Big 'n' Little

Just fiddling a bit with photo sizes and layout . . .

These two clowns sit like this all the time!

Because you asked . . .

Introducing . . . Cooper!

J was really struggling with not having a little man in the house to greet us when we'd come home and snuggle on the couch since our Tipper boy went to Heaven. After returning from our vacation on Friday night, J started researching small breed dogs on Saturday and on Sunday he bought us this little man:

He is a Beaglier--a cross between a Beagle and a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. He is super cute and feisty, though we've only heard him bark a few times.

He will hopefully weigh between 15-20 pounds at maturity, but he's still awfully small considering he'll be ten weeks old on Friday.

His body is just the length of my size 8 sandal and his paws aren't overly large, so we'll have to see . . .

All in all we're really happy with him--he has a wonderful disposition and is doing well with crate/potty training.

He only cries at night now when he needs to potty and rarely cries during the day. He chooses to go in his crate for naps and to chew on toys. He is quite an escape artist if we've gone out of his crate area for too long--he found his way back to the laundry room today after escaping from the barricaded family room.

Cooper knows his name and has gone potty on command a couple of times, so that command should be mastered soon. I'll be teaching him to make eye contact upon hearing his name first, then will come the sit, stay, come and shake commands. I can't wait to try teaching him some more fun tricks like rolling over and playing dead. He seems quick to learn, so hopefully we'll get past the commands that we've taught all our pups and do some of the fun ones as well.

I'll try to get some better pictures of him in the next day or two.

(cell phone photos--lousy quality, but are all the stills I've taken)

Fourteen Years

A week ago today, we sent our little man on to Heaven.

We're still not sure what to do with ourselves.
Although our sweet Tip was going to be 15 this fall, we were blessed to have him just over 14 years.
He is the best 'desert find' we've ever made.

On Dogs and Small Children, Discernment and Decisiveness

To set the scene:

J has gone to a town an hour south of us with his friend H to help out on H's family's new dairy that just started milking and is a bit short handed.

I am left alone to finish digging the flower beds to get the seeds in before it's too hot for seedlings.

The dialogue:

Me: (Digging in rock hard dirt that has not been worked or watered for at least two years.) Grunts with every jump, wiggle, lean and slow movement of the shovel.

Dogs: (Lounging in the shade.) With every sound of the shovel, they raise their heads, close their eyes and look away in disgust.

Yes, they are more discerning about mid-afternoon activities than I am.

Pickle: (Whining) I just want you.

Me: I know, but I'm not going in until I. get. this. dug! (Grunts)

Pickle: Oh, oh, I have to go potty! I go in your potty, please!

Me: Run, run girl! Don't pull off too much potty paper . . .

(Time goes on with much grunting from me and no sound from Pickle.)

Me: (Loudly, to be heard inside the house by Pickle.) Hey, girl. You need to come back out now, please!

Pickle: (At the back door. Whining.) I just want to go inside now.

Me: (Sighs audibly.) OK--do you want to sit at your desk there in the office and do Play-Doh?

Pickle: (Slams door.)

Me: I'll take that as a yes.

Obviously, she's not only more discerning about afternoon activities than I am, she can make a quick decision too!

I'm Clicked Out

I just spent over two hours going through one day's worth of photos. They're not as great as I'd hoped, but I think I know what my mistake was and know how to correct it in the future. You know, for the next completely awe-inspiring sunset/cloudy afternoon I run across. Oh well.

If only I had this kind of energy, I'd tackle another day's worth of photos. I don't.

She does. You all remember Lucy the extremely cute Boxer pup, right?

Here she is with Tipper (our 13 year old little man) up on the farm.

Oh dear. Poor Tip. Lucy has a thing for taking Tip down by grabbing his hind legs or tail or whatever else she can find dangling in that region.

Here, she tries a different tack and goes for the face.

Lucy, stop! Lucy, I said STOP!

She listens really well. Don't you think?

Wait, here they come! She listened. Oh, no. That's right, I called the old man. She'll follow him nearly anywhere.

Maybe this tree will play. No? That's boring.

Grass? You wanna play? Grass? Grass? Hmmm . . . boring.

Mamma? Will you play? Please? Put that big black thing down and PLAY! Geez, you're boring too.

Wait, what's this? This MOVES! This could be FUN!

Where did it go?

There it is! (The arrow is pointing to a grasshopper, in case you weren't sure . . .)

Don't let him get away!

Where did he go?

There he is!

Oh, no! He's fighting back!

Whew! Now that was work! (But it sure tasted good!)

Drunk on Goldfish

I didn't know this was possible. It's amazing the things you can learn from a puppy with giant lips.

Smitten

This is the current book that has taken over my every spare moment. And some not so spare ones too.
Why?
We got a boxer pup, of course.

I didn't want another dog. Supposedly, My Man didn't want one either. He's the one who told me about six months ago (before having to put Patches down) that he wanted to stick with one outside dog and one small inside dog. I said that was FINE with me. Besides, I didn't want to deal with training a puppy.

We've been offered puppies since then, but My Man, he was able to refuse. Until yesterday. He had to work yesterday. One of his employees brought in two female boxers.

He was smitten.

He sent me pictures on the phone.

I finally called him to see why.

He didn't even ask.

I could hear it in his voice.

I always know.

Here she is.















Now I'm smitten too. So smitten, I'm posting a picture of myself.

As for Miss Pickle. She loves her so much that when she woke up at 5:45 this morning, she was asking for Lucy.

They were so sweet playing together last night . It looks like Lucy is going to love water.


My man. He is a happy man.

Miss Lucy. She is a happy dog.