Playing Favorites

I know I know I shouldn't have a favorite but I have to say that Baily is my heart dog :) She came from rescue at just 7 weeks of age (too young but she was dumped). I took her to work with me everyday. She would sleep under my desk and then we would go to the big dog park behind the office. Alaska dog parks are not what people are used to when thinking of a dog park. This was a lake that had a trail around it, soccer fields and open running space but no fences so you got to see all sorts of wildlife. After our loop she would return to sleeping under my desk, in a chair if I had meetings or on a coworkers desk if it was sunny out (I didn't have a window). Sometimes I would find her curled up with 120lb chocolate lab Frodo. Baily is truly my baby, though she loves anyone who will give her attention.

Mesa is the favorite of everyone else. You may think I am exaggerating but its true. Maybe its the big blocky head or the "not all there" mental thing but people love her. It could also be that she doesn't have as many of the spoiled brat habits that Baily does ;) She also has a lot of personality which helps her cause. Mesa never got the joy of going to work with me everyday nor do I think she would have been a good candidate to go into a super stimulated work place so that may have put a bit of a damper on our relationship. Mesa is my sports watching buddy though. Always game to sit on the sofa and watch some football. Don't get me wrong, I love the Mesa Moose but she is my number 2 dog.

I feel kinda guilty admitting this, though when I look back on my blog there is a lot more about Mesa than Baily so maybe I am trying to make up for it!

Tomorrow is the Rose Bowl. We have our tickets and are on our way to cheer on my Buckeyes! Happy New Year to all :)

Wordless Wednesday (almost)

Mesa roasting on an open fire

this is how our night was spent

Camp tires the girls out. Not because of all the activity but because of the stress. All the other dogs barking works the girls up. Our two have never been ones to bark back, whether it be on walks, at the dog park or just in the house when other dogs are barking at them but we can tell it wears on them. Camp has a lot of barking. Strangers also worry Mesa. They did get spoiled however since this place puts cooked chicken on their food. Now Baily is refusing to eat her food. Oh well she needed to loose a pound or two anyways! But no worries, 7am this morning they were wrestling up a storm. Last night was another story

the family is together again

The DH picked the pups up from camp after dropping me off at work. they are at home sleeping soundly :) I can't wait to get home and snuggle with them in the hopes that they make my foot feel better!

Here they are all tuckered out from a hard weekend. I don't think i'll ever have enough pics of them all snuggled up!

it looks like we won't be taking long walks for a while

On my way home from work tonight a lady decided not to look for pedestrians before making a turn. Lucky for me I was paying attention and was able to get 95% of my body out of the way, unlucky for me is that my left foot was the 5%. She didn't notice me until her tire was right on top of my foot and then she proceeded to stare at me while I banged on her hood for 15 seconds (longer than you think when a car is on your foot) before realizing she had hit me. Luckily my foot isn't broken but it is in bad shape so I am on crutches and a cast for at least a month.

The DH is being great about this and already has plans to take the pups out for more fetch and some short walks in order to make sure they get the exercise they need. Right now we are all relaxing together while I enjoy my pain meds.

Wordless Wednesday

A busy couple weeks coming up

since I just started a new job and I don't have enough vacation built up to visit the in laws in Alaska (it's their year for Christmas) we decided to go to Vegas :) We are big fans of Vegas and far be it for us to pass up a free stay!

This means that the girls will be boarded of course. I realized this will be our third Christmas with the girls and the second one they will spend at the kennel. We were home with them the first year but traveled to my parents the second.

But when we return from our 3 day Vegas stay we will have guests so that will make the girls happy! My parents are coming to visit for the Rose Bowl. Being an Ohio State Alum and living in LA I feel it is my duty to be at the game so I bought 4 tickets. Now I still need to get Ohio State cheerleader dresses for the girls but I have yet to find them in the right size. May have to settle for red tutus and bandannas :)

The girls slept all day today and had no interest in a walk so we took it easy tonight. If they get energy tomorrow, the DH will take them to the park for some fetch :) I am also sending out my Dogs With Blogs cards tomorrow so I know they might be late but better late than never!

so I was making breakfast this morning

and I realized that the dogs were nowhere near the kitchen. Then we ate in the living room and yet the dogs did not appear. I guess they got worn out from our 26 miles of walks this week! We went shopping today and picked up a second bed from Costco (17.99 for a 42 inch bed is hard to beat!). I think they approve :)

It's FRIDAY

Woo hoo! It's Friday! The DH got here for good yesterday so this is no longer a one adult house! This morning I got to spend extra time sleeping since he took care of the dogs! Last night I took the dogs to the park for their first time off leash in two weeks! Hooray for the weekend!

Here is our goofy Mesa making noise and enjoying her "bubble gum." She loves to chew on little rubber pieces she has torn out of toys so once in a while we let her do it when she is supervised

Wordless Wednesday

New collars

So I got the girls new collars from Fido's Fashion Collars. Its hard to find large collars (1.5inches or 2 inches thick) that aren't super long and boring looking so I was excited to find this website. The prices are really reasonable and they have some pretty styles. They do cater to big dogs so sorry to my little friends! Here are Mesa and Baily modeling their new looks. Mesa has a 2 inch collar and Baily has a 1.5 inch collar since her neck isn't quite as meaty. The DH gets here for good on Thursday so I can stop using my camera phone since he is bringing the real one!

a little Baily to get you through your Monday

They say to let sleeping dogs lie

but I was enjoying the lack of rain and was having a lazy Sunday, so I decided to pull the dogs out of their sweet puppy dreamland for walk number two. I have been using Daily Mile a lot lately to track the total amount of miles I put out between biking to work, walking the dog and my feeble attempts at going to the gym. This weeks stats: biking- 32.29 miles, gym-9.14  walking-18.88.

That means the hooligans also walked 18.88miles this week which is pretty amazing considering we had rain and didn't walk 4 of the 7 days this week!

So now I will let the pups go back to dreamland while I work on their dogs with blogs Christmas cards!

I'm pretty sure my dogs thinks our walks are just really big buffets

LA is a dirty city. Because we live in an area where there are lots of shops and restaurants there happens to be a lot of food on the ground. Not just bits and pieces but whole meals. Tonight there was an entire large order of fries someone had dropped. The crust from an extra large pizza. Too many bags of chips to count. Half a burger. Many other assorted snacks I can't even begin to figure out. OOO I almost forgot to list my favorite. A 5 gallon drum of chocolate ice cream. Seriously. The top was off. What a waste!

Try as hard as I might to keep the girls away from all the food I spend most of my time looking out for cars since no drivers here think about pedestrians so they are able to sneak some. I almost get hit at least one time each time I venture out. It doesn't matter how careful I am there are more crazy drivers here than you make think possible. I actually almost threw a bag of poo at someone to get their attention tonight because we were crossing during our right of way and they were only watching traffic from the other direction since they needed to make a right hand turn. Luckily they looked up just as their wheels started to role so I didn't have to fling poo to make them look up.

Here is a pic I took of the dogs last Christmas in front of the tree. Can you tell they weren't excited?

Wordless Wednesday

Rain Rain Go Away

So I am feeling better and now it is rainy and just below 50 out. Ugh, terrible weather to ride your bike in and worse weather to try and exercise the dogs in.

Snug as a bug in a rug

Baily took her job helping me relax this weekend very seriously

The worst part of living in a big city

Is that when I get sick there is no easy way to exercise the dogs. If the DH were here he could take care of them but for now its just me. There is one park near us that while not a dog park everyone uses as an off leash area. The downside is there are no lights and now that it is getting dark early we have a limited window to get there. Luckily I ride my bike to work and back so I am normally home with a bit of light to spare but this cold makes it hard to push myself to ride faster.

The closest dog park to us is 1.4 miles each way and has a huge uphill at the end that takes a lot of effort on a good day. Our normal 4-6 miles of walking each day is going to kill me so I may have to bring out the Jeep and drive them to the park. I would so much rather spend the evening cuddled in blankets.

Wordless Wednesday (from last Christmas)

The art of sharing a bed with Baily and Mesa

I would have to say that Baily and Mesa sleep in bed about 40% of the time. With the DH up north, its more like 100% of the time. So we have had to learn how to navigate sharing a king sized bed with two 50lb dogs.

First Baily. One of her nicknames is Snuggle-up-against (like Snuffalufagus). Baily wants as much of her touching/covering you as possible. Her head will be on your chest or on the pillow pressed up against your head. She will sleep like that all night long. The first time she does this it is cute, eventually it gets rather annoying because when you move at night she repositions herself for maximum contact.

Next Mesa. Unless it is unbearably hot, Mesa will not lay down unless she is under the blankets. She nicely curls herself into a ball at the foot of the bed but in the middle of the night (most nights this happens a couple times) she overheats and starts thrashing around until she rids herself of the blankets. 10 minutes later, once she has cooled down, she starts the process all over again. Mesa also makes so much noise when she sleeps. She snores, she sighs, she woofs and makes some noises I can't even begin to describe.

This said, I still enjoy sleeping with the munchkins, most nights. I have also found that letting them sleep in bed means I get to sleep in :)