Fall and Stuff

We were out strolling the other day, and Mom thought it would be nice to get some pictures of the fall foliage.

Um.  That is just the hillside.  Totally boring.  I mean, where are the doggies?

Much better.  Well, it would be much, much better if you could see more of us, and less of the road, but whatever.  Mom wants to make the point that it's Fall.  Okay, we got it, we got it.  If you want to see tons of pictures of boring hillsides, just ask Mom - she took TONS of them.  Seriously... We went on one of our walks, and Mom was fascinated with the hillside by the Olympic Park...

At least Mom wasn't so dazzled by the hillside that she forgot about us...  We stopped by the park on that walk, and had some quality tennis ball time.

Even though the lighting looks a little different both of the above pictures are Abby.  You know, the dog totally missing the ball!  Heehee!

Me?  I've got mad catching skills! Heehee.

I think Abby might have been having some tennis ball focus issues because she's been Vienna sausage-oriented as of late.  She had another doggie class last Saturday, and she was a total suck-up

What a suck up!

And for those of you who are fans of Sherman (and you know who you are!), here's a gratuitous Sherman picture!

And a picture of our Fearless Trainer, and her sidekick Lulu.

I'm not sure if all that edjumacation has done much for Abby, though.  Today we were at daycare, and she thought she was all clever by rolling in poop.  When Mom came to get us, the daycare people noticed that my dear sister was, ah, a bit aromatic.  Abby and I were taken into the 'self-wash' room at the daycare, where Mom had the last laugh.  Armed with doggie shampoo, an apron, and lots of towels, Mom loaded Abby into the tub (three times, actually, as Abby felt the need to escape the first two times) and shampooed her.  Me?  Since I was the Good Dog, I got to avoid the whole Forced Bathing adventure.  Alas, Mom has no pictures of this whole adventure, as she wrestling with Abby, the shower hose, the shampoo, and the towels.  But even with the fancy-schmancy doggie shampoo, trust me when I tell you that I was the one who came out of the whole ordeal smelling like roses!  Heehee!


After getting a bath, Abby came home and immediately felt the need to get rid of the 'clean' smell.  

She's a SPAZ!  But that's not news, huh?


After Abby was done with her spaz-out, we got in some quality zoomies. 

And some bitey-face.

New-dog smell was totally eradicated!  Heehee.

We've also been working on our weave poles, although Mom has been slacking (again), and hasn't gotten any video of our latest (and best) attempts at the weave poles.  However, here is a super short video for Granny, so she can see the basic idea of what we're attempting.  For the record, Mom's cutting out the hand-motions and is working on her technique, while I'm just getting speedier.  We may even add the final two poles sometime!



Here's the link for those of you who get this via email: http://youtu.be/uN4XvGS09JA

We'll work on Mom to get some better video.  And more pictures of us, and stuff!  Heehee.

*kissey face*
-Fiona and Abby the Hippobottomus

Fall colors, certificates and green feet

Heehee.

Fall is here.  Trust me.  This is our backyard.

All fall-like.

Which means.... fall bitey-face!

 

 

 

We just wanted you to know that we haven't given up bite-facing.   We're still working on our weave poles and our hurdles, but sometimes we've just got to cut loose and bitey each other!

Mom still has to work on her technique, and we're not exactly Brutus and Carmen, but hey, we've graduated to four poles!

In other excitement, we went to the park this morning, and the grass had Just Been Cut.  (As in, the gardener was still cutting the far end of the field while we were there.)  No pictures of our park action, but Mom was greatly amused with our green feet.

Green feet?  Really?  You think that's funny?!?

Apparently Mom thought the green feet were really funny, as she too lots of pictures of our feet, especially Abby's since her coloring makes her leprechaun-like feet more obvious.  

Heehee.

And finally, our Canine Good Citizen certificates arrived!  And as our Grandpa keeps pointing out, the certificate is the Most Important Thing!   Heehee!

 

Now we're both certified.  Or certifiable, or something...

Frankly, my sister STILL looks certifiable, in my humble opinion...

Heehee.

*kissey face*

-Fiona and Abby the Hippobottomus

Park Times!

Okay, we've been slacking a bit on the blogging department.  All that modelling was Hard Work!  Heehee.

Anyhoo, we've been busy with 'stuff.'  After the Mango Momma's Most Excellent Weave Pole Instructional Video Mom has been inspired to get us out with own own weave poles.  But since we've only had one attempt where we've had more than two poles set up, we don't have any pictures or video yet.  But one of these days...

On Sunday, we had another playdate with Lulu the Bug.  For a short little thing, she's quite speedy...

We had quite the funballs time, and look forward to future playdates!

Today we went on a walk on the Multi-Use Trail (MUT).  We haven't been on this trail in a while, and it was good to get out and go for a long walkie.  The weather was really nice - high 50's-low 60's (i.e. perfect) - so we really enjoyed ourselves.  We also, of course, stopped by the park, and got in a little tennis ball action.

Check out that vertical leap!

We were all into catching balls out of the air today!

Two tennis balls makes for twice the fun!

Happy park times!

We have also been doing bitey-face zoomies in the backyard, but Mom has been slacking with the bitey-face photos; I'll have to talk with her about that.... But I didn't want you to think we had given up biteying each other in favor of modelling.  Although my sister is a HAM.  At daycare they have pictures of all of us, and mine is an action photo (duh!) while Abby's picture is yet another photo where she's Totally Hamming It Up for the camera.  Who'd've thunk that the Hippobottomus would aspire to be a model?  Heehee.

*kissey face*
-Fiona and Abby the Hippobottomus

Photo Shoot, Part Doo

So, last post was all about Abby, the total ham and camera hog, right?  Well, FINALLY, the pictures of ME showed up.   You can see that I'm totally NOT a ham.   Unlike my sister, I prefer a more, ah, casual, wind-blowing-through-my-ears kind of look.

Carefree, if you will!

Actually, to be honest, I didn't really like the 'popping' noise of the photographer's flash, and I didn't like the feeling of the material they used for the background and the floor.  So I may or may not have been ready to bolt in the above picture.  I'm just saying...

Oh, and it didn't help that Mom brought Abby along, because she thought it would be 'fun' to get some pictures of the two of us together.  Fun?!?  Mom, you've got a twisted sense of fun.

Let's just say the 'cute, loving sister' photos didn't exactly materialize.

We were on one leash so, theoretically, we would sit together and look all cute.  Yuh.  That totally worked.

This was as close as they ever got to us sitting together and looking cute.  You'll notice that I'm plotting my escape while my goofball sister is entranced by the squeaky-toys being employed by the photographer's assistant.   But Mom was REALLY hoping she might manage to get a picture of her with the two of us.

Um.  Not so much.  You'll notice the death-grip Mom had on me in an attempt to get me to look at the camera.  Uh, I mentioned that I really didn't like the photographer's flash?  Or the proximity of my sister?

Finally, Mom got the hint that maybe the two of us weren't going to cooperate.  So, she got another picture of her with Abby the hambone,

and then put Abby in the car, so we could focus on ME!  Finally.  *sheesh*


I went with the contemplative look first.  You can almost see the Deep Thoughts I'm thinking!

Then it was time for pictures with Mom.  I mean, Abby can't be the only one with totally cute pictures of her with Mom.

The last one came out pretty good.  However, I'll let you in a little behind-the-scenes secret.  That last photo is cropped.  Here's the full-sized version...

If you look closely, you'll see that I was trying to get off the icky-feeling background.  However, you might also notice Mom has a cookie in her lower hand... A cookie that I received immediately following the taking of that picture.  Hence my interest and enthusiasm!

Heehee.

Okay, so I'm not quite the model my sister is.  Mom's happy that she got a couple good shots with me and her, and she thought my ears flapping in the breeze were cute (even if there really was no breeze, and it was just me not really sitting still...).

And I have to admit, it's a more unique look than you get with my sister the model!  Heehee!

*kissey face*
-Fiona and Abby the Hippobottomus