The Dog Park

Yay Skip. A picture of myself I actually like.

The Sleep

This was taken our 2nd or 3rd day with Shiloh. He certainly has warmed up to us fast. Pictured is Skip, Shiloh and Blossom (behind) taking a nap.
Canon G9, F2.8, ISO 200, 7.4mm

Spooky

This was Blossom's DogScope the day we got Shiloh. For the record, I had never even heard of a DogScope. Skip showed me this.

Shiloh's Middle Name

Just so you know, his name is Shiloh Hillary Dayton. He's man enough to handle it.

Blossom is 2!

Can I still call her baby? She is 12, I suppose.

The First Portrait

Well we've had Shiloh a little over 48 hours now and he is just a joy. He loves to wrestle with Blossom, say hi to the cats, lay on your lap, get affection, sleep next to you, go for car rides, go to the dog park, eat treats and run around the house like a fool. There were some concerns that Blossom wouldn't take too kindly to another dog but they are getting along just fine.

They were nice enough to pose for some pictures on Friday night, here is one of them.

What's New?

Anticipating the arrival of Shiloh...

Still traveling to Pittsburgh for work most weeks...

Still pretty burned out.

Skip is still getting treatment for his car accident last September and still isn't allowed to exercise.

My photography is coming along albeit at a slower pace than I'd like. My next class starts in early September.

I see the Doctor again tomorrow about my knee. Neither is still really fixed so I'm going to try to get him to go back in there and fix it.

We're looking forward to my sister's wedding in Colorado in October. Skip is looking forward to making the wedding cake!

We're Daddies (again)

We found out tonight that we got Shiloh. We should find out tomorrow when we can pick him up, hopefully on Friday!

If anyone has any tips on getting the dogs to love each other, let me know!

Keep your fingers crossed

We put in an application on this adorable Beagle yesterday.

Those eyes

Taking a good picture of Blossom staring at me while I am driving while I am actually driving is no small feat.

Dog Park Heaven

Blossom had a great visit to an enclosed dog park in Annapolis for Memorial Day. She liked playing with the big dogs and the not-so big dogs. What she didn't like is the other beagle giving me attention.
Nikon D300 - f/13.0, 1/200, ISO 200

The life of Blossom

When I'm home I sleep like a mummy. Blossom is under the covers, pressed up against me from the right side and Lucy is pressed up against me on the right side. Rolling on to my side takes a bit of planning to not squish anyone. When I'm gone, evidently they both sleep near my pillow and actually sleep close to each other. I have never seen this phenomenon myself but Skip got a picture. Blossom actually takes her fluffy (the blue thing) and pulls it up to my pillow and sleeps there. This picture is the only time I've seen the two of them actually touching.

I'm not sure how she does it, but yesterday when Skip picked up Blossom from day care, she was on top of a dog house. The workers told him that Blossom likes to get up there but then only lets her friends up with her. I am not sure what is happening, as I did not raise her to be an elitist snob. As long as she votes for Hillary and doesn't hurt anyone or anything she can do what she wants.

He was a good dog

We had to put Gaston to sleep a few days ago.  He was 16, 2 years older than most dogs of his type live.  He got to the point where he couldn't stand still without his paws giving out on him and would fall down just trying to eat his dinner.  At night he had dementia and would just wander in circles.

It's a very sad thing but I feel good that he's not suffering or confused any more.  When we took him to the Vet's office of course the adreneline kicked in and he seemed great for about 5 minutes or so until he started slipping again.  He also tried to go under a desk that he was clearly too tall for multiple times, but this is something he has done all his life.  Skip and I are convinced that our time in Colorado extended his life by at least a year but even there his eyesight and hearing started to fail him.  As scared as he was of loud noises (especially fireworks) that was actually a good thing.

The funny thing about Gaston is he never actually gave you affection.  Never nuzzled, never licked you, he would just walk up to you and give the goofiest grin, even though he was usually telling you that he wanted food or a walk.  Sometimes he would use you has his personal scratching post and did like little massages, but he wasn't the most demonstrative dog.  We loved him all the same and his special little smooches with one of our cats will be missed.

We will miss you, Gaston.  You were a good dog.

The robot cat i.e. Welcome to my Digital Photography expansion!

Now that I've got some more experience with Digital Photography I've decided that I would expand this blog by making it a Digital Photography Blog also.  The name still fits and you'll get more posts!

Here are my first subjects.  When I saw this scene I ran to get my camera as this cat never ever sits in a lap like that, I'm telling you this girl had her hypnotized.  The picture turned out way too dark but with a little Photoshop magic it looks much better.  Obviously I didn't do anything about the room clutter.

[Nikon D300, 18-200mm VR zoom lens at 18mm, 1/25 of a second at f/3.5 and ISO 100, hand held.]

A first and a second

This is the closest I've seen Blossom sleep to any other animal in the house. But then, a day of playing does make her awfully tired, so she isn't too picky about where she sleeps, as long as it's close to one of her Daddys.
As for the second, Blossom got picked as Doggie of the Week again. But of course!

Of course he did!

A beagle won Westminster!

This is what a rough night of bingo will do to you

Do Not Mess With Me

How is it that the sweetest cat in the world can look like such a thug in almost every picture I ever take of her? Right now she is curled up asleep in my lap while I read the Sunday paper online.

The Coat

Here is Blossom's winter coat.  She doesn't like being cold.

Sleep? What sleep?

I realize that this post will be laughable to those with children, you may use the time you would have used to read this post by getting a moment of zen...

Skip drove to the hypnotherapist in Pittsburgh yesterday to get a session geared towards weight loss.  My mom and I had both been previously and have found that is has been very worthwhile.  After the session Skip met my Mom at a local mall to drop off her Christmas goodies and then it was off to West Virginia to see his family.  This means of course that I was alone in the house last night.  No so big a deal for Skip as I'm away a lot, but I don't think I've been alone in our house in over three years, so it was very weird.  Skip lets the dogs out in the middle of the night and all that jazz but now it was my turn.  

/whine

The problem is that if it is past 3 or so and I wake up I don't get back to sleep.  Blossom wanted to go out about 1 am so they both went out and we went back to sleep.  At 4 am Blossom woke me up again and she was UP.  Now this is very weird because anything earlier than 9:30 am is early for her.  She stayed up and wired for a good hour before she decided it was nap time.  By this time, of course there was no way I was going back to sleep.  Unlike the people in the world with kids, I seem to need at least 6 hours of sleep a night.

/endwhine