Super Hot Girl On Girl Action

This probably isn't what you were expecting based on the title.  And if you were expecting that, shame on you - this is a family blog.  Jeez, that's wrong.

Alycia and puppy snuggle/play together.The puppy has a body temp of approximately 340 degrees, so Alycia tries her best to encourage the puppy to snuggle with her and keep her warm (and thus the "Super Hot Girl On Girl Action" title).  Seriously the puppy is really, really warm, her entire undercarriage, armpits, and ears get bright pink when she's running around or playing. 

Alycia already posted this picture on Facebook, but I love it too much not to post it again.  I dig the super awesome chomping face puppy is making, plus it also illustrates an important issue that we face with new puppy.

You see...puppy loves to chomp on toys.  Puppy also loves to chomp on toys while snuggling with me/Alycia.  Puppy can be a bit careless/ADD with her toy chomping.  I think you see where this is going. We've both already been the victim of a few innocent misplaced chomps that were intended for a toy, but ended up being delivered on one of our limbs.  It's all perfectly innocent but it does require a certain amount of awareness when dealing with the puppy lest you become a victim of a misplaced chomp. 

The most recent accidental chomping incident involved the puppy playing with Shaak Ti.  They were both racing around and decided to wrestle near my feet (pictured above).  Puppy lunged at Shaak Ti who at the last second darted behind my legs, and the puppy chomp that was intended for Shaak Ti's neck got my lower shin.  Silly puppy.

New Green Sweater

When my sister heard about the new puppy she did what she does best, she ran out and bought some new things for our little bundle of joy.  Even though we're more than capable of providing cold weather gear for our (furry) kids, Auntie Alma would hear none of it and rushed us two dog sweaters for the puppy.  As such we're required by law to post pictures of the gifted sweater being worn. 

Here she models her new green sweater.  It fits her pretty well despite her odd body shape (long torso and thick neck).  We don't tell puppy that she has an atypical body shape as we don't want her becoming self conscious or developing a negative body image.  

This is not only an awesome sweater display pose but a powerful action shot as well.  For some reason puppy thinks that the camera is some sort of signal to start playtime, which causes her to race around at high speeds, crashing into household objects, people, pets, walls, etc., therefore making picture taking problematic.  Note the awesome pocket at the back of the sweater.  The puppy keeps her candy and stickers in here. 

I know I promised you "Puppy's First Snow" pictures, and I'm trying my best.  We've had 3 or 4 smaller snow events that have left a foot or more of cumulative total snow on the ground, so there's plenty of opportunities for "puppy in the snow" pics.  Most of my time outside though has been spent with shovel in hand, clearing, sweeping, and scooping snow around, which doesn't leave a free hand for picture snapping.  It's also been pretty chilly as of late, making picture taking with a mitten-less hand a chilly proposition.  Like all great outdoorsmen though, I'll forge ahead and get the requisite shot, just for you. 

Turkey Day Aftermath

We spent our Thanksgiving up in the country at the Cummings Family Estate in Cavalier, North Dakota.  Initial weather reports of blizzard conditions never quite materialized and though there was some snow and wind, travel as quite decent to and fro.  Puppy was introduced to the Grandparents who were quite impressed with both her manners and puppistic tendencies.

Today we're recovering from the three day parade of feasting and festivities by having a quiet morning at home, napping and resting and partaking in numerous leftovers.  I'm a happy camper with a breakfast of leftover apple pie, pumpkin pie, and strong coffee.  Is there anything better than leftover pie for breakfast in the days after Thanksgiving?

I'll get to work on posting more puppy pictures.  

More Puppy Pics

It's officially sweater season here in North Dakota.  The weather shifted from pleasant and 40 degrees to a high in the low 30's and very windy with wind chills near 0 and snow on the horizon.  We needed some doggy outerwear to keep that recently shorn tummy of the new puppy warm.  Shaak Ti's brown sweater fits her well (we got Shaak Ti a new sweater) since it's a bit longer. 

Here's a pose of the sweater modeler.  Keeping her warm this winter is going to be a challenge, but Alycia harnessed the magic of the Internets last night and ordered some more warm clothes for her. 

And not to jinx anything, but she's great in the house, ridiculously friendly to strangers, plays well with other dogs at the dog park, has been accident free in the house, and walks well on her leash.  I know this sounds like the bragging of a proud new puppy parent, but for her age, she is really, really well behaved.  Whether in the house or on her leash her default when she's not sure what to do is to sit and wait patiently, which is awesome. 

Our only issue is that she plays too rough with Shaak Ti and Tito (totally expected for a puppy her age) and doesn't understand yet that every waking moment isn't play time (again, totally expected for a puppy her age) with every dog she sees.  This is also one of the few areas where being deaf can be a hindrance.  With puppies and dogs, auditory feedback is important to communicate to/from your play buddy if you're playing too rough.  Since deaf pooches can't hear the whines, yips, or squeals from other dogs if they're being too rough, it can make the "learning how to play nice" process a bit slower.

So for now, puppy is on a leash during play time.  This enables us to pull her out of the way if Shaak Ti needs a breather or if puppy is playing too rough.  Sure it makes playtime stacked in Shaak Ti's favor (which she shouldn't need since she's a Jedi and all) but that's just fine for now. 

More pictures of puppy playing with Shaak Ti.

We got our first snow of the year last night and this morning, a nice comfortable dusting.   With a bit of luck, the next set of puppy pictures should be of the "Puppy's First Snow" variety.

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New Puppy Pictures

Here are the first (of what I'm sure will be many) puppy pictures.

Hello Everybody!!!  For the record, she is very cute and incredibly well behaved for her age. We're still not entirely sure what kind of dog she is, probably some mix of pit bull and dalmatian.

One of her MANY toys that she gets to play with.  If you notice too, her tummy was recently shaved for her spay surgery.  Alycia has (very reluctantly) accepted the task of buying some sweaters and other doggy outerwear to keep her warm this winter.

She enjoys tug of war time.  Actually she really enjoys just about all manner of play time. 

 

Shaak Ti watches apprehensively from her doggy bed.  She's been getting the full effect of the new puppy who desperately just wants to play with her every single minute.  Unfortunately the pup is just too rough/spazzy/crazy/flailing/bonking right now.  We're going to keep play time supervised for now and take little pup to doggy day care and the dog park where she can learn how to play correctly.  She's still really young (4.5 or 5 months or so), but she'll learn.      

Shaak Ti also has a bit of a short memory.  I certainly remember that this was pretty much exactly how she behaved when she first came to our house.  Many Tito snarls later she understood how to play correctly.  

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It's A Girl!!!

These are old pictures taken by her foster Mom.  As soon as the puppy craziness enables me to do so, I'll take some of my own pictures and post them. 

Truth be told, she's a pretty good puppy, we just need to work on controlling her craziness with all the sensory input of: new house, 2 dogs to play with (who don't necessarily want to always play with you), tons of toys, new people, etc.  I think once we do that, it will be good.

Last Call For Voting

There are only a couple of days left to vote in the new poll if you haven't done so already.  You've got until Sunday night to cast your vote, the day before the big announcement....

Pig Spleen and Weather Predictions

I'm not making this up.  I don't think I could make this up even if I wanted to.  This ran on the Grand Forks Herald website today.  Here's a link - Grand Forks Herald Article, but the links don't always work well, sometimes they want you to create an account, so I copied the article below for you, gentle reader. 

'Mean' winter forecast? North Dakotan has some spleenin' to do

Pig spleens and their height and width are how Norbert Schulz predicts the snowy season in North Dakota. This year, Schulz offered the same advice as years before: Buy a new shovel. 

By: Ben Rodgers, The Jamestown Sun 

RURAL PINGREE, N.D. – It’s not the most traditional way of predicting the weather, but one Jamestown man boasts a near-perfect record stretching back decades.

Pig spleens and their height and width are how Norbert Schulz predicts the snowy season in North Dakota. This year, Schulz offered the same advice as years before: Buy a new shovel.

“It’s going to be real nice here for a while; then she’s going to turn real mean,” Schulz said sizing up the spleen in his rural butcher shop.

He said the weather should continue to stay nice through Thanksgiving and then make a turn for cold and snow in December and January before it warms up again.

As for why to measure with the spleen, Schulz, 83, said it’s something he learned from those before him.

“I got it from the old-timers. A lot of old-timers went by the pig spleen,” Schulz said.

His son, Steven, 54, who runs the family farm now, is next in line for pig spleen predictions.