Snow Again...

It was icky snow this time. Wet and slushy and as it warmed up, it was like walking in a river. I didn't mind it, though. Hey, I'm a dog -- part Lab and part Poodle, both sides of love the water. My friend, Ollie, same mix as me, loved it too so when we made our way to the tennis courts to play in the river of slush, we were quite happy to run into Jimmy, a big old Boxer from Texas. We said hello and then stole his orange frisbee. There's nothing like someone else's toy to make me a happy pup!

Oh, and a game of tug-o-war! (That's Jimmy in the background...he doesn't look at big as he actually is...)


This is Jimmy up close and see, he's a big boy...oh, and because I stole his frisbee, he's got my ball lock jawed in his mouth.
And this, well, this is Gemma. I have yet to meet her, but mom tells me she's a pistol. She's just 3 months old and she likes the snow, but not as much as I do. I understand. It's the first snow she's really seen and played in. She needs me to show her how to play in it, which I get to do tomorrow! Of course, they'll be no snow as it all melted today. I have other tricks up my sleeve that I can share with her!
And this is Gemma at her home where she dried off and chewed on her stuffed tug toy. I can hardly wait to meet her. From her pictures, she looks mighty cute!

Business As Usual

The new year may be here, but I'm still a dog dog walker and so for me, it was business as usual today.

First up, a nice long walk with Monty and a game of chase on the trails.While it may look like the camera lens is blurry, that's actually our warm breath in the cold air. They say they'll be snow today, but with the blue skies above us, I doubt it very much. Darn.

Next, Oshi and Perdito for a shorter walk and a pose at the picnic tables.

A few days before, we all posed at the tractor by the pea patch. It took some doing, let me tell you. Hard to get everyone to look in the same direction especially Oshi, who continuously looks the other way. Notice, though, I am obedient as ever because generally, after a photo, we get a treat.
Today, mom found the key to Oshi's aloof posture. Meow like a cat and Oshi is all ears and cocked head. Me, I'd be off in a Labradoodle second to catch that meow. Not Oshi...Perdito looks at the camera, but that too takes some doing. Lots of high pitched noises and a few clucks of the tongue and Perdito eventually looks up...

My New Love

No...this is not my new love. This is Hope and while I like her well enough, she can be a bit testy if you get too close. While she looks peaceful enough, she can bare some nasty looking teeth if she feels you encroaching on her space. Don't let that bow fool you.
And while I love Aunt Patti, she is not my new love. Patti is worth some wild wiggles when I first see her, but it's more of a familial thing, not a hum-a-hum-a kind of thing.
And no, my Grandmother, while an amazing bowler, is not my new love either. Yeah, like Patti I love her because she gives me big stockings at Christmas filled with goodies and she occasionally drops delicious morsels when she's cooking, but she's not my new love.

No, my new love is young and sweet and blond -- just like me. She's fast on her feet, kind to strangers, and quick with her strong tail. She knows how to play fetch and she's always up for a game of chase.

Lola is my new love and I can hardly wait until I see her again...
Of course, my moms tell me she'll be bigger than me the next time we get to play together, but that's okay because I like big girls as much as I like puppies like Lola.

It was a good Christmas -- stockings, snow, and a new friend!

My Mama Told Me It Would Be Like This

New snow on the maple tree outside our front step.

I was born in a small town in the center of Oregon. All around me there were beautiful mountains and my mama told me, in the winter, snow fell around our home. Lots of snow. Deep snow. And it was the most glorious feeling to run and roll and dig and leap through the blankets of white.

I was young and had no idea what snow was, but I believed my mama and dreamed one day that I'd know snow in the way she described. Then I was adopted by my new family and they took me north to the sea. When I left home, my mama told me that I may never see the kind of snow they had where I was born and I was sad because I really wanted to know snow the way my mama talked about it.

As a pup, I got to go to the mountains around my new home and more than once, traveled over those mountains to spend long winter days playing in the snow while my new family skied. I got to know what snow was and grew to love it more than I ever imagined. But still, I wanted "home snow" as I'd come to call it -- snow that feel by my house, on my street, and in my neighborhood.

This year, I got my wish. Snow fell and snow is still falling, much to the displeasure of some humans in my life. Still, we've skied, we've walked, we've played odd games of fetch-the-frisbee under the snow bank. Ice balls have formed on my legs more times than I can count and I've buried my head as deep as it will go into large, fluffy piles of the white stuff.

This is what my mama was talking about...
This morning, more snow is falling. We already have about 8 inches on the ground and they predict up to another 6 by this afternoon. Mama Ann goes out in it often to shake the snow from the bamboo plants. This morning she did so in her pajamas and I watched.
She's used to snow since she grew up in a place like where I was born -- known for its snow. Still, you'd think she'd change out of her pajamas.This is our street. Most of the cars were cleared of snow last night as many of our neighbors went out yesterday. So, the snow you see on their cars fell just this morning. In her pajamas still, Mama Ann went out and shoveled the walkway.
My mom told me that snow was wonderful, but she never told me that my new family would become oddballs in the snow.More photos later...we're getting ready to go outside soon! Yippee!

I'm tired!

We skied yesterday along the lake. I was out front trying not to pull my mom by my leash. I did pretty well, but man, was I tired after that. In fact, I was still tired today when we went up to fetch Ollie. He wasn't tired at all, but watching him bound and play made me exhausted.


He's a bouncy boy and he looks quite fetching (to overuse a term) in his new coat that his mom bought for him. He's still wearing my boots though, but they don't bug him as much as they bug me.
I slept all afternoon once I was done with my Ollie obligations and then we went out again with Monty and Quillette to the dog park. It was empty of dogs except for us and since it was dark, we have no photos. We had a big dinner when we got home and now I'm curled up asleep in the TV room while mom reads my notes for this blog.

More snow tonight! Hope I get lots of rest so we can ski again!

I Thought It Was Global Warming????

I woke up to 18 degrees and snow still on the ground with more predicted this afternoon along with wind gusts up to 90 miles an hour. (I'm a good dog, I listen to the radio weather report every morning!) So, I put on my warm coat, my black booties, and we headed out to get a good romp before the snowstorm hits. On the way, we stopped at the grocery store and got "stove top essentials"...that's what my moms call it since we can still use our stove top when/if the power goes out.

After we dropped off the groceries, we picked up Perdito. We tried to take Oshi with us, but he wouldn't step onto the snow and literally froze in his tracks. Perdito, on the other hand, is a Husky dog at heart. He loved the snow, though snow balls form on his paws just like mine so momma Ann had to pick them off!
Quillette LOVES the snow and even found a frozen tennis ball on our walk to the park. She chewed it soft and then used her ears as radar to hear an update on the incoming storm.
Meanwhile, I played with my frisbee. With the deep snow and the white out conditions, it was hard to find tennis balls thrown for me, so they brought out my neon green frisbee and we had a great game fetch.
When we got home, Quillette and I had a hearty breakfast while Momma Gretchen made a sausage, spinach, broccoli and onion frittata. It smelled yummy. Hope she saved some of that sausage for me! All this cold weather makes a boy mighty hungry!

I'm just wild about snow!

My paws have thawed out enough to give the afternoon report. If you didn't see the morning report, check rainingagain.blogspot.com for mom's blog update. She was kind enough to type for me earlier. My paws were a tad bit frozen.

We went out again today -- Monty, Quillette, and me. We got kind of wild -- wrestling (Monty and me) and chewing sticks (Quillette and me). The snow is still falling. Can you believe it? My moms tell me that this is the most snow we've had in a long, long time. Well before I was born, they say, there were times when snow like this hit the city.

Everyone was a bit surprised this year. It's been unseasonably warm most of this winter and then BAM! icy cold and WHAM! hit by snow. I'm not complaining. I love the snow. In fact, I think I love all the phases of water -- liquid and solid especially, but even that evaporation phase is kind of cool.

Enough of the science lesson. Here are this afternoon's photos o' fun!

Quillette and her stick. That's my head at the corner of the photo. I'm eyeballing that stick!


This is me after burying my head in the snow. I LOVE to bury my head in the snow. I can pick up some extra-special scents when I do it and it makes me extremely happy when ice forms on my whiskers.
Monty and I had just finished a wild game of chase and wrestle when this photo was snapped. He's panting slightly, but as you can tell from the smile on his face, he's super-duper happy.

And here we are playing chase. I like to pop out of the bushes and Monty likes to lie in wait. It's a hard photo to nab, but mom did an nice job snapping it just in time.

They just announced -- NO SCHOOL TOMORROW! That means I'll be home with both my moms. What a glorious, glorious life!