Responsible Breeders

Patricia McConnell has a great blog, and I read it nearly every day. Syd's blog will be referencing several of the posts from last week, but I wanted to post a link to The Other End of the Leash blog here, because today's post addresses shelter and rescue dogs from the perspective that we NEED responsible breeders, and we need to applaud them, not chastise them. What a refreshing concept, written by someone who is very much respected in the dog world.

http://www.theotherendoftheleash.com/breeders-versus-rescues/

Reporting In

The rest of the Hurrikane Crew are all alive and well. I've been neglecting the other blogs with all the opportunities to share puppy photos and stories on the puppy blog. But stay tuned, the puppy blog is moving, and Syd's about to reclaim her own blog. She says she's let me borrow it long enough, so hopefully by next week, the puppies will be "moving out" of her blog and into their own space, so I hope Syd can come up with interesting things to talk about!

The Vallhund blog is going to be updated soon, we are doing a family affair, with a pupdate from Hawk's litters. I have some photos to share of several of the Hawk puppies, from the Mele litter and the Nikita litter.

I just need to find some extra hours in the day, or extra days in the week to catch up on the blogging!

So, just some randomness, and the other day, I decided to take a photo of the dishwasher. A typical weekend load of dishes.

Top Rack...

Bottom Rack... I think about the days when I did not have a dishwasher, and I wouldn't survive now!

And now a big slurpy HIYA from Nick. He can't possibly be 11 years old. I must be calculating incorrectly, because this big goof can't be a day over 2 years old. I am so relieved that his lymphoma scare was a false alarm, but it did remind me that there's no guarantee about anything, so I've been trying to squeeze in as much special time with the dogs that I can, on top of the normal 24 hours I spend tending to them.

"You got any cookies down there?"

Maggie

We didn't meet Maggie until she was about 12 years old, but she was, and likely will be, the most beautiful dog I've ever seen. She wasn't "grey," she looked like someone had powdered her with silver dust.

These are some of my favorite photos, from one of Maggie's sleepover visits to our house. She and Gizmo (Gizmo is Maggie's son from her first litter) would crawl up on one of the big dog beds and lay together.

We will miss you, Maggie, and we will always remember what a special girl you were, in and out of the show ring. And now I send my thoughts to Jacque and Don, and wish them peace as they grieve for their girl...

Uncle Nick

Puppies always love Big Nick. Today we finally had some sunshine, and I turned the small dog-yard into the new puppy pen. It was supposed to be "puppies only" but I guess any dog that can jump the Xpen entry way is allowed! So Nick spent his afternoon hanging out with the babies. He is so good with them, and the puppies are definitely OK with big dogs!

I. Love. My. Dogs.

I just have to keep repeating that, over and over again. I. Love. My. Dogs.

"HAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWKKK!"

Total window destruction. I don't buy expensive blinds. These are on the dog-window. And I always pull them up in the mornings at least a foot or so, because the dogs like to lay at the bottom of the bed and look out into the back yard. I just lowered them for the photo. Perhaps a pesky squ*rrel ran down the fence, or who knows, but Hawk was in big trouble. I just replaced the last set of blinds about 2 months ago.

"SYDDDNEEEEEEEEEEEY!"

This was my laundry basket. I didn't even take a photo of the floor, but you can imagine microscopic shreds of all that used to fill in this giant space in the basket. I think I mentioned that Syd is loving having puppies, and she acts like this is a second puppyhood for her. Well, I guess she's going to the extreme, and today she's crated at home, just like a youngster would be.

I find it very disappointing that when I get home, my six puppies have all used their litter box for potty, and their pen is nice and clean. It's the big dogs that I spend the rest of the evening cleaning up after...

Nick's New Perch, Happy 11th Barkday!!!

So Nick has always been a litte, um, different. I really think that in his 11 years,

Happy 11th Barkday, Big Nick!

he has never realized just how big he is. I tease and call him World's Biggest Corgi because he's pretty sure he's a Cardigan.

Yesterday, I took Darby's bed out of her crate and replaced it with a towel. I didn't want the bed to get soaked with all the snow that covered Darby. I just set the bed on top of her crate for lack of better place to put it. Late yesterday afternoon, Nick was on the back of the sofa, looking out the front window. Then a few minutes later, he was sitting on top of Darby's crate looking out the window. And now, I find him just like this, almost any time he's relaxing. I guess he likes the cushy memory foam bed! He's got a cushy 4 inch foam bed in his own crate, but I guess that's not as much fun.

And please notice, this is only a 30 inch wire crate, a 300 size, for a 22 pound Vallhund! And Big Nick is about 90 pounds. Notice the top sagging? Don't worry, Darby isn't in the crate when Nick is lounging on top of it.

This is all new, because Darby's crate is normally in the kitchen. But with the Puppy Takeover , Darby has temporarily relocated to the living room.

Lump of Coal

Guess who's getting a lump of coal in his stocking this year? Mr. Nick. I only took this oil-filled portable heater out of the closet about 10 minutes ago, dusted it off, and was ready to add it to the Salvation Army donation center pile. I went upstairs for less than five minutes to bring down more stuff, and this is what I found. Nick has had a love/hate relationship with electrical cords for his entire almost 11 years. He can go years without touching one, and then out of the blue, it's like he can't help himself, and he falls off the wagon... I'm trying not to be mad at him, he's probably feeling a little neglected with all the puppy-stuff going on, so at least he got some attention!