It snowed!

Woofitty woof woof!!!!!! it snowed last night. I got up this morning and my green grass was missing and all the white cold chilly stuff was back. At first I wasn't to sure about it as it did feel wet and you all know how I hate to have wet feet, but then I could feel that nice coldness when I stuck my noes in it, and I was off exploring. Sadly it had all melted by this afternoon, but I enjoyed it while it lasted. Mom says it's a good thing I have a black head and spots, otherwise you wouldn't see me at all in the snow!

A visitor in my yard

Mom was just about to open the door and let me out when she saw this guy sitting on the fence. She says sorry they are not very good photo's but if she had opened the door he would of flew off. He had caught himself a sparrow and was happily eating it. Last year we saw a lot of them around but this is the first one we have seen this year. My dad is home today so I am soooo happy. He was away in North Carolina all week and it was just me and the mom at home. I took good care of her though and she took good care of me.

Visiting Franklin

Every couple of days we go over and visit Franklin the corgi. His mom is a wonderful elderly lady who had been battling a brain tumor. We are very pleased to say the prognosis is very good and she is slowly regaining her strength. Franklin was a rescue dog who is around 9-10 years of age. He was found just sitting and waiting on the side of the highway. Sadly, he had been very badly mistreated and some cruel and inhuman human had kicked him in the jaw and broken it. He had never received treatment for it and although it healed it very out of shape. He manages to eat and chew bones just fine though and it doesn't seem to bother him. He really is the sweetest dog and rarely ever barks - which makes it hard to understand why someone could do what they did to him. He has been living in his new forever home now for two years and he "the baby" adored and loved like all we furbies should be. The mom remembered the camera today so we got a photo of Franklin, it's not a great photo as he doesn't know about mom's and cameras and that you are supposed to sit still and look cute. he could smell the cookies that mom had in pocket and was more interested in those. Franklin also doesn't know how to play, which is rather sad and I wish he did, it would be fun to play chase with him. But he is my little buddy and it's okay if we just sit together or have a chew bone together.

Back to the lake and bald eagles

Yay!!!! we went back to the lake today (the one where they killed off all the fish) It's not as pretty as it is in spring and summer but there are still so many good smells and yes, even a dead dried up fish or two which for some reason the dad would not let me anywhere near and he tugged me away REAL quick when we came to a pile of horse poop!!! It was quite chilly and mom and dad were all rugged up in their coats but me I was just lovin it. I ran, I sniffed, I ran some more and sniffed some more all the time trying to get the dad to move faster so we could get to the next smell. Then mom spotted something up the trees. It just looked like two old birds to me....but both mom and dad got quite excited because they said they were bald eagles. They didn't look at all bald, in fact they had feathers all over them.....the logic of humans is very odd. Anyway, they made me slow right down which I didn't actually mind as it gave me longer to check out each smell. Of coarse mom has that camera thing but she only took a couple of pics of me and seemed more interested in those birds. Here I am above first checking out how close I could get to the water without getting my feet wet and the second one I am checking out where someone had had a fire. It smelled very good to me, in fact it reminded me of my charcoal cookies. Dad pulled me away before I could taste some to see if was like my cookies. And of coarse here is the photo mom took of the eagles. Dad was most surprised at how close they let us get, in fact we were right under the tree they were perched in. Dad said the only other time he has been close to wild bald eagles was when he was in Alaska, but he still hadn't got this close. Mom pondered over whether there was any fish still left in the lake, but then she saw some swimming near the shore, so she was happy that they have plenty of food. And remember if you click on the pictures you can see them big size. I am so happy today that I got to go for a nice long walk - but I won't mention (yes I will !!!) how funny the mom and dad looked, their noses and cheeks were bright red.....they should really consider growing some fur! Mom had to laugh at the dad though, he said he needed a baklava to keep his face warm - mom pointed out that baklava is a greek dessert and what he really wanted was a Balaclava. I don't know, a sticky sweet dessert all over dad's face would be lot of fun for me to lick off!!!! Hope you all had a great weekend - Woofitty Woofs

Mom has the camera out again

Mom had been waiting to take photo's so she could show my winter coat but she decided to take some pics anyway. I am just loving this cold weather sooooo much but I am driving the mom crazy wanting to go outside and then wanting inside and then wanting outside. She really wishes we had a doggy door but unfortunately out back door faces exactly the direction the cold winds blow from. Today she rugged up in her coat and gloves and braved the 36 degree weather to take me for a walk. For some reason the mom didn't seem to appreciate me wanting to stop at EVERY single lamp post and sign we came across. But she was good and waited while I had a good sniff at each one. I must admit I am not understanding why we are not going to the park so much when it is so nice and cold. Maybe the mom needs to grow fur like me because I am just so toasty warm. We do our agility work and I go on my tread mill a couple of times a day and we play a lot but I just seem to have so much energy lately. Mom wishes there was a farmer around here who had some sheep so I could learn to do some herding, she says that would use up lots of my energy. I am not really sure what these sheep things are but if I can run after them, then it sound a good thing to do. Mom thought it was funny the other day, she was watching the movie "Babe" and there was sheep barring on it and I liked the sound so much I kept running over to the TV and listening to it intently. Mom says it's a natural instinct.....what ever that is. I just know it sound interesting and almost familiar in a way. I wonder if any of my buddies have ever been sheep herding?

Christmas Past

The mom is in the process of making a Christmas card for a competition she is entering and we were looking at the photo from last year. We found this one and .....LOOK !!! My ears stood up back then. I wish they had stayed standing up :( Mom says I was such an adorable pupster last year.......silly mom, I am still an adorable pupster, just bigger with flop down ears now. I can not believe a whole seven dog years have past since last Christmas. Last year I had my own very own stocking hanging up and it was amazing because on Christmas morning it was fully of the best doggie things ever. I hope that happens again this year.....I sure did enjoy ripping all that paper off to get the goodies inside. Mom thinks it is a bit crazy here in the States that they start getting ready for Christmas so early. Back home in Australia she followed the 12 days of Christmas Rule. You put your decorations and tree up 6 days before the 25th of December and then take take them down 6 days after. She was always told it was bad luck not to follow this rule. I have been busy barking at our next door neighbor today because he has been up the roof stringing up some things mom calls annoying blinking lights. Mom just shakes her head and says she is glad she is not paying their electric bill. I am not sure what she means......but I kind of get the impression she doesn't like those light things.

Oh, I nearly forgot, Katie asked how I learned to go on the treadmill and not be scared. I have been playing on my treadmill since I was very very little. The mom said she started me off with my lead on, and just going at a normal pace. It also helped to have a favorite squeaky toy and anytime I started to worry, she would squeeze that and take my attention off it. Gradually she let the leach become loose and eventually just took it off. She also found a treat on the front of the treadmill would help keep my attention. But the BIG thing mom did, is made it fun. We would do a few minutes and then have a happy excited game of tug......then a little more...and more fun. Now, I just love my treadmill......I trot along at speed 3 and do a mile, then mom and I play. We do that a couple of times a day and it is our 'special time'.

Bbbbbrrrrr it's cold

It is cold and I am lovin it!. We even had a few snowflakes last night and are expecting some more tonight. I have been spending a lot of time outside just enjoying it. Of coarse when it get colds, that means we also head down to my 'play room' to do my agility training and also I do my miles on the treadmill. So I thought I would share some pics of my 'play room'. Mom has made all my agility things, the jumps, a hoop, a tunnel, my weaves poles and a chute. Over in the far corner near the window is where mom does all her painting. As you can see, we have a huge basement and this only shows half of it!!!! Mom and I will be spending a lot of time down there (down being in the basement) this afternoon as dad will be watching his foozeball team and we ALL know how scary that is. Hmmm maybe it won't be a good idea to be down there as we will be underneath where he will be jumping up and down yelling at the bad umpires !!!!!! Personally, I don't understand why the umpires are bad (they are black and white like me after all) but dad calls them a lot of bad names and seems to think they are not very smart. His team is playing only three hours away from us and he had looked at getting tickets to go to the actual game, but now he is glad he didn't as it only 36 degrees today. Well I had better go and see what the mom is up to. Hope you all have a great weekend.

White Collies and Update on Mom

Dawn and Katie mentioned they had seen a white collie that looked like me at their weekly class and yes... there are actually quite a lot of them around and they tend to have their black patches in the same place I do. The coloring is caused by the same recessive gene that caused me to have a white coat. I must say, this is one very handsome dude!!! People are ALWAYS mistaking me for either a border collie or a collie as I am quite a big sheltie - which whites tends to be for some reason.

Update on the mom - she is having good days and bad days. On the good days she does too much which causes the next day to be a bad day.......I keep telling her not to do that but the mom is rather stubborn. We did go to the leash free dog park on the weekend and it was so great, we were the only ones there and mom and dad just walked really slowly so I got a whole weeks worth of sniffing done. Mom tries to take me for a small walk each day, even if its only a trip to the pet store as she worries about me getting bored. Playing is really tough on her as she can't bend to pick up my toys....she ouchies when she forgets and tries to do that. Overall though, she says it is slowly getting better.