skinny young couple??



Hey, its us, 31 years ago! Happy Anniversary to us!!

Our wedding day was a typical August day - hazy hot and humid with a heat index of 104. Now today is more of my kind of day - overcast with light showers and COOL, about 68 degrees. In celebration of the cool day I'm making a pot roast, which we haven't had in months. By this time of the summer, I am just sick of summer type food, meat cooked on the grill, etc. This will be a welcome change.

The dogs are loving this weather, too, and I've been taking advantage of it by getting them up on the grooming table and getting stripped out, nails trimmed, etc. There is something very satisfying about getting out those last stubborn tufts of undercoat!

Ah, what a glorious day! Bright blue skies, a strong breeze from the north, and temperatures around 70. A promise of the autumn to come, and I can't wait! The dogs are full of energy and are loving this, even old Wheezer has a spring in his step.

This afternoon we took Phoebe and Mandisa to a park not far from our house, that has kiddy BMX racing every weekend. I've never seen this before and it was fun to watch. The youngest kid we saw was a three year old boy who was slow, but did complete the course, with cheers from everyone.

It was good socializing for the dogs, seeing kids on bikes whizzing all over the place, a loudspeaker going at all times, and lots of people walking around. It was also a nice excuse to be outside on such a beautiful day! According to the forecasters we're due for about 4 more days of this weather and I'm looking forward to it.

Shrek says Hi!



Now here is a foolish toad, I found him this morning hiding in the big exposed roots of a large maple tree in the yard. I know he didn't get that big (at least 3 inches across the back, he's huge) in our yard - I hope he's able to escape before one of the dogs finds him!

What a difference a couple of days makes! Trick is feeling great, no more limp, and you would never know he had surgery a couple of days ago. He's back to his obnoxious and goofy self, getting into everything and thinking life is one big joke. This morning his totally destroyed one of the puppy toys; there was stuffing and a mangled squeaker spread over the area rug in the living room.

With the advent of somewhat cooler weather, I made a big pot of dog soup yesterday morning, and everyone got a ladle of it on their breakfast. Silly Phoebe was not impressed, she prefers either Alpo or Chicken Soup for the Dog's Soul canned food! I guess she's going to fit into the catagory of "weird food tastes" just like Shrek, who also prefers canned food to dog soup. Dog soup consists of either hamburger, chicken, or turkey boiled up with broth, sometimes some leftover veggies, and either white or brown rice or barley. It smells great and is human grade food. Most of the dogs think its manna from heaven, but there's always an exception. Now we have two exceptions!

Phoebe is doing great. She's put on several pounds and some of her undercoat is starting to grow back in. She is really enjoying the cooler temps here in CT. Wait until the weekend when overnight lows are expected to be in the upper 40's! She'll be running around like a maniac, I'm sure.

Here's a picture of her yesterday running up the yard. It's hard to get pictures of her because she doesn't stay still for a moment. I was playing around with my camera and found a "sports" setting which has very little lag time, and this helps.

Yesterday Trick got neutered. I'd been planning this for over a year now, but one emergency or another kept cropping up, and finally I was able to schedule the surgery and get it done. He's also been limping some on a front leg, and thought that since he was going to be out cold, it would be a good chance to see what was going on with that.

Bobo (Trick has many names!) came through the surgery just fine - so fine in fact, that I got a call that I could pick him up at 2 pm instead of the usual 6 pm. I went in back to take him out of the recovery kennel and Dr. Joe was laughing about him, saying he had "amazing testicles" and that they were so big he had to work a bit to fit them out of the incision he had made. We knew they were huge, as in the hot weather they swung down and banged on his hocks! Anyway, he said he may be a little sore and have some swelling because they were so big and there was some tissue trauma. He also found what looked like an old bite wound on his front leg that was causing the limping - I have no idea when that could have happened as Trick doesn't run with another dog, but knowing him, nothing is impossible! He's on antibiotics for two weeks and that should take care of that.

Trick was very sore and stiff last night when he went out at the end of the night, but his tail was curled and he seemed to be in good spirits. He wolfed down his dinner, no problems there! This morning he was much less stiff, although he is walking a bit like a cowboy in the rear He ate all his breakfast and was then begging some of mine, so it looks like he's going to make a quick recovery.

This morning I went out to the mailbox to mail some stuff, and when I came back into the gate, I noticed a huge spiderweb and spider in the corner of the yard. The sun was shining on it, and it looked beautiful. I got my camera and took several shots of it, trying to get a really good one. This was the best I could get. I hope it comes through clear enough to see the web.