Happy 2nd Birthday, Juicy!

Juicy turned two years old on Monday! She enjoyed some treats in the yard during our photo shoot. 

Here are a couple of outtakes.

Happy 4th Birthday, Leo!

My little man turned four today. I can hardly believe how quickly the time has passed. I regret not posting about his "gotcha day" a week ago, but this is the important one. I hope to have pictures to share in a few days of his sweet sister, Glitter, on her special day, too. Her mom dresses her all up in dresses and has a grand ol' time of girly-girlyness.

So happy birthday, Leo! I had a delightful time with you this evening having special Leo time.

Just getting ready to leave. Sitting on the front seat of the truck. The priceless smile.

Post office was the first stop. Second stop, Beal Wetlands. Lots of ducks - and nutria.

All of the dark spots in the grass (how many do you count?) are nutria.

Leo meets a nutria...he was within 3 feet here. It barely gave him a glance, ballsy little rat-tailed fella.

Hi, Mama. I is so cute, huh?

Overlooking the water, brave as  brave gets on the rail.

And then we went to The Farm Store for a little goodie shopping.

Enjoying a couple of yummy, heart-shaped, salmon biscuits.

And a most delicious buffalo strap.

He topped off the evening after one more errand with beef heart and is currently napping. A most perfect day in a dog's eyes.

Pup Training

Mini Dogs Are Lucky

Mini dogs, toy dogs, small dogs, vertically challenged, whatever you call them, they have it best in this weather. Wow. It's been like monsoon weather lately! Crazy blowing sideways winds with rain, rain, and torrential rain. The little dogs are lucky. They can run, wrestle, chase, and generally do anything it takes to burn off steam and they don't require space. Space is at a premium in our house and they definitely are more fortunate than their big sis....who can barely race through the tunnel in our living room and not run into the front door.

Lucky dogs....

We had fun!

Last weekend we went to the beach. Of course the much delayed rains of the PNW decided to show up, literally, the day we headed out. Traffic was horrendous, the roads and visibility were poor, and it was more than a bit stressful trying to get it all done during the workweek, pack, load the truck, and then fight people. But we made it out and west and had a very nice weekend.

I had set myself up a fairly steep set of criteria. I've literally never vacationed in my life and this was just a weekend, but I really needed the mental break. The coast has always been my place, good for my soul, and I wanted to enjoy it with my dogs, to fall asleep and wake up to the sound of the sea, the smell of the salt air, and a view, too. I managed to find the Edgecliff Motel which accepted the dogs, even big sis, and didn't break the bank.

In retrospect now, I wish I'd taken some pictures of our room. It was not new, nor was it fancy, but it was clean, quaint, and met the basics. Free wifi, a private deck, a fridge (essential for raw feeders), a microwave, and an outside entrance making dealing with dogs much simpler.

We arrived about 8:30 Friday night, got checked in and settled in. Mostly just chilled out with the tv, a book, and some Facebook then snooze time before it got too late.

The above is the (fish-eyed) view from our room

Juicy checkin' out the view

Lincoln City happened to be hosting their annual Kite Festival while we were there as well, so we took some of that in. 

After most of the day out and about between crated in the car while I played tourist and running on the beach or walking at the kite festival, we went back to our room. Post dinner the pups were very, very tired.

Leo being my adoring, adorable sweetie, like usual

Practicing our "tug" skills

Tired after dinner and fun on the beach all day

Sunday we got up, got ready, got packed, and checked out then headed to a spot on the beach I'd never been before but found the night before when I went to dinner at Mo's. I was amazed at the sheer number of logs on the beach. Nearly all of them had some degree of burning on them. This section of the beach bordered the Siletz Bay. It was really, really windy, but not raining until the time I decided to turn back.

And that's about that. We did some other stuff but this post has gotten long enough and I feel a headache coming on... Hope to take another trip again soon. It was a great getaway.