Family Walk

Marlin and I took the girls out for a walk together today.

We seem to rarely go out together these days.  I walk them by myself during the week and often I'll pawn the "chore" off on him on the weekend unless I meet up with friends.

We really should do it together more often though.  It was great to have company and to have someone else to throw the toy. :)

Coulee got brutal snowballs within minutes - they actually caused her feet to bleed between her toes.  I tried to get the ice out, but it was in there solid.  Poor girl.  She didn't want to slow down though.  I have a feeling the booties will be making a return - what is left of them anyway.  I'm not sure how those rubber Pawz will hold up in the snow, but I guess we'll find out.

Marlin has been teaching Lacey to actually bring the toy back... She doesn't really get it though.  She seems to think she should get a cookie when she puts it down anywhere, not just at his feet.

Coulee never stops to get a cookie.  It is still all about the fetch.  Some things never change.

Happy New Year everyone!!!

365 Days in Photos

I don't generally look back and look to see how far I've come and I don't generally look forward to see how far I want to go, but it is hard not to think about these things when the new year is quickly approaching and the old year is at an end.

I have the usual goals for the new year - be better organized at work and at home, exercise more, eat better and spend more time with family and friends.  The trick is finding the time to do all the things I need to do AND all the things I want to do.

And sometimes, despite feeling overwhelmed with stuff, I can't help but pile on more things.

And speaking of piling on more things... I've been thinking about doing a 365 Project for a while.  That would be a picture a day for a year.  Why would I want to do that?  Well, for a few reasons:

1. It will help me be a better photographer
2. It will help me look outside the box, to stretch my imagination and to take pictures of things I may not normally have.
3. It will give me a record of my year - it won't necessarily reflect everything going on in my life but I hope it will hit on some of the highlights and the lowlights and of course some of the boring every day moments.

If you do a quick google search, you'll find a tonne of 365 projects - some successful, some failures in just a few weeks.  And the variety is endless -  some people do self portraits, some people do their pets, some people do a single object and others just do "their daily life".   Self portraits scare me, I pretty much take pictures of my pets every day anyway, and, there isn't a single object that I love so much that I want to spend 365 days with it. :) I considered following Marlin around for a year and photographing him, but I have a feeling he wouldn't appreciate that much and what happens when we spend a day or two apart? So I've decided to do my daily life. 

Technically with a theme this broad, I'll have lots of subject matter at my disposal (but keep in mind I don't do much other than work, eat and sleep).  There will probably be lots of pet pictures - Coulee, Lacey, Lu as well as clients' pets.  But there will also be people, places, and objects.  

I'm not going to force myself to edit and post the pictures every day, but I will be taking them every day.  If I don't have time to post a picture each night, I'm not going to lose sleep over it.  My goal is to take a picture a day, not share a picture a day.  I'm sure some of the pictures will be lame and will be taken just because I have to and I'm OK with that.  It is like a diet - some days you are allowed to cheat, it doesn't mean you have failed and should stop.

I think I'll have weeks of randomness and weeks of themes.  A theme might be based on a colour, an activity or an object.  I hope the themes will keep me motivated to take pictures I probably wouldn't otherwise take and the random weeks will keep me taking pictures of things I love to take pictures of (mainly dogs!).  Or I might just make things up as I go along.  We'll have to see how it goes.  If too many rules start to feel restrictive, I'll change them.  If not enough structure leaves me floundering, I'll change that too.  It is my project and I can do what I want.  ;)  I've never done this before so I'll have to figure out what works for me.

I'm not exactly sure where I'm going to post them all.  I'm thinking they will probably all go on to my flickr stream as I'm not sure where else to clump them all together.  I'm sure many of them will find their way on to the blog as well, I just want to be able to look at them all together too.

I'll keep you all posted!

Rice Lake

Mom and I headed over to Rice Lake yesterday.  It isn't far from their house, and is a nice little walking trail to, and around a pretty little lake.  The lake is stocked with fish so there were quite a few fishermen there.

It actually had ice on it!  Just a really thin layer in some of the smaller "bays", but still!

The trail was surrounded by tall trees that really managed to block out the light. (I'm still finding it very dark here!)

Oh and Mom wanted you all to see the new jacket she bought.  Isn't it pretty? 

Christmas in Vancouver

I'm spending Christmas in Vancouver with my mom this year.  I've really noticed that I'm not a BC girl anymore... squirrels are suddenly super cute, all the green is amazing and the grey skies seem really dark, instead of the norm. It has been 11 years since I've lived here and it shows.

We've been doing lots of relaxing, lots of eating and lots of socializing, but not much else.  It is just the way I like it.  I miss Marlin and I miss the girls, but I know they are having just as much fun as I am so I'm not worried about them.

My mom and I popped out this morning for a quick walk.  It rained a bit of course, but I was ready with a raincoat for my camera and myself.  We saw this great blue heron right at the start, and he was still there at the end when we finished.  He didn't seem to have moved a muscle the whole time.  Maybe he too was trying to recover from all the big meals he's been eating lately.

The chickadees were a little more active but were still very good little models for me.  :)

Hoser

Amanda bought the girls a Fire Hose Toy for Christmas.

It is great and so far we haven't lost it!

It is light so it doesn't sink into the snow, but I have definitely learned my lesson and won't be bringing it out in deep, soft snow.  I can't believe the number of toys we've lost this winter.

Coulee definitely can't smell very well in the snow and cold.  The toy can be right under foot and she won't have a clue unless she can see it.

The girls really seem to enjoy the bumper-like toys.

They especially like ones they can carry together.  Well maybe Lacey is the only one that actually enjoys that part.

Quiet House

My family came to visit this weekend.  They came to meet and take home Micah, but it was great timing for a little pre-Christmas visit as we won't be seeing them on the big day.

Alison dropped the leash and Steve sprang into action to get Micah before she got too far.

I took next to no pictures, but did manage a few yesterday on our walk.

Micah is now securely tied around Ali's waist although I'm not sure if she can see where she is going!

Micah and them hit it off as well as I thought they would.  Micah was so sweet and the girls are so gentle. It was funny to watch her the first night trying to figure out where to sleep.  She stood at the entrance to the girls' room and looked over at me, then back at them, then back at me... and then she walked into the room and curled up with Alison.  It was perfect.

Haven't rabbit ears gone out of style yet?  :)

Micah was in heaven getting pats and belly rubs all weekend long and I know she is going to love it at their house with lots of kids to play with and people to meet.  I think she was bored to tears with our hermit lifestyle.

Can you say perfectly colour coordinated?!

We spent the weekend hanging out with the dogs, shopping, eating and watching Harry Potter.  It was great.

Deb and Marlin are hoping for jobs in the next Sears Catalogue.

It is so quiet now in the house, I'm not sure what to do with myself.  Even the dogs have settled down and aren't bugging me for a walk.  Not yet anyway!

Alison made a great anchor!

Watching and Waiting

They'll be here soon!!!!!

Hopefully they'll be so distracted by Micah that they won't notice the mess.  :)

Going to be Hard

Even though Mica is going to my sister's, it is going to be awfully hard to say goodbye.

She is the best behaved dog I've ever met.  She has absolutely no annoying habits - no begging, no barking, no pestering to play.  I take that back, she has one annoying habit - not listening off leash.  Regardless,  she is still 100% sweetness.

On the Run

Only Coulee wanting the toy makes her run around this much with it.  If Coulee would just feign disinterest, she would get it back much, much faster.

Chunky Monkey

So recently, some one has been called a chunky monkey.  From this angle I just might need to agree!

Building a Bark

I'm begging you!

I'm begging you!, originally uploaded by wendy74ca.

I Heart Faces is having a Pet Photo Challenge this week and I couldn't resist sharing this one of Casey. He has begging down to a science.

Check out I Heart Faces to see more great entries.

Coulee Update

We took Coulee and the girls for a good hard run on Sunday as we knew it might be her last for a while if we had to get a foot biopsy done.

I just got back from the vet and we opted not to do the biopsy at this time.

Her pad is looking good, but that doesn't mean that she is out of the woods.

It is possible that it was just some sort of trauma, but it is just as likely that it is an autoimmune issue.  It isn't uncommon for symptoms to wax and wane at the beginning. I thought that if the pad healed on its own, it meant it was trauma so I was feeling very optimistic this morning.

So for now, we are going to do more waiting and watching. There is no point putting her through a pad biopsy if it was possibly trauma. We need to keep an eye out for sores/abnormalities on her lips, ears, nose and feet.

I feel really relieved but I also feel like I'm sticking my head in the sand and refusing to see reality.  But I can't go through life worried.  These past few weeks, I was more than a little obsessed. It got to the point where if she saw me head towards her, she would get up and leave.  We are going to go back to life as normal and I'll try and keep my inspections to a once a week minimum. 

Ready

This is the "I'm ready for you to throw the toy" look.

Lacey seems to be getting a little more intense these days!

Coulee's Foot

There is something wrong with Coulee's foot.  I've avoided blogging about it because we aren't sure what it is yet.  It could be trauma, it could be Lupus or it could be Cancer.  Or hell, it could be something else all together.  My vet has never seen anything like it.

We are nearing the end of our 2 weeks "wait and see" and there has been very little change in her pad.  It is smoother looking, but is still discoloured and not normal looking.  We've been putting vaseline on it to help with the dryness and and she's been wearing a bootie while out on walks.

At least she has been wearing a bootie for most of the walk...  We seem to lose them on a very regular basis.  And yes, they are Muttluks, and no, I can't seem to get them on tight enough so that they don't fall off.  I think she does it on purpose.

Wish us luck - we go to the vet tomorrow for our recheck!

EDIT: 5 p.m. Sunday night - It looks freaking awesome!  Seriously.  The change in the last 12 hours has been amazing.  Not sure what the hell is going on but I'm feeling very optimistic about the vet tomorrow!!!!