Wishing you and your family the best holiday season!

FROM...
Shredder Betty


Catch'n Edge


Avalanche


K2


Mogul


Momma Tama


Sister Trixie


Don Juan


and last but definitely not least, Timber, the play buddy!

The Ski Patrol are 7 weeks old.

Times flies whether you want it to or not. When we began this journey 7 weeks ago, the puppies were helpless little creatures that resembled gerbils more than puppies. Today is a bittersweet birthday because it means that the puppies will start to fly the coop pretty soon.

What will I do without my daily dose of puppy prozac? No one will ever be able to lift my spirits like the crazy antics of Shredder Betty and her "This is MY BED" obsession. It's even to the point that she'll pick it up and move a bed that's 5 times her size. We all felt sorry for the lone girl in the litter until we saw who really ruled the roost. Or what about Edge and his fat face and floppy-eared greetings in the morning. He often hangs back to let the others get the spotlight, but when it's his turn, he really likes getting pets. Or Avalanche and his kisses in which he uses not just his tongue but his entire upper body to slap one on you. And K2 with his steady but determined demeanor. What a cuddler. He's always at the bottom of the puppy pile, but doesn't seem to mind it. And last but not least, Mogul, the smallest of the bunch but the one that is always in the center of everyone's "bizness" and my biggest peepad shredder. He may be small but this puppy has one BIG personality.

Here are some candid photos of the Ski Patrol taken today.

Shredder Betty:




Boy #1 - Edge


Boy #2 - Avalanche


Boy #3 - K2




Boy #4 - Mogul

Sweet Dreams

Decorating for the Holidays

Ski Patrol at 6 weeks

Brrr... it was cold today outside taking photos. The puppies were only out there for a couple minutes, but I was out there 5 times as long. My fingers are still stiff as I try to type!

I know someone will ask me about the logs in the photo. We recently had to have a HUGE tree removed. It was dropping limbs that were the size of small trees. We called an arborist that deemed the tree dangerous and a liability because people liked to park their cars under the falling limbs (silly humans). The arborist removed the tree, but left the wood for us for firewood, and for puppy corral stations for me to use as photos. Actually that was just an afterthought when I realized that this week the puppies were not about to sit still for photos. Those days are over.

So, here are the most recent photos of the puppies.

Betty, Girl:


Catch'n Edge, Boy 1:


Avalanche, Boy 2:


K2, Boy 3:


Mogul, Boy 4:

Yummy Quail Eggs!

My friend Lindsay brought me a dozen COTURNIX quail eggs for my dogs. My older dogs eat them raw. To them they are like candy is to kids. They LOVE them. Knowing that the puppies would make a huge mess of raw eggs, I hardboiled one for each puppy. This is not the best video of them, but here is the Ski Patrol's first experience eating quail eggs.

Video of noise and movement socialization

The puppies are 5 weeks old so I'm starting to work through my 5-8 week old puppy socialization list. Noises and other animals are on that list. How many breeders socialize their puppies with chickens? Well I can count at least one. I don't think Buffy the chicken was thrilled with the little predators, but the puppies pretty much ignored the big bird in their space. The lawn mower was a little by accident. Hubby decided to mow the lawn while I was outside with the puppies. When you have a sunny day in the Pacific Northwest, you have to take advantage of it! By the way, the lawnmower was a long way away from the puppies. It just sounds loud on the video.

The Ski Patrol are 5 weeks old today!

To get everyone in the holiday spirit, here are the Ski Patrol ready to head out to Grandma's house in their one-horse, open sleigh (without the horse, of course).

Not turning this into a cooking blog...

but I've had a few people ask me for the recipe for my protein-packed waffles. After last night's chat on Ustream, it was no wonder I was craving waffles and bacon for breakfast. So, here's the recipe...

Waffles
1/2 c. cottage cheese
3 eggs
1/2 c. water
2 t. light olive oil
1 t. vanilla extract
1-1/3 c. old fashioned oatmeal
1 t. baking powder
1/4 c. flour
1/4 c. sugar or splenda to taste

Put oatmeal and baking powder in a blender and process until powdered. In another bowl, mix cottage cheese, eggs, water, vanilla and olive oil until smooth. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients in the blender and process until it forms a batter. As the mixture stands it will thicken and you may need to add more water a tablespoon at a time to keep it the right consistency.

Spray waffle iron with light olive oil. Cook batter in waffle iron according to iron's specifications.

Serve with fruit compote or syrup.

(when I'm being really lazy, I dump it all in a blender and stir it up instead of doing the two bowls. You get bigger chunks of oatmeal and the final result is not as fluffy, but it still tastes the same)

FANGS!

Ouch, poor Tama... the puppies are getting used to their new teeth and sometimes you'll see them bite their tongues.

Video of puppies playing

PSA for the holidays

With the holidays coming up, many people think that as they are celebrating, Fido should too. Unfortunately, holiday fare is just not healthy food for dogs. You may already know that cooked bones of any type are dangerous for your dog to eat, but when your focus is on the holiday and not on the dog, it's easy for Grandma to slip a turkey bone from her plate to Fido waiting below, or as you're clearing the plates into the trash, you turn your back for a moment and the remains are gone. Dogs can be very sly little creatures when they want something so badly and they don't want you to see them steal it!

Make it a household policy not to feed your dogs cooked bones of any type. Don't throw the leftover turkey carcass in any trash can accessible by pets. Don't leave food on the plates where a dog could counter surf and grab a bone.

Below are photos of a dog who ate a steak bone. A chip from this bone embedded in it's intestines. I've heard about cooked chicken and turkey bones splintering, but not so much about steak bones. The owner of this dog caught it quickly and rushed the dog to the vet who got it into emergency surgery before any real damage was done – except for the sizable scar on the dog's belly and an even more sizable hit to the wallet due to the surgery, a night at an emergency vet and a stay at it's regular vet for two following days to make sure he stayed hydrated. Prevention is the key.





And while I'm on my PSA soapbox, be very careful with medications, too. I just recently heard of a young dog getting a bottle of his human's thyroid medication from her purse and downing all 30 pills in the matter of seconds. So much for child-proof packaging. It's definitely not dog proof. For the owner, it was a very scary call to poison control and a trip to the vet.

Our adventure into the great outdoors.

The advantage of having spring puppies is that you have beautiful weather for the puppies to enjoy the outside. The last two of Tama's litters were easy peasy; flowers blooming, lawn chairs pulled up to the puppy run, picnics while watching the puppies play, neighbors dropping by to visit with each puppy. Not so easy in November. And really not very fun under cloudy, rainy skies.

We succeeded in venturing out three times today. And I waited... and waited in the cold and rain until each puppy had pooped. I know I should do one more trip out tonight. But it's dark. And cold. And I finally warmed up from the last trip out at 3:00. Uggh.

So while I was waiting, I took a few more pics of each of the puppies.

Betty, Girl:




Edge, Boy 1:




Avalanche, Boy 2:




K2, Boy 3:




Mogul, Boy 4:

The Ski Patrol are 4 weeks old today!

Today was our first adventure into the great outdoors. Lucky for us there was no snow in sight, but certainly lots of rain so we didn't stay out for long! Right away one of the boys pooped! That's always a good sign that we have smart little puppies that want to keep their house clean.







Here are some random close ups of the puppies at 4 weeks old:


Girl - Shredder Betty


Boy 1 - Catch'n Edge using Betty as pillow


Boy 2 - Avalanche


The puppies are really playing with toys now. Here's Avalanche modeling for the Zanies commercial!


Boy 3 - K2




Boy 4 - Mogul