Pandamonium Jacket

Pandamonium Jacket
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

My latest project for Etsy is this adorable Panda jacket by special request. Apparently the woman who requested it has a two year old who wants to be a panda for Halloween. How cute is that going to be? I also made some panda paw mittens to go with it. I added a drawstring to the hoodie, which I think will be a feature of all future hoodies. It's hard because I don't know anyone here with children I can try them on for fit and usefulness etc.

The Illusive Merf

Bleys merfs. When he is sleeping and dreams he makes a suppressed barking sound we have called the merf. I've been trying forever to capture this piece of adorableness for years, but have met with limited success. This video is the best I've been able to come up with so far. You make have to turn up your sound to hear what I 'm talking about.

River Walk

Mom and Bleys
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

Back in Big Rapids mom and I took a walk on the now completed River Walk. I think its been done for a while, but I haven't seen it so it was new to me. It was a very nice walk and here near the end we saw some brave tubers (it was a little on the chilly side that day) getting into the water. You may not be aware, but Big Rapids is the tubing capital of Michigan. Impressed, aren't you?

Adventure

We also spent quite a bit of time over at the Wiles' house, hanging out, chatting, and playing some Guitar Hero. Once we took Bleys over...Adventure wasn't sure about that. Although very bold, walking right over and sniffing Bleys nose to nose. There was only one hissing incident, which was warranted because Bleys has a tendency to forget that Adventure is a cat and hence doesn't want to play in a dog type fashion. You may notice in the picture that Adventure has just been shaved. Being a long haired cat, it seems to make a big difference in the summer.

Readyyyyyyy

Our next trek took us to Hastings, Michigan for our first U-Fli event. We mostly just wanted to check it out and have a little fun. We ran singles on Friday night and with a pick up team on Saturday. The other team members were mostly from Overdogs, but we did race once with a Rude Dog named Melee. Everyone there was very nice, totally welcoming, and it was a great time. Bleys was the height dog and measured at 6" (which is the lowest height available and quite a bit lower than he runs in NAFA). Bleys earned his Top Flight title and got a sweet squeaky toy out of the deal. The racing situation was a little different than Florida with the crating outside. But it did make the racing arena a little quieter...not a lot, mind you, but a little. Most teams camped out in RVs right at the site and used those as their crating area. We set up in an open pole barn across from the racing building. It was just fine, but I would imagine it might get a little hot sometimes. My Mom even stopped by for a while to check it out. It was really nice to have her see it!

Baroo

While in Kalamazoo we stayed with Jason who allowed us to crash his place whenever we needed to. He has a nice big back yard which Bleys really appreciated. He got to run around a lot more than he does down here. There is a fun picture over at Flickr of him running. He's a little blurry, but I just feel like he was having a really good time after two days in the car. Here he discovers that Roland is up on the deck.

Spring Fling

We attended another Flyball tournament this past weekend so I've been out of town since Friday. It was a really nice time although the facility just wasn't designed to hold that many people. The air conditioning really struggled to keep up, especially on Saturday when it was very sunny. The building is pretty much a metal box so it acts like an oven. Bleys didn't start racing until almost half-way through the day so he also struggled. He was pretty slow and we ended up spending quite some time out in the car's air conditioning at the end of the day. Sunday was better because at least part of the day was overcast, and Bleys started racing right off the bat. Bleys did very well for himself and I think everyone had a good time. Roland even ran Bleys for a couple of races! Although I'm not really sure how that went because I had to hide. If Bleys saw me, I'm pretty sure he would forget about the racing and try to come over and say hello instead! That's what happens at practice anyway.

Roland and I took quite a few pictures and for the most part they didn't turn out too badly. I'm still unhappy with the noise, but I'll have to experiment some more to see if changing some settings will allow a better result. A few of pictures are over at Flickr (click on the above picture), but most of them are at the Storm Riders website.

Now Bleys is at a new puppy boarding place and Roland and I are preparing to go up to Disney to see his parents, sister, niece, and brother-in-law. We will be back on Friday and then I'm going to just say no to traveling for a few weeks before we start our trek up to Michigan in mid-June.

Sproing

Sproing
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

Roland took some really nice pictures at practice today. He also ran Bleys for the first half of practice. We should have left it that way since when I took over Bleys didn't do very well. I worry that we might be starting to see some of the exercise intolerance that accompanies a worsening of his heart murmur. We will just have to wait and see, but I'm trying to prepare myself for the fact that we might not be attending too many more tournaments. We can still play on Sundays, but if he stops enjoying it... There are some more pictures over in my Flickr stream if you're interested.

Intro

For my birthday this year I asked for a nice digital camera. I have a really great pocket camera that I got as a hand-me-down from my Mom, but I wanted one that wasn't all about the size. I wanted some more features, increased zoom, better pixel density (my little one is only 3 mp), the ability to manually chance the aperture size and shutter speed. I decided against an DSLR because of the cost and my ability level. Anyway, here is one of the first pictures with my new snazzy camera. Of course the first thing I look to take a picture of is the fuzz-bucket. Isn't he anerable?

Corner

Corner
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

Photogamer hasn't been providing new prompts lately but someone on the discussion section posted one today. Take a picture of a corner.

Demo

This one was taken a while ago, but I seem to have forgotten to upload it. It was taken by one of the other people on the flyball team at the warm-up for the demo at Happy Tails Park. Bleys didn't actually get to run in the demo because I was doing the talking, but he did get to warm up before hand. Look at those ear flap! This was the day that he tripped over his ear hair a bit and I decided to trim them. I miss those long ears though.

Ret to go

The other day Bleys decided that he wanted to go to work with Roland. After getting ready in the morning he walked into the living room to find this, Bleys was totally already ready already. He was all up in his travel crate waiting to be whisked away to the land of eternal college-girls-who-think
-he-is-adorable-and-aren't-in-a-place-where-they-can-have-
pets-of-their-own. Puppy heaven.

Nose

Nose
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

Photogamer: take a picture of a nose. Bleys' nose is way cuter than mine, and much easier to take a picture of.

Fake

Photogamer for the day: Take a picture of something fake. My first impulse was to take a picture of some fake potatoes. Unfortunately we didn't have any in the house. Roland suggested I take make some mashed cauliflower, but that was little more effort than I was willing to put in. So I went for my fake fur blanket. But any time there is a blanket involved Bleys has to come take a look. So here is some fake fur with some real fur on top.

Swingin'

After a nice dinner with Kate, I arrived at Janice's late on Tuesday and the boys were already in bed. On Wednesday my alarm clock was the unmistakable sound of giggling. Zachary and Ashton are some adorable little guys and I had a lot of fun with them. They really are some awesome little people. On Saturday we started the day by going to Zachary's basketball game. Both he and Ashton are involved in basketball at a youth center at the base.

Ashton's group doesn't play actual games yet, but Zachary does. After the game, lunch, and a nap we headed over to a park to play and ride bikes. I took some pictures there so that Janice could send them to Bob. Here are Zachary and Ashton having a swinging good time. There are more pics of the game and fun in the park over at flickr.

Love story

One of the ladies on the flyball team wasn't able to come up for the whole weekend so she needed someone to drive her dog up so she could meet us there later. I volunteered, and Kimmie, one super cute border collie, spent probably an hour and a half at our place before we took off. She and Bleys had a jolly good time playing while we packed up. There is a whole series of pics over at Flickr. Check them out!

Look, they match!

I ended up with a whole lot of stuff I needed to take to the demo so I decided to make myself a little present. I wanted to make it in blue, but the only blue shades I liked were too dark to the Cavalier embroidery to show up. So I went with navy-red, in a nice micro-suede. It's quite roomy, and I thought it turned out nicely. The only thing I don't really like this that when it's empty it's a little bit floppy for my liking. I used the stiffest interfacing I could find, but what I really need is a specialty interfacing that is a bit expensive and I would have to order online. But seriously isn't that puppy just adorable?

Sketch

Drawing of Bleys
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

One bonus of being at the festival all day was that I got a chance to get this sweet picture of Bleys. A dude was drawing them for free (although he did accept tips). I wish I could sit down and put pencil to paper and have it come out looking like this!

Jumping to Digital

I couldn't resist trying again with my digital camera while I was at the dog park today.

Jumping

I had a few pictures left over on the cheap film camera so when I took Bleys to the dog park I tried to use them up. I ended up with some not so great ones, and then this one that made we wish I had taken my digital camera with me. Or that I had whatever camera my fellow flyballer Andrea has. She took some really nice portraits of the flyball dogs. You should totally check them out here.

Yet another sleeping picture

You may wonder why so many of my pictures of Bleys are of him sleeping. I think it is partly because he is so completely anerable when he is tired, and part of it is that way he isn't moving so I'm more likely to get a good picture.

A mess of Cavaliers

A while ago I mentioned going to a Holiday party for the Boca Raton Dog Club. It was a very nice time, albeit a little on the loud side as it was held in an old train depot. While there I met a very nice woman who breeds Cavaliers. She invited us over to for a play date sometime. Since January is apparently very busy with her show schedule we made arrangements to meet today. She has a nice house a bit north of here with a large (for around here) fenced in yard. We had a very nice time and Bleys really seemed to enjoy the company of this own kind of dog. Here a some of the pictures I took while we were there.

Asnorable

On the way back from Clearwater yesterday Bleys was in the back seat. We are very lucky because he doesn't mind riding in the car at all. In fact mostly it just makes him sleepy.

I do believe I'm getting tired.

It's gets so hard to keep my eyes open.

I think I'll just rest my head...

And take a little bitty nap.

Therapizing the masses

Last Thursday I participated in a Yuletide parade representing the Humane Society of Broward County Pet Therapy Pack. I wasn't sure exactly what that would mean, but they needed teams and it sounded like it might be fun. It turns out we just walked along the parade route as a group and let some of the people pet our dogs and generally let people know about what pet therapy is about. Roland was nice enough to come along and take pictures. An easy request, or so I thought. Unfortunately by the time our group actually got to being part of the parade it was full dark. Being a trooper he still took a bunch of pictures in hopes that some of them would turn out.

Here we are waiting for the parade to get a move on. The lady in the front was from the group in front of us, a Police Bagpipe and Drum Corps. They were pretty cool to listen to seeing as how we were outside so the volume of the pipes wasn't offensive.

On the left is one of the other teams that walked in the parade with us, Patrice (leaning over) and Max (lying regally at her feet). I originally met Patrice and Max during our training and certification at the humane society class. Max is a beautiful Briard and they also go to the Renfrew center, which is where Bleys and I go.

On the right are Bleys and I, waiting with a cute Rottweiler mix (check out the other pics on Flickr for a picture where this Rottweiler mix has some seriously intense eye-glare). Isn't Bleys resplendent in his tiny green vest? There are a couple more shots that I liked over on my Flickr account, but I kind of been feeling like I've been over doing it on the pictures lately so I will leave off here.

We're taking on water

Alright, this post is going to be picture heavy, because I think my dog is pretty darn cute. Yeah I'm totally biased. While I was gone Roland was awesome and took Bleys to that Splash Adventure thing again and took some great pictures. He had my old camera, which has quite the shutter lag, so it was a little frustrating, but a lot of the pictures turned out really well. We went last year (at a different park) and had a great time. We were at Disney when they did the dog day at the park we went to last year so Roland had to drive a bit longer this time, but it

sounds like a fun time was had by all.

In the first picture, which is much easier to see in the large version over on Flickr, Bleys has three - count them three- tennis balls he is sort of corralling and trying to decide which to bring. At this point he seems to be leaning toward the largest one, which clearly he could never fit in his mouth. But, I guess we should all dream big!

They don't allow you to bring your own toys and they didn't have any small balls, so Bleys ended up settling for a regular sized tennis ball. Still way to big for him, it's hard for him to get it in his mouth. But he will go after it over and over again, until exhausted. When he is swimming he looks much bigger than he really is because all his fur floats out. He looks downright chubby here!

Some of the sporting breed must be left in the Cavalier because I think Bleys likes to have a job to do. I don't suppose his job is to empty the pool of water by carrying it out one coat-full at a time, but he's going to make a go of it. Boy does that little dog soak up a lot of moisture!

Just look at that concentration, this dog is on a mission.

And last, but not least, is my personal favorite. The situation where the dog is soaking wet and looks up at you like he is saying:

"Want a hug?"

Plus, Roland got the added bonus of catching him mid-lick. What a cute little drowned rat! I love him even if much all of his majesty is lost when he gets wet.

Stay

While I was in Big Rapids I also got a chance to visit with the Grants. Susan and my Mom are good friends, she is a local judge and Don is retired. In college I used to house sit for them while they went on vacation in the summer, tending to their dogs (at the time two corgis) and keeping an eye on the joint. A number of years later, while I was working for the Humane Society of Kent County, they were looking for a dog to add to their family (they also have a retired greyhound named Maggie) and I found Bailey for them. Now they have a third rescue named Guinney (which she pronounces like Gwinny). Here is a picture of the two little ones, with Bailey on the left and Guinney on the right. It isn't the best picture ever, but as Don said, taking a picture of the two of them is like herding cats. Guinney has some issues to overcome, I think she was an entirely outdoor dog and consequently has very little idea about what humans are about. But she sure is cute!

On the way to flyball

Bleys and Jubilee on the way to flyball practice this morning. Jubilee did awesome, as expected. She didn't care who she ran for, Derek, me, whoever. As long as there was a ball involved she was fine. Bleys did all right as well. He still gets a little spooked when a dog is coming off the lane and he is supposed to go on it. And he still doesn't grok that it would be great if he actually caught the ball from the box, but it's going well anyway. I think they both had a good time.

Roland was nice enough to join me this morning to help wrangle both dogs and crates and whatnot. It was nice to have him there, but it is very early, so I'm not sure how often it will happen. Oh, and there are a couple other pictures of these two on the way to practice in my Flickr account if you are interested.

Hanging out

After a short morning at the dog park everyone wanted to hang out with Roland. Apparently that's the place to be. I wanted to spend longer at the park, but Jubilee chased about a million tennis balls and frisbees and she was panting really hard and wouldn't take a break. So we came back early. I figure if it comes down to it, we can go back later and use up some more energy.

Jubilee

I'm dog sitting this weekend. A woman named Andrea recently moved to the area and has been practicing with our flyball team. She runs with a team up in Jacksonville, so going to practice with them every week isn't going to work.

Anyway, Andrea had to go away for the weekend so I'm looking after her gorgeous lab Jubilee. Isn't she beautiful? So far we've just been hanging out, but I think tomorrow we will leave Roland in peace to grade papers for a while and go to the park. Then on Sunday we will all troop over to flyball practice. Should be a good time. I'm not sure Jubilee will do a flyball run without her person, but even if she doesn't I can take my Chuck-it and we can play fetch after the practice. That way when Andrea comes to pick up Jubilee later on Sunday she will hopefully be all tired out and ready to relax for the rest of the day.

Stowaway

Roland is at his Georgetown reunion this weekend, however Bleys didn't seems to want him to go. Here he is trying out his chances at stowing away in the luggage.

Peanut Butter Kong

One of Bleys' favorite things in life is a Kong toy filled with peanut butter and then frozen. However, we quickly discovered that if left to his own devices he would get his ears all up in the peanut butter creating quite a sticky mess. So, now before he gets this delectable treat I pull his ears back with one of my hair ties. Admittedly he doesn't appreciate this and it looks pretty silly, but the peanut butter is enough to distract him from the embarrassment of it all.

Watching

Do you ever get that feeling, like you're being watched?

Nosicle

I happened to have my camera within reach last night while we were hanging out. So, I was taking pictures of Bleys and I thought this one turned out pretty well.

As he was trying to nap at the time so he wasn't super appreciative of my activities. He is apparently sensitive to all the beeping and other noises associated with my camera. Every time I focused, took a picture, or changed a setting he had to open his eyes to check out what was going on.

In other news I had a lovely chat with Katie the yesterday. It was really nice to talk with her and it made me miss having close friends I really feel comfortable with. For some reason the people I know down here I just don't feel at ease around. Perhaps I just haven't known them long enough? I don't know. Anyhow, it was nice to talk with her.

Lime Green Pillow

This evening Bleys and I were hanging out on the couch, he was over on one side and I was on the other. Apparently at some point this became too great a distance between us. Bleys got up and moved closer and ended using my feet as a pillow. Roland was able to quietly get up and get the camera to capture this moment. Bleys' head was really nestled in there at first, but when Roland came back with the camera he moved a little before deciding that food was not forthcoming and going back to sleep.

Hide me!

Bleys doesn't really like to be bathed. I would say he doesn't like to be wet, but he enjoys swimming in lakes and loved the splash adventure last year. I think he mostly just likes water on his own terms. Which, evidently doesn't include rain or a bath.

Now after a bath I use a hair dryer to dry him off. Ridiculous? Probably, but he has a lot of allergies and a lot of hair. If I don't do the whole hair drying thing he will get all itchy and matted. Not pretty. Anyhow, he doesn't really care for this process either. It doesn't bother him so much on his body, it's more about his face. He hates it when you blow on his face too. We've come to somewhat of a compromise in which I cover his face with a towel while I dry the rest him. This past bath though, he REALLY didn't want the hair dryer near his head. As soon as I got him on my lap he burrowed his head under my arm and wedged his head behind my back. Roland took this picture over my shoulder.

Hopeful

When Bleys and I are training for flyball I leave his food in a little plastic cup that is usually just for measuring. When we finish I usually put it on the floor to show him there is no more food, otherwise he doesn't believe me that we are done. Lately he has taken to carrying it around the apartment a bit. This is absolutely adorable as when he grabs it, it covers most of his face. Unfortunately I haven't been able to snap a picture of it. However, I did get this picture of him looking very pitiful, and would you look at that, right next to his food cup. I believe I can hear him now...

"Please, they don't feed me. I haven't had a morsel in days and I'm so very hungry. Won't you slip into the kitchen and grab me a few pieces of food? I promise I won't tell."

Unfair

It just seems a little unfair that Bleys is only 16 pounds and yet takes up half of the chair. But now that he is four, I suppose he feels entitled.

Parrot

Parrot
Originally uploaded by Sirelroka

Bleys has recently taken to this new position. He creeps along the back of the chair, usually after a stint on the perch, and lays down with his head resting on your shoulder. It is one of the most adorable things ever. It also gives a person the biggest warm fuzzy when he does it. I mean who could resist that face snuggling into your neck? I wanted to get a picture of him with Roland, but this one turned out better instead. I think I'm still going to try to get some better ones later.

Tidy

Dr J posted some very nice pictures of Leon - Dog Wonder, so I thought maybe a cute picture of Bleys was in order. He obliged me by already laying there with his paws crossed.

Fuzzy

Bleys likes to destuff his toys, and today while napping he got a little on him.

Random

While crusing around the intarwebs I found a couple of things that are cool. One, going back to my food related silicone fascination, are these silicone muffin liners. The other is just cute. I just wish they came in sets of two different styles, not the same one twice.

Final Installment

Blyes likes the addition of furniture to our balcony. It allows him to have a comfy place to survey his kingdom.

Jet

Since he is currently totally freaking out, we are going straight into your Bleys fix for the day.





Why is he freaking out? They are powerwashing our entire building at the moment and it is quite loud from the inside. Especially when they go near the windows...in one of which his perch sits.

Chain

And now your daily Bleys on the porch fix! Today, two more pictures that make a person think we must totally abuse this poor dog. I mean, why else would he be so sad?

Grievous

Not much going on here. I've been doing a little (uninspired) work on the website, and some work on a presentation for the nature center. Although Katie did call me earlier to tell me about a show about dogs, training, etc. so that was super cool (and I'm totally watching it right now)! I don't have anything else so, it is time for more all Bleys, all the time.

Today's installment: Pitiful Puppy.

Watchful

I don't really have much to say. Feelin' lonely without Roland, so I'll just leave you with more cuteness.

Undeniable

Welp, I just dropped Roland off at the airport. Boo hiss. He is heading out to Las Vegas to help with a gaming industry convention thing. The good thing? His trip is mostly free. The bad thing? I couldn't go with him. Well, I suppose that might be a good thing for him. He will be spending a lot of time sitting at a booth, but he's also got plans to see Blue Man Group I think. I hope he has a good time and buys me a present!

So the pup and I are on our own for a while. Before Roland left we were hanging out on the porch and we snapped some nice photos. There were quite a few nice ones so get ready for the Week of Bleys.






Holy crapulence that is one cute dog.

Merry Christmas

Lord of his...poofy seat.

Need your cute fix? Here are a couple of pictures of Bleys in the back of the car during our trek up north.

Bleys surveys his domain.


Later he tries to get as close as possible to the front seat as his harness will allow. His nose almost makes it.

Split

So it was a really crappy day. I'm trying to change web hosts and it's doing very poorly at this stage. I think I'm going to need to have a marathon phone session with Jason. I already tried the help people and I couldn't even get the concept of switching hosts through to them. Then we got painted out of our apartment. We went out for a bit and when we came back there was a maintenance dude out there painting the floor of our landing. So how do we get in? Oh you need to wait at least a half an hour if not an hour for that to dry. And did we get any warning that this would be happening? No siree bob. What happens when I got to the office to ask what the deal is? They lady there laughs at me when I explain the situation, tells me that the guy who is doing it "just sort of works on his own thing" so they don't really know what he's doing or when. She also "only works on the weekends so she has no idea what to do" and her only response other than to laugh at my predicament is "I don't have a magic wand" so she can't even tell me if there was any notice/memo that we might have missed. We not only get a newsletter each month that would have been the perfect place to post that sort of thing, the complex manager has the time to post fliers about her Tupperware parties all the time. One would think a similar operation could warn people that they weren't going to be able to get in or out of their apartment for a while. Then after about 2 hours the dog has to go out. No problem right? It's been 2 hours now. I open the door and there he is just starting to paint the stairs. Sheesh.

So it was a really great hour. Dave, Bleys, and I went to another event full of doggy fun today. The lady who coordinates pet therapy at the humane society sent out an email earlier this week about a water park that after they close for the winter allows a few days of dog splashing fun. We drove over there and it was an absolute blast. There were quite a few dogs there, but not enough to make it crowded. For the most part a very well behaved group too. There was even a dog who learned to play in the water from Bleys. The owner took heart when I told her about Bleys' swimming history. He totally didn't dig the water for about a year and a half and then one day he just jumped in like he'd loved it all the time. It was so much fun that it's tempting to go back tomorrow!







Watch as the adorable puppy attempts to fetch the plastic mini-basketball only to be thwarted and return empty handed.


Look carefully at the attempt to bat the ball into submission with his paws (what are you a cat?). Finally see him succeed and triumphantly return with his prize.

Howl-o-ween

Today was fun at the dog park. Roland humored me and accompanied me to Howl-o-ween down in Hollywood. There is a small dog park there and they hosted a get-together along with PetSupermarket and some other folks. There were booths for some rescues (Greyhound, Old English Sheepdog, mutts) and some dog related businesses (grooming, pet sitting, pet massage). There also were some demonstrations for flyball, Paws with a Cause, dog training. And of course a pet costume contest. Some of the other pets were:

There was a lobster and a K-9 Officer


An Italian Dinner (love the meatball on the head!) and a bumble bee


Draclua (actually there were about 5 of them) and Snow White


A ducky and a pumpkin


A soccer player and butterfly (her wings off at the moment)


The costume contest was a little weird because they had some odd categories which Bleys didn't fit into very well and the voting was by audience applause. We went with Scariest Costume and actually won 2nd place. I'm pretty sure that the lady deciding who got the most applause cheated because I don't think he really got much applause (there were a lot of larger groups there who applauded for their own pets). I think she just liked the costume. They even had prizes! So now his majesty has two new chew toys. What a great little brudder.

Excuse me, might there be any thatched roofed cottages around here?

Ok, so Cute Overload sucks just a little bit. They started posting pictures of pets in costume a while ago so I naturally sent them a picture of Bleys as Dogdor. Since then they have posted a bunch more (my current fave is the turtle shark) but no sign of Bleys. I mean seriously, he so holds up his end of the cute-o-meter.







I mean he's got wings and everything! I did have to remake the costume this year though, apparently he got longer sometime between when I made it and now. His tail didn't fit anymore. So I redid it and added the horn head thingy.

Dominion

And because I wouldn't want any of you to go without your Bleys fix. Soak up the majesty.

Wish pie

You may or may not have noticed that one of Bleys' favorite toys is a Kong toy with a Nylabone stuck in the end (so far he likes all the flavors). Roland discovered this a long time ago and we refer to it as frankentoy. It has provided Bleys with many hours of enjoyment and when we replace the nylabone there is much rejoicing. As near as we can figure he likes it because it not only provides him with some awesome chewage, but also because the Kong toy allows him to really use his paws and get a good grip on the thing for some serious gnaw action. Here are some prime pics of his cat-like paw usage.

But then I guess he got a little lazy one day because when I got up from the couch to go to the kitchen he followed me leaving behind this:

You should see him pounce on a tennis ball.

28

Happy Birthday to Bleys who is three today. He had a very full day: A long walk in the morning, breakfast, a nap, doing some therapy work which mostly involves ladies loving on him for an hour, a snuggly nap, dinner, a short nap (above), a Frosty Paws (below) in celebration of his B-Day, and now another nap. It's a good life.

Smooshed face

One of the dangers of having a muzzle puff is that when you nap hard core you end up with smooshed face.

Some serious nappage.


Then voila...smooshed face dog. Notice the marked difference between the left and right cheeks (yes, you may click to embiggen). Sometimes he even gets it stuck on his teeth. So very cutiter wootiter.


Sorry about the quality it was too dark to see what I was taking a picture of so I was taking them blind. I suppose that is what happens when you're trying to take a picture under your desk at night.

Seriously

The world cutest drug dog in training.

Woot!

Sharing

While I was sewing the other day and a certain someone needed to share my chair with me. Isn't he helpful?

I just can't stop

I was doing some work on the cutting board and after moving PW off to the side (it's hard to work with a puppy in the middle of the board) he fell asleep. So, clearly it was time to take some pictures. Warning the cuteness is well nigh overwhelming.



He also has the cheek puff so sought after on CO. Behold!



But I think the thing I find the absolute best are the eyebrows. It just makes him so expressive. Plus he did really well in difficult circumstances at dog obedience on Saturday. We had a make-up class on Saturday because we've been rained out the past two weeks in a row. When we got there at 1:00 in the afternoon it was wicked hot and they had just mowed the grass. The lawn mowage might not seem like a problem, but it stirs up all the latent delicious scents just waiting to distract poor defenseless pups like Bleys. But he came through like a champ and was only minorly distracted.

I have a feeling that we may be the only team that is ready to take the test at the end of this class. The other dogs obey very well, but only when they are on a gentle leader. Unfortunately you can't take the test on a Gentle Leader. It is flat collars only. I think a couple of people were a little surprised when she mentioned this. A few of them then tried to work a bit without the GL. You can totally see the difference in the people (yes the people, not the dogs). They lose their air of confidence and instantly revert back to asking their dog to do things, which the dog promptly refuses.

There is one dog in particular that I feel sorry for. First of all, both his owners come to class sometimes, and they sort of switch back and forth from week to week who is doing the training. Not the best situation, but hey at least they are both involved? However, they coddle this dog terribly and enable each other to do so. He moves like molasses and it's plain that the dog is just being lazy. They ask him to sit about five times before he actually does and half the time when they say 'let's go' (their version of heel) he just sits there and looks at them. Instead of just putting on their leader face and making the dog do it, they mumble things like 'oh, but it's too hot for him' or something. Yes, it is hot, but if you notice all the rest of the dogs are moving along just fine. Granted it is a lot easier to make a dog of Bleys' size do something that a dog that is more like 90 pounds (he could stand to lose at least 10 of them), but it's not impossible.

Plus once you have a behavior you aren't finished. You should keep shaping that behavior to make it better. Now you only give them a reward if it's a speedy sit, not just whenever they feel like it, etc. Training your dog never ends. Bleys and I work nearly every day, granted it's only like 5 minutes a day, but it is constant and consistent. At class on Saturday we worked a little with introducing the dogs to walkers and canes. After they got used to them the instructor would walk around the dogs and drop the cane near them or make otherwise loud unpredictable movements. She commented that it was very unusual for a dog Bleys' size not to jump away from the dropped item. Why didn't he? Because I drop things near him on a regular basis. Phone books, clip boards, text books, anything that will make some unusual noise. I guess I'm just surprised at the level of the people in the 'advanced' class. Then again from what it sounded like people can come back and take this class again and again until they are ready. Guess I'm just lucky we will only have to do it once.

DFO

Last night the dog totally passed out! Notice the ear covering his eyes!



Bummer, no class tonight due to weather. Apparently it has been raining all day at the humane society and the field we use is a muddy mess. We are going to start back up next week, we hope, and go the final two weeks. I'm not sure when the test will be then, but I hope it isn't supposed to be the next Thursday after that (the 27th). Roland is taking me to Disney for our anniversary starting on the 26th so that wouldn't work out. I guess if it is, then I will have to ask her to test Bleys separately. We will just have to wait and see.

Crack Puppy

Bleys loves to sleep in the cracks:

Guess Who!

Are you ready for some cutitude?

The other morning I woke up before Roland (well, that happens a lot) but this particular morning Bleys missed Roland...a lot.



Seriously, he laid there with his nose pressed against the door, waiting for Roland to get up for at least a half an hour. Later that day, after using the computer for a while with Bleys sleeping at my feet, I got up and went in the other room and when I came back...



Gak, the cuteness! The chair-stealing cuteness! Then he got really comfortable.



"Your chair? I haven't seen your chair anywhere. This is my chair, isn't that obvious?"
Then the last one was from a little while ago, but since I'm posting a Bleys-fest I figure it fits in.



To quote Cute Overload: ehn, ehhhnnnn....

Anne! Anne! Anne!

Did you see this?

He should be on Cute Overload

Other people may not think so, but Bleys has got to be one of the cutest things on the planet. Here he is trying really hard to be as far into the couch crack as possible.





He is just so gosh dern cute. The jaunty angle of the picture was because I was trying to take it without him waking up. He wakes up pretty much every time I move, so I had to take the picture without looking in the viewfinder, with my arm fully extended. Oh well, just look at those cute little feet!

You coveteth my ice-cream bar.

Bleys got one of his favorite toys today because Roland got a soda at work today. He hadn't finished it, and brought the rest home to drink with dinner. After he was done P.W. was starting at the empty bottle with barely restrained wigglation, looking first at the bottle, then at Roland, then at the bottle, then at Roland with a barely audible whine. Finally we relented, removed the wrapper and there was puppy nirvana.

Yertle

Right before Christmas we ordered a kitten I mean macho, manly dog perch for The PW. Due to some camera issues I was unable to show the world the king of all he surveys, until now.

He does like to be on top of things, even if it isn't the perch..."ahem, I think you misspelled that word"

After taking that picture I went to sit down on the couch and a little fuzzy face appeared...

"I've got my eye on you!"

But who's counting

In preparation for our upcoming vacation Roland and I worked the puppy over last night. It was about time for an expression (this link leads to Too Much Information for a lot of people, think twice before clicking) and a bath. All went well and we ended up with the usual drowned rat:




Somehow I managed to catch him mid-lick. Who could resist such piteousness? Now in a couple of days I can anoint him with Frontline. That way he will be all ready to face the kennel, clean and protected. I had a dream the other night that he had a tick on his right front leg. It was a crazy real dream. In the dream I woke up in bed and remembered that I had seen a tick on him the previous evening and for some unknown reason didn't do anything about it. Sometime during this dream I woke up and was convinced that he really did have a tick on this right front leg. Luckily (for once) my semi-conscious self decided that there wasn't anything I could do about it at 3 in the morning anyway so I decided to fix it in the morning. I fell back asleep planning how to remove the tick. Very weird.

I also finished my latest craft project. I can't post pictures of it at this time as it is a Christmas present, but it turned out pretty killer and I took some pictures to maybe post at a later date. It took me a while to work it out and I'm proud of the finished product.

Only 3 days 'til Disney!

Watch out for that tree!

While on safari we are stalked by the rare and dangerous Puppicus Bleysium. He is seen here crouching low, half hidden in the dry grasses.

Then unexpectedly he exposes himself with a roar, exposing his rows and rows of sharp...pointy...teeth! We fear for our lives but luckily, as suddenly as he appeared he vanishes from view.

We find out later that the effort of holding his head up became overwhelming causing him to fall over and immediately go back to sleep.

P.W.

Introductions all round, this, is the cutest dog on the planet. Seen here with his favorite frankentoy (Kong toy with a Nylabone stuck in it).

Name: Bleys
Age: 2 Years
Breed: Cavalier King Charles Spaniel
Color: Tri-color
Accomplishments: Beginning Obedience, Intermediate Obedience, CGC