The 1st Official Playdate!!!

Leah and I both have new puppies and it is funny because they are only a week apart in age although her female black lab (named Dakota) is almost double the size of Ginger (my female yellow lab). Dakota's parents were both very large/tall labs and after seeing the size of Dakota's paws I think she'll be BIG too! Leah called me astonished to tell me at her 10-week check-up the vet weighed Dakota and she was 19 pounds already...Ginger is 9-weeks old now and has barely cracked the 10-pound mark!!! Since the day Leah brought Dakota home (one day after I'd brought Ginger home) when we first introduced them they haven't played together until today (Saturday May 24th), It was funny because Dakota was ready to start tackling but Ginger was a big sissy...she kept hiding under anything she could find. Finally, about an hour into the play session she began to get a bit more daring and aggressive...Dakota and Ginger both played very well together!!! Meanwhile Leah's 3 kids were throwing the ball for Baylie who was loving all the playtime without little Ginger under her feet! After all was said and done we had three VERY tired dogs...can't wait for Memorial day because we're gonna get together again and Vanessa is going to bring her 2 boxers, Otis and Sammy!!! The puppies will be out numbered with 3 full size dogs running around!

My little Houdini...

So needless to say, puppies are a handful and everybody knows that but THIS puppy (Ginger) is so much more mischievous than I remember Baylie ever being! I remember Baylie gnawing on low hanging branches but Ginger comes along and fully uproots one of my 2 foot tall Hibiscus plants dragging a few branches into the house so proud to show me what she did! Leave a magazine or any type of paper product within her reach and it WILL be shredded! However, in her defense she has not ever chewed on any furniture or anything of value...so even though she can make it look like a tornado hit in my living room in 10 minutes flat at least it is easily fixable! She still doesn't realize that she can jump more than an inch or two off the ground but ever since she was just 8 weeks old she proved again and again that she is able to climb like King Kong! I started Ginger off in her own little outdoor puppy resort with a padded crate and exercise pen but my neighbor told me that she cried all day and then it got hot so I gave up and moved her and everything inside. I rearranged my kitchen and dining room so she'd still have a lot of room to move and play. The second day after moving things inside I came home after work and she greeted me at the door along side of Baylie who has free run of the house and I couldn't figure out how she was getting out of a 3 1/2 foot tall pen! That night I staged a covert operation and put Ginger in her crate and told her goodbye and open and shut the front door "to leave" except I didn't, instead I crawled back in super quietly to watch her in action. In just under 3 minutes she CLIMBED out...the first time over to the couch sliding down smoothly and the second time she fell down and plopped onto the tile floor (I only did it twice because the first time I was too busy watching in awe to get a picture!). I then stayed up an extra hour while trying to rig a cover for her pen using a blanket and zip ties because I was worried that she'd fall and hurt herself but I wasn't ready to trust her in my house just yet! The blanked topped pen worked for about a week but then somehow Houdini found a way to get out AGAIN! At this point I gave up and just baby gated off the remainder of the house only giving her the freedom to roam from the backyard to the kitchen and so far...so good!

Finally Playing Together!

Well it has only been a week since I brought Ginger home and FINALLY Baylie is beginning to get used to the idea that she's here to stay! In the beginning Baylie didn't really want anything to do with Ginger and it didn't help that Ginger is at that stage were she likes to bite EVERYTHING...including Baylie's face, legs, and tail!!! Baylie has snapped at her a few times and I think Ginger is now understanding "the rules." She is 8 weeks old now and she's already learning to go in and out the doggie door (although it is not fool-proof just yet). She has a sweet personality and is super clumsy! Ginger loves chasing around the Baylie and Kailey to the point that I think it starts to annoy them...they'll get used to her eventually. The biggest breakthrough happened yesterday when Baylie and Ginger got into a tug-o-war match!!! It was great to see them playing together...so I also took the opportunity to get some group pictures!

Ginger's Mom & Dad...Roxy and Ziggy

So I was able to take Ginger home on Friday, May 9th 2008 and she is just the sweetest little girl with crazy sharp puppy teeth! I had the pleasure of meeting her very loving mother Roxy (the rust colored lab) at the home where Ginger was born but her dad belonged to another family so I didn't get to see him in person. The next best thing of course is a picture and a description of his personality. Ziggy is the creamy wheat colored lab and I'm told that he too is just a big lover with a happy spirit. Ginger and her sister Samantha really took after their dad Ziggy and the other 2 pups from the litter another female and the lone male both resembled their mom Roxy. Either way all of the pups were just beautiful...it's impossible not to fall instantly in love with them!

Ginger--The Newest Edition to the Family!!!

Well...I've been wanting to get Baylie a sister for years now but my living situation and various other circumstances were never quite right...until now! Now with a permanent address and good size back yard I'm ready. Baylie recently had her 3rd birthday on May 1st 2008 and she just passed her evaluations for her Canine Good Citizenship Certificate and her Therapy Dogs International so we can get back into pet therapy! So my overall hope was that she'd make a good role model for a new puppy, helping me with some of the training! I had my name on a waiting list for a litter of Labrador Retriever's that weren't due until May 29th and then ready to be taken home 7ish weeks after that but I was worried that I wouldn't have enough time to train/bond with the new puppy before I had to go back to work. I then began looking around for other options and fell into a nice retired couple who had a litter of yellow labs that were 7 weeks old and ready to take home NOW! I fell in love with one of the female pups and felt comfortable with the environment they'd been raised in and that was it! Friday the 9th of May, 2008 Baylie and I added a new puppy to our family...sadly it took me until Sunday to pick a name for her! I chose the name Ginger for her and she seemed to like it because it didn't take her too long to come when called. Enjoy her cute pictures!

Morgan & Baylie

Mindi and Nick were participating on a team for Relay for Life (the biggest fundraiser for cancer research in Bakersfield) and they brought Morgan to participate in opening ceremonies...unfortunately she had a serious allergic reaction to her sunscreen so around 2pm Mindi brought her over to my house for some sun relief. I was able to watch her until the next morning when the relay concluded. Of-Course I always warn Mindi that if she leaves Morgan with me any number of pictures WILL be taken! Luckily with the miracle of digital, I'm able to have them uploaded onto my computer and emailed out to their personal computer before they can even drive back up to their home in Lake Isabella!!! Anyways, it is just so much fun watching Morgan and Baylie interact because they are just so sweet and good together! Enjoy the photo opps...I enjoyed playing with my camera and color, black & white, and even sepia. :)

New Cement!!!

So for the longest time I've struggled with dragging my lawn mower and trash can down the side yard to get it to the back yard...the dirt was grated in a "V" shape for water flow but it also made it a muddy, mossy mess of goo! After calling and getting multiple bids and interviewing 4 different companies I finally settled on Pickinpaugh Concrete because they were able to get here during my spring break. It was important for me to be home when the work was being done because I wanted to see everything happen and make sure the dogs didn't get on the cement and ruin it before it cured. The men came on Friday March 21st at about 6:45am (even though they weren't supposed to get there to start framing until 7 but whatever! They had my house and bricks wrapped in plastic within the first half hour and then they began trenching out for the french drain. Then they leveled the ground and had all the cement contours framed out by about 9:45am and the BIG cement truck showed up around 10:30! The men used the truck to fill individual wheel barrows and wheeled the cement back down the walkway where other guys were forming the cement. They were completely done by early afternoon and they really cleaned up after themselves...I was impressed with the work! They were able to match the half-moon swiping pattern and salt cure of the cement I already had in the driveway so that it didn't look like an afterthought. It is soooo much easier to get all my lawn equipment from the garage to the back yard now and I no longer have huge gaps between the dirt and the fence where I was worried the dogs could wiggle under and out! So I have a 5-foot walkway and then in the last 6-8 inches I added river rock to fill in the gaps...I think it looks awesome!

My Birthday Weekend in SLO and Avila...Happy 29!

Ok...now if you've noticed the dates on my last three posts you'd see that they are all out of chronological order! So to stay in consistency...I'm now jumping forward to February 9th, 2008. Mom and I went up to visit Wayne on my birthday weekend...I really just wanted to get outta town and get someplace beautiful! The weather was beautiful and only the evening was chili enough to force a sweatshirt. We went out for fish and chips for lunch at a cute little place in SLO that had an outside patio so the pups didn't have to stay in the car. Baylie especially loves to people watch and she and Kailey both typically have pretty good manners when we're out in public. After lunch Mom, Wayne, Amy and I hit the dog beach in Avila to let the girls run and play. Baylie always plays until she is literally sick...I think she just ingests too much of the salty water and sand but she never lets that stop her! Both girls played for a solid couple of hours and slept all the way home! They even seemed slightly lethargic the next day so I know that they had as much fun as we all did watching! It made for a relaxing birthday weekend away from work and the grind of everyday stresses.