Leap Day

February 29th, Leap Day.  To honor this day, we're supposed to post pictures of our dogs leaping.  I caught this pretty nice action of Shadowfax a while back. 

Last summer Shadowfax was digging a hole in the dirt when she noticed that I was watching her.  She tried to spring out of the dirt and look innocent...to no avail. 

Melting Snow and Mud Parade

So today happened. It was sunny in the mid-40's, an otherwise glorious day. The dogs spent three months of pent up winter energy in one glorious afternoon of misbehaving and repeatedly tearing around the back yard. 

Shadowfax and her "I'm so sorry I was bad and got filthy and trashed the back yard..."

"Psyche!  Hahahaha, I'm not sorry.  I'd do it all over again in a heartbeat!"

This is just a small snippet of the carnage.  The backyard is a giant cauldron of mud, snow, slush, and doggy footprints. 

Giving Hearts Day

The Circle of Friends Humane Society in Grand Forks, North Dakota is participating in a huge one-day fundraising bonanza called Giving Hearts Day.  The Dakota Medical Foundation is partnering with numerous charities in the state and is offering to match every donation greater than $10 (up to $4,000 total).

We would love to have your support in this statewide online fundraising event, and know that if you make a donation greater than $10, your donation will have double the impact when it is matched by the Dakota Medical

Here is a link to the Giving Hearts Day page. You can click "Donate" and then enter "Circle" in the search box to find Circle of Friends Humane Society. 

Seriously Sad Sack of a Deaf Dog

The blog has been a bit Shadowfax-centric lately, but that's mostly because she's the one most frequently engaged in some manner of silly shenanigans, or getting herself into some pickle.  This is her most recent escapade. 

Shadowfax was tearing around the backyard and managed to rip up her dew claw.  The backyard is a bit of a mess, melted snow has pooled and refrozen and is slippery as heck.  How she managed to tear up a dew claw so badly is beyond me, but she did it. 

Shaak Ti is inspecting her temporarily broken little big sister.  Shadowfax hobbled around on three legs for the better part of two days until we removed her foot wrapping. 

Ah poor little pibble, milking this for all it's worth, tucked into her cozy blanket.  One little owwie and she plays it up as much as she can, trying to elicit as much sympathy as possible. 

Nap Under a Rocking Chair

Shadowfax has a half-dozen comfy dog beds in the living room to choose from, but she'd rather take a little nap with her head underneath this rocking chair.  Go figure. 

Does this look comfortable to you?  It sure doesn't to me.  But who am I to argue? 

Shadowfax Asleep

Shadowfax the deaf pittie mix snuggling hard against the North Dakota winter. 

She spends a decent amount of time here in her cozy slumber ball and warming blanket.  I you want to check out the slumber ball bed or reflective warming blanket for your four legged friend there are links.  In many respects Shadowfax is a stereotypical pittie (or pittie mix) - lazy as all get-out.  If you want to know what a pit bull dog is like, here it is. 

That is the happy face of a dog that shall always have the finest things in life. 

Indoor Gardening and Pruning

It's been cold here in North Dakota, the third consecutive day where the temps haven't reached above 0. We're not complaining (much), that's winter in North Dakota.  Winter has some enjoyable activities, but it leaves a big gaping hole in our gardening yearnings. Some indoor gardening is in order.   

This is a ficus (ficus benjamina) tree that Alycia's parents had in their house for a number of years.  It belonged to Alycia's grandparents and is probably 20-30+ years old. It's been around for a long while. We've had it in our entryway for a few years and (as you can see above), it slowly grew to take over the East facing window in the entryway and leaving it looking really unbalanced.  Some pruning is in order!

I trimmed a bunch of unruly branches and rotated it. I don't rotate it very often as ficus trees can be finicky about being moved. They're prone to sulking and dropping their leaves if they get drafty or jostled around too frequently. After the trimming, you can finally see the nice window in the entryway with the leaded glass and tulip designs, I knew there was cool window behind all that foliage. 

Indoor gardening isn't as much fun as outdoor gardening, but it's a reasonable substitute for the next few months until the weather warms up and Spring arrives.  

Merry Belated Christmas

I didn't get you anything for Christmas.  Heck, we didn't even send out or post or usual Holiday Newsletter.  We feel guilty.  You feel slighted.  But we're gonna make it all up to you (and then some) with this...

This magnificent photo is our annual family Santa Paws photo, held every Fall and a fundraiser for the Circle of Friends Humane Society here in Grand Forks.  Alycia's Mom knitted (proof here and here) the whole family matching outfits - sweaters for Shaak Ti and Shadowfax, hats for Alycia and I, and a cowl for Tito.  Why not a sweater for Tito?  Well, any fool who tries to put a sweater on Tito will leave with fewer fingers than they started with, that's for certain.

Hopefully your laughter helps soothe the disappointment of our not sending out a Holiday Newsletter, or even posting more frequently here on the blog.  We hope you had a very merry Holiday season and are on the path of having a happy and healthy 2016!