Gardner Update

Gardner has been back in California for awhile now.  He has finally  moved out of phase one and is in phase three.  Yeah go Gardner!!  There are a total of 10 phases.  As much as we all want him back, he will make some one very happy as a guide dog so we all wish him the best of luck.  His litter mate Gabrina, is being evaluated as a breeder and has already passed the first stage of evaluation.

oh my aching muscles!

Alex and I love being home owners but there are some days when we become aware of how much work it can be. We have been putting off laying new mulch in our yard for quit some time and finally decided we need to just get it done. Well, 6 hours later with very very sore backs we had put down over 6 cubic yards of mulch. That is a ton of mulch.

I forgot to take a pic before we got started but here is the mark left on the driveway by the giant pile that was over 5 feet tall and as wide as the mark.

While putting down the mulch we found all sorts of cool wildlife; a three foot long beautiful snake that was very interested in us, a gazillion EXTREMELY large (bigger than a quarter) spiders and of course a "jungle kitty".

Early yesterday morning I was up getting the yard ready for new mulch and I snapped a few pics that I thought were worth sharing.

We have yellow snap dragons that just pop up like weeds all over our yard in the strangest places. I use to love these flowers as a kid, I liked to make them talk.

This was a beautiful spider web filled with morning dew.

Stinky, Stinky, Stinky

One thing that Alex and I love about our house is that it is on three small lakes/ponds. This past week however, we have not loved it at all! The city of Fort Collins installed aerators in the ponds but they some how messed up and in the process of putting them in stirred up over a hundred years of sediment on the bottom of the lakes. This released a ton of sulfurous gas into the water and AIR! It smells like a horrible giant rotten egg at our house. And to make matter worse the sulfur killed all the fish in the lake and so there are tons of birds swooping in and eating the dead fish. They can't seem to eat them all fast enough though and they have started to rot. So now it smells like rotten eggs and rotten fish. YUCK!!! And just when it is starting to get so cool and nice out in the evenings. Oh well, they tell us that the lovely odors should only last another 2-3 weeks. Here's Hoping!

Look Mom!

Mom - Just like you said, with a little TLC I was able to get my rose bushes to bloom again! And the great part is that they are full of a gazillion more buds too. They look so pretty and were definitely worth the effort.

Not the best picture but you get the idea, lots of roses. : )

View of the three bushes, again not a great shot but I was in my PJ's and wanted to get back inside before anyone saw me. : )

A swimming kitty?

Bree loves to come walk around the bath with Alex and I whenever we are in the tub. She likes to dip her paws in and tries to drink the water, even if there are bubbles. But today I decided to put her in the bath and see what she would do. Well, as it turns out, she loved the water! I held her and she just paddled around and was completely up to her ears in the water. Ok, so she wasn't purring but she also wasn't upset either (i.e. no claws, no meowing).

I wish I could have taken pictures of her actually in the bath swimming around, it was so cute, but that wouldn't have been decent. So I just snapped some pictures of her after I dried her off a bit.

She wouldn't stop liking her self, as if that was going to make her dry. : )

Look how skinny her tail looks.

She is still cute even wet.

Who ever said that a wet cat looks like a drowned rat was right!!

Death of Ducky

Antony's favorite toy is a large stuffed duck. He loves to drag it all over the house and shake it like crazy.  We looked in his mouth this morning and he has 4 new teeth that are half way in. They came in over night! Anyways, about two days ago he chewed wholes in ducky and I took ducky away from him for good. However today, I felt sorry for the poor little guy and so I tried to wrap the holes with duck tape. Well, with in minutes the duck tape was in pieces so ducky was officially "retired" until our next puppy.

Anthony playing one last time with Ducky.

I have had a hard time photographing Anthony given that he is a black lab, so today I played around with a few of my filters. Here are a few of the pics I took.

Anthony in the early morning sun beam by the sliding door.

Anthony watching the birds on the deck.

He loves to lay in the sun beam until he gets over heated and pants and pants and I move him to the cool tile floor to cool off.

What a face!

A clean puppy

After Anthony's eventful morning he slept for several hours and then he and I took a shower. He was badly in need of a bath. Here are a few pics from the event, don't worry, I am wearing a swimsuit! : ) And his foot is now completely recovered.

Anthony all soapy.

He really enjoys his baths and sits very calmly in my lap for most of it.

Getting clean can be so much fun, if you are a puppy that is.

A rough morning for anthony

I got up this morning and found our teething puppy chewing on a sock. Where he got this from I don't know as there were none around him when we went to bed. How he manages to find random things I will never understand. We worked with corrections and now he wants nothing to do with the sock. I decided to trim his very long nails and that is where his troubles began....

I trimmed all of his nails with no problems and then I noticed a big long one on the inside of his right front paw. And just as I trimmed it he moved and .... of course I cut it to short and then we had blood going everywhere. Poor little guy. We tried the stop bleeding stick and pressure for over 45 minutes but it was still oozing. So... Alex and I being the "medical" people that we are bandaged it up. In the process of dealing with his paw we noticed that overnight he had developed a large bump on his penis. When I touched it it squired out loads of puss and blood. YUCK!

The poor puppy, not only did he get corrections for chewing a large whole in a sock but he now has a bandaged paw and a large pimple on his penis. What a morning!

Anthony showing off his cute little band-aid.

A teething Puppy?

Do puppies start to teeth around four months? The reason I am asking is because Anthony has started to chew on EVERYTHING. Today at work, no matter how many corrections I gave him, he wouldn't stop chewing on his leather leash. I gave him bones and toys but all he wanted was his leash. Next time I am going to have to use the metal tie down if he continues to need to chew. Tonight since we have been home he is still in a serious "chewing" mood. Here is hoping he outgrows this stage!

Anthony in my office all tangled up in his leash.

Mischief

Anthony really has been a great puppy so far. He hasn't destroyed anything that he wasn't suppose to... until this morning. Alex and I were waking up this morning and were listening to Anthony chewing on his bone. At least we thought it was his bone he was chewing on. As it turns out he wasn't actually chewing on his bone but rather was chewing his leash in two. I can hear Carol and Shawna already telling us that if we were using the create instead of nice doggie beds then he won't have anything to chew through. : ) I know, but what can I say, we are softies.

"You think I chewed off my leash, no it wasn't me, I swear I didn't do it. Would a face this sweet lie to you?"

In addition to chewing his leash, he has woken us up at exactly 3am the past two nights vomiting. One night it was a bit of food and last night it was a small bit of grass. But by the sound of it you would have thought it was his entire stomach coming up. Nothing like cleaning up puppy puke at 3am. I am still not sure how he manage to sneak the grass past me.

That being said, He really has been an angle. Although those were not the words Alex used this morning when he bent down to take something out of Anthony's mouth and found that he had the bag with Bailey's (our recently passed cat) ashes in it. Where on earth he got this from we have no idea! On a good note, he has gone to work with me all week and has done an amazing job. He has been so calm and hasn't chewed or tried to eat anything in my office. Everybody loves him and I think even our kitty Bree is starting to warm up to him.

Anthony, just like Gardner, loves to ride with his face smooshed in between the chair and the gear shift.

Anthony turned 15 weeks yesterday and next week he will get his 4 month shots and then he will be able to go everywhere with us. I can't wait to be able to take him out!

Anthony is getting so big!

Well, I wasn't able to take any pictures at the car wash on Saturday as I was too busy washing cars and holding signs. We did well and raised enough money to buy at least one harness. Anthony is back with us for the week. He continues to be super cute and to grow at a crazy pace.

Videos up

Greetings all! I finally found some time to post a few videos of Anthony playing with Alex and a few of Anthony and Eve playing. You can find them by going to Youtube and searching sjohns981 or pasting the following link into your browser.

http://www.youtube.com/sjohns981

We have the big fundraiser tomorrow - GAB Car Wash and bake sale. I hope a lot of people show up. I baked over 5 different kinds of homemade cookies for people to buy. I love to bake but it took a lot of effort so I hope people stop and buy them and get their cars washed. Check back tomorrow for pictures of the event.

One other bit of news, Dusty (The beautiful yellow lab that we use to puppy sit about every other weekend) GRADUATED!!! Congrats Dusty! Now here is hoping we can raise enough money to buy her "human" a nice harness for her. We have had several other puppies graduate recently too! And Gabrina and Bloomer have both made it to the next level to become potential breeders. This is a big honor so way to go girls!

Mishmash of stuff

I had a really busy week last week and didn't have a lot of extra time to post stuff. So here is a few random pictures from activities we did over the past two weeks.

Anthony relaxes in the early morning sun.

Look at all of those toys, what a spoiled puppy!

Some of our friends own Jet skies and so we have been going to Boyd lake and grilling out and having fun on the jet skies. Yesterday we made fajitas and man where they yummy!

View out on to Boyd lake from our grilling spot.

The grill was supper hot and smoke burned my eyes but it was worth it!

Alex and Laurie enjoy yummy fajitas!

This is from two weekends ago. Jeff (0n the left) and Gregory (right) made omelets, sausage, and blueberry oatmeal pancakes for breakfast. Yum!

Alex getting ready to head out on to the lake, early early in the morning (about 7am).

Two weekends ago Alex and I went to Boulder for a nice dinner at a french restaurant. We had a great time and the food was amazing.

Alex enjoying his veal and sweetbread (thymus gland).

Our dessert!! It was a bag made of chocolate filled with fresh fruit and ice cream!!

I am so proud!

I took Anthony with me to work yesterday and I was astounded at how well he did. He laid on his pillow and slept the entire day. I checked on him in between every patient and he was always sleeping or would just look up at me lazily. He didn't even chew on any of the toys I brought for him. Maybe he was just having a sleepy day but I think he is just a great puppy! I can't wait till he can start going out with us.

It has been a crazy busy week and today was the first day I could actually stop and take some decent pictures of the little guy.

Anthony and his ducky.

What a lovable face.

Anthony just loves his big ducky!

Anthony chilling in a morning sun beam.

drifting off to sleep.

His favorite toy

I tried to get some cute pictures of Anthony before going to bed tonight but the stinker wouldn't stay still long enough to get any cute pictures. I did get one slightly blurry one of him with his favorite yellow ducky, which by some miracle is still in one piece.

busy week

Alex and I have had a very busy week so far and it will be getting busier. As a result I haven't had a lot of time to take pictures of Anthony. So far this week he is doing great, with only a rare accident. He has been so cute lately, now that he is big enough to run up and down the stairs.

Alex and I both have colds so he didn't get a lot of play time with Alex this morning as Alex spent most of the day in bed sick. So tonight he is running around crazy. I wish I had even a little bit of his energy! The pics below are from a few days ago.

One of Anthony's favorite sleeping positions. This puppy has no modesty.

Anthony takes a brake after playing tug with me for what felt like forever.

Anthony's back

Anthony is back with us this week. He had a fun week with the Guys and is up to 18.2 lbs. It is amazing how quickly he has grown in the past few weeks. He got his 12 week shots last week. He is now only 4 weeks away from getting to go out with us in his vest.

I didn't have a lot of time to take pictures today but I did snap a few. We have been working with Anthony to get him to leave Bree alone and he is starting to get the idea. He really is a smart puppy and responds really well to gentle corrections.

Getting bigger every week - look how long his legs are getting.

Anthony loves his giant stuffed duck. He loves to shake it as if he is killing it. It makes for a good puppy chew toy while he still has his baby teeth.

The cute boy resting in the kitchen. He is getting bigger but still is pretty tiny.