Say What You Will...

My dogs drive me crazy. They are overly excited when people come over to the house, they are hairy, they beg too much, and I can go on and on...but then Penny does something like this:

And all the annoying things they do go right out the window and I just want to get on the hairy floor and play with them.

From Tank and Penny

The Many dogs wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Lesson Learned

You remember that movie, Marley and Me? The one where the dog eats everything in sight and destroys the furniture but the owners just love, love, love him anyway? I've never actually seen the movie, but it was playing on a plane ride and I was able to listen to all the sobs from the many, many passengers who were watching it.
We've been pretty lucky with our dogs. Jack Russell Terriers can have some crazy behaviors, including some pretty severe separation anxiety. Our dogs are good, they sleep in their kennels and have a bed upstairs that they rest on during the day if they need it. We always kennel them when we leave the house because, well, Tank taught us a lesson when he was about 5 months old and he ate 2 holes in the hallway wall. Since that time, they have been kenneled.
This summer has brought us late nights and restful mornings, which means that we're all waking up when our bodies are good and ready...around 10:00...it's lovely. But poor Trey has to wake up and get going earlier so he's been letting the dogs out and keeping them away from our bedrooms so we can continue to rest. It's worked very well all summer. Until today.
Today Trey woke up before everyone else and let the dogs out. The gate was up by the hallway leading to the bedrooms and the back door was open so the dogs could play outside. Once Trey left Penny apparently got bored of all the room outside and came in to see what she could do in the living room.

And this is what she did. To our brand new coffee table. Hazel found it first and was very quiet about it. When I came out of my room she implored me to not be too mad but that Penny did something real bad.
Oh, yes, this is real bad. We all got dressed and took the dogs for a long walk to the pet store and bought a big bottle of Bitter Yuck to spray on every piece of furniture.
I'm not sure this dog will be with us much longer if this becomes a habit for her. Trey and I are nothing like the owners of Marley.

Tank and Penny

This is what the dogs do when they go to work with Trey:



It also happens to be the reason that I want to kill the dogs when they get home...they've got all this energy at the end of the day because they've been lounging all day!

Dog Picture of the Day

The day started COLD but the sky cracked at poured the sun down on our thirsty skin. The dogs have spent a record amount of time out in the backyard. Tank does this funny thing where he'll run laps around the yard. Penny only wishes she could keep up with him and often tries to cut him off through the middle of the yard...it's quite entertaining to watch. While Penny can not run as fast as Tank, she is quite crafty at escaping her backyard confinements. We had the side fence barricaded for a while but had to move things in order to mow the lawn. I thought that maybe she'd gotten a bit too big to squeeze through, alas, I was wrong...I'm comforted by the fact that she's escaping only to run up to the front door.
Hazel loves the sun almost as much as Tank and Penny do. Immediately upon coming home from school she retreated to the yard and began building things for fairies. I gave her some string and this is what she came up with:"It's a fairy suntanning thing."

Dog Picture of the Day

Hazel snapped this shot on Easter while Penny slept.

2 on 10 April

I was hoping to reinstate the 10 on 10 this month...but I fell very short. These are the 2 pictures I thought to capture this morning...and then the day got away from me...I did get a lot done today though...even went for a little run!! I'm trying folks...

Dog Picture of the Day

Penny likes to take naps on my shoulders during the day...it's a good thing she does this cause it makes me think twice about giving her away to the highest bidder...she's driving me nuts right now!

Dog Picture of the Day

Wednesday. Hump Day.
I spent the better part of this morning getting information out about the 3rd Annual Hootenanny at the kids school. I've been putting this "talent" show on for the last three years and have got it down cold...but getting things rolling takes a while for me...everyone has their info sheets and the sign ups are...up. Now I sit and wait for all the calls and questions and emails and for the 27th. On the 27th I get to start screening the acts. I'll let you know more as things unfold.

August has Ultimate Frisbee practice today. We've been lucky enough to have a few of his friends on the same team so there has been some great carpool action going on, today he's being picked up by one parent and dropped off by another...gotta love it!

Hazel is sitting next to me on the couch right now. She's reading "Are You My Mother?" and she's doing a pretty good job with it! I love hearing her successfully read a sentence...I'm her biggest cheerleader.

Dog Pictures of the Day

Dog Picture of the Day

Rain, rain

It's party time at the Many house today. There's no school (teacher in-service day) and we've got Francis staying with us for the weekend...and August has another friend and his sister over...and we had to invite the backyard girls over too...and their dog! It was a bit crazy for about a half hour until everyone figured out where they wanted to be and what they wanted to do...and now it's all quiet in the Many house. The girls wanted to play pick-up-sticks and the boys wanted to play Wii. Then the girls wanted to watch High School Musical 3 while the boys watched Iron Man. And the Dogs? They are shredding a new toy Kat made for them:

Dog Picture of the Day

Tank is going in to see the vet today because he has a cut in his ear that just won't heal. He continually scratches at it and shakes his head and last night it started bleeding again. Dang dogs cost so much money!! But they're so cute together, huh?

Older and wiser?

I've just spent the last half hour reading over the months after Tank joined the family. We really didn't know what we were doing...I think we did okay in spite of that, in fact, Tank is a great dog right now. He turned 2 in February and he's just turned into this amazingly patient and very obedient dog.
Many of you know that we now have 2 dogs...and not just any old 2 dogs, no, 2 Jack Russell Terriers!
There are many differences between these two dogs outside of the obvious: Tank is a boy, Penny is a girl. We got Tank when he was 8 weeks old and completed his first puppy training class by the time he was 12 weeks whereas Penny came to us when she was 12 weeks and she still hasn't taken any classes because dogs have to have certain shots before they can attend said classes. Penny weighed 5 lbs at her 12 week vet check...Tank weighed 10 lbs!!
For a while here I thought that maybe Penny was a little slow because she really hasn't picked up on her name and while she's very energetic when she plays with Tank, she is also very unsure of herself around other dogs. I'm thinking that I might be very wrong about her...It's quite possible that Tank is slower than Penny. Tank has been with us for 2 years now and he's never found a way out of the backyard. Penny has been with us for 2 months and she's squeezed her way out of every little hole in the fence at least a half dozen times...I'm also quite sure that she'll figure out how to move the lock on her kennel and Tank doesn't even try to push on the door to his kennel to see if I locked it! The case is still out on this issue. Tank is amazing and not very typical for his breed and we're very happy about this, Penny may be more Jack Russell than we had planned for...but dang! She's cute!

Dog Picture of the Day

Come on now...they're cute together, huh?
Tank is so patient with his little half sister. She loves to climb on him and nap throughout the day. She's real good at doing this head tilt thing...it about drives me crazy with the cuteness!

Tales of Tank in Pictures

Tales of Tank

Tank has been really enjoying our time together now that the kids are back in school. We walk to school and then around the neighborhood until almost 10am. Then we head to the dog park where he gets to run and play and wade. He's a happy dog these days.
Last night he was in a funk. He stayed in his kennel when everyone came home only coming out to ring the bell to go outside. I figured that he's probably pretty worn out from all our activities of late and just left him alone. Around 10:30pm he started making a strange noise from our room. He s.l.o.w.l.y. crept out of the kennel and into the hall huffing and growling at the same time. The hair on his back stood straight up. He made is way from the hallway to the dining room, then to the kitchen, then to the back door all the while making this crazy rumbling sound mixed with some strange breathing thing that dogs do when they're tracking something. I quietly followed him through the house and silently opened the back door.
Once out of the house he tore through the backyard making more aggressive sounds disappearing into the lavender bushes then barking into the neighbors yard. This continued for a number of minutes and I just couldn't watch for fear that he'd get whatever it was that was invading our yard. I waited, listening, until he was done. A few minutes later he scratched the door, signaling me that he's ready to come in. I ran back and opened the door but he didn't want to come in...he turned and ran back to the middle of the yard, turned the side of his body to me, looked at the lavender bush and pointed. Like a bird dog, my Jack Russell pointed towards whatever it was!
I thanked him kindly for alerting me but declined his invitation to check it out.
He huffed and came back into the house, got a quick drink of water and returned to his kennel.

In a Nut Shell

Big news at the school: that's Ichiro in the green cap! Not sure how we ended up having some Mariners come to do an assembly, but we did...and it was amazing to see how the students reacted...I think a few of them needed to change their pants when it was all over.
On Tuesday we took Tank to the dog park after a long day of kennel time...Hazel found a heart in the pavement.
On Wednesday after school the kids and I returned to teach Hazel how to ride a two wheeler.
I think she's got the coasting pretty good...it's the stopping that gets her all worked up.
and brings a few tears.

August got his eyes checked for the first time. He's got better than 20/20 vision...phew!
And well, the weather has been HOT and August is a little heater as it is and you see...I felt bad because he was just sitting out back and his hair was wet with sweat...so I cut it. And he hates it. But it should be noted that he agreed to the cut, I think he just hasn't seen his hair this short in a long while.
We had a little visitor today. Tanks mom, Irving came by to hang out in the sun. How huge is my dog? That's his MOM people! He came out of her!
Trey has been out of town on a work retreat. He comes home tonight and then leaves again on Wednesday morning to take August to 3rd grade camp, they come home on Friday and then Trey and I leave on Saturday to go to Sasquatch. I can not wait.

A Day in the Life

We've got Royal for the weekend...and the dogs are having a blast!




I think that maybe Tank is having a better time than Royal is...Tank just wants to wrestle and play. Royal has a good time doing it for, oh, about 10 minutes, then he wants a break.
Tank, being one year old has no idea what Royal is doing. It's like Tank thinks Royal is laying down to give him better access or something...



Tank can't take the hint!They're gonna sleep well tonight!!