Happy First Birthday Simon!

This post is about two months late. Sorry Simon.

 November 5 Simon turned one year old and we had a ton of fun. We cooked him some pup cakes and took an extra long walk and just spoiled him. I can't believe he is already a year only and Next week we will have had him for a whole year.

Of course part of getting awesome birthday treats is using them them to work on stays while we we take pictures.

Sadie's feet

Simon's feet

Sadie waiting for her cupcake

Simon waiting for his cupcake

Simon in a party hat

Sadie in a party hat.

What most of the day is like.

First of all oops! I have been meaning to post about Simon's Birthday (11/5/13) and about the wonderful adventures I have been having recently with sled dogs but I just haven't found time to sit down and do it. I will get to it as soon as possible.

Today I didn't have anything I had to do this morning so for the first time in a while I got a nice slow day off. I fed the dogs unloaded the dishwasher and sat down and read a book. Really can the morning get any more relaxing than that?  FYI the book was "Dogtripping" By David Rosenfelt. It is the crazy story of how he moved from California to Maine with 25 dogs.  It is a fun read and for a book about dogs doesn't take you on the emotional roller coaster that most dogs books do. I am looking at you "Merle's Door" by Ted Kerasote that I finished before I started "Dogtripping". That is also a very good book but the two of them are about as different books as you can get.

While I was enjoying my relaxing morning I noticed Sadie and Simon had taken up there normal positions when I am just chilling. I feel so lucky to have dogs that are happy to nap and just hang out while I am having a lazy morning. Now to say thank you I am going to bundle up and take them for a walk!.

The circle in the bottom left is my head.

One of Sadie's favorite spots right next to the heater.

Sadie is not thrilled with my picture taking during nap time. 

Wow I don't know why but Simon looks huge in this picture for some reason.

"Hey I am trying to sleep could you get out of my face?"

"That's better."

Husky Tail on the head.

Got to love little brother cuddles.

"What?"

"Finally a chance to sleep."

Happy 5th Birthday Sadie.

10/10/09 is Sadie's birthday so we just celebrated her 5th birthday. Recently I also took her to a park and we did a birthday photo shoot. I wanted to share my pictures of that with you.

Camping with the Big Dogs

The Sign for the park we stayed at. 

Last week I packed up the dogs and a good friend and went off on a camping adventure. I haven't done much camping as an adult and my family never went that much when I was a kid so I wasn't really sure how to go about it especially because I knew I wanted to bring the dogs. Luckily for me a good friend of mine has been camping off and on all summer (and has had camping experience for years) and she offered to come with us and show us what to do. She also brought most of the camping stuff so it was a easy and pretty inexpensive trip.

Right before our morning walk. Simon was not happy about the picture. 

We arrived to the camp ground in the late afternoon got the dogs out and set up the tent and unpacked our stuff. It was the middle of the week and with it being late in September we had the whole camp ground to ourselves.

Sadie had to keep an eye on all food prep.

That first night after we set up camp we walked the dogs and cooked dinner. The dogs really enjoyed both the walk and watching dinner getting made. After dinner we made a camp fire and made some s'mores. The dogs didn't really seem to care about the fire but neither tried to get to close to it. At one point Simon heard something and got all alert and growl-barked a warning at the darkness. We shined our flashlights in the area but we couldn't see or hear anything. We had seen a lot of rabbits around the park that afternoon and we thought it might have been one of them. It was cute that Simon was protecting his family from the scary darkness. Sadie kept looking at him like "what is it bro?" But still cute. 

Our campfire so much fun.

 Our tent was really big so we had plenty of room for the dogs inside. After we finish our s'mores and had star gazed to our hearts  content  we all headed inside  the nice warm tent. I was concerned with Sadie getting cold so I had her sleep with her jacket so she wouldn't get cold. I also brought her sheep skin rug from home so the ground wasn't cold. After we got into bed and all settled down Sadie decided to sleep half on the rug and half on me and my sleeping pad. It was pretty sweet how she would use my legs as a pillow. She would also wake up when ever she heard a car or anything and make sure it was okay before settling back down.

Sadie all ready for bed.

Simon proved to me once again how wonderful is it to have a puppy who is kennel trained and comfortable and happy with it. We were able to have a kennel in the tent and he was happy to settle down in it. He slept well all night and I slept well not having to worry about him having an accident or getting into and chewing up our stuff.  I know a lot of people don't like kenneling there dogs but it is a wonderful training tool to have.

Simon says wake me when breakfast is ready.

Once we woke up it was time to take the pups for a pre-breakfast walk the area around was very pretty and the dogs loved the early morning exercise. It got a little to interesting when Sadie accidentally walked off the end of the dock and into the river and came up sputtering and splashing we had to help her back on to the dock and she gave the river a dirty look.

The very pretty river.

After the walk we made breakfast and then took another walk Simon got to practice having the backpack on. He is still pretty young  so we didn't have him carry anything other than a few empty plastic bags but I am hoping starting slow will make it easy for him when he is old enough

Us on our walk.

Also thank you Amy I really appreciate all your help and we had a great time. We can't wait till we get to go again.

Dog days of Summer.

First a quick Maya update. We went to the vet got the stitches removed and she is cleared to return to her normal and full activity level. Yay Maya. I think every in the house was excited when the cone of pain came off except Maya who we almost think misses it. Now the only way you can tell something happened is that she had a  less hairy spot where he stitches were. 

Now on to our dog days of summer.

Yesterday was one of those days where I got to let my dogs be dogs and just have fun. And the got the chance to remind me of some important life things. 

Don't take yourself to seriously. 

We all have bad days and get stressed out sometimes but make time to relax and enjoy the small pleasures that make you happy. Like a nice warm cup of tea or rolling in a mud puddle whatever makes you happy. Remember when you look back those huge issues you are facing now wont be such a big deal so don't let them rule your life now.

Remember to have fun.

So what if you look silly doing it. Get up and go have some fun. Play with friends, enjoy the summer both will be gone before you know it so live it up while they are here. As adults I think we sometimes get wrapped up in work and life's responsibilities and forget to have fun. Fortunately for me my dogs are always trying to have fun and they remind me to play a little.   

Age is just a number.

It's not important how old you are you can get out and play like a puppy whenever you want to. When is someone to old to act silly or to have fun or to play till there dirty. Sadie I think will always remind me this she is such a silly dog and that hasn't changed from the first day I met her. I love you little girl way to show the pups how to have fun like an adult. Which is the same as having fun as a puppy, Sadie is just louder. 

I love my kids. 

I honestly think I would have a significantly more difficult time facing the challenges life throws at me if I didn't have these fluffy faces to come home to. Honestly I have been a little stressed lately, with migraines that keep popping up and with unexpected changes and challenges some parts of life have been a scary stressful place. But days like yesterday remind me to focus on the fun and positive parts of life and not like the negative parts take charge. Thanks pups. Love you. 

 

Maya update.

A number of people have been asking me how our little Maya girl has been doing. It has been over a week since her accident and I am happy to report that we are now struggling to keep her calm and obey the vets orders. The vet says no crazy rough play until the stitches come out and that wont be till the end of  the week. Maya has decided that she is just fine and is confused as to why we wont let her wrestle Simon or body slam Sadie. So I think we can say she is feeling pretty well and despite her best attempts her stitches look like she is healing up fantastically. I am going to check with the vet and find out how much longer we are going to need to keep it easy for but don't worry Maya when we get the all clear we are going to go for a run on the bike and maybe a swim in the river!

Maya says can we at least play video games?

I will keep you updated with what the vet says when he checks her out but so far everything looks good. Also little Maya has embraced the cone more than any dog I have ever seen. It almost seams like she likes it. When she thinks we are not looking she will bonk Simon will it or use it to cover and hog the water bowl or to trap your face for kisses. You can't help but feel a little bad for her poor cone it is starting to be dented and a little misshapen from Maya's antics. Once we go to the vet this week fingers crossed Maya will be stitch and cone free.

Emergency Vet visit on the Fourth of July! Warning graphic Injury pictures.

Last year at Bark for life we were talking the the people in the emergency vet booth. We picked up their card told them how grateful we were that we had an emergency vet in town but that we hopped we would never have to use there services.  I honestly hope that my dogs live to a rip old age with only ever having minor health concerns that could all be managed by my family vet. I do realize this is highly unlikely that none of my dogs would ever have an emergency but a girl can dream!

Picture of Sadie from bark for life 2013.

So the Fourth of July 2014 hits. Knowing managing three dogs in the crowed parade atmosphere and with two of them being basically puppies we decided to just take Simon to the parade. Maya and Sadie had gone last year and we wanted to give his little puppy brain the exposure to all the sights and sounds of the parade in positive way. Knowing I was going to need to leave the other two home alone Maya in a kennel I woke up bright and early and took the dogs over to my mom's to play. All three dogs love visiting my mom's house she has a kiddie pool they can play in lots of space to run a deck to crawl under and lots of bushes and trees to enjoy the shade, race around or in the case of the bushes race through. 

Simon and Maya race around.

So loaded up the dogs and drove over. Sadie rolled in the grass and chased the other two around loving the cooler air of the morning. Maya and Simon raced all around having a blast and raced to me when I called them to come jump in the car. The four of us headed home I didn't notice the kids acting weird so everyone got breakfast and we headed to the parade with Simon.

Simon and I at the parade.

He loved it the horses were his favorite but I don't know what he would have done if he could have actually gotten to them. Simon also howled along with the firetrucks and police cars and when the people around us cheered for their kids. He sat in his chair taking it all in and loving it. We also had thought ahead and I had a somewhat frozen very cold and wet t shirt I put on his back when it started to heat up and he cooled right off and was able to enjoy all of the parade.  Finally it was done and we packed up our stuff picked up our trash and headed home.

Simon watching the parade.

Once we got home and let the dogs out for a potty break Maya prances over to me to say hello just like she will always do. As she turned I noticed what appeared to be a decently large hole in her side. Starting to worry I called her over again and looked it at it. Maya had a gaping hole in her side about the size of a dollar coin. Starting to panic I dialed the emergency vet to give them a heads up we were on our way. We loaded up Maya into the car with a clean towel for the wound had started bleeding with I had stopped letting her lick it.  Driving as fast as we could we pulled up to the emergency vet and brought her in. We filled out some paper work and waited for the vet to come check her out. I am impressed to say Maya was in high spirits. Enjoying all the attention and the solo car ride only thing bothering her is that I wouldn't let he lick her side. At no point did she act like it was bothering her. The vet came in and kindly examined Maya. After looking it over she said it looked like Maya was running and caught something with her side and tore a hole into a skin. The vet assured us that compared to what they normally see it was a pretty minor injury but that she would need to have it stitched up. For that she would need to be under anesthetic have the area shaved and sowed up and take antibiotics to prevent any infection from happening. We signed the papers and let the take Maya back to surgery with the promise that they would call us as soon as we could pick her up. A little over an hour later we were back and a much more lethargic Maya greeted us cone and all.

Picture of Maya's injury I tool at the vet office.

For the rest of the day Maya was pretty out of it. I don't know if she just wasn't doing well from the anesthetic or if cleaning it out and stitching it up and hurt  and she was sore but she mostly napped the rest of the day. I kept her right next to me so I could make sure that the other dogs didn't step or jump on her. She seamed pretty happy for the extra attention and for the hot dog she got to eat her pills in. She didn't even react when Paquette came over to hangout and avoid the fireworks. 

Maya's hot pink stitches.

The next day was a different story. Other than not being sure how to walk in the cone Maya was pretty much back to her normal self. There was a ton of running into stuff with the cone and booping the other dogs with it. She learned how to eat and drink with it on and was back to her pretty silly self.

Maya day one cone.

Now. Maya is almost on a mission to rip her stitches she really hates the you can't play with the other dogs rule and tries to get away with it whenever she thinks we are not looking. I don't know who is more excited for her stitches to come out us or her. Also the cone is now officially considered a weapon because she runs into you with it and it is not super pleasant. I am ecstatic to see that she is feeling well even though it means more work for me. She still has a few more days on the antibiotics but she is off pain pills and is doing wonderfully. 

Maya cone day four.

Love you Maya regardless of the curve balls you throw us.