The Adventures of Sammie and Avalon

A Working Weekend, That's Fur Shore!

2012-01-15T18:41:00.000-08:00

It's very hard to woof with your mouth full, but we gotta turn this bloggerino into a braggerino today. Me? Nahhhhh... I 'nq-ed in my Open B class and luckily there weren't any photos. Jes' didn't feel like dropping on the recall, if you know what I mean. Today, it meant that Momma expected me to come running towards her at 122 m.p.h. and... any time now, Mom.... yell "DOWN" in a loud voice, which is what I am supposed to do - yeah... like in motion - hah! I crouched intead of "downed" and flunked. Anyway, here to tell another story.

See my sister, Avalon up above there? She qualified in her ginormous Novice B class and guess what? She earned her third leg and got her CD title! Congrats Avalon! She got that nice little medallion! And there's more...

Above is a picture of Ronan, Avalon's brother, who qualified in his Novice Rally class on Saturday afternoon, then today, got second in the same class! Congrats to Ronan! There is more...

Above, right (in an awful picture... c'mon Momma!), is a photo of River. Well today, he got a second prize in a runoff in that ginormous Novice B class that Avalon was in. We are so furry proud of him! Congrats River!

And in the picture above... is Sporty (Mom - that's a terrible picture of Avalon's purty Momma) who is River's, Ronan's and Avalon's Momma standing next to Christine! Congrats to Sporty! She got a second in her Novice class and earned her CD title as well today!!!

Twin CDs - mom and daughter! Thanks to Don McKee of Topflight Photography for providing the above photograph!
So cool! Congrats to everybuddy! And.....

... last, but certainly not least, here is our pal, Shanti, who already has her UDX, but is working on her OTCH and will probably get it soon. She passed 10 UD trials in a row - yikes! In another Utility class today, she nailed a fourth - congrats to Shanti and Sue! What a weekend! Thanks for letting us braggerino!

Bitey Dog at Dogbone Meadow Dog Park...

2012-01-09T16:23:00.000-08:00

So excited to go to Dogbone Meadow. We love hangin' there, but today, there was a nasty bitey puppy. Yup. Nine months old and what a monster! Check him out!

This is the bitey dog of all bitey puppers. He is nine months old and ruthless. I, Avalon, think of myself as the ultimate racer-chaser, but this one outfoxed me on every turn.

Here we are on a picnic table, for goodness sakes! And all to escape that ruthless bitey-pupper!

So... Avalon finally decided to settle scores - how brave is she?

I am a certified chicken - here I am escaping the bitey pupper by reversing my course!

Then we had a peaceful interlude and met a couple of goldens - Avalon gives a shout-out to Leah!

We had more than an interlude and got to try out the agility course at this supah doggeh park!

Avalon is so speedy that Momma can't get anything but a fuzzy photo!

Standing on the table - "Pawesome Ma, eh?"

Sammie takin' a nice walkie!

Poor Avalon! Finally finding a place from which to escape "bitey-doggeh."

And not only moi, Avalon, but Sammie had to escape the mean bitey-dog!

Avalon, through the dogbone door, in a moment free of bitey-dog!

And Sammie also chose to jump through the dogbone door before the scary bitey dog came 'round again to... well... BITE!!!

MangoMinster! We Dig the Extreme Sports!

2012-01-01T10:06:00.000-08:00

As everybuddy must know by now, the great Mango, famed far and wide for his many feats of incredulity (all performed with a humble soul of course), has sent out loud woofs to all potential competitors for his 2012 MangoMinster! You can go to the site of the games by clicking on his name, above! We are entering in the Adventure category!

Hi y'all! If it's Adventure ya wanna have, come join me doin' the Splash Dawgie thang! It's pretty scary at first, but then ya get into the swing of it and jes' let go and fly! On a hot summer day, there is nuttin' like it to cool ya off! Lemme know if'n any of y'all wanna come join moi, Avalon, in the sport of Dock divin'!!!

Hey! Moi here: Sammie the Rock Jock. I am soloing steep Sierra granite without chalk or even my climbing shoes - somewhere around Lake Margaret at an elevation of 8500 feet! I'm watchin' where I place my paws very carefully. This. Is. Extreme. Anybuddy who wants to learn how to climb like this, contact me, Sammie, at PawesomeGranite!

We are jes' so "up" for the MangoMinster that we can't help ourselves to enter! Maybe this is the harbinger for Mom to get her butt off the youknowwhat and start being the assistant we know she can be heheh!

Happy 2012!

2012-01-01T08:48:00.000-08:00

"We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day." ~Edith Lovejoy Pierce

Hmmmm... anybuddy got any idea what that means??? (We'll chew on it a while!) Meanwhile, we're runnin' into 2012, fast as we can, wishing you all a very...
HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Have a Merry Season of Joy!

2011-12-25T05:45:00.000-08:00

THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH, CHESTER!

2011-10-03T16:01:00.000-07:00

It has been a long, dry spell since July... while we fired our secretary, we still haven't had any luck finding a replacement, so we hired Momma again to help with this post heheh!

We got an enticingly fragrant box, brought by the brown truck man. Guess what? It was from our fun and very entertaining pal, Chester!

We started pawing at the box and out came some colorfully wrapped pressies and a card!

Wait til you see what was in THIS!!!

And Sammie started right in, working on this pressie, below!

Isn't it cuuuuute? Not to be outdone, Avalon grabbed the other gift and began tearing off chunks of wrapping...

... while Sammie pondered on negotiating the rest of the pretty purple tissue! Looks like a very pawesome newspaper woo hoo!!!

But not for long! Very soon after Sammie got the Loofa Gazette hot doggeh freed from its wrapping, she ate off one ear. Soon after, Avalon snagged it away.

So Sammie picked up the "Daily Fetch" and played with her own special newspaper!

Check out this awesomely fabulous card! Chester, you are too cool! And y'know what? We also love to play "seek toyz"! Momma hides a kong without a rope (empty) somewhere, while we're in a sit/stay. Then she returns and tells one of us to "get it"!!! Hope we get to meet you one day - maybe we could play it together!

We absolutely-tutely adore our pressies and can't thank you enough! Especially for the chicken breast yummies - ohhhhhh, they are so good. We're not surprised you had difficulty restraining yourself! We don't blame you!

Here are some photos of us enjoying your treats to the max! Slurp! Delish! Drool drool!

Here's what is left of poor Loofa Gazette! Score: Both ears, an eyebrow, the tail and a hind leg. Probably not as thorough as you, Chester, but not bad for us.

All that work made us furry, furry sleepy, as you can imagine.

We're dreaming of those super nomzers chicken goodies and hope we get some more when we wake up! Again, a zillion thanks Chester - what a wonderful treasure trove!

Dock Diving In Hollister with Avalon's Furamily!

2011-07-11T17:20:00.000-07:00

We're just going to jump right in (love those bad puns heheh) and start by woofing that there's nothing on earth we love more than swimming... well... wait! Nothing, that is... except maybe DOCK DIVING!!! And we had a ball on Saturday afternoon with two of Avalon's brothers and her Mom, Sport (who really is an athlete!) at Doggone Dirty Dock Diving!

You can rent the pool for a couple of hours and practice, although we just "practiced" having a blast, flying off the dock! And we did not want to stop our turns to give the other puppers a chance, either!

C'mon Mom... not fair!!!

MO-o0M! Pleeeeeeeeze can I gooooooo back in???!!!! Enjoy this slideshow below - biggify for funnest enjoyment!

Below is a FABULOUS "sequence" photo of Avalon by Don McKee of Topflight Photography - what a very cool image! Thank you so much Don, for sending this awesome photo sequence!

Sammie's Fifth Birthday!

2011-07-01T20:28:00.000-07:00

Avalon here! It has been awhile - our peeps keep finding things other than our blog to attend to - imagine!!! And we have so many of our friends we need to visit - we'll be coming on over! I just wanted to woof that a couple of days ago, it was Sammie's birthday! She is now FIVE years old, so we needed to so some of her favorite things: go to the beach, eat, have a swim and... EAT!!!

Shhhhhhhhhhh... don't tell Sammie... we're going on a road trip - toooooooooooo Doran Beach all the way up in Bodega Bay!

You can see how much fun we had there - what a cool beach, and also a great harbor! There is a very cool Fish 'n Chips place - no pix - but Dad (with a stern gaze from Mom) fed us some of his...mnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn! Then...

... Sierra invited us over to pawty pawty pawty at her house, which was awesome! Sierra is a totally super hostess and we had a ball!

Sierra has this big red ball that both Sammie and I like - never mind poor Sierra, whose ball it was! Sammie and I both locked onto it and never moved for like ten or eleven minutes. Heheh! Then....

... what I KNEW was coming and had been waiting for DAH Dahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! We woofed Happy Birthday to Sammie in our best Wowowowos...

...AND DUG IN!!! Yumzers, Mama! What a nommy cake - you can see how happily Sammie ate this cake up!

Me and Sierra really got it goin' here - oh it was so good! It was peanut butter cake with yoghurt chip frosting - there was some cinnamon in the peanut butter part and we couldn't get enough! Sammie continued to love it!

Sierra and I retired to the dual pink pools to rest our bellies...

... while Sammie longingly stared at the leftover cake, hoping. We finally had to go home...

...where Sammie got to open her pressies - yay! Here's one of Sam's faves - Jerky Sticks that I (oops - Sammie) truly loves - they are from Sierra! Thank you pal!!!

Next, Sammie unwrapped a ginormous snake that I immediately had to test, to ensure that it wasn't toxic or anything! She also got a cool animal with a furry tail that had an empty water bottle inside - I love crinkly - oops - Sammie loves crinkly! And Sammie got her own big red ball, which we've been arguing over (oops - playing with) ever since! Happy Birthday Sammie! And thanks so much Sierra, for hosting such a wonderfully fun pawty!!! We wish you all a very safe and Happy Fourth of July!

Respite from the Heat

2011-06-24T17:58:00.000-07:00

We've had a long last 10 days and have been bad bloggy buds, which we deflect all the blame on Moms. Bad Momzers. We had a heat wave and finally got some relief by heading over to Fort Baker - it's just near Sausalito - quite near us. Ahhh... relief.

While Ava played with a log...

I kinda lured her over to a cool, deep swimming hole.

After I reached shore, I ran over to the diving area again!

Ava was watching for my next dive clue! We sure got tired! Well... I did, anyway!

No bites on the house, but the pawrents are not surprised. Will end with some sad news to us... yesterday, the grandpeeps' dog, Buddy went to the Rainbow Bridge. Mom wishes she had a pitchur of him, but he was a playpal of mine on occasion. What an angelic blacklab mix he was - full of mischief as a pupper and just plain sweetie pie as an adult. Fly free, angel Bud!

Avalon Better! Rehearsals for Frankie's Picnic!

2011-06-13T08:57:00.000-07:00

We are looking forward to attending Frankie's Picnic in the Bark (get all the info here!). Meanwhile, Avalon's been recuperating and waiting patiently for the big event by hangin' out on her beach towel, which she'll bring to the Picnic!

And I'm all ready for the dunk tank happenings with my own towel and shades! Hope to see ya there!

We've been busy with human events this last week and weekend what with the graduation of Ma and Pa's oldest granddaughter! We are all so proud of her! Have a wonderful Monday!

Avalon's Trip to the V-E-T - Vegetative Matters...

2011-06-10T18:43:00.000-07:00

Avalon had to go to the V-E-T today. After we played at McInnis Park with the grandkids, Avalon sneezed about 100 times and coughed like she was gonna upchuck or something. Momma was quite alarmed and we all packed up and went over to Dr. Bill. He wanted her to stay there until he could really give her the once-over. I told her not to get anxious - that Dr. B. was totally cool in all ways. We went on about our day, but Momma was watchin' the phone.

Finally... around 4:30, we found out that Avalon had "inhaled" some vegetative matters (plants that grow above ground) up her right nostril and it had made her nose interiors very raw and also her tonsils, poor pupper. We piled into the Sammiemobile and raced over to get her. This is the vet tech, Vickie with Ava.

She looked okay - Mom gave her oodles of hugs and loves...

She was all over the cookie that Vickie had for her!

We are supposed to keep her quiet (ha ha ha) for a week or so, but that isn't working out too well. To get the "vegitative matter" out, Dr. Bill used a saline solution. Avalon's poor eyes and right side (of her face) are very tender. We wish she would sleep, but she would really like to get outside and play, making noises to indicate this.

Avalon is very good at making faces that elicit sympathy!

Here's Avalon with a smile that displays her resilience! Hopefully, with her Benadryl-like medicine, she'll be better totally soon! Friends all: CAREFUL of all "vegetative matters" and especially foxtails that are out there in force!!!

Bad Hair (Wordless Wednes...) Day

2011-06-08T00:00:00.000-07:00

Playing Tourist in our Own Backyard!

2011-06-05T19:02:00.000-07:00

At the start of this weekend, we decided we had such beauty in our backyard here that we should play tourist and explore places that the pawrents hadn't even seen for over 30 years! We started at Muir Beach. It is a beautiful little cove of a beach and has always been popular with doggeh owners - a furry special place!

Here... Avalon is showing us that she is not a'feared of the big waves!

And don't I look just totally happy???

"I got the stickie!"

You are such the puppy pest!!!

Here you see... that I gots the stickie... finally!

Gamboling on the rocks at Muir Beach! What fun was that?

Here we are being good puppers, posing on the bridge!

As we exit the parking lot at Muir Beach, we pass the Pelican Inn and... across the street, a super wonnerful stables that you can check out here, if you like: http://oceanridersofmarin.wordpress.com/

And the Pelican Inn is a tradition out here: check out their doins here: http://www.pelicaninn.com/location.html

Then... we absolutely-tutely had to check out Muir Woods, where we couldn't go, but Momma went for about 20 mins. after not seein' it for about 30 years!!! It was so gorgeous with birdsong and ferns; ginormous redwoods and a creek that was swellin' over its banks.

Incredible...

So special...

As we climbed up the hill to the overlook/ridge, we looked back towards the Pacific... one way.

The other way gave us a view of the Bay and the Tiburon peninsula. What a day!!! Enjoy these vids of us at the beach and of Muir Woods. Hope you had a great weekend!

A Quik Peek at our New Life!

2011-06-04T10:44:00.000-07:00

It's always exciting to make changes to one's (two's?) life(s), and our new digs and routines are no exception! Especially seeing as how this part of the world has seen no Spring, much less Summer! (We do realize that bits of wind and rain are inconsequential compared to some of the erratic and frightening weather many of you have experienced in recent weeks - we have been thinking of you lots...) Today, it is pouring out with temps in the mid-50s - not bad, but very boring for a June day... yawn... Anyhoo, we moved into the folks' RV about 4 weeks ago, so that the newly painted and carpeted "for sale" house could be shown free of our furs and claws and such! (we think these signs of our presence would help but... sigh...) So far, no bites. It's been quite fun (and challenging for the peeps) to live here, but we still go to all our familiar places and there are good paths along a large marshy preserve that we walk along every day! It's not bad and it's only til the house sells or September, when Dad retires! Besides, it makes us think of camping, which we all love to do and also, you won't believe some of the interestin' things that happen right out our window!
Above, you can see me curl up with my fave pair of Dad's balled up socks.

And here I am, curled up next to Mom, eyeballin' her under the table! (WE don't mind the rain... it's just the pawrents heheh!) The scene in the next pitchur happened last Monday - on Memorial Day. We were all outside, enjoying a (rare) bit of sun, when we heard sirens on the freeway that's not far away. And then more sirens, until first one Cruiser drove into this park, and then another, until there were FIVE! And then in through the other access driveway, came two firetrucks and a fire ambulance! Our sweet new "neighbors" urged us to get inside, so Mom hustled us up the stairs and onto the bed. Mom took a couple of pictures, but got nervous. Meanwhile, Dad was approached by an undercover cop (yikes!) and told to get inside! We watched as cops with pulled guns approached an RV. A Sheriff's car pulled up. A huge presence and still we have no idea what it was all about. Below is a quick photo taken out one window of the activity. On another day, a large truck pulling a giant fifth wheel trailer, newly arrived, was trying to pull into a space next to our sweet neighbors. As he began backing into his place, we heard a huge pop, like fireworks. To cut to the chase, the truck's tie rod failed and as it broke, arrowed right into the front truck tire and popped it. He'd just drive straight from Iowa to here in N. California. How lucky that it broke down when it did. I guess that teaches us to count our blessings all the time! (Sorries for all the text - lots to woof!)

A Beautiful Sunday in Inverness!

2011-05-30T20:30:00.000-07:00

Yay - we got Momma to make a post again woo hoo! What a last few weeks it has been, culminating with a trip to a beautiful place called Inverness - about 45 minutes from hereabouts! We set off yesterday to visit Mom's and Dadzer's older grandgirls, who live in Inverness. We'd never been there and knew it would be so cool! The house overlooks Tomales Bay, home to the most yummy "ersters" you ever did taste!

Can you believe the view?

There's even a swimming pool there - woo hoo! (But we didn't get to go swimming bummer!)

We snagged the older G-Kids and went to Limantour Beach! It was incredibly windy - we were afraid that the Gals would get blown away!

We'd already gotten our paws wet and then Sammie woofed out an "emergency stop!" Large Airedale at two o'clock!

"Chihauhua at 3:00! We took the necessary precautions, in case any doggehs wanted to steal our kong!

Lotsa big waters, but Avalon wouldn't reliquish her Kong to me... bummer!

Look at her!

On the way home.. we caught this sighting of Drake's Estero...

And on the way into town (Point Reyes) we caught sight of these gorgeous Tule Elk! What a beautiful Sunday it was!

Momma here...

2011-05-01T19:44:00.000-07:00

Hi Bloggie Pals...

As you must realize, our blog has suffered from neglect... mostly by the fault of our Momma who has been most busy doing things that cause much confusion. We defer to her cause we must...

Momma here: In the last couple of months or so, we've been incredibly neglectful of the girls' blog. There has been a lot going on. Let's start with the fact that hubby, Bill is retiring in September (whoo hah!). So, we have decided to move, dependent upon the fact that we can sell our current place. Thus, we have been sorting through 41 years of STUFF, which has taken up a lot of time (hee hee) and then packing up what we deem to be necessary for post-retirement life? Well... we've been trying. And then our son decided he needed to get married... yesterday afternoon. It was a glorious celebration and there was a lot of happiness and pals and so on, but a distraction for sure!!! (From the blog, that is... By the end of this week, we should be packed up and the painters should have been finished painting; carpeters finished installing...) We will be starting to post again in a couple of weeks and looking forward to checking out your blogs once again whoopee! Back to the puppers...

Okay so here is one photo of the happy bride and groom hip hip hooray!

No Kongs Today... Just Sticks at Miller Creek!

2011-04-19T18:47:00.000-07:00

This is the roadway to our first waterhole stop. We were lucky enough to be joined by Shasta and Shanti in our adventure!

All four of us are investigatin' pawsible stickies down under!

Hey hey hey! It's me, Sammie! I got the stick!

But here comes Avalon, trying to wrest it from me - woofers! Now... it's time to take our guests on the road to Squirrel Woods... gotta take some time out for some grazin'.

MOOOO!

So here we all are galloping through Squirrel Woods, with nary a squirrel to be seen - what a bummer! But we did meet up with....

Cupid! He's a Saint Bernard - see that white "arrow" on his forehead? That's how he got his name! Time to move on to... the BIG POOL! But first, a very satisfying roaching!

Here's Shanti, waiting, albeit soggily, for a thrown stickie!

Avalon: "Want this Shasta heheh?" (Isn't Avalon mean?) I paid her back!

This time, IIIIIIIIIIIIII got the stickie!!!
Here are a couple of very short movies you can check out - here
and here - enjoy!

Here's Shanti in the gorgeous light of the early evening! We sure had a great time!

Teddy Bear Furbabies Getting Adopted!

2011-04-14T17:19:00.000-07:00

Momma's been tryin' to figgur out what to do with her un-PC furs. (She got one -a Chinese Raccoon coat (whimper) fur her 18th birthday from her grandmother.) She inherited a few more from her grandma later - an ermine stole, a fox wrap and a sable coat. And then... she found this site and contacted Liane, the Fairy Godmother, who makes "memory" bears. Momma sent her furses off to Liane. A month or two later, several gorgeous bears arrived in a box, each wrapped in a bootiful fabric bag with a ribbon. Momma wanted to give family members a Teddy Bear in memory of her wonderful grandmother. She started by meeting two of her grandchildren at their school!

Avalon checks some of them out!

They are the most softest, prettiest Teddy Bears we all ever saw. I think you can see that there are some pretty big smiles worn by the adoptees - thank you so much, Liane - what talent you have! C. is pretty happy, alright! And that bear will be furry happy too! Next day, we visited Momma's youngest two grandkids, E. and B. There were eight fur Teddy Bears left!

E. is working hard to choose which furry Baby she'll take fur herself and which her sissie should have as well!

Here is a picture of the Babies they adopted and below are the choices they had to choose from! We still have some stops to make for our Bear adoptions! It's wonderful to have found someone to help us reuse these coats - Liane has apparently made "memory" bears and other animals (bunnies) from especially loved shirts, denims and so on. If you have any fabrics you have a particular fondness for, you can definitely recycle them as a... bear?? Have a wonderful weekend!

Part II: A Ton of Aminals in Carmel!

2011-04-06T17:36:00.000-07:00

After our pawesome boat ride, we took a bazillion zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzs. Next mornin', we headed out for Pacific Grove... where Dad and Mom had yumzers and ginormous breakfasts! (we got to taste some!) Then, we headed out on Sunset - sorta like a 17-mile drive in Pacific Grove, only better in a lot of ways! We saw deer, squirrels, lots of birds and a few pinnipeds hee hee! (Seal-types!)

The major part of this post is in our photoshow - we hope you take a look at it, especially if you're thinkin' of visitin' this area - it's amazingly special! We found a wonderful offleash dog park - see the note to us doggehs below! Please biggify for better viewing! Press ESC to leave show after viewing!

We're having probs again with posting youtube here, so... to see a very short movie of Avalon checking something out, click here ...and, for a longer movie of barkin' sea doggehs, check this one out! We want to go back here very much - maybe we'll get to see some of you doggehs here too!

RoadTrip to Monterey/Carmel Part I - Woo Hoo!

2011-04-04T18:19:00.000-07:00

We is definitely having some format probs., but we sure as heck had a wonnerful time on our camping trip to Monterey and Carmel! Dadzers had a mini-vacay for a few days, and we decided to take the camper south to San Juan Bautista, which is furry near Carmel and Monterey. Below is a pitchur of Cannery Row, made famous by Mr. John Steinbeck, who wrote about peoples when Monterey was known for its sardine canneries.

There is a wonnerful path for peoples, doggehs and cyclists called the Rail Trail that winds around the bay for about a thousand miles LOL!

Here we are, admiring a sculpture of Ed Ricketts, a marine biologist, ecologist and writer who collaborated with Steinbeck on The Log from the Sea of Cortez. Sadly, he died in a terrible accident in 1951 -way too young. This bust is located where his car collided with a train. And here we are being chased by seals... scary. Owwwwwwwwwwww - Sammie! And here is a photoshow of our adventures on a BOAT, where we check out the sea life in Monterey Bay which includes whales - woo hoo! Please biggify both the photoshow and the movie!

Happy Birthday One-Year Old!

2011-03-28T18:18:00.000-07:00

Hi! I had a most pawesome first barkday and I so wanna woof about it! It all started with a great romp in the muck - woo hoo!

We had to put on HATS that we were not so WILD about, but because of the yumzers ice cream and cool huge doggeh cookie, it was okay!!! Here's a li'l slideshow of my pawesome day!

We wants to say huge thank yous to Sierra Rose's Mom for sending over some of her super photos that I used in the slideshow. I had a most wonderful day and wanna wish my awesome siblings, Ronan, Thistle, Jamie, Levi and Chelsea a Happy First Barkday!

CDX at Santa Cruz Kennel Club Show - 3/24!

2011-03-24T19:37:00.000-07:00

It was a dark and stormy day... Picture Snoopy uptop his doggehouse, typing. It was like that. As we pulled into the parking lot and readied our rollermobile complete with doggehcrate, chair for Momma and lotsa other stuffs, the downpour soaked us. Course... I didn't mind, cause I love the wet stuffs, but the hoomans were having a fuss over it!

This was the event where I was 'sposed to do some sorta magic that had sumpin' to do with the letters, C, D and X. There were a ton of doggehs here. (Even though there was a torrent.)

Here I am in my doggeh house. Waiting...

This is a furry cool day, for it seems to be just Mamma and me. I don't see Avalon anywhere and that's okay, cause I gots to concentrate. Next door is my pal, Shanti, who got her third UDX today. WOW! And next to Shanti is Quinn, a gorgeously handsome Sibe. I'll tell you how I feel about him a bit later heheh!

After a brief trip outside, I posed by the window. You can't see, but it is simply pouring out there!

You can see my performance in the movies below, but here we are lined up for the placements. Only four of us "qualified" out of a lot of doggehs.

I ended up with a second, but the best part was.... I earned my CDX! Whatever that means! Momma was furry happy!

Here I am posing with da Judge, who was most pawesome! If you'd like to see three short vids of my performancing, you can look at these, below!

Part I here

Part II here

Part III here

Momma still can't get the youtube movies to embed anymore... anybody got any suggestions? Thanks heaps! xo

PS: Wanna know who got first? Quinn!!! I gave him some kissies - Congrats Quinn!

Playing Catch-Up

2011-03-14T17:48:00.000-07:00

It was a wet, drizzly and muddy day today - what better way to celebrate the muck than to invite a new pal into the arena: 7 month old MacKenzie, a red/yellow lab who Avalon adored!

And here's a movie
of my sis and I playin' with the new girl-pal!

Next up... I actually got to visit my totally pawesome brother, Jamie a couple of weeks ago. I absolutely adored playing with him and will always look up to him... well - he's waaaaaay bigger than moi!

And a week before that, you would not have believe how cold it got. Well... unless Momma took a pitchur of the hail that came down among all the pretty cherry tree blossoms!

And this might help explain why we've been so MIA. Avalon and me has been working ever so hard on our obedience routines, practicing three times a week and visiting our teach, Barbara and oh... gots a headache thinking about it all!!! But about a month ago, I did manage to earn my second leg of Open A (whoopee!). Next week, I'll be trying for my final leg - imagine... a CDX! Woo hoo... let's hope I can remember all the things I supposed to be doing! Will keep in touch!

Kong Romp

2011-03-12T07:09:00.001-08:00

Nothing like total focus to snag that kong of mine and a great day to be out too!

I've taught Avalon well... as you can see, she loves to play kong just like moi!

We tried out a new little acre of green we found and met up with our pal, Sierra.

After our fun there, we decided to take our humans for a walk on the local levvies.

Sierra's Mom held onto us for a moment, but as you will see, we have serious "dogpower." Check out this movie of us... Hope you're all having a great weekend!

Mini-Vacay Amongst the North Coast Redwoods

2011-03-02T18:36:00.000-08:00

Hi again! Thought we'd take y'all on a little tour of our roadtrip to Eureka and parts northwest! About an hour into the journey, we spied Mount St. Helena, which is at the north end of the Napa Valley. CHECK OUT that snow on top! (Very rare here, so we get excited about any snow that shows up in the neighborhood-at-large!)

A couple of hours later, we investigated this hollowed-out (giant) redwood tree. In our little slideshow, you'll see our gas-saver little car go through it!

After we left the monster drive-through tree, we took the slow route to Eureka; the "Avenue of the Giants." What a stunning road! After quickly checking into our sleeping quarters, Mom and Dad took us to a really huge, sandy expanse, called Samoa Beach.

It was soooooooooooo great to be able to stretch our legs and bodies out!!!

You can prolly tell that we are having the best time here!

We had lots of bitey/fierce face play!!! The next morning after breakfast, Mom and Pop took us to another, even MORE beautiful (and completely empty) place called Mad River Beach in Arcata. We could see the snow-covered hills from the beach!!!

Hi Ma! Gee this is fun!

And even though we weren't allowed in here, our snooters easily picked up the aromas coming from the Samoa Cookhouse. It's apparently the last place of its kind in Northern Cali, serving a family style meal at tables filled with people you don't know - super friendly and extremely yumzers breakfast (and smells like baking bread and maple syrup when you walk in!) Well... that's what Mom and Dad said, anyway! Then we drove over to the very cool Ferndale - a town loaded with old victorian houses that are beautifully maintained. After gawking at the homes and stores on the main drag, we jetted over to Russ Park, more like a huge redwood forest, and did some hiking.

We sure love the smells and feel of a redwood trail underpaw!!!

Here's a little photoshow to fill in the blanks - please biggify for better viewing!

And we're still having probs. uploading our vids, but you can go here to see the Avenue of the Giants, and here to see us ruffhousing on Samoa Beach and finally, HERE to check out some of Russ Park if you'd like. Although our roadtrip was so short, it was really fun and also incredibly beautiful in a dramatic way; the weather ranged from cooooold, yet sunny on the way there, to rainy with a little sun peeking out on our journey home. We saw some spectacular rainbows!

Have a super weekend!

Belated Gratitude

2011-03-01T17:22:00.000-08:00

You might (or not) have been wonderin' where we've been. WE'VE been wonderin' where our Mamma's been. Obviously, not heres.

Mom finally HERE: This month has been one of the nutsiest Februaries in recent memory. Besides about twelve birthdays, there have been grandkid holidays (yes... we've been the sitters) and a couple of short trips for us... as in two-day road type vacays. Our son just announced his engagement and impending marriage at the end of April - woo hoo! The fur-girls have gotten a couple of awards that we haven't gotten to, and a VALENTINE gift that we've been unpardonably late in posting and thanking about. So heeeeere's Sammie!

It's about time... About a month ago, the pawesome mailman brought us a package that we've been sniffin' at since its arrival! And yes... we've taken a couple of trips that were cool. One was to Eureka, Ca., where we opened this unbelievable pressie!

You can see me investigating this wonderful smelling giftie above. Check out all the decorations on the package. It is from our pals, Augie and Ti, who are non-pareils (isn't that a candy?) at adorning their pressies!

You BET we were fighting over this!

Daddy helped us open part of it, and Avalon immediately stole some of the packaging!

Awwww... isn't that a gorgeous box??? Looks like candies!!!

Uh ohhhhh... Avalon!!! Stop stealing the goodies!!!

Thank Dogness, Dad got the loot away from her! SNooooooooooof!!! Ahhhhhhhhh... smells so yumzers yumzers!!! And look at the card with Augie and Ti signature cards!!! We'll treasure those furever!!!

And for some reason, we are having the worst time embedding youtube vids here, but if you'd like to take a look at how excited we were to jump on these goodies, take a look here first,

and then jump to this one to see how much we loved your yummy Valentine's Day heart cookies! Thank you sooooooooooooooooooo much, Augie and Ti!

Ozzie's Turn: Pressies!!!

2011-02-08T17:51:00.000-08:00

Meows all furpals of mine and of my two sissies. Mom has not posted or visited much lately, and us furanimals here have just adjourned from a tribunal after having decided that her must be fired, fur shore. At any rate, she got it together to record my first-ever package opening! I am indebted to Trixie and Lily and Sammy-Joe (this is the link to their post for when I won) fur sending me this super package of pawesome fun! Wait til you see how much I loved their pressies! Thank you sooooo much you guys! Here was how the box was addressed!

I gots Mom to make a picture show of me enjoying my pressies! If you'd like to biggify the screen, your enjoyment will be greatly enhanced purrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

And you can watch a cool movie of me hunting down the large furred rat/mouse HERE (cause we can't seem to move the vid at our place at this time). Hope you enjoy all the fun I had and thanks for coming by to say hello! As soon as we get some treats to put in the door dangli, we'll get some pix of me goin' after it!

Update Notice from the FurDoggies here: We wants to say thanks to the Shameless Diva judges over at MangoMinster: Anakin and Mango, his Big RH self, for giving Avalon 3rd place!!! We are furry humbled and proud of our little sis! Thank you Judges!

Journey to Indian Valley Open Space...

2011-01-30T19:01:00.000-08:00

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!

Three things: Ozzie! Thanks! Tracking!

2011-01-27T09:02:00.000-08:00

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!

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

2011-01-24T19:19:00.000-08:00

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!

The Varmint Dad Brought Home

2011-01-20T19:32:00.000-08:00

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!

Ozzie is Recovering Courageously!

2011-01-18T18:29:00.000-08:00

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!

Mango Minster Entry - Moi, Avalon...

2011-01-15T17:32:00.000-08:00

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?"

Mango Minster Entry - Me, Sammie...

2011-01-14T18:27:00.000-08:00

Who doesn't know, by now, that the MangoMinster 2011 is now in progress? Time to get your entries in - we are so excited! For your viewing pleasure, esteemed Judges, I present you with my submission!

Since I don't understand the concept of moral (is that a mushroom?), I will proceed with what Mom labels as my "shameless" (immoral) behavior. Yes, I am a shameless dog. Above, you see that I am furry happy and not at all unashamed to display my fine self with furs and scars alike.

I have no compunctions (is that a word?) about counter-surfing, whether I go after a full pan of gingerbread, half of our doggeh Christmas cookies, any and all hooman foodables I can lay my paws on, or even Ozzie's food, as shown above. I am profoundly proud of my excellent skills.

I bark at dogs and/or hoomans with abandon, particularly at those I don't recognize, and also including balloons and giant "stuffie hoomans" anywhere I see them.
I am totally and most easily flattered by praise and treatables, except when Momma or Pa run out of them, as in the above pitchur, when I was chasin' after a marmot - wouldn't have come back fur anything. And even when Ma HAS cookies, I distinguish myself with absolutely awesome work - see movie, below.

Don't ya think I am a great spokesdog for the title of "Shameless Dog?"

Further Update on Ozzie

2011-01-13T19:21:00.000-08:00

Again, a zillion thanks for your outpouring of well wishes for Oz. Above is a picture of her pre-surgery and we had every reason to believe that all would be fine, short of recovery time. However, X-rays don't always tell the complete story, and at the Humane Society, we'd heard that very fact when we went there to pick her up. So... when the surgeon went in this afternoon, he found that her leg above the break was in a million pieces "like shattered crystal" was how our vet put it. The extent of the damage to her femur was inestimable, but hadn't shown on those Xrays. Sadly, they had to amputate her leg. It was hard to hear these words over the phone, but as I continued to listen, I realized how impossible, given the circumstances, it would have been to put dear Oz's leg back together again. So we will look to Ben to help us figgur out life as a tri-paw. Knowing Ozzie as we do, she will be a TROOPETTE in her recuperation. The hardest pawrt will be converting herself to an indoor kitteh. Will let you know about her homecoming tomorrow or Saturday. Thank you all again for your kind thoughts - our apologies for not getting back to you these past few days.

Ozzie Update...

2011-01-12T17:20:00.001-08:00

First, we thank you with all our hearts for all your wonderful and warm wishes for Oz's recovery. I went to visit her twice today and she was remarkably responsive to my coo coos and pettings. She purred and even tried to get up (!) and "leap"out of her very spacious accomodations. Considering that her right back leg is completely broken, quite a feat! We are absolutely certain that she'll come out of surgery tomorrow wonderfully well and will recuperate quickly. I took several photos of her, but my phone is being uncooperative in sending the photos here. We have the ultimate confidence in our surgeon and our vet. We still haven't been able to ascertain what happened to her or who kept Oz in that garage, but we're going to concentrate on getting her better at this point! Again, a zillion thanks for your beautiful comments - they matter so much to us! xo

About Ozzie...

2011-01-11T17:39:00.001-08:00

We are sorry we haven't commented lately on your posts. We will be visiting shortly...

Last Friday morning after her breakfast, Ozzie didn't show up for play later in the morning, nor did she show up for her dinner. Though she is beloved in our household by all, we are the penultimate doggeh blog hogs and don't easily give our space over to the ONE we actually fawn over. Mom and Dad were sick with worry and posted "lost" signs all over the neighborhood and filed a report at our Humane Society. Lucky we did. Two (that's TWO) days later, the Humane Society got a call from what the nice lady there (who eventually phoned Mom and Dad), said was " a pretty nutty sounding woman." The Humane Society immediately went to pick up this cat who supposedly was not well. The "woman" who called in apparently had put this feline into her garage for two days.

Mom and Dad were furry happy to learn that it was probably Ozzie, but horrified to hear that she had a broken femur. They immediately went to pick her up and took her to the Pet Emergency Clinic. Our doggeh Nanny came to take care of us. By the time Mommy and Daddy came home, they looked furry tired.

Note from Mom: the fact that Ozzie was found was a miracle and we are beside ourselves. We were afraid we might have to do a different post. By Sunday afternoon, we had almost given up - however, knowing this cat, we held out a wee bit of hope as she is incredibly resilient and tough for such a little one. We transferred Ozzie to our vet this morning, where she'll have surgery ($$$ ouchie ouchie) on Thursday afternoon, by the same awesome guy who operated on Sammie for the "GLOVE." She should be home and recuperating by Friday afternoon or Saturday. We will update you when we know more. We still haven't a clue as to what happened to her, or who took her into the garage, but we do know that she didn't get run over. She is resting comfortably, albeit full of drugs - poor kitty. We've been reassured that cats recover amazingly well after orthopedic operations.

We Gots More Loot - from Augie and Ti!!!

2011-01-09T18:44:00.000-08:00

If you have never met Augie and Ti, then you should head over there and say hi! You will be most raucously and happily entertained! We were incredibly lucky to win their Holiday Photo Contest- you should head over HERE to see how funny the "choosing" was! We received this ginormous box a long time ago, but Mom has been lazy, claims to have been "on vacay" and whines that she's been doing lots of grandchildren-care - poo! We finally ganged up on her and said, "enough!" We wants to open our winnins!!! So there, below... it is!

Dad got his knife and helped us gouge into it - yahoo!

Look at all that loot stuffed in there! Can't wait to get at it!

Wowzers! Avalon couldn't get OVER that tomato! (She tried to eat the stem off the top heheh!) Here is a furry blurry video of the action - we were over the moon abouts all the pressies in here! We apologize for the blurry quality...

(Note from Mom: nowadays... Sammie and Avalon think that any packages that come here are for them! - they are pretty much correct!)

Look at all these wonderful stuffies - and they all make squeeks in all different tones!

Whatta haul!!!

We are NOT allowed on the living room furniture, but ya think Avalon cares in this case? Naaaaw. (But I didn't jump up!)

I waited until Ma presented me with my fave... the elephant - so cool! Thank you a bazillion times, Augie and Ti! You boys are so pawesome and we loves, loves, loves our toys!!!

Snow and Icicles and Pizza and More!

2011-01-05T08:18:00.000-08:00

Help! We don't even know where to begin, except to woof that we all had the most awesome time in the snow! It was Avalon's first Christmas, first New Year's (of course!) and first snow; both of us were enchanted by all of the festivities and miraculous acts of nature! While we did a lot of trail running with our peeps and also a cool hoo-guy, who took us on super walks through the snowy woods, our peeps went skiing on some days. Above is a picture of Lake Tahoe from the chairlift.

Here we are at lunchtime, trying our best to score some delish snacks! Don't we do a good job of beggin'? Later, we got yumzers Pizza - woo hoo - was it good!

This is the backyard of the house we stayed in - I've played in snow before, but have never seen so much! We loved our house - there were so many icicles hanging down - Mom said it made the place look charming - like a glittery old European postcard, whatever that means!

Here's Avalon tending to her investigations - of what... I couldn't woof.

Tandem investigating... and below, a longish photoshow - please biggify for best viewing!

The Truckee River with snow-laden pine trees lining the banks.

This is a picture of Percy, who owns the house where we stayed. This was such a cool place - everywhere we looked, there were photos of goldens; there was a deck of cards in the shape of a bone, a huuuge basket full of dog toys for us to play with, an emergency dog medicine kit in the front hall and towels to wipe ourselves dry when we finally came in from the snow! One of the coolest ideas he had was to provide tags for us to wear that had our Tahoe address on them - how pawesome is that? Percy laid it all out for us and we are furry grateful! Hands down, it was the best place for dogs and kids! If you want to see photos, you can go here - and that image of Percy, above, is by Keoki Flagg, who is pretty famous - out here, at least. Check out his site here. And lastly, we are furry proud of our former-ski-instructor Dad (years ago) - he still cuts quite the carvy turns. We'll leave you with this movie - he's the last one comin' down the hill in the white jacket!

On the Road Again!

2010-12-26T16:03:00.000-08:00

We are taking a little vacation - wheeeeee! Hope you all had a Merry Christmas! We might get to an internets, but unsure at this point... And we'll definitely see you all in 2011! Happy New Year! xoxo

We Gots Incredible Loot!!!

2010-12-24T16:14:00.000-08:00

We are indebted to Jazzie (click) for putting us bloggers together for a Christmas gift exchange. Well... we received a most ingenious Xmas package from Cleo, Winston and Amiee that made us so happy and bright!

Here we are investigating the contents of this huge box!

OMD! Look at these stockings! Each one has our name on it! I, Sammie, have never had a personalized stocking! And being as it's Avalon's first Christmas (cheer cheer!), she is one lucky pupper!

Ava is furry interested in this bear-bear puppy!

Mom's and Dad's heartstrings are pulled tight as they gaze upon the Hounddogs' bootiful artwork on Ozzie's stocking. They wish she was here to share! (She gets to wander on her own and we're furry jelly!)

Well... now I was never very good at ripping packages apart, but it seems that Avalon's a natural. Here she is... doin' her thing and enjoyin' Christmas in every way!

We are feelin' jes so grateful fur everything that we've been sent!

Oh my... and look at these! COOKIES! GIMME SOME!!!

What is not in these pitchurs is something else my pawrents got: a most beautiful (and Large) candle with a Cinnamon Blend smell, now filling up our home with its lovely scents. How can we ever thank you for these amazing, creative and fabulous gifts. Mom here: the dogs are still playing with your wonderful and "sound-producing" gifts that they can't get enough of!

Here is a movie of us... loving your cookies... and wishing you a furry, furry Merry Christmas! Thank you so very, very much...

Multi-Layered Stories Behind the Cookie Decorating...

2010-12-21T19:37:00.000-08:00

After our intermissions walkie, we had to move on the decoratings of the cookies. We are such good helpers and ordered three icings: peanut butter, white chocolate and carob... mnnnnnnn. First, we needed to create a blank canvas on which to create whatever our imaginations dictated. But don't you know... the hoomans can get in the way.

And then, there was this other story. A few days ago, the undersink in the kitchen began leaking, fouling up the airs and everything, so we had to fix it and then dry it out with that heater you see in the pitchur below. However, that's not the real story. The problem in this photo is that Ozzie is in the underkitchensink and Sierra's having a fit instead of helping with the cookie decorations heheh.

So... once we got Sierra's attentions back, and Sierra's mom decided that these cookies were for us, we proceeded to decorate our bootiful xmas treats! Please biggify the show and Happy Holidays!

BTW, you should click here for "outtakes" (heheh) at Sierra's blog on this fun night!

Cookies Intermission: A Walkie 'Round the Neighborhood...

2010-12-19T19:13:00.000-08:00

We were not thrilled with these... they were movin' about in the wind, but the treats were pawesome! Besides... the rain had stopped and Ma and Pa took us to some places in our neighborhood where we'd never been - cool! New smells and peemail to read.

Unbelievable sight considering the major storm system that is gonna be here for a while. Don't know if we'll be able to see that amazing lunar event that's supposed to happen on the 21st, but we're hopin'!

Here's a collage of some of the places Ma and Pa made us pose heheh! That flash is blindin' so we closed our peepers in some of these, like the smart pups we are!

This is a cool place, just up the street from our house. Oskar's mom should dig this - snowman!

Alien eyes in the last of the leaves!

And this is where we go every year to the Halloween party! It takes a lot of treats to lure us away from here!

And this is our doggie nanny, Birgitta, our two-doors-up neighbor, who should be called Ms. Clause! Her house is totally Christmased up to the max! She gave us some goodies... well... she always does! Stay tuned for Part II of Cookies... and we want to thank everybody for the incredible cards we've received from you and thank Jazzi for her amazing Pressie exchange - what a job!

The Baking of the Doggeh Cookies, Part I

2010-12-17T19:35:00.000-08:00

Uckhhhh! We didn't want to put our paws in this... we wanted to nomzers down on it hee hee! But our Momzers insisted on playin' wit it and rolling downs on it...

Avalon tries to nomzer down on the gingerbread man shape, but she didn't get it.

Here is a photoshow of our attempts at trying to corner dibs on all the cookies, but we didn't quite make it! Again, Mom is having probs with centerin' the show!
Best if you biggify on the show... it's shortish this time!

Big big thanks to Sierra and her Mom, Kristen, for helping out with the Christmas cookies! Part II will be all about da decoratin'!!! Stay tuned!

Not so Wordless Wednesday...

2010-12-14T18:31:00.000-08:00

Mom dropped off some Xmas cards at the PO, then made a "U-eee" back towards McInnis, where we would get to play, right? So we passed the Civic Center pond and there was this guy making ginormous... well... you decide. Avalon wanted to get out of our car and chase those monsters! I just wanted to get to McInnis!

Got Snow on da Brains!

2010-12-13T09:19:00.000-08:00

"Pss psst pss pss..."

Avalon: "Huh? I didn't get that."

"Pss psss psss pfsss pssnnowww"

Avalon: "What you whisperin' about?"

"Look into my eyes... the pictures below are reflected in them hee hee! I've been on a nostalgia jaunt!"

Isn't it bootiful? Someday, you'll be in a snow show hahaha! Ho ho ho!

(Mom: this is an old photoshow and there are way too many pix in here, so don't feel you need to watch whole thing - you get the drift, hah! Hope our pals in the midwestern states are doin' okay with all the snow you've been getting... we're thinking about you.)

Dreamin' of a White Christmas...

2010-12-10T07:38:00.000-08:00

I'm dreamin' of getting back to the snow - and I've pawed Ma and Pa so much about it, that - shhhhh - I'm actually gonna get to introduce Avalon to that cold white stuff in a couple of weeks! She doesn't know yet, cause it's a surprise heheh! We'll let you know more as soon as I get more info myself! Whoopee!!!

Weather .... or Not!

2010-12-08T08:36:00.000-08:00

We got up to see this again today and we are not happy about it... humpffffff.

Yesterday was totally cool though, and we got to release our pent-up energies at McInnis with some of our good pals, including Sierra! There she is with my sis, who is getting Kong retrieval lessons from me. Above: I'd give her a B+.

Heeyyyyy... nice form Ava - I'll paw you an A-!

Uh oh... wha...???? Hey... come back here. You never, ever drop a kong until you deliver it to a hooman. A Big "F" fur that boo-boo.

I guess she was distracted by her pal, Callie. I'll just tiptoe around them and grab that kong fur myself.

Hee hee! THAT got her attentions!

Now that is how you play a good game of Kong-On-A-Rope, as the Ao4 would say!

Well then Shanti's brand new baby sis, Shasta (15 weeks old) showed up and we all got to go for a walk on the nearby levies - trails that skim inlets to and from the SF Bay. Lots of these (below) and tons of ducks. Avalon loves these feathered creatures, while I glue my snooter onto the many gopher holes along the way. The lady painter up ahead was creating a very beautiful picture.

Shasta wasn't too excited about looking at those geese, but Avalon thought they were very cool and even barked quite a bit at them.

Then we turned around to head back. Lots of birdie and gopher smells. We grazed on the green grass along the way. Moo moo.

Pretty stop along the way - tide is high!

One more check before we head on home...

I think Shasta enjoyed her first levie walk!

Thanks to Sierra's Mom for taking the Levie walk pictures. Poor Sierra! That's why there are no pictures of her in this portion of our post today. Hope it's nicer weather at your places! If you desire snow today... may you receive! Happy Wednesday!

Sandy Paws is Comin' To Town!

2010-12-06T18:00:00.001-08:00

Sammie here: I was a bit wary of visitin' Sandy Paws last year... I wasn't sure what to make of him, but he was furry nice to me and when I actually had a woofie chat with him, tellin' him what I really wanted, it got better... especially when he gave me a couple of treats! And speakin' of "comin' to town," here is a furry weird version of that which I've had on my Facebook page for eons. Hope you enjoy to get you in the mood for the season!

Hope you are starting to have Happy Howlidays! We are loving your cards! They smell yumzers!

My Second Blogaversary - Pet Hop Edition

2010-12-03T20:24:00.000-08:00

Mom here: just about the first word on Sammie's opening blog post was, "Woof." I had had a blog for about three months, but was not satisfied with it, so decided to try writing about our adventures with Samantha. However, being as computer challenged as I am, I had trouble with Blogger in transferring info from my old blog to Sam's new blog. Hence all the fussy writing about the issues! We have never looked back from day 1, however. We've met so many pals, seen so much happen for the good in all your blogs - in two short years - and... enlarged our little doggeh family! Thanks for being our pals! Here's a little look at the past.

Mom has been doin' a bit of bloggie takeover lately... I hope that won't become a habit. Well above, I am with Grandpeep C., who I love with all my heart and soul and mouthyness. This pitchur was taken the first week I came to my pawrents house, when I was nine months old. It was in late May 2007 and I've just never looked back. I love my peeps and my home. Even Avalon is okay. Rescue rules! Really.

The above pitchur is taken from my first blog post which you can find here. Mom and Dad took me for a hike in some of the Open Space here, and I was hot. There was a trough out for the cows and I just jumped in! And below is a photo of me in the fall of 2008, practicing some tracking with my pal, Moritz. I'd like to do more of that... lotsa treats heheh! I'm scenting my way to the white glove at the flag. I'm a total rookie at this, but it's fun.

And Mom is so grateful for your help in trying to get the Linky thingy up, but she's still a total dweeb at figuring it out. She's gonna work on it! Mom also wants to thank so many of you who wished Avalon a speedy recovery. She's doing better than great! Happy Hopping!

Wordy Wednesday - I'm a Nurse!

2010-12-01T07:36:00.000-08:00

I've currently adopted a new role; I have been Avalon's nursie since yesterday afternoon. She had her um... er... girl parts removed and when I saw her being lifted into the car at the Vet's, I could tell she was a bit whacko. At home, she would walk into a corner of the room and just stand there, slightly tottering, looking at the walls as if she forgot what she came there for. Well... I had to step in. For one, I had to urge Ma to use the awful cone, so she'd stop licking the um... the "area." So with my ministrations, she made it through the night with a good sleep despite cone! And come early morning (sorries for the grainy photo), she seemed much more bright-eyed and bushy tailed. And she ate a really good breakfast. (We both got excellent treats too and some sheep yoghurt! - Yummmnnnnny!)

Happy December 1st.

Momma wanted to make a post to celebrate Sammie's 2nd Bloggieversary yesterday, but we hope she doesn't mind if we do this on the next post. She's a pretty agreeable lady! Avalon's doing great and this morning, seems almost normal - amazing! Happy Hump Day.

Our Weekend Job...

2010-11-29T15:20:00.000-08:00

(As if we didn't do enough last week to help Mom, she decided to put us to work over the weekend. Maybe that's why, again, we couldn't get her to come and visit as many of you as we would have liked.)

Ma, get me a crayon! These need to have names on them!

Our tongues came in handy for this job heheh!

Apres Thanksgiving Food Coma... Pet Hop Edition!

2010-11-27T10:24:00.000-08:00

And no matter what Mom does to try to paw the Linky list for Pet Hop Blogging, it won't copy/paste - sigh. But by clicking on the purple picture below, you can get back to Life With Dogs, who have an intact Linky List! Happy Weekend!

Avalon's Turn: My First Victim

2010-11-23T07:26:00.000-08:00

About a week ago, Mom put out this piggy. I took to it right away, even though it was my sister's toy. She got it about a month ago in a goody bag for being in a "rescue parade." Then... last night, Mom caught me with the flashbox... exploring Piggy's innards.

I was having so much fun that I didn't even realize Mom was watching me.

Yuppy... I started it all on the floor, where Sammie's investigating my handiwork. Then I heard Mom's voice.

Don't you all think I give a pretty good "hairy eyeball?"

Exhausting work that de-stuffing...

Steps for George; Rain Spells Snow and Field Play!

2010-11-21T11:48:00.000-08:00

It's been cold and rainy here yesterday and today, so we haven't gotten to do much. The good thing is...

It's doing the "above" up in Tahoe - arroooooooooooooooooooh!!!

We still have fond thoughts of running through the Mt. Burdell fields last Sunday!

Avalon was just plain goofy after a while! That's my sis, alright!

Before it started raining, Mom took an equally goofy picture of us on some steps in a nearby town called Larkspur. Since we kept wanting to explore and investigate things off to the side of the stairs, Mom tied us up. We were not happy as you can probably tell, though we feigned some interest in a treat she threw us, except it landed in the bushes that we're looking at. I'm sure hoping you'll understand George! Happy Birthday to you! If you want to send George a picture of you on steps, you can go here to join him on his barkday! Have a good Sunday!

Wordless Wednesday

2010-11-17T10:16:00.001-08:00

A Very Special Day...

2010-11-14T18:37:00.000-08:00

Helen Keller said: "Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much." Our day started with a trip up to Mom's alma mater, Sonoma State University, where grandpeep, H, was competing in a Cheer competition. Here she is on top - woo hoo!

Since we were close to Crane Park, where Mama used to play frisbee golf (yeah... funny!) with some pals, Ma and Pa thought it would be a great parkie for some fun!

Unfortunately, the rules said that we had to be on leash - yuck! So we soldiered on, even though we caught these guys below with a pupper offleash!

If you haven't ever played frisbee golf, it is really cool! You have to have special disks and do they ever fly!

Some pix of the scenery on the way to Crane Park. The vineyards are in their fall majesty! Momzers and Dad decided that we would spend our special MOMENT at the Mt. Burdell Open Space Preserve, where we could go offleash and see precious views of the San Francisco Bay and beyond.

Pretty soon, it was approaching 4pm... for us, 11:00 pm GMT. Mom gathered us to her as best she could and we all thought about those we loved and missed as well as those we love and are in pain. We couldn't light a candle here, cause we didn't want to start a grass fire or anything. but we felt the power of thinking... with so many of you across the planet. It was very powerful.

Then, we had to go and play in the grasses, before it got dark.

And before we had to go home.

And before we died of thirst... We spent today extremely grateful for what we have... life itself.

Helen Keller got it right.

Super Duper Doggeh Organizations Near Our House!

2010-11-12T07:34:00.000-08:00

TGIF! We just pawed Ma to tell about all the people-to-dog and dog-to-people organizations within two miles of where we live! Just down Highway 101 is the Marin County Humane Society
which has a lot of amazing programs, including one of which you'll find by clicking on the "society." Our pal, Sierra Rose just mentioned its director, Trish King, in her last post, who was also at the K-9 Carnival, courtesy of the Rangers at McInnis Park. And... even closer to us is the California campus of...

Guide Dogs for the Blind (this is the Facebook address.) It is a gorgeous setting and anyone coming to this area to visit should schedule a tour - amazing! Above is one of GDB's biggest supporters - the golden girl herself with... who else? Another lovely golden girl!

And this picture is not about a furpal organization, but rather, about a TV program we caught the other night. We don't watch a lot of boob tube, but stumbled on this NOVA program by accident: Dogs Decoded. It was quite scientific and we were a bit horrified by so many dogs kept in what seemed like a zillion cages for research in part of the program. If you get a chance to see it, we'd like to know what you think. You can click on the program site to learn more about the premise, which is actually very interesting. Also, I was looking for a wintery template and want to give this blog designer a big thanks for letting me use this one that we chose! Have a great weekend!

Families and Dogs and the World Wide Moment

2010-11-09T12:22:00.000-08:00

Hi Again! We have had a week of visiting with Mama's mother and sister, who came all the way from NYC! We had a ton of fun with them and will explain the above photo in a bit. Suffice it to say, that the only way you can drive from San Francisco to the county we live in is to go through the tunnel pictured below. Maybe you can see that the archway above the openings are painted with rainbows!

Well, we had a wonderful time with the visiting duo, as well as Mama's and Dad's little family out here in the wild west. We acted as touring agents, showing them Miller Creek park, McInnis Park, where Sammie and Shanti gave an obedience demonstration and finally, showed them some football fields where Mom's granddaughter, Hannah was cheering. We pointed at some terrific restaurants... but dang! The managements wouldn't let us in! Can you imagine? We took them up to the top of Mount Tamalpais, driving through tule fog and rain. Mom vowed that we'd see some holes in the fog/clouds/rain and get views. It actually happened. The visit was magical and we miss the NYC duo very much. The day after they left, we went to see our pals in the park - McInnis again. Here are some of us all smiling!

And below, we're waiting for somebuddy to throw a stick at Miller Creek!

Sue and Mom and me, Sammie at the McInnis Park Rangers' Carnival for Doggehs. Shanti and I demonstrated our obedience routines. There were lots of puppers there and a bunch of cool things to do, like swim, run through an agility course, and hear tips from our local Humane Society Director, Trish King.

There are two blogging doggehs you may know in the above picture! Can you find them??? (In next post, will tell you who they are!)

I sure love my parents' grandpeep, Cam, a LOT!!! (Thank you Kristin - Sierra's Mom - for providing this lovely photo!)

Here's a collage of the Hu-Family with us, BEGGING to be set free!!! There wasn't a soul up there, even though the wind was blowing the clouds away, allowing us to see how high up we were!

YAY!!!

I know the Hu-Family must have missed us at this place in the top picture. Life just couldn't be the same without us, eh?!!! In the bottom picture, you can see that the clouds are going away!

Robert Brault said, "In a houseful of toddlers and pets, you can start out having a bad day, but you keep getting detoured."

So here's another photo of that amazing rainbow we saw as the clouds parted and the sun shone through - it really was totally magical. And speaking of magical... many of you know about the Second Annual World Wide Moment, coming up at exactly 11:00 pm (23:00) GMT on Sunday, November 14, 2010. We will all be turning towards the skies together for one silent moment, wishing and sending any and every fur, feathered, fuzzy creature (with us on Earth or across the Rainbow Bridge) whatever is in our hearts that will help them feel the love and support they need right now. Please visit Fergi and Jake for a ton more information on this AMAZING MOMENT. And please do spread the news or make a post about this event. Thank you!

Break Time...

2010-11-02T08:45:00.000-07:00

Mama seems to be having another one of those bizzy weeks - see ya in Standard Time! (Congrats to those GIANTS!!!!!)

Hoppin' To See Ya!

2010-10-30T09:20:00.000-07:00

Hi Pals! It's been raining quite a bit this week and Mom's been attending to neglected duties, so we are sorry we haven't been around to comment and see what's going on for the most part. We're headed your way on Blog Hop Saturday! Hope you've had a great week!

A New Star in the Skies...

2010-10-28T18:58:00.000-07:00

We were so sad to hear that Sierra-Dog crossed the Rainbow Bridge today. We ache for her family and send them huge hugs and kisses. Rest in Peace, dear Sierra-dog.

Long-Winded Wednesday...

2010-10-27T08:47:00.000-07:00

Happy Howl-o-weenies Pals! I don't think Mama picked out a super outfit fur me this year. Personally, I think she still hasn't erased our trip to the Ol' West from her brain cells. I like my costume from last year (bottom) way mo bettah!

Avalon: I also think Mamma did a poor job this year. While I like my princess outfit, it's waaaay too small. Okay...okay, I'm petite, but today, I am feeling especially fat, cause this costume is size LARGE!!!
Don't you think my Howl-o-ween threads were totally more stylin' last year?

GO GIANTS GO GIANTS GO GIANTS GO GIANTS GO GIANTS GO GIANTS GO !!!!!

My First Open A Obedience Trial at Del Valle

2010-10-24T17:52:00.000-07:00

Hi Pals! Last March, I passed my 3rd and final leg of Novice A, earning my CD. Mom and Barbara had a little chat and Ma told Barbara somethin' like this: "I feel so good about Del Valle

that our new goal is to be ready for Open A by Del Valle 2010." Barbara was wary. We pushed on. I knew I could try to be ready!

So we worked and worked and worked. I had problems with the broad jump. I hated the dumbell for a long time. And finally, I wouldn't even "Come" for the Drop on Recall. OMD! But Ma entered me in Open A at Del Valle 2010. It's a five day show, from Thursday to Monday. I was due to "do ma thang" on Friday (indoors) and Saturday (ourdoors). My teach, Barbara, even worked the video in two parts. Here they are.

And Part II...

After these tests, I had to go back in the ring with other doggehs to do "Sits and Downs," where I have to Sit for 3 Minutes while Ma is out of the ring away from my sight, then Down for five minutes with Mom out of sight. Even if I've done good on my exercises, I can just as easily get an NQ if I get up from a down, or ... the reverse. I stayed on both and Mom was patting me hard and finally giving me treats when I got back to my area!!! Then imagine all our surprises when...

Holy Moly... I won Open A! So after a while of partying and such, we went home and slept soundly... believe you me, it's just exhausting to answer to Ma's commands!

The next day was "Specialty Day" when it was all Golden Retrievers - woo hoo! And guesses to who was there? No pix, but my boyfriend, Jackson, was there! Also, Avalon met up with her brothers, Ronan and Thistle. Above is Avalon with Ronan!

Even though I was entered in Open A again, I failed to "DROP" on the recall and NQ'd... bummer. Jes' didn't hear Ma right heheh! But I was due to be in a "Rescue" parade after my class. Here I am trotting out with so many other NorCal golden retriever rescues!

And here I am with Momma! Man, was I tired!

And so was my sis! We was exhausted!

From the Eastern Sierras to the Old West!

2010-10-21T12:11:00.000-07:00

Momma here: seeing so much beauty in a few packed-full days should be criminal, but we indulged! This is Mount Williamson, the second highest peak in the Lower 48. As we drove out of the town of Independence toward the valley below Mt. Williamson, the scenery grew even more breathtaking (and that's no joke!). We were headed for the Kearsage Pass trailhead in Onion Valley (9200 feet) and hike up to Gilbert Lake (at almost 10,000 feet), so the thinner air really did take our breath away. The dogs did really super - it was as if they'd lived here all their lives. Okay Sammie... take it away.

So the above picture is where the trail started and this is Onion Valley. See that ridge up there? That is where we were headed - to a lake. The slideshow at the bottom of this post has lots more pictures of the trail and lake.

On another day, we roadtripped up to Bishop and headed for Rock Creek. No hiking today but a ton of swimming and leaf-peeping for Mom and Dad. Lake Sabrina is a pretty alpine lake that we drove to.

After we left the Bishop area, we headed back to Lone Pine, our HQ, and decided to check out the film museum there, cause on the way to Mount Whitney on the Portal Road, there are a bunch of rocks, collectively called the Alabama Hills. 100s... maybe 1000s of movies and TV shows have been shot there and the museum has a lot of media memorabilia in it. Afterwards, we actually went and explored in and about the rocks and had a great time chasing all manner of furry creatures heheh!

There was a spectacular sunset, and even though it wasn't all pink and orange and rosy, it was very dramatic, just like those spaghetti westerns. You'll see some pictures of that in the slideshow too. The next morning we had to pack up and leave...

This is the cool highway we've been following almost ever since Mohave.

Here we are, traveling north and climbing a pass as we leave Mono Lake, which sits in a valley just east of Yosemite National Park.

That evening, we reached Virginia City - our final destination before driving home the following day. This guy doggehsat us for a while. Look at that gun!

He wasn't a very good doggeh nanny, cause we escaped for a while and got Mom in trouble. Uh oh.
In addition to what we barked below, we suggest you might like to view the show enlarged by clicking on the double squares, lower right. Enjoy!

We know this is a huge post and don't expect you to look at all these pictures, but for those of you who might like to see more of the Eastern Sierra... well, we wanted to share our adventures.

A moment around the campfire... above... and...

...in the spirit of Halloween - the "Bucket of Blooooooooood"!

From Redwoods to Desert and Mountains! Part I

2010-10-18T18:29:00.000-07:00

Just had to let you know that our first stop was by the King's River (and also... by the way... by Highway 99 and a well-used freighter rail line) - ouch!

We feel so privileged to have spent 10 days camping in our California deserts as well as near the highest point in the lower '48; Mount Whitney. We came within 100 miles of Furnace Creek in Death Valley; the lowest point in the lower U.S. What a time we had! It was so hard to edit this photo show and there are still far too many pictures, but we hope you enjoy! Can't wait to find out all about what you've been up to!

An army of Joshua Trees near the Kerns River, where the doggies swam and played!

We stopped at this curiosity store, "Robbers Roost" and were totally taken by the "cashier"!!!

Waking up to a clear, blue sky and straight-arrow view of Mount Whitney - back center!

Our first night provided us with a spectacular sunset show - wowzers!

Pawesome Pressies from Sugar!

2010-10-07T15:09:00.000-07:00

Sugar - possibly the sweetest golden around, just sent Avalon and me (and also Sierra Rose) the most thoughtful package full of the nommiest goodies that we ever tasted - mmmnnnnn mnnnNNNNNN! And guess what? Sugar baked them herself, at her Paw House!

Here is how we found Sugar's package on our doormat.

Avalon is watching me snooter it thoroughly - I want to inhale whatever is in there right NOW!

It's hard to have a smiley face while I wait forever for Ma to get us one of Sugar's treats that we find inside the box!

Oh... Sugar, my pal... I am blissed out on this yummy, yummalicious cookie you made! I'm in heaven - can't you tell?

And Avalon loved your cookies so much too. She was very good about not being grabby heheh! I could tell she was savoring them!

Here is all the loot generous Sugar made for us and sent all the way out here for us to enjoy! Peanut butter is our all-time absolute favorite flavor of foodables and we love that they are wheat-free. You are a master chef and we treasure your card so much! We'll be delivering Sierra's portion to her as soon as she gets home today! Thank you a zillion times, sweet Sugar! Keep on cooking up a storm in your Paw House!

Mom: I hate apologizing so much, but I've been just terrible about visiting you this week. We have had lots going on that required lots of time that is so boring - how I would rather be blog-bound, address-wise, than dealing with biz stuff. And... we are about to leave for another 10-day camping trip tomorrow. Since I am so computer challenged (with no wifi), we probably won't be visiting until after the 17th - so sorries. But if we find a place that rents 'puter time, I'll stop in for emails and try to see what you are all up to. Thanks for visiting here, despite my bad commenting of late.

Who Do You Look Like?

2010-10-03T17:42:00.000-07:00

Momzers wasted part of the day watching football (gasp*!!!) and playing with pitchurs here. Personally, I think she was shilly shallying around with silly photos, but we'd like to know if you've ever been told you look like your (or any other) hooman? Mom thinks that with some of my expressions, I look like Marcia Marcia Marcia. And...

...Dad thinks Avalon looks sorta like his fave movie star, Bridget Bardot.

If you want to try your hand at this, take a tour around this crazy place! At Cheezburger.com, you can find all kinds of fun! Hope you had a great weekend...

In Arrears...

2010-10-01T19:58:00.000-07:00

We are seriously in arrears thanking Oskar and Emerald for these amazingly wonderful awards. We apologize for our tardy and overdue thanks; to Emerald, for our Doggie Bloggie Award, and to Emerald AND Oskar for the Most Versatile Blogger Award. Huge Hugs to you both!!!!!

The Bloggie Doggie Award requires that we:

1. Thank the pupper that gave us the award and link back to them -

2. Name 10 things about us -

3. Pass this award on to 15 blogger pals (or not-yet-pals)

4. Comment on the blog award recipients

5. Heheh: Have fun!

So: what we are gonna do is have moi, Sammie, tell 5 things about me; then, Avalon will paw 5 things about her. Here goes:

1. Since Emerald told us we got this award cause we loves the water so much, I guess it's no secret that we adores swimming!

2. Most of my pals couldn't possibly know how much I loves foodables or even non-foodables.

3. And I can't imagine that y'all know how much I loves chasing my kong hehehe!

4. How many of you know that I have this propensity for eating poo? Especially horsie droppings?

5. I absolutely loves my Dad and am all over him when he gets home at night. (He always takes me for a walkie, which I adore.) And here's Avalon:

6. I like duckies.

7. I absolutely tutely am in loves with my sisfur, Sammie.

8. Good things happen when Ma puts us in the car.

9. I have a passion for and even know what the word, COOKIES, means.

10. I love my home and everything in it and that means Sammie, Mom and Dad.

And next, we are honored to accept this amazing award. We must:

1. Write 7 things about us - since we just told you lotsa stuff, we're going to embarrass Ma and have her do the telling hehehe!

2. Pass this award onto 15 blogger pals.

3. Link back to the givers of this award and comment on the Blog award recipients.

Okay... here goes...

1. I love being semi-retired!

2. I am horribly disorganized. Since I tend to procrastinate, this is definitely a problem.

3. Life here is very dog and grandchildren-centered, which makes life somewhat hectic at times!

4. The next year will have to be intensely focused as my husband is retiring in September 2011, and we'll be making a lot of changes. You'll hear about it in the poor dogs' blog!

5. I am frustrated by not getting to our bloggie pals' posts as much as I'd wish - ironic how I take the pups out to play, take photos, and then race back to upload and blog, when I really should be doing the laundry or something.

6. I'm dying to find software for movies! That works!

7. Someday, I wanna unnderstand about Photoshop!

And that's it, kids! I'm gonna be a wimp and ask, PLEASE, that for anyones who do not have these awards to kindly take them and tell us a little bit about yourselves, your doggehs or your maiden aunt?? We love hearing about your foibles and loves!

Wordy Wednesday...

2010-09-29T10:11:00.000-07:00

We've been having a heatwave and yesterday, the temperature reached 104 degrees in our neck of the woods/valley. Hothothot. Thoughtful Sierra Rose invited us to visit her hu-grandma and doggeh-aunt, Dixie, who have a POOL! COOL!

Heeeeere's Dixie, taking a giant leap...

Takin' in the action!

My swankiest dive -

And thanks to Sierra Rose and her Ma and Hu-Grandma for inviting us over to cool off! We had such a great time!

Ball Badinage - Blog Hop Edition

2010-09-25T07:20:00.000-07:00

As usual, our secretary is so lame that she can't figure out codes and linky tools, but wants to greet some new and old pals alike through today's Pet Blogger Hop! Happy Jumping!

What Avalon had was really what I wanted to possess. So I went for it.

After working on her for a minute or so....

I GOT IT!!!

Much Ado in the Muck, on the Mats...

2010-09-22T08:23:00.000-07:00

Again, we were roused way too early on Sunday. Now where were we headed? (Avalon playing with Levi, her brother!)

Here, at a new place for doggehs and ducks. Avalon is definitely into those feathered creatures (as are her siblings, three of whom were there, and her Mom!), while I still have an affinity for the furred sort that dip down into burrows, or race up trees. But I will show you what I saw my sister and family do. Here's a little show all about Avalon (and her siblings' and Mom's) day in Denverton, near Suisun City.

Avalon was very happy to see her mom, Sporty (who is really good at doing this field stuff) and her brothers, who love the feathered creatures as much as Avalon. Here's a cool picture of them all - thanks, Christine of Tigana Goldens for fixing up this photo and helping my sister so much! Now... it's my turn!

Ready Ma, for my closeup heheh! I have a fun match this coming weekend, and at the end of October, there is a show that spans over 5 days near here. Mom (naively) thought it would be practical to sign up for an Open class for me on all five days, hoping that I could snag my CDX in one long weekend! Barbara rolled her eyes and told us to get ready for a full-on judged Open class, right then and there. Mom thought I was pretty ready. Here are both Sierra and I in a little show made just for our friends, so you can see that we're coming along at Barbara's school for "Finishing Dogs."

Uhhhh....ohhhhhh.

Well... all doggehs can get confused, right?

Here's Barbara making adjustments to Avalon's new bling.

And then it was time for all good puppers to play, as well as show our fabulous agility skills! See you soon again, pals!

We Wanna Go Campin' Again! - Pet Blogger Hop Edition

2010-09-18T07:48:00.000-07:00

Momzers still hasn't figgured out how to add the Linky tool, but wanted to say hi out there to old and new pals this Saturday! Happy Blog Hop!

Well, we wanted to put a question out to our pals: Would you rather be doing the above (bo-ring!) or... be romping in any of the "below" pictures? I think I can guess the answer heheh!

Ahhhhh - fresh air, an alpine lake and... a fibrous stickie to gnaw on! What could be better? Well... several hundred pairs of those that we are headed for... and - for the delicious "gifties" they have left behind for us yumyum. (Took Ma and Pa a while to get us away from there!)

And as the rain and clouds parted, we had this gorgeous view as we walked back to our campsite. We'll Be Back!!! Happy Blog Hop and Happy Weekend!

You Can Help Feed Hungry Dogs!

2010-09-16T11:23:00.000-07:00

Hi Pals!
It has just come to our attention via Oskar and Life With Dogs that PEDIGREE will donate one 20# bag of their new Healthy Longevity Food for dogs to shelters nationwide in exchange for each blog that posts about the PEDIGREE Adoption Drive. This Drive is though September 19, so hurry up and publish a short post! For more info, please visit either bloggie above - THANKS!

SIMPLE: WRITE A SHORT BLOG, FEED A DOG!

Wordless Wednesday

2010-09-15T17:32:00.001-07:00

Heeeeere's Avalon!

2010-09-12T17:33:00.000-07:00

I am doing pretty good at Open at this point and have a fun match in a couple of weeks and will let you know all about how it goes. Meantime, we all got to go back to Jones Lake on Saturday for a "Picnic Trial" that would teach us newbies a little about huntin'!

I'm turning this post over to Avalon, cause she really likes this birdie stuff and I like goin' after squirrels and gophers and other fur-things more than the fowl things I'm supposed to like! But just wanna tell ya, above is a pitchur of Jones Lake at 8:00 in the morning. Pretty, eh?

Okay: me, Avalon! Here are summa us getting to know each other before the lessons began. We got to swim a little, which I always love!

Here are some peoples, including my Dad, putting up what looks like a catapult from what I've seen on those "Holy Grail" movies!

Ooops, my bad! More like a "Duck-A-Pult" hahaha!

Okay... now I'm excited. Susan Osborne is quacking like a duck and waving sumpin' in the air. She's got my attention!

Oh man... gotta get that!

Here Ma... want it? Ya gotta chase me to get it hahhaaa!

Okay, ya got it away from me this time... What's Susan got next fur me?

Oh boy! A pigeon! And I am strutting it back to Mom right now!

(I'd really rather have it all to myself, Ma...) Okay, Avalon; time for Moms and Dads to have a picnic! (Mom here: sorry we don't have photos of the swimming after bumpers part...)

We all shared a wonderful lunch. There were two sections of doggies regarding level of talent: beginner/puppy and more advanced doggehs. I was in the puppy group and so was my sis, Sammie. She was not furry interested in anything other than bumpers to chase after in the waters or a birdie wing on land (and she almost ate that heheh!). After our beginner group was done, our teacher, Susan, brought her three doggies out for the more advanced directionals - it look furry hard.

Here she is behind the blind, waiting to be called for action.

After she gives the signal, the duck-a-pult releases a quacker and her pup must remember where it lands. Then she gives the signal to the second duck-a-pulter, who releases the next duck. Susan then signals her doggie to get the first duck, which it gets and brings back to her at heel position - wow! Then...

her pupper gets the second released duck and brings it back (how did she remember where it was?). That was amazing!

Then Susan brings her dog(s) out for the land portion of the show. Again, this time pheasants rather than ducks, her doggies bring back the birdies to her in heel position. Amazing. Maybe someday I can do this? Well... that's what Mom thinks. No matter what... we think Jones Lake rocks! And we also think Susan, our teacher, and Nancy Corbin, who ran the show, also totally rocked! Thanks for giving us a great Saturday!