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!!!

this weekend

she thought it was a riot that grandpa was shooting her in the face.

Pics at the END of the wedding.  oops.  Next time we take pics much, much sooner.  And we didn't get any pics of the 5/6 Mohr siblings together at the wedding.  Why?  Nearly everyone at least has a camera on their phone....at least 1/2 of us did and we were all dressed up!  In keeping with that thinking, we took ZERO pics at the reunion also!  Next year!!!!

Kat's little caterpillar friend.

Amusement park and New Tae Kwon Belt

Baseball game & bunnies

 These are our resident bunnies.  I think Kat named them both Cinderella?

Kat's school had a  fundraiser last week, so we went and she had a great time.

On Father's Day we took mom and dad to the Bisons game and Jerry & the kids & John-girl met us there.  We got to play catch on the field and the kids got to run the bases.  We had a beautiful day (a little hot till we moved to the shade), and while the Bisons lost, at least there was some action that kept things exciting.  And the kids, as members of Buster's Kids' Club, had coupons for 1 free hot dog, ice cream, cotton candy & popcorn.  And since 2/3 of them couldn't be sure they would make it to another game, they used them all up during the game!  Kat (who already used her cotton candy coupon) attached herself to her cousins to help them eat theirs!  It was a great day.

working like a dog...... or three

 running the bases.  She spent a full week with just me and so when Dan took her to get ready to run the bases Kat cried (sobbed for 1/2 hr).  I went down to watch the base running and as she was leaving Dan to queue up, I saw her wiping her eyes.  There is, as you may no, no crying in baseball!  And then as soon as she finished, she picked up where she left off!  Goofball.

If only she could ham it up for me (or a camera) once in a while.....

spider nursery and baseball game

 

Spider nursery?  This was in our garden as I was clearing it out and rototilling it.  There were HUNDREDS of baby spiders!  I left this grass alone.  But they were all gone the next day.  I don't know to where....  I have never seen anything like this before.  I didn't know there were spider nurseries.

 Kat and I went to the Bison's game today.  Kat has her own jersey as a member of Buster's kids.  Today was a fundraiser.  They had bouncy houses, tattoos, craft stuff, lunch, snow cones (it was 91 degrees.....we each had 3 during the course of the day).  And she got to run the bases afterward.  She did great thru the heat and the long (and I have to say very boring game) and the long walk back to our car.  Luckily we found a few of her friends there for her to play with, so she didn't care about the game and had company in the bouncy houses, etc

 This is Ben after 1.5 weeks.....apparently growing his beautiful locks back will take some time....

 I still don't know what kind of critter this is.  But, of course, Kat loved it and hugged it every single time we ran into it.....at least 5 times!

This is what the blue raspberry sno cone does to your tongue.  And that's just one!

This busy weekend......

    I know it looks like Ben had a drunken encounter with a razor wielding felon, but I paid for this haircut!!  I took him to the spa to get him all cleaned up (he's already been panting so much and it's barely been hot so far) and they took poetic license and really, really cleaned him up!  Well, it's a good summer 'do for him and it will grow back.  Eventually.  It's even shorter than his military do back in YYC!  He was tan then, but this cut is even shorter and shows his dark underspots (the malamute in him).  I love how the tail alone retains some original flair...it looks like he was the donkey in a game and the kid stuck it on in the right place!  He rather looks like a formerly abused rescue dog that has just been cleaned up.  Poor dude.  

    When I brought him home, Kat asked, "Is that Ben?"  She didn't even recognize her Benjy. The real question was.....why did that haircut take 5 hours???  Anyway, Boo even recognized his long lost buddy (he spent the day in mourning) and was overjoyed at Ben's return.

 

 Kat took this pic of Grandpa & Grandma. I didn't even think to take any pics today of the walking gang.  Oops.  Love the perspective of this pic.....

Well, we are exhausted.  On top of the munchkin giving up sleeping for lent (her sense of time is a little bit off), we were up and at 'em at 6AM today for the Walk4Hearing in Rochester.  And yesterday was her Tae Kwon Do tournament, followed by her Florida grandparents and the entire family (including the cousins) here last night for a cookout.  Two nights this week, she was up for the day at 3AM (but of course, we didn't realize that and spent hours begging, pleading, bribing and anything else we could think of to get her to go back to sleep).  In the end, at 6 or 7, I gave up and told her to go play downstairs.  And she did. 

We raised 1,000 for the Walk4Hearing, and walked 3.1 miles today along the Erie Canal in Fairport (well, Mom & Dad rode their criket & scooters respectively....and so did Kat).  We brought the wagon, but I was relieved when she hopped on the criket at the very beginning and I didn't have to haul the wagon 3.1 miles.  She got out once in a while and ran around.  But mostly she sat next to Grandpa and said "faster, Grandpa, faster".

Friggin Blogger won't let me upload a new video.....this one is what it did look like.  I wanted to upload the video of what it SHOULD have looked like. 

Kat got 2 medals at the tournament yesterday.  She had practiced her kick/punch combinations, but the actual setting of  the gymnasium, the multitudes of people and the tremendous differences in how things were done compared to how they did it in the studio led to confusion.  And she had to go first, next to another kid, not like they had done it in class.  And there was no one there to hold the target for her, like they had done in class.  So she and the other kid both stood there confused and then she did super-lame punches.  So she got a medal (everyone won something).  And when it was time for flag sparring, they had to wear these foam helmets (never did in class) and the small one, had such poor visibility, I was amazed that she could see anything at all.  So she got another medal......