Really?

Do you have a treat for me?

No, well then leave me to enjoy my sun puddle nap

Helping Our Peeps Workout

Lady and Man have been working with a personal trainer. In a few months (19 sessions but who is counting) they are going to be transferring to working out at home. They are starting to collect gym equipment and practice at home.

We are working on being excellent coaches to try and replace their coach. Lady says we are nicer but perhaps we need to work on not being in the way. We don't see a problem. 

Thank you for leaving this mat out for me

Chew one, two, three

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In other news, this is a picture from our from yard last night. Even with all the rain, there is still going to be snow in the yard today. Today was the first day picked in our contest. We appreciate Molly's optimism for the end of the winter and are sorry she isn't the winner. Thanks for playing Molly!

Tracking Phod

A Phod track in our driveway

Monday, we talked about how the wildlife caused us a lot of mischief on the weekend. There is a story I didn't tell as it happened Sunday evening.

Let's back track a bit. On Saturday morning, while looking at the coyote tracks, I spent some time studying both my dog's tracks. What I didn't realize was that I was going to need this information on Sunday.

Sunday evening I took the dogs out after dinner. Without thinking, I let Phod off leash right away. What I believe happened is this - the Fox, whose den had been disturbed was out, and Phod saw him and took off after him. Hailey was screaming and Phod was gone into the bush behind our house. I dragged a freaking out Lee back to the house. Threw on my snow pants, boots and snowshoes and headed into the bush to track him. The Man took to the road.

There was both a blessing and a curse to still having snow. It was a blessing because there was a clear Phod track to follow. It was a curse because it is melting and in places even in my snowshoes I sunk up to my hip. Luckily it was only ever one leg at a time and I was able to use the other leg to pull me up (all my work with my personal trainer is paying off!)

After about 15-20 minutes my phone rang. It was Man back from the road to report that Phod was sitting happily in the driveway by the garage door waiting for us.

The Man checked Phod out from head to tail and there was no signs of injury. The next day, he had a small cut on a toe but was nothing that required medical attention. We are reminded that Phod has to go out on leash and if there is no wildlife around, can go off his leash.

The tracks from the bush

Wordless Wednesday - Phod is 6

Phod's 6th Birthday

Phod would like to thank everyone for their birthday wishes. He had a great day (minus the not getting to eat a deer leg). He wasn't sure he enjoyed being sang at so much. 

For his birthday he got a new Chuck - which he immediately tried to rip apart!

He also got a special bag of treats.

He happily shared with Hailey, who was a little jealous of all the attention he was getting. 

Given that duck is the only thing Phod goes into the kitchen for, we got him a bag of duck tenders. 

The highlight was getting to play with Precious in the snow. Fortunately we didn't lose it. 

Having to dig it out

Sinking in the snow while Man and Hailey follow the coyote tracks. 

So much snow on Precious she looks white!

Patiently waiting for me to throw it again!

Mischief Monday - The Wildlife Win!

We live in rural Quebec, on 3 acres, surrounded by bush and fields. Generally we live in peace with the wildlife (unlike 2 of our city friends who had dogs sprayed by skunks in the past week and a half, including cousin Emma), however, Saturday, we had some interesting encounters.

First, for the 3rd time in a month or so, there were fresh coyote tracks in our yard. Twice recently they have been in the driveway. Lady is thinking of getting a trail cam. Phod will not be allowed off leash at dusk, dawn or in the night.  

Coyote print

Next - action at the den. Since we have lived in our house, between our place and the neighbour's there has been a den, that until recently has been home to the groundhog Goldbie. Seems Goldbie was evicted and the fox that the Man heard screaming this week, has moved in. Saturday afternoon we saw this.

Deer leg

Our neighbour happened to be out and we called him over, as the den is on his property and given that he has 3 small children (the oldest will be 7 this year) and a cat, we thought he should know. We had a discussion about what we are going to do about this. He has seen the fox often and it looks healthy. We would all really like for the fox to keep living, just somewhere else. The den is like 6 feet from our driveway and less then 20 from his kid's swing set. He is going to disturb the den and hope it moves away. If not, we may have to contact wildlife officials or explore other options. 

We remain grateful that our encounters have not included skunks!

Hailey voicing her displeasure on not being allowed to get the deer leg. 

As you can see from the pictures, on Saturday, we still had a lot of snow. We got another 10 cm/4 inches on Friday night. It felt a little more like spring in the afternoon. There is a lot of rain in the forecast this week, so that may help with the melting.

When Will The Snow Be Gone - Dates Guessed

Front yard Friday night before more snow came

Thank you for all of you who picked a date to participate in our contest. Special thanks to the few of you who kept picking taken dates (we had a few popular dates but the rules went first come first serve), and kept trying!  As Lady is preparing this post, it is snowing outside.

Here are your guesses:

Molly  April 7 (we really, really hope she is right)

Yamini April 16

Phenny April 21

Kinley April 23rd

Dory and the Boyz April 24

Princess Leah April 26

Louisdog April 28

Sam and Elsa April 29

Jasper, Nellie and Itai May 1

Lightning and Misty May 2

Millie and Walter May 5
Gang at ATCAD May 9 (we missed them on our list so have added them!)

Madi  May 11

Wally and Ernie May 13th

Frankie and Ernie May 15

Murphy and Stanley May 21

Abby May 28 (and not that we want a friend to lose, but we kinda hope Abby is wrong!)

If we had to guess and could play (ours doesn't count) we would go with April 30th. 

We will try and update the yard status a couple times a week (might depend on how fast it melts and how busy Lady is). Best of luck to everyone!  No matter who wins, we are the real winners because the snow will be gone and the grass will be back!

(Note: If Lady emailed you back about a date and you aren't on the list, email her again and she will make sure you are there!)