Alex's Day with Eve

Alex got to spend the day taking care of Eve and studying while I rounded in the hospital and was in clinic in the afternoon. I was able to sneak home for lunch and play with the puppy. Alex snapped a few pictures during the day and I took a few during lunch. She is such a sweet girl. We get to watch her again on Friday and Gardner comes this weekend!!!!

Eve takes a nap on one of the new pillows I made for her.

Don't we all wish we could relax enough to sleep like this in front of others?

I am not holding her mouth shut, she is sound asleep in my lap and I am holding her chin up for the picture.

Eve basks in the warm Colorado sun!

What the #$%^$%?

So I woke up this morning and started to get out of bed when I realized that it was REALLY cold in our house. We haven't been using our heat for awhile now and have just been leaving the windows open whenever possible. Well it was raining when we went to bed so the windows were closed but still it was exceptionally cold in the house. I eventually got out of bed and looked out the window only to discover why it was so cold. There was an inch of snow on the ground. I mean seriously...it is almost may, and yesterday Alex was outside mowing the lawn in shorts. What is with this crazy state? My poor flowers and bushes! I am sure the snow won't last long as it is suppose to be sunny this afternoon, but still! On a side note, when I finally made it to the thermostat it was 47 degrees in the house. No wonder I didn't want to get out of bed. I just thought it was all really funny considering that my last post was proclaiming the presence of spring. Well at least life never gets boring in good old Colorado. Gotta love it! Below is a picture of Alex's beautiful green freshly mowed lawn.

Happy Birthday!

Today is Gardner and Gabrina's birthday! They are both one year old today. If I weren't on call this weekend I would have made them a doggy bone shaped cake to celebrate. Alas, no puppy cake so instead: HAPPY BIRTHDAY Gardner and Gabrina.

Spring has sprung!

I always know that spring is here for good when the pelicans arrive. They come to the ponds in early spring and eat all of the fish and then leave until the following year. I love to watch them dive down on on the water when they catch their fish. Their wing span is huge and their wing tips are solid black, so pretty.

Who is the biggest?

So here is the question...who is a bigger puppy...Gardner or Eve? I think Eve thinks she is in charge. Check out the video below to see why I think this.

On a side note, I had some time to think about some things today and I am having really mixed feelings about Gardner going back. I am excited about getting a new puppy but I am really sad to know that Gardner is going away. There is just something special about him that just makes me so happy. He is so sweet and gentle and is an all around fantastic dog. I will somehow find the strength to put him on the puppy truck when July 12th comes, but I have a feeling there will be some tears involved.

Leola came to stay with us last night. She will be staying with us until Sunday. She is very sweet but she can't seem to figure the pillows out. Below is how she sleeps on all of the pillows. I keep showing her that it is ok to get on top of them but she will not get on them.

Eve's Big adventure

Eve and I played in the backyard for a bit this afternoon. She ran like crazy with her drag line flapping behind her. The line was the only way I could catch her.

Occasionally she would flop down in the grass and take a breather.

After our big outing into the big wide backyard, Eve got a visitor before she went home - Gardner and the Guys. Gardner was so sweet and gentle with the puppy, he is such a good boy. We also got some good news today with regards to Gardner. He will be a year old soon which means he can be recalled at any point. We were really worried he would go back while we were in Guatemala. He is set to go back July 12th. I am glad we will be here to see him off but at the same time will be so sad to see him go! Sorry some of the pictures below are a bit blurry but the dogs never see to sit still.

Gardner and Eve say Hi.

Eve thinks she is bigger than Gardner. What an Alpha she is.

After trying to jump on Gardner Eve spent some time on her back calming down while Gardner explored the new toy we got last weekend.

Eventually Eve got to play too and they got to tug together.

Alex and I are going to a movie but when we get home I will post one last cute video of Gardner and Eve playing.

playful puppy

Don't worry, today is my last day off for the week so I will go back to work soon and will stop spending all of my time taking pictures of puppies. In the mean time, here is a short video of Eve playing.

The Pillow

Eve has finally figured out what to do with her pillow. She has been trying to bite it and tug with it but she finally decided that it is for sleeping on.

The sweetest puppy is a sleeping puppy.

She really does fit on the pillow but she prefers to sleep with her head hanging off it about 95% of the time. Silly puppy. I made the pink drag line that she has on, so people could tell that she is a girl.

More cuteness

A few more pictures of Eve just to make you smile. Eve was full of energy today so we spent some time with her on her back to calm her down. In the picture below she is sound asleep and snoring like crazy. If you look closely, her tongue is hanging out.

Eve still loves her ducky.

Eve likes the baby blanket I made.

It has been really sunny and warm and Eve likes to sit in the doorway and look at the birds.

I was playing with some of my fun filters for my Nikon. I thought this was cute. It wasn't staged, she almost always snuggles up to the ducky to sleep.

Filters can make fun pictures!

My Birthday Present!

I woke up early this morning and Alex was standing at the window saying "happy, happy, happy" I looked at him puzzled and then he said "happy, happy, happy" and then he pointed out the window. He had mowed B-day into the grass. It doesn't turn out to well in the photo. I thought it was so sweet of him.


For my Birthday I asked Alex and my parents to go in together and get me a new little point and shoot camera. I wanted something small I could take with me to Guatemala in June. It has a lot of extra fun settings. I still love my big Nikon but this little camera will be great for our trip. Thanks Mom, Dad and Alex! Below are some fun shots I took with my new camera.

Eve taking a nap.

Eve and her new favorite toy - Ducky.

Eve's first visit to the Kaplun Family Puppy Spa

One of he puppies that just arrived in Fort Collins is Eve. She is 9 weeks old and is a yellow lab and is so adorable. We are watching her a few days each week while her raisers go to work. Once she gets old enough, she will go to work with her raisers but for now we are her day care service. What a fun job! She is so young that she sleeps a lot and pees a lot. So far no accidents thanks to once an hour potty outings to the driveway. I am sure there will be many more pictures to come but here are a few. There are more pictures on my website under the GDB link if you're interested.

Eve laying on a blanket in the kitchen.

She seems so little compared to Gardner.

What a cute face.

The life of a puppy is so exhausting!

What a cute puppy.

For Mom

With every passing year I seem to become more and more domestic. I am starting to even scare myself. Last year I got into cake decorating, knitting, scrap booking, baking, and many other crafty projects. Now I have bought a sewing machine. At first I had no idea what to do with it and I hate to admit it, but it took me almost an hour to figure out how to thread it. My mom asked me to post a picture of my new machine and my first project. So here you go mom, enjoy.

Not an expensive machine and not very fancy but I think it will do what I need, at least for the time being. Now I just have to figure out how to use it.

My first project. Yep, you guessed it...a puppy pillow. A bit lopsided but I don't think the puppies will notice.

lucky puppies

So not only did we get to play with all of the Guide Dog puppies at the meeting yesterday but we also got to go shopping! There were little booths set up with puppy supplies on sale for almost half price. We got some toys and some necessities. Boy we must love our puppies. Sure do hope we have kids soon because this puppy thing is getting expensive, thank goodness most of it is tax deductible.

The goodies we got at the region meeting.

GDB Regional Meeting in Denver

I have been anxiously awaiting today's regional guide dog for the blind meeting for months! I couldn't wait to see all of the puppies together and to see all the new puppies. Colorado got 35 new puppies in total - 16 to the Grand Junction meeting and 19 to our meeting. We spent the morning learning about the history of GDB and doing training exercises with the dogs. Then during the potluck lunch the infamous puppy truck arrived. Alex and I got to be puppy presenters. That means that we were handed a puppy from the truck and we took it inside and gave it to its new raisers. The puppies range from 8 weeks to 10 weeks old and were the cutest things ever! Our Fort Collins club got three new little girls. I tried not to post a hundred pictures but it was difficult. If you want to see all of my pictures from the day check out the link to the event on my website - under the GDB link.

The large room filled with tons of "puppies in training". You can't see most of them because they are laying quietly under the chairs.

Gillian, Gabrina, Gardner and Gilly. They are all litter mates and will all turn one year old this coming week. Most are fairly big, except for Gilly who is very short and stocky.

Tim is helping us learn how to deal with a puppy that has dog distraction problems.

Gabrina and Gardner (litter mates) make out.

Gabrina and Gardner rest calmly like good little puppies.

Two real working guide dogs greeting each other. They do belong to actual blind people - not seen in the picture. It was really cool to see them work.

One of the new little puppies that came to Colorado a few weeks ago.

The infamous PUPPY TRUCK! Filled with 19 of the cutest little bundles I have ever seen. They were all being remarkably quiet. They had an uneventful ride from California to here.

Short video from the inside of the puppy truck.

The puppy truck driver getting ready to hand off a puppy to a puppy presenter.

Handing off the puppy to the presenter.

I get a nice lick from the puppy that I got to present. She was so sweet and covered in newspaper print from the kennel. She was so covered in ink that she actually looked gray.

The raisers and the hand off.

Alex had one of the youngest puppies, eight weeks and two days. He was so soft but very squirmy. Alex presented the last puppy.

Alex tries to calm the squirming puppy.

Alex hands off the puppy to the raisers.

Virginia (raiser of Dusty) gets her new puppy Ashley. Dusty is now back at San Rafael and is in phase two and is on breeder watch.

Shawna gets to hold and cuddle with Ashley.

A close up of Ashley in Alex's arms.

Alex and Ashley.

Another one of the little puppies that is now part of Fort Collins GDB family - Dupree. She checks out her new raiser.

A sleepy Dupree - too much excitement in one day for a such a little puppy. She was so sleepy that she could hardly keep her little eyes open.

Dupree

Alex's raiser - now without Alex as he is in training at San Rafael - hands off a puppy. Doesn't the puppy look tiny in his big arms.

Overall it was a fun day and worth getting up early for. It was sad to watch the recalled dogs saying goodbye to their raisers before getting on the truck to go back to California for training but they will all have great lives. I didn't get any pictures of our other new puppy Eve but we will be acting as day care for their raisers a lot over the next few weeks so I am sure I will get lots of pictures of her.