Thursday, June 30, 2011

Adopt A Black Cat Day!

It seems that gorgeous black cats are the most overlooked and the hardest to find homes for on the adoption front. Dr. Khuly over at Fully Vetted has declared today to be Adopt A Black Cat Day!

The cat pictured is our own China, and she picked us! We have had her for over 9 years now and she is a wonderful kitty! So today, if you are looking for a cat, please go adopt black cat!

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Bark In The Park!

Sabrina and I had a great time at the Valley Cats annual "Bark In The Park". We met up with Lulu and Tucker, as well as some of Ben's friends!


We thought it was quite ironic that the Valley Cats were playing against the Tigers, while the ball park was full of canines.

Monday, June 27, 2011

Specialty Proof!

Hush going WB/Best BBE at the Del Val Specialty. We are proud of our girl!

Friday, June 24, 2011

Take your dog to work day and "The Xray"

This morning Snickers joined me at the office for "Take Your Dog to Work Day". She was a great ambassador and took plenty of naps.

Then we went straight to the vet clinic. We are at Day 50 from the first breeding. My vet prefers to x ray as close to whelping as possible, but we did the best we could this early...

You can click the photo to make it full size. We count at least 6 with a possible 7th, but there could be more hiding.

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Two weeks to go!

It is hard to show the basketball belly...

From either angle...

But Ben is very photogenic!! He kept getting in my way of photographing Snickers.

Sabrina is thinking: "So what is the big deal?"
Snickers would like to know if I will stop the photo shoot so she can continue her nap.

But Ben said "Don't stop! I love having my picture taken!"

Snickers will be xrayed tomorrow.

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Del Val Specialty

What a gorgeous day today has been! The sun was out, a beautiful breeze was blowing...

Last night I drove down from New York, stayed with our good friend, Genie, and was off today for the Del Val Specialty. This was only the 2nd time I have been able to go to this lovely show in PA. BTW... how many of you have heard of Ludwig's Corner, PA? Weather.com could not even find it!

But, it seems that Pastor Jim from Trinity Lutheran Church was a past pastor at St. Matthew's Lutheran Church in Ludwig's Corner! And it was only 1 mile from the show site. Since we were early, we did a quick detour and took this photo of St. Matthew's.

Isn't it just gorgeous in the morning glow?

Hush happened to be in season, but Debbie Moore was still willing to show her. It was a great call as she was Winners Bitch and Best Bred By! Thank you judge Steve Gladstone!! Here is all her loot...


Debbie was a real trooper as she then took Luther in for me, and he was a wild man since "his girl" was in season. Genie had Sabrina's brother (and Luther's half-brother), Tiller. Both boys were awarded Awards of Merit! Hush's half-sister was Best of Opposite.


I must say that this was a great show weekend! Congratulations to all the winners! There were some lovely dogs present.


And, thank you Penni for the "good luck" pendant as it certainly worked today!

Friday, June 17, 2011

The "cow" collection

I think I really want to start to collect cows.

Luther was my first. We have always lovingly called him our "bull".

Remember this great pin/pendent that Emily made of him?

As of Wednesday, we acquired an "ox". Meet Ben! His owner was unable to keep him and I got a frantic call from his pet sitter asking if I knew of someone who could foster him. We said "Sure, we can do short term foster." When I met him, I knew he was the big dog I was looking for!!

Ben is a 5 year old (shares the same birthday as Skunk & Lulu) oversized English Springer Spaniel. We adore his goof-ball personality!

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Puppies due July 6?!

July 6th would be 9 weeks from estimated ovulation. Today is 5 weeks from the first breeding and we have a distinct bulge. I am very excited at the opportunity to have Dallas puppies!

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

The inhabitants of the fish tank...

It has been a bit since I posted on my fish tank. The guppy didn't last 2 days and a month later my favorite fish, the dalmatian mollie, died of ick. I was very upset. Reading comments from my first blog post on this topic, I was unable to find nice swordtails at any of the local (15 mile radius) stores.

Now we have 5 store bought platies and one homebred! Well mum came pregnant and one of the fry survived. (L-R) top row: male sunburst micky mouse, female red mickey mouse, my two sunburst females in different shades. Below the suburst is a female white mickey mouse platy. Under her, a little to the left in the plant, you will see a light speck which is the surviving fry of the lighter sunburst, on the far right.

In this photo you can see the youngster on the left diagonally under the filter intake (probably 6 weeks old now) and two of my three pink glo-fish. Unseen in the photo, the fry does have twin tail fin bars, so maybe it was sired by a twinbar platy. I can't wait to watch her grow. EDITED: I did verify that the fry is female.

Photographic proof that we do have a frog in the 30 gallon tank. His name is now Waldo as I can never find him, and have gone for over a week at a time not knowing if he was still a resident. He was at the top of the tank this evening and I was able to snap this not so good photo (which makes him look larger than he is.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

A tale of a turtle

Look what was in our unused "segregation run" of the dog yard! The dogs made the discovery as it was trying to get in where they play. What I really want to know is how it got there. Emma was hoping this was a new toy just for her.

After I rescued it from the dog yard, I took t he opportunity to take some photos prior to releasing it in the woods.

This is a young painted turtle, which was not much bigger than my cell phone.

Happy Barkday - a day late

Happy Barkday to the Sabrina x Carbon kids, who are now 3! Time just flies right by!!

Emma is very happy since she think Hush was brought home just for her.

Magnet got a new home for an early barkday present. He now lives with Luther's sister, Destiny, and loves sleeping in bed with his humans. Since the showring was not his happy place, he is now neutered and will try out herding and agility next year.