Memorial Day 2007

Hi pups, Eva here. As we told you in our last post, the humans
had a party on Sunday and they invited the neighborhood dogs over, too! Not all our neighborpups were home, but three did come to party. Most of these picture were taken by a young human from down the street. She got some great shots. Thanks Cassie! You can click on any of the pictures to enlarge them. That is Molly in the picture above. Dutch is the lab in the picture below.



Molly is way fun to play with. All Dutch wanted to do was find someone to throw a ball for him. The sweet boy below is Bo and he's Molly's brother. He's really fast and loves to play!


Here's some glamour shots for you.

Here's a couple of action shots. Dad's camera isn't the best in low light. Or is it that your neighbordogs are so fast? Probably some of both.

Here's one of dad giving rubs and scratches to Tasha and Bo.

After all that entertaining Tasha needed a break. Its hard work being the hostess!

After the pups had gone home and the humans had consumed a few adult beverages they built a fire. They said it was really nice cuz it was kinda chilly. We thought it was hot but humans are thin-furred. Hope all you pups had a great holiday! Belly Rubs, Eva.
P.S. Dad is having trouble using the small pictures. Please forgive him for the weird layout!

Seven Things About Us

Hi pups! Hope everydog here in the states is having a good long weekend with your humans. We were tagged by Holly to list seven things about ourselves. As we have mentioned a few times, although we love each other, we are very different pups. So we will list seven things about us and list how we are different about those things.

We know you have a couple treats in your hand, Mama!

1. Food.

Tasha: I love, love, love my food. I wolf it down as soon as its placed on the floor. And don't get your hand to close or I'll growl. Mom and dad have been working on that with me, but I am a little possessive about my kibble.

Eva: I like my food too, but not like Tasha. If I'm not hungry, I won't eat. After exercise, I'm always hungry. And I love the duck jerky treats we have!

Please can I have it now?

2. Giving Kisses.

Tasha: I reeeaaaallllly love giving everyone kisses!! Mom will say "Go give daddy a kiss" and I happily go running to him and cover his face with nice, wet kisses!

Eva: I give out kisses very sparingly. I usually just give little nose nudges. But if you're laying on the floor, I'll really kiss you. Here I am about to give dad a nose nudge.

Here's Tasha about to give dad a wet face!

3. Behavior on walks.

Tasha: I just have to smell everything I can when we are out on a walk. There's just sooo many interesting things out there to investigate!

Eva: I just want to go, go, go. Until I here some little human making noise or dribbling a basketball. Dad has gotten really good at spinning around with our leashes over his head to get himself unwrapped!

Hey Eva, how many times can we make dad do the two-leash-over-his-head leash dance today?

4. How we handle little humans.

Tasha: I love everyone! Any one who wants to pet me is more than welcome. And how could they resist when I come up to them with a big smile on my face and a bushy tail wagging?!?! Little humans are especially good because they are short enough for me to give them kisses while they are petting me!

Eva: Little humans are VERY scary! They move fast, make a lot of noise, and just spook me something fierce. Dad says that I'm part chicken. Mom says I'm just "cautious". Mom's description sounds better to me.

5. Smarts.

Tasha: Mom and dad call me the smart one. I know when its time for dinner, breakfast, and play time. And I let them know LOUDLY what time it is. Some humans just can't tell time very well. I know what words like park, pool, walk, wait, O.K., and all sorts of other human works mean.

Eva: I admit that sometimes I'm a little slow. I hear things like "Not the sharpest knife on the tree." Or is it "Not the brightest bulb in the drawer." Whatever, its something like that. But I don't have to be smart. I'm too cute to need brains!! I can get away with just about anything around here just because I am sooo gorgeous! Besides, all I have to do is do what Tasha does and everything will be O.K.

6. Our heritage.

Tasha: We're not sure exactly what all I am. They said collie/husky at the shelter where mom and dad got me, but they think there is some golden retriever in me, too. I think I am part husky cuz I love the snow and I do a pretty good "WOOOO" from time to time.

Eva: As you might know I am a Belgian tervuren. I am one of four varieties of the Belgian sheepdog. The other varieties are the Malinios, the Groenendael, and the Laekenois. If you want to see pictures of all four varieties, click here. They are all beautiful dogs, but I think my variety is the prettiest!

7. Toys.

Tasha: I like all different types of toys. The more the better!! Balls, chew toys, squeaky toys, it just doesn't matter to me. The picture below is just my outside toys!

Eva: I'm very picky about what toys I play with. Outside I have one and ONLY one ball that I will play with. This is a picture of the ball that I play with.

At the beginning of last winter, I was playing with this ball in the snow while dad was clearing off the patio in our back yard. I lost it in the snow and dad accidentaly pushed it into a pile. I was distraught to say the least. I reluctantly played with a different ball most of the winter. Then, by some miracle it reappeared this spring! One day while we were out with dad I noticed something familiar stuck in the ice! I looked at it....looked at dad....looked at it.....looked at dad. He broke down, found the ice chipper and freed my long-lost ball!! Joy of joys!!

Although we have our differences, we still like a lot of the same things, too. Especially going to the DOG PARK!! So we'll sign off with a picture of us there. We have to go now cuz mom and dad are getting ready to have the neighborhood over for a party today and dad said that the neighborhood dogs would be invited, too!! We'll have the camera ready and hopefully have some good pictures of the mayhem to post later! Belly Rubs, Tasha & Eva.

We tag Ivy, Frodo, and Tadpole.

Eva's Trick

Hi pups, Eva here. Dad just caught me on video doing a trick that my mama taught me!

Few Words Friday

Big sister Tasha, what is this cold, white stuff?

Eva's first night at her fur-ever home February, 2003.

We've been tagged by Holly to tell you seven thing about ourselves. We're working on that so check back later!

P.S. Don't know what happened to the picture between posting it yesterday and when we saw it today, but here it is again. Hope it stays this time!

Our Collars

Hey pups, Eva reporting today. Sorry we haven't posted or commented too much lately, but dad has been involved in some sort of special project at work. He leaves earlier and gets home later than usual which puts a real crimp in our normal schedule. Earlier breakfasts and later dinners with hardly a walk or a trip to the dog park the last two weeks. We feel soooo neglected!

You're leaving us for a long time again, aren't you? You don't mind if we ignore you, do you?

A week ago the Army of 4 asked what kind of collars all us pups wore. We finally clawed dad enough to get him to do a post about our collars. As you can see both Tasha and I have very long fur. Here's a picture of me. You can't even tell that I have a collar on, can you? Collar, collar, where's the collar?

Well, believe me, it's there. You can see Tasha's a little better. Aren't I gorgeous?

Since we do have such long fur, a flat collar tends to mat the fur underneath the collar really bad. As if it's not a big enough chore to brush us already! So mom bought us round leather collars. We don't have any special tags on our collars like a lot of you lucky pups do. Just our dog license (does that mean we can drive a car, Zimmy?!?!) and our rabies vaccination tag. Below is a better shot of my collar.Hopefully we'll get more time with dad here soon and we can post pictures of what our two favorite dog parks look like now with leaves on the trees and green grass. We did get to go for a few dips in our pool, though!! Dad and mom tried to get a good video of us playing in it, but they said something about us not taking direction very well. So until (if ever) we cooperate, here's an aerial view of us playing in the pool. SOOO Much Fun!!

We love our pool and making mom and dad dry us off after we're done! Having fun AND making the humans work because of it! Doesn't get much better than that!! Belly Rubs, Eva.

Few Words Friday

Eva asks, "I'm hiding. Can you see me?"

Us with dad at the Starring Lake dag park in April, 2006

Tummy Tagged

Hi pups, Eva here again today. We got Tummy Tagged by Magnum and Indy! I was very uncooperative when dad tried to get me to show my tummy. I hardly ever lay on my back and I don't like to have the humans up me in that position. So to make up for it, we have some action shots of Tasha's tummy!

Eva, you can be a real pain in the neck sometimes!

It took some work but I was finally able to annoy Tasha enough into showing her belly!

Come on Tasha, show us your tummy!!

Look at all that beautiful, long fur!

"Raise the Roof" tummy shot!

We think that all of our pup friends have already been Tummy Tagged so we won't tag anyone else. If you haven't been tagged, consider it done by us now! There can never be enough pictures of cute puppy tummies! Belly Rubs, Eva.

New Treat Cooker

Hey puppers, Eva reporting today. Saturday was a sad day for Tasha and I. Ever since Tasha got here 9 years ago, the pack has had this Outside-Treat-Cooker.

Tasha reeeaaaallllyyy likes this cooker. She liked to lick the deck all around it. Just look at her checking out the back.
On Saturday our humans brought home this funny looking thing. Not only does it look funny, but worst of all it smells really bad.

Tasha and I don't know what to think about this new contraption. It doesn't smell at all like the Outside-Treat-Cooker that used to be in that spot.

Goodbye old friend, you still smell great!!

Hopefully in time we will come to love the new Outside-Treat-Cooker as well as we liked the old one. Belly Rubs, Eva.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day from Tasha & Eva

Hi pups! Tasha here. Eva and I would like to wish a very happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there. Whether you just have fur kids like our mom does or you have human kids too, we hope they make your day very special! We really , really love our mom cuz she does so many wonderful things for us. She loves us very much and spoils us more than dad would like! She gives us more treats than we deserve. (Is that really possible?). She's always looking for new toys and Trooper gear. for us. She's the one who found our Doggles and seat belts. And she sure knows how to bring home the kibble and treats! We just can't say enough about our momma! Thanks for being the best Mom ever!! All you pups, little humans, and dads, do your best to show how much you love your mom and/or wife today. She more than deserves it! Belly Rubs, Tasha & Eva.

P.S. We have to get ready to welcome our mom's mom and dad today! We love our grandma, too! She always brings lots of lovin' for us! (And treats!)

Few Words Friday

Here's what I think of you and this B-A-T-H thing!!

Trooper Gear

Hey puppers, Eva here. About a weeks ago we told Stormy of the AO4 that we were in the process of procuring gear for Army of 4 Trooper missions. We have a good idea of what we will be good at, but we can't tell you what it is just yet cuz we haven't gotten all of our equipment. I thought that we would show you what we have so far.

Tasha and I each got a pair of Doggels! We will need eye protection for our missions. (Notice the bag of puppy treats in the background!!) Tasha gets the pair with the skull and cross bones (UUUUMMMMM bones) and I get the pair with the flames. Probably because I'm so fast at chasing my tennis ball!

Just the other day we got a package in the mail! The only things that we have ever gotten in the in mail before is notes from the V-E-T-S office telling us we need to come in. This was WAAAYYY better!

A package for the Girls!!

This is a seat belt made just for dogs!

What do you think Stormy, does it look mil spec to you? This seat belt is very heavy duty. The only problem is that mom ordered two and the company only sent one. Now mom has to call them and complain. Mom is a really good complainer, so we should have this issue resolved shortly! Tasha wasn't too sure about what was going on when dad put her in the seat belt but mom had a treat handy, so it was O.K.

Here's me in the seat belt. Surprisingly, I was fine with it on. I'm usually scared of new things but this was O.K. Probably because treats were involved! Once we have all the gear we need, we'll show all of you pups what we think we can do to be good Troopers for the Army of 4!

Belly Rubs to all, Eva

Attack on the Squirrel Fortress

Hi pups, Tasha here. We decided to take the initiative in our new roles as Troopers in in the AO4 to see if we might have command potential. We decided to order dad to attack the squirrel fortress in the willow that's in our back yard. (We don't think he's Trooper material, but we decided to give him a try.) We had really high winds on Friday and Saturday and a bunch of branches came down. We figured that the squirrels would be stunned and an attack might be successful.

This was dad's objective, should he decide to accept it.

Here is Eva and I setting up headquarters in the rear area. Can't be too careful in case some of the fortress comes down on us. We thought dad was trying to be a squirrel. He climbed about 25 feet up the tree to pull down a whole bunch of dead branches that those evil squirrels run on and tease us from.

This is the first wave of our attack before dad did his squirrel imitation. Rather successful, don't you think? The picture below is after dad climbed the tree. What a messy human.
Good attack, dad, but you sure made a mess!!

After it was safe to enter the attack zone, I did an inspection.

This was the scene after the second assault. It was messy but successful!

You missed some.

Dad needs better attention to detail as you can see by the photo above.

Here's the final result of the attack on the squirrel fortress. Not bad for a human attack. Can you see me way in the back? (Click on any of these pictures to enlarge them.) I couldn't leave a non-Trooper on his own on his first mission. Mom even pitched in on this attack. She trimmed some of the little branches and made piles for dad to bundle up. She will be able to assist us on future Trooper assignments!

Just when we thought the excitement for the day was over, I caught sight of something unusual.

There was a mallard duck couple in our neighbor's back yard! Eva and I told them that they were not welcome in our territory!! You pups should have heard the barking! And then our good friend Jeff came over to see what was going on.

Hi Jeff!! I'm REEAAALL glad to see you!!

I'm always happy to see Jeff, as you can tell by my tail being a blur in this picture. He brought dad an adult beverage to celebrate the successful attack on the squirrel fortress. He's a great friend to us and especially dad! They ride motorcycles together. (But never take us with). We think we had a pretty good first AO4 Trooper mission and look forward to many more to come. Belly Rubs, Tasha.

P.S. No squirrels were hurt or even seen during this exercise. We were targeting infrastructure only!