Santa's coming!

I know we haven't been posting lately because our humans are just too busy. Too busy?! Oh! I guess being "busy" now is wrapping pressies and hanging out with friends and family and doing fun holiday things. Pssh. Well whatever, M and D. Maybe when you FINALLY want to hang out with us, then we'll be too busy for you! ::raspberries::

We can't wait for Santa Paws to come!!! We hope you guys have a great holiday and a
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

PS. I'm not very happy about wearing these reindeer antler things.

Letters to a Dog

Hi there. The Mom here. Earlier today while looking through a Pet Posting board that I frequent to find out more about rescues here in the area, I found something that made my eyes start to well up with tears. This time, it wasn't an ad posted by some person with a new job that can't take care of their shih-tzu anymore, or by someone who found out three weeks after they adopted their retriever mix that he has allergies and they can't afford to take care of him, or another 'take my dog' ad that are all too popular. Instead this time, it was someone who posted something about loving a dog for their flaws and about giving second chances. I don't know who wrote it originally -- maybe it was the person that posted it. But I thought that it deserved to get posted again where others could read it.

Letters to a Dog

Source Unknown

January 6: Dear Dog, I saw you today for the first time, just a couple houses from my own. The school bus stopped to let out your kids, and your mom opened the front door to let you run out and greet them. You are a wiggly, bouncy and happy little puppy with a full belly and a shiny coat. Your kids grabbed you up, hugged you, held you and toted you inside. Your tail was wagging the entire time. I thought to my self, how sweet, what a way to end a long hard day. I spoke to your mom this evening and she said that they got you from the Animal Shelter, and the kids named you Lucky.

March 10: Dear Lucky, I saw you today as I always do on my way home from work. You were already outside to greet the kids today, which seemed a little odd. The little girl got off the bus and shooed you away; she appeared to not want you jumping on her. The boy got off the bus and gave you a quick playful pat on the head, then smelled his hand and brushed you aside. You looked confused and sad, as you went to lie by the porch. You curled up in a tight ball on the cold ground and let out a huge sigh. My heart felt heavy that day.

March 21: Dear Lucky, I saw you today. I was headed home, and the kids got off the bus, walked to the house, and you ran out as far as you could on your heavy chain to let them know you were there. The little girl ignored you, the little boy told you to be quiet, when you barked for his attention. My neighbor commented that they needed to do something with your barking because you keep them up at night. You had a bucket of water and a bowl of food, a relatively nice doghouse, but your eyes were sad and empty. I shook my head and let out a huge sigh.

April 30: Dear Lucky, I worried for you today. You look thin, your chain heavy on your neck, your coat is dirty and falling out, you don't get up to do much anymore. Your bucket is turned over, and I have not seen your food bowl for a few days now. I spoke to the neighbor and asked about you. He said you still bark at night and he saw the man of the house throw something at you the other day as he scolded you. I shook my head in despair as I went back into my house.

June 4: Dear Lucky, My heart sank today. I was headed home, and you weren't in your yard. A large part of me hoped you got away, another large part of me was frightened at all the other possibilities. I asked my neighbor about you, and he said your family went on vacation and sent you back to the Animal Shelter. I shook my head and cried for you as I went into my house.

June 5: Dear Dog, I went to the shelter today. I found you huddled in the back of a cage that had a bucket, a bowl of food, and a blanket for you to lie on. You looked up at me as if you knew me, and my heart broke as I read your card. They did not even care enough to give them your name, and the card simply said, "male, neutered retriever mix. Owners did not want." I cried when a gentleman from the kennel said, "That's a sad one there. He came from here, you know, last Christmas. Guess they just got tired of him. He's too frightened, no one will adopt him." I went to the counter and told them I would be back tomorrow and please don't do anything just yet. They all kind of nodded like they heard that one before.

June 6: Dear Dog, I brought you home today. You were scared and untrusting, but a small part of you somewhere allowed you to wag the tip of your tail when I told you that you were a good boy and that I loved you. I gave you a new name, "Happy", because you aren't and I hope that someday you will be. You had an accident on the floor, and when I came back to clean it up with paper towel you slunk down and whimpered as if the hand was coming for you. I tried to choke back the tears when I thought of what you must have gone through in the past six months. I reached out and patted you and your eyes closed and your body went limp at such a gentle gesture. "We're going to be all right," I told you. I showed you your food, and you ate voraciously, and you marveled at the treats and toys I got for you.

December 25: Dear Happy, Good morning my best friend! You woke me, as always, popping out from under the covers on your side of the bed, licking my face to tell me it was time for our walk. We went through the living room and you sniffed what Santa left for us. I hugged you and said, "Last year you were a Christmas gift, now this year, these are all yours!" Your coat is shiny, your belly always full, and even though we found out at your first vet visit you had heartworms, you are healthy now. As we went out for our walk, we saw your old family in the front yard. They look at you each time as if they recognize you in a way, but you don't give them a second glance. --- Then I believe both our hearts stopped as we saw the children emerge from the yard holding a small playful puppy. "Isn't she just precious? We got her from the animal shelter. Hope this one works out, the other dog we got from there was so much trouble." I sighed and refrained from pointing out that you were not the trouble. You looked up at me as if to say, "Thank you, mom." I kneeled down and whispered in your sweet ear, "No, it is I who thank you."

We're being neglected

M and D have been completely ignoring us for the past two days. M has been sick with a cold, so on Thursday and Friday we spent most of the day snuggling in the bed with her, keeping her warm and making her feel better and then all of a sudden, WE GET IGNORED! She starts feeling a little better and starts doing things around the house: catching up on laundry yesterday and painting the two extra bedrooms today. And where are we during all of this? Cast outside. By ourselves. Well actually we wanted to stay outside, because it was GORGEOUS today, but still. We were ignored. Okay, actually that's not true, either. M had to watch out for us because Cassie is still healing and she can't run around and jump too much. Okay, so maybe not TOTALLY cast out and ignored, but pretty close.

And D has been hogging up the computer to catch up on some of his work, so we haven't gotten around to anyone's blog lately. We'll read up tomorrow!

In the meantime, we're going to try and get some attention!

Thrawn

Run free handsome boy.

You will be greatly missed.

Cassie's Home

M and D picked up Cassie a little while ago and she just settled down. She was kind of dopey at first and was a little confused about where she was and what was going on, but she'll sleep it off.

M set up her crate near the fire so she could stay warm and relax. It's nice and comfy in her crate, but she keeps making little uncomfy whiny noises. My poor sister!

Our vet said that the operation went very well. No problems at all and they used glue instead of stitches, so we don't have to get those removed or worry about them pulling out. So all things are good right now. Thanks for the good vibes!!!

The Countdown and other news...

Alright all you doggies...the countdown has begun! 'What countdown?' you might ask. The countdown until my birthday, of course! Mom even found a countdown clock for me so I can let everyone how much more time I have until I turn 1! Oh, and I must apologize for my human if there are any misspelled words in here...M cut her finger really bad at work yesterday and it's all wrapped up in a big bandage and splint that is not conducive to typing correctly. Duh, that's what spellcheck is for, Mom!

Anyway, you guys can find the countdown clock WAAAY at the bottom of this page. It wouldn't fit in the sidebar, so we had to put it down in the footer. Only 63 days left!! Woohoo!

In other news: Cassie is getting spayed tomorrow. Shhhh...don't tell her. She doesn't know yet. M and D have to drop her off at 7:00am and then we don't get to see her again until 4:00. M is a little nervous, but she said she's done it with all of her dogs before and she's never had any major complications. She told me that when Cassie gets home, she might be really sleepy and she's going to have a big boo-boo on her tummy so I have to be very gentle with her and I can't make fun of her for not being able to run around. Pssh...where's the fun in that?

You better watch out, mister. I wouldn't make fun of anyone -- as soon as you're off your meds, you're going to get YOUR fixer operation.

Ugh, but Mooooooom! Oh well. That's at least a few months away for now, so maybe in the meantime I can convince M that I'm not broken and I don't need to be fixed.

Not likely.

Fine!

In any case, tomorrow should be interesting because I'll have most of the day with my humans WITHOUT Cassie. It's gonna be kind of weird, but I hope we get to do something fun.

Pawsitive thoughts for Cassie :)

Until next time!

It's a love/hate thing.

Cassie and I like to chew on each other.

But sometimes we don't like getting chewed on.

And we fight over stuff all of the time.

But we get over it.

It's a love/hate thing.

But mostly love.

7 Annoyances

Hey there everydog. We got tagged by Maggie and Mitch to post seven annoyances and link to them in the post, then list and link to 7 more bloggers to do the same.

So pass this on to 7 more bloggers and notify them by leaving a comment on their blog.

Maggie and Mitch split theirs up into 3 for Maggie, 3 for Mitch and one shared annoyance, so I think we're going to do it the same way.

Okay, so I'm going to go first and then Cassie.

1. I hate that I'm not allowed to eat anything else other than my allergy food. Rabbit and potato is good, but I'm tired of it and I miss my bones and treats and cheese!
2. My neighbor dog Trooper really annoys me. He digs into our yard to play with Cassie and gets really possessive of her. When I try to run him off he tries to bite me. Man, he really REALLY annoys me (M agrees with me on this one.)
3. It annoys me when I'm trying to lay down and relax and Cassie keeps chewing on my ears or wants to keep playing bitey face.

Hey! You're a lovable brother, what can I say?

My turn!

1. I don't like it when Orion gets to go places and I have to stay home. Even if he's just going to the vets, I make a big fuss about it. It's not fair.
2. It really annoys me that I have to stay in a crate when my parents are out and Orion doesn't. I promise I won't do anything too naughty.
3. It annoys me that ORION is REALLY possessive of the ball/stick/dummy that we are playing with. I want to catch it and bring it back, too! He never lets me. So I bite him. Ha!

And the last thing that REALLY annoys the both of us is when M tries to make us pose and sit in perfect positions and wear funny things on our heads. That is SOOO not cool, Mom. Besides, we're natural models. You should just wait for time like this when we take good photos without trying.

So now let's tag Sophie, Baxter, Bailey, Benson, and Brody, Amber-Mae, and River to tell us what REALLY annoys them!

Thanks for the tag, M & M!

Red Bud, Revisited

Cassie here. Thanks to everydoggy out there for crossing their paws and sending good thoughts to me while I was sick. Now I'm much better and back to my bubbly southern belle self.



Okay ...so maybe not so southern belle in these pictures, but I definitely am well enough to romp around with my big galoot of a brother.

Today we went back to Red Bud park and guess what? It was just as pawesome as the last time we went. This time though, M remembered to take some video and I was in more of a modelling mood. I am the most divine labbie supermodel in Texas, of course.

There were three great danes there that we kept running into. They were older ladies, so they didn't play with us much.

We played fetch for a while, because doG forbid Orion doesn't get to chase after things. We swam for a while and had the entire water hole to ourselves.

Here I am showing my labbie skills . . . I am a bird dog after all.

Birds? Where?

See how dedicated we are? Even 6 inches of mud wont stop us from retriving. Well...it won't stop Orion. Usually, I forget about the ball or stick or dummy before I get to it. But M thinks I show potential. :)

EDIT: Okay, I've been having major problems uploading video onto this site lately. It'll upload completely and suddenly it just disappears. I'll work on it later and see if I can get any new video up. Ugh.

We need some pawsitive thoughts...

It's the Mom here. I just wanted to let you all know that Cassie isn't feeling very well today. When we woke up this morning, she seemed normal, but when I looked more closely at her, I noticed some bloat. I thought that she must have an upset stomach, so I only fed her half of her morning meal to see if she would eat. She did, but reluctantly. We watched her all morning and though she was in her typical high spirits and she did not vomit, her abdomen was getting more and more distended. She was alone for about 3 hours while Marc and I went to work and I when I got home around 5:00, she had only gotten worse. I phoned our vet, Dr. Cottier and brought her in. Dr. Cottier was somewhat concerned that it might be an obstruction, however because Cassie wasn't feeling any discomfort, it was hard to say. She advised us to wait it out through the night, to keep her calm (yeah, right!) and not to feed her the evening meal.

EDIT: (7:09pm) I didn't mean to alarm some of you. I failed to mention that the vet does NOT feel that it's "bloat" or a flipped stomach. That was the first question I asked because it's the scariest. I'ts more likely a small obstruction that we are hoping will pass naturally. But rest assured, if she does get worse or I have ANY reason at all to think that it could possibly be bloat, then we're off! And I'll keep you all updated. Thanks for the thoughts!

Cassie seems not to notice that anything is wrong but her poor little belly keeps getting bigger. We're going to give it 6 more hours (until Midnight-ish) and see if there's any change. If it gets worse, it's off to Emergency we go. But let's say a prayer that it won't come to that. I (as well as Cassie) appreciate any pawsitive thoughts you could send our way!

EDIT: (12/4 8:00am) I think Cassie is going to be okay! She stayed pretty much the same throughout the night until the early morning when she frantically asked to be let outside. This worried me, so I followed her out there. Thankfully it was just because she really really REALLY needed to go to the bathroom. There was apparently something binding her up --possibly a blockage or maybe just constipation. Either way, after sleeping a few more hours, she woke up looking sooo much better. It looks like she's still a tiny bit distended, but that might be water retension. So we're off to the vet again to see what they think. Thank you so much everyone (dog and human) for all the prayers and good thoughts. It could have been something really scary, but I'm glad it turned out to just be....well...gas. Haha. :)

A New Dog Park

C'mon M & D, let's go to the dog park today!

See, Cassie has the keys and is ready to take us there.

Hurry up humans!

Dad wanted to drive, though, so we let him. But only because he said we could drive back home. I took my usual position between M & D...

and Cassie usually takes position by the window so she can stick her head out...

Apparently, she's fond of flies getting stuck in her teeth and butterflies going up her schnoz.

The park is this way!!!

The humans decided to take us to a new dog park this time. We were getting kind of tired of the old one and they heard good things about this one. It's called Red Bud park and it's on a little island type thing behind the University of Texas. Anyway, it turned out to be awesome!

We met up with a bunch of dogs by the water. They were playing fetch with a tennis ball and diving into the lake. Normally, I'll wade into water to get sticks and tennis balls, but I don't like going to places where I can't touch bottom. But THIS TIME, I actually swam! And it was great! I had so much fun and the humans were really proud of me. Look how far out into the lake I swam! (You might need to click on the picture to get a better look.)

Cassie had lots of fun just zooming around and chasing after other dogs. She's more of a Labrador Leaver than a Labrador Retriever.

Throw it already!!

I made friends with this girl labbie called Bailey and we spent most of our time fighting to get to the tennis balls first.

Almost there...

hey, get off of me!

A-ha! I got it!

Here you go, Mom!

It was like Labby Central today. We saw about 6 or 7 other Labs and some of them got into the water to play with us.

Hey, Bailey, come back!

After about 45 minutes of swimming, we dragged ourselves away and walked on the trail for a little while. We met a bunch of other dogs along the way.

We walked for another 45 minutes or so and boy, did we get thirsty.

Time to go already?

We had such a blast at Red Bud! This is our favorite new place and we going to keep going back there. I can practice my swimming and maybe Cassie can practice her retrieving (and her call-back!)

We zonked out the second we got into the car. Sorry Dad, you're going to have to do the driving again.

ZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzz!