Our Holidays

     We're down to the final days of our holiday breaks.  Ready or not, I'll return to my students on Thursday.  So, in order to preserve the last few days of relative calmness, we've got a collection of pics from so far on our holiday break.

Eat & Park as soon as we pull into town.

The Panthers at Panther Hollow. 

The Cathedral of Learning from Panther Hollow.

Amazed that without A&P in tow, the geese actually come  close to me. 

Snow!!

More Snow!!!!  (Just enough to remind me that I'm loosing my skills for driving in it.)

Home with Annie trying to find the food for her.  (Mancini's rolls were what we bought for her.) 

Paul could care less about the food, he's just happy we're home.  

Christmas Day Snuggles

A night of snuggles is just what I need to recharge my batteries from school.  

What Annie Ate: Holiday edition

     I'm one of those people who bakes in December.  And I'm now at the point that about half of the baking is for dogs and half is for people.  New on my list this year is nut roll.  Both my mother and grandmother make it and there are even special pans my grandmother has for making them.
     The last roll we sliced up this morning for breakfast with our coffee.  The Hubbs and I had eaten most of it and left 1 piece on the plate.  He went to grab a shower, I went to put dog beds into the car to go to the dog mall.  When we came back to the room, this is what we found:

Notice the empty plate and the crumbs on the bed.

And at the foot of the bed, Annie sniffing for the last of the nut roll crumbs.

Wednesday: Paul's close up

Paul's extreme close up.

Photo Out Takes

Out takes from our "family christmas photos."  If you have a favorite family photographer who works with your dogs to get great photos, be thankful for them.  (Wolfgang and Beth, I'm looking at you!!)

Not all who wonder

"Not all those who wonder are lost", but we hope they're safe and warm.

Equipment Failure

     You know that moment when you offer up your 5 second prayer of, "Oh dear God, please let my dog come back to me before he hurts himself or others."  And as soon as you say that, your dog comes running back to you full speed (and you can't even see that because it's dark outside, so you just see a cloud of warm air moving quickly to you).  Yes, I know this is horrible sentence composition, however this is what Paul and I just went through with on our evening walk.  We're now both sitting on the couch chilling out together, but it was crazy there for awhile (probably only 15 seconds, but it felt much longer.)

Ice Storm?

     Well, If you've listened at all to what the east coast is supposed to be getting today, it sounded like an apocalypse of ice and snow.  If you check out the pics from Oh, Melvin!, you can see the snow in the DC area.  And if you've watched any of the football games for the north east, you'll see lots of snow on screen.

From WTAE TV in Pittsburgh, PA.

     In an attempt to stay warm and dry today, Annie, Paul, the Hubbs, and I have spent the day curled up inside the house.

      Pups to the right, pups to the right.

The simple things

     Paul get's excited anytime he and I go anywhere together.  For Annie, it's the simple things in life.  Just going for a neighborhood walk and getting the chance to sniff wherever her heart desires.  (please excuse the blurry factor of these pics)

Woopss….. we kind of disappeared

     Woopps.  Sorry about that, I didn't realize we had disappeared for a while there.  I guess I should catch up on life here.

We've had the holiday break, the end of a grading quarter, and the usual insanity that comes with a graduate degree.  Add on top of that, nothing new here to really report.

     We still get up every morning and walk Annie and Paul through the neighborhood.

     We still go to the dog mall about once a week.
     Annie and Paul have finally kicked whatever was upsetting their stomaches.  (Hopefully I don't jinx it by typing this).  We're winding down the to holiday break before the spring starts back up and just hanging in there.  

Early Mornings with Paul

     Paul woke me up at 5:30 this morning.  Nothing was wrong, he and Annie just needed to go outside for a moment.  Collars, leashes, and boots on and out the door.  Now, I've crawled back into bed for the chance to listening and reading the news.  And a certain someone seems content to kick me out.

Post Flea Aftermath

     When we had fleas, we took a bunch of stuff that we couldn't wash, double bagged it, and put it in the garage.  That was 3 months ago.  We brought the toys and the dog beds that were too big to wash back into the house last weekend.

Sunday with the Pups

     This was another weekend in the saga of the upset tummies.  Long story made very short, it was also a weekend of odd sleeping times for me.  Luckily, it was the weekend.  So, on Sunday, I spent several hours curled up in bed napping with the pups.

Pics of the Pups

     When I got my fancy smart phone last year, I immediately fell in love with the camera feature.  Before this, I had to cary around a thick digital camera to take pics with.

Working with Paul

I love days I get to work with Paul on behavior, today it was a teacher work day.

I'm staring at the hot dog mommy is holding.  I don't know why she's saying I'm a good boy, I just know there's hotdog here.  (HINT: look at the chicken bone on the sidewalk behind Paul)

Dinner with the pups, sort of

     What I thought I'd post this week: 

     With the Hubbs being a grad student, dinner is often an odd mess.  It means we come home from our respective schools and eat whatever we find.  I've gotten into salads latley, but we've also eaten PBJ, spaghetti, the ever popular fast food, mexican, or skipped dinner all together.
    Tonight, it's leftover lasagna for me and cereal for the Hubbs.  (Martin's does by 3 boxes of cereal and the milk is free)  The pups have had their kibble and they've had a bully stick each.
     When the Hubbs sat down to eat, they came right up to him.  With the idea if they smell it they won't like it, he tried offering Annie and Paul each the chance to eat some of his dinner.  Scratch that idea.  Annie and Paul started to down the bowl of granola and skim milk.
     You know Annie is a total Daddy's Girl when she ends up with oats on her head and the Hubbs eats the oats right off of her head.

Annie's Tummy: again

     I was all set to do a post about Annie and Paul eating skim milk right from the Hubbs cereal bowl.  We laughed, took pics, and let them clean out the bowl at the end of the cereal.  And it was funny, until 5:30 this morning.
     That's when Paul did the, "MOM!  WAKE UP!! NOW!!!!!!" bark.  Out of bed, into my wellies, collars, leashes, into the front yard just in time for Annie's upset tummy.
     Yep, it's all fun and games until Mom's making bland diet again. …….. 

Annie the Moocher

For anyone who thinks Annie cares who feeds her, nope.  

Howl O Ween

Just a penguinologist and her penguins.  I'd like to note here how wonderful my husband is.  Realy, how many other guys would tolerate walking around a mall with the dogs on a Sunday afternoon dressed as a penguin.

Wordless Wednesday: Stubborn Pup!

     You know those times you want to come back into the house, grab your stuff for work, and head out the door, but the pup won't come inside so you can leave?  Yea, this is one of those times...

Candles in the house

     We've all done it: walked in the house after a long hard day, twitched our noses, said it, and then found it.  Dog poo.

     If you read our Facebook page at all, you saw the early morning post about Annie's upset stomach at 12:45 and at 1:45.  Her stomach still wasn't happy on her morning walk despite being in play mode and jumping on The Hubbs.  

     So, tonight, after I got home and cleaned up behind her, I lit several candles all over the house.  I thought the little one in the middle of our messy coffee table to help it stay stable.  The big one above is on the kitchen counter.  

     These ones are my favorite dog proof candles because they're bolted to the wall and out of the reach of noses and tails.  (IKEA no longer makes these)  They're the perfect size for tea lights and do a nice job.

Wordless wednesday: Annie says Feed me

     We often joke at home that Annie could care less about us, she's just interested in our food.  As a piece of this proof, here's Annie on a typical night.

I know you have food up there that you're not sharing with me!!!

Itchy Annie: Part, I've lost count

     Remember a month ago when Annie and Paul were put on Comfortis to keep fleas off of them?  (City dwellers who are jealous of yards, be happy you don't have to worry about fleas in said yard)  Well, a month later, we're still on Comfortis.  Annie is also on 2 other anti itch, antihistamine meds that have her consuming water like crazy.

     She's not horribly sick by any means, but wow, can she itch when she's not on these.  The amazing thing is, once we've cut back from teh 3 pills twice a day to 1 pill once a day with a plane Clariton, she almost totally stops itching.  She still nibbles on her paws, so we wipe them down with baby wipes.
     However, for the first time ever, Annie's not itching and scratching like crazy.  And before anyone lights my ears up (so to speak) please know she was our first dog.  I just always assumed that all dogs itched this much.

     What we are down to now: 1 pill of an antihistamine with a steroid once a day, 1 Clariton, wiping down paws after each trip into the yard, and cleaning out her ears each week (with gauze pads instead of  cotton balls)
   

Oh, Paul

     Remember this?  Yea, a week later, it's still here.  I'm now being told it's torn tendons.   After teaching typing and keyboarding skills all day, it's kind of hard to type at night with your whole hand twitching.  So I'm putting this on hold for a few days.  When we come back, i'll pick back up with the ABC's of the blogs and talk about St. Francis and the blessing of the animals.  

Random moment

A random moment from the VCU Men's Soccer team this past weekend.  It was raining the entire game, but the couple infront of us had me giggling.  Does anyone else think of Benny and Lily when they see this pic?

Oh, Paul......

     While Mr. B at Two Pitties in the City is afraid of cats, Paul thinks, "I can take 'em!"  Evidence of this can be found presently on my left wrist:

     By the way, Paul is presently nudging at it trying to get me to pet him with my left hand.  He hasn't figured out yet that trying to type with this thing is difficult enough without someone nudging it.  *sigh*

     So, the stray cat in our neighborhood, AKA, "Paul's Arch Enemy" was strolling through the neighbor's front yard on Saturday while I had Paul and Annie out for a bathroom break in the front yard.  Annie was done and part way in the house.  Paul was finishing up and about to come in when he spotted Purple.

     Off he went in pursuit of Purple with my arm attached to his leash.  Clearly, my wrist wasn't happy with Paul's idea.  In 10 days, I'll have my left arm back, in the mean time, as Myron Cope used to say, "Yoi!"