Breakfast of Champions

[Dakota writes] I'm a little embarrassed by my picture in this entry because my hair looks so shaggy ... but I just had to submit a note about our daily breakfast routine. It all starts when dad pours a bowl of yummy cereal with milk. He then goes into the dinning room, and after a short moment of closing eyes, folding arms, and some muttering, begins to eat. Sometimes it seems like dad just doesn't get it--we are here waiting for our breakfast too!

So, just to make sure that dad knows he needs to feed us as well, I gently, ever so gently, stand up, put my paw on his arm and nudge him. Just like in the photo. That usually gets his attention enough for me to use my beautiful brown eyes and long eye lashes on him. That always works! No sooner do I give him the look, than he puts a morsel of cereal on the spoon and feeds both me and my brother, Duncan. We really like the cereal morsels, but our favorite part is at the end, when all the little squares of Autumn Harvest cereal are gone. Dad always shares the remaining milk with us. It's a challenge sometimes for both Duncan and I to get our noses (and tongues) into the bowl at the same time, but so far we've been pretty successful. So that's how we start our days right ... thanks dad!

Sunset's in the Land of Enchantment

Greetings dog lovers! Duncan and I have been watching Mom and Dad work outside a lot lately, so we thought we'd share a photo of a one of New Mexico's magnificent sunset's that we enjoyed recently. Cool eh?

Can you believe it, Mom and Dad forgot our birthday this year .... uh! Last year Dad made us a real birthday dinner with real human food. We loved it, but this year nothing. We tried to give them hints, but somehow they just seemed too busy to catch on. Especially Mom, she was always sticking her nose in some book (can't image what she was trying to smell...I couldn't smell anything but old paper) or waving sticks in the air. Dad says that she was studying for some big tests, but since we've never studied, we're not sure what Dad is really trying to tell us. Anyway, Mom's peculiar activities have mostly stopped now and things seem a lot calmer. Mom has even taken us on walks with Dad lately. I think she's alot happier now...

Well, she would be alot happier if she hadn't stepped on a rake yesterday. We were kind of dozing in the sun when we heard a loud "whack" followed by a painful groan that sound like "ow". A few minutes later we got a good look at Mom's head and noticed a large, round, bump on her forehead. Where did that come from? Poor Mom ... eventually the pain will fade, but the embarrassment may hang around a bit longer ... sorry.

The Cone

Well mom and dad have done it again, this time it's me instead of Duncan. I know they are trying to help, but sometimes I'm not sure I need so much help. After the first of the year, my right eye became irritated and starting leaking ... just like Duncan's when he had to go to the doctor and have stitches in his eye. On Friday, dad took me to the eye doctor and left me all alone. I was scared and nervous, especially without Duncan at my side. I don't recall much from my day there at the doctor's office because I think I fell asleep. When I woke up I had this plastic collar around my neck and my right eye felt different. Dad says it looks alot better than before. I hope he's right.

In the meantime, this collar, that mom calls the Elizabethan collar, is a real challenge. No more getting through the doggie door or squeezing past Duncan or my folks on the stairs. Suddenly, I'm coming to a full stop as the collar hits a door, cupboard, shelf, table, desk, wall, etc. My collar seems to bang into everything I see. (A cone of attraction)

And that's not the worst of it. I can't seem to get close enough to my water or food bowls to eat or drink. Dad could see my dilemma so he put out special bowls just for me. There is one good thing about the collar though, when I put my head down to eat or drink from a bowl, Duncan can't horn in on the action and I have it all to myself. (A cone of satisfaction) That's a small consolation for the pain in the neck that this collar gives me. Dad says I can remove the collar in about three weeks, but I'm trying to be extra good to I can sweet talk him into taking it off sooner -- my paws are crossed.

Duncan can be so sweet at times. He's being a little gentler with me now that I have the collar, but he also seems to be playing with his tennis balls more. When he gets into one of those tennis ball moods he ignores just about everything but food, including me, his very own dear sister. He plays with that ball all day and he'd play/chew it all night if mom and dad would let him. I'm glad they don't. We all need sleep. (Dad took a short video of him "playing" with his ball.)

He's getting quicker at stripping the outer covering off of the ball and then tearing the ball into pieces. He can do it now in an afternoon. Maybe those guys from guinness will find out.

Season's Greetings

We wish you a merry Christmas and a Happy New Year ... Woof, Woof!!

Bow Wow, what a year it has been for us. We're a little more than 1 1/2 years old now and so we've started to put away some of more puppy-ish behaviors. We don't chew as many shoes, although Dad did "donate" a few shoes for our enjoyment. We're getting a little better about chewing on the couch pillows, but they are so irresistable! (We've only ruined three so far and we think that displays a great sense of restraint...don't you?) We're wearing our winter outfits now and although they are warm, we kind of look like a couple of sheep. Too bad we won't be traveling with mom and dad up to Utah for Christmas. We could play the part of the sheep again in the Christmas eve play. We liked doing that last year for our very first Christmas.

Our parents remain busy. Mom is still teaching at Albuquerque HS. She's working on her National Board teaching certification this year so we don't see as much of her as we'd like. She's also working towards her second degree black belt in Kung Fu and will test next summer. We get to watch her practice in the front room every now and then, but have to be quick to move out of her way.

Dad seems just as busy with his early morning seminary class and work, but at least he is able to take us on a walk every day. We like to run and sometimes it takes a bit of effort to get dad moving his feet fast enough for us, but we usually succeed. We love it best when we are off leash. Being brother and sister means we know each other very well and can anticipate each other's every move, so one good poodle smash deserves another. Sometimes on our walks we see some of the local wildlife. Just last week we saw two coyotes waiting in the early morning sun and sometimes, if we are very lucky, we see a roadrunner. There are plenty of dogs in the neighborhood and dad tries to give names to all of them. Each day we say hello to Psycho, Rocco, Buster, the Apple Dumpling Gang, the River Bottom Nightmare Band, Ren and Stimpe, Casper and friends, and many more. Who can remember their names ... just dad.

This fall was a special treat for us. Dad took us with him to Dickson Farms to buy apples. On the way home we stopped at one of the local Native American food stands and dad shared his navajo taco with us. We love those! After this scrumptious snack we stopped in the foothills of the Sandia mountains and dad took us on a long hike up the La Luz trail. We only got about half way up the mountain before we turned around and went back. We don't know if dad was tired, but we sure were. This was our longest walk ever ... 8 miles. You can't imagine all of the different smells there are in the Sandia's.

We still try to be as helpful around the house as we can. We are always ready to clean up little spills in the kitchen (and even clean the plates if left too close to the edge of the counter). We help out in the garden harvesting tomatoes, onions, beets, spinach, and green beans. We like to sneak a few tomatoes when mom and dad aren't looking! We're great at announcing new visitors when the door bell rings, but can't seem to figure out the difference between the real door bell sound and some of the sounds on TV... we'll get it eventually. At night, when we're tired from a long day's play, we like to snuggle with mom and dad...and they like it too!

We've had a good year and look forward to an even better year next year. We hope to see all of you again...so until then keep your tails waggin'!

Merry Christmas,
Duncan and Dakota


A dog is like an eternal Peter Pan, a child who never grows old and who therefore is always available to love and be loved.
--Aaron Katcher, American Educator and Psychiatrist

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?