Happy New Year!

Tonight I am dictating this post to my human assistant from the comfort of my warm, fireside resting place...ahhh...what a life...

Either this is going to be a REALLY long post or M is going to have to split it up into volumes. We've got a lot to catch up on! Sorry that we haven't been around much. There's been a lot of action lately and the computer was being overused for things other than blogging purposes.

First of all, Christmas was a distraction because everyone was busy running around and buying me Christmas presents. Well, that and decorating and cooking and taking pictures and visiting and going to pawties (without inviting us, no less!). It seemed like there was sooooo much to do and then all of a sudden . . . it was CHRISTMAS MORNING! Woohoo! Our first Christmas! We were so excited that we could barely wait to get to our stocking and pressies. Here's some of the stuff we got...

Oh yes...bad cuz, dino cuz, rabbit treats and HEY! Who's that peeking out from the top of our stocking?

Oh yes! It's Mr. Carrot! Just like Maggie and Mitch's friend! We couldn't wait to dig in and find all of our goodies that Santa Paws left for us!

C'mon Mom! Hurry up! (Oh and Mom wanted me to include an apology for her poor choice of tee-shirt for Christmas morning. 'It was dark and I was sleepy and I just grabbed the first shirt I could!')

Yeah! Bring on Mr. Carrot!

MMMMMM...Rabbit Jerky!

Give us some of that, Mom! Look, we're being good!

(ok, is it just me, or did Cassie grow up overnight?)

Yay!!! Christmas is the best!

Even the furballs enjoyed their gifts...although Lani wasn't quite as enthusiastic as the rest of us. She's too proper to play with toys in an undignified manor. Pssh!

Phoenix doesn't care, though.

We had so much fun on Christmas morning, that we passed out and barely noticed that our humans left to go pawty without us. They went to Grandma K's house and ate a bunch of yummy turkey and other eatables, opened some presents and played with our furry Uncles. I definitely think this whole Christmas thing is great! Especially because we got to spend a bunch of time with our humans. M says that's what it's all about!

It seems like all of you doggies had a good Christmas and got lots of nice pressies and ate lots of good eatables. How about everydog's New Year's Eve? Did your humans make you stay up WAY past bedtime and watch the stupid ball drop? I was sooooo disappointed. You see...it all started earlier on New Year's Eve...M and D were off from work, so they told us to hop in the car.

OKAY!

We went to Red Bud because it was a GORGEOUS sunny day at 70 degrees -- perfect swimming weather (told you Texas was crazy). Cassie and I spent a lot of time swimming and fetching our tennis balls until...WE LOST ONE!

We searched high and low for it...but alas...we could not rescue it. So we called off the search. I was sad, but M said "Don't worry, you're gonna get to see a REALLY REALLY big ball tonight if you stay up late enough. In NYC, they drop a ball to commence the new year!"

A really big tennis ball? Alright, I could go for that! On the way home, Cassie made friends with a chocolate lab named Brian (obviously his humans are Family Guy fans). He looked exactly like her! They were about the same age and were about the same size. It was so cute. M couldn't get a better picture because they were zooming all over the place together. You probably need to click on it to see it better.

Anyway, back to my story of disappointment. So we go home, eat dinner, do usual stuff and I'm like... "Hey Mom! When is this big ball going to drop? Phoenix and I want to see this for ourselves!"

Mom said that we had to stay up until midnight in order to see it. MIDNIGHT?!? That's taking quite a bite out of my beauty sleep, but okay. I'm game. Besides, giant tennis balls don't come around every day, now do they?

Huh? Is it midnight, yet?

We waited around FOREVER! And then finally, M said. "Wake up, Orion! It's happening now!" So I jumped up and looked at the tv. I was so anxious to see this huge tennis ball and here was my chance. And what do I see? A glittery ball. That's it. A fancy glittery ball. It looked like a CAT TOY! Then I had to watch in embarassment as M and D counted down until it hit the big 2008. Pssh!!! We stayed up for that? I was angry! Furious! Livid, even! But I couldn't stay unhappy too long. The humans said Happy New Year to us and told us that they loved us. They gave us kisses and scratched our tummies and ears. Before long, I wasn't angry anymore. Just sleepy.

We both drifted off to sleep and before I knew it, I was in a land of giant tennis balls. . .

. . . no glittery ones, either.

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.

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!