Dog Days

Oh my goodness! I love my doggies! They are SO stinkin' cute! Their summer hairdos are adorable and I cannot tell you how many times I get stopped when I'm out walking them - everyone wants to know what breed they are and they want to pet them! I think we need to make up a breed so I can stop explaining that they are Border Collie/Mountain Dog mixes. Koty, our boy, is a Bernese Mountain Dog mixed with Border Collie. He is an expert swimmer, hunter and just generally the best dog that has ever been on the planet! I'm not even kidding about that last part. He is funny, smart, SO energetic but also calm around the house. He loves loves loves to play with his toys every day (even though he is 11 years old!) and he is just a sweet and generous brother to his completely dumb sister, Sadie.

Sadie. Hmmm. What do I say? We've had her for 2.5 years now and she is just dumb as a stump. And I'm being mean to stumps. I will give her one concession, however. Last night, for the first time EVER, she actually sat - of her own accord - before receiving her last treat of the night! It was a momentous event! We often have to poke her bum to get her to sit, but she's caught on recently! After 2.5 years. Two and a half years! That's a LOOOOOONNNNNG time to get a dog to learn the word "sit!" Anyway, she did and I'm SO proud of her I could spit!

I took these pictures yesterday...Sadie is a Border Collie/Great Pyrenees mix. She is as sweet as she is beautiful!:Following me around, as per usual. This is her entire reason for being - to be within 3 inches of me at all times. Period. End of story.

Koty howling:


This is our ritual before the morning walk. I start making squeaky "Owwwwww" sounds and then Koty responds! We will howl at each other for 5 or 10 minutes! He wags and wags while we do this, so I think he must like it! Then, after the howling session, it's time for TOYS!
Here, he is playing with his yellow ducky! He also adores his green elephant, pink pig, the long raccoon and his bigger green elephant! Also quite fun, apparently, is my blue sock with the tennis ball in it! It's loads of fun to throw it around! : ) hee hee!

Then, yesterday, when I was outside photographing the flower boxes, I had the great luck of running into my favorite neighbor, and her husband and their ADORABLE doggie, Quan Yin! My neighbor is a dog acupuncturist who worked miracles on our dog Lady in the twilight of Lady's life. I completely attribute Lady's last 8 months to her wonderous treatments. Lady had cancer all throughout her body and was given a week to live when she was diagnosed in April of 2007. She lived for 8 months.

So, if you live near Salem, MA, and have a doggie with ailments, please call my friend's business: Four Paws Acupuncture.

And this is her ADORABLE dog:


SO cute!