Dinner and three puppies

Brianna and Rob came over for dinner last night and brought Vigo with them.  We had a lot of fun watching the puppies play together.  Warning.... lots of pictures.

Vigo and I after dinner

Miss Jorinda suddenly decided after dinner that she was sleepy and took a nap.

Alex and Vigo get to know each other. 

Mr. Vigo

Anthony and Alex calmly watch the two little puppies play.

Vigo snuggles with Alex

Vigo (L) and Jorinda (R) chewed together on a bone for a long time.  It was so cute.

Back time is always good for a little puppy (Jorinda)

Vigo does "back time" with me and quickly fell asleep.

Vigo asleep on my lap and yes that is my ever enlarging belly bump on the left. 

Rob tugs with all THREE puppies at once. 

Jorinda loves her Kong.

This morning Alex put Anthony in the little puppy play pen and he had so much fun that I couldn't get him to come out.  Every time I would lift the gate he would just look at me as if to say, "Really do I have to?  It's fun in here."    What a good big boy Anthony is. 

Watching Jorinda day #2

Little miss Jorinda did OK last night.  She got us up at 1am, 5am and 7am to pee.   The bigger problem was the winning and barking in her crate but we are working on it.  I have been really impressed with how smart she seems to be.  Watching her play with Anthony is amazing.  She tricks him and manipulates him in ways I have never seen an eight week puppy do.  

Sweet little puppy takes a nap. 

Her cute little face up close. 

She loves to use the pink dogie as a pillow. 

She also likes to cuddle up to the lamb.

We have Anthony this week and he came over early this morning.  It is so amazing to see how grown up he has become.  He plays go gently with Jorinda.  I have never seen an 8 week old puppy that wants to play so much tug.

Miss Jorinda thinks she can chew on a tug toy, silly girl.

Brianna and Rob are bringing Vigo over to play tonight.  Should be fun with Jorinda, Anthony and Vigo.  The annual Guide Dog Picnic is at our house tomorrow so there should be lots of fun puppy pictures to post in the next few days.  

Maddie's puppy Jorinda

Maddie has raised Gabrina and Betsy and today received Jorinda.   Maddie has a busy weekend of 4H stuff and couldn't take care of both Betsy and her new puppy.  We gladly offered to take care of little miss Jorinda since our new guy (Vigo - see below) is with his co-raisers.  I promised to post lots of pictures of her for Maddie to see, so below is our first day with her.

Jorinda is from a "J" littler of 9 puppies.   She is the third biggest of her litter at birth.  She is a potential international breeder.  It took her all of five minutes in the car on the way home from the puppy truck to fall into a sound sleep.  After about 30 minutes or so I go really hot and she was getting heavy.  So I put her down on a blanket.

The silly girl liked sleeping with her face all smooshed.

She rolled over though, once we turned the radio on, she didn't like having the speaker by her head.

Alex is trying to get Jorinda to pee but she seemed to be a bit overwhelmed by all of the new stuff around her and just sat and looked around. 

Isn't she a pretty girl?  Look at all that extra skin to grow into.

Jorinda's first meal.

Since she seemed a bit overwhelmed by the world we pulled out our small cat kennel to make her feel safe.  She climbed right in and went to sleep for at least an hour. 

Know that I am not crazy before you read on ....  I got a Baby Bjorn from a friend recently and I was trying to figure out how it works tonight when I thought....  hmm.... I wonder if the puppy would fit in it..

She actually really liked it.  I didn't keep her in it for long but she seemed to really like to be able to look around.  

At least now I know how the contraption works, thanks Jorinda for helping me figure it out. 

And of course, what does every puppy fresh off the puppy truck need?  A bath!  She was not really excited about the bath until I sat down with her in the tub and let her crawl into my lap. 

The end of the bath ... "I mean seriously, do I look like I want my picture taken?"

Post bath snuggle and nap on my lap.

Our new puppy

Brianna, Rob, Alex and I all drove to Denver today to pick up our new Guide Dog Puppy.  Brianna and Rob had to and put Eve on the truck to head off to California for "Guide Dog College", Boo Hoo.  Our new puppy is from a "V" litter and is 11 weeks old.   His name is Vigo and he was the 5th largest in the litter at birth.  He is a potential international breeder.  We're excited that he is already 11 weeks old because that means he will sleep through more of the night, potty train quicker and will be older by the time our baby comes in August.

Rob with our new guy Vigo, who is covered in news print from the puppy truck. 

Vigo up close.  He's a looker!

Vigo checks out his reflection in a door.  He thought it was the most fun thing EVER!

Rob (with Vigo) and Alex (with Jorinda).

Brianna gives Eve a kiss before putting her on the truck.

Miss Eve on her way back to San Rafael.  Good Luck Eve!  We are gonna miss you tons!!

I was so proud of Brianna, she didn't shed a tear when she put Eve on the truck.  When I put Gardner on last year, I cried like a baby.   We are watching Maddie's new little puppy Jorinda for the weekend.  She is 8 weeks old and so tiny and cute.  Check back tomorrow for pictures of her.  Vigo is with Brianna and Rob for the week but will be coming for a visit tomorrow so check back.  

Eve's Party

Our friends Brianna and Rob are raising the GDB puppy Eve and since Eve is going back this Friday they threw her a "going away party".   They had a bunch of their friends over,  yummy food and cake and even Acorn, another GDB puppy, came for the weekend to play with Eve.

Pretty girl Eve at her party. 

A very tired puppy takes a nap.....  oh to feel so free that you could sleep like this in front of lots of people. 

Eve snuggles with Brianna 

later on Eve snuggled up with me.  I didn't raise her but I have spend a lot of time with this cute puppy and I sure am going to miss her.  

A Tragic Nap

I had a busy day at the hospital the other day so Anthony I had to leave Anthony at home with Alex.  When I got home from work that night Anthony was very excited to see me and then he turned and started vomiting all over the carpet.  He was vomiting up chunks of what looked like blue plastic.

I turned to my husband and said "please tell me that is not Jolly Ball he is throwing up". Alex looked a bit sheepish and explained to me that when he got home from class he fell asleep on the couch for about 15 minutes.  During this time Anthony was on a tie down right next to him chewing on a kong.  But when Alex woke up he looked down at Anthony and found that he was no longer chewing on a kong.

"Mom, I'm really sorry that I ate a big hole in my favorite toy, but at least I threw all the bits back up"

He loves the toy even more now because it's easier to bite and collapse.  But now he only gets to play with it as long as he doesn't try and eat it. 

His favorite toy

It appears fairly certain that Anthony will be going off to Guide Dog College on the Aug 12th puppy truck.  Now that I know for sure when he will be going back I want to spend every second I can with him.  He is really starting to act like a real grown up dog and makes me so proud on outings.  I sure am going to miss the goofball, but I know in my heart that he will be so happy as a Guide Dog.

We are getting our new puppy in two weeks so that it will be a bit older by the time the baby comes.  As of right now we are getting an intact black female marked for potential international breeding.  We are hoping by some chance it will changed to a yellow puppy but we will take what we get.  It's a reminder that we don't do this for us but for those that these dogs help.

One of Anthony's favorite toys is his Jolly Ball.  The rope that goes through it fell out long ago but he still loves to shake it, kick it and then chase it,  and of course chew on it.  I have to watch him closely when he is playing with it though because some times one of his bottom teeth will get stuck in the ball.  The look he is giving me in this picture is one of my favorites that he gives.  "I am so sweet and cute, don't you want to come play with me?"

Man-cation

My husband went on a Mancation recent to New Orleans to visit with a friend of his from Russia.  They haven't seen each other since the both immigrated to different countries over 15 years ago (Alex to the US and Alex's friend to Denmark).  Alex appears to have had a fantastic time in New Orleans.  Below are a few pictures of his fun.

Alex went on tour of the swamp.

The tour guide fed them Marshmallows

Alex plays with a baby alligator. 

Yum, marshmallows!

Self portrait by Alex of the buddies on the street, out for a night of fun. 

I'm happy that he is home, and so was Bree.  

exhausted

I have been totally exhausted lately.  I don't know if it is being without AC for a week, working like crazy or just being 7 1/2 months pregnant, but either way I've been totally dead tired.  My rocker/glider chair finally came in and it is the best thing ever!  When I get home from work I sit down and glide my way to bliss until I go to bed.  Thanks Mom and Dad!!!!

Alex snapped this the other day after a long day at work.  

Kermit is so silly.

On the way to work today, I just couldn't help but snap this picture of kermit.  I have never seen a dog sleep like this in the car.

He slept like this for nearly 15 minutes.  

Meanwhile, Anthony was sleeping comfortably in the back seat.  Normally GDB puppies are never allowed on the seats but there wasn't enough room in my small car to put him behind the seat so I had no choice but to put him on the seat.  He doesn't like it there, I don't think he is comfortable.  I would think he would like to look out the window but no...  he curled up and slept. 

pretty sleepy puppy. 

So proud!

I am so proud of how well behaved Anthony and Kermit were today.  My husband flew out to New Orleans today to visit a friend.  This left me with two puppies on my own.  I had offers to watch one of them but I have so enjoyed having them both this week that I wanted to keep them both.  Selfish I know, but hey I'm pregnant, I'm allowed a few indulgences.

So today I took both Anthony AND Kermit to work with me.  I put them on opposite sides of my office on tie downs and they could not reach each other.  They both just slept all day.  During lunch I took off their vest and let them play tug in the office.  They played quietly and gently and I was so proud of them.  I even took both of them to an afternoon meeting with me and they were so good laying next to each other and not playing.  The power of the vest!  Anthony got to lay on the side of the office that looked out into the hallway.  He loved watching all the patients come and go all day.

During lunch they actually stopped playing tug and both went to sleep.  They were so sweet. 

Getting Ready for Diapers

Raising Guide Dog Puppies has been a great experience for Alex and I.  I think it's really preparing us for the adventures of parenthood.  As many of you know we have two GDB puppies this week.  Kermit has had a lot of problems with diarrhea in the past.  Well, yesterday he had an episode of diarrhea in the house on the carpet and then this morning we woke up to diarrhea on our bath mat in our bedroom (I guess he is going back in his crate tonight).  Then this afternoon I took him out to go and he had more in the back yard.  While I was trying to scoop this up, Anthony came running over and stepped right in the middle of the pile of poop getting it all over his paw and leg and then ran off.    UGH!!!   Our wet vac is coming in handy and all this cleaning of poop is getting us ready I guess for cleaning lots of poopy diapers.  I just hope that cleaning a baby's butt is easier than scrubbing it out of the carpet or out of Anthony's paw.

On a side note, my poor sweet husband is still working on fixing our AC. He has been going at it nonstop for almost a week now.  Thank goodness it has been really cool at night.  He thinks he may have gotten the new motor in today and that all should be good to go.

Doesn't he look thrilled.  He was not happy with me taking this picture. He He.

Twice the fun.

This week we have both Kermit and Anthony.  Luckily they are both great puppies and they listen really well when we tell them to stop playing.  The pictures below are from this past monday.

I let the puppies play in the back yard to get some of their energy out.  At least they were smart enough to play in the shade of the willow tree.  After playing for awhile I made them come in and take a rest.  Kermit quickly went to sleep but Anthony just wandered around.  I wish I had half of his energy. 

It was a beautiful day here in Fort Collins and Alex and I had a nice dinner of grilled chicken on the back deck.  Anthony and Kermit joined us and actually went to sleep side by side. 

Loss of a great man!

About a week ago, my grandfather Ferd Trobridge passed away at the age of 86.  His death was somewhat unexpected but he was suffering so in a lot of ways it was a blessing.  I believe that he has moved on to whatever is next in life and I pray that he is at peace.  

His memorial services is being held today in North Carolina.  I'm sad that I will not be there in person to honor him, but I will be there in spirit.  My Grandfather was an amazing engineer and worked on projects like the space shuttle, the B52 bomber and the stealth bomber.  He was a husband, a father of two and a WWII veteran.  However, it is not what he did with his life that I will remember, but rather the man he was.  Watching him care for my Grandmother for over a decade without ever complaining taught me the true meaning of love and devotion.   His silly jokes, smiles and compassion for others and his family is what I will remember about him.  When I look at the pieces of pottery he has made that stand in my house I will remember the kind, optimistic, and loving man that my Grandfather was.  He will be missed!