He's a mind reader...

Our breeder sent me more pictures of our little guy today!! He was 9 weeks old on Wednesday, weighing in at about 25 pounds, and just about ready to come home. The crop will be done on August 5th and the pup will be on an airplane, coming to us, on the 6th or 7th. WOO HOOO!!!

The breeder said that our "monster" is a little sweetheart, very affectionate, and very curious. Awesome! The pup also has really nice bone structure and a great head, which is something that he was really hoping to get out of this litter. According to the pictures, he's apparently part beaver, so I don't know how that figured into the breeding.... ;) He should get along just fine with the two that we already have at home.

The last week

Not much goes on the La Casa de Nute.... We're actually a very boring couple. Hmmm...

Josh has been working like crazy though for the past couple of weeks so I've been spending a lot of time with the dogs (read: spoiling the heck outta them). It's nice to have the time to myself, and the extra money from the overtime coming in, but I'd kinda like to have a husband too. Sigh....

Here are some pictures of the dogs that I took this last week. They have a tough life, don't they?





Homemade dog treats: low-fat ground beef, a whole egg (shell and all), mashed together, and shaped into balls. Freeze 'em and the dogs go crazy for them!


Hayden after a rough day


Serious animal neglect right here! I mean, they're only laying on ONE section of the couch with ONE pillow to share. Psssh! Call the authorities!!


Our new baby should be coming home in about a week! It really hasn't sank in for me yet that we're getting another dog. Probably because we've waited so darn long for this next one. We've been talking to the breeder for over a year and watching the pups that have come out of his kennel. We'd been burned by both Abbi & Hayden's breeders so I was sketchy about this guy, especially since he's MY age!! But he really loves and cares for his dogs, he has big wins at dog shows (which is huge), and he's really knowledgeable and passionate about the breed. We're so excited!!

Handerpants

Now only if they came in stylish colors and maybe even a sexy "thong" version... JAZZ HANDS!!

New Puppy Pictures!!

Well, I got some last week too but didn't post them. He's seven weeks old today and doing really well. The breeder says that he's curious, a cuddlebug, funny, and a fire-cracker. He's always willing to play and loves interacting with people and the other dogs. All really good things to hear!

We're getting him about a week later than we'd thought because of scheduling issues with the ear crop. Kinda disappointing but worth the wait.

Legion, and his littermate, 6 weeks. He's on the right.





Legion, 7 weeks.









Our breeder is planning on showing our baby daddy in the ARBA Regionals in September. He won with him in April at an ARBA show, so he's hoping to take home the win again. If he does win, that will make three years in a row that Pacifica has won the ARBA Regionals. We're hoping we can make it down to Claremont to see our baby daddy in the ring and to support our breeder. He's relatively "young" to breeding but has already produced prize-winning pups.

A-Camping We Will Go

This past weekend, we went down to Henry Cowell Redwoods to camp with my parents, Dan & Tami & the kids, Tami's parents, her brother, and her sister & her family. A total of 11 adults and 5.5 kids. WHEW!! Something happened with the reservation of one of the sites and we were given a handicapped site. Cool, I'm thinking, it'll be flat and relatively close to the bathroom. When my parents checked in, they were unable to occupy the third campsite because they didn't have a disabled placard. Great. So Josh and I brainstorm, he talks to our friend Mike, who then makes a quick phone call to his dad, WHO IS DISABLED!! Mike's dad lets us borrow his placard and we think we're good to go. We get to the ranger station and the check-in lady asks for the placard. Check. Then for the accompanying paperwork. Uh, what? No check. After a few minutes of going back & forth with the check-in lady about the paperwork, she gives us our little tag to put in the truck and we're on our way. Woo hoo, we did it! Oh, how wrong we were... Evidently, this piece of paper, or whatever it is, has to accompany the placard to prove that the holder of the placard is the registered owner. Which we were not. We get to the site, unload and set up camp. It was also Tami's birthday so we celebrated by each of us finding the biggest stick that we could and giving her 28 spankings. No, really, we gathered at the Shirley/Hernandez site for brownies, ice cream, and s'mores. Josh and I hadn't eaten any real food since about 5:00, so we grilled up some bratwurst when we got back to our site.









Saturday, we had a good breakfast and all went to New Brighton Beach to let the kids play. We'd bought Abbi some duck trainers to fetch from the water, since we have a little Michael Phelps on our hands now. I don't know why they're called duck trainers when they're bright orange, cylindrical things, that look nothing like a duck! She was doing really well out in the ocean; swimming out to the trainer and letting the tide bring her back in. Until a wave rocked her...we saw little Abbi bottom, Abbi head, Abbi bottom, and then her head popped back out of the wave. Poor little girl!! She wouldn't go back in the water after that. I'm hoping she'll forget about this experience the next time we take her to the water.





















Josh had prepared some tri-tip for dinner that night, so as we're trucking that, along with our chairs, potato salad, and the dogs to the Aldama campsite, along comes the ranger. She tells us that we have to have the identification paperwork to go along with the placard and if we can't produce it, that we'll have to vacate the campsite. Darn. But as a "favor" to us, she gave us two hours to vacate AND, here's the generous part, she'll let us park a third vehicle in a campsite for one night without penalties. Ooooooo, thank you so much stupid ranger lady! We got everything moved and set up again in the Aldama site in a short amount of time, so it wasn't that bad. And we were only staying for one more night. I guess that's what we get though for trying to break the rules, and the law. :(

We broke camp the next day but before we left, we hit the O'Neill store in Capitola. Wow. Two stories and I could've spent so much money there. We cut ourselves off though after only two sweatshirts.

We had a great time camping, aside from the little snafu and loved spending time with the family. Noelle and Corom are getting so big and they're a blast!! We were thisclose to getting Noelle to feed the dogs from her hand. Next time, Gadget! Next time!!

UGH!!

I HATEHATEHATEHATE the heat!! Always have. Even when I wasn't a fat girl. Mid-80 degree days, please come back!!

Down for the count!

I just got punched in the eye by Hayden... I guess there's a good reason they're called BOXER's... Can't wait to see if I have a nice shiner...it'll be interesting to try to explain that one. Yeeeeeaaaah, your "dog" gave you a black eye. Riiiiiight. And the bruises on your chest and your arm. Uh huh, okay.

Who doesn't want a manly man??

Unfortunately, Josh isn't one of the ones with the ability to grow full facial hair. And unfortunately, sometimes, a little hair is quite sexy. So, in the interest of keeping my attraction to him, I'm going to fashion him a moustache.

Like this one:


I hope he'll like it!!

The New Dog Food Ordeal...

About a week ago, we decided to switch the dogs' food to one that is less-expensive, but still high quality. After doing some research and then more research, we settled on a new line of Canidae Grain-Free that recently came out. We did what we're supposed to do when switching food: mix the old with the new until it's eventually all the new food. Well, when it got to be all of the new food, the dogs stopped eating. They hated it. It got to the point that they were starving themselves because they didn't like it. So off to search for a new food. Again.

Armed with a few samples, we decided to perform a "taste test" for the dogs last night to see which one they like best.

We got Taste of the Wild High Prairie, Solid Gold Wolf King, Wellness Super5Mix Fish Blend, Wellness Super5Mix Meat Blend, and Solid Gold Millennia.








I think they liked it....


Their favorite by far was the Solid Gold Wolf King. BUT we opted to veto their decision in favor of a food that's going to be better and more nutritious for them: Taste of the Wild High Prairie formula. I told Josh that it's like comparing a filet mignon to a flank steak: the filet is going to taste better, but the flank steak is better for you.



And check out the ingredients in this food!!:

Bison, venison, lamb meal, chicken meal, egg product, sweet potatoes, peas, potatoes, canola oil, roasted bison, roasted venison, natural flavor, tomato pomace, ocean fish meal, choline chloride, dried chicory root, tomatoes, blueberries, raspberries, yucca schidigera extract, Enterococcus faecium, Lactobacillus casei, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Saccharomyces cerevesiae fermentation solubles, dried Aspergillus oryzae fermentation extract, vitamin E supplement, iron proteinate, zinc proteinate, copper proteinate, ferrous sulfate, zinc sulfate, copper sulfate, potassium iodide, thiamine mononitrate (vitamin B1), manganese proteinate, manganous oxide, ascorbic acid, vitamin A supplement, biotin, calcium pantothenate, manganese sulfate, sodium selenite, pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), vitamin B12 supplement, riboflavin (vitamin B2), vitamin D supplement, folic acid.

Seriously, it sounds like a salad you would get a Jack's!! They were excited to eat their breakfast this morning and only left a little bit in their bowls. Which is fine in this instance because they had a HUGE dinner last night of six different kinds of dog food, and Abbi decided that she wanted a little late night snack and got up at around 1:30 to go munch on some more food. Fatty McFatster.

Our 4th of July, 2009

We began our day by going, with what seemed all of Carmichael, to Carmichael Park to watch the parade down Fair Oaks Boulevard. Neither one of us had been and we thought it'd be a good socialization activity for the dogs. So off we went, Abbi & Hayden in their steppin' out gear. We sat right along the grass/sidewalk line, still in the park, so quite a few people stopped to say hi to the dogs. And the dogs handled it great!! Little kids were coming up, petting them, touching their noses, ears, and tongues, and they just sat there. It's always such a great feeling when people say how well-behaved and well-mannered our dogs are. It makes all the frustration and work well worth it.

After the parade, we went to my sister-in-law's family's house for a bbq. My brother and his family are in town so we spent some time with them. The weather was unseasonably cool so we were actually able to spend some time outside without melting into the concrete.

We left the bbq to head home to catch the fireworks show at La Sierra Community Center. We decided not to actually sit at the community center, opting to sit in the field of the school right next door. Well, apparently Saturday evenings are the time that the school waters their fields.... All of the people, us included, that were sitting in the sprinkler line quickly got up and moved out of the danger zone. There were a few guys that were able to divert the spray and keep us dry, until the next row came on... Luckily, the next row only came on in the middle of the finale so we were able to pack up and get out of the way quickly. We're such bad dog parents too: the dogs were freaking out at the fireworks, but we stayed anyway. Abbi was on Josh's lap and Hayden was on mine, and they were shaking so badly. Poor babies. While La Sierra put on a nice show, the show that we saw broadcast from Sunrise Mall looked better. We think we'll go there next year.

Here are some pictures from our day:


This is a serious wagon!!


Decked out!


What, we don't belong in the chairs?


Our little cuddlebug.


This is what comes to your house after you eat too much spicy food.


We think this was a balloon...


July 4th is also the day that Josh and I started dating. So four years ago, I changed Josh's life forever. For the better, right babe? RIGHT, BABE????? ;) I hope that everyone had a very happy 4th of July.