Sunday, May 14, 2017

Channeling My Big Brother


We've said before that it was a blessing in disguise that our big brother Hunter didn't have to make the move to our new location.  He would have hated the looooong drive to get here and the heat would have been too much for him.  We miss him very much, but our parents have noticed something strange in the past year.  I seem to be channeling several of Hunter's habits (the good ones and the bad ones)!

You may remember Dixie is the one who spent the most time with Hunter. She joined him when she was just a puppy.  I didn't join the family until I was almost two years old.  I only spent about three and half years with Hunter before he passed away.  Some of these strange habits I've "picked up" he didn't even do anymore by the time I knew him!  Weird huh?

Here's a few pictures from my first meeting with Hunter:




Mommy and Daddy have recently been keeping a list of the many ways I've started to act like my brother:  (We don't have pics of everything, so lots of reading involved!)

1. Hunter loved to eat paper (including cardboard).  He'd come running when he heard a nose being blown or the roll of the toilet paper!  I do the same thing with the exception that I don't go into the bathroom looking for paper when my parents aren't in there.  Out of sight, out of mind.



2. He also loved to eat snow!  Me too!




3. Hunter LOVED to play fetch with anything that was thrown.  I love to play fetch as well and don't care what you throw, just throw it!

 Playing baseball with Daddy

 Trying to convince Mommy to throw that giant mangled tennis ball . . .

Waiting on Daddy to throw the pallina in a game of bocce ball . . . 

4. He carried his toys around the house in his mouth.  I do this often.  I even pull Hunter's very first toy (yep, it's still alive after all these years!) out of the toy box and carry it around sometimes.



5. Hunter became very good at trying to predict which way Mommy was going to throw or kick the ball.  She says I'm the same way, and I try to get in front of the ball every time.

6. Hunter had a very strong tail.  (Once he cleared a coffee table and broke a candlestick.  At least that's Daddy's story and he's sticking to it.)  I'm often called Thumper because of my heavy tail.  I've cleaned the coffee table off, but so far I haven't broken anything.  Crossing my paws . . .

7. Hunter wasn't trained as a puppy to ring the bell to go out.  He tried it a couple times when Dixie was learning, but mostly he just gave my parents the stare down until they noticed he was in need.  I try not to ring the bell either.  I prefer my big brother's stare method.  If I ring the bell, it's because I'm desperate!


8. We're all guilty of begging for food at some time.  Daddy could tell Hunter, "Don't beg!" and he'd look away as if he wasn't watching what was happening in the food department.  Hunter watched from the corner of his eyes instead.  I do the same thing!  As if I'm NOT going to notice food!  Ha!

9. When Hunter was an only child, he liked to sleep with my parents.  He would burrow between the two of them and stretch out his legs to push against one or the other to make more room for himself.  I've been told I'm doing this too lately.  I never slept in the bed at our old house, but I've been given a little more freedom here and I LOVE it!

10. Sometimes that burrowing in the bed is apparently disruptive or annoying for my parents.  I can't imagine why.  Hunter soon learned the command to go to his bed and he'd hop off and move to the dawg bed kept in our parents' room.  This is a fairly new command for me, but I know it well!  I'm even using the same bed!  Maybe all of Hunter's habits are sinking in through osmosis???


11. Hunter was famous around our house for his loud moans and groans as he laid down (and that was even before he grew old).  I apparently sound just like him some days!

12. My big brother annoyed Mommy to no end when he came into the bedroom and proceeded to rub himself all along the edge of the bed getting hair and dirt on the dust ruffle.  Mommy said Hunter had one thing going for him that I apparently don't when I do the same thing: he didn't shed nearly as much and his hair blended a little better on our khaki linens than my black hairs do!  [sigh]

13. Last but not least, our parents love both of us endlessly! (And Dixie too, I guess!)



There's a nasty rumor going around the house that a new chocolate lab puppy will be joining us soon.  We hear it's a boy.  Wonder if he too will be able to pick up on some of these family traits???

Inquiring minds want to know,
Jenna


PS: Happy Mother's Day and  Happy Birthday to Uncle W!  And belated birthday wishes to Poppa yesterday.  

PSS:  Today would've been Hunter's birthday too. Perhaps eventually Mommy won't mark the date, but it's not this year!
















Wednesday, May 10, 2017

One Cone Head Coming My Way . . .



Mommy says this all the time.  She recently dragged out some old pictures of my big brother Hunter to show me EXACTLY what this phrase means!

This trip down Memory Lane is because I've tweaked my ACL again!  [sigh]  I'm so sad about this turn of events.  The doctor has said I can't play with my beloved soccer ball for FOUR WEEKS!!!!!

I first pulled my ACL last spring.  After a visit to the vet for some pain killers and anti-inflammatory meds, I recovered and was back to my usual energetic self.  It happened again last summer, but with all the walking we do during the summer, I strengthened my knee in no time.  Mommy was sure this little knee problem was a thing of the past.  Then Daddy took me hunting with him in the fall.  I came home and was just fine, but woke up the next day favoring that leg again!  I seemed to recover within a couple days.  Up until now, I've only limped around while still putting weight on all four legs.  I don't know how I did it, but this most recent time I was truly only moving on three legs.  Mommy was really worried and with good reason.

The vet has decided that I've built up scar tissue on my knee from my injury a year ago and that I've recently strained that tissue.  He wants me to refrain from any major physical activity and build the scar tissue back up since it's helping hold my knee together.  So that means no ball for FOUR WEEKS!  Mommy told me I am to follow the doctor's orders or I could end up like this:


This is Hunter ten years ago when he tore his ACL.  This injury required surgery and weeks of at-home physical therapy.  It was stressful for all parties involved (at least that's what Mommy tells me).


Hunter couldn't use the stairs for weeks following his surgery, so the dining room was turned into a large kennel for him!  Daddy even set up the air mattress and slept downstairs with Hunter since he hated being away from our parents (I know the feeling).


Mommy says it was a loooooooong, sloooooooow road to recovery.  You know what the worst part was?  Besides wearing the cone?  There's a fifty percent chance that if a dawg has surgery on one leg, he'll have to have surgery on the second leg.  Mommy should  have gone to Vegas with those odds because Hunter was definitely part of that fifty percent.  Almost a year to the date, he tore the other ACL . . . I guess on the bright side, he didn't have to wear a cast the second time.  Mommy says there wasn't a bright side.  Well, maybe the fact that dawgs only have two ACLs!



Now I know what it means when Mommy says it's all fun and games until someone ends up in a cone!  I've learned no amount of begging and pleading will coerce Mommy into throwing the ball for me.


In fact, my favorite toy seems to have disappeared recently . . .

Here's hoping there won't be any surgery in my future.  Cross your paws!
Jenna


Friday, May 5, 2017

Happy Cinco de Mayo


Happy Cinco de Mayo!

This is a first for us.  We've never truly celebrated Cinco de Mayo, but we are this year!  Yippee!!  We're hoping something extra good shows up in our water bowl today instead of you know . . . water!

In honor of this fun and festive day, Mommy tortured us took pictures of us in what has to be the world's largest hat!  She says it's called a sombrero.  Please don't ask why or how we own one!  That's a question for Daddy.  As big as this hat is, it still would NOT stay on our heads.  The wind was working against us too!  It's a miracle Mommy got any decent pictures during this twenty minutes of our lives we'll never get back!  But thank goodness she finally did, or we'd still be sitting and posing.  (The woman doesn't give up easily!)

Senorita Jenna


Senorita Dixie



Finally, decent pictures of us both!

Just in case you're wondering, that's our Japanese teapot in the back left that came in our birthday BarkBox!  That's all, nothing more.  We promise!



We hope you have a fun and festive day!
Dixie and Jenna

Wednesday, May 3, 2017

Birthday Yumminess



Mommy surprised us with a yummy birthday treat!  She ordered a cake for us at the local barkery.  Before you panic, we know it LOOKS like chocolate, but it's not.  It's actually peanut butter icing with carob chips.  It was seriously YUMMY and we're going to make it last for the rest of the week!  YIPPEE!



We're surprised you can't see the drool in these next few pictures!




As soon as the plates were sat down outside, that cake was GONE!  Poppa was concerned that Mommy had made us eat outside, but when it comes to birthday treats, you never know where the crumbs will fly!  Don't worry, Poppa.  We weren't offended!




It was a great birthday!  We're looking forward to many more years of happiness (as well as many more pieces of cake this week)!

Dixie and Jenna


Tuesday, May 2, 2017

Lucky Number 7


Happy birthday to us!!!!  

We are SEVEN years old today.  Can you tell which of us is the good girl??


In traditional human to canine years we're 49 years old, but scientists don't really rely on the old 1:7 year ratio any more.  Mommy saw this chart on Pinterest recently posted by the American Kennel Club.  Our weight falls right on the border of medium to large breed dawgs.  That means we are somewhere between 47-50 human years old.  No matter which end of that range we think we are closer to, that makes us the oldest in the house!


We had a super quick photo session before church Sunday morning.  One of us was better at posing than the other!

Happy Birthday, Jenna!



Happy Birthday, Dixie!



To celebrate, Mommy ordered our first BarkBox.  Apparently she can order us a box each month, but she told us to keep dreaming!  She said we have PLENTY of toys already and definitely do not need to add two more every month!  We tend to disagree, but we're not paying the bill!  If you haven't ever seen a BarkBox in person, there's a theme each month.  This month's theme honored springtime in Japan with items you might take on a cherry blossom picnic (that's what the enclosed card said)!  Mommy was hooked with the adorable tissue paper that had cherry blossoms and dawgs on it.  It could have been elevated to "labadorable" status if it had had drawings of us on it!  In addition to the yummy treats in the box there was a sushi toy and a teapot toy.  Both squeak!  Yippee!



Jenna loves to chew the manufacturer's tag off any new toys first!  One day Mommy is going to have to remember to buy one of those cloth baby books with all the tabs on the edges.  Those would be right up Jenna's alley!


Dixie is wondering if the Japanese play tennis much . . . she'd probably prefer a tennis ball!


Jenna loves BOTH toys!



Mommy tried to capture a picture of each of us in a party hat as well, but . . . once again, one of us was better at posing than the other!



Mommy says there's a surprise for us tonight.  We wonder what it is . . . we'll be sure to take plenty of pictures (as if you had any doubt) and share those with you later in the week!

Dixie and Jenna
The Birthday Party Girls