Moosies!

Thanks again for all the wonderful birthday wishes! We are all full of excitement here!

Yesterday morning Abby and I woke Mom up a little before 6am so she could take us outside, and Mom was still half-asleep and wasn't really paying attention when she opened the back door....

I started barking and Abby did a U-turn and came right back inside (I followed right behind her). Why? Um....


That's right! Momma Moose with a little baby moose. Mom and Dad saw this mom and baby in the neighborhood about a month ago, but we had never expected they'd come pay us a visit.

The baby is a real youngster - definitely born just this year.

Mom was very worried that Momma Moose would take issue with us being around her baby, so Mom kept us inside - where we barked at them, and they just sort of flicked their ears at us. I guess we're not super-scary sounding! Heehee.

Momma Moose, could have been a different story, though. Last year Dad was trying to get a single female moose off the property (moose and dogs really don't mix well) and REALLY pissed her off when he threw a snowball at her - she got so mad she came around the front and was charging the front porch. Like seriously charging the front porch - if she could have figured out a way up, she probably would have. Anyway, angry moose are SCARY!

So, instead of our usual frolicking in the yard, Mom and Dad hustled us off on our walk, hoping that when we got home, Momma Moose and Baby would have moved on to greener pastures.

Well, we got back from our walk to discover they had moved - to the front yard!

And they seemed to be quite comfy....


Heehee. We scratch just like that!

And Baby Moose was pretty cute!


Dad was a little worried that Momma and Baby had decided to make this their new summer home, and tried to gently urge them to leave by turning on the sprinkler (from the safety of the porch). Let's just say that Momma Moose was not impressed. Or even remotely disturbed.

Whaddya think, Mom? Should I be worried about this flying water?

Naw. Just take a seat; this place has nommy trees, fresh grass - it's perfect.

Okay. Sounds good to me!

Momma and Baby hung around until about 2pm, when the garbage truck came by - I guess it was a little noisy for them! But now when we go out, Mom's Very Careful about checking for Momma and Baby!

See, never a dull moment here!

*kissey face*
-Fiona and Abby the Hippobottomus

Note from Mom: I like seeing moose - I think they are amazing animals, but they scare the hell out of me. They are surprisingly fast, and when you've got a mother with a very young one, I'm not certain how they are going to react, and certainly they can be deadly to humans and dogs if they feel their young are being threatened. Luckily, this one seemed to be pretty mellow; she has been around the neighborhood for most of the spring, and didn't perceive the dogs as a threat (not that I gave her a chance to get worried - I kept the girls far away from them). So it was very cool to see the moose, and the baby really was a cutie but I'd just as soon they move on to someone else's yard! If you're interested in how to co-exist with moose, check out this article (http://www.xyz.net/~khltkbr/projects/moose/coexist.html).

A Very Happy Birthday!

Thanks to everyone for all the wonderful birthday wishes! I had a Most Excellent birthday!

It started off with a e-card from Granny and Grandpa, and a very nifty gift certificate to Drs. Foster and Smith - home of the sweet potato treats! Thanks Granny and Grandpa!!!

After that, we headed to the park for some quality tennis ball time. The weather forecast was for thunderstorms later in the day, and we wanted to get in some zoomie time.


After the park time (and some quality time with Dad, watching golf), Mom had to run a couple of errands, and she thought that maybe I'd like to go to that magic window that dispenses cheeseburgers. Well, duh! Of course I want to go the the Cheeseburger Store!!! So Abby and I hopped in the car, and we went to The Magic Window, which did not disappoint!


Abby was very interested in the contents of the bag, and being the good sister that I am, I shared all my birthday goodies with Abby. Because, of course, when it's her birthday, she'll be sharing her goodies with me!


C'mon Mom! Cut it up already!

In no time we were rewarded with bite-sized pieces of a plain junior cheeseburger!


After the cheeseburger (which was Most Nommy!), we had some frisbee time!


After the frisbee time, Mom broke out The Hat.

Seriously. The Birthday Hat. Oy. Dad was armed with lots of treats, and I tolerated it, to humor Mom. I mean, she did take us to the Magic Cheeseburger Window....

Oh, please, maybe if I hunch down lower, the floor will swallow me up...

There, are you happy now? Actually, it wasn't too bad - Dad had lots of treats for me during this whole ordeal! And I don't have to wear this silly hat for another year; the next time it comes out, it'll be Abby's turn to wear it. Neener-neener!

So, we had dinner, and Mom and Dad watched some teevee (there's some bicycle race or something going on that has their attention). A while after dinner, Mom declared that it was Cake Time!

Cake!!!! I watched Mom make the 'cake' yesterday. A friend of Mom's had sent her some doggie-specific recipes, and Mom selected a peanut butter-carrot recipe. But we had no carrots. So she substituted apples - which was totally cool because Abby and I both like apples. So yesterday Mom made the batter and baked it in a muffin tray (the idea being that she didn't want particularly big servings, AND she doesn't have a small cake pan...). They looked pretty yummy!


(Don't mind the tray the silicon muffin pan is sitting on - it's Mom's 'junk tray'). When they came out of the oven last night and cooled off a bit, Dad and I tested one, and we gave it a combined two thumbs and four paws up!

Today, Mom 'iced' one - she mixed a little low-fat cream cheese with some peanut butter and frosted one. And put a candle on it!

I turned 3 today, in case I forgot to mention it!

Bring on the cake!!!


Mom's wearing a long-sleeve shirt, BTW, because the predicted thunderstorms did come in, and it went from 80+ degrees to 60 degrees in about an hour.

C'mon. Enough with the photo ops. Let's EAT!

Finally, we got some cake!

And, yes, I shared!

It was Most Excellent cake! (And yes, there are leftovers!!!)

Thanks for a wonderful birthday, Mom and Dad!!! And thanks again for all the wonderful birthday wishes!

*kissey face!*
-Fiona the Birthday Girl and Abby the Hippobottomus

Happy Almost Birthday to Me!!!

Yes, it's true, it's my birthday on Sunday!!! I'm going to be 3 years old, and I'm sure Mom's got all sorts of exciting things planned. Like trying to get me to wear the silly birthday hat that she's tried to get me to wear on my last two birthdays.

My first birthday...

Note my wild enthusiasm...

We move on to my second birthday....


I sulked enough that I convinced Dad to convince Mom to not try to put that hat on me...

If my dear sister Abby REALLY wanted to give me a good birthday present, she'd pull the hat off the shelf where it's stored and eat it. I'm just saying....

So, I've got my paws crossed that Mom doesn't attempt anything silly like trying to put that hat on me. Besides, I've got much more exciting plans, like testing out this 'lawn' Mom has been working so hard on.

I'd like to get in a little frisbee time...


And putting the smackdown on my sister


Yep. Good times! And with luck, there will be No Silly Hats involved. I'm giving Mom the evil eye as this is being typed. NO SILLY HATS! Well, unless there are copious amounts of treats involved, and then I might consider, possibly, maybe, allowing another attempt at the silly hat.... But they'd better be GOOD treats. Like cheese. And turkey hotdogs. And steak bits. I'll keep you posted.

Heehee!

*kissey face*
-Fiona (the birthday girl) and Abby the Hippobottomus

My Sister is Green

Seriously, she's green. But I'll get to that. We've been busy with walkies and things, so we haven't been around Blogville much lately, but we'll see if we can crack the whip and have Mom help us visit our friends. Heehee.

So, what have we been up to? We've been going on lots of walks (see the last post for pictures of our walking adventures), and we've been hitting the park a lot...

It was hot over the weekend (we hit 90 on Sunday, which is toasty for us, and so we went on a lot of short walks punctuated with lots of time lying on the floor trying to get cool!), although it has finally gotten a little cooler and cloudier, so we're not baking quite so much.

Our 4th of July was pretty quiet; we went on a walk and then came home and hung out. They do fireworks at the Olympic Park, and Mom and Dad can see them from the porch (it's just one mountain ridge over). We went out on the porch for a little bit - we weren't bothered by the fireworks, but we did have to bark at the other doggies in the neighborhood who were barking at the fireworks! Heehee.

I, of course, did my patriotic duty and posed beneath the flag.

You might notice that our yard is looking a little wild and wooly. With good reason. If you recall, we started off the spring with a yard that looked like this...

That was mid-May. Mom decided that she couldn't handle another dusty summer, so she got all energetic and "prepped" the yard and put down fertilizer and grass seed, and watered and watered and watered. She was rewarded with little grass seedlings, but she couldn't mow the lawn because it would do bad things to her little fragile grass seedlings. So, she kept watering and watering.

And we ended up with this:

The grass and the weeds were getting so deep I was thinking Mom was going to have to attach bicycle flags to us so she could find us... I mean, really....

We still got in some long-grass bitey-face, but we were a bit hampered...

Abby, however, seemed to like rolling in the stuff.

Crazy puppy!

Mom decided that she didn't want to risk losing us in some of the clumps of weeds/grass, so she had a friend with a special lawnmower come up and attack the lawn. The grass was so long in spots that a special lawnmower was required.

And now, we have this!

Hey, uh, Mom. What happened to all the weeds? Heehee.

Abby, however, thought that the newly shorn lawn was perfect for, ah, whatever it is she's doing....

Shameless hussy cracker dog!

*sigh* She's shameless. And crazy....

And green.


Look at that foot. Or here... A better look...

And it's not just her feet. Mom didn't get a picture, but Abby's kinda tinged green all over. *sigh* I can't believe I'm related to this doofus...

If Mom had taken a video, you could see me shaking my head at the crazy puppy!

Oh, and speaking of The Crazy Puppy... Mom has decided that we are in need of a little more 'edjumacating' and we will be starting doggie classes again in a couple of weeks. Abby is going to take a 'Canine Good Citizen' class - in an attempt to prepare her for the AKC's Canine Good Citizen test. Abby? A 'good citizen'? Hmmph. Whatever. She's got a six week course to prepare for the test; I think she's going to need six months. But maybe she'll surprise us all! As for me, well, I didn't want to be in a class with my crazy sister. And besides, Mom is going to have her hands full trying to get Abby to do all the things she's supposed to do to pass the test. So, I'm going to be in a 'special' class. Something about how I "might not be ready" for the Good Citizen class. Whatever. I'm just not a suck-up like my little sister. Apparently this will be a 'more relaxed' class for those of us who don't aspire to being certifiable. And this way, I'll get to spend quality time with Mom, away from my crazy sister. I'll keep you posted!

*kissey face*
-Fiona and Abby the (green) Hippobottomus