Sunday, January 31, 2010

A Feast for My Eyes and My Snooter at the Local Lagoon

Note from Mom: A week from H-E-Double Toothpicks! Along with work and other distractions came an injured knee and ankle and am sorry we haven't visited our good bloggy pals. Sam and Ozzie are very upset with their typist, who vows to be back as of today! And... Ma has the month of Feb. off as well, so there aren't any excuses! Onward!
Hi - I'm back! This is a picture of our local lagoon, where I don't get to go much, cause we really like the wilder outdoorsy places where I don't have to abide by leash laws heheh!


The building back there is known as the Marin County Civic Center and is actually furry famous. It was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and was his last commission and 770th! Unfortunately, however, the famed architect never saw the finished product, for he died at 92 in 1959, one year before it opened. It is a national and state-designated historical landmark and awesome to look at from both the outside and also the interior. If you'd like to see more about this place, you can visit http://www.co.marin.ca.us/depts/CU/main/flw/cctourarch.cfm. The focus of my post is not about the building per se, but about the lagoon across the street from it. I live about a mile away from here and when time is short, I usually get a couple of laps around the lake.

And there ARE a lot of great smells here at least. Here - investigating one of tons of gopher holes.

Oh boy - one of my faves - there's lots of goose and duck poo that I just can't get enough of.

Just can't help covering myself in those aromas.

And HERE is the furry place where, the day before this was taken, Mom and I and Sierra Rose and her Ma all stopped in amazement in the pouring rain as an otter appeared and seemed to beckon to us to follow it. It hung out near us, but Mom didn't have a camera. We've been back to this pond all week trying to catch sight of the elusive creature.

Here's what he/she looked like. (Thanks SeaPics!) Still hoping we can get a photo one of these days!

We don't know what this is (cormorant?), but he was applying deodorant or airing out his feathers, or something like that!


Lots of feathered creatures floating around.


No matter where I looked or directed my snooter, there was something in the air or on the ground. Here - checking out one of those tree rats!

So happy to see these pals show up again to help us catch sight of those otters!

Another of the gazillion gopher holes.

























Lately, when I reconnoiter and investigate the holes, Sierra's come over to me (if she's around) and gets all excited and starts to do the above. I think she believes she's helping!

Then we have to go expend some energy, cause we're both still pretty hyper.

Okay... now we're ready to call it a day.


Except for one last thing. A thorough cool down mud bath - one of my fave spa treatments!

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Gratitude and a Dog Pile

I was overwhelmed to receive a couple of very lovely awards from some furry cool friends and feel unbelievably grateful. For a lot of last week, we've were inundated with storms and our 'puter has not worked for much of the time. We had a couple of power outages and apologize for not visiting as much as we like to. It was drying out until a few minutes ago and now is raining. Again. So I'll start dictating (Mom: THAT'S fur shore!) to get this post out! I found this amazing "Shining Star" award in my email box today and am almost blushing, as those Zoolatry girls (http://zoolatry.blogspot.com/) have gifted me with so many beautiful pressies lately, including the incredible banner I've installed up top today. I can't know how to woof out enough thank yous. There are no rules for this award, but I'd love all my wonderful furfriends to have it if you don't already.

Dearest Coco (http://lovebeingachihuahua.blogspot.com/) gave me this cool, pawsome "Director's Choice" award and I am so furry grateful to you, Cocorue! I would like to paw this award forward to three new blog pals - if you don't know these pups, go meow or woof hello! They lead furry interesting lives in equally cool places!
2. To Tanuki Maxx (http://sibemaxx.blogspot.com/)
3. To Mimi and Cabana (http://oursforayear.blogspot.com/)
You bet I look concerned! When Mom brought out the toy basket, my ears pricked up! Playtime! But no. She put me in a downstay and began arranging all my personal stuff onto my own personal hair on my own personal body. Imagine. She got 12 things on my actual body and 2 more kinda leaning on it, resting on my back paw... so 14, if that's not cheating. She also got out Ozzie's basket of toys, hoping to place a mouse or two in between my ears, but I was having none of it. So if you'd like to enter Biggie's Mango Minster Sanctioned Talent Event called DOG PILE, visit Biggie at http://biggiezblog.blogspot.com/! Have a good Sunday!


Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Do You Know the Way to San Jose Obedience Trial?

Dear Friends: I've been "out of the office" for a large part of this week, but please take some time to visit http://howsamseesit.blogspot.com/. Sam's beautiful sister, Cisco, crossed the Rainbow Bridge today and I know they would appreciate some support. xo
Mom and Dad furry rudely awakened me at 4 a.m. today. Sheesh! O'dark hundred! Luckily, they had my breakfast ready, cause I was tired from barking all night at some bold intruders occupying our backyard. Mom and Dad didn't look so hot, but they loaded me into the Jeepmobile and off we charged into the night.

One and a half hours later, I found myself looking at this from my crate. A Novice A Obedience Ring... argggghhhhhh! You can see the judge there, doing something at the edge of the table.

Mom took a stroll around the ring to check out the footing and the heeling pattern I'd have to do.


Mom always gives me a quick brush - love this! Then we practice things for a short time. I get lots of my favorite treats. I didn't get steak this time, but I do love my string cheese!

Uh oh. Here we go. The last time I did this a few weeks ago, mom came unglued and I was simply clueless.

Today, even though Ma was so tired, she seemed to step confidently. I just did my thang. Still, there were lots of distractions with so many pups in the ring for "sits and downs." But we've been practicing heheh! And I had a worried look on my face later when Mom made this furry weird look on her face. First number called for winner.... was...

Oh my Dogness! Moi! I didn't know how to deal with Mom's surprised expression, but she looked pretty happy. On the way home, I slept. And once home...

...continued purusing the pawsome dreams so rudely interrupted this morning...


Monday, January 11, 2010

The Ultimate Mucky Pup

Talk about 360 degrees apart from my last post!
Sally over at http://sally.nemati.multilang.over-blog.com/ is having a contest for the biggest pig-in-the-mud heheh! Check out her blog and then please... see if you'd like to give me some points for my apres kongchasing cooldown mudbath pose. Ta ta dahlings!

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Another Beauty from Zoolatry

As many of you know, my friends' mom (http://zoolatry.blogspot.com/) spends hours making art photographs (and has multiple other talents as well). Lately, she has honored me (and made me blush, which dogs aren't supposed to be able to do) by making a couple of beautiful portraits of me. I am grateful beyond words for this latest, gorgeous gift and am barking out ginormous woofs to you for putting me in such a "good light" heheh!!! Ann has also gifted me with a new header, which I will be using in a few weeks! THANK YOU SO MUCH ANN! If you haven't already checked out her work, go visit with Maggie and Zoey, the kitties of Zoolatry and Ann's studio!

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Doing the Off-Leash Thing!

It's been nippy and foggy here, but it only makes me friskier. So when Sierra Rose's mama invited me to play in the huge outdoor arena at the local fairgrounds, I woofed a resounding Yeah, Baby!

When Sierra and I get going, the hoomans wonder if we're fighting, heheh!

Naw... we are emphatically NOT!!!

But Sierra does a lot of bitey-face work and she is very good at it!

She's also fast and likes to chase moi!

I do what I can to accomodate her wishes!

But... occasionally, I'll do my own interpretation of "snaggling"!

En garde!

















Then we kissie-face and make up!


Monday, January 4, 2010

An Odd Combo...

A couple of days ago, there was a theft, but today, I've retrieved the merchandise, which would be my blog! A number of you asked for my Christmas doggie cookie recipe, so I'm going to slip it in between our makings of this recipe and a show-and-tell of my day at the Cow Palace fun match yesterday. An odd coupling indeed! The recipe is called "Peanut Butter Dog Bones." The ingredients call for:

2 cups whole wheat flour (but you can use 1 cup flour and 1 cup of whole oats)

1 T. baking powder

1 cup natural peanut butter (I used crunchy)

1 cup skim milk (but I used beef broth - or you can use chicken broth)

You can also add 1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese to the recipe, which I did.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease cookie sheets (I used parchment paper); stir flour and baking powder together. In medium bowl, mix penut butter and skim milk (or...?); slowly add flour mixture. Turn onto a lightly floured surface; knead until smooth. If sticky, add flour until stiff enough to work with.

Roll out to 1/4 inch and cut into shapes. For smaller breeds, make into mini-peanut butter cookie shapes or little dog bones.

Meanwhile, I'm waiting, in between helping. We put the cookie cut-outs onto the parchment and then stuck them in the oven for 25-30 minutes until lightly browned.


Mmmmmmnnnn. We took them out and boy did they smell good! But we had more dough to roll and shapes to cut out!

More baking time... yawn...


Can I have one pleasepleaseplease??? Well, after they cooled, I got to test one and it was yumzers! I still had some decorating to do! For this, you can use yoghurt chips (around here, must get online), or what we used - white chocolate chips and also carob chips. We used pastry bags to pipe out decorations on the cookies. (We melted the carob chips in double boiler - don't overheat these seemingly delicate chips. We then added some veggie oil to thin - just a tiny bit at a time - test! We melted the white choc. chips in the microwave, but watched with an eagle eye. Then we added some veggie oil to these as well, stirring drop by drop. Enjoy!)

Voila! It was lots of fun to do, but I had the best fun of all testing them out heheh! (And I had a great time at the Fun Match!)

I hope you enjoy making and eating these doggie cookies as much as I did!