!

We think it is likely a good thing we got the babies before the pee was found . . .  we may have had to wait for them. 

New Toy - by Phod

Dear Pals,

As Hailey told you, my Lady had to leave for 87 million years. I was a good boy, but I was sad. I was so happy when Lady came back. 

As mentioned, Lady and Aunt C inherited the contents of a dear friend's home. Missy G was like a bonus grandma and their childhood neighbour. Missy G became very much your stereotypical cat lady, with 4 or 5 house cats and goodness knows how many outdoor ones. It was a surprise to Lady and Aunt C when they found 1 dog toy in the house. Lady brought it home for us. I love it!

While I love my new toy, I love having my Lady home more. 

Your pal Phod

Trouble on a Tuesday -Lee's Bird

Lee's Grammie gave her a stuffed bird that was not designed for pups. Lee loved it and for 6 weeks played gently with it. Then one day the bird had to die.

Thankful Thursday - by Lee

I am thankful that my Grammie gave me these toy birds that sing while I rip them apart.

Wordless Wednesday - The New Easter Toy

Mischief Monday - Toys, Toys, Toys!

First, insert HBO words here, Lady is frustrated with Blogger. She thought she had figured it out and actually went a number of days commenting, but since Thursday she has not been able to comment again. Sigh! She can comment on non-blogger blogs or blogger ones that are not embedded comments.  So please don't think her lack of commenting has anything to do with not visiting. 

Secondly, our house cleaner (who is a wonderful lovely lady who loves dogs and has 2 of her own) had a death in the family over the holidays and has not been in. To keep Lady on her toes, we have been doing a lot of destruction and making a big mess!

Tomorrow we will share a very specific mess we have made!

Mischief Monday - A Mess Ends in Trouble

Sunday, it looked like a hurricane had gone through the upstairs living area, and it had, because Hurricane Emma (and Uncle Chris) had come for the weekend. 

Emma getting some love

While that was enough mischief, after Emma left, Lady decided the worst thing ever, that it was time for the semi-annual, pre-Christmas toy cull!  She went around and judged which toys were worth putting back in the box and which were destined for the garbage. She gathered half a white garbage bag.

We think it was a waste of perfectly good bits and pieces of toys. But we are not going to complain too loudly as Santa may be listening and we hope he will see how good we were about losing the best pieces of toys and how empty our boxes are now and bring us lots and lots of new things.

We hope none of your peeps get the same idea . . . .

The Tooth Fairy Came

She waited until the weekend to make sure Phod was feeling better, but she came!

Phod very excited to get his new toy

"Back off Lee, this is my duck"

"Tooth fairy brought me my own toy cause I provided moral support."

"Must rip the duck's face off."

"Squeak, squeak"

"I think his toy is better than mine."

Thanks Tooth Fairy!

Mischief Monday - For Phenny

Phenny, 87 days ago, or something like that, you sent me a gift with a toy we called 'dis' (after what my human cousin says when he doesn't know the name of something).  While I had enjoyed playing with it, I head left it alive, waiting for the perfect time to dead it.

I decided the weekend, after 87 million cold days, was the perfect time and I am happy to report dis is no longer. 

Mischief Monday - Warning!

Beware - the pre-holiday toy cull has happened at our house. It will likely make it's way to yours soon. 

Toys, Toys, Toys

Phod and Lee are happy to have a few toys out. Cousin Emma (who is with us for a week) wants them all out. It drives me crazy to have all the toys out. I have a video of her being crazy with the toy box, but it won't let me upload it here so imagine a little girl dragging a toy box around! 

Once the toys are out, Phod doesn't like to share. He has developed a very passive way to keep all the toys to himself. 

What a boy! 

Tattling Thursday- Withholding

Last year we went to BAR (Blogville Awesome Retreat) in Indiana and met some of our blog pals in the furs. Our very good friends (we shared lunch under a table one day) Frankie and Ernie were kind enough to bring us gifts. Lady tucked a few of the toys away and only just pulled them out recently.

We love our ball, so we guess it is better late then never!

Terrible Tuesday

We are in shock! We had to stand and watch while our Lady did the most horrible thing.

See this:

What you see there is a bag of perfectly good toys that the Lady 'culled'. Can you believe she had the nerve to pick up the fluff and pieces of some of our favourite toys? She said that parts of toys are not needed. We say they are still perfectly good!

She said we still have a full toy box, we are not hard done by. We don't think a full toy box is enough. We had barely forgiven her for putting us in jail and now this . . . . . 

It is a terrible day here in the Gatineau Hills. 

Wordless Wednesday - Deadin' The Squirrel

Belated Mutt Day - By Hailey

Sunday was Mutt Day, and since I am a mutt, it was all about me. To celebrate, Lady gave me a toy from the cupboard. You see when we went to BAR (the Blogville retreat), our dear friends Frankie and Ernie gave us some wonderful new toys. At least we think they are wonderful,we aren't sure because when we got home, Lady "tucked" them away. Sunday, she finally let me have one, the bunny.  Bunny play went like this:

Give me, give me, give me,

Let me sniff this, 

Better take it for safe keeping, 

(Editor's note - sorry about the lighting, I wanted to capture the moment and didn't adjust the camera)

Phod: What is this?

Lee: Mind your own business

Phod: Let me see - give it to me!
Lee: NO!

Lee: IT IS MINE!

Phod: I want a turn!

Lee: NO!

a few minutes later - 

Lee: Finally, mine! 

A bit later:

All that playing, we better have a nap! I will sleep with you so Phod can't get you bunny!

Thank you for such a wonderful toy F and E! I love it and maybe someday I will share it! 

-----------------------------------------

PS A lot of people commented about cleaning our house yesterday. We currently employ a student to come every other week and clean it. 

As for cost of heating it, it is hard to say because our heat is electric so our bills include all our power. We do our best to use the fireplace on the coldest days (when we are home) and we keep the house set at 18C/64 F. We spend about $450 C/$342 US on wood (and every year we have had a some left over) and our total electricity bill for the year is a bit over $3000 C/$2200 US. It is not that cheap but because of how the house is built (very well insulated) sadly it is not that much more than our little house in the city cost us. 

It does echo. 

The house was built by a mason, hence the wonderful stone work!

You are all welcome to come and visit:)

Sepia Saturday - Excuse Me

Can't a guy be allowed to snuggle his toy in peace?

Zaphod

Ooops

Today was suppose to be a tour of our house. We are going to have too postpone that because the video I made (and I tried to split it up) is too big to upload here. I will try again for sometime next week!

In the mean time - Frankie and Ernie gave Phod a ball at BAR when they heard he was without Precious. He wasn't too into it at BAR but he is totally into it now and then this happened:


Lady, LeeLee took my ball:( Can I have it?

Thanks Lady!

Tribute To Dr. Seuss

In honour of Dr. Seuss Day, we have composed a rhyme.

Toys, toys, toys, are ours to destroys!
It is really not tough to clean up the fluff,
we leave when we play, on a cold winters day.

Ear, ear, ear, the toys don't need to hear,
chew, chew if off, cause it is so soft,
fluff comes out, like water from a spout.

Feet, feet, feet, without them it looks neat.
Squeak they did do, it was annoying to you,
so now they are gone, and we sing this song.

Toys, toys, toys, are ours to destroys!
It is really not tough to clean up the fluff,
we leave when we play, on a cold winters day.

Parts, parts, parts, are laying all about.
Everywhere you look, is a piece that we took,
must carry the broom around every single room.

Sweep, sweep, sweep, we aren't allowed to keep,
the pieces we removed, so the toys were improved,
Lady is mean, cause she wants the house clean.

Toys, toys, toys, are ours to destroys!
It is really not tough to clean up the fluff,
we leave when we play, on a cold winters day.