A Whaaattt?

You didn't say what I thought you said, did you?

Hey puppers, Tasha here. We heard the most awful word in the world today. That's right, it was BATH DAY. The Horror!! We were told that we smelled like dogs. Well, duhhhh. Fur, four legs, wagging tails, incredible cuteness, and undying loyalty to our humans. What else could we be?

NNNOOOO!! Not a bath!

We both knew something was up when all the dog towels came out of the linen closet. Eva hid in her kennel and I tried to look small and inconspicuous, but neither strategy worked. Eva was the first to experience the torture.

What did I do to deserve this?

Dad had to pull her out of her kennel, herd her into mom & dad's room and then into the bathroom. She doesn't even go near that bathroom normally because it has a tile floor and she just HATES tile floors. OK, doesn't hate them, she's afraid of them for some reason. We don't even have a fighting chance of escape because we get our baths in the shower. Trapped in the humans' shower with mom, oatmeal shampoo and conditioner and running water. Truly cruel and incanine treatment.

LET ME OUT NOOWWW!!

Next was my turn. It gets so hot in that darn shower. With all our fur, then being wet and mad makes a pup very warm. We just couldn't wait to get out of that awful torture chamber.I'm FRRREEEEE!! But drippin'!

Of course the first thing any self-respecting pup does after a bath is go find something stinky to roll in. Dog, I stink so BAD now. Must roll!

And roll some more....and bite Eva!

Wet Wrestlin'

Then we had to wrestle and run around the yard to try to get some of that nasty smell off of us. Eva dries out pretty fast but not me. For some reason I'm like a sponge when it comes to water, but you can't ring me out! Dad took us for a nice long walk to help me dry out. For some reason he didn't take us to the park with the huge water holes. Can't figure out why. Well, at least its over now, but I'm sure the next bath will come much too soon for our taste. Hope all you pups had a great weekend and didn't have to have a bath like we did! Belly Rubs, Tasha.

Few Words Friday

Can we come in and roll around on the carpet?!?!

Tasha and Tia spring 1999

Normal Day

Hi puppers, Tasha here. Our normal routine when dad comes home from work is to play ball while he does the poop patrol. Yes, its hard to believe that he can multi-task, but he's had lots of practice.









Here we are dutifully bringing the balls back to dad. What good dogs we are!! Mindlessly chasing the balls sure beats being cooped up in the house while the humans are at work! When the patrol is done its usually off to the dog park or a walk around the neighborhood. Today we went for a walk. We thought we would give you a dogs-eye-view of one of our routes.

As you can see, things are starting to green up nicely around here.

Here we are going on a really nice path that is very close to our house. There's a little creek that runs by this trail. Why dad didn't get a picture of it we'll never know.

We see this guy every time we walk this way. He's a shar pei that always has to come say "HI" to us when we walk by.

We're heading up the hill from the creek and only about 3 blocks from home.

Almost home in this picture. We'd rather go to the dog park, but a walk around to say hi to the neighborhood is the next best thing. Hope you liked the little tour! Belly Rubs, Tasha.

Spring in Minnesota

Hey pups, Eva here today. Unfortunately I think winter might be over here. But as these first two pictures show, if you sprout too early here, you end up looking bad. These are day lilies in front of the house that weathered the snow and cold of our early April winter weather.

This is dad's favorite tree to hate. The willow tree is budding out. During the winter dad was picking up branches. Last weekend he was picking up all the little sticks that this tree drops. We hear its a good thing that our garbage service picks up yard waste. There's three big garbage bags and ten huge bundles of willow tree droppings that have to go.

This is one of the two Diablo 9-bark bushes that are at the front of our house. These bushes grow like crazy and the leaves turn a dark shade of red. Very nice looking. Dad is thinking about starting his yearly exercise in futility. He is going to attempt to grow grass in the backyard. Good luck with that idea, dad. How many years is it going to take you to realize that if you have dogs, you can't grow grass in your back yard. Simply not possible.
We can't make this post all about plants, so here is Tasha playing ball with dad. When she wants to play, you had better play or else she will tell you that "Its now time to play, you stupid human!", but all a human hears is "WOOOOF, WOOOOF, GGGRRRR." She even throws the ball with her mouth at dad when its time to play!!
And of course since I'm doing this post we MUST have a picture of me. I'll report in about 6 weeks on how dad's grass growing project is going. (What an optimist that human is!!) Belly Rubs, Eva

Sleepy Poses

Hey everypup, Tasha here. We're a little slow with this post, but we thought that we would do a sleeping pose entry. In the picture below I am multi-tasking. Sleeping and guarding the front door. Dad said that when he took this picture, I was woofing quietly and my feet were twitching. Even when I'm sleeping I'm practicing on my squirrel and rabbit chasing!
Here's Eva sleeping in one of her favorite spots. She says she sleeps there to keep the couch in place. If she isn't here while the humans are sitting on the couch she is usually sitting between dad's feet to be sure she doesn't miss out on any attention. Good plan, little sister!

Below is Eva at about 6 months old. There's nothing better on a hot day than to get out of the house and lay down for a nap in the nice, cool grass!

The next two pictures have some furry friends that you haven't meet before. The black pup is Tia. She came to live with us in December of 1998 and she was a German Shepard-black lab mix. In this picture we also had a cat named Lola. Unfortunately Tia went to the Rainbow Bridge due to cancer in December of 2003. Lola didn't like Eva when she moved in with us and started peeing all over the house so she went to a new family. We're not really sleeping in this picture, but I thought it was a good picture.

This last picture of Tia is from when she first came to live with us. She was my first puppy! We had lots of fun together and I miss her. Dad really misses her mostly because she died at only 5 years old. This is his favorite picture of her as a puppy. We'll post a little more of Tia's pictures sometime soon.

Rest in Peace Little One.

Few Words Friday

MINE! Don't even think of taking this away!

UUMMM, Curly Bully Stick!

Starring Lake Dog Park

Dog park friends are goooood friends!

Hey all you pups (and Tia) out there! Tasha here. We saw dad take a people-going-away-bag out to the DUV this morning very early. I know what those bags mean. Either mom or dad are going away. We don't like it when a member of the pack has to go away. It turns out mom is going on a cruise to Key West and the Bahamas. I heard mom say its a work thing. Offer to take us with? NOOOO! Did dad get to go with? NOOOO! Oh, well, dad's here and that's enough for us. Mom took the camera with her but we have some pictures from our trip to the Starring Lake dog park on Thursday we thought you might enjoy.

When this park first opened last year A LOT of rabbits used to hang out in this building foundation. But not anymore!! I wonder why that might be???

This is another of the hills here. The park is very long but it gets narrower as it goes away from the dog gates. From this fence to the other side of this ravine is only about 50 or 60 yards. But what fun it is running up and down all the steep hills!

Eva wanted to include this picture of her drooling. She thought Wimsey might like it. What do you think of the ring of drool under her muzzle? What a slob, but that's a our European Princess for you. Belly Rubs to all,Tasha

Few Words Friday

Mind if I sit and stay awhile?

Yes, that is a Minnesota Vikings jacket by me. Poor dad, he's a big fan. Belly Rubs, Eva.

A Beautiful Spring Day!

Hey everypup, Tasha here. Hope you dogs can see the pictures now. It was snowing here on Wednesday! If you look closely in the picture below you can see the snow flying. I wonder if Stormy at the AO4 cranked up her weather control device for us. That's right, April 11th and we are getting snow!!

What's better? Mud or Snow?!?

It's wet, heavy snow that forms really hard little snow balls between our pads. This gives the humans something to do when we come in from outside. Leaving little balls of snow in the house is something we love to give them! April or January?

Throw It NOOOWWW!!!

I feel right at home!

Nice move putting up the patio furniture, Dad!

Its supposed to warm up (sadly) later on in the week, but I'll take snow in April every time! We've been trying to post a video from Photo Bucket but are having a hard time. If there's anypup with any experience with this, if you could leave a comment with some help it would be really appreciated. Here's a link to a video of us playing fetch in the snow with dad. Here's another video when we went to the park with Maggie. Belly Rubs, Tasha

P.S. We understand that some of you can't see the pictures. Stupid human must have messed things up when trying to download a video. We'll try to help out later today to get this fixed.

P.P.S. OK its 7:30 on April 12th. We hope that the pictures are back up now.

Darby Pays a Visit.

Hello everypup, Eva here. Do you pups remember our friend Darby from one of our first posts? Well, she came over last night for a sleep-over. This is the first time she has come to stay with us. Its a trial run for when she comes to stay for a few days while her humans are away. Here I am welcoming Darby to our home.

Hi Darby nice to see you!

I think that Darby was laughing at dad in this picture. She's laughing so hard her eyes are closed!
I know that that's Eva's but can I have it?

As you can see in these two pictures, Darby made herself right at home.

What luck! A soft bone AND a hard bone!!

We don't mind sharing our toys with Darby. She's been a very good girl and we look forward to her coming to stay with us again. Did somehuman say "DOG PARK"?!?!?

Yes, somehuman DID say dog park! We're going to meet Darby's mom at the park! We'll have to remind the humans to bring the camera to get some good outdoors shots of us playing. Belly Rubs to all, Eva.

Few Words Friday

Lets Play!

Our Other Favorite Park

Hey puppers, Tasha here. Since Eva got to report on our other favorite dog park, its my turn to tell you about this favorite park. I think anywhere you can be off-leash and be safe is a special place. We go to this park very often when there's no snow. At this park, us dogs have generously allowed the human race to use it in the winter for cross country skiing. I know, we pups are way to generous. On this day there weren't any other pups here, but when it gets warmer, there can be A LOT of wonderful dogs to play with! One day dad said he counted 25 dogs playing in the open area! That's not counting the pups walking the trails. We can walk the ski trails or follow the fence around the park.

Here's the entrance to the park. The big gate is still open for the skiers. What they're going to ski on I have no idea. Humans. When there IS snow humans can ski down this hill from the parking lot and get right on the trail. This park is right by a lake that has woods around it with lots of ski trails. There's a paved trail all the way around the lake that we have walked parts of before. Its too big a lake for us to walk all the way around. (OK, its to much for the humans!!)

Here's two more pictures of parts of the cross country ski trail through OUR park.

See any skiers to chase, Tasha?

There is a nice little wooded valley in this park. In the picture below Eva is showing the way off the ski trail and into the little valley.

It's this way, right?

Its so fun going up and down the steep hills! Sometimes dad tries to hide from us in the trees in this valley, but it only takes Eva and I a moment to notice that he isn't there with us and we have to go back and find him. We wouldn't want him to get lost in the woods and not be able to feed us our dinner, which we so desperately need after an outing to the dog park!

High-Tailin' it down the hill!
At the far end of the valley is a spot that many of us pups love. Its sand at in the bottom of the valley! We're not big diggers (sorry to all our husky buddies!!) but we've seen some pups who really go to town down in that stuff!

Hey, Tasha, that sand looks pretty fun!

Oh, Yea, Eva, let's GO!

Was that a SQUIRREL?!?!

And here we are at the top of the hill keeping an eye on the park. Dog parks are one of the best things the humans have ever come up with. Going to the park with Eva (and dad) is my favorite thing to do! (Next to eating). Hope all you pups get out for some exercise!! Belly Rubs to All, Tasha.