We met friends at the Science Museum's Birthday party for its dinosaurs.  And all of Buffalo's mascots were present (and the one just below this is a bit creepy...not that Kat ever cares).  He's the Bills mascot.  I had never seen him before.

 

 This is Sabretooth below.  The Sabres mascot.  He must be quite bored these days....

 

This is what the pups did while we were gone!

 This past Saturday we had breakfast with Santa, made a gingerbread house and then ended the day w/ an xmas party and cookie decorating (and wearing, as you can see).

This was the gingerbread house decorating.

Puppies, teeth and Maria's

She asked me to pull her tooth.  I love the moment when it's out and she clearly considers crying..

 This is what happens when you live here......you get yourself into non-threatening trouble and I'm reaching for the camera before I rescue you!!!!

 One of our Serbian visitors, Maria.

 

She did cry when we came home and discovered who had eaten her UNCARVED pumpkin!!!!  Little devil!

I am always amazed at Maria's strength and endurance....Kat loves to make her chase her.  And Maria does!!!

First tooth to go....

The one string holding it in was firmly attached! She eventually asked me to twist it out. And it took more strength to remove it than I expected. But it's out and the tooth fairy will be by tonite!!

Facing her attacker.

And there must be giggling....

Uncle Greg #1

Abusing uncle Greg #1

Uncle Greg #2

Kat abusing her other uncle Greg.

And this is what happens after a bath

Which was very traumatic for Roxy! Poor thing. She may have never had a bath before. I'm so glad we washed all of the puppy spit and mud off of them!!!

Puppy tails

I will be changing the name of my blog to Katnaps and puppy tails. There are a few posts prior to this because of the order I an doing this in. But, here is our new addition, Roxy. She is seven months old. Gromit is five months old, so she has a few months on him. And when we got home yesterday, this is what we saw. Non-stop!

In the water table....

Here is Gromit. I think he likes standing on something because he's not nearly as tall as she is. Yet. Although I don't think he ever will be. And who doesn't want to stand on the water table.

Dog tails

Well, we have acquired dog number two. Her name was Sadie, but now it is Roxy. She is a great pyrenees/ golden retriever mix. And she is adorable. And very sweet. Gromit loves her. Unless she considers getting up on the couch next to him. In which case he growls.

And here are the Bobsey twins eating my tomato plants that, granted, we were done with, but they decided to uproot and gnaw on all by themselves. And so it begins…

Coming home...

Hugs

PUPPY!!!

 The Ron Mohr Family.  We remembered to take a pic when we were all together before mom and dad leave for FL!!

 Kat & her new BFF, Grommit.

 Yeah, that's what we've been dealing with the last few days......

 snack time.

We took our first family outing.  And I think fun was had by all, though a few were quite tired!

More sad news from our house....Ben's obituary

Well, I cannot believe that I am writing this, not two weeks after Boo left us, but there it is.  Ben died this afternoon and has gone to join Boo in the eternal hunt for squirrels, bunnies and gophers.  We wish them godspeed and happy hunting.

Ben was born in February, 2000.  So he had an amazing 12.5 year run.  Which, for someone his size, is pretty good and we couldn't have asked for much more.  We had Scout when we adopted Ben in 2001 and were not looking for another dog.  My co-worker Max was going to the SPCA for lunch and I thought I'd go along.  HE was looking for a dog.  I wasn't.  I found a dog.  He didn't.  I just knew he should be with us and I had to convince Dan that we needed another dog.

We had a great life with the boys.  Tons of adventures.  Ben was with us when we moved to Calgary, which he loved, as long as it wasn't 40 below.  We added Boo to the mix shortly after arrival and our pack had many, many adventures.  We spent long hours in fabulous dogparks in both Calgary and Seattle (none here unfortunately).  We went for hours' long treks in our beloved Fish Creek Park out our back door in Calgary.  Jumping on his people on the bed was one of Ben's favorite activities, though it's been a few years since his leg would let him.  And Boo was up for whatever Ben was up for.

After Boo died, Ben was okay.  Then 2 days later, he stopped eating, was lethargic and had tremendous difficulty getting around.  We put him back on the prednisone (that we had weaned him off of weeks prior) and the vet gave him antibiotics as he had a fever.  He had some good days and some less so.  We got a few strolls around the blocks in.  He would sometimes eat.  And sometimes puke.  But yesterday he just lay in the yard all day and even all night and he had so much trouble getting up we feared the end was near.  I made an appt to take him this afternoon to let him go, but he didn't want to wait and instead died at home  with Dan & I here with him.  He died one minute (or less) before Kat got off the school bus, all excited to tell us about her day.  Poor kid, we met her at the bus in tears and she joined in.  And said her goodbyes.

And poor Ben.  Dying with that ridiculous haircut......I think the pred kept his fur from growing back in all its glory and I got so used to seeing him looking like a battered dog that I forget what a beautiful animal he was.  When I brought him home shaved in May, Dan said "he'd better not die with that haircut.'  He can join Wolfie in the annals of our dogs dying with bad do's.

Apparently I wasn't kidding when I called them life partners.  They were buds for 8.5 years and we will never know how much of their end months/years were owed to one another's presence.  It definitely seems now that they may have been keeping one another going.  But we are grateful that we had such wonderful dogs for as long as we did and with minimal decline/discomfort for both, excepting the last 2 weeks or so for each.  And perhaps it's fitting that they went close together, thus closing that chapter for all of us.

I am sure that we will begin a new dog/family chapter soon. If anyone is aware of an ideal pup for us, please let us know.  Our standards are high, as they have been set by the gentlest and funniest of giants, but of you know of anyone (same general colors, ideally), please let us know.  We definitely want to start the next crop young so we all have many years together.

We will strive to keep Ben's "Let's go" attitude in our lives.  I always admired that he was always up for an adventure....everything was an adventure for him and he let few opportunities pass (including food related opportunities).

Thanks for reading.

Heidi, Dan & Kat

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First day of school

Sad news from our house- Boo Radley's obituary

I wanted to let all of Boo's friends know that we lost him last night.  He had stopped eating earlier in the week and we suspected that the inevitable was approaching, but hoped it was indigestion or he just needed a laxative.  I took him to the emergency clinic last night and they found 2 massive tumors in his belly (see he wasn't fat!!!) that were likely attached to organs and pushing everything out of the way.  And making him very uncomfortable, if not causing outright pain. 

We had him for 8.5 years and he was an adult when we got him.  So he was a minimum of 9.5 years. Likely a few more, so for a near-giant breed, he had a pretty long life.  And a great one, at least the last 8.5 years of it!

We adopted him from Petfinder.com in Calgary in 2004 where he was brought by a rescue group after being found in Idaho full of buckshot.  He loved the dogparks in Calgary and later in Seattle (we all did).  We don't have much for dogparks here, but as they were slowing down they enjoyed laying on the air conditioned kitchen floor tiles instead!!  He did cement his reputation as a killer last summer when he killed a groundhog and a squirrel in the same week! 

He is survived by his life and squirrel chasing partner Ben (and we don't know how much gas he has left in the tank...), who Dan said howled after we left for the vet (he has howled before at the moment of both Scout & Dippy's deaths), so I suspect that he knew more than we did at that point.  And Hermy, our lone kitty, who may or may not give a crap.  Though I suspect that she does not.

We will miss our gentle giant.  But not the ridiculous amounts of undercoat fur that he was blowing every other week (it's currently spread all over our house and yard, so we couldn't forget him if we tried), nor that weight-bearing sharp-clawed paw that he insisted at shoving at one all the time....

He was a good dog and a great athlete.  And a better friend to all of us.

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Champ the lake monster

At the lake monsters baseball game. It was fortuitous timing running into him. She was crying her eyes out over just having bitten her finger while eating cotton candy (how does that happen?). So seeing him, while it didn't make her smile, did make her stop crying!!

Burlington VT

My friend from high school, Leslie. And her family. Bruce (husband) was there to do a triathlon. We hung out with them and ha a great time.

Did I mention she rode a horse?

Well, was put on there briefly, but... Close enough.

Stowe mtn gondola

Our vacation.

Today, we went to the world's shortest parade here in Stowe, VT. I was wondering how there were enough people here to put on a 1.5 hr parade (that's what the schedule said!). Turns out there were a handful of alpacas, a small team of miniature horses and a handful of people.

Them we went up on the mtn and Kat did this for hours. Turns out, being under 6 here is the cat's meow and she gets to do all sorts of stuff free! And eat free!

The Fair (and my new camera)

We went to the fair today and had a great time.  Jim & his friends and their 5 year old met us there.  Kat & Hillary became instant best buds!!  Their relationship developed a serious hiccup when it was time to run up and down the hill and neither would do it the way the other thought that they should!  A little time apart to watch the pig races and then some ice cream, bought by Jim, and they seemed to recover the magic.  Though, when going to bed, Kat did mention that 'that girl' wouldn't listen to her or something.

So, these are the pics from my new camera....14.1 megapixels, 15x zoom, unibody GE camera for $119 at Walmart!!  So far I like it.  Picking it up late last night I had no opportunity to read the manual and figure out the ins and outs.  I have learned at least a little bit since we got home, so hopefully for Kat's big birthday party tomorrow, I will get some great pics. Maybe.

Swimming- future olympian?

We have been enjoying the Olympics.  I think Kat likes the synchronized swimming the best.  I told her it's not a real sport, but after watching them on the underwater cameras, I see that they are AMAZING athletes.  I still think the sport is questionable, but they must be pretty fantastic swimmers to be doing the stuff they do.  She has dug out her swim cap (acquired from some rummage sale or other) and now MUST wear it, whether going to swimming lessons or just playing in Maria's pool.  As you can see, she has made some strides in the pool.  I haven't seen much for front crawl, but as long as she starts somewhere.  And she still has 5 more classes!

I finally downloaded pics from the actual camera!!

 Maria's pool.  Off the diving board.  Look at that form!!!

 Our Russian visitors, Yelena & Yelena.  So they were here in June and I'm just downloading now....

 The Cassidy Family reunion in our back yard.  Julia, Patty & Jim (these two are siblings).

 At Niagara Falls.  Kat & Cheryl

 After the Maid of the Mist.  We were quite wet.

 Kat's field trip to the zoo last week.  What were the odds that it would be the one day out of the last 4-6 weeks that it rained?  Luckily, it rained enough there for a few nice-sized puddles!

 Kat still loves her some puddle jumping!!!