Today is for the Dogs

What a day! It is upward 95 degreeze here in Southern California. The dogs, with an interior body temperature of 102 are relaxing like it's going out of style!

Isabella is sprawled out on the bed, Eduardo is stretched out on the cold tile, and David is by the door curled up in a ball.

These pooches are so spoiled I put ice in their waterbowl and favs them a refrigerated bone-- now can someone go get me an icecream?? Lol!

We will try to enjoy the fall if summer would bud out! Hope where you are is cool and if not you are taking time and refuge away from the heat and finding an oasis of cool at the mall, in your home, or poolside! Enjoy this beautiful Sunday!

Erin & the dogs ;)

Thanksgiving Goes to the Dogs!

Thanksgiving 2009.

I am thankful for family, dogs, and country just to name a few things. I have finally managed to get the kids together and we are on the road to my aunts. Then the traffic sets in. Funny that a 20 minute drive can take us nearly two hours to complete. Amazing.

One good thing from this journey is my daughter managed to convince me to bring Isabella our Italian Greyhound. Like I may have mentioned before in another post, I have had little time to take the dogs on road trips or to the park. As a result little Isabella is all too thrilled to accompany us to wherever we are going.

Isabella is definitely a front seat dog with head out the window kind of girl. She always has to see what is going on all of the time. Interestingly enough, our in the car adventure is taking much longer than I anticipated and Isabella is grateful to sit out the long ride. While on the drive she managed to say hello to passers by in other cars. Isabella even had little kids in other cars waving to her and blowing her kisses.

Finally towards the end of the drive Isabella is near exhausted from the adventure. I was at a stop and took the photo above. Oh, she is one happy pooch. Moments like these remind me why our four legged friends are so dear and touch our hearts the way they do. Our day to day problems at times should be set aside to recall the simple things like long drives, happy puppies, laughter in trials, and the wind in our hair.

Dogs are amazing creatures!

Hope and Inspiration of Dogs

Oh boy it has been some time since I have written ... life does get busy! Recently I have been inclined to spend my efforts on the fight for our country and her continued freedom.

Though I have been sidetracked there is something I have noticed now more than ever. Dogs are peaceful creatures. They are not affected by the day to day goings on of life. Dogs are also oblivious of the politics that go on or the turmoil around the world.

These glorious creatures love and dare to continue loving even when we are in the foulest of moods or are impacted by the outside world. My loving David for instance, while Obama was spewing his humdrum of "global economy" was grooming his adorable puppy self unaffected by the man on the big screen.

I captured this image to remind me of what really matters, love, life, family, and peace. I love you David and you forever give me joy!

Dirt, a dog's best friend & owners worst nightmare

The latest in our household is fighting the lovely dirt tracked into the house by the four legged loved ones.....the dogs.

Like the trash can troubles I have tried everything with the dirt too. As you may already know, trying to make a dog human is impossible. Trying to keep the dogs indoors at all times is in my mind cruel and not ok in our home. With dogs comes the dirt they love to play in, lounge in, and sometimes carry with them! Yes, carry with them in clumps.

Sure we humans enjoy the cool house, air conditioned and comfortable. Not our dogs. Oh, no, no, no! No matter the heat outside, and cool temperature indoors our dogs will almost always be caught under the shrubs or lounging in the sun, in a cool pile of fresh dirt they recently dug up for their enjoyment. Of course after their leisure time outdoors, they come in for a nice cool drink of water and to say hello to their humans. Lets not forget that when they do say hello and I look at their adorable brown eyes staring up at me....I also see behind their frantic wagging tails the many, many feet of leaves, dirt, and twigs they lounged in. Mind you they consider this to be them lavished in luxury!! I look at them with their ears perked up, eyes bright, tails a going, and their plush fur filled with filth....good times for the puppies for sure. Who can take this right to puppy freedom from them. NOT ME!

What can one do? Well I certainly won't deprive them of their doggy duties. So this time I bought two 4 foot by 2 1/2 foot rugs. One is for outside and another is for inside the back door. I think this might work. I also have rearranged the back yard leaving them two "great" dirt spots they can play in and make their dog haven. So we shall see.

If you have any tips please let me know!

Dogs on a car ride

So today I took both of the poodles on a drive. We were on the road for about an hour, pretty much a straight shot of a drive for the pups. Before I knew what was coming, a stench filled the car. Oh my! Not only did one of the poodles vomit in the back seat, but now he was eating his regurgitated feast. Yuck! Of course as the responsible driver I am, I kept on driving. There was no where to pull over, timing is always great when things like this happen. What does one do? Keep driving until home. With five miles to home came five miles of smelly stench of warm dog puke.

Poor dog. David, our poodle, is such a sweet guy. He never meant to vomit on my car seat. David is not to blame, he was being a dog, I am to blame. Now don't get me wrong, I am usually very in tune to the dogs feeding schedule and car rides. I have always made sure to keep the dogs in exposed situations where they are used to all different circumstances and environments. This helps the dogs to stay connected, interactive with the family; at the same time they will be comfortable everywhere they go. How could this happen? Then I remembered! There was about a cup of dog food left in the bowl when I came downstairs when we woke up this morning. That was it, I forgot to take up the food last night.

I could have hit myself over the head. Instead I will be more careful. David must have scarfed the food down quickly right after waking up this morning. You may be wondering why David got dog food but not the other poodle? Well, David is the dominant of the two. Edward, our other poodle probably had no sneak attack planned to go over David's head to get to the prized morning snack. This was a good thing for Edward today.

So that was our morning. The exciting part started when I was privileged with clean up duty of white leather interior of the poodles car. :)