Another clue to the Mystery of Lee

When you have a true mutt, you always are thinking "I wonder what she is" and looking for clues.  Perhaps this is because the answer to "What kind of dog do you have?"  is "mutt" and that doesn't sound so nice! Zaphod is clearly not 100% Shepherd, but is enough that I can say Shepherd mix, so I don't think about it as much as Hailey. Hailey is truly a mystery mutt.

I think every breed of dog has been suggested for her over the 2.5 years she has lived with us. Most people who meet her want to try and figure her out.  While we have considered DNA testing, we have decided against it because of the cost and the fact that only 75-100 breeds DNA is tested, which could still leave us wondering. Besides, we like having a little mystery in our lives!

We got another clue a few weeks ago thanks to our friend Loki the Dober Dog. He too is a mystery mutt and his Lady is trying to solve this mystery. In her search she came across the Australian Kelpie. This dog looks so much like Loki, but a couple of pictures made me think of Hailey.

Then I saw this one and I thought - That is my Lee. Similar colours, body shape etc.

Google Picture of a Kelpie. Lee has the same white patch on her chest.

Hailey the Kelpie??????

My brief reading about this bread shows they can be a huge variety of colours, including black like Hailey. She is about the right size. She has the right type of coat. She is definitely a herding dog and has LOTS of energy. She has amazing eye sight and does like to nip ankles when playing. The physical evidence does suggest she may be part Kelpie.

However, one mystery remains - how did my herding dog get webbed feet? Kelpies do not have this trait. Or at least it was not listed in the things I read.

My guess is now she is a Kelpie (or another type of cattle dog) with some sort of dog with webbed feet (like a lab or shepherd. Given that she is drawn so much to shepherds I wonder if that is it).

The mystery will continue!

Walking

The view from the top

First we are sorry this is not a great picture, but our Lady says it is impossible to take the good camera with us on our big morning walks. She says her hands are full with us and if we see deer she won't be able to handle it all. The best we get on walks is the phone (unless our Man comes too and then maybe the better camera). She uses the phone to "map our walk" whatever that means and it fits in her pocket. 

Since it is spring now (although it is still cold here and the ground has the last of the 8 feet of snow we got this winter), our Lady has been working extra hard to get us out walking for longer periods of time.  She did a pretty good job at getting us out almost everyday in the winter, but due to the weather it was not always as long as she was liked. Now that it is spring she doesn't have to worry about us pulling her over on the ice or her falling. The roads now have shoulders, making them safer to walk.

Two streets over (about 1.5 km or 1640 yards) is a huge steep climb up the mountain. Our Lady has decided that we are going to walk to the top of that hill (which is about .5 km long) at least 2 times a week. The first day we did it last week, our Lady was very slow and panting and said something about wanting to die. The 3rd time she said it was much easier. So apparently she is easy to train. She says she now doesn't mind the walk up so much. We sort of help pull her up and she always is looking forward to the view up there. However, she doesn't love the walk down (with our sniffing and pulling and the lose gravel). She says we will be working on this. 

For now, we are just enjoying going out walking for longer periods of time. It is not as cold (even if the temperature has been in the minuses) and there are lots and lots of great smells. When we are lucky we get to see our deer friends.

We hope everyone else is enjoying spring! 

Feline Friday - Nin

Thankful Thursday - Playing with Emma

We were really thankful for the time we spent with our cousin Emma. We were sad to see her leave last Saturday. While our Lady and Man are enjoying the quiet, we miss her. She was fun. We look forward to having her back soon.

Here we are playing. We can't understand why our people miss don't miss this fun!

Wordless Wednesday - Leave me to sleep - Zaphod

Phod's Toy and World Autism Day

First, our Lady would like us to take a minute to tell everyone that today is World Autism Day. This is a cause that is near and dear to her heart cause she works with people with autism.  If you know someone with autism, give them an extra big hug from us. If you don't and want to learn more, here is a good place to start: http://www.autismspeaks.org/what-autism/world-autism-awareness-day.

Second - the fun for us stuff. As many of you may remember a couple weeks we got our Mollie Box. (FYI, it is Mollie's birthday today, so a special happy birthday to her!). Our Lady has been mean and has only been giving us things slowly from the box. She says she got the box for Phod's birthday and we were lucky to get things early. 

So far we have gotten the toy squirrel which is in 3 pieces because that is what happens when 3 dogs play tug at the same time but it was so great and we loved it; A toy pig, which our Man has had to fix a number of times which we also loved; raw hide cigars, that took Phod a long time to figure out it was too chew, he just sat guarding it.

Yesterday cause it was Phod's birthday we got to try these really yummy treats with berries in them that once Phod figured out were food, we both love and Phod got this new toy. Here he is playing with it.

Zaphod is 2?!?!?!?!?!?

Zaphod was found as a stray so his exact age and birthday are unknown. While we will also be celebrating his Gotcha Day in August, we thought our boy should also have a birthday. So we have chosen today, April 1st to be the day we celebrate the birthday of our boy. We picked this day because he is our goofy fool and it is also Auntie Kaitlyn's birthday.

So Happy 2nd Birthday Zaphod and Auntie Kaitlyn! Wishing you both many, many more!

"Lady I don't care if you want to play with the manual settings on your camera, just let me enjoy the sun."

"Being 2 is serious business!"

"There better be treats for this."