Payton’s Third Birthday
My little baby dog is no longer little, nor a baby. But he is still a dog. That’s about it. Today he turned three years old. The ideal would have been a nice long hike, just the two of us, and then a swim in the lake, but being Illinois is May, it’s currently about 43 degrees outside and raining, so that is not a thing that was going to happen today. Instead we went out to Pet Supplies Plus to redeem his birthday coupon on a bag of treats, then drove around town for a bit together, came back home where I made chicken thighs and gave him the cartilage and joints I cut off them, then we had PARTY.
But first. Yesterday I went to a few stores in town looking for some suitable party hats. I wanted football ones but couldn’t find any. I continued searching today, even willing to take plain blue ones (P’s colour) or green (I could paint them with some white and make it look like a football field.) NO SUCH LUCK. In my desperation I googled “DIY party hats.”
And this is what the crazy dog lady does for her dog’s birthday.
Not exactly orange and navy blue for perfect Bears colours, but it works.
Huzzah, group photo!
I made the football cupcake pick too, because I was going to buy some at the party store but the line was almost to the door… and I went there twice. WHAT. NO. WHAT ARE YOU ALL BUYING PARTY SUPPLIES FOR. MY DOG IS THREE AND HIS BIRTHDAY IS FAR MORE IMPORTANT THAN WHATEVER YOU ARE DOING. GET OUT OF MY WAY. So I left the cupcake picks at the store and just made that.
My mom took a bunch of blurry photos from a weird angle so I told her “Get down at his level.” This is apparently what she thought I meant. *facepalm* I’m going to have to start hiring a photographer for my dog’s birthdays because I can’t maneuver dogs AND take photos at the same time.
Cuppycakey for the birthday boy!!
Auggie is seriously the best boy. He wore his hat patiently, sat nicely, then happily devoured his cupcake.
I had half the cupcake in my hand to give to Pepper… and she chose to first eat the half still in the paper instead of just taking the half I had RIGHT IN FRONT OF HER NOSE. Ohhhh Pepper.
Georgie. My mom says to her “Georgie don’t be a shark. Or a gator. Or a pig. Or whatever.” It all fell on deaf ears.
Frosting face!
I don’t know WHAT happened to Pepper’s hat, it got crushed somehow while still attached to her head. But she looks happy, so!
And then we have Auggie. Oh Auggie. <3
P got a little blue sheep as his present, on top of the treats and the chicken parts and the cupcakes. Because we need more sheep toys in this house.
The end. Happy birthday baby Pay. Here's some baby Payton's in case you forgot:
That’s the bowl I later taught him to pivot on. Yep.
Sheltie Easter 2014
I realize it’s like two weeks late.
I had a horrible migraine that day – not the worst of my life, but the second worst of my life. I was heavily medicated and did pretty much nothing all day long. I forgot my Easter stuff at my house (silly me though last year “surely by next Easter we will be moved in!” and took it all over there, and I meant to bring it back on Saturday when we were done working… but I forgot it in the garage.) so I didn’t have their eggs or baskets either.
My mom ran out to the store to buy some more meds for me and found a pack of eggs for cheap there, so she brought them home so the dogs could still hunt eggs. First, we did a hunt inside where she hid all six eggs, then one at a time we let each dog find the eggs. But the lighting in this house is awful and I was still laying on the couch just watching, so no photos of that. But a few hours later, I was FINALLY feeling better, so we went outside. I didn’t really “hide” them so much as just set them down around the front of the yard, so this is officially The Worst Sheltie Easter Ever.
But I did get pics!
The shelties… one egg.
Payton manages to escape with this one.
Cookie inside!
Auggie and Pepper.
Pepper sorta kinda got into it this year since she had time to find eggs all by herself without the other dogs… but she still was like “I found one!” and then basically just sat there with it hahaha.
She wasn’t even motivated to find other cookies… maybe she thought the egg would spontaneously produce more cookies?
Auggie finding more.
Open, eat the cookie…
…find the next egg.
Auggie doesn’t play around.
Meanwhile this was happening… Payton kept running around with an egg and Georgie trying to steal it from him… NOT THE GAME, PUPPIES.
Pepper, by the way, is in the back not grabbing at an egg, but just grabbing at the ground. Because… Pepper. And meanwhile Auggie is looking around for anything still unopened.
A derp-derp!
Yeah… that’s Payton.
That’s all… not a lot. Better ones next year hopefully!
Payton’s ZUMI Lead
Baby Payton has needed a nice agility lead for a while. Since I named him after Walter Payton, I really wanted an orange & navy blue one. After searching the internet, I couldn’t find one.
Enter ZUMI Leads. Who added an orange and blue rope to their line-up.
It had to happen. It HAD to happen. Since I like martingales on my guys, I e-mailed asking if it would be possible to custom make a martingale. They were happy to make a custom lead for me so Payton could run around agility trials in a martingale.
It arrived earlier this week and I couldn’t be happier.
The lighting tonight makes the blue look lighter than it is in real life. It truly is a nice orange and navy blue. The perfect Chicago Bears lead for my Payton.
This photo actually has more accurate colors:
The rope itself is amazing, it feels so soft. I had to show it off to my mom who was also amazed at how soft it felt. LIKE BUTTER.
Can’t wait to take it to agility to start using! Our first trial of the year is coming up in early March, and then after a short week we’re off to Louisville!
2013 Giftings and Stockings
Finally got around to going through all of these to throw out the blurry ones and edit the good ones. I realize it’s over a week late. OH WELL
We started with Georgie’s present from me.
I found this skirt at TJMaxx and thought it was too funny not to buy for her. Sorry Georgie!
I also bought a tug-a-jug for her since she doesn’t have one. Meanwhile Auggie is like “oh are we doing presents?”
When I was editing these I was like “What the heck is that??” I forgot what I gave her already. And it was just over a week ago. AND we were all playing with this toy last night…
It’s a banana and inside there are three little monkeys for her to dig out.
And a big bag of PB Zukes so she can learn how to suck less at agilities.
Auggie gets to go next except he’s already trying to go to bed. (BTW, that’s the ASSA 2012 Handbook sitting there. That’s my mom’s copy. In the book is a special dedication to Auggie’s grandpa… and also, Auggie himself. Also lots and lots and lots of relatives to all of my guys.)
Auggie’s bag of goodies!
This year I wrapped their toys for them.
I had to get him started but he was fine to rip it after this. Except then he neglected to see the toy inside and just kept trying to play with the wrapping paper…
It’s a new puppy!! Auggie has this big green puppy in his crate that he LOVES to snuggle and play with (and I HATE to play with) so I bought him this, a smaller blue puppy. This will work for fetch soooo much better.
Auggie likes his new puppy.
Yes, yes indeed. Auggie Approved.
Pepper next! She was willing to look in the bag after she watched Georgie open hers, and also, there are bags of treats in there…
Trying to get her to rip her present. Wasn’t working LOL. It was a victory just to get her to stick her head in the bag!!
Oooooh what’s that?!
It’s a bunny! A little pink bunny, just like I call my Pepper, LOL.
She likes it. <3
Payton’s turn.
He didn’t realize he needed to take the paper off and was going to just take this as his gift.
Oh it’s a football. Don’t care, bitches in season.
Meanwhile there’s also a bag with presents for all three, and Pepper is the only one who cares.
Once Payton realized there was a new stuffed sheep, suddenly he was interested.
There’s also this – it’s the sheep pen toy with three little sheep inside to dig out.
Pepper actually kinda likes this game.
There’s also this plastic vulture thing my grandma bought them.
Next, my sister’s present for them. I realize most of you probably won’t get this. For those who do get it, I apologize for your having The Water Buffalo Song stuck in your head for approximately the next three weeks, because it’s been stuck in MY head ever since Christmas Eve and I don’t think it’s going anywhere soon.
“This smells like Henri. Maybe I should pee on it.”
It’s a water buffalo!!
Auggie also got a water buffalo.
Georgie’s like “Where’s MY water buffalo? Why don’t *I* have a water buffalo?” (Again I am so sorry for those who don’t get it. And probably also those who do.)
Pepper also got a water buffalo, she got a dark brown one like Henri has in his photo since she’s my dark girl. That’s racist.
My grandma also bought them a new Wubba. Auggie wants the water buffalo and only the water buffalo.
Next, stockings on Christmas Day. Or Christmas Afternoon. It was like 1pm when we finally opened stockings because my dad was still sleeping and I was like ALL THE POKEMANS
Auggie got a new harness, I’m hoping to use this on restrained sends with him. Payton is like “For me??”
Auggie isn’t really excited about this.
Payton next!
“I don’t really care about that football, I just want the bully stick I know you have please.”
Pepper is getting the hang of this whole “stick your head in something and magic happy funtimes happen next” shtick.
This might be her first ever bully stick, I’m not sure.
She wanted NOTHING to do with the toy I put in there for her, so I unwrapped it for her. =P
Payton meanwhile had his bully stick, and Auggie was on the couch with his. And all was calm, all was bright.
Georgie’s stocking next. Unfortunately she was bleeding and had to wear her panties for this. Humiliating.
She could smell the bully stick in there and didn’t care that much about the elephant toy.
SUCCESS. I think my mom was a little offended she cared zilch for the elephant toy and only wanted the bully stick.
Finally, for those who didn’t get a copy of my Christmas card this year, this was the front:
And on the back, I wanted to do a “Christmas letter” –
And that is that. Happy Christmas belatedly to everybody.
Christmas Eve Photoshoot
First I took the dogs over to my house to get photos in front of my Christmas tree. Yes I put up my tree this year and wrapped my presents there and put them under the tree even though I’m not living there. You can’t even tell in these photos that I don’t have any baseboards.
Auggie first!
Most wonderful Auggie in the world.
I seriously will never love any dog as much as I love this one. He’s just perfection.
P next!
Very serious P.
Looking at these photos, I’m reminded of how much he REALLY looks like Auggie’s dad (and Auggie’s brother/Georgie’s dad.) As he got older he started to look less like them, but some of these photos make me go wow, he really does still look like him.
Happy P!
Back to serious P. Can’t be happy while lying down.
Pepper was wagging her tail the whole time so her tail is just a blur…
Such a happy little Pepper!
I’m sure nobody sees it but me, but she’s blowing coat because she’s about to go in season, and there are two little white tufties on her legs that I didn’t see until the photos were done… AUGH
Family photo!
The whole fam back at my parent’s house! (I brought all my presents home since we’re leaving from here to my grandma’s.) Payton is having a terrible Christmas because two bitches are in season and he can’t hump either of them.
Now everybody is having a great Christmas except Georgie. Georgie hates Christmas.
Nice family photo!
Georgie in a box!
First you take a box. Then you cut a hole in the box.
Then you put your Auggie in the box.
“Oh. I am in a box.”
Seriously he is so good. He was just like “okay, this is what we’re doing, I’ll hang out here.”
He was going to just stay in there. Doesn’t care. I’ll take a nap. Best. Auggie. Ever.
First you take a box. Then you cut a hole in the box.
Then you put your Payton in the box.
My mom was like “he’s not going to fit…” “Oh yes he will,” I said. “My puppy fits into spaces that seem entirely too small for him. He’ll fit.”
He just seems like he’s disembodied, that’s all.
But oh God he is SO cute.
First you take a box. Then you cut a hole in the box.
Then you put your Pepper in the box.
Pepper is not nearly as good at this stuff as the boys are LOL. We couldn’t get her to stay put and let us sit the top on her. She’s still cute!
Georgie solo photos.
Cute girly <3
She just won’t stay sitting so all of hers are laying down.
That’s it! Presents tonight and stockings tomorrow so more photos coming soon!
Snow Storm Shelties + Arf on the Shelf Outtakes
Runnin’!
Payton says “RUNNING’S MY FAVOURITE”
Georgie: “Oh God it’s coming!”
Peppydrizzle was out wagging her tail all over the place.
The best way to navigate the snow is to hop, really.
Payton was having trouble running… not just because it was deep but because Georgie was pulling on his tail the entire time.
NOM PAYTON
Payton is just like DERP DERP and Georgie is all BANZAI
Mr. Auggie <3
Then the snowballs started.
PAYTON
I hit her with a snowball and she was like “WHAT WAS THAT.” Sorry.
This one’s my favourite.
He also likes the snowballs <3
Georgie really wants a snowball too and also she is freezing.
Yay!
Baby dog’s tongue is INSIDE his nose. Nice, P.
SNOWBALL
This is an accurate representation of Georgie.
Pepper likes snowballs also please!
More snowballs until Georgie was visibly shivering so we all went back inside…
I really love that Pepper got into it this year. I’m so excited when she does anything other than look sad and like I beat her.
Also while out there I decided to take my Arf on the Shelf photo. I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do but Auggie had a few ideas.
First he looks quite pretty.
And then.
“Auggie no!!”
“Auggie stop! Don’t eat it!”
I was trying to tell him “no, stop!” and yet it was hysterical and I kept snapping photos at the same time. Poor Francisco.
End! We can’t go anywhere at all until the plows clear us out… who knows when that will be. Yay.
Auggie Is Eight
Mom asked if he could show her on his paws “how many” he was.
“I’m this many if you count my nubby toes!”
The very bestest boy.
I told him I’d blow out the candle for him… and asked him if he wished all the other dogs would go away.
]
NOM CAKE
All the party people!!
Pepper got cake second since she is the second oldest. Pepper LIKES cake.
“I think birthdays are my new favorite.”
Payton isn’t sure about the hat.
But he IS sure about the cupcake.
“Oh I do like birthday.”
Georgie was rotten and almost lost her turn for cake. She just could NOT keep her feet on the floor. I have a blurry photo of Auggie eating cake and there’s a blurry Georgie jumping up and down vertically in the background…
One day I’m going to video her eating cake so you can HEAR what accompanies this.
This basketball toy pleases the Auggie.
Best Auggie ever.
Every year I try to do a whole “what does Auggie mean to me?” thing and there are no words for it. Words alone do not express what he means. I am thrilled to have him in my life and to have spent the last eight years with him, even if they often contained tears, frustration, and heartbreak. I would never trade Auggie for anything. And even though Payton is technically a better agility dog than Auggie, if I could only have one dog over and over for the rest of my life, it would be Auggie.
Happy birthday my little old man.
And many more.
Happy Birthday Pepper!!
It’s Pepper’s FIFTH birthday today, but her first birthday with me – so of course I wanted to have a nice party for her. I asked her months ago if she wanted a Princess Party and she wagged her tail.
Princess Party it is.
First we had a good time outside. Payton has finally decided she is no longer in season enough to warrant harassment so they were all able to be out together!
Of course it didn’t matter much because Payton was doing this.
“YAY BIRTHDAY!”
My girly <3
My girl and her brudder Auggie. She loves her Auggie.
And then there’s this one. Her real brother. Who… well she doesn’t really want to be touching him right now or anything if that’s okay.
But you can totally tell they’re related.
Then more of this happened.
Pepper with her niecelette <3
And later we were all back inside for PRINCESS PARTY!!!
Pepper got her own special birthday princess hat and everybody else had to wear tiaras.
Including the boys.
TIARAS.
Auggie is very pretty.
Geeeeeorgie. Georgie got a pink tiara, I put purple ones on the boys. Because purple is slightly more manly.
Birthday Princess!!
Oh LOLOL Payton.
Cupcake time!! (I made my mom hold the dogs while I took photos this time, after Payton’s sad birthday photos.)
Mmmmm… pink cuppycake.
“Oh I will just lick it…”
“Until I NOM.”
My dad wanted to give Payton his cupcake because Payton is so gentle and delicate.
Om nom nom.
I also decided to break Auggie’s cupcake into pieces after he swallowed his cupcake whole on Payton’s birthday.
…aaaaaand off goes Auggie’s tiara.
Georgie is super cute in her tiara.
I don’t even have to share any of Georgie’s other cupcake eating photos because this one is the best.
Pepper got a little pink bunny-ball for her birthday. For a while she didn’t play with it at all and the other dogs grabbed it… THEN she wanted to play with it. Because I think it then tasted like cupcake. Ohhhh Pepper.
Even I wore a tiara! So did my mom but she wouldn’t appreciate me sharing her photo I don’t think. My dad bailed before this happened or I would probably have made him wear a tiara too…
Happy happy birthday my best and only girl. <3
Georgie’s Second Birthday
Yesterday, I learned that one of the most amazing dogs I have ever had the pleasure to know had left this world. A great dog who touched the heart of everyone who knew her, and gave me such wonderful partners in life like Auggie and Pepper, had me determined to bring Payton home because I did not WANT to find any other puppy but a dog that had her genes in him, and inspired us to name her little great grand-daughter Georgette, or “Georgie” for short – in honor of the wonderful Georgia.
Today Georgie is two years old.
How do you reconcile pain, grief, and loss of something so great it leaves holes in the hearts of many – against the joy and happiness of a birthday of a great little puppy, one who was named for her, one who is given the great challenge of measuring up to her namesake, or at least giving us a clear reminder us of her lineage?
This is the path we walk in life, especially when we choose to open our hearts to dogs. Loss and pain hand in hand – or hand in paw? – with joy and hope for the future.
Happy Second Birthday Georgie. And run free Georgia, forever in our hearts, and in the blood of all my wonderful dogs. Thank you for everything.
So her birthday was a slightly subdued affair. Challenging for my heart, and yet she is a great little dog who deserves a birthday. Not for me to hug her and cry and miss what we no longer have, but to hug her and laugh and celebrate what we DO have.
And what we have is an ice cream cone.
My mom didn’t buy her any presents because my dad says she has too many toys already, but he can’t stop ME, so I bought her a small Chunky the Monkey Kong stuffed toy. No photos of her getting the monkey because my camera batteries were dead unfortunately, but I can tell you that she has already chewed off his tail, so clearly she likes him.
Happy birthday best baby girly.
You have so much to live up to.
Baby Payton’s First Agility Trial
The time leading up to this trial was… emotional.
I went through “We might actually be able to pull this off!” to “OH GOD HE WILL BE TERRIBLE WE ARE GOING TO BE LAUGHED OUT OF THE RING” and all kinds of turmoil. A friend asked me “What’s the worst thing that can happen?”
And I didn’t answer because if I said it out loud, it was going to make me cry – the worst thing that can happen is that Payton is not Auggie. He is not Auggie and he will never be Auggie and it is unfair to Payton, and to myself, to continually compare the two.
“He is just a baby,” people said. “I never expect baby dogs to strike awe into people their first time out!”
Auggie did. Auggie’s first run ever. Remember? “One day that dog is going to be awesome,” from a total stranger.
He came home with a first and Q in his first ever jumpers run. It was a clean run, I still remember the feeling as I staggered out of the ring with my dog in my arms. My amazing Auggie.
And now? Now I have Payton.
I decided that we needed to just go and have fun. It’s just expensive practice, I reminded myself. All I want is for Payton to go in the ring, take a few of the jumps I ask him to take, not pee on anything, and also to get his weave poles.
The morning of our trial, I asked Auggie if it was okay that I was taking Payton to the trial instead. I also asked him if he had any advice for his baby brother.
I took Payton outside before his run. I had sliced up hot dog I was feeding him. I told him not to pee on anything. I asked if he could please remember how to do weave poles because I have video evidence that he DOES know how to do them, so please do them.
As I entered the ring I remembered what a friend said. “You only have one first trial with your dog.”
I gave him a kiss, then a second one.
Then we ran.
And you can’t see it in the video but I started crying right after the video cuts off. Because I couldn’t believe it. I really just wanted him to get his weaves… and he ran the whole course and he Q’d and everything.
I was crying and everybody kept saying “Oh, good job!” and I kept blubbering “He’s my baby dog!!” and took him outside and fed him the rest of his hot dog crying and telling him “You did so good! You were so good! You’re such a good boy!”
I just never believed it would happen. Sometimes I would be working with him and think “you know, maybe he COULD pull it off.” But I didn’t really think he would.
I didn’t care what happened the second day. If it was anything like Auggie’s first trial, the second day would be a disaster. But I really didn’t care. After that? After so much more than I ever dreamed possible? Heck, short of peeing in the ring Payton could do whatever he wanted.
\
So I says to him, “I don’t even Payton. I mean… I just don’t even.”
I hoped it would happen. But I never dreamed it really would.
I better get these weave poles cleaned up because I might need them sooner than I thought. Wow. Admittedly today’s weave pole bobble was ENTIRELY my fault. When I trained Auggie to do weave poles I trained him to do it by me chattering WEAVE WEAVE WEAVE the whole time he was in the poles. With Payton I did not do that. I just say “go weave.” And when I chatter he’s like “I’M ALREADY IN THE WEAVE POLES WHY DO YOU KEEP TELLING ME TO WEAVE I GOT IT OKAY???” And I caught myself walking the course yesterday and reminded myself to SHUT UP, but today I did not, and instead of just “go weave” I said “Go weave weave weave weave…” and realized what I had just done.
BAD TRAINER.
I guess whatever advice Auggie had for his baby brother was good advice.
Or maybe I just have the best Payton in the world.
Happy Fourth of July Grooming!
I’ve needed to groom the dogs for almost a month now but kept putting it off hoping we could get my new tub at my house and I could spare my back. No such luck. So since I had today off I did The Groomings.
Mr. Payton. <3 <3
I swear I don’t abuse her. It’s just, you know. Pepper. She would NOT put her ears up which is unusual because normally if you just say “Pepper!” she puts her ears up. No go. She’s in season so has NO coat right now. I mean she is really really naked.
Georgie. I kept trying to put her back legs close together and she REFUSED to let me do it. I’d set one down and pick up the other and she’d pop the other out. I am mildly concerned about this. She also stands kinda froggy with her back legs turned out a little. She’ll be two on the 25th and her AKC reg just went through, so hopefully we’ll get her OFA’d and see what turns up.
My Auggie doggie who had the most hair to shed of everybody, and was very upset with me, because his hair has never really been a texture where fur just falls out easily… so I had to v-e-r-y carefully brush and be careful not to snag and pull too much. =< Poor guy.
UGH MY BACK
Happy Second Birthday Payton
First I tried to get some nice photos out in the yard at lunch. This is the best he wanted to give me.
Seriously?
They threatened it might rain today and for a good while it looked like it would, but I promised Payton if it didn’t rain we would take a special birthday trip to the forest…
…so he could play in the lake.
Ugh seriously don’t drink that.
He fell off the ledge where people slide their boats in and went plop into the lake. Then he kept going over to the ledge and falling off. Like six times. I think he was enjoying it.
There were some people here fishing so we stayed away from the dock except to get this one photo. He didn’t want to jump off it anyway.
Watching some people go by. Lots of folks came out to fish.
More romping in the water.
Happy puppy!
Then we went for a hike so he could dry off. He was supremely distracted and un-photogenic.
These were all taken on my cellphone anyway so it’s not like anything miraculous was going to happen.
Last shot as the sun was setting. He was a super good boy. Saw lots of runners and bikers, and I would pulled him off to the side and asked him to sit and stay while they went past, and three bikers and two runners were like “wow your dog is super well behaved. Thanks.”
Then we came home and it was time for PARTY!
Tiny cupcake for my boy who is TWO.
Photos are taken by my mom who has apparently never taken a photo before in her life. Sigh.
OMG OMG BIRTHDAY I LOVE BIRTHDAY
I nom nom nom!
Yesssss birthday is THE BEST
Pepper’s turn to get a cupcake. I love how this is the only photo where you can tell Payton is wearing his bowtie for his party.
This is seriously the best photo I have of Pepper – and it’s hysterical because of Payton’s face in the background.
Auggie would like to nom his cupcake in one bite please (and he totally did. Yikes.)
Girly Georgie actually wore her hat this year therefore she got cupcakes this year.
No photos of her eating her cupcake because it was seriously a sight to behold and one that photographs cannot convey. She was making noises like AHAUM HAUM HAUM HAUM and just ate through it like she was trying to bite her way through a paper bag.
Presents!! This is a new bottle sheep. He also got a stuffed sheep my sister bought him but that photo didn’t turn out.
A new gator toy, this one crackles AND squeaks.
And another gator for his crate – they say this has a double layer of fabric so it’s supposed to be a tough toy. We shall see…
“Oh I had the very bestest birthday ever!”
Happy birthday my little puppy baby. <3
Springy Shelties
The, uh, whatever these purple things are, those are blooming. So I took some photos.
Baby Georgie!!
She’s a pretty little (bad) girl.
Family photo. Pepper was (clearly) not cooperating much. Also I should start a new game where I keep a running tally of how many photos I take of Payton where he’s ruining the photo because he’s looking in the tree for squirrels.
Slightly less squinty Pepper… you’d think she never sees daylight or something…
Georgie refused to sit up (worst. posing. dog. ever.) so I told Payton to down to try and balance it out a bit more.
I got everybody to down actually. Auggie had to ask me like six times if I really wanted him to down THERE and not get up and come down to me (YES I mean DOWN, RIGHT THERE, NOW) and Pepper had to be lured down. And then Auggie was unhappy because I told him “now” and that’s not nice. Sigh…
Georgie and Uncle Auggie!
I would have more but my back was still acting up a bit (super super sore from the half-marathon… what??) so I didn’t want to push it taking too many photos. We are officially into nice weather now though so I think we are clear for more cute shots.
Goober
Well, my third half-marathon is done and in the books and I am massively sore as usual. So hurray for having a puppy who is quite good at playing with me while I am lying dead on the floor!!
Um.
Yeah okay he’s kinda cute.
Sheltie Easter 2013
Mercifully it did not rain as much as they said it was supposed to, so we were spared the ultra muddy conditions I was expecting for this year’s Easter egg hunt!
As usual Auggie’s all “EGGS YEAH” and everybody else is all “derp de der what are we doing?”
Big dog loves this game.
Payton has no idea how to play. “I FOUND ONE OF THESE BALL TYPE THINGS IT SMELLS LIKE FOOD YAY”
I can’t believe he’ll be two in a few months, mostly because he still acts like a big dumb puppy all the time.
Georgie found an egg!! And Payton’s egg rolling behind her.
Pepper’s all “oh hey guys what’s going on over here?” (Auggie, meanwhile, is off grabbing all the other eggs like nobody’s business. There are no photos because it’s NOBODY’S BUSINESS.)
Payton’s still playing with the same egg. Derrrrr.
Georgie got her egg open to eat the cookie! Yay!
PEPPER FOUND AN EGG! She didn’t know how to open it so I had to help her, but I was very proud of her that she picked it up at all. Then of course she tried to pick up the empty shell like =D =D. No honey… no. It’s okay.
Payton found another egg (he accidentally broke his first one open and was like “!! There’s a COOKIE in here!”)
This started another round of running around with an egg in his mouth. And Georgie has no idea how to play the game either. CHASE PAYTON
Payton discovered the mass amounts of eggs at his 2x2s and was like “wait, what?” He tried to pick up both.
Okay, one more of Auggie hunting.
He loves this game. I should probably do stuff like this more often. I think his eyesight is definitely going because he wasn’t quite as snappy at it this year…
Okay, ONE more… because I hid this orange one by the basketball and it’s appropriate for Auggie…
Payton still derping with his green egg, the other eggs by the weave poles long forgotten.
Everybody’s baskets – Georgie ended up finding THREE, beating Payton’s two (I didn’t count the weave pole one he left behind because Auggie was immediately on it, opened it, and scampered off.) and Pepper only found the one. Auggie’s basket obviously is the overflowing one. =P
Family photo with baskets!
Family photo outtake. Oh Pay.
Another family shot. Georgie was like “I’m done with this (#*!” and kept laying down. Fine, whatever.
Auggie with his basket.
Pepper’s single egg hahaha. Poor dumb girly.
Payton has no idea why he’s so excited. As per usual.
“Squirrel??” Typical Payton.
Baby girly and her three eggs!
The end. Overall it turned out to be a very nice morning to hunt eggs considering one week ago we were getting over a foot of snow dumped on us.
Big snow dump, big photo dump
This had better be the last photo dump of snow-covered shelties until we’re actually in WINTER again.
It was still coming down heavily while we were out playing. Every few minutes somebody had to shake off to prevent themselves from becoming one with the massive snowfall in the yard.
Payton is not sure what’s happening but it’s kind of fun. Or terrible. Blizzards are awesome! Or maybe the worst??
Frosted pup.
Auggie puttering around in the snow.
Georgie is frolicking. But only for a little while. It’s hard to frolick when the snow piles are almost as big as you. Kinda wears you out.
Auggie appears to think there’s something under the snow and he should immediately plunge his face into the snow to discover what’s beneath it.
Pirate Auggie McSnowBeard has made his return! Arrrrr!
See? I told you they had to keep shaking off…
Georgie and Payton are wrestling and racing.
Pepper isn’t amused by this whole thing. What is this crap? It was 60 degrees yesterday!
More chasing from Payton and Georgie…
Georgie getting Auggie in on the fun. I’m pretty sure he was running off to bark at something and she thought he was playing chase…
A very weird mid-shake photo for Payton.
“YAAAAAY!”
“IIIIII’M PAYTON!!!!”
Baby Georgie, taking a quick breather.
This is Payton.
Payton likes it when I throw snowballs at him.
Pepper wanted to get in on the snowball catching too.
Throw it throw it throw it throw it throw it throw it
Wheeeee!
The kiddos chasing snowballs.
Reaaaaadyyyyyyy…
Oh wait, now ready?
GETIT
Pretty little girl, all frosted from snow!
Auggie would also like a snowball plz.
CATCH.
He didn’t catch the second one, haha.
More from Payton – he’s having fun at least.
THROW IT
Her nails look RIDICULOUS here. I swear they aren’t that bad but she must be all grippy or something when she jumps because they look really bad.
Playing yaaaay~
First picture in which I can tell she’s related to Payton.
Playing doesn’t last very long…
HERE IS A LOVELY PHOTO OF PAYTON
I was trying to take a photo of Auggie and he came up, stuck his chin on my arm, and was like “Hi Mom throw snowball plz.”
But I still got my photo of Auggie.
The end.
It better be. >=|
Just a few of the sheltie crew…
First of all, my boys are quite proper.
QUITE proper.
Also it won’t stop snowing and being cold.
We all hate it.
Uhh… these eyes.
Seriously, what am I supposed to do with this?
For everybody who thinks they want a Payton:
This is totally normal. Expression and everything. There’s a reason he’s the gator. (And Auggie is my shark.)
The very bestest boy. <3
Snowy Shelties
I think it’s done dumping on us, but we got a decent amount of snow in a very short amount of time. I came home from work and immediately took the dogs outside. I put their coats on because it was blowing like crazy (the blowing and drifting in the country is going to be a MAJOR problem for people tonight!)
Pepper THINKS she likes this. She certainly likes to lick the snow off the ground.
This was happening.
My Auggie-man.
Pepper is… mmmmmmaybe not a fan of the blowing.
P don’t give a @#(!
Trying to get good photos of Georgie, but it was really cold and she was shivering a lot. I didn’t keep her out very long.
Too bad ’cause she’s super cute LOL.
It just. kept. snowing.
Ahhh baby Pay. I was trying to get him all crazy but whenever I’d grab a handful of snow he’d sit and wait for me to throw it… good dog I guess haha.
More Auggie <3 <3
Auggie was mad because I told him to stop barking at the sound of the salt trucks rolling around the city. =P
“Where is the squirrel Payton?”
“Please throw the snowball, I can’t sit here any longer.”
Baby Georgie. Not impressed by the blowing snow either.
Friends are visiting!
A friend stopped by on her way down to pick up a new puppy, so she, her husband, and her two girls met me at my new house, so her girls could rip around some with my dogs and see if they couldn’t get a little bit tired out, haha. This is the first time I’ve ever taken photos in my backyard there with the sun coming from a different place than it does at my parent’s house, and in early morning light too, so my settings weren’t quite right so a bunch of photos didn’t turn out… but I have some!!
First, this is Payton’s first time able to play in the “big yard.” He likes it.
Auggie has to make sure the grass tastes the same as it does at my parent’s.
I went in the house for a second and left them in the big yard. Pepper does not like being left behind.
Ridiculous ball-catching Payton.
Ball-retrieving Payton. This is the last time Payton was that interested in the ball.
LOL Pepper.
A not-so-stupid looking Pepper.
A Bazinga has appeared! Zing is an Australian Koolie and she is quite pretty.
Sadly my best photos are of their backends chasing after the ball. Or rather, Zing went after the ball, and Payton went after Zing.
More butts!
You can totally see how Payton is barking his head off here. Non-stop barking. The guy who lives behind me is an older gentleman who always tells me he has a sick wife to care for. I’m sure he is going to love Payton.
How most of the photos turned out – boo! Zuma is a petite BC mix, and she joined in the fun – and by fun I mean she told Payton he was obnoxious. Spoiler alert: Payton already knows he’s obnoxious.
At one point Payton realized there was a TREE in this new yard and ran around it barking because there might possibly be a squirrel up there at some point.
Nobody else cared.
“Oh you guys are still chasing the ball?”
More P running after Zing!
Okay, I know this is blurry, but it’s hysterical because Auggie.
More LOL Auggie. He’s like “I am way too old for this you guys.”
Unsure if depositing or removing tennis ball from Zuma mouth.
That’s all that turned out – boo to my crappy camera settings! The girls are super cute and Payton might love Zinga because she doesn’t stop moving and that’s awesome. It was super fun to have friends over to visit our new house and play in the new yard!
Snow!
At last! Not much, but enough to get some photos.
How I discovered 100% Pepper was in season – she sat in the snow, stood up, and left blood behind. YEP that’s what I thought.
Payton nom-noming snow.
More Pepper.
Ack such perfect sits on this puppy.
LOL Snoface.
How much snow can I possibly cram in my mouth??
Throw snowball plz.
Perfect.
Auggie <3
This photo makes me so happy.
Snow makes Auggie frisky. Normally he doesn’t care to play with Payton outside (too many things on the ground to eat) but he plays outside in the snow, haha.
Auggie’s FACE.
Snow makes Auggie so happy he levitates!!
Ahhh boys <3
BROFIGHT
Really really ridiculously good-looking.
Tomorrow I think I will try and get winter coat pics.
Sheltie Christmas 2012
Spoiler for anybody who hasn’t gotten my Christmas card yet. These are the photos I shot to pick one to go along with the card:
Christmas Eve… I tried to take some of those “glowing” tree shots and I got laser eyes on all the dogs in several of the photos. So forgive the weird looking eyes in some of these. I thought to myself “I am buying an external flash in the new year!” and then I saw how much they cost and NEVERMIND. I’ll just shoot with the lights on and forget this.
Perfect Auggie.
Little P.
Ahhh Miss Pepper!
And Georgie who was pissing my mom off mostly because she listens to me better than she listens to my mom…
Then I tried close up shots on everybody, which worked better as far as the camera settings went, but since I had my focus on manual because the autofocus kept trying to focus on the tree instead of the dogs, Auggie and Payton didn’t come out in focus. I’m horrible with manual focus. It looks sharp on the preview screen and then bam, out of focus when I open the photo.
That said:
Pepper wins the “cutest Christmas photo” contest this year.
Though Georgie got a pretty cute one too.
Presents!! Payton helping Georgie open her present from me.
I told him to leave her alone and come open his own LOL.
“But I wanna see what SHE got!” Georgie ceases to care because I put a little baggie of treats in their and she only wanted the treats.
I found this gator super cheap at Gordman’s and since he hasn’t managed to tear up Sherman, I bought the gator too.
He pulled it out of the bag by himself.
I think he likes it.
Auggie is an expert at getting his presents out of bags and dragged this shark skin right out and started running around shaking it at people and asking to play TUG. I was thrilled because Auggie isn’t a big tugger, but he wanted to tug with this thing!
Georgie stole the shark (I took it back and told her I’d kill her if she ripped Auggie’s new shark toy) so Auggie got his second present out of the bag – a big sheep ball that is supposed to be extra tough.
Payton’s second present, another gator that makes a grunty-squeak sound. Super annoying so perfect for P. Georgie also tried to immediately rip THIS up so my mom had to take it from Georgie and give it back to Payton.
Auggie went to lay down under the tree once all the presents were cleared away, as is customary since he was a teeny tiny puppy playing chase games with his tiny puppy brother under the tree at his breeder’s house… I admit this moment is always one of my favourites…
Poor Pepper didn’t know how to open her gifts and didn’t want to even stick her head in the bag so I opened them for her. I bought her a pink sheep all of her own. She was too worried about my dad sitting on the floor across the room to play with it though.
Both of her “gifts.” I’m working on getting HER to tug next.
I had a pile of the bows sitting next to me and Payton kept thieving one and running off like it was a ball LOL.
Stockings from this morning! Most of these didn’t turn out but you get the idea…
Auggie got a new ball for the Chuck It!
I bought Pepper another sheep all her own LOL. It’s got long legs so she can tug on it… because again, tug with Pepper = next. She also got a rope bone that tastes like peppermint and she LOVES it. None of the photos of her chewing it turned out though. =< I didn't realize she was going to like it so much but she immediately curled up with it and chewed on it!
Auggie’s other ball, haha. He has a large one of these that we use on a flirt pole, this one is just for fetch AND ALSO FOR TUGGING BECAUSE AUGGIE NOW LIKES TUG SOMETIMES YEAH.
Payton playing with Auggie’s new Chuck It ball. He got a new ball on a rope toy to tug and play with for agility so we tugged with that for a while but he was quite interested in the ball too.
That’s it! Merry Christmas. I didn’t get a puppy. (My mom keeps going YOU DON’T NEED ANOTHER DOG YOU HAVE THREE. YOU DON’T NEED ANOTHER PUPPY YOU HAVE PAYTON. I may not NEED another dog but that doesn’t stop me from WANTING one…)
Santa
Look at Pepper.
She went right up to him to sniff him. I put her on the bench next to him and she sat there no problem.
I can’t get over this.
The other dogs are pretty good too. ;>
Hoodies
So I bought these hoodies for the dogs… Payton’s and Pepper’s were on MEGA clearance (five bucks each!) and Auggie’s was pretty cheap too. I just think they’re cute. It’s warm enough that I was out in just a hoodie today so they all got their hoodies too.
Payton was zooming around in his hoodie and I imagine he was pretending to be a hot rod.
Pepper’s!
It has little wings on the sleeves and everything <3 it's SO CUTE.
And of course Augs has a skull on his. <3
Typical Payton. He got nice and worn out chasing after balls and running after Pepper, he is currently recharging his batteries so he can annoy me in ohhhh probably twenty minutes.
“Tee hee I just peed in my sweatshirt!” Payton’s needs to be altered. *facepalm* Just a touch too long… he peed all over it.
Okay, so Pepper was feeling sassy. This is a series of photos of her yapping at me. Bark
bark
BARK.
This girly. <3
And meanwhile, Payton.
Okay, so I don’t know if anybody remembers, but Pepper likes to hop up and down. Vertical. She does this when she’s really excited (which means not often) but she was doing it today and I was trying to get a photo. Unfortunately she doesn’t stay very far away from me and I had the 50mm on so I wasn’t getting the photo I wanted and was kind of bummed.
Then I opened the photos to see what I got and I think these are even better.
Perfect.
The Pepper I know and love and I wish everybody else could know and love it too.
Since she was thinking about playing and kept running after Payton and his football, I went ahead and got the tennis ball because I know she will play ball if she’s in the right mood…
I love how I’m trying to take a photo of Pepper but Payton is the one who shows up non-blurry.
SHE HAS THE BALL. We played ball for a while then Auggie would spoil it by getting the ball then walking away with it, I’d have to go get the ball from him, throw it a few more times, Auggie spoils the game… repeat.
What? I would NEVER do that. I’m not a jerk.
My best girly. Be still my heart.
Auggie is seven
So I am a major idiot and completely forgot what day Auggie’s birthday ACTUALLY was. You would think it would be easy. Auggie 15th, Payton 16th, Pepper 17th. But NO… somehow I thought it was 11/11 instead of 11/15.
So these first few are from Sunday when we had Auggie’s party.
I gets cakey?
Yes you get cakey! These are based off a recipe I make for myself… just a mashed ripe banana, one egg, and some peanut butter, and I microwaved them until they were like a moist cake.
Birthday boy gets to sit at the table.
Okay, since I was originally planning on giving Auggie a caramel apple I got free at work and then I opened the caramel apple to discover it was moldy, I had to hurry up and make the cake in a rush. So I took them out and they were hot so I was blowing on it to cool it off, LOL. Auggie was like DON’T CARE WANT CAKEY.
NOM
Everybody else got theirs out of their bowls.
Pepper… took a bite and I’m not sure if she was surprised it was soft or that it was warm, because she then dropped it on the kitchen floor and ran off.
Don’t worry, Payton will clean it up. (Don’t feel bad he got two, Auggie got two also actually. I gave Auggie one, gave the other dogs one, then Auggie had another while I sat at the table with him and ate one too LOL.)
Georgie!
Happy birthday boy!
Then once I realized TODAY was actually Auggie’s birthday, I knew I needed something better. Payton and I shopped for a present at PetSmart but I didn’t see a toy I thought Auggie would like, so we agreed that a bully stick was the best Auggie Present.
Auggie also agrees.
He also got ALL OTHER DOGS shut out into other rooms while he had a blissful hour+ to just chew his bully stick. He was quite happy with this.
Happy birthday little old man. I hope you stick around for many many more birthdays.
