Why? Why? Why?

I've been doing obedience training now for ages it seems.  I'm still struck dumb when an adult dog walks into my class and has no respect for it's owners, plays mind games and in general gets away with CRAP! 

Why is it that you get a dog and then do nothing?  Why do you find it acceptable to let your dog get away with all kinds of crap yet your child is the model of a perfect well behaved child? You go out and get help for your child-tutors, daycare, doctors, etc.  Every thing needed to make sure your child has it "good".  Yet your animal is left in a kennel, maybe goes to the vet once a year, has no training or you don't even think to go find someone to help you train your dog? Why is it considered required that your child speak only when spoken to, says please, thank you and is a pleasure to be around.  Yet your dog jumps on me, fights the leash, refuses to be polite, is rude and in your face?

People often ask me why my dogs are so well behaved, how can my dog be just like yours?  Because I expect them to behave and do as I ask and I help them to become the dog I want them to be.  I expect no less of them then my children.  My kids got taught right from wrong, how to be polite and if they weren't behaving, time outs and staying home till they did behave.  Overall, I helped them to be the wonderful adults they are all growing into.  But it takes time, commitment and love.  Why can't you do the same for your pet? 

A perfect pet is only as good as the person on the other end of the leash.

Later gators....
C

Warning!

Collies + Watermelon = Watermelon Farts!

Connor and Cy both adore watermelon, though Cy plays with it more then eats it.  Connor, eats teh enter thing, rind and all.   And his feet, I fear, will be perpetually pink this summer.

The after effect of 1/2 of a watermelon, though, is big time air pollution.  Luck has it the winds are still blowing down here.

Later gators....
C

The Patriots are, gulp, 3???

So as I turned the calendar on my desk, I remember that today, the Patriots turn 3.  Well Pam reminded me yesterday commenting that Leonard was pissed at her because she had to work this weekend and couldn't bring him down to swim in the creek with Pete.  Sorry Leonard, in a couple of weeks.

Happy Birthday to Leonard, Lee, Connie, Lily and of course the most spoiled of them all, Peterman.

Leonard and his bestest friend, Ike.

 My precious Pete.  I've been accussed of spoiling her--nah, never.

Later gators...

C

Another sad day....

Our hearts go out to Rebecca and Jack. 

Grch Ch Overland's Red Hot Summer ROM

"Jerod"

2002-2012

Later gators...
C

Would the real puppies please stand up?

No longer gerbils or hamsters! Their eyes are open and wouldn't you know it, there's real puppies in the whelping pool now! Enjoy.....

 For Karen, the blue girl and I think she's going to have bright blue eyes like her daddy.  Shes' got the brightest eyes of the bunch right now, though I know all puppies have slightly blue tinge to begin with.  We are currently calling her Kaylee.

 Tri boy aka Mal on the left, River aka the tiny girl in the center and of course the mismark boy aka Hefty now known as Jayne. 

Puppy pile with a Kaylee girl peeking out.

 Hey, what about me???  Jayne is a camera hog as well as a food hog.

 Hugo, now known as Wash, River and Kaylee.

It's just too much fun now, real puppies.  Though Cora is none too impressed, they are barking and growling now, which is a foreign noise to her.  And on another great note, she's being so much better about being careful around them that I deflated the air mattress and slept in my own bed last night.  Only issue was the 4:30ish wake up call when the house exploded in barks due to the visitor--aka the bobcat or as the DNR wants me to believe, raccoons fighting.

Later gators...

C

Passing

I don't usually post when we lose a person in the dog community, but this one I had to.  Seems Ed Haas passed away.  His wife, Peggy, pitch hit for us last year at our dog show and they were both awesome people to be around.  They chaired their IL clubs' show for years.  And you know, I loved showing in obedience to Ed, having gotten three titles on different dogs over the years and also in the conformation ring.  He'll be sadly missed-always happy, always up and always made going to a dog show a fun event.

Later gators....
C

What's in a name?

Thought this might be a good one to spread around the blogosphere and it's Greg's fault!   He posted this morning about how Monte got his name.  This could be fun--so how did your dog get it's name?  Here's a few of ours......

Clairee(O'Clairee's Hope of K&L)  Well she's named Clairee after a beanie baby-Ellie did that one.

Eddie(Beaszak's FogyBtm Uncle Fester)  Started out as Fester since he and his brother, Gomez Adams, were halloween babies.  I just couldn't see him as Fester, so we went to the Munster route and named him Eddie aka Edward aka Edweirdo(that's Sherilyn's doing) after Eddie Munster.  Left the Fester for his registered name.

Moose(Can/AKC CH Summit FogyBotm Rvnge is Sweet CGC RN TDI soon to be CD)  Well he is a moose, was a huge puppy and well, it just kind of stuck.  He also comes by Snookie, no idea where or when that started happening.

Hum, who else???  Sometimes the names just fit the dog.  Take Frank, he can't be anything else but a Frank and for no reason other then we started throwing out names and that's what he looked like, a Frank.  Abbey is of course named after Sheryl's favorite TV show-NCIS aka Abbey the lab geek. Cy-well he's named after a certain college mascot, you know that wears red and gold and resides in Ames.

Of course the name that gets the most attention around here is Pete.  She's a girl.  This really fries Kerri's brain when I talk about her too.  Pete started out as Sweet Pea, my tiny little girl who fit into a pea pod when born.  I joke she turned evil at some point and sweet is not even a name that makes you think of her.  She is so not innocent, so not perfect and man don't piss her off or you lose a book, sock, etc.  So she changed from Sweet Pea, to Sweet Pete, to just plain Pete or Peterman, no PETERMAN, when you are really pissed off.

There are also times like Moose's name, when a puppy is just nicknamed something in the whelping box to help you identify them.  Currently we have a Dove, who has a dove on her back.  Or right now, Hefty and Hugo aka the mismark boy and blue harlequin boy.  They are tanks and the nicknames fit them well.

So how did your dog get it's name???

Later gators...
C

Food for thought

After multiple demands for the recipes from the weekend, here they are!

Rhubarb Pudding(from the Open Line)

4 cups chopped Rhubarb
1 1/2 cups boiling water
1 1/2 cups sugar

Mix until sugar desolves, set aside.

Preheat oven to 350

Mix the following:
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 tsp soda
1/2 tsp salt
3 T melted butter
1 tsp vanilla(or up to 1 T-we like vanilla)
1 cup butter milk

Pour into a well greased 9x13 pan.  Then carefully pour rhubarb and syrup over the bottom layer.  
Back for 45-60 mins till top is golden.

Serve warm with ice cream or cream.  Good cold too--if you can get it to last that long.

Bacon-Asparagus Wraps
This is like sooooo simple and were gone in a heart beat:
Simple wrap bacon around asparagus from top to bottom.
Grill or roast in 375 oven till bacon is crisp. 

I drizzled a little olive oil on them, no need to salt and good hot or cold.

Later gators....
C

Wineoooo

Alec's comment Sunday morning was--"Holy cow, how much wine did you drink?!" 

My head said, way too much!  

The barrel cooling the wine on Saturday night was full of full bottles at the start of the party, seems they were all empty when Alec went out to finish picking up.

It was great to have some of my best friends over.  The conversation was great, of course the wine too and we did some finger food(grilled fresh pineapple and ham, bacon wrapped asparagus and rhubarb pudding) and smores with HUGE marshmallows.  The kids beat the snot out of each other in the hay field with their shields and nerf swords.  Big kid Pete got the better of them all. 

We did end up going till late into the night and as suggested on the invite, we ran out of wood and almost wine. 

Thanks for coming out guys!  We'll do this again in July when the babies are ready to come out and play.

Later gators....
C

Feeling left out

No longer the baby of the house, poor Cy is feeling left out lately.  So we decided that he could come and join the photo shoot yesterday.  What a pretty boy and what an awesome collie head.  Though I'm wondering what's rattling around in there some days!

Later gators.....
C

Not to be outdone...

The "babies" have been a little put out since the arrival of the new babies.  So the girls(Dove x Monster) decided to do a little fashion shoot of their own.  The problems?  Penny's first set had Alec in a black shirt, that so does not work with a black puppy, nor does the fact that her tail never stops wagging so her back end is always a blur.  Princess, er, uh, Chalice, just wanted to spring at the toy being thrown, so always has her butt heading into the spring position. 

Penny... Penny....Penny.....

 Chalice aka Da'Princess

 I love things about both girls.  Chalice has a much nicer fill of cheset, but has longer pasterns and hocks.  Both have awesome toplines, pretty heads and very nice clean movement.  Penny needs a little more chest fill but has the shorter legs that I've been trying to get the last couple of litters.  Neither has bad tail sets.  Pretty good shoulders, Chalice has a long upper arm but her angles a little off, Penny needs a tad more length but good layback.  Funny part is that anyone who sees the two together, is immediately reaching down and picking up Chalice.  Penny feels a little left out but makes up for that by being the most vocal of the two. 

Chalice heads to Kansas to become a JayHawk fan in a few weeks.  Hope Kim is as taken with her as I am.

Later gators....
C

Two weeks old

Between week one and two, it's amazing how much puppies change.  Ears are open, some mock blind fighting is going on as no one but a special little girl has their eyes open, hearing growling and barking in the whelping area and man have their grown!   Tiny aka River, has tripled her tiny little birth weight, everyone but her is over a pound and the best part is that all are motoring around with their rears right under themselves. 
Here are some photos from yesterday....

Blue Harlequin Male

 
 Mismark b/w boy

 
 B/W boy with white ear

 
Now the girls.....
Blue girl

 And last but not least, Ms River(Tiny) and the first with her peepers open!

 
The babies had many visitors this weekend and true to form, Blue boy showed that he is his father's son and belched in Dawn's face.

Later gators.....
C

Experimentation gone wrong

First-so sorry no photos of the babies.  Experimenting with my flash options on the camera gave me some really funky looking photos not fit for public display.  Will get two week photos with some helpers coming to visit this weekend and post those on the website.

Now to the chickens, ducks, oh my.  

I found a super deal on craigslist-nice 4x4x6 dog kennel that's portable and easy to set up.  To which I decided that it's the perfect set up with the addition of an xpen for the feathered babies to head out of the house and into the mainstream poultry yard.  Hope this experiment works! They survived their first night out and looked ready to meet the world tis morning.

Sorted out the chickens too last night.  All the layer breeds got kicked out of the chateau quack(yes chickens in the duck house, I know, totally wrong.)  What I thought was only a dozen or so, ended up being about 25 birds!   What's the saying about never count your chicks before they hatch?  But make damn well sure you do it after they do!!!  

We have one very nice buff brahma cockeral-with both wings!   A couple nice pullets, though part of the amputee batch.  And what to our wondering eyes did we find?? A white amerucana pullet!!  The Ms is ubber excited.  Couple off color amerucana crosses, maran crosses and gotta figure out what the black feather footed one is-a copper or black maran cross?  Such an interesting lot.  I can't wait for Jackie to come over Saturday to help us sort them out. 

And on that note, reminder that tomorrow night around 6ish or so, we'll start up the fire and pull out the lawn chairs.  Wine will be cooling in the ice, some nice local finger food and great conversation.  Friends, dogs, family, anyone welcome as long as you are up for some odd conversations.  Oh and I think some gladiator fights between the kids.  The Ms has a new sword she wants to try out on Michael's head. 

Later gators....
C

The latest craze

We've been woken up right before the Tall Kid goes to work twice in the last week.  By the blood curdling scream of something big and close to the house.  Upon questioning people around us, listening to sound bites on the web, we were pretty certain that our mystery sound was a bobcat!  Ducks, chickens and anything else little is being locked up at night.

Contacted the county conservation dept and they are trying to convince me it's raccoon's fighting.  Now if you know about our adventures in the coon world, I know what they sound like and that ain't no coon noise! 

So.....another creature feature.....

Friend near us has a vineyard.  Told the Hubby today that his neighbor has found a 4" wide serpentine trail that goes back and forth from his barn to the woods.  Thinks it's a python that a townie let loose out there.  Hubby said well take advantage of it!  Make it a tourist attraction--Jonsie, the Jones County Monster. 

Just don't all the conservation dept, they'll say it's just coons.

Later gators...
C

Transition

You know you have puppies when they start acting like them!  This morning Hugo, the mismark boy and his counterpart, Hefty the harlequin boy, were attempting blind face fighting.  Nope, no eyes yet but soon!  Lasted all of five seconds then they, along with their blue sister, proceeded to start chewing on Cora's feet.  She looked at me like, what am I, a milkbone?  

Photos tomorrow-spent last night creating a new dog out of the vacuum's dog hair collection process.  Eghads!   Everyone but Pete is blowing coat.  They either roll on the floor, scratch on a chair or just walk past dropping coat as they go.  Hair Bunnies are running rampant and well, the vac is powering through daily duty.

Pete?  Oh she isn't blowing coat, but now smells like a pond.  She and Frank took the Tall Kid to the creek yesterday to hunt for snappers.

Later gators...
C

New blog

I happened to run across this blog today and wow!  It's a gal that I have admired for years, taken some classes from and absolutely am thrilled to be able to have some place to read about her training highs and lows with her herding dogs. 

Exercise Finished

If you do a lot of obedience or agility in our area, you have run into Melinda and Phoenix or her other retired dogs-Jamie, Connor or Jessie.  Actually my very first memory of Melinda was way back at my very first show at the Heart of Iowa.  She took High in Trial with one of her dogs and I just stood in awe watching her work her dogs.

She's great, down to earth and very happily admits that there are days- like Marshalltown when we shared our heeling woos, that her dogs are just dogs and time to head back to the basics.

Later gators...
C

Jumping in with all four paws

So Dawn's been talking to me about nosework over the last year or so.  I'm intrigued by this, something new and different.  Unfortunately, though Cedar Rapids as great as it is, lacks one thing, no seminars in different areas of training.  I've wanted to go to a nosework seminar for along time, nothing close.

I decided heck with it.  Just dropped it in the mail, my class application for a 4 week nosework class.  I filled it for Moose, so we'll see how he does.  If they like it, then Charlie will get his chance at the next session.  Or heck, maybe I'll bite the bullet and have the Ms take Moose and I'll take Charlie. 

Now to make sure the calendar stays clear! 

Later gator....
C

Finally!

The babies are now 11 days old and finally everyone has doubled their birth weights!!!  That includes Ms Tiny.  She weighed in at a ,big for her, 9 1/2 oz this morning.  Now this could possibly be due to the observation that she is the last to leave the milk bar, systematically going from the last stool to the very front one, making sure the glasses are all empty. 

The boys, aka Hugo and Hefty, with would the mismark and harlequin, are well over a lb as of Sunday night's weigh in, with little brother, Harvey almost there.

Ears are starting to open and the eye slits are becoming more pronouced.  I have a feeling when Dawn is here this weekend that she'll get to see those pretty eyes for the first time.  Though I must admit, I'm really drawn to the blue girl's white eyelashes.  They are soooo long, just like Daddy's.

What I am most happy about right now is that all the babies have their feet under themselves and are on their toes scrambling around the whelping box.  It was a big worry for me after Eddie's first litter had swimmers, but that's now not a worry.

I'll try to have more photos tomorrow!

Reminder- everyone's welcome, especially if you enjoy good conversation, a tasty wine and roaring fire on Saturday night!   6ish till the wood is gone, or the wine?  If it rains, we'll move inside and watch a movie or just sit around the table talking till the wee hours.  Bring a friend-four or two footed.  Finger food, though I plan on stocking up on a few local favorites at Farmer's Market and Houby Days.

Later gators....
C

Weekend round up

So as you noticed, the weekend started early with Ag in the Park on Friday.  I also washed a 100 lb akita who was having none of it.  Ended the day with a great chicken, bacon, ranch pizza from Casey's. 

Saturday was errands-like plant errands.  Did I have fun or what in our first official outing of the season.  We didn't get much but some new herbs for the raised bed, couple new hostas, lupines from the Brucemore plant sale and couple of nice annuals for the pots.

Alec was down in the Quad Cities for a show, nothing interesting but a great day for Loki the akita who is just starting out his championship quest.  No points, but a good day for him as he's still learning the ins and outs of the shows.

Sunday bright and early, headed back to the shows with the collies, Grandma Phoebe and Loki.  The Ms was doing juniors with Connor, we pulled him in breed because, well, he's naked.  Cy then got the BOV and a chance to go in group for the experience.  Loki got WD but no points as the major wasn't made so all but three dogs in the entire entry made it.  What a bummer, but he was a good boy about it all, even getting goofy on the table.  

Best news though.......... the Ms and Connor took Best Junior in Show!!!!!   WOW!!!!  We are super excited as they are a green team just starting out together.  He looked great and loves the kid.  She's still beaming and planning on what to buy with her gift card prize.

And that is the weekend round up!  I need to go back to work to rest up!  'Cause this week is a meeting or event each night then I have special guests coming to visit.

WHICH......for anyone interested, we are going to have a bonfire on Saturday night.  Few doggy friends, few horsey friends over for a nice fire, some great local wines and I think just finger food.  Oh of course smores done by the Ms.  Can't have a fire with out gooey marshmellows and melted chocolate!  

Bonfire and Wine---6ish till we run out of wood.  Bring a lawn chair, finger food and if you want to share a bottle of local wine, bring it along.  I've got a few I've stocked up on that I'm dying to open.  

If it looks like rain, we'll be inside, maybe watching a movie.  Dogs welcome!  Bring a friend or the kids.  I'm more then certain there's going to be lots to keep them occupied.

Later gators...
C

Ag In The Park

Friday was the annual Ag In The Park event sponsored by the local FFA chapters-Alburnett, North Linn, Central City, and Linn Mar. 

The dogs-Moose, Pete, Lace and the babies-Penny and Chalice, trouped up to the fair grounds to help out.  I also managed to grab an ancona drake, Buffy the brahma rooster and the ducklings.  Oh and the ugly duckling aka the gosling. 

Every year as a representative of our AKC all breed club, through the K9Ambassadors program, is teach dog safety tips to the kids attending.  Ends up being 800 to a 1000 kids are reached each year.  We also do a little dog agility demo and then the kids get to practice what we've taught and pet the dogs. 

Lace is all about this and loves to show off.  Moose was cool as long as they rubbed his tummy.  Pete loved the kids in the strollers and the babies got to play in the arena and on the equipment. 

Though I came home feeling like I had been through a wind storm with dust in ever little nook of my body and up my nose, it was a blast as usual.  Watch for photos of Lace doing her agility demo in the Marion Times this week! 

Oh and the gosling?  Heehee, she's now got a name.  The kids in the poultry demo area had her out on their laps for the kids to pet all day.  Her new name?   Sparkles, but of course!

Later gators...
C

Holy Cow, er, Corgi! No wait, Collie!

First an apology.  I've been taking down bad links on my blog list, both on here and on the website. But in the middle of doing so, had to shut down the computer, got distracted and never got back to it.  Sorry 'bout that folks.  I think I've got the ones I needed to change done and added the couple I wanted.  Still working on the website-something about ducklings not shutting up and the headache getting worse and just plain giving up!

So what's been happening around here, more so then the typical chaos?  Lots of good, some bad, little weird and a bunch O' Great!

Bad-Cora layed on another puppy Thursday night.  I've been depressed all week about loosing the others but this one just made me mad.  Karen and I talked and what I found was that Cora was being careless with her body, kind of just throwing herself down in the middle to the puppies instead of what we both consider typical, gently curling around them and nudging them to the center, etc.  I'm now sleeping or lack of sleeping with her at night, she's not in with the pups unless someone can keep an eagle eye on her and all is now back to a state of some sort of order.  The boy we called Hawkeye was the one we lost.  The good part, Tiny is finally gaining and looking so much better.  It will take her awhile to catch up with her siblings but she's got tons of fight and spunk in her. 

A few photos of the troupe.....

This is how I always find this boy, it's like his mother's butt is his personal lazy boy!

Top - mismark male, then Tiny drapped over her b/w brother.  Next is the blue girl and last but not least her blue brother.

Now you see me, now you don't!   Yes, Tiny has a fascination with crawling up shirt sleeves and pant legs. 

Later gators...
C

Basil the rock star formerly known as Mr Bates

Lisa just sent over some photos of our little brindle dude, now known as Basil.  This by far is my favorite and can't wait for more adventures of Basil and Mabel the cat!

Later gators....

C

The thing I miss the most and what makes it worth while!

Sleep is very underrated, but being a person that does not function on less then four hours in a row, I was a walking zombie at work yesterday.  But last night, oh gosh, sweet sleep.  Granted only 3 hours at a crack but it's enough. 

Then again, this makes it so worth while. What's a little lost sleep?

Okay, at 12 o'clock is the mismark b/w male.  He's got a fairy dot planted right in the center of his head.  Clockwise, you'll find Tiny-b/w girl with spunk and super neat collar markings on her neck.  Bottom at 5 o'clock or so is Hawkeye-blue male with a hawk sillhoutte on his butt.  7 o'clock is another b/w boy with his right ear being white.  In the center is the blue girl made in her daddy's image and last but not least is the harlequin blue boy.  His judge's side is the most striking.  All gained at least an oz yesterday and even Tiny 1/2 oz, cause when you are only 4 1/4 oz, that's a big deal.

We did put the plain marked b/w boy down at Doc's yesterday.  Seems he had a few issues, if you are curious, let me know and I'll give you the facts.  Tiny, with her sore tummy got, well, an enema and that solved everything.  She was a little constipated and ate way too much at one time.  Her lungs are clear and she's back on track.  I love her kick butt attitude, she readily pushes her way to mom and kicks the big blue boys out of the way.

And Ms Cora with the six pack.  Now if I can get her to quit rearranging the bedding, we'll be good to go.  She went out and played a little ball with the Ms and Hubby last night, got a good stretch, decided to eat without having every thing all dolled up and right back to the business of fussing, cleaning and feeding babies.

Did I mention that I love my pillow?

Later gators...
C

Super cute

Not puppy related, but close. 

The Ms and I have a facination with garden cloggs.  Who really knows how many I've had over the years, nor how many close calls I 've had about walking into the show ring with them on.  She adores the ones she's currently wearing, called Lady Bugs.  But in my quest for some that might last a little longer, I found them on our way back from a speedy trip yesterday to get the ring stuff in Amana.  We briefly stopped by TSC and look what I brought home!

Aren't these just the cutest?  Now I have shoes that I can wear here and there and disinfect without ruining my socks! Oh and I have the blue ones and they are called Sloggers.  Plus 1/2 the price of the Lady Bugs!

Later gators....

C

The good, the bad and the truth about it all

So as typical, phone call on the way home Friday night-We have puppies, er, 1 so far.  I speed to get the Ms, one stop at Walmart and home.  Arriving to puppy #2.

What was nice, was a free whelping bitch that needed little or no help.  Little over 3 hours later we had ten puppies.  That's the good. 

The bad, we put down on pup shortly after birth because he had an adominal wall tear.  When talking to Doc, the chances of a pup going septic and worse are 99% so we opted to help him to the bridge.

Lost two puppies Sunday morningish.  Attempting to get at least an hour sleep, I think Cora laid on one and the other she just kept pushing away and it didn't last much past the wee hours of the morning.  She started doing that to another but we got to him quickly and though he struggled for a while, seemed to be back in the thick of it by the late afternoon.  As of this morning though, he's again not doing well and will take a trip to Doc's shortly to see what if anything we can do for him.

And last but not least is Tiny.  The first girl born, tiny at 4 3/4 oz, still bigger then Pete was.  So we are supplementing but yesterday mid day she seemed to have a little too big of a tummy, aspirated a little and we spent the day suctioning out her nose, giving her fluids as best we could and hoping that she would resolve what ever it is that's aching her.  She too is headed off to Doc's this morning. 

So I guess that covers the truth of it all too.  I honestly don't feel that anything happening can be attributed to either parent, but simply the nature of the breeding beast.  Shit happens.  I applaud those that have spotless records of great easy whelps, big healthy pups and not a need to intervene at all.  Good for you and bless you.  I can't say I've had a run bad luck at all.  Heck the Dirty Dozen, other then stressing out their momma the first week, was an amazingly easy litter to deal with.  Merlot's kids, baring the little girl who wasn't "cooked" enough, the boys were awesome.  And I'm more then happy to chronicle how bad things get in order to maybe help someone else out down the road, unlike a few people I know that just dismiss that a puppy died and let your imagination run wild.  I know that there will be whispers and people condoning both the sire and the dam and they are the cause.  Heck, I know how many people really hate Eddie-I'm honest there.  Never mind....I'm too tired to fight with anyone, but my opinion is that like I said before-shit happens. 

But the good again, needs to be cheered for.  We currently have 1 blue girl who looks like her daddy, 1 blue boy, again, in his daddy's image.  A split face mismark boy who, just might be a cryptic-gotta wait for his one ear to color in some.  A lovely white eared b/w boy.  And the harliquin boy-blue merle with a huge black overlay on most of his body.  It's like a lace covering where the blue peaks through here and there. Tiny, is a little b/w girl with vivd brindle points, looks like her momma.  The photo below is from Saturday night when all 9 were still in this world.

Later gators...

C

More storms and choices

So the storms are still rolling through.  Some of the wicked weather has prompted(radio voice here) The National Weather Service in the Quad Cities, to issue some interesting warnings and watches.  Such as the "lethal large hail" warning in northern Iowa last night or the tornado warnings for the Wayland, IA area last night.  Max took refuge behind the living room chair and Cy, Penny and Chalice took turns barking at the thunder.

The question then begs to be answered, though we are pretty set on a litter theme(Serenity/Firefly) for the Eddlets, do we change it to a Storm/Wicked Weather theme or since I fear I'll be whelping babies during the Derby tomorrow, use the horses names that are running tomorrow? 

David better bring me a Mint Julep from Ellen's party, I hate missing it.

Later gators...
C

Ding Ding Ding and the winner is....

Scott!!!

Though no billard or tennis balls, just confirmed 9 babies with a chance of 1-2 more as she's so thick in one spot it's just solid black. 

Oh boy, Karen said her mom had a litter of 11 babies once.  Should have seen it coming, life has been too easy lately.

Later gators...
C

Rocky Mt Boy

First a HUGE thank you to Jessica and Penni for a stop over in Iowa to pick up Bates and deliver the drama king to CO.  Call last night said he arrived in one piece, though not sure if he had been given an Indian name during the trip.  His traveling mate was christened Poop's Alot, heehee. 

Anyhow, Bates is settling in just fine.  Meet the resident cats and big whoopteedo.  He's getting tons of petting and for now, behaving himself.  That is until they put the collar of death on him.  See this is where he becomes the drama king-he's dying and can't move off his back.  1/2 hour later he's wandering around like it's no big deal.  Or else he is in the crate pouting.  What an actor he is!

Hugs Mr Bates and have fun in the mountains!

Later gators...
C

Thinking of opening a flower shop

This is what's sitting on the kitchen counter by the sink....

 My orchids, all but two, are setting new buds, loads of flowers blooming and I found another one at a store that I have to have!  Though not sure where I can squeak it in?

And this is the lovely bouquet of flowers that AnnaMae's new family left for me.   I adore roses and my dining room has smelled delightful for the last week.

Later gators...
C

T minus 7 days and counting

Xrays tomorrow-I'm guessing 6?

Later gators...

C



Newest residents

We picked up 5 new Ancona ducklings on Saturday after the dog show.  Traded one of our nice black and white males from last years hatch.  Hoping we sexed them right and they are all hens!  Overrun of boys around here.

Though, some how, this came home with us too.

 No this is not a duck.  It's a gosling.  Thinking female.  And spoiled rotten.  I would much rather have a spoiled rotten goose then a nasty one.  She likes to snuggle in the Ms' collar and nibble on her neck.  Spoiled 101, the Ms can teach that class.

 Later gators...

C