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!

MUD! SOCCER BALL!

Two little zoomies

playing in the mud

zooming 'round the backyard

AND HAVING LOTS OF FUN!!!