PW & The Great Outdoors

PW seems to mind the cold these days and has pretty much given up going outside entirely. His kidneys are starting to fail and he is using the litter box like it's going out of style! The sunny weather must have been very tempting because he did go out the other day much to Checkers' delight! He was disappointed that PW didn't seem interested in any of the cool snow games like chase, dive bomb the bank or flop & roll though.

Snow Hike

We invited Tulip to come along for a walk in the woods and go check out the beaver dam! Not much was happening there but they found a fun place to climb and jump from nearby. That killed quite a bit of time and we played with Checkers while they did that. It was a nice way to get some outdoor time and the kids actually had fun and didn't complain! They raced and ran along the trail together, hiding sometimes to try and scare each other and other mischief. It was great to get outdoors and have some fresh air and stretch our legs!

Produce Loving Puppy

Nothing brings this guy running faster than the noise of a knife on a cutting board! He hovers and waits whenever I'm cutting anything up! He loves getting pieces of fruit, vegetable peelings or any other produce snack! He salivates for this stuff! It's helping keep the garbage down since our compost bin is full and frozen but I'm afraid to let him have too much. I don't know how much fibre a puppy tummy can handle!

Frozen... Or maybe not...

I decided to venture out for some snowshoeing on my own the other day. I'd been out the previous week with Tabby and it was so soft she sank through and got a soaker in one spot. With the recent cold snap, things were looking more solid so off I went with my good buddy!

We went all through the woods and then started heading back across the beaver pond, it looked great! I sent Murray the picture of Checkers so he could see the solid surface of the pond in case he wanted to try it later on his outing. I was most of the way across when I felt the surface start to give and heard the telltale craaaaaaaaaaaaaack! I launched myself at the nearest patch of grass I could see and narrowly avoided going for a dip! So much for that nice solid surface! Ahhh  the excitement of country living! Checkers wisely avoided the whole thing! Hopefully there won't be any other sort of outdoor swims til we get the pool opened back up!

1 Year Old!

The boy had his first birthday last week! There's still a lot of puppy in him though! Thursday is the busiest day here so we ate dinner after school, went off to different activities and all met back here for cake. Checkers was quite enthusiastic about his piece but didn't much care for posing with the cake while it had the candle on it! He also go some special treats and a new toy. The girls wanted to have a big party with everyone else that has a dog but that wasn't possible on a Thursday!

Just another day...

Our girls are working on their espionage look, or their Grace Kelly look? I'm not sure but they're loooooooking good right???

Our semi annual clothing & toy exchange is coming up and I'm stealthily skulking about, gathering, matching up and pairing sets of toys, outfits, book series and all sorts of kid clutter! Our house is packed and we have to clear out this stuff that doesn't get used anymore! This lead to an argument about the Anne of Green Gables wig that I found with dust bunnies meshed into the bangs. Seriously? Untouched since that Halloween costume a couple years ago! there's no good place to store it easily so, yeah, buh-bye Anne!

Our poor baby boy isn't doing so good this week either! He went back to the vet for a recheck on his ears on Tuesday and got the all clear. He'd been limping for a few days and we figured he'd had strained something so I asked the vet to check it while we were there. Nothing she could determine at the free recheck of course, had to come back for sedation, xRays. We were hesitant about whether to bother, usually when we go, the verdict is "inconclusive- give him some rest and xyz pain med and $200". Buuuut you just never know and with that one leg not bearing any weight, we were worried he'd damage the good back leg. So I dropped him off for another visit yesterday. Turns out he has a condition called Panosteitis where the bones get inflamed inside and are extremely painful. There's not anything they can do to treat it except for pain medication. The upside is that it doesn't usually hit the same bone twice, it's only in the long bones and they tend to grow out of it by age 3. So he's almost got one year in and only 7 possible bones left it could hit. The vet said that some dogs only ever have one bout of it and he won't necessarily have it happen in all other 7 bones. Here's hoping for limited exposure to this!!! The poor guy is always restless, moving around often, trying to find a comfortable place to lay down. This is probably the first good sleep he's had in awhile!

Baby Checkers!

January and February are the slow season in photography so I find myself with some enjoyable downtime but I needed to take pictures of something!!! So I set up my natural light "studio" in the living room and grabbed our boy the new guy for some shots! and voila! A newborn session!

He's grown again already since I took these and is doing quite well with training! Accidents are getting fewer and farther between and he sleeps for longer stretches at night. hooray! and it is so cute how he follows me around all the time, just like a, well, puppy!

Welcome Home Checkers!!!

Finally the day came! Time to pick up our baby!!! It was a long drive, filled with waaaaaay too many are-we-there-yets and how-much-longers!!! Murray was so exasperated he was mentally planning a new app called "Are We There Yet?" but then figured it probably already exists (it does). We drove as far as his parents' place Friday night and the girls, who were already wound for sound, took it up a notch when Nancy showed them their brand new bunk beds!!! You'd think they'd never seen any before, but they've slept in them many times at my parents. Ha ha!!!

It was quite a wild evening and I wasn't sure they'd EVER get settled down, never mind fall asleep! To top it all off, an equally excited little boy met us at the door and stayed for a sleepover! Mr Bojangles was happy to see his girls!

The next morning it didn't take any prompting or nagging to get breakfast done or jobs completed. They were on a mission and we hit the road by 9am! We couldn't wait to get in the door to see him again!!! It felt like a long time to complete his paperwork, figure out his kennel name, pay up and get back on the road again.

So here are a few pictures from  his first week!

 Meeting Uncle Louis!

!

 Checking out his new yard.

 Getting an afterschool cuddle

 

Crashing out after playing hard! (so hard that his sense of smell failed him!) Actually, we find him here quite often! As soon as he comes in from outside, he makes a beeline for the gear bags. If those aren't accessible, he goes to plan B: sleeping in the front closet in the girls' bookbags!

Countdown of all countdowns!

The big weekend is almost here!!! We are going to pick up our new puppy on Saturday! I don't know who's the most excited (me??? hard to tell!)

The breeder sent us a Christmas picture, as if she didn't have him sold already??? So excited to bring Checkers home on Saturday!!!

The girls have been trying to be more responsible with their toys and I also have to get back in the habit or remembering not to leave things accessible! They've diligently gone through their rooms and culled the herd a bit and there's been a lot of recycling, garbaging and tidying! I'm sure we'll learn a few more lessons the hard way but hopefully not too many!

Here's his Christmas photo, brace yourself, he's pretty darn cute!

Checkers anyone?

Everyone's been wanting another dog for quite some time so Murray & I started stalking the fan page of the breeder where we got Murphy and sure enough, more puppies were coming around Christmas!!!  Keeping this gift a secret was SO hard!!! The excitement was killing us but we really wanted to surprise the kids so we managed to hold it together!

This past weekend was the first time the puppies were old enough to visit so we loaded up the van and told the kids we were going to visit their grandparents. (technically true, we just didn't mention the detour to a kennel on the way :)

Being used to the 2 hour cottage trip, they got bored on the 5 hour journey, especially after the batteries to their iPods died. (they are apparently incapable of entertaining themselves for more than 5 minutes without the aid of electronic devices and filled the rest of the time with "why is it taking so long? are we almost there? How many more minutes??? wash, rinse, repeat!)

By the time we arrived, I'm not sure if I was more excited to go see the dog or just to get OUT of the vehicle!?!?!?

Along the way Murray took a wrong exit which was at about the point we should have been leaving the highway to go their grandparents but of course there were no familiar sights and they started asking our ETA all over again. We got back on the highway quickly and told them we'd made a mistake and had to get back on the highway. They were unhappy that the driving wasn't done but not overly suspicious.

Finally we pulled into the yard, which of course was NOT the yard they were expecting. I told them we just needed to make a little stop before going to their grandparents. "ohhhhhh nooooooooo. What do we have to go  here for? Where are we? What are we doing?..." Then Murray told them to read the sign on the barn. "Labrador Retrievers & Puppies". They read that and Lovey burst out " Are WE getting a PUPPY?!?!??!?!" Sweetie echoed her question with just as much volume and enthusiasm. I answered quickly and told them we were NOT getting a puppy today and then grinned and said " we're just picking one out!"  

The screams and questions of "REALLY!?!?!? We're GETTING A PUPPY?!?!??!" rocked the van but then I noticed one little girl was not sharing the excitement. I jokingly asked her if she was disappointed with the news and she burst into tears and stammered out "Murphy! I feel like he'll think we're replacing him!"

Poor little thing was terribly worried about Murphy's feelings.  Sweetie told her that Murphy would be happy because we were getting another lab and that he'd think "oh they really liked my kind!" but that didn't turn her around. Knowing nothing cures sadness like a warm wriggly puppy, we got her inside and all concerns quickly dissipated once she had this little guy in her arms. Not another tear was shed, only smiles all round.

 We had 2 puppies to choose from and both were examined and cuddled thoroughly. I'm not sure which pictures show our guy and which are the other. It was a tough call. In the end we picked the cute one. haha!

It was a tight fit in there with the breeder, the five of us, two whelping boxes, dog supplies and 18 puppies but we spent an hour jammed in there happy as clams!!!

 In the end we chose this little one and the girls got to pick a ribbon to put around his neck so the breeder could identify ours. We had thought about naming him Buddy but in the van on the way home, Lovey said "Buddy is just sooooo... common" so we brainstormed about other possible names. She promptly supplied every name she'd read in her puppy books, Buttons, Lucky etc but those are just as common as Buddy! so we kept thinking.

 Then I thought of his little black & white ribbon that reminded me of a checkerboard pattern and suggested we name him Checkers. It definitely wasn't common! It took some pondering but in the end everyone decided on that one. Well, Miss Contrary wasn't sure but in the end she got on board and we contacted the breeder to tell her the final decision!

 Checkers is only 3½ weeks old so will be staying with his mum for a bit longer and we'll be able to bring him home in January. Meanwhile, we have to retrain ourselves to be puppy proofing all the time. Hopefully a few weeks will be enough time to prep! We're so excited and can't wait for him to be here!!!