Getting to Know You

Heidi and Josh and their family came to visit us in June. We met them during the previous Christmas break and thought they were pretty nice folks, but now we had a chance to be with them on our own turf and discovered that they are even cooler than we originally thought.

The grandkids loved to swim in our endless pool but our Dad won't let us in yet. He's afraid we might violate one of the pool rules (no splashing and no peeing). He's probably right since neither of us knows how to swim.

The grandkids took us on several walks to various parks and we all had a great time. Even though we love those grandkids we didn't enjoy the training imposed upon us by Savana and Siera. These girls gave us the "royal treatment" by trying to teach us how to become "royal dogs." We were dragged from room to room, told to sit and stay and sometimes dance. We tried our best! Timmy tried to ride on Duncan's back, but that didn't last too long. All the grandkids loved on us and we loved them back. These two pictures are cool because it shows how big and "royal" we are. It won't be long till these girls will be bigger than we are. Aren't Dakota's pom poms on her legs just to die for?

Caleb likes to cuddle with us. He'll pull on our ears, tug on our hair, and sit on us. Eventually we end up as cuddle buddies just chillin' on the floor. Most days Caleb shares his meals with us. His mom and dad likely don't know the extent to which Caleb feeds us .... don't tell!

Mom and dad finally decided to replace the black couch with a new one. (You'll remember that we got in a lot of hot water for chewing and ripping off some of the upholstery on the front of the black couch. It was looking a little worn so we thought we'd speed up the replacement process.) Here's a picture of us on our new couch. Mom got the recliner but we like it too. You should know we've already detected something suspicious about one of the throw pillows and have investigated thoroughly. Mom says the pillow is fixable but it's out of comission for the moment.

Happy Birthday to Us!

We'll we finally reached our first birthday on 27 Apr 2009. We had visions of high adventure, wind blowing through our ears, and a thousand smells ... but then Dad woke us from our naps and it was pretty much a day like any other. Mom was away on travel and Dad was at work. We stayed and guarded the home ... at least when we weren't playing or sleeping. Ok, we did bring in a few sticks and twigs and chew them into a million bits, which ended up all over the floor, but that's normal for us. We like to chew!
When Dad came home we enjoyed a wonderful surprise ... birthday dinner at a very fancy restaurant called the Kidz Palace, otherwise known as our remodeled Kitchen. Dad prepared a meal of pot roast and mashed potatoes with some garden zuchini. It looked and smelled yummy but there was this funny little wax tube that was on fire. We don't like fire. Why did Dad put it in the mashed potatoes?

Dinner was great ... and we even sneaked a bite or two from the counter when Dad was taking a picture. Cool eh?

We look forward to another year of fun in the land of enchantment and hopefully another great birthday dinner!

Milk Duds from the Sixth Grade

The title for this entry comes from a journalist's report of his ride in an F-14D tomcat. He got airsick and began "egressing" the contents of his stomach ... the milk duds were included in his very descriptive and humorous account of what came up. (See the whole article at http://www.f-14association.com/stories-13.htm)

So why the reference to milk duds on this site about our kidz? It's because our kidz had a similar "egress" experience last month. You see, the kidz decided that they're not only big enough to see what's on the kitchen counters but also just tall enough to take things off of them when they're close to the edge. In one of our rushes to get out of the house we neglected to properly secure Duncan's medications in a place where the kids couldn't get them. While we were away the kidz did what kidz do and took the meds off of the counter, chewed on them, and ate them all! What did they get?

• A new bottle of 320 fish oil tablets
• Prednizone (steroids)
  
• Opcon A eye drops
• Eye wash solution

We weren't too concerned about the eye wash, but we were very concerned about the kidz eating all of the Prednizone pills in one sitting. Mom was the one to call the vet, who gave the instructions to make the dogs throw up--NOW!

Well, you wanted to know another use for hydrogen peroxide, right? About 3 1/2 Tablespoons per 50 lb dog does the trick. First it was Dakota, who promptly ran all over the house, vomiting as she went--kitchen floor (where I had hoped to keep her--tile, you know), then the new wood floors in the living room, then the entry way, garage, and finally the dog run. I was more successful keeping it on the tile with Duncan, 3 places in the kitchen (on the rug of course) and 5 places in the pool room (2 rugs in there).

After that, I had to gather it up into separate bowls and call the vet to tell her what I found. Dakota had 2 rawhides, completely intact, pupperonis--undigested of course, softened dog food chunks, and lots of fish oil. (She wouldn't take them for medicine without us cutting the pill open and putting it on bread, but she had no trouble downing 300 pills when we weren't looking. We shop at Costco, large bottle.)

Duncan had swallowed a squeaky toy ball with loops whole. He also had pupperonis (in the same condition) and dog food. There was less fish oil, but Duncan's stomach contained twice as much of everything as Dakota's. There was foam everywhere (that's the Prednisone).

We had to give the dogs Pepcid every day for 2 weeks. They are fine now and we are relieved.
Sorry no pictures with this entry. I think you know why?

Home Remodeling Nearly Complete

It's been a long time coming but at last the remodeling of the kidz home is getting close to completion for 2008. In the upper photo you can see the new tile entry way along with the new wood floor. The kidz seem to be very pleased with the new look and like how quickly it cleans up. (We especially appreciate this feature too!). The bottom photo shows some of the concrete patching that needed to be done prior to the floor installation. Duncan is supervising and inspecting the job. The final carpet tuck will happen tomorrow and all that then remains is to get the new curtains installed. More pictures to follow.

Olympic Training

Now we know that they don't have any events in the Olympics for dogs, but we can hope. So in the event that at some distant point in the future there may be a doggie soccer game, we've started getting our kidz into shape, while at the same time working on some basic ball handling (pawing) skills. Our training approach is based upon things that our kidz love best -- food!. Our approach? --- You put food into a ball and let the kidz smack the ball around to get the food out. It's simple! Here's a video of our kidz in training with the football shaped "ball." Enjoy!

Duncanized!

These kidz can't grow out of their "got to chew everything and anything" phase soon enough. Duncan seems to be the leader of our pack when it comes to getting into trouble. We have a new term at our house for something that get's destroyed ... duncanized (named in honor our our infamous Duncan the Destroyer!) Here are two photos showing some of his most recent sorties against things most sinister that must be destoryed. The first is the wood sill on the window casement and the second, and most heinious duncanization to date, is the front panel on our leather couch. Hope that tasted good Duncan cause you're in deep trouble!!@#$!

The Flying Poodle Smash!

At last, we have proof! (or should I say woof?)We have been trying for quite some time to get a movie of our kidz doing some of their wrestle-mania moves. Our favorite is what we call the flying poodle smash. It's high energy and usually involves some growling, showing of fangs, and flying furr, but is nearly always harmlessly carried out. Here's a short video that gives you a feel for what tickles our innards. Enjoy!