the sheltiechick blog

Christmas 2015

Happy Christmas! Modern medicine is a Christmas miracle which left Auggie feeling back to normal the next morning. I put breakfast casserole in the oven and then we opened presents and stockings.


Auggie demands this box open immediately. Yeah, he feels fine now.


Ah, it’s open! Now, what’s inside?


THE FLASH is inside!! After a decade of my dog being The Flash, finally the dog toy makers at PetSmart have gotten it together and made us a toy of The Flash. Auggie is really happy about this.


But there’s more!


This cute abdominal snowman toy came from Petco. Auggie and I made a special trip together on Black Friday to the nearest Petco and he selected this toy for himself. It’s super cute and while it’s smaller than the toys I usually buy, it’s actually a great size!

Auggie also got a squeaky piece of coal that says “A L’il Naughty” on it, and a bag of Zuke’s Christmas treats.


Next Payton is a Christmas over-achiever and stood on his box.


Oh we OPEN the box. Oh.


This is the toy Auggie selected at Petco for his brother. I call it Manly Unicorn. Because it’s a unicorn, but the red plaid makes it rather manly.


Payton also got a new West Paw Design toy, but he looks sad here because first he got out his own squeaky lump of coal and feels bad because he is naughty and he knows it.


Next, stockings! I know, usually it’s stockings first and gifts second, but in our house we usually open presents on Christmas Eve and then stockings on Christmas Day – but since Auggie wasn’t feeling so great the previous night, we did gifts first, stockings second.


Bocce’s Peppermint Bark treats! I wanted to try these last year but couldn’t find any, so when I found them out and about on Black Friday, I snagged a bag.


Payton still hasn’t quite gotten the hang of how to cram his entire face in his stocking like Auggie has.


Aaaand Payton gets a bag of coal treats in his stocking.

Poor Payton! He is so naughty while Auggie is so very good.

After enjoying our breakfast casserole, we packed everything up in the car and went back home. I did not go to Christmas dinner with my family since I wanted to keep a close eye on Auggie again, so we all stayed home and watched movies. First we watched Love Actually, then Elf, then Miracle on 34th Street – and finally, because it was on TV, we finished our night of movies with Legally Blonde. Christmas dinner was a Mexican chicken and rice casserole, which in my opinion is highly festive.

Happy, happy Christmas to all!


Christmas Eve

Time for Christmas tree photos!


Payton is sad about this, even though it involves cookies.


He is sad because he can’t smile on cue and I keep saying I need to train it but I never do.


Auggie is kind of sad because his legs are still pretty naked.


We’ll just take pictures of his adorable face instead.


Payton singles!


Very intense. YOU WANT ME TO LAY DOWN?? WATCH HOW GOOD I CAN LAY DOWN.


Always with the head down photo.


DOES THAT GET ME A COOKIE?


One more of the best Auggie.

Not a whole lot this year. Auggie had been doing really well, but of course on Christmas Eve, when none of my regular vets are open, he started coughing a bit again. We did get these photos, and after photos he got to take a trip to my grandma’s house so I could watch him while we had dinner and opened presents. We then took a quick trip to the emergency vet as his breathing started to get a bit labored and he was coughing more, and I decided to bring him in before he actually got in distress. He got a shot of injectable Lasix and instructions to increase his oral Lasix, and he was able to come home. He felt much better after his injection started to work and flush the fluid out. We went home to get Payton and everybody came back to my parent’s house to stay for the night so we could all open more presents and stockings in the morning.


Auggie definitely was feeling better once he got to take a nap in his favourite spot – under the Christmas tree. Best place.


Secret Santa 2015

We played in the Secret Santa swap this year! Imagine my surprise when the UPS man arrived at my door (delightfully going “ho ho ho!”) with a big box from Chewy. I was confused because I didn’t order anything from Chewy, so I opened the box – and discovered it was our Secret Santa gift!

I closed it up and put it back on the floor and Auggie thought this meant he should stand on it.


No? How about sit on it?


Payton just wants the box open so he can get at what’s inside.


Oh, okay, yeah it’s cool to open the box too.


Payton got these delicious cheese cookies made by Fromm!


And Auggie got a box of peanut butter Buddy Biscuits – his favourite!


Auggie also got a nice new shark toy, and it’s a tough toy so it will withstand any thievery by little brothers, too.


(And it will withstand an Auggie.)


Payton got this long unstuffed gator toy, perfect for tugging.


Auggie also received a Planet Dog basketball with a treat spot so we can stuff those Buddy Biscuits inside.


And Payton got the football!


Posing with all their goodies! The box also contained two bully sticks, but I removed those before we opened them to avoid any angry scuffles where Auggie might try to take both bully sticks and Payton might not find that very fair.

Thank you Secret Santa!


Santa Claus 2015

Christmas is Auggie’s favourite time of the year.
He was born November 15th, which means most of his puppyhood was during Christmastime. I still remember going to pick out which puppy would be mine – I had my choice of two little males who would make great pets with sport potential. Auggie and his little brother (called “Dee” at the time) were ripping around his breeder’s living room, running underneath and behind the Christmas tree. I still believe this is why, when we set up the Christmas tree, Auggie makes a beeline to lie down underneath it. Fond memories of his puppyhood and time spent playing, and maybe occasionally napping, underneath the Christmas tree.

Christmas is my favourite time of the year, too.

We did two Santa trips this year. I brought along the bowtie and tie from our professional Christmas photos. I’m not sure if Auggie and I will get another Christmas together, so I wanted this one to be special.

First, we went to Country Arbors, a nursery nearby. Their Santa setup is really cool, and this year they had a firepit where they were burning pine tree branches. First, we got our Santa photo.
And if you’re wondering why I’m in the photo this year, again, no idea if I’ll ever get another chance with Auggie, so I took advantage of the opportunity before I don’t have it.

Next we went and hung out by the firepit for a while. It was nice and warm and smelled amazing.

After Auggie’s vet appointment, I didn’t really have a lot of cash to pick anything up, although the white birch logs are beautiful and healthy, and really are a great bargain. Maybe next year!

Our next Santa was a couple weeks later. The local humane society always puts on a Santa pet photo event with the Subaru dealership. The Santa is really great and, being humane society folks, everyone working the event is awesome with pets, too. I also love their backdrop – you can’t see it in this year’s photo, but they have this really beautiful old timey looking street light with a big red bow on it, and I just love it.

I got in the photo with Santa here, too, but my favourite happened to be the one of just my two boys and Santa.

May all your Santas be jolly and all their whiskers be real.


First Snow of the Year!

It was pretty pitiful, but we weren’t going to miss the first flakes falling!


Beautiful Auggie with snowflakes.


Silly P with snowflakes!

It amounted to basically no accumulation and was gone the next day… but it was in fact the first time snowflakes fell from the sky for winter 2015. COUNTS.