Holiday Happenings

We are finally done with Christmas, whew! After 6 family gatherings, we are exhausted but excited to welcome the new year :). It was really hard to get into the holiday spirit this year and we weren't quite as festive as last year, but it was still great seeing everyone and spending time with family. I got a very cute and dear-to-my-heart ornament for the tree this year.

It matches Bourbon's ornament and is made by the same person - Sally's Bits of Clay.

I also added a few cute ones I picked up last year after Christmas when everything was on sale :). You can never have too many dog ornaments on your tree (I think I only have 2 or 3 non-dog related ornaments lol)!

It looked almost just like her, I couldn't resist.

Vito needed to add his picture to the tree too :). Now I just have to put a picture in it, lol!

This year Rookie also got his santa picture taken so he could join the crew under the tree. I put him in Baron's frame (and moved Baron's to his picture pile for scrapbooking!). He is a bit of nut :). I suppose now I will need to get an ornament for him next year.

He was in full form that day :).

Unfortunately, I didn't do much celebrating with the dogs this year, not like last year when i found their magical Christmas list and they had an amazing Secret Santa experience. I will have to make up next year when we are in better spirits. But I did manage to procure a few gifts for each of the monsters :). It wouldn't be Christmas without a new toy - or in Monday's case a new piece of wardrobe!

Pretty in Pink!

I absolutely love this new harness and it is completely lined with fleece so hopefully it won't rub what is left of her hair off :). It's also created by a company that supports TTouch (which is where Monday's current harness is from) so it should allow plenty of movement with no restrictions. It looks mighty pretty on her :).

My mom took pity on poor Vito got him another Kong Wubba (this one squeeks!) this year. He does love those damn things lol. He was, of course, over-the-moon with excitement when I gave it to him.

The look on his face says it all...my precious...

He *might* have gotten a bit possessive as usual :).

He is really entertaining to watch with his toy though. I suppose if he's not going to share it with anyone, he at least plays really well by himself :).




Bourbon also got his gift from someone else (mommy was a slacker this year!). Our friend LeAnn picked him up some of those stuffing-free toys with squeekers. I gave him the raccoon to start with :). You can see him in the two videos above quietly working on killing the squeekers. He is pretty methodological about destruction :).

Of course Rookie got a new ball, lol.

I got Rookie's ball from the PBRC auction '12 days of Pitmas'.  It's pretty awesome! It's a large Jive ball designed by West Paw and is totally standing up to his tough chewing :). He pretty much loves it.



We also had a houseguest over the holiday - Miss Penny came for a couple of days and Rookie quite certainly fell in love :). He followed her around and looked at her like she was his Christmas present. He was soo polite with her and very un-Rookie-like. It was pretty hilarious as Penny just ignored him. Poor Rookie has unrequited love :).

She is very pretty, you can see why Rookie would be smitten :).

Hope everyone had a great Holiday!

Monday's Obedience Photos!

At the trial in November there was photographer taking photos and he happened to snap a few of Monday from her Sunday 'experience' in the ring :). He caught her at some good moments LOL.

Part of our heeling pattern. At least here she is in heel position :).
Photo by Ryan Heard

Giving me great attention but slightly forging.
Photo by Ryan Heard

Our figure eight heeling.
Photo by Ryan Heard

More figure eight.
She did much better heeling during this exercise than the actual heeling exercise :).
Photo by Ryan Heard

She was excellent for the sit for examination.
Photo by Ryan Heard

Me leaving her in the sit stay.
Photo by Ryan Heard

She watched me walk around the whole ring and then got up when I started walking directly towards her at the end.
Photo by Ryan Heard

I have some funky body posture going on here while I am listening to the recall instructions.
But look at Monday's wonderful attention :).
Photo by Ryan Heard

Obviously we have a lot to work on but it was a great experience :). And now I have photographic evidence that we tried and she actually did have moments of brilliance LOL.

Hiatus

I've been MIA for a little bit - it's been hard to get motivated lately. But I am slowly getting back into the grove of things. This Holiday season has been painful and it's been super difficult to get 'in the mood' for Christmas but I suppose I don't have a choice since it's just literally around the corner. Bear with me here :), I will be back in mostly full force next week!

Where's Christmas? Around what corner?
Photo taken by Ryan Heard.

Wordless Wednesday: Enjoying the New Arrangement

I had moved Baron's kennel to the main floor since he couldn't do stairs anymore - Vito and Monday have decided they like the new location :). So it's staying there as my new table lol. This is a big breakthrough for Monday (who is crate-phobic), she seems to now be okay as long as the door remains open.

RIP Baron

This weekend we let Baron go to the Rainbow Bridge. He had deteriorated much faster than anyone expected and it was time. What a horrible decision to have to make. I know it would come to this but I just never realized how fast it would arrive. I seriously thought we would have more time.

He had been losing strength and his shoulder muscles were completely gone so walking was hard for him. It was so painful watching him navigate everything with hesitancy and cautiousness. Baron's normal gate is balls the wall - bull in a china shop style and this was such a contrast. We were dealing okay with it but then he started limping on his right front leg, which greatly added to his difficulty with walking. He also had a lot of problem getting up from laying down - there were nights he couldn't get up at all and that was really hard to deal with. He wouldn't let us help him up either which makes everything worse. He always was a bit of a butthead :).

His attitude had gone downhill as well. He didn't want to move or do anything and he just laid there and didn't engage with anyone. It was very un-Baron-like. He was always a pushy bastard and constantly trying to get you to touch him. But not anymore, it was like he had already resigned himself and given up.

Then this weekend he started losing control of his bladder. He was continuously dripping urine - which was fine, I just stuck a belly band on him - but he hated the belly band. It was odd, he would continuously drip urine but when he tried to actually pee nothing would come out. It was the strangest thing. But it was really hard for him to deal with. He was housebroken so he knew he shouldn't be going in the house but he couldn't control it. It made him really upset :(.

But then the kicker - he stopped eating. Baron is a chow hound and in all the time we have been together he has never missed a meal or a treat or a chance to beg for a meal or a treat. That was the final straw.

Nicholas and I drove him out to my vet's house late Saturday night and said goodbye. One of the most painful goodbyes ever.

Sleep softly my sweet Baron...

*This is not actually the blog post I sat down to write but the pain is still too real and raw to explore. The details I can handle as they are more objective so there are the details.