February Snow
Snow! The most significant snow event this winter. Actual snow instead of ice. WOW.
Kaner likes it.
Payton appreciates it when you throw snowballs at him and he gets snow all over his face (no, really.)
Also I know you really just came here to see a cute puppy with snow on his face, so here you go.
Kaner on his tippy board like “Look I’m at the bottom, gimme cookie!”
Winter Romp in Coats
Another light dusting of snow, but this time it brought bitter cold with it. It is January, after all. Poor naked Rizzo needed a winter coat, so my sister came to the rescue again with some cheap coats she found at Target.
Kaner got a nice black Hurtta on clearance for Christmas.
Perfect for running and playing in!
Payton joins in the game – frequently the game is Brown Dogs Chase The Tiny Black Dog.
P has his beautiful blue Hurtta I found at TJMaxx a couple years back. I like it so much I ordered Kane’s online. It’s a shame they don’t make this style anymore.
More brown dogs chasing the little black one.
Rizzo’s coat doesn’t quite fit and it’s not nearly as warm as the Hurtta, but for a growing puppy, it works totally fine!
Pretty Payton.
Rizzo studying his point of attack…
And little Kaner.
Rizzo beating up poor little Kaner, haha!
More chasing and proinking through the snow!
And more ganging up on Kaner. At least Payton and Rizzo are bonding.
A little bit of winter fun…
Not much snow to speak of, but we still got outside and played a bit in it!
A little family photo – no longer counting in weeks of course, but here we are!
Kaner, showing off his 2o2o he likes to work on.
A little snow-dusted Payton…
and a teensy bit of dust on Kaner, too.
Maybe later this year we’ll get some real snow!
Valentine’s Day Snow
Valentine’s Day dawned with a threat of a big snowstorm. I left the house early to grocery shop before we got hit and almost bit it in the parking lot leaving the store. The roads got slick and dangerous quickly so I retreated back home to settle in.
We spent most of the day inside, working on how to be a nice, calm puppy and how to actually take a nap outside of your crate. These are things I never taught Payton and things I think he would have benefited from learning then rather than having to teach him at four years old how to settle outside of your crate… so I’m making a point of teaching Kaner now.
We did get a bit of outside playtime done. The snow ended up pretty unimpressive, but it was too cold for me to be able to stand it, so we didn’t stay out very long.
Payton likes it though, it turns him into a coyote or something.
Cute baby prancing through the snow.
Napping in a bed! It’s like a miracle.
I also pulled out the new backdrop I built and set it up to take our family photo. This was interesting as Kaner is still learning what “sit” means, nevermind “stay.” I used my 50mm lense to help get a good shot in the dark house, but this mean I was stuck having to be a certain distance away. So basically, set up the dogs, wrangle the puppy into the center, ask for a sit… wait until he figures out what I want… pop him a treat, then try to scoot back into position quickly but not TOO quickly or the baby is going to get up and follow you.
It was not an easy task, but we managed something that counts.
Nomming a cookie. Literally I shoved cookies in his mouth then started shooting and hoped for the best, ha!
Snowtime with Kaner
It snowed!! This is not Kane’s first snow, but it is his first snow with me, so outside we went for some snow playing.
He wasn’t totally certain about this white stuff falling from the sky though. Also it’s cold.
Pretty snow dusted Auggie. Auggie was trying to figure out how he can eat this snow, because there’s not a lot of it, but eating snow is one of his favourites.
Kane was more interested in playing with leaves and sticks than the snow, however.
THERE’S A LEAF UNDER HERE
WATCH ME PUPPY WHEEEEE
Trying to take a cute photo of his face… not workin’ out so well.
But when it DOES work out, oh my goodness.
He wasn’t sure how to respond when I tossed him a snowball. The snow is light and fluffy and couldn’t pack, so really it was more like throwing a handful of soft fluttery snowflakes in his face. I think it hurt his feelings. Oops.
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.
First Snow of Winter 2014
One of my favorite things about my dogs is how snowflakes fall on their fur… so… yeah. And somehow Pepper became the star of this photo session. Normally she is hiding in the background or directly under my feet so I can’t get any good photos, but this time I managed more of her than the boys.
Just one of Pay to start…
Then my pretty girl showed up.
The poor photographer this weekend kept trying to get Pepper’s ears up and I was like “yeah, that’s just Pepper… it’s… that’s just Pepper.”
Ears up! But head down.
Head up, ears back down, haha. My girly.
Another nice one of P…
Meanwhile Auggie.
I mean Auggie.
Seriously he can kinda be a real jerk.
Okay ONE nice one of Auggie.
Back to the pretty Pepper.
I love her expression in this one, but the snowflakes aren’t in focus how I’d like.
Here the snowflakes are better but her expression is not as good. LOL. Oh well… they’re both rather nice.
I’m sure there will be plenty more snow pics to come. Ugh.
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.
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.
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.
Payton playing in the snow (SNOWSUIT PICS)
Snow is a fine delicacy. It has been quite rare this year. Like when there was a pumpkin shortage except it’s snow instead of pumpkin.
I started throwing snowballs at him – that caught his attention.
Oh I see what you have there. I want it plz.
aaaaand this is where we start with some blurry photos LOL.
WANTS.
Umm, a little bit of “wrong breed” going on there, buddy, but that’s nice.
OMG this face hahahahaha
I threw one behind him to try and get him to back up so I could try to get better photos. Instead he just turned around and was like “!!” because the big white ball disappeared into the carpet of white and he was so confused.
I so wish this were a) completely in the frame and b) in focus, haha!
THROW SNOWBALL
Uh, you got a little something on your… you know what, never mind.
I’m so glad I bought this snowsuit. I don’t care. It’s hilarious.
Gahahahahaha
I will be good if you throw it…
Yessssssss
The best I got haha! We’ll work on it. XD
Auggie was also outside playing in the snow but he was just kind of like “WTF?” when I threw snowballs at him. He would turn and eat the one I just threw off the ground, then if I threw another he’d turn and eat that one off the ground… his nose was too busy being glued to the ground.
Some pics from today, plus a Baby Pepper
This could have been a great photo… but overexposed. >=< I have so many problems with forgetting to adjust my camera for bright sunlight and ending up with overexposed photos… ughhh…
Eat da snow!
I don’t know how he got snow on his eyebrow LOL.
Auggie says “I also eat da snow!” Auggie is kinda skinny right now… I’m not sure if I like it or not. I cut back just a bit on his food since it’s his agility off season and all his muscle was getting soft, but I dunno… and yes I realize you guys probably can’t tell from this photo LOL.
Inside… for some reason he likes to play like this. I finally managed to get a good photo of it, haha. He’ll have a toy and then start rolling around on his back making wookie noises and flailing his legs around.
And in fact yesterday morning this is how he tried to wake me up. By putting his head on my BUTT and then rolling back and forth on his back making wookie noises and flailing his legs around. w.t.f. payton.
Then he grabs at the toy and makes more wookie noises and rolls around… because he’s so weird…
Also, yesterday I drove to Indy to watch Auggie’s breeder run Auggie’s granny (and Payton’s great-granny) one last time in agility… today is granny’s first official day of retirement. Anyway, before I went over there she had me run by her house and pick up her scrapbook that she forgot and bring it to the trial with me. We all spent some time looking at granny when she was really young, her AOM picture at Westminster, all that awesome stuff. And in the binder I found a photo of granny and Auggie’s dad at his first show when he was like six months. And HOLY COW Payton still looks an awful lot like Auggie’s dad now that I have puppy awkward photos to compare! It’s crazy. I meant to take a picture of that photo with my cellphone so I could show it, but I forgot.
But in the back of the binder were a few other miscellaneous pictures, and one of them was of two puppies, and I picked it up and said “Who are these?”
She pointed to one of the puppies and went “That’s baby Pepper.”
BABY PEPPER?!
So when I came home I looked around online until I found the photo, because I only have one other picture of her as a baby and it’s not a very good one.
Pepper is the one on the right. She’s so cute. D= D=
Georgie’s mom is the one on the left. Doesn’t Georgie look JUST like her mom?
Snow + Flashlight
So it was dark by the time I got home… but Payton didn’t want to let that stop him, so I tried not to let it stop me either. I got a flashlight and the camera.
It didn’t work out that well but I got a FEW pictures that might convey Payton’s newest love… possibly even more exciting than leaves…
Snowfaec.
He plunged his face into the snow, came up for air, then plunged back down again, hahaha.
It’s NOMMY
And then he got the zoomies. For like five minutes. He just kept running laps and Auggie and I stood there just waiting for him to stop completely freaking out.
The wind picked up and started blowing, and in the light from the flashlight he could see the flakes… and decided to try to catch falling snowflakes. OMG so cute.
Ugh these will make cute pictures if I actually have light while it’s snowing hahaha.
This is our first REAL snow as opposed to a small dusting… I hope it sticks around for a few days so I can try for better photos in the daylight!
Snowtiems wit Auggiedoggie
Ohhhh hai. Is snowtiems wit Auggie!
Dis kinda deep snow.
HAVIN HARD TIME GETTIN ROUND HERE
kay now I run wheeeee!
Wheeeee! (ahhhh pure Auggie joy!)
Kay dats enuf.
No really. I ran in it once. Is okay.
No wai. Not going back out dere.
Mama said “desperate times call for desperate measures.” Then she picked me up and put me here in the snow. WHY???
Now what?
Gramma shovelin’ the driveway.
No, don’t wanna play in too deep snow.
No is kinda cold on my belly when I get in.
Why you do dis to me Mommy?
You throw me in another pile of snow. I ignore you.
WHY, Mommy? WHY?
Why you on other side of fence. Where you goin. Dis stuff is cold and I has snowballs on my feets.
Okay now we go inside. END OF SNOWTIEMS WIT AUGGIE.
YEAH SNOW
It’s probably over 3 inches and it’s still snowing last I checked.
SNOWFAEC
I don’t know if you can really see it when this is zoomed out like this, but his hocks were CAKED with snow.
Ayy mateys, my name be Auggie McSnowbeard!
More snowy-beard.
He plunged his head back into the snow and when he came up again, no more snowbeard! How does that work?!
JOLLY BALL TIME
He’d roll it around with his paws a while before deciding to pick it up… weird dog.
Oh hai, I has a this.
WAAAAH SNOW
This is how he ends up with all that snow on his face. PLOOMPF
Oh hai jolly ball
I’m gonna pick you up…
but first…
I’m gonna munch allllll the snow off this handle thing here!
LOOK MOM
I like jolly ball
Stop-animation photography, haha:
AHHHHHHHH
fffffff snow in eyes
I can’t stop laughing at this for some reason.
licklicklicklicklicklick… slightly more sophisticated than the face-plunge.
My little guy <3
More stop-animation photography… this is how Auggie plays in the snow besides plunging in his whole face…
sproing!
sproing!!
Repeat sproinging.
Sproing EVERYWHERE
ALL OVER THE YARD
THE END
Christmas Eve/Christmas Morning
The “winning” shot in front of the tree this year… usually I shoot a bunch and only one turns out well. This is the one. Unfortunately even this one is slightly blurry.
A LOT of these are crappy because the lighting in this house is so horrible, especially after dark when these were taken, and some of them were easier to correct in Photoshop than others… some just came out awful colour-wise. So sorry in advance.
My mom wanted to put this necklace that lights up on him… he is a very good, tolerant little boy.
SANTA AUGGIE
He should just be glad I didn’t grab the hat with the beard attached to it this year.
No photos of him getting his snazzy presents on Christmas night… I forgot to grab the camera. He got a jolly ball, a brand new bed, and a new fleece blanket (he likes to play underneath it, or I’ll cover myself with it and he dances around outside the blanket wookie-noising at me.)
However, we opened stockings on Christmas morning and I remembered to grab the camera:
What? Dis mine, you say?
Oh yes, IS mine!!
HEAD IN STOCKING SHOT
Digging out the new loofa dog toy.
A brand new little basketball!
Pause to demonstrate to my dad one of the gifts I put in his stocking.
Auggie is tailgate tested, tailgate APPROVED!
Return to the stocking…
This brand new red ball is REALLY great. It was an awesome buy.
Playing with it right away.
All the goodies from the stocking. Considerably less than last year, but hey, there’s a recession going on… and also, he destroys fewer toys now that he’s older so I really, REALLY don’t need to buy him more. =P He has plenty.
Posing with his goodies!
Then we just hung out and played all day. It was nice to spend a day just hanging out with my little guy.
This is his new bed! At first he wasn’t sure if he liked it, so I told him I had the receipt and we could take it back, but then he changed his mind… he likes it a lot.
Staring some more at the Christmas tree… he really loves Christmas trees. Me too.
OH HAI MOMMY WITH CAMERA
HAAAAAAAAI (oh God this picture cracks me up)
I eats camera?
Layin’ on the floor near Momma!
This was after we played with that ball for about an hour. He was tired, so he went back to his bed.
Tired… so tired… so…
snznzzzkzzz
THEN WE HAD SOME SNOWS SO WE PUT ON OUR COATS AND WENT TO PLAY IN IT
I didn’t get a good shot of the back of his coat, but it has skulls and crossbones on it and says “ROCK STAR.”
Obviously we didn’t really get MUCH snow, and the wind was seriously awful. The temperature wasn’t too cold on it’s own, but the wind was super brutal, biting and strong. So we didn’t stay out long at all… we went back inside to play some more instead!
(I trimmed Auggie’s feet up today so they look much better now than they do in these pics. I honestly DO groom my dog, I promise.)
More Snow Pics
I meant to post these last week; right after I accepted that we wouldn’t be getting any decent snow, we got decent snow. We got more yesterday, even, and will get more tomorrow. Of course, it does me little good when I’m sick. Now that I think of it, standing outside in the snow taking photos of your dog is probably not the best way to get better, either. Oops.
Anyway, here we go!
This was the night we got the snow. I left work, raced home, let Auggie out immediately… but still didn’t really have enough light to get good photos. The few that turned out are pretty cute since he plunged his whole face right into the snow.
Sound effect: PLOOMPH.
These were taken Saturday afternoon, once I got out of my all-day class. It was about 4PM so the sun was starting to go down, but I still had some sunlight. This is how Auggie plays best. He will fetch, yes, and wrestle and tug… but he loves, loves, LOVES to run.
Specifically he likes being chased. He gets a kick out of me going “AAAH’M GONNA GETCHA” and starting towards him. He’s like a little kid, going “Eeeee hee hee!!” and running away squealing or something.
I’d like to make Auggie a slot car and race him on a track. Wheeeee!
The next day, Sunday. I stood out there, feeling sick, nose dripping with snot, hollering “RUN, AUGGIE! RUN RUN RUN!” And he ran.
He ran so far away.
This photo reminds me that I should live every day with Auggie’s mentality. That is… “WHEEEEEEEEEE!!”
Okay, to me, in this one he looks like he’s going “Huff… huff… can I stop running now? Huff… you’re right, Mom, I did get fat… huff… oh God I’m out of shape, huff… why… why…” I later found out that my dad, who thought he was doing everybody a favour by feeding Auggie breakfast the two weeks he was off work for Christmas, had been over feeding him. I KNEW IT. I knew he was fat. See, I wasn’t just being mean – he was being overfed and he really DID get fat.
Anyway, that was a month ago and I’m pretty sure Auggie is back down to his regular weight now. He got a bath last week and his body shape under all his fluffy fur looked correct to me, so I think we’re good.
Okay, I got some cute Auggie + snow pictures. My Midwestern winter for 2007-2008 is now complete.
Not-a-lot-of-snow Pics
A few days ago, I looked on The Weather Channel to see how the weather would be for the weekend. The front page reads in ominous letters, “BIG FREAKING SNOWSTORM COMING RIGHT FOR THE MIDWEST WHITE DEATH IT’S AWFUL!” (Okay not that exactly, but you get the idea.)
Unfortunately, upon checking our local forecast, I discovered this big snowstorm was actually only going to hit the NORTHERN parts of the Midwest. You know, like Chicago isn’t getting enough snow anyway, right? Of course, it didn’t really give a decent snow when I was IN Chicago, but it sure is snowing there now that I’m back in Central Illinois.
It’s almost mid-January and I’m resigned to the fact that we probably won’t get a good snow here this year. We MIGHT get a blizzard around Valentine’s Day… that happens on occasion, though we had one two years ago or so and I think we’re good for another 8 years until it happens again. So I’m not counting on it.
Therefore when I looked out the window today and saw big snowflakes floating through the air, I bundled up, grabbed the camera, and hauled Auggie outside for snow pictures… less than an inch of accumulation or not.
I attempted some Auggie-running shots, but he wouldn’t run unless I threw the tennis ball.
I shoot action shots on auto-focus, and in the unfortunate case of snow, the auto-focus seemed to be more interested on… the tiny little snowflakes rather than the DOG bearing down on me.
I threw the ball a total of three times; Auggie only retrieved it a total of 2 times. He was far more interested in searching the backyard for rabbit poop and trying to eat it. Therefore all of the rest of these photos are rather static.
“Shake off first, Auggie. Auggie, shake off. Shake off. Auggie…”
Nope. He insisted on going inside with all that snow on.
And now, some blooper photos…
I love when people are like “Oh your dog is so handsome!” No he’s not, he’s an idiot.
I frequently catch shots of my dog burping. Like this one.
First big snow of 2008! And winter’s almost over.
The sun was starting to go down so the light wasn’t 100% great…
Head buried in the snow… munching rabbit poop under the snow, no doubt…
This is his “I hope I hope I hope” face he makes when you have a treat… he was sitting nicely for a snowball, which was all the “treat” I had to make him sit so I could get the pic of the snow on his nose!
My handsome boy. Who needs a bath. Because the night of the snowstorm he thieved a BROWNIE out of a bag my mom left sitting on the floor (facepalm) and thusly he got the hydrogen peroxide treatment and I spent twenty minutes outside in the snow with him waiting until he puked it up, and now he’s dirty and nasty.
Hanging out in the path we made out to his ex-pen.
Obligatory “running to get me” pics. I wish the light had been just a biiit better, and these would have come out perfectly clear.
ROFL… I THINK he’s running in this one…
Shake shake shake!
aaaand last one. That’s my boot in the bottom right corner there.
I’m going to guess it’s about 9 inches. At this point, the top of the snow is really wet and dense… you sink down about three inches and then stop before you hit the ground from all the densely packed snow. It’s starting to melt fairly good though.
