Sunday, January 30, 2011

Journey to Indian Valley Open Space...


Sammie here - I LOVE this place and wanted to bring Avalon to see it, cause I only get to go here after a big rain! There's a creek here that fills up then and I knew we'd have a pawesome time! The adventure began the moment we got out of the Sammie-mobile - a big, huge horse/doggeh clip-clopped by and it was suure interesting!



The moment we passed by the gate, Avalon found a stick and lay down in the creek to gnaw on it for a bit!


Then she got up all alert from her stickie reveries and checked out the scene!

I was watchin' closely, fur I had so much more to show her! She just loved that stickie!

A cool bridge! I showed her what was up the trail a bit and then we crossed back over it to Mom and Dad.

Then a ways up the road, we found a cool trail that wound up and up through a thick forest, where we ran and ran.

We finally got to a beautiful meadow, where we just had to take some time to have some pawesome zoomies!

Wild Zoomies! Bitey face zoomies!
Then, all of a sudden, we heard some sounds we knew we should investigate...
Sure enough... some cuzzies... maybe! We hung out with them for a while and had lots of fun in the creek!

The sun began to go down and we headed back for the car. What a bootiful day on Indian Valley Trail!


Thanks for all your wonderful comments about Ozzie! She continues to do wonderfully well and as mentioned in our last post, gets her stitches out Tuesday morning!




Thursday, January 27, 2011

Three things: Ozzie! Thanks! Tracking!

Mom here: first our apologies for not visiting - again - it's been silly bizzy around here, although today (yay!) it's pretty mellow! Second, we wanted to show you a couple of photos of the super-rapidly-getting-better-OZZIE!!! She's playing and dancing energetically once more and will get her outer stitches removed at the beginning of next week. We are stunned by her amazing recovery and thank all of you so much for sending such powerfully wonderful well wishes - they helped hugely! Thirdly, this post is also about something I tried with Sam a couple of years ago - tracking. We just introduced Avalon (and Sierra Rose) to it yesterday and all doggies loved it! We actually traveled with Sierra Rose and her mom, meeting our good friend and experienced tracking person, Elizabeth Waldspurter, who set the courses for the dogs and instructed us. I want to thank her immensely for helping us get such a great start! I also want to thank Sierra's mom for taking the pictures of Sammie and Avalon trying out this super canine/human "sport"! (There are photos of Sierra as well, but we'll let Sierra post her version!) Okay... our turn!

Isn't she lookin' great???

You look like a zillion "treats" Oz! That's our Sis!!!
***
So... tracking! To make a long story short, we dogs (as we surely know well) have better scentacles (our word) than hoomans have. In fact, the area of our doggie brains devoted to analyzing the things we smell is 40 times bigger than what a person has - how about that? We know a completely different world than humans, and for this reason, it is furry cool to do tracking. Yesterday, Mom set us loose to do something she had little control over! In our friend, Elizabeth's words, "You can't really correct for tracking. They know what they are doing." Love it! So the object of the game is to sniff our way down the course that Elizabeth makes and get the glove... or... foodables on the glove!

We were urged to watch our teacher as she "set" the course for us. We started small - on a plot of grass in front of a house. Some wind came up and the grass was damp. It's supposedly good to set up a track somewhere that is fresh - as in no humans or animals crossed it to mess up our snooters. Sometimes it will look like we're not following the path correctly, but wind can make us veer up to 3 or even 6 feet off supposedly. (Anyone out there who might be able to correct us on any of this info, let us know...)

In Avalon's words: Finally Mom said, "Avalon, Track!"

And off I went. I sniffed here...

I sniffed there...

And I backtracked and sniffed thereabouts!

Until I saw the prize, but still kept my sniffer to the ground...

And oooooooh... what sweetness to reach the prize! What fun that was!!! I hoped I could do it again and again! Back to you, Sammie.

Okay... so it was my turn. I wasn't spose to look at the camera, but I'm a flashy beast hound. Okay... I'll get serious!

Here I am in earnest... watching Elizabeth set my course. We are now in a less "contaminated" meadow!

Elizabeth returns from dropping the "dime" hot dog foodables along the track. She has stomped on the grass, while dropping a hot dog every few feet, and has placed the glove at the end of the trail. I'm supposed to follow HER scent along the course, leading to her glove, see? (the hot dogs help...). She indicated to Mom that I can go!

And we're off! How I love this activity! And there really is no correcting. Mom's read that she could "help" me a bit more - you can read here - or here for further info, but basically, she has to trust my snooter - hah! Isn't that pawesome?

Meanwhile, Avalon really, really, really wanted to do it again and again without a break and made her wishes loudly known throughout the neighborhood. We will be doing this again soon and we are definitely excited! Huge woofs to Elizabeth - thank you so much! Here are a couple of movies of us tracking!







Monday, January 24, 2011

Norwood's Find-Your-Better-Half Contest Entry

Oksie Doksie...
Norwood is having a "Find-Your-Better-Half" competition as an adjunct (what does THAT mean?) to the MM woo hoo!!! It looks and sounds so cool, and the prizes are so pawesome, that we just can't resist entering! So we've been searching for our (male doggeh) twinses! And we found some - boy did we evahhhhh!



So above, here is moi, Sammie!


But doesn't the above pitchur look like moi too??? Believe it or not, HIS name is Sammy! He is up for adoption out of the Grrand Golden Retriever Rescue from Louisville, KY. If you would be interested in adopting my twin, the phone number is: 1-866-981-2251. It's toll-free, so give these great folks a call about Sammy! Here is their website: http://www.grrand.org/showpage.php?page=dogdtl.htm&petid=2446!


And Avalon found a twin too and again, with ALMOST the same name - can you believe it??? Below, a pitchur of the bootiful Avalanche from Adopt-A-Pet. Here is the page where you can read all about him: http://www.adoptapet.com/pet4554675.html. If you'd like to call for more info, here is the toll-free #: 1-800 Save-A-Pet. He sounds super loyal, playful, pawesome and simply wonderful. Besides... he is absolutely adorable!


Awwwww! Avalon would love to meet and play with her twin!





Thursday, January 20, 2011

The Varmint Dad Brought Home

Look at this!
Boy... it looks like Stalag 13 around here (anyone remember "Hogan's Heroes"?). As you can imagine, we are fairly outta our skins about the wild charlatan that Dad showed up with tonight.

We had to make lots of noise and hoopla over it in hopes that it would run away. Then we could really indulge in mayhem, prey and all! Here's a little movie of our meeting the beastie.



We began figgurin' out that we could play with its nose...

And another movie that will show you how we are not at all scared by the varmint.


Avalon even managed to capture it. She was workin' on destroying it last time I saw her.

Again, a million thanks for all your pawsitive comments about Ozzie. We continue to be amazed by her stellar progress. Her adjustment has been so quick, as so many of you assured us would happen. You were so right on! Here, in a pretty bad photo (but we didn't want to go in the room and have her jump off) is Oz on the third level of this tree. A neighbor brought this over for her to use and she loves it! We know she will continue to do well - physically and with spirit! Yay!

Happy Friday, Happy Weekend!



Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Ozzie is Recovering Courageously!

Oz has been home now for three days. And. She has amazed us by her rapid adjustment to being a tri-pawed kitty. She has not had a super appetite, but we've tried to offer her faves; fresh shrimp, which she's munched on daintily and her Fancy Feast fave, which she's eating here. For the first time today, she tried to escape from our bedroom, where she's been held captive. We're stunned by her continued improvement.
After she ate a bite or two, she headed for Sam's giant bed to relax a bit. She hates her meds (of course), but they help her sleep and keep the infections away. We stopped by the Humane Society today to say thanks to those involved in finding her and to re-license the pups. There were at least five individuals who were interested in what happened to her. We learned little more about what happened to Ozzie, except that instead of that nutty woman keeping her for two days, Oz was apparently held hostage for four days. All the days she was missing. I guess we can thank Dog that she was inside on those cold nights. For those who are squeamish, you may not want to look at the next photo, which shows Ozzie's amputation and stitches. She is in great spirits! We are so encouraged by her courage and backbone! What a winner!





Saturday, January 15, 2011

Mango Minster Entry - Moi, Avalon...

Esteemed Judges: it probably wouldn't surprise you to find that I'm also a "shameless dog" with a side of "diva." (Oh and yes... a bit of "bad sports" thrown in... it's completely Sammie's fault, but I wouldn't want to cheat by entering two categories...) But let's start off in a laid-back manner here; when all is said and done, I totally lack any modesty, due to the pride I take in my body. ("Sammie, stop with the commodious grin.")

Below: to prove that I could be the "greatest" at track(ing), I present the photo below for your consideration. Naaw... that ain't a stick I'm stalkin'! ("Shut up Sammie! I didn't interrupt YOU when you were working on YOUR Mango submission!")

The pitchur below is a little furry, but a great example of the "diva" part of moi. Despite my attire consisting of a cone, I am adorable in it, aren't I?

And speakin' of costumes, Mom squeezed this horrific princess thing on me for Halloween and forced me to pose in it. Think that's who I wanted to be? No! I wanted to be Darth Vader, so I made Mamma buy a new outfit. (Jeers from the Peanut Gallery, where Sammie has amassed a bunch of hecklers...) Sheesh...

I have actually been accused of brazeness - can you imagine? And that's not all. Momma has witnessed my impudence more than once; I have no shame on this account. Below, you can see me jumping gleefully all over my obedience instructor. I was simply glad to see her - anything wrong with that?

And finally, I apparently have a total lack of regard for others' rights or feelings BOL! If I were a locomotive, I'd run right over all my pals in an effort to usurp their possessions. ("Sammie, I said shut up! You're not so golden yurself!")

So above, I managed to get a hold of the stick Sammie was gnawing on furever. Right proud of myself too - she was protecting it pretty good!

Then I got really cheeky! Above, look at that... now THERE'S a coup!

Then, I even managed to hijack her snowball - oh yeah, Sammie wanted it back, but I am fasssssssst! (Hey! I think I finally shut down the Peanut Gallery!) Now... to prove to you that I've never had any shame whatsoever for others' property, I present this movie of me literally taking the prize! And at such a tender age!



Like Sammie said, except it's about me: "Dontcha think I'm a worthy shameless doggeh?"