Keep off the grass!

Pet Peeve number 3684: Crusty old men who make it their goal in life to guard weed-infested, tiny, pathetic patches of grass in front of sub-par apartment buildings.

(but I'm not bitter)

All I have to say on the topic is that if your dandilion-ridden grass is that damn important to you...FENCE IT IN!!!

Otherwise, if people or dogs set foot on it...suck it up. It's grass, not gold after all!

Enough said.

*insert smug "humpf" here*

Could I have some of that?

We got our dog food delivered yesterday.

There's this great store called "A guy, a girl, two dogs and a cat" where we buy our dog food and they deliver it to us. We've been buying Fromm's kibble because it's grain free and made in its own factory which means no chance of a scare like the one with the Menu Foods tainted food.
Even better, they deliver for free!!

So this time, we got the "surf and turf" flavour...because of course, our dogs deserve the best...*insert eye roll here*

Anyway, they LOVE it. Or maybe they just like something different after having the same flavour for weeks...

This morning, I fed them a half/half mix of the new and old kibble. Heidi gulped hers down in a matter of seconds and then started to work Reese for some of hers. She put on her sad puppy face until Reese noticed. Then when Reese moved over slightly, Heidi slowly began to eat alongside Reese.

After they were all done, Heidi proceeded to saunter over to the bag, stick her nose in and try to continue eating. I had to stop her about 4 times before she got the picture...I wasn't going to let her eat from the buffet.

Nice try though Heidi - it was worth a try!

G'morning

My lovely husband let me sleep in this morning which was great!

I got home late yesteday and was trying to stay up to watch reality TV's finest: Survivor, but I was basically sleeping sitting up on the couch.

Fridays, Jamey has to be to school for 8am, which means up at 6am....so I was pretty thankful I didn't have to get up.

The dogs were happy to snuggle back in for some more sleep after going outside with him this morning. Around 8am though, I guess they decided it was time for me to get my arse out of bed.

I opened my eyes and I had one dog sitting on either side of me. Each of them had their face laying on my stomach looking up at me with longing looks like...."Come on, get up already!!!" It kind of makes me think of kids on Christmas morning who wake up at like 4am and then are trying to be quiet and wait around for their parents to get up so they can start opening presents.

As I type, they're both laying down, snoozing in their kennels...resting up for the next adventure.

Wake up call

This morning I set our alarm for 7am. Neither of us needed to be to work or school for the usual time, so we figured we could sleep in a little bit (We usually get up around 6:15).

Dogs love routine. Did I mention that in previous blog posts?

So, starting around 6:08, I began to get subtle cues that it was time to get up.

Heidi's nail digging into my back as she layed down beside me.

Reese adjusting her position and...oops...flopping down on my leg.

The occasional dog sigh.

I do not for one second think that these were coincidences. I think the dogs know very well how to get us to wake up "on our own."

I'm looking forward to a day when I can sleep in peacefully...

Boston

This morning I woke up to dog licks on my feet...just as I was about to grumble and roll over, my alarm went off. Reese is a great alarm clock and doesn't even need batteries or electricity!!

We had a nice walk, peaceful, if a bit dark. I much prefer spring/summer walks when the sun has risen by 6:30am...but you can't have everything!

Just before the end of our walk, we ran into a man with a tiny little Boston Terrier. I assumed that he wouldn't want my dogs to be in there sniffing up a storm, so I tried to get them to walk the long way around them by going up onto the front lawn of a building.

He wasn't scooping up his dog or trying to get away from us, so I just let things happen. The girls excitedly pulled their way up to the little dog. They sniffed. They wagged. After a few moments, we parted ways. The little Boston protested with little hops on its hind legs as if to say "Don't leave me!"

So cute.

Party Time

We had a get together at our house last night with four other couples. Our dogs LOVE when company comes over, but wow, do they put on a performance.

We noticed last night that their enthusiasm becomes less intense with each new arrival which may mean that our friends will try to arrive fashionably late in the future.

The first couple that arrived was greeted by pogo-ing, jumping on furniture, and having their glasses knocked off their face by face-licks.

The second couple had pretty much a repeat performance, but afterwards, both of the dogs were splayed out on the floor resting up!

After a short while, Heidi was snuggled up on the couch with one couple and Reese was snuggled up with another one on the other couch. They were loving it.

Not to mention the cheese and cracker snacks they were given...

Seeking Doggie Manners

Just got back from our afternoon walk...the dogs were...okay.

Actually everything was fine until the last block of our walk when I saw Marilyn, a woman I used to work with. As soon as I was greeting her, the dogs went coo coo for coco puffs and started trying to jump on her.

I stopped that for the most part and was trying to just get them to sit down and wait...but they aren't very good at that.

So I led them to a little area with pea gravel that they usually love to sniff...that only worked for a few minutes. Heidi decided that it would be a good time to attack Reese and start trying to shake the life out of her with her jaws locked on her collar.

Good times.

My dogs make such a great first impression...

and have impeccable dog manners.

I'm so proud.

*insert sarcastic look here*

What do fall showers bring?

Just got in from walking the dogs and it was a chilly, rainy morning.

Heidi is oblivious to rain or being wet. She doesn't care at all. We do seem to have broken her of her habit of slopping through puddles and even deciding to lay down in them from time to time though.

Reese is a little more of a diva. She will actually hop over puddles like a little fawn to prevent her precious feet from getting wet. Sometimes, she takes forever to do her business when it's raining out -- although this seems to be getting better. I've actually seen her walk through a puddle since we moved downtown.

Maybe it was something about that Gatineau water??

One other benefit to living in an apartment building? We come in through the basement garage - and on rainy days, the dogs can shake the water out of their fur to their hearts' content. And I don't have to clean anything! It's a stinky old garage floor!

At any rate, fall is definitely here. I think I'm going to have to break out the mittens and gloves soon.

Happy Thanksgiving

Missing everyone at home, including Heidi and Reese of course!

Here's a little video my husband made about the dogs in place of a blog for today...

2 times is a charm?

Okay...another weird and wacky dogism. I have to put it out there to find out whether any of you other dog lovers have experienced this...

I have to warn you that it's kind of yucky though!

This morning on our walk, at some point Reese ate some grass because she stopped to throw up. Whenever my dogs throw up, they always throw up twice in a row. Then they're good to go.

This seems really weird to me! Anyone have any insights??

Heidi Wookie

This morning on our walk, we passed a little dog that lives in the building next door to us. In the summer, it had a cast on one of its front legs which made it's little hop step look pretty cute. Anyway, now she is back to walking on all fours and is still cute as a button. Heidi and Reese love her, but she's pretty excitable like they are, so they don't often get time to sniff.

This morning, as her owner scuttled her away so we didn't have to do the leash dance, Heidi and Reese attempted to drag me over to them. It didn't work. Heidi was quite annoyed by this and belted out a long, loud wookie cry to express her frustration.

This warbling cry is Heidi's code for all of the following:

"I've been inside all night...do you have to lock the door? Let's just get outside!!!"
"I've been inside all day...do you have to lock the door? Let's just get outside!!!"
"Damn you are slow at locking that door!!"
"Damn the elevator is taking a long time today!!!"
"Damn!! I wanted to sniff that dog's butt!!!!"

Heidi usually pairs her wookie cry with a bow and a few front leg stomps on the floor to highlight her point. What can I say? Heidi's a great communicator.

And they're off!

Went for a great morning walk this morning. It was cool and the breeze was fresh and we had a great walk. I love seeing the leaves on the ground in the park, with the little dew droplets on the undersides. Fall is a great season!

Then we get to our building. Heidi and Reese sat like champs for me at the side door (part of our entering the building routine). Then they behaved well to the elevator and while waiting for the elevator.

Outside the apartment door, they both sat, eager to get inside and have their breakfast. I open the door and they take off running at full speed into the apartment. I hear growling and snarling and snorting as I try to take off my shoes quickly. I hear another lap around the track as they run into the bedroom up onto the bed, then back off the bed into the living room, then across into the dining room where I finally break it up by grabbing Heidi's collar.

I was training Heidi to come in and go straight for a drink. Then I would pat her and talk softly while she drank, trying to reinforce her good behaviour. I guess she forgot.

I don't really understand why they need to do this thing of running all over the place when we get back from our morning walk. We've just walked for like 40 minutes!! It has to be annoying for the poor person living below us to hear their galloping at 7am.

Back to the drawing board...maybe I should try to train Reese...

Companionship

So...I'm pretty much recovered from my cold/flu (knock on wood) but now Jamey is feeling worse than ever.

This morning, he called in sick to work and went back to bed. I decided to do some housework I've been meaning to do...like putting boxes down in storage in the basement of our building (we only moved in in May...geez!!)

Anyway, as I was a busy bee, cleaning and rearranging furniture. What were the dogs doing? They were curled up on the bed with Jamey. Heidi alongside him and Reese snuggled up by his ankles.

Nothing like a little company when you're feeling under the weather.