Wordless Wednesday

Overdue Father's Day!

Five Reasons I WOOF my Dad!!!

* He takes me to new and exciting places with lots of things to sniff!

* He gives me lots of treats and sometimes even scraps from his dinner plate.

* He lets me sleep on the bed and cuddle up next to him.

* He mows the grass and keeps the yard nice for me to play in. (this includes picking up after me)

* He loves me!!

I woof you Dad!

Farewell Froggies & Other Things!

Well, the cute little tadpoles grew into even cuter little Pacific Tree Frogs! I mean how can you resist squishy little frog bellies plastered to the side of the tank....adorable! Mom's friend identified them and told Mom how to take care of them properly. After school was out they came to live with us for a couple of weeks and Mom fed them crickets which they loved to pounce on and feast on. :) Every day Mom and I would check on them and while Mom observed them I smelled their stinky tank....ahhh, frog aroma! ;)

However, as much as Mom and I loved them we knew they must be released to enjoy their natural habitat so last Saturday when Mom and her friend went to Seattle shopping they made a froggy pit stop to let them hop free. Dad told Mom of this nice little spot where they could live so Mom and her friend walked through the forest a bit and found a nice, lush, green area for the froggies to call home.

Some of the little froggies jumped right out but mostly Mom had to gently place them in their new home. They quickly started hopping around and Mom said goodbye and left them to enjoy nature. We are sad but very happy for the frogs! Happy Hopping you guys! :)

In other news, we have been enjoying lots of great stuff from our garden!

Can you guess what Mom made here? YUM!

I got to sample a bit of the ice cream that went on top. YUM!

Then, my pal Hank came over and we had fun getting treats out of my toys. :) I tried to teach Hank the proper way to do it. Notice how I use my paws and then notice.....

how Hank just sticks his muzzle in and roots around. It's very cute but if he ever learns the proper paw placement I think he will find it is much easier! More practice is needed Hank so you will have to come over again soon. :)

Last picture is of me when the pawrents and I were scouting for wedding locations. That's right, my pawrents are getting married in 2 and a half weeks!! That and Mom's work schedule has prevented us from blogging and we miss all of you but soon things will return to normal, we hope. :) Guess what?? I get to be the ring dog and I got a very new fancy collar to wear and a customized id tag just for the big day! Pictures of that to come soon. :) Hope you all are doing well and enjoying your summers thus far!

Play Time With Brix and Anna

I got in a little play time with my pals Brix and Anna yesterday! It was pawesome! It was a warm and windy day and the wind on this day was actually welcome because it made it feel cooler. :) Normally we get very tired of the wind around here as it is relentless but some days it feels very nice and this was one of those days. The sky was perfectly blue with big, puffy, white clouds and we dogs ran and played in the field. Ahhhh, I wish all days could be like this!

Brix


Anna

Moi

Brix got in a little rolling....don't worry, nothing stinky! :) I did too...it felt good to scratch our backs on the grass.

Then Brix did his best frog impression! I can't do this with my legs but my pal Ozzie is also a pro at this move. :) Brix's Dad says he is "Frog Doggin'" when he does this....cute huh! I wonder what my friends the Pacific Tree Frogs would think?

Brix LOVES his Dad so much and he is just a big lap dog. He loves to jump up and give his Dad big hugs and kisses and he also likes to be held like a baby in his Dad's arms! Not me, I will keep my feet firmly planted on the ground, thank you!

A perfect day! I think I see a bone shaped cloud...do you see it? ;)

Nala Visits Kindergarten!

Mom's last day of school was yesterday and she is really sad. :( This was her first year of teaching and she LOVED it! This week I got to go to her school and meet her kiddos. She made this video in honor of that trip! She always talked about me and she promised them at the end of the year she would bring me to meet them. It was SO much fun and no wonder Mom loves them all so much....they are pretty special kiddos. Mom says that she will ALWAYS treasure and hold a special place in her heart for this amazing Kindergarten class and her co-teacher who she refers to as the Kindergarten guru! :) You see, Mom shared her class with an amazing teacher who knows the ins and outs of Kindergarten and she feels very fortunate to have learned so much from her. Mrs. H....you rock! Mrs. H. taught mornings and my Mom, Ms. S., taught afternoons! That's how she got to stay home with me in the mornings. :) Now, if I can only get her to stop boo-hooing every time she thinks about it.

Wordless Wednesday

Zen & the Art of Butterfly Rearing

This weekend, Dad had the idea for us to walk on the college campus that is near us. We never go there so it was a nice change. :) We found this very cool Zen garden to play in too! On our way out the back door, we noticed a sign that said keep pets outside...OOPS, Mom and Dad forgot to stay out! BOL! Really though, we didn't see it on the way in but don't worry...I was a very good girl and didn't dig or do anything naughty. Mom and I just played a little tag and some other games.

There she goes!

I can always catch her though but she never gives up trying to outrun me....silly humans! :)

Then we did a little synchronized jumping! I think we should go on the road with our act! BOL!

And of course, some posing! This is MY personal favorite. ;)

But Mom liked this one better...go figure!

And don't forget, Dad was with us too!

And now I will finish off with the end of the butterfly story! If you recall from a couple of weeks ago my Mom still had little caterpillars in her classroom. Click HERE to see that post. Well, week 3 after their arrival was filled with j-shapes and chrysalises!

I LOVE the gold flecks in the Painted Lady chrysalis....so pretty! If you look closely I bet you can see some things that will be butterfly parts when they are ready to emerge. Also, check out those strong silk buttons they spin to hold themselves up! Amazing!

After about 7 days inside the warm, cozy chrysalis the butterflies decided to emerge and this is what they looked like! GORGEOUS, aren't they! Look carefully at the one on the orange and you can see that it is using it's proboscis to sip sweet orange nectar.

Mom took her class out to release the little butterflies and it was quite fun according to her. She said some of them didn't want to leave though and it was tricky work to carefully get them out of the net.

Mom let them crawl on her finger and then she would slowly let them crawl onto her student's fingers and then they would fly off! She says the kiddos were grinning from ear to ear and it was fun to see! They said, "Bye-bye butterfly" as each one flew off! I hope they are happy in their new outdoor home now. :)

Wordless Wednesday

Catching Up

Wow, it seems like I have fallen off the face of blogland. :) Sorry pups, my Mom has been really busy. Here are some pics to catch you up on my happenings the past couple of weeks and I can't wait to catch up with all of you as well. :)

For Memorial weekend, we went to my Nanny's and had a great time with friends and family! It was so fun to have everyone together and I got lots of compliments from people saying how calm I was. ;) Guess I'm growing up but shhhh, don't tell anyone! As you can see I played a little football and I also played tennis....well, I tried but the humans kept shooing me off the court! They had this portable tennis court called a quickstart or something like that with big nerf-like balls. They sure seemed to have fun with it but I preferred shagging the balls for them. ;)

I also met a new furiend! This is Maggie and she is a Schnauzer like my pals JD and Max. :) She belongs to Wendy who is a friend of Scott, my Dad's friend and my pal Chevron's Dad.

We said our proper hellos and played a little but she wasn't as interested in me as I was in her. She preferred to follow Chevron and sniff things.

Etsuko, my Uncle Joel's girlfriend, was there too and I got to play with her! I LOVE Etsuko. :)
What a great time!

This past week, I went on lots of walks and then my pal Gracie came to stay for two nights! At first, I was very growly with her as I had to make sure she knew she was on my turf and I called the shots but then I settled in just fine. :) Mom didn't like my growliness but we worked it out quickly and resumed our normal playing routine. The last day she was with me, we went to go for a walk but the trail was underwater so we just ran around and splashed in the field! We were both dripping from head to paws and smelling of murky water! However, that wasn't the only smell...this BLM dude distracted Mom and next thing she knew Gracie was rolling in a dead skunk carcass!! peeeuuuuu! It was awful! We rode home with all the windows down and then Mom gave BOTH of us a bath!! How rude, what did I do to deserve a bath?? The bath helped but Gracie still had a bit of a smell when Mom took her home. Wonder if her family liked her perfume???

More splashing

Speaking of Gracie's family, they are moving this summer and I am very sad! They are really cool humans and of course, Gracie, is one of my very best furiends. :( I will miss them but hopefully Gracie and I can play more before they go.

Finally, I am at the end. This past weekend, we went to Leavenworth,WA which is a small, Bavarian style town. This woman named Riki Ott who wrote the book, Not One Drop, about the Exxon Valdez oil spill was speaking there. Her website is http://www.ultimatecivics.com/. It's cool stuff and she has lots of book suggestions on there if you are interested in this type of reading. :) Mom and Dad went to see her and they also went out to dinner with some friends. That wasn't the exciting part for me....my fun times started the next day. We got up and walked into town and I got some treats and a special bear cookie from the pet store. Then we had some coffee and I lounged while the pawrents drank their coffee and decided on a hike. Finally, Dad found a hike and we were off. It was beside of a creek and there were lots of pretty flowers but also a few bugs. I have a couple of bumps from the bug bites but it was worth it. After that, it was back into town for some lunch and then time to head home. What a grrrreat weekend! :)

Mom was very proud as I got many compliments on what a good girl I was and also many people complimented me on my stunning looks. ;) When ya got it, ya got it! BOL!

Oh, I almost forgot...I will update you on the butterflies and frogs later. Yes, Mom's classroom has butterflies now and lots of them. Also, she has moved the frogs into a tank as they were ready. My furiend, Samson the Irish Setter's Dad is a frog scientist and he identified them as Pacific Tree Frogs. Mom is hoping they will eat the bugs she gave them and do ok. A few of them didn't make it and this is why Mom was very quickly getting them into their new habitat and getting them bugs to eat. Jason, the frog scientist, said that this is common for many of them not to make it and it also is common in the wild. While this made Mom feel a bit better she was still sad for the little guys that didn't make it. :( As for what will happen to the rest of them, either Mom will keep them or have one of her students take them back to the area where they came from. She isn't going to let them go here as that would change the genetics of the ones already in this area.