Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Told to Stay in School




I thought I had found my doggy career as a plumbing assistant. However, I was told to stay in school. Since I am not crazy about water, being a full time assistant would not be a good career choice. I am crushed, but Mom and Dad are trying to tell me they could not do without me being around all the time. I was so sure I had finally landed the job after my great work during this latest flood. However, they do have a point. What would Mom and Katy do if I were off riding around doing plumbing jobs while they needed me?

The plumber's own dog might also get a bit upset if she was left out of the business for an outsider. Since this house seems to have its share of issues, I guess I will have to use my talents when he visits. After all, every job needs a supervisor and who better than a Sheltie.

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Zooming After the Storm


It was so wonderful to wake up to light and sun yesterday and today. Mom and Dad were busy cleaning most of the day, but Dad took time to throw the ball and in the clean up located a forgotten soccer ball.

Grandma called us to tell us that we actually did not get the worst of the storm. One family member had a tree crush a car and part of the house. Another had a bigger basement pool at 22 inches and did not yet have power or a friend with a generator and pump. Mom's Aunt across town still does not have power and reports are that it could be a while before it comes back. While Mom and Dad are still waiting on the hot water, they feel a bit better about their situation.

We hope all of you are recovering from the storm. Please stay safe.

Monday, August 29, 2011

We Survived Irene


Just a quick post to let everyone know we survived. Mom and Dad went almost 24 hours without technology. We were amazed. The downside is that Bailey almost learned to swim. While Mom and Dad were down in the basement working on a flooding situation they did not realized Bailey had joined them. While the ground was dry when they started, as the storm continued he found himself on a concrete oasis and started to panic. Dad escorted him to shore (the basement stairs) and he continued to monitor the situation from there.

One of Mom and Dad dearest friends came out in the storm with a generator and a pump and helped them pump out what was fast becoming a basement swimming pool. Before it reached 5 inches, he was at our house with Katy running protection duty for him while he started up the big machines. I am not sure why, but Katy found herself in the storm. She followed the big man around when she never would get close even for cookies in normal weather. The noisy generator did not bother her and she did not want to come inside except when the wind parted her hair.

I was not so crazy about this storm. I help supervise the basement cleanup. I would really love to be a plumbing dog. I think I have the talent, but I keep being told there are no openings for dogs. I helped work on the hot water heater that we are trying to salvage from the water damage.

Mom promises she will send us to visit all of your blogs later this week. She knows not everyone is back to power. Much of this town is still out. It is possible we could lose ours again as they are repairing the rest of the area. Therefore, we have paws crossed, as we did not like the total blackness that we saw last night.

The big man showed Dad a catalog for generators that would run the sump pump and some basic items like the refrigerator during the storms that hit New England frequently. Dad had been talking about doing this before winter, but it appears that Mother Nature wants us to move now. We are not fans of basement pools. Dad has some homework to do once the stores are back in stock. Mom wants to visit the camping stores and find more camping gear for lighting and other emergency supplies. The ones we have are rather outdated.

Dad did do well heating hot water on the outdoor grill once the rain stopped. Mama was impressed. Those bins that Mama bought to keep the bugs out of our food also kept it watertight during the flooding. I am not sure why humans have such complicated food.

Friday, August 26, 2011

Stay Safe


Like Lassiter who has been studying geography over on his blog and we have started to learn more as Mom and Dad have been constantly watching the weather maps to see where this Irene monster is heading. We are thinking we need more hands on study like Lassiter because the pictures move too fast on the screen.

We are sending doggy prayers for all our fellow bloggers stuck in the storm’s path. Be safe and keep watch over your humans. They have a way of being stressed during these events. Check in after the storm and let everyone know you are OK.

-Bailey & Katy

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Howliday Inn Our Weekly Book Review


As if we weren't already afraid to go to the kennel, Mom decides to bring home Howliday Inn for us to listen to as an audio book from the library. From our experiences, we knew that the kennel is a terrifying experience. We much prefer our daycare provider's house for our overnight stays. However, there have been times when Mom and Dad have had to leave us at the Vet's kennel.

We thought we had it bad until we read about Howard and Chester's adventures at Chateau Bow-Wow. Chester renames the place Howliday Inn. They believe they have discovered werewolves and dognapping.

This story even held Bailey's attention, as he wanted to know if the animals survived their experiences at the kennel.

Mom is listening to the next book in the series which we think will help us prove vegetable gardens are dangerous. We will review it next week.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Humans do Not Understand Routine



Mom left home this morning. Mom almost never leaves home during the week. This just got the day off to a rough start. She said she was visiting the human vet and would be back much later because she had to travel to the big city, not the small town human vet. However, she promised the upside was that Dad would work from home the rest of the day. This was disturbing enough.

However, we finally get Mom and Dad home and think we are going to have some fun family time and strangers come. They have to check on some stuff at the house. Mom is thrilled because this person may have a solution to the snake problem. I happen to believe Mama is crazy. She moves them out of their comfy zone and they will just be more open about scaring her to death. The last thing she wants is to watch snakes relocate. Can you picture Mama watching as the snakes move across the lawn looking for new homes with snake real estate agents pointing out the best locations? Get hospital room ready now, Mama will need one. We are not snake herders even if they are harmless garter snakes.

Monday, August 22, 2011

Helping Mom Crochet


We all must do our part, but helping Mom crochet is not my favorite thing to do in the world. I think I am far too important to be used as a chart holder. However, Mom insists if I am going to take up the space she is working on that we are both going to have to adjust to working in tight spaces. I must confess I thought if I made it too challenging she would stop crocheting and play with me. Mom is more stubborn than I expected. She said I made a great chart holder. I was not amused.

Dad thought it would be amusing to catch my humiliation on camera and now all of you get to share it on our blog.

Friday, August 19, 2011

Weekend Plans


Last night Dad and I went off to see a concert on the common with Grandma and Grandpa, while Katy and Mom stayed home. Dad loves the local outdoor music scene and it is a chance for Grandma and Grandpa to have some time with their son. Mama is not so crazy about the bugs in the park. She is good for about an hour and then gets uncomfortable. So, she sends Papa and I off with plenty of water and we get to enjoy the show. Katy is still not crazy about crowds and strangers that approach her without any warning. She and Mom stayed home and watched DVD's Mom had borrowed from the library.

This weekend Mama and Papa are headed off to visit the Museum of Science with Grandma, Grandpa, and one of the smaller humans. They are taking one of those loud trains. Normally I would be insulted at being left home, but this requires a long car and train ride. I am thinking Katy might be right this time. It will be more comfortable in our air conditioned home.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Katy and Bailey's Book Selection of the Week




Katy was getting a bit impatient after last week's vacation from books on CD. She likes her morning story. Bailey is very specific about the stories he finds worthy of his time. He prefers TV to audio books.

While Katy and Bailey both disliked the movie versions of Harry Potter, Katy really enjoyed Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I was busy working on a swap project that needed to be mailed this week, but Katy insisted on poking me every time the story stopped.

Bailey continues not to be a Harry Potter fan. Movie or audio books versions still cause him to vacate the room.

I am curious about what Katy found attractive about the story.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Review: Purina Pet Gear Carpet and Upholstery Pet Stain & Odor Eliminator

I received the carpet cleaner to review last month and then surprisingly we had a fairly good month. However, as I suspected our luck would not hold and we had a chance to try out the carpet cleaner a few times before I wrote my review.

I had gone through the traditional rug products on the market when I received the chance to try this product. We have been dealing with stomach upsets do to eating things that dogs should not eat and Katy still struggles with remembering that dogs only use the bathroom outdoors even when overly excited. The traditional products have left stains on our rugs regardless of whether we catch the stain immediately, or if the stain is attacked after it has set in to the rug.

Purina's Pet Gear Stain & Odor Eliminator has provided us with more success. We have had one vomit and one urine stain that we caught fresh. In those two incidents, the stains are gone. The smell of the product was more pleasant than many of the traditional cleaners we have tried.

We tried the product on dried stains with mixed results. On old stains, it is not the answer. While it can lighten the older stains, it does not eliminate them. On newer dried stains, it had better results. One vomit stain that happened while we were out on one of our vacation trips was dry by the time we returned. As soon as we came home, we started working on it. It left a light stain after one cleaning. We could not find the stain after the cleaner dried, when we returned to try working on it again.

As winter approaches and we have more dirt and other pet stains I am sure we will have more uses for this product. We will be purchasing this product when our sample bottle is finished.

Pros:

Stronger cleaning ability than previous rug cleaning products I tried.

Pleasant smell always welcome during unpleasant cleaning tasks.

Requires less scrubbing than other products.

Cons:

Still not strong enough to clean the messes we do not catch right away.


Disclosure: I received this product free to review, but received no additional compensation for my review. I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for the product. The opinions expressed in this review are my own. This disclosure is in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Monday, August 15, 2011

Dog Friendly or Not


We have been searching for dog friendly places to take the dogs. We follow the adventures of dog bloggers and are always thrilled about the various dog friendly places they find to bring their pups.

We were excited to see a sign for a dog parade as part of a local festival we have been considering attending for a few years, but never seem to get to with our conflicting fall obligations. A festival with a dog parade must be dog friendly, right? Not so much. The parade has a limited period where the dogs are welcome and ends before the festival area. Dogs are not welcome at the festival. Therefore, if you come for the parade, do not plan on attending the festival unless you drive (or walk if you live close enough) home first with your paw friends, and return to participate in the human areas.

I was disappointed. If you are going to designate something as humans only, so be it. However, if you are going to invite dogs, make it friendly to the dogs you invite. After Katy's positive experience with the dog walk we were thinking this might be a fun activity. However, parking can be challenging in this area and driving there with the dogs, doing the walk and driving them home and coming back for the festival seems foolish. If we attend the festival, the dogs will likely not be attending. We will have to find some other options.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Mom and Dad Visit Historical Lexington and Concord



Mom and Dad were off seeing the state with Grandma and Grandpa yesterday and even forgot to send Sugar a link to his birthday greetings. Mama apologizes to everyone and promises to work on catching up her commenting, next week. With Dad on vacation, it has been rather busy.

Mom and Dad went off to visit the historic sites associated with the Battles of Lexington and Concord yesterday. Oddly, the main place was in Lincoln, not Lexington as Mom learned when she started researching the federal park system. Something else Mama learned as she had thought they were state parks, they are in fact Federal National Parks. Poor Mama, she may know her history, but she is lousy with directions and guessing at federal and state jurisdiction over parks.

When we heard the word park, we thought this was an opening. However, Mama explained there would be musket demonstrations and thus not dog friendly. Later we also heard her mention that not all the sites were dog friendly, although they did see some dogs. Perhaps a walk by the bridge at some point would be an interesting historical education for us. We do not have to visit the visitor centers. We can just soak in the history like the other dogs that were there visiting. Dogs can appreciate history, too.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Sugar the Golden Retriever's 10th Birthday




It's Sugar's Birthday and he has asked us to help celebrate his decade long life. Since we are such huge fans of birthdays of course, we could not resist. We were asked to post his birthday badge on our blog. Please stop by Sugar's blog and add your birthday greetings.

Next, we decided to put out the crochet birthday candle on our table to honor the event.


He wanted a smiling picture, but he is going to have to settle for a happy Sheltie picture.



Happy Birthday Sugar!!! We hope you have a wonderful day.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Resting Tuesday




Can you believe after leaving us all day that this is what Mom and Dad think today should look like for all of us? Today is our day with Mama and Papa and we plan to make the most of it, once we can get Dad out of bed.

They have more Grandma and Grandpa trips planned for the week, but let's face it Grandma and Grandpa have more energy than Mama and Papa. Our humans need rest between relaxations. So today is resting Tuesday. The weather will determine what tomorrow brings. However, we have a special post prescheduled for tomorrow.

Monday, August 8, 2011

Mom and Dad Went to Rockport and All We Got Was

Nothing. Can you believe it????

Dad has not uploaded our new pictures so you will have to miss your Sheltie fix.

Mom said she tried to find us a treat at the dog botique store, but she has seen better selections at the dollar store. She was so disappointed. She got great deals for so many people, but nothing for us because the stuff was just not worth it. They had nothing we would have liked.

Mom did get a cool Sheltie Pewter key chain. So we know she was thinking about us. She is going to get Dad to take a picture of it later. It is formed in the shape of a Sheltie on one side and has the characteristics of a Sheltie listed on the other. The woman had no trouble selling Mama on the deal.

Mama and Papa are home tomorrow, but have plans with Grandma and Grandpa for Wednesday that depend on the weather. They will owe us big when their vacation is over.

Friday, August 5, 2011

SS Sheltie Scientists Test Human Reactions

The voyage continues. Today we decided to run experiments on reactions. Katy was working on stimulation techniques to determine how subject reacts to different Sheltie stimuli.

Bailey decided to work on toy stimulation. He wanted to see how the subjects react to toys.

Katy learned that subjects Papa and Mama do not like the paw scratch. In fact, carefully study has determined that there is a negative reaction to scratching. Tests using noses and licks have determined that cold noses get the immediate reaction. Gentle licks result in positive reactions like petting, treats, and game playing.

Bailey constantly pushed his way into my experiments, but he was focusing on what toys interested our subjects and when using these toys were most effective. He concluded that squeaking toys are only tolerated at certain tones and levels for a set amount of time.

This post was supposed to have been transmitted yesterday. However, subject Mama was distracted and hit save draft instead of post.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Sleep the Final Frontier

These are the voyages of the SS Sheltie whose only mission is to find entertainment, protect the frontier, enjoy life, and to keep Mama and Papa awake while doing it.

Our latest experiment on sleep deprivation has some rather unexpected and unwelcome results. Subjects Mama and Papa have not been happy with our late night and early morning house explorations during storm situations.

This morning subject Papa actually placed Katy in the crate after she ran wild during a test of her physical agility that required her to leap in the dark on the bed. Her landing was off and subject Papa was not pleased with the outcome.

It appears our voyage here to explore the wild weather phenomena know as thunder has had unexpected side effects that we cannot seem to control. We do notice that while we seem to have no adverse effects from these night and early morning excursions, our subjects do seem to be exhibiting crankiness, a need for more sleep, and less enthusiasm for long walks. There will be more on our research to come later faithful readers. We are looking for a shady spot for a nap.

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Doggy Doggy Quite Contrary How Does Your Garden Grow?


Well the flowers and the veggies are doing well.

Mom was so excited to make her first fresh eggplant parm. Dad walked in the house and was thrilled at the smells coming from the kitchen. This is unusual since Dad is the real cook in the family.

The tomatoes are starting to come in and Dad thinks it is funny that Mom thinks they taste like tomato candy.

Dad told us we have been doing a good job with critter control that is why he and Mom have such good stuff to eat. It is nice to be appreciated.

If Dad ever stops flying, we will post some updated pictures.

Monday, August 1, 2011

Hair Explosions




Mom and Dad have been pretty good about keeping up with our hair grooming. Part of the reason for their vigilance is we have been getting attacked with flower missiles and we have to be cleaned up from those unwarranted flower attacks that leave us with sticky flower weapons (Mom calls them seeds) that stick to our fur. It is rather painful having those sticky things removed. It is only because we have such a thick coat that they do not scratch us as they do Dad’s legs.

However, the last two weeks it has been hot and rainy and we have not been patrolling the hostile flower areas as much and therefore have not triggered the automatic hair brushings. Dad has been traveling and then Mom and Dad have been taking trips with Grandma and Grandpa. When Mama caught Katy rubbing the porch rails and me scratching she asked Dad how long it had been since the last brushing. She was very upset to realize it had been two weeks.

That is when Mom went to work and got out the brushes. There was something like a hair explosion when she started with the comb. White hair puffs just took flight. Dad says I have never done anything like this before. It could be I have never hidden from the hair police that long. Mom said it was like watching kids shoot off hair fireworks into the air. The hair was flying everywhere.

Katy of course being a princess did not shoot off fireworks. She tried to turn Mom into a Sheltie. Mom was covered from head to foot in Sheltie hair. Her hair does not explode into the air it drops and clings. No bursts of black and white hair for her, she just left hair covering everything in its path.

We thought we were done Saturday, but Sunday the brushes were back. There were no hair explosions this time, but lots of more of our hair gone. Katy did not have nearly the torture I did and it has been just the same amount of time. She claims it’s her princess qualities that keep her hair controlled.

We have another session scheduled for tonight. Mom says it is one of the duties of having beautiful Sheltie hair.