Our little girl is 3 today. I love having a small dog that I can pick up and smooch and Tilly is the perfect girl for the job. She is a real love muffin and she will spend hours in my lap snuggling and flirting. Thanks Chris for breeding such a wonderful Cavie!! I highly recommend the breed.
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It is a wonder that I get anything done with Tilly hanging around. She always has to be in the middle of everything just in case I need her help. Sometimes she is so darn cute that I work around her rather that disturb her. Here are a few pictures of her helping me quilt and assisting me with my laptop.
How can I sew with her cute face in front of the needle
Taking a nap on top of my fabric
Peeking over the monitor of my laptop to see if she an help me spellcheck
Filed under Tilly
Once again this year Tango and Hope co-hosted their annual birthday party. Susan baked special dog friendly cups cakes smothered in “icing”. Both Tango and Hope had their eyes focused on the same cup cake but when they got the go ahead to start eating, they quickly figure out which one was theirs.
As you can see by Tilly’s chin and her ear (in the picture below)…….everyone thoroughly enjoyed their treat.
Filed under Foster Puppies, Tango, Tilly
Would you believe that less than 10 hours ago our yard was virtually snow free……look at it now. Mother Nature definitely has a sense of humour. It is just so beautiful but the heavy, wet snow is causing havoc in Edmonton. Trees are falling down and taking out power lines all over the city. I’m glad I have today off so that I could go around the yard and shake/shovel the snow off all my shrubs and trees to prevent them from getting damaged. The dogs are loving it!!
It was a beautiful, mild day on Sunday so we knew that we had to grab the puppies and spend some family time outside. First Don, Tango, Wally and I went for a brisk 12km walk. Then we packed everyone into the van and headed out to Stony Plain. Wally and Tango did a little SAR training and then we all went for a nice off leash walk. Everyone was wet, muddy and very happy when we were done.
I found a talented local artist who did these spectacular drawings of our “kids”. I just gave her pictures of the dogs and I got these wonderful keepsakes. I know that when they have all gone to puppy heaven, I will have these amazing drawings to ease my heartache. She is particularly talented at capturing the eyes…they show the heart, soul and personality of our dogs. People who have seen the drawings and know our dogs comment on how she has managed to convey much more than just an image. I love them all but I especially love the one of Wally with his big, jowly puddles. If you would like to commission a drawing of your beloved companion animal, get in touch with me and I will give you her contact info.
I surprised Don and got this extra drawing of Tango in her search vest that he can hang in his office at work.
Filed under Tango, Tilly, Two legged family, Wally
This week we had Don’s Mom over for dinner to celebrate her 96th birthday. As you can see from the pictures, each dog took their opportunity to snuggle with Grandma and wish her a very Happy Birthday!
Filed under Tango, Tilly, Two legged family, Wally
We spent another wonderful day at Patty’s acreage with all the dogs. It was great to walk the property without trudging through thigh deep snow…..but…..the damn mosquitos were crazy. I’ve never seen so many in my life. We had to bathe our entire bodies in deep woods off to keep from getting eaten alive. There were so many that you could hear a loud hum. The City is saying that we are experiencing the worst mosquito infestation ever in recorded history. The annoying part is that this variety is out in full force during the hottest part of the day. Poor Hope got so many bites on her pretty, black face that she was all swollen and itchy. She must have an allergy to them.
Even with all the skeeters we had a wonderful time. Tilly got to meet a horse up close and personal…..I think the horse enjoyed it more than she did.
Wally managed to roll in everything stinky and disgusting that he could find. His beautiful golden coat took on a greenish patina from all the poop he ground into it. We left the big dogs outside in the dog run so that they could dry off. Tango managed to squish her fat head through the gate and got herself stuck. Thank goodness my “mommy” instincts kicked in and I decided that I needed to check on the kids so we were able to free her before any damage was done. It took two baths to get the green tinge and disgusting smell out of Wally’s coat.
Filed under Foster Puppies, Tango, Tilly, Wally
I have to start out this post by apologizing to Tilly’s breeder. Sorry Chris! I couldn’t help it. Our Tilly is not a prim and proper British girl. She’s a gardener. She loves hanging out in the backyard, digging in the mud and coming back in the house with leaves, twigs and mud intertwined in her beautiful, ruby fur coat. I swore I was never going to trim her but I’ve had to reconsider. First I tried just trimming her feet to get rid of her hairy, polar bear toes…..but it just wasn’t enough. To top it off, she has managed to get huge matts in her ears and belly from gardening.
To make the process less traumatic, I hired a mobile groomer to come to our house so that I could be part of the process and make sure Tilly wasn’t too stressed out. I was picturing a mobile grooming van pulling up on our driveway….but I got a Goth, heavily chained and pierced groomer who showed up an hour late with just her clippers, scissors and Hartz pet shampoo from Dollarama. I was so tempted to just say thanks but no thanks but I knew I wouldn’t be able to get an appointment with another groomer for several weeks and I just couldn’t take the mess any more. She did an ok job but I insisted that she use our high quality shampoo and creme rinse. Not only did I pay about the same I would have paid at a groomer’s shop but I was left with all the mess to clean up.
All things considered, I guess I am grateful that the first grooming was done in the comfort of our home but next time she is going to the puppy beauty salon….no more Goth groomer for us.
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Tilly just loves this golf ball. She will chase it around the house and then run up stairs and watch it bounce down the stairs. My only concerns is that Wally or Tango could get a hold of it and choke on it (like Oprah’s beautiful golden did when she played with the Cocker spaniel’s small ball). Tilly only gets to play with it when I can supervise everyone.
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Last weekend we attended a fund raising event for H.A.R.T. (Humane Animal Rescue Team). They had a professional photographer that donated her time to take Valentine themed pictures with proceeds going to HART. I think they turned out pretty good.
Happy Valentine’s Day to you and your two and four legged loved ones!!
Today we had the pleasure of celebrating both Hope and Tango’s birthday. Hope turned 3 yesterday and Tango is 7 today. Don’t they look marvellous for their age!
We spent the day at Patty’s acreage and we all had a wonderful time. It was a surprisingly mild February day for Alberta. We had lovely home made pizza for lunch and then the whole gang went on a walk around Patty’s acreage. I got to wear Patty’s snow shoes to try and keep from falling through the deep snow. I had a few good wipeouts and Don and Patty had to hold my hands on the steep downhill parts but I survived! Tango scraped the underside of one of her dew claws. Good thing that Patty is a Vet and she was able to put her skills to good use and put some blue vet wrap on our drama queen’s boo-boo.
After our walk the two legged party goers enjoyed Patty’s delicious rhubarb crisp and the 4 legged ones enjoyed a special birthday cake homemade by Susan.
Here are a few more pictures from our wonderful day.
Filed under Foster Puppies, Tango, Tilly, Wally
This morning I had to take Wally to the Vet because he had this weird, weeping, crusty, inflammation on the side of his muzzle. While we were waiting to see Dr. Scott they asked if I would be willing to allow Wally to participate in a study that the University of Calgary is doing. They are taking blood samples from pure bred dogs to study their longevity. My golden boy has been a regular blood donor for almost 10 years now so getting a blood sample from him would be easy. I mentioned that I had my other dogs with with me and offered their blood too.
Wally was in and out in 2 minutes. Then came Tango…my drama queen. She is such a German Shepherd. She started vocalizing the minute she got into the reception area. They took her into the back to get the sample. I could hear her screams from the waiting room. The Tech was laughing and shaking her head when she brought Tango back to me. Then came little Tilly. I thought for sure she was going to be a drama queen too but she surprised me. All the techs were busy in surgery so one of the other Vets volunteered to get her blood. Poor Tilly….I felt so sorry for her. They had a hard time finding the vein in her neck and they kept stabbing her repeatedly…my little ruby pin cushion. Finally the Vet gave up and got a Tech to complete the deed. As you can tell by Tilly’s facial expression…..she was NOT amused.
My ‘kids’ know that when I am having yogurt, they always get to lick the empty cup. They especially like it when a large container is ready for their pre-wash cycle. They all try to shove their muzzles into the bowl at the same time and they often end up with yogurt face.
Filed under Foster Puppies, Tango, Tilly, Wally
Well we finally had a nice weekend without tons of new snow or freezing temperatures. We celebrated by meeting out at Patty’s house with all of the dogs (Wally, Tango, Tilly, Hope and Bentley). The gang went for a walk in the waist deep snow desperately trying to keep to the narrow track for fear of getting stuck in the deep stuff. At some points the snow was so deep that the dogs looked like they were dog paddling in water to keep from sinking into the snow. Of course Wally found a pile of horse/cow poop to roll in and all the dogs had their fare share of “meadow muffins” to eat. The wind was incredible but at least it was a couple of degrees above zero so it wasn’t bad.
Filed under Foster Puppies, Tango, Tilly, Wally
Our dogs have a really bad case of cabin fever. With the Xmas holidays and generally freezing cold weather, Tango and Don haven’t been out doing any training and it has been too miserable to take the dogs for a good off-leash run. Poor Wally has had to put up with Tango jumping on him and using him as her personal chew toy and energy release. Well all that changed on New Year’s day. We met Susan and the gang for a good romp in the snow. As you can see by the video there are a lot of smiling faces (puppy and human alike) and wagging tails. We even managed to coax little Tilly up the giant snow mound.
Filed under Foster Puppies, Tango, Tilly, Wally
..and all through the house not a creature was stirring…not even the dogs.
Wally and Tilly curled up by the fireplace waiting for Santa to arrive
Here’s a cartoon from DrawTheDog.com. It reminds me of my ‘kids’….they are always shoving their big heads into all parcels and bags to check out what goodies are inside.
It is hard to believe that our little girl turns 1 today. She has brought such joy and laughter to our home. There is something about having a small, cuddly dog that you can pick up and smooch. She has taken over our bed and makes sure that she has the best real estate..between the two of us and under the covers of course. Her birthday present was a big, juicy prime rib bone.
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Ok, I admit it. I am a sucker for those big, sad, brown eyes. When I am leaving the house, all Wally has to do is give me the ‘look’ and I have no choice but to invite the dogs to come along. To be honest, I enjoy their company as much as they like tagging along as my co-pilots. They take turns sitting in the passenger seat and watching the world go by. They love drive-thrus and they instinctively know which ones give out dog treats. When we go to our neighbourhood Tim Hortons, all three squish on to the front seat to wait for their dog cookie or better yet a Tim-bit.
It is funny to watch drivers’ reactions as they casually look around and then discover they are being watched by Tango’s intense stare or they ooh and ahh when they see little Tilly and Wally cuddled up together. I can’t imagine my life without dogs.
Don and Tango were out training on the weekend. Wally and Tilly took up their place at the front door waiting for them to return safely. I just love that my ‘kids’ snuggle together. It just makes my heart melt when I see them all intertwined together.
Every Sunday Tilly goes to her small dog play group. Today happens to be Halloween and a lot of her ‘playmates’ came in costume. We have quite a few Dachshunds in our group and they have the most amazing costumes designed for their long bodies. We had the classic weiner between a bun, purple dragon, a jockey, flower, angels, dracula, princess, superman, ladybug, bumble bees and a clown. It was very entertaining.
Filed under Tilly
One of the members of the search group got a new 9 week old puppy on the weekend. She is such a sweetie. She is joining a household with one senior German Shepherd (Sisko) and another one that is about a year and a half (Halo). I got my much needed fix of puppy breath and smooches. She doesn’t have a name yet but I’m sure it will be coming soon.
Here are a few pictures of Halo with her head and giant ears sticking out the cat door:
Tilly meeting Chief. You can tell by her body language that she is thinking…..”my what a big puppy you are…..Mommy help!!”
I’ve entered a picture of Tilly in the Modern Dog Magazine photo contest. If you would like to vote for her, click here
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We have Hope with us for a short visit and sleep over. We just love it when we get the opportunity to spend some time with one of our former foster ‘kids’. Everyone two and four legged enjoys the visit. I was up bright and early his morning and took them all for a walk and then we came back and had breakfast. Sleeping beauty, aka Don, was still sound asleep so we all ran upstairs and jumped on the bed to try and wake him up. As you can tell by the picture Don is a very skilled sleeper. Even with 4 dogs in bed nothing interferes with his beauty rest…..well maybe there is a little hint of a smile on his lips.
Filed under Foster Puppies, Tango, Tilly, Two legged family, Wally
We just received Tilly’s Canadian Kennel Club registration in the mail today (thanks Chris!). This was the final step in transferring ownership from the breeder to us. They combined the Kennel name with her name so her official registered name is Caruaidd Tilly.
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I blew it. Tango didn’t wake us up last night to go potty so I thought she was on the mend…..big mistake. I went to work this morning with plans to come home around 10:00am to let her out. Well I got busy, lost track of time and didn’t get home until noon. I knew the second I opened the door and my olfactory sense kicked into overdrive it wasn’t going to be good. The poor girl had projectile diarrhea on the mat at the back door, all over the family room and even upstairs on the hallway rug. I rushed in and opened the back door to let her out and she ran past me and exploded some more. Oh but the good news doesn’t stop there. I opened Tilly’s kennel and she was all wet. Guess who else has diarrhea. She went straight into the sink for a full muzzle to tail bath…..yuk! It’s a good thing that blogs don’t come with smell-a-vision and I won’t gross you out by posting any pictures of the fall-out. On the positive side, Tilly is all soft, silky and smelling wonderful. It’s a good thing I love my ‘kids’.
I’m working at home today because poor Tango has a bad case of diarrhea. I was able to capture this cute video of Tilly trying to entice Wally to play with her. She has a chewed up straw in her mouth that she wiggles in front of his face. When she drops it he grabs it and the game is on. You can see him pushing his muzzle in her face so that she can grab the straw and the game can continue. He is just such a sweet, gentle boy when he plays with her…..I just love my golden boy! Sorry the video quality is so poor. I had to use my phone to capture the moment because my video camera was in another room and I didn’t want to take the chance of interrupting the interaction by getting up and leaving the room.
We took our kids and our house guest Hope for a free run. The grass was so tall that in places all I could see was the tip of Wally’s tail curled up high over his back. Forget about finding Tilly….it was impossible. She had a great time running through the grass and chasing after her much bigger buddies. I captured this cute video of everyone just being a dog and having fun….not to mention running into my camera. Check out Tilly’s giant ears flapping like wings as she runs.
Filed under Foster Puppies, Tango, Tilly, Wally
Just got an email this morning that the folks over at DrawtheDog.com have published the picture of Tilly looking out the front door. Check it out by clicking on this hot link…..Big World. How exciting!!!
If you are not familiar with DrawtheDog.com…..6 days a week they publish a cartoon inspired by pictures they receive. You can subscribe and get the picture emailed to you each day.
I think I am going to order a copy of the print. Thanks DrawTheDog!!
Filed under Tilly
I just love this image. Tilly’s cute, little orange body sitting in front of the giant door just quietly watching the world go by.
Filed under Tilly
Life In The Dog House 