Towering

When I see pictures like this, I really get where people are coming from when they ask if Tali is Kodo's puppy.  There is such a size difference that they don't look like the same breed half the time.

Ice-blue

Tali posing- her eye-color looked really striking here with the gray sky and the snow as a backdrop.

Puppy!

Cold weather makes Kodo act like a puppy.  He has a ready-for-mischief look in his eye, don't you think?

Goofy play!

Tali has 3 feet off the ground!  And I am not sure exactly what that expression on Kodo's face is, but it made me giggle when I saw it!

Tiny jowls

Training on a Treadmill

Decided after a number of extremely energetic days, to see if we can try training Tali on the treadmill.  Beck and I had tried this before, unsuccessfully.  She freaked out and kept hopping off.  Freaking out is probably a natural reaction until they realize, oh wait, I can actually walk on this.  It was a matter of getting passed the initial freakout.

Well, today, I barricaded the sides of the treadmill, stood next to her and started it.  Again she freaked out, just like she had done in the past, which was expected.  I just stood by her as she kept trying to hop off and flail her legs in all sorts of directions, Riverdance-style...and after like maybe 25 seconds...she figured it out.  She was still pretty nervous about it, but she realize that she could walk on it. 

I had a couple of sessions with her and she's getting better.  Still nervous, but she's getting more and more used to it.  Hopefully after a couple of days of doing this, she'll actually want to do this as a fun activity. 

Anyways, here's a video of what I think is our third session today.  Each session was only like 2-3 minutes (freakout included).

A paw in the eye

Too Cold!!

Poor Tali had a sad face on when I took them out to the yard after work. At first I thought she had hurt her leg because she was holding up a back paw, then I realized she was alternating feet, so it must have been because her paws were cold. I told her she brings shame to her ancestors if I have to buy her snow booties.

My Best Friend

I carry it with me EVERYWHERE!!!  And use it as a chin-pillow when I sleep.

Snuggling with Daddy

Sleeping Pack

Snow Storm

While I appreciate the concerns behind the "If it is too cold for you, it is too cold for them" PSAs floating around, I think context is important.  For example, this. I TRIED to bring him in.  Several times.  He put on his stubborn ears and refused to move. Since he weighs 130 pounds and is built to pull, I can't count on being able to force the issue.  On the positive side, all the tugging and coaxing did warm me up.  And I am sure it was funny to watch.  Thank goodness for safely fenced yards!

Sharing the sunbeams

Snuggle Bunnies

Watching over the sister

Surgery scare

Wednesday evening, when I came home from work it looked like Tali had thrown up her breakfast on the couch.  Then she wasn't really interested in eating her dinner.  This is very unusual for her- she has a stomach of iron and usually she will eat anything that doesn't eat her first... then go on a hunt to see if she can find something else to eat.  I coaxed her and she ended up getting the whole bowl down.  Kept an eye on her that evening and she seemed to have kept everything down OK.

Next morning, same hesitancy about breakfast.  I was getting a bit concerned, but decided to wait till after work and see what happened then.  When I got home she had much less bounce than usual, didn't want to play with Kodo, and- most telling of all- had no interest in treats, so I called the vet's office and made an evening appointment to bring her in.  I was thinking it was possible one of the chunks of rubber backing from the doormat might have gotten caught somewhere in her insides and caused a blockage.  While I was driving her there, she threw up again.

At the vet's office I told the story of the doormat.  They took her back for x-rays, which came out fairly inconclusive- she had a lot of something in her stomach, but could still just be food.  They had me give her antacid, take her home, not feed her Thursday dinner or breakfast Friday morning, then bring her in for re- xraying Friday afternoon.  At the next day's appointment everything looked exactly the same, so they determined they would have to operate that afternoon.

Friday evening- she had made it through surgery with flying colors, and they had removed THREE FEET of carpet yarn from her stomach!!  When we came to pick her up Saturday afternoon they gave us the bag as a souvenier- the clump was bigger than her head.  Truly an impressive dog!!

Poor little bunny!  She is now sleeping and trying to heal.  Here's hoping we can keep her quiet and medicated appropriately for the next week so everything heals up right.  And keep all the wrong things out of her path going forward, since I would be willing to wager she hasn't  learned a thing from this.  I do NOT want to go through this again! 

Resting up:

Poor shaved tummy!  All the other dogs are gonna laugh!  Plus she might catch cold!  :(

Pretty Snowfall

Shortly after I got home from work today, I looked out the window and saw it was snowing huge fluffy flakes.  The dogs wanted to go out and play in it, so I got a couple shots before it got too dark.  Unfortunately, since Kodo has recently started teasing Tali to play by biting at her back legs and paws, a lot of these photos feature Tali with an affronted expression on her face and Kodo looking like he has his head up her butt.  Not beautiful and immortal photography by any means.  :)  At least I got a couple cute ones..

RIP Doormat

So this poor unoffensive doormat had been sitting by the front door all the three months that Tali has been in our care.  It has never been a problem.. until today.  Got home from work, and there was a roughly 4-5" circle missing from it entirely (backing, yarn, everything gone), and about a 1" strip unraveled and mostly gone from one edge.  While I was walking her, she horked up about a foot strip of yarn in chunks (while we were moving!  She can vomit as well as pooping while she runs- quite a talent!), and I also found a big chunk of yarn bits in the backyard when I was cleaning up later.  Out comes the bitter apple spray again, and up come the doormats when we are not home.

Kodo photo hike

New Toy

I got Tali a new dog toy for a Christmas present.  Because heaven knows they don't have enough toys around here. *ahem*  Anyways.

She LOVES this thing.  It has become her favorite to end all favorites.  She pounces on it, throws it up in the air, plays soccer with it, carries it around all the time, tries to sneak it outside when my back is turned (fuzzy stuffie toys are NOT outside toys in this house), plays fetch with it (when we can get her to drop it so we can throw) and sleeps with it.  I ended up buying her a couple more because I figured she was going to beat up #1 in short order.  She now has small lemon and orange varieties and a large grape one, and trades off which is her favorite on any given day.

We are trying to teach her to self-correct when she gets really excited in the mornings and when we get home from work (instead of barking and jumping and jumping and jumping and barking and running and barking).  So when she starts getting wound up we tell her "Get your toy!" and she grabs one of these things and runs around manically squeaking it.  No jumping, no barking.  It works great, and we have been praising so hard for it that sometimes she does it on her own before we even tell her!

These things are called Furballz from goDog, but we (I) have nicknamed them Disgust-A-Balls since her habit of toting them around everywhere means their fur is now caked and matted with dog spit.  And they are frequently slimy.

Hallway fetch with Disgust-a-Ball #2 (orange flavor):

Yoga sleeper

 

King of Winter

Post-work romping

Since the weather was a bit warmer, they actually wanted to spend some time outside today.

Running the dogs

Snow romping

Blizzard-wolf

Conjoined Berners

NYE!

Neither of the dogs were big fans of the noise-makers, but they LOVED all the attention.  And they are both exhausted this morning!

Tali with her aunties:

Does Uncle Joe have treats?

 

Auntie Liz riding Kodo.  Kodo is just hoping somebody drops one of the awesome-looking cupcakes.