One more

Ice skating w/ a friend

We found Kat's former classmate William (they haven't seem each other since they graduated in August). She insisted that they could share the walker. She was right!

Ice skating!

If you watch closely, you will see Shawn, early on, bending down, Cheyenne, Jerry & Alison.

She did great and had a lot of fun. And a lot of help, mostly from Cheyenne.

Sledding

Little snowshoer!

 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

TODAY(Beta) • Powered by Yahoo! Key to restoring the American dream Get Yahoo Search App! • Privacy Policy

First day of school