Mama On The Move

Going on a trip with the dogs along is always entertaining. Especially for Katie, who has her leg in a boot and is trying to keep it propped up to keep the swelling down. Katie has to sit in the middle row of seats and the dogs don't like to stay in the rear by themselves no matter how hard we try to make them. Here are some of the positions they found themselves in on our latest trip to Georgia!

I just took all three dogs out at once for their last walk of the night.  It's usually not difficult to control them all.  They are usually very well behaved. Tonight on our way back to the house, we saw a black cat sitting on the side of the street carefully observing us.  Of course, all three dogs lost their minds wanting to get closer to it.  We live on a very narrow street so I crossed as far to the left as I could, trying to keep the dogs as far away from the cat as I could.   They stretched as far as their leashes would allow, until they were only a foot from the cat's face, all of them barking hysterically.   The cat never blinked. I dragged the dogs the rest of the way down the street and the cat decided it would saunter along behind us juuuuuuuust out of reach.   I think I heard him giggle. Leo and Gus were so enraged at not being able to reach the cat, they decided to just attack each other.  I'm sure this was high enterta...

Sweet little old neighbor man likes to take his dog off the leash while out walking. Too confining for poopsie, I guess. Comes face to face with me and Katie and our three dogs all safely on leashes. His dog determines to murder Ringo. Much fight. Many screaming. I fell flat on my back trying to haul the puppies backwards. Katie managed to drag Ringo backwards and wrap his leash around a tree. Sweet little old neighbor man is wanting to help me off the ground while I am still trying to keep his dog from eating my puppies who are valiantly trying to defend the family honor. Finally convinced him at the top of my lungs to just get his dog out of my yard and I would be able to get myself up. And I did too. I now have one skinned elbow, a skinned foot, and rope (leash) burns to my right arm and right leg.

The puppies always want to get off the bed, get on the bed, get off the bed, get on the bed.  This is especially aggravating to me in the middle of the night.  They can't jump on the bed by themselves, so I have to pick them up and put them on the bed.  It's not difficult with Leo; I can scoop him up with one hand.  Gus on the other hand has gotten pretty hefty.  I have to get out of bed and use both hands to heft him up, I decided to invest in some steps so they could climb up without assistance, saving me some sleep and a hernia. I put treats on the steps. They ate the treat off the bottom step and couldn't figure out how to get to the others. This, despite the fact that they climb steps every day of their lives to get in the house. How I get to treats? Finally, Leo started to get the idea first.  But he wasn't taking his back feet off the floor.  That top step treat just wasn't tempting enough. Leo finally got br...

They've never experienced this before!

 Everyone is enjoying the changing colors of the leaves!

Tonight, the girls were walking the dogs down the street of our new neighborhood. A neighbor was walking her two dogs who are about the same size as Ringo.  The puppies started barking at the unfamiliar dogs and those dogs took it as a personal affront. They charged at the girls, snatching their owner off her feet and dragging her through the gravel.   Ringo stepped up to protect his family. Emily said it all happened so fast.  The other woman was incapacitated on the ground and couldn't pull her dogs away but she hung on to their leashes so at least Emily was able to yank Ringo back and out of the fight.  He was bitten in the face.   Katie took all three of our dogs back to the house while Emily helped the woman up and made sure she was all right. Ringo is our defender!

Apparently there is no greater perfume for a puppy than that of a dead creature.  In the past few weeks, the puppies have discovered a dead bird, a dead frog, and (as seen in this video) a dead worm.

After the grass fiasco of the puppies turning green and having grass clumped all in their fur, we took them to the groomer. I'd forgotten how small they are!

Our puppies are really, really cute, and really, really fluffy. However, when we mow the lawn...... .....they turn green. Their white, fluffy fur is a real collector of grass cuttings.  They come in not only with green feet, but with clumps of grass stuck all over them. And I do mean ALL over them!

Our puppies have really enjoyed the snow.  Sort of. Sometimes they come in with balls of ice caked into their fur.  The ice doesn't just rub off.  No, it does not.  This requires a dip in a tub of warm water to melt it all off their bellies, armpits (legpits?), and legs.  Every single time they go outside. I shoveled a path from the back door, across the deck, and into the yard.  I cleared them a nice section of dead grass.  Before the snow arrived, I leaned the walls of our former shed against the deck to give them areas where there would be no snow so their little toes wouldn't freeze. Do they appreciate all my efforts to help them use the bathroom without covering themselves in snow? They do not.

Leo was barking in his sleep!

See those long black hairs around Gus's eyes? Those are his eyelashes .  When he blinks it's looks like he's waving at us. It is not fair for a dog to have better eyelashes than any of the people in the house. And Leo? Well, Leo doesn't have the eyelashes, but he does know how to wear his food bowl.

One of the puppies favorite games is to try to get to each other underneath the legs of the computer chair.  Never mind that they can get to each other easily by standing up and stepping over the base.  Or walking around the base.  They like the idea that this is somehow a challenge.

Because I know you need it.