Happy Kitty

Anthony is with the Guys this week and so we have a quite house. Bree (our kitty) is so excited that the puppy is gone. She won't leave our side and is so happy and playful. It actually makes me feel guilty. Not only did her mom (Bailey) just die but then we go and get a new puppy. Poor kitty. Oh well, I guess she will just have to get use to it since the puppies aren't going anywhere.

While I was blogging last night, Bree snuggled up next to on the desk and took a snooze.

Guide Dog Summer Picnic - lots of pics

Alex and I hosted the Guide Dog for the Blind Summer Picnic today. I think everyone had a good time but I know that the puppies all had a great time. There was lots of running, playing and splashing in the kiddy pool.

Looking down on the patio.

Eve and Dicken's tug on the jolly ball in the back yard.

.Anthony and Betsy play in the "puppy pool"

We take a minute to calm down Anthony after his play time in the pool.

How cute am I?

Part of the crew eating on the lawn.

The two youngest puppies (Betsy and Anthony) were cold after playing in the pool and also needed some quiet time. I was trying to get them to go to sleep, I wasn't very successful.

The little ones finally take naps on Maddie's and Shawna's lap.

Anthony is so sweet when he sleep - except that he snores really loudly.

Johns gives Eve a thorough brushing.

Eve resting peacefully after being brushed.

Betsy kept trying to get in on the brushing action and just ended up with a face full of fur.

Anthony tries to go play with Dickens, Eve and Mystery.

Mystery takes on Tim and Eve in tug and Anthony, thinking he is a big boy, tries to help.

If you want to see more pics of the event I have some posted at flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/kaplun/sets/72157621726652663/ You can access a link through our website - www.kaplunfamily.com under Guide Dogs. I have also posted a new video on YouTube. Just search sjohns981.

Silly video

I have been having a lot of trouble getting videos to upload but I finally got one to work and its kind of stupid but since I got it to upload I didn't want to delete it.

In this short clip Anthony is dreaming and is suckling.

He is 9 weeks old in this video.

Resting

Tonight when I got home from work I wanted to rest in the hammock but I also wanted to snuggle with Anthony, so we snuggled together in the hammock.

I-Phone self portrait of us in the hammock.

Anthony's version of resting on his back.

He is really growing so much every day.

Snuggling in the Hammock for a few minutes.

Anthony finally settles down for a nap in his pillow.

What a ham!

Storm

We had a huge thunderstorm last night with lots of hail. We didn't get much damage but boy did it make a lot of noise as it hit the windows and the roof.

Some of the pieces were actually much bigger than this but I didn't want to go out and get bonked on the head to pick up the bigger pieces.

A few cute pictures

Anthony has gotten more energetic with each passing day. He over all is still a very calm puppy so I consider us very lucky. Its fun though to have him be a bit more playful.

Anthony pauses during a game of tug.

"what... You talking to me? Can't you tell I'm busy?"

Anthony loves the big blue ball. He jumps on it and then rolls around. It is super cute.

Sleepy Sleepy

Anthony seems to have this problem that when ever I hold him, he quickly falls asleep. I love it! He is so snugly and is especially cute when he snores. Last night he slept in my arms for several hours while Alex and I watched a movie. What a spoiled little puppy. Guide dogs are not allowed on couches but I figured that since he was sound asleep in my arms and was not touching any part of the couch then it didn't count.

Sleepy little snugly puppy.

Jet Ski Fun

Alex has picked up a new hobby in the past few weeks. Several of this his friends have Jet Skies. The kind you have to stand up on. He usually goes early in the morning to Boyd lake before all the um.... red necks show up. : ) I went with him this morning and Jeff made homemade sausage, french toast and scrambled eggs over fresh hot coals. It was an amazing breakfast!

We could only stay for about two hours because that is about all that Anthony can hold his bladder and for a newbie like myself that is a enough anyways. My arms were so tired when we finished. It was a blast though! Alex snapped a few pictures.

You start on your knees and then once out of the "no wake zone" you can stand up.

Alex and Gregory getting ready to leave.

Me tearing it up out on the lake.

In and Out, In and Out.

Our first full day with Anthony was going along great (with almost no accidents) until tonight when Anthony decided to get stubborn about peeing. He had an accident in the house and over the next hour he had a total of 4 more accidents. Alex took him out after every accident but he refused to pee outside. After the last accident, Alex said...."OK that's it....we are going out side and are not coming back in until he either pees or falls asleep." Alex has been out side in the backyard for over 45 minutes now (oh, and its pitch dark out). I am anxious to see who will win out, the stubborn man or the stubborn puppy. He He He.

So who won? After about an hour of patiently waiting Anthony finally peed AND Pooped and a very mosquito bitten Alex came back in with a smile on his face. I think he knows he won. Way to go honey!

A joyful morning

Last night was our first full night with Anthony. We set an alarm and Alex got up at 3AM and took him out successfully and then at 6 am he woke me and told me that the puppy had been fed, peed and that he even pooped. But what he didn't tell me is that he was wide awake and wanted to play. I tried to keep him quiet until 7:30 when I finally decided I had had enough and wasn't going to get any more sleep. Unfortunately when I got up I found a puppy sitting in his crate soaked in pee. UGH! We made it all night and I blew it by not getting up earlier. So we got to get a bath.

"Do I have to take a bath?" "I didn't mean to pee in my crate...you wouldn't get up."

A cute puppy after being corrected for jumping up on the edge of the tub.

"oh, come on, don't take pictures, just finish my bath!"

Post bath fuzzy and full of joyful energy.

Last night we tried on the GDB vest just to see how cute it looks.

pooping drama

Anthony does not seem to want to poop for us so we spent some time in the back yard trying to get him to run around and "Do his business". We never did get him to poop but we had fun playing.

Anthony chews on his soft toy in the back yard.

Alex tries to teach Anthony how to tug.

The bad part about playing in the back yard is that Anthony likes to eat leaves. This is not allowed in GDB world so Alex had to keep pulling them out.

"I gotta bone, I gotta bone, I gotta bone, and I loooove my bone!"

Alex and Anthony snuggle a bit on the blanket.

Our turn to get up early!

So this is our first full week with Anthony. He is now 10 weeks and 3 days old. It is amazing how much he has grown in a week. The Guys say he has been active for them, but he seems to only sleep for us. No accidents though today so that's good.

I don't have any super cute pictures to post because he has slept all afternoon. I think I will wake him up soon so he will sleep tonight. Alex says to let a sleeping dog lie.

Anthony is actually sleeping like this, not stretching.

We spent some time in the doogie pool this afternoon and while I was trying to dry him off, he feel asleep. So I just laid him down on his pillow wrapped up in the blanket.

A few minutes later Anthony had wriggled around and ended up completely covered. Oh and boy does he snore!

First little puppy meeting

We went to our first "little" puppy meeting last night. Betsy and Anthony had a lot of fun playing with each other. Compared to a lot of other puppy they are both pretty calm.

Betsy and Anthony fight over a black Kong.

Anthony pauses from attacking Betsy to catch his breath.

Miss Betsy being held by Shawna.

Anthony gives Betsy a kiss.

Rainbow

When I got home today from work Alex had our new hammock up. So I sat in it and ate dinner and looked at the beautiful rainbows in our back yard. The sky is so big here (i.e. when you look to the east, it is so flat) that you can see all of the rain cells and the complete rainbow. It is so pretty!

Beautiful rainbow in our backyard.

If you look closely you can tell that this was actually a complete double rainbow.

And just because a blog posting would not be complete without a picture of the newest member of our family... A picture of Anthony from his visit with us yesterday.

Forgot to post

There are two pictures from Friday that I forgot to post:

Anthony in Gardner's Vest

What a difference in size a year makes.

More pictures of this cute little guy are up on flickr and you can access the link though our website (www.kaplunfamily.com)