Monday, February 24, 2014

Favorite shot of my favorite girl

I just love this one. Taken in April of 2009. Must have had a warm spring that year. 

Prior to all the gray. Prior to the knocked out front tooth. About half her life ago.

So weird, time.

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Eleven years old today. One one. 

Wow. 

Almost a teenager. No cake this year. Although, maybe I'll feel bad and get some on the way home.

Here's to eleven more, Bellissima!

Friday, February 21, 2014

The buffalo

If you are lucky you can spot her grazing in the wilds of San Jose.

Bella's coat is getting ever more cray-cray. We're growing upwards now. 

She may soon need some product. Or a hat.

My little hunchback.


Photo unscrupulously lifted from the daycare website. 
Although, they do give me a hard copy, so not stealing, really.

Monday, February 17, 2014

No presidential talk today

Just dogs and ravioli.

It was old fart day today. My two being the youngest of the farts.

We went to have lunch with the mighty Miss Emmy (and Marie)

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I hope my two are that well at 14 and a half. 

Still queen of the couch.

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Reigning over her domain

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Kate only care about the toys. See the dog bed in the back? First things she does is go to that bed, pick it up and shake it so the toys cover the living room. She's such a polite house guest.

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She works herself up over the toys for a few hours then moves on to the other good thing about Aunt Marie's house....bedding.

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Bella's favorite thing about visiting is when stuff happen in the kitchen involving something other than me just getting coffee. Like, you know, people actually cook in there and shit.

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Rubbing it in

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Friday, February 14, 2014

A hanger and a grabber

The hanger.

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Not sure why but there are just certain things on Kate's list of Stuff To Not Pick Up and apparently paper bags are on that list. Whatevs'

The grabber.

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The only thing on her list is Stuff With A Heartbeat.

Kate won a raffle at daycare today. Not sure if this involved anything on her part, but she did come home with some goodies. Which were promptly commandeered by Bella. 

Happy Valentine's Day, indeed.


Sunday, February 9, 2014

Lumps and TV agility

So a few weeks ago Kate started bleeding while we were playing ball. Not that unusual for her to bite her tongue or lip or something. It was a bit unusual as we were playing with a soft rubber ball on grass, like, what did she bite? You know how that goes, though, looks worse than it is. The bleeding usually stops as quickly as it started. Well, it went on longer than usual. She looked like she had war paint on with streaks of blood up both sides of her face. 

 As I age, my tolerance for inside parts being on the outside gets less and less. Now, I could never have been a vet or paramedic or anything like that, but I did have some tolerance for ickies in controlled situations. Now? No, not at all. My dog first aid routine has turned into me standing there with my fists on my chin going, “oh no, oh no, oh no, why isn’t that stopping!?!?” 

I did manage to get pressure on her face with a wad of paper towels. When the bleeding finally stopped I found this under her gum… 

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I couldn’t tell at the time – what with all the blood – if she had cut herself of if it was a growth. Clearly a growth of some sort now. And again I remind myself to not google shit before seeing the vet. She is doing just that tomorrow. Damn old lumpy bitches. 

Did you watch the Westminster agility last night? Wow, so disappointing. Some of it was actually painful to watch. I switched channels for some of the runs because I was uncomfortable looking at it. 

 Let me start by saying I am not criticizing individual dogs or handlers. I certainly think anyone that wants to do agility and can do it safely should do so. One of the things I think is great about agility here is that there is truly something for everyone. You don’t have to be competitive or have an uber-fast dog to enjoy the sport. I am certainly not either of those. We have NADAC-style to international style and everything in between. We have CPE to Cynosport and everything in between. 

 My problem with it is the language, I think. You should not have an event that has the words “masters” and “championship” in title and roll out what was rolled out last night. That was, at best, a showcase. Which would have been cool if that’s what it was billed as. Don’t keep saying that “these are the top ten dogs in each jump height” when they are not. They are the top three dogs with the requisite mutt and some other breeds. Twenty two seconds between second and third place? Masters Championship? Really? I understand that maybe they were trying to show that everyone can play. Little variety? I guess that if they used the actual top ten dogs from each height it probably would have been a bunch of Papillions and a bunch of Shelties and a bunch of Border collies and one Pyrenean shepherd. 

 I wish they would do both if they do this again. Showcase that anyone can have fun with their dog in this sport AND show what some of the best teams do. The actual top ten. That makes much better TV. It’s also more honest. Why do we need to make things seem more important than they are or more – even? – than they are? I mean, just because professional baseball players are much better at the sport doesn’t mean you shouldn’t enjoy your office team league. It certainly wouldn’t make sense to play each other, right? Seems sort of insulting to both parties. 

Also, what the hell is with the La-Z-Boy chair at the start/finish? Is this normal for an AKC show? Seems awful stupid to me. And dangerous. I understand wanting the person currently in first to stick around, but sit in a big upholstered chair inside the ring at the start line? Weird! 

 Also, also, Bella is turning into a greedy bitch. 

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And Kate's little chicklets just 'cause they're funny

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Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Same ol'

This is going to be a banner year for dogs being adorable in bed pictures.


Although, we do have a very accessible hummingbird nest at work, so you have a kajillion of those shots to look forward to. Haha. She's sitting on eggs right now, so don't want to bother too much. When the hatching happens? 

All hummers all the time! 

Lucky y'all.

Monday, February 3, 2014

The leg

In less than a second





And, ‘cause she’s a copy dog 



And, ‘cause she is getting more Kate-like as she ages… 

Sunday, February 2, 2014

Look what we got!

Puddles!


I know, I know, doesn't mean the drought is over, but still, nice to see, yes?

We haven't had much more than just fog in soooo long.


I should go throw some soap on my car.