Katie’s First Visit

When Samantha and Ben came to visit for Thanksgiving they brought their new dog Katie. The hounds are used to animals coming in but I was a bit concerned that Max would LIKE Katie a bit too much. He does love the ladies. haha

When Katie entered she was a bit shy at first but she set boundaries with the boys. She seemed to bond with Daisy the most out of the hounds. Could be because she doesn’t sniff her butt as much. lol Of course with Daisy being so little and Katie being so tall I really don’t think it was possible. lol

Samantha went to her biological fathers family for lunch on Thanksgiving and left Katie with us. She was so funny as a new ‘mommy’. She kept asking me if I was worried about keeping Katie and what to look for in case Katie needed something. I thought this was so funny. It is not as if our door isn’t a constant home for dogs. We have had more than our share of critters over the years.

Within a few minutes of her leaving this was the scene at my home. Do you think Katie looks stressed?

Mike has never met a dog that didn’t bond with him immediately. Until yesterday Mike didn’t know that I had taken this picture of them napping together.

Now Samantha and Ben have funny rules about Katie not being allowed to have table food. They of course did not explain this to Caleb and technically  if it came from Caleb it is not table food. It is highchair food. hahaha Katie is soooooooooo tall that her head is exactly at the highchair tray level. Caleb loves to eat slices of american cheese. So do the hounds and for this reason we always put Caleb in his highchair to eat his cheese. Caleb however found it amusing to share his cheese with Katie.

It was obvious that Katie had been around babies before.  The second that Caleb was removed from the highchair she would scope out his seat to see if he left any goodies there for her. Caleb accidently left something for her of course. Katie loves gushers too. Who knew? hahaha

Then to show that the two bonded I have to share this picture. Caleb loves Katie and Katie loves Caleb. It was an immediate bond. Perhaps Samantha will get me a grandchild so that Katie can feel the love on a daily basis at her house.

Daisy The Bumble Bee

While we were in Virginia Mike found the cutest little bumble bee outfit for Daisy. Daisy is terrified of flies and bees so making her a little bumble bee is hysterical. We don’t have costumes for the boys but Mike really doesn’t want me to dress the boys up. He believes that they need their dignity. I believe that Buford must have the Darth Vader costume that I found. Yessirree I do.

Anyway, I digress. Back to Daisy. Daisy loves getting dressed up and all of the attention she gets when she is wearing it. She just struts around wagging her tail.  Saturday she was all dressed up when Caleb arrived to spend the day with Grandma. She was so excited to show it off. Caleb of course gave her lots of hugs and kisses.

For those wondering. Daisy is a Basset Hound/Beagle mix. She is the diva in the house and her Daddy couldn’t live without her.

Katie The Wonder Dog

I have been on vacation meeting my new little granddoggie. Her name is Katie and she is a Wonder Dog. She is the gentlest little spirit of a dog with extremely long legs (just like my daughter-her mommy). Samantha and Ben adopted Katie through AARF in Virginia. They operate a no kill dog shelter.

They met Katie at Petsmart where the AARF group sets up each Saturday showing the available dogs in the area. Katie had already been in two different homes who had returned her to AARF for very silly reasons if you ask me. Katie had been blessed enough to find herself being fostered by Rachel and Ben,  who are lovely people who also had adopted Katie’s brother three years ago.

Samantha and Ben completed the application and waited not so patiently an entire week before they were able to pick up this beautiful gentle baby. Isn’t she beautiful?

Rachel and Ben are keeping in touch with Samantha and Ben (funny how the husband’s have the same name- haha). On Friday of last week we meet up with Rachel and Katie’s brother, Manny. Isn’t he precious?

We all went to a local dog park in Virginia. We do not have these wonderful parks in WV. I am in love and want one here. My hounds would love it. They had a large fenced area where you can let your dogs off the leash and let them play. These are a few of the dogs that were there to play with Katie and Manny.

After their play time in the fenced area we took Katie and Manny on a walk on one of the paved trails. I am in love with this park. The trails were wonderful. Every so often they had a water pump with a dog bowl there to water your pets. We stopped at the pond area and let them take a quick swim. Boy these two sure can swim.

We actually went to the park twice while we were there and I hated leaving each day. Katie didn’t seem to give any of the squirrels any attention. We saw this one posing for us.

Friday night Samantha and Ben invited over two great guys from their church to play Apples to Apples. I am addicted to this game. It is so much fun. While we were playing Katie got cold and was shivering so Ben put a sweatshirt on her. She didn’t like it much so he took it off of her. She loved laying on the loveseat with a tweetie bird blanket over instead. Can we say Diva?

We love Katie and are looking forward to her coming to visit over the holidays. I am sure that the hounds will love her just as much as we do.

If you want to save a dog I highly recommend looking at them through AARF. This is a link to their website to see if they have a dog for you.  

http://www.aarf.org/

ETA: I corrected location of where AARF set up to display their dogs available for adoption.

 

The Many Uses For a Treadmill

As we all know a treadmill isn’t only good for hanging laundry on, sitting heavy boxes on and collecting dust. No, No. It also makes an excellent pet bed. Just look below.

So? Should I turn it on? hahahaha

What Is Right With This Picture?

Well it took me over a week of putting the cat into the bed and petting her  for her to accept the new bed. I also have been chasing Daisy away from it.  I missed having my kitty sitting beside me while I am on the computer. I always have her on one side of me and Max on the other. Just look at these faces. Who could resist? Not me!!

Basset Hound Plays Soccer

I found this video today and had to share it. This is one cute and talented Basset Hound. I have watched it several times all the way through. I also loved the house and the yard. My dogs would love to have that much space to play in.

What is wrong with this picture?

For the past few weeks my husband and I have been remodeling our living room. We have painted, put down hardwood flooring and are still working on rearranging things and adding new furniture.

After the living room was clean there was one thing that really stood out as needing to leave. That was my cat’s bed which sits at my feet. She loves to cuddle by me and will follow me from room to room. I hated having to throw her bed out but it could not be washed and it was horribly dirty.

I went to Walmart and bought her this really cute bed that could be washed in the future and made sure that it was just her size. The problem is this.

Does that look like a cat in the new cat bed? Daisy our little beagle/basset hound mix is so tiny that she can comfortably fit herself into a little cat bed. I can’t seem to get her to realize that this isn’t her bed. Now the cat sniffs the bed and refuses to get into it and she is pretty ticked off that her powder puff blue bed is gone.

When I walk past the cat she actually hisses at me now. I should be afraid to sleep at night but she doesn’t have thumbs so how dangerous can one little cat be? Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get the cat to get back into her new bed or has Daisy already defiled it to the point that the cat will never sleep in it?

A Basset is an Assett

I think this video sums up my feelings on our wonderful Basset Hounds. Enjoy!

It’s Me or the Dog!!

This past week my daughter and son-in-law came to visit and introduced me to a new TV show on the Animal Planet channel. It is called “It’s Me or the Dog!” I am in love with this show. The premise is that a dog’s behavior is so out of control that it is coming between the relationships of the owners. The host, Victoria Stillwell, offers training suggestions on how to teach a dog how to stop being so aggressive, tackling people as they enter the house, chewing on furniture, etc…

You can actually see some of their episodes on this website. http://animal.discovery.com/tv/its-me-or-dog/  

I have to admit that there are some areas of training that the hounds could benefit from. Mike and I decided to begin with Max and I am amazed at how quickly he is learning. It has only been two days and he can sit, stay, lay down, speak, and will leave things alone when commanded. We can even sit food directly in front of him and tell him to, “Leave it!” and he will not go for it. We hope to train him to not jump on people. I would love to be able to take him to nursing homes to visit the senior citizens. I think he has the personality to do some good there. This is Max.

Daisy began urinating in the house around the same time that my husband went into the hospital in November for about a week. She lays on his lap every evening and was very distressed that week. Mike is now redirecting her and never letting her out of his sight. We hope to get this to stop within a week using the techniques from the show. I will let you know how this works. This is Daisy.

Buford is so old and going blind. I think he has earned the right to just lay on the couch. He has always been able to sit and speak when commanded but he will not stay or stop barking when he is told to. I think his age may prevent him learning but we will eventually work with him on it.  This is Buford.

If you get the chance be sure to check out this show. It comes on Saturday nights at 9:00 and again at 10:00. Let me know what you think when you do.

Max caught in the act!!

Max is such a sweetheart. He is really a good dog but occasionally he gets caught in the act of doing something that he shouldn’t. Often he is so cute that I have to take a picture of him before making him stop.

Yesterday was one of those days. My husband had just left for work and Max wanted to look for him out the window behind the couch. Max weighs about 52 pounds so he really shouldn’t be crawling on the back of my couch. If he fell off the back of it he would go right through the glass of the french doors. 

Apparently my scolding yesterday taught him nothing because when Mike left for work this morning Max crawled right back up there. It is a good thing that he is so cute. It is a bad thing that he does not fear me. I can tell him to get down but until I stand up and begin walking towards him he doesn’t move. I guess I am not the leader of my pack. haha