Dear Mother Nature....

Dear Mother Nature,

I am not sure who messed in your cheerios, but I am willing to go the extra mile to make it ok for you. You have punished all with your annoyance...snow, rain, ice, stupid people on the road - I get it. You are mad. But can we kiss and make up? Maybe with some sunshine?

Very Sincerely,

Freezing and Tired of the Inclement Weather in Ohio

On the road again...

Happy to report that no one has injured anything and needed to go to the vet and that no one has eaten anything they shouldn't have. I used some peanut butter kongs to distract the both of them while I dragged the suitcase out. They didn't even notice. I guess I don't feed them enough.

On another good note, Chelly was 3-4 this weekend. The one run she messed up was my fault...I was super irritated with myself. She had a fan club on Sunday morning - one of my co-workers lives in Indianapolis and came to watch. This was the first time we had been to this trial and it was nice. The ribbons were black and red and had a checkered flag theme. :) The leash posts had little race cars glued to the top of them. Chelsie ran jumpers while my friend was there and ran it PERFECTLY! Since moving down to preferred...she is 8-8 in her jumpers courses! Std, well that is a different story but we will be back in excellent after our next trial.

Home on Wedensday morning...lord willing, I will be able to walk them outside when I get home!!!

Little Acie cuddling with his brother Blue at ~ 7 weeks old in the breeder's backyard. I know this is Ace because of the white spot on his paw. That was how they told the boys apart. :)

Oh Dear...

It was an interesting few days at my house...and I am not even there!

On Sunday, Acie's birthday, I admonished him for licking the couch - which sent him right to licking his paw. I happened to notice the pad on the back of his left leg was in miserable shape...the top of it was just hanging off and it was red and irritated underneath. Imagine a blister where the skin has been torn away a little and you are afraid to rip it off for fear of great pain. Swell. His other one was red and inflamed, but not torn, and the dew claw on that foot was red and irritated as well. Me being the pet owner of the year, I have no idea how it happened, but am fairly confident that whatever happened, happened a few days ago.

Did I mention I was off to Miami, Fl on Monday?

So super parents to the rescue...they come and take Southpaw (my new nickname for him in his injury period) to the vet. I had made cupcakes for Acie's class on Sunday night, but given that he had an open wound on his foot, I opted not to take him to class because it would have been a mess if the skin had ripped off his paw. I put the cupcakes out for my mom to take to the vet - and off I went to the airport.

About an hour later, I get a call - Ace got some ointment and a bandage on his foot, which he promptly removed during the 10 minute ride home from the vet. My mom returned home to one pissed black lab - I had left with the suitcase and gramma had left with Ace - she was pissed. She knocked the stainless steel trashcan down, which thankfully I had just emptied, but had gone gounter surfing for the cupcakes. Ate 9 of them, white cake and chocolate frosting, paper and all. A pissed lab was now a bloated, farting, pissed lab.

Meanwhile, mom re-wraps Ace's foot and gets out the inflatable ecollar, puts it on him and puts him in the car. She puts Garbage Gut in the car too, and off they go. Chelsie farted the whole way home and Ace had the bandage and Ecollar off by the time they got home.

I am happy to report that as of today, all are doing better. Ace went back to the vet and they removed the hanging flap of skin on his pad and he is doing fine - he doesn't run away from grammie when she goes to put the ointment on it. Chelsie seems to have freed her system of the cupcakes, and the labs haven't been put up for sale yet by their grandparents. Ace did get into a match with grampa about who was going to sit in his recliner...grampie won that battle...but Acie won the bed war. Gramma heard him chewing on his bandage on Monday night and brought him into bed with her, grampie and Chelsie. Grampie decided he was not going to fight for allocation of space...so he went upstairs while mom and the labs took over the king size bed. :) Just when you all thought Big Bill was tough...he is really a sucker for the dogs. :)

Two more days everyone...then I will be home to deal with it all...

Happy First Birthday Acie Pup!

Today...little Acie pup was one year old...I can't believe it, time has gone by so fast. A year ago today, I got an email that said "Puppies are here" and that if I wanted a yellow male, one was here. My life hasn't been the same since.

Happy birthday little buddy, I have enjoyed every minute with you. You test my patience, melt my heart, rattle my ear drums and keep me warm at night. Think maybe you could back off your sister for me too???

Cabin Fever

So it is snowing again here, after all the ice we had last week. I am still not 100% convinced that all the ice is gone, and my precious little black labbie does not do ice. Her good leg will always be at risk of tearing her ACL, so I see no need to risk it. Consequently, we all have a little bit of cabin fever, even after the ride in the car while mom saw the chiropractor and did her butt kicking 15 minute work out.

All this makes for one loud yellow dog and one annoyed black dog. No worries, dear Waffle, if you don't think she has become less tolerant in her old age, think again. I saw a lot of her "pretty face" and heard the irritation in her throat tonight. So I took the little guy downstairs for his "practice" - where we work on some basic agility stuff. He LOVES to go downstairs to work - and I love that about him. I am pretty sure it has more to do with his food rewards than it does with pleasing his mom, but hey, we will go with it.

Both dogs went to the vet on Friday and got a clean bill of health. :) That made for a very happy mom. Also, the appointment has been made for THE OPERATION...March 1, Ace will officially be freed of his burden of manhood. Wonder what I am going to blame for his bad behavior???? :)

This weather has to give...hopefully, we will be able to at least walk outside soon. I have some nice warm clothes, but I don't do ice either....and my dogs are going nuts. Hope everyone else's weather is a little better!

Trapped

Mother nature has been very crabby for the past couple of days here. In this instance, the predictions of the weather people were absolutely correct - everything they said would happen, did. Ice, followed by freezng rain/sleet and then snow. Doesn't that sound like fun? I did heed their warning and prepare for Armageddon, and in this case, it is probably ok that I did. Here are some photos of our adventure during the last 2 days.

What I woke up to Tuesday morning. I worked from home both Tuesday and today.

 Fell on my booty trying to go down to get the mail. Suffice to say, I did not venture out to get the mail today and my trash can is still at the curb from pick up yesterday morning.

 Truly a sign of progress. She was there first, resting her head on my feet. He got up, nicely, quietly and his booty was touching her booty. No dirty looks, no one started biting anyone else and no one got insulted and got down. The small things we celebrate.

Do you have to work on the computer mom? Really, I don't like computer work. Yes, Acie, I do...someone has to make money around here to pay for dog biscuits and agility.

I do plan on going to work tomorrow, lord willing. Something made a noise at 4 30 this morning that caused the black and yellow security forces to be on alert - and right as they were off scaring it away, the power went off until 10 30 this morning. Let's just say that it was a tad bit chilly in the house...heater ran for 20 minutes to get back up to 68 degrees.

Headed to Miami for work on 2-13, and no, not Miami of Ohio. Looking better every day. Stay warm and stay safe. 

Some photos....

So...what have we been up to? And why haven't I been blogging? Well, we have been up to quite bit..in fact, the last two weekends I have had no plans - which has been amazing! We trialed like MAD to get to our MACH, went to a few FB games with some friends (Penn St and Michigan), traveled for work, traveled up to Michigan, Christmas, more travel to Michigan...and now just trying to re group. So...in no particular order...here we go....

 Baby Ace at 5 mos - taken at the Cleveland trial in May. Lord, was he cute...a holy terror, but cute. How has he changed? Primarily, he has gotten darker - and he does listen better. Like all men, he has selective hearing.

 This picture is priceless to me. Taken by Virgil Smith of Pawprints.

 Ellen, my breeder, sent me a CD of photos and videos from the first 8 weeks of Ace's life...this was on there. How can you not love this face? (he thrives on that by the way - you can't yell at me cuz I am too cute. Yes, little buddy, I can.)

 Love this picture...captures the spirit of my little girl when she is on the agility course. Taken at the Cleveland trial site, sometime before her MACH.

 Ace was about 6 mos old in this picture. He wanted the ball and told me about it. After he yelled at me, it got put away. One of the hard and fast rules in this household it that you DO NOT bark at your mom for a toy.

 Ace and his littermate, Ella (MS Total Elation) in October. Lee and Ella live about 15 minutes from the trial site in North Olmstead and invited us over for a swim and a BBQ. She has a pond on her property and they had a geat time - although Ace nearly drowned. He latched on to a wire in the middle of the pond that usually held the fountain, which Lee's hubby had taken out to repair - he would not let go and was clearly getting tired. We had to get in the paddle boat and go out and force him to let go. It was terrifying.

 Which one is Ace? In December and January, I had the opportunity to show Ace's mom, Amber, for my breeder. She was recovering from a broken foot. Amber was just a few pts away from being invited to AKC nationals - and by the time Ellen realized it, it was too late to get the points. I had told Ellen I would have gotten the points for her. So...I went and ran her. We finished our short time running together 22 pts shy of MACH - we got three QQ and 106 pts. For 2012 nationals, we got half the QQ needed (6 needed) and 1/4 of the pts (400 needed). She is an awesme dog and was a blast to run. Not many dogs will run for another handler, let alone run as awesome as Amber did for me. More important, she had fun. Oh yeah, who is who? Ace is on the left, his brother Blue, is on the right. Ace is a bully bruiser...and Blue-y is a lover, wants to cuddle all the time.

 Seriously...what did you do all day while I was at work making money to pay for dog biscuits and agility?

 Take a guess on who this is....ok, its Blue. He is significantly lighter in color than my little wild thing. :)

 Ace, Blue and Mama Amber. Amber is barely 20 inches tall and 45 lbs...petite. The sire of this litter was black, Amber is a dark golden...and look at these boys, esp Blue! And only one black puppy in the whole litter...go figure. These puppies are nice size, as they have small lineage - Cody, the father, is about Chelsie's height and about 8-10 lbs heavier. This is on the small side for a male. No complaints from me.

 Ah, the fun ones....at the beginning of the run for all the marbles, our MACH run. I always bend down and kiss her and rub her back - I nuzzled her nose for a few seconds longer on this run. Key to note Bill and Maggie in the background. I think they were more nervous than I was. :)

 I can do it mom...just give me the signal! I love this photo...it speaks volumes of our relationship and the trust she has in me...

 We did it! The judge, Christie Bowers, is a good friend of mine...she really wanted to be standing on that course when we took our victory lap. It was meant to be. I love Chelly in this picture...I did it mom, I did it!

 Love this picture too...so, so proud of her.

This was on the CD my breeder sent me. Hours old in this picture...his mom's paw protecting him.

Our MACH run. I still remember it like it was yesterday....

Ok, all for now...I am working from home tomorrow...in case anyone hadn't heard, the Armageddon is coming tomorrow....