Bonding between our 15 year old Harley-girl and our 14 week old puppy Ra. Harley didn’t really bond with Jack, and she has been missing the connection between her and her late “mama dog” Chloe. (none of the dogs are actually related)

For folks who haven’t been following every picture of Ra, he is our Australian Cattle Dog puppy, a red. Harley is an ACD/lab mix, and the un-pictured Jack is our 10 year old ACD, but you can see he’s a blue in other pictures

Check out the other Love Thursday pictures!

Or, y’know, not. Or maybe it should be me who is sedated, to cope with everything…

Yesterday we noticed that Jack had some blood in his urine. Oh joy. As the day went on, he started acting a bit lethargic, not his usual, energetic self. (Earlier in the day he was fine, as he was in the pic at right) This morning he wasn’t even interested in giving kisses. The blood thing kept happening, and just like a human with a UTI, it happened frequently, and was the first time he ever had an accident in the house, and then it happened several times.

So, after we went to coop, I came back and we took Jack to the vet. He isn’t running a temp, but from what we described, he thinks Jack is passing bladder stones. So, he needs to do bloodwork and then sedate him for an ultrasound to see how serious the problem is. It felt very wrong to leave Jack with the vet.

I know he’s a dog, not a human. But I just can’t cope with much more. So everybody please think good thoughts and send “you’re OK” vibes to Jack? We really love him, and he’s our ball-fetching, loud snuggle bug.

Yesterday was partly cloudy with temps in the 60s. Today we’ve got upper 40s, and for the girls, that’s still warm enough for the park. They’re pretty tough kids, the park is near the ocean, and there are some strong sea breezes that keep the park cool. Obviously, I had to take pictures. Here are some highlights, but there’s also a flickr photo set of park pics for your enjoyment.

LG had a blast scootering to the park. She rode her blue scooter while I sat in my blue (medical) scooter.

BG and MG had so much fun on the tire swings! They played a while before their friend came, and then they kicked it up a notch!

Jack kept watch over his herd of kids, keeping track of where everyone was.

In addition to playing tag with the girls, Ra enjoyed a great run in the field with MG. It’s great to have so much space available! And yes, the beach is across the street from the park. So pretty.

The girls had so much fun sliding, swinging, running, and playing around!

Eventually it started to rain too hard to ignore, so we had to leave. I was using Thomas (my scooter), so the dogs and I took a longer route home. We got to spy on the girls walking in the rain, though!

With Jack to protect my stuff in the scooter, and Ra excited to explore all of the park, plus 3 girls who need to get some major wiggles out, I know we’ll be returning again very, very soon!

(We do have a 3rd dog, Harley, but she’s 15 and doesn’t like the walk down to the park, or the walk back up the hill)

A late entry for this week’s Love Thursday - BG and I love on our new pupster, Ra. He does bring light!

Today we went for a lovely walk to the park with a new neighbor-friend. Ra walked for part, but also got carried a bit!

Now that it’s spring, it’s time to celebrate that we live at the beach. All winter we deal with living at least 5 miles from anything useful (gas station, coffee shop, grocery store, etc), being at least 30 minutes from most places, and living on a peninsula at the end of the earth, so we are some of the last streets the town plows. We live with all that because we are a 5 minute walk from a beautiful beach and a great little park.

Forget the overcast skies and chilly winds! Spring is here, so we trek to the beach! There are a limited number of days when dogs are allowed on the beach in the spring (through Memorial day), so we take advantage of them while we can.

Australian Cattle Dog folk often say, “a good cattle dog is a tired cattle dog”. Very true. It’s also very true of my daughters. A walk with the dogs and then a trip walking around the beach, plus some spring cleaning will make for very calm, quiet girlies!

At least until they get some rest, then all bets are off. (check out the cute sleeping puppy picture)

Happy first day of spring!

Welcome, Sun. We can’t quite see you today, so we’ll have to bathe in the warmth of… lamps.

OK, so what if we have snow on the first day of spring? That’s not an omen or anything, right?

The girls tried to take Jack and Ra out for a walk. Ra followed Jack up to a point, but he was freaked out by the chilly weather and the snow, so we came back inside. A little bit at a time!

You can see some of the snow on each of them. Aren’t they too adorable for words? *sigh* They’re also way too smart, and I’m ruined for another breed.

Weird note of the day, we have yet to hear Ra make any sound. He can definitely hear and see, but he hasn’t made a sound. He is starting to settle in, though - he’s got more energy than fright today!

We welcomed Ra to the family today. He’s a mix of spring, Rachel’s birthday, and happiness.

Ra is a red Australian Cattle Dog, 9 weeks old. Our other dogs are also Australian Cattle Dogs - Jack is a blue, and Harley is a lab/ACD mix.

Ra was the Egyptian sun god, which seemed fitting for an orangey-red dog we picked up just before the Spring Equinox!

He is a sweet little guy, and the other dogs are getting used to him. He’s definitely bringing some sunshine into the house! Er, and some stress, too… Puppy obedience classes will start soon…

Birthday week continues! Stay tuned for Spring Reading goodness tomorrow!

BG said “now I have a big brother [Jack is 10 1/2] and a baby brother!”

For today’s Love Thursday, I wanted to celebrate the love between our girls and our dogs.

No human was feeling ill (except my normal chronic illness stuff), so the girls decided that Jack was sick. That meant putting him on the bed, laying him down, and putting him on pillows, and then putting warm blankets on him. Showing himself as a true love-addled dog, Jack just laid there, accepting everything they did because he wanted the petting and attention.

Kids and Dogs - perfect love

The forecasters at Accuweather, the Weather Channel, and even local channels keep saying we’re getting “light snow” with “little to no accumulation”. I’m not sure they quite understand the words they are using.

Exhibit A: Jack’s back has a lovely coating of “Light snow” so white it matches his Bentley mark (that white blaze on his head)

Exhibit B: “Light Snow” on the branches in the back yard. Sadly, the camera isn’t getting the snowflakes as they fall.

Exhibit C: “Light Snow” on the street. Or should I say “street”, as it’s hard to discern what is yard and what is street. Admittedly, we aren’t the first people to be plowed, but still.

I know they keep saying light snow, but I really don’t think they know what it means. Either that or the snow is much heavier here than everywhere else!

We currently have 2 dogs (see pic at right). Harley (right) is a Lab/Australian cattle dog mix. Jack (left) is an ACD.

Harley is 15, and has been wonderfully useful for years, making sure the sock fairies have fewer socks to steal by hoarding them in her crate. She’s also a great foot-warmer, and a wonderful vacuum. Her impression of the kids was raised considerably when they started solids! Harley will bark (sometimes) when someone comes to the door, and will (usually) bark when one of the kids is upset - she would go to the other end of the house to tell us if one of the babies had woken up and was crying.

Harley’s alert-to-door stats were higher when we lived in a house that was laid out differently. She is also right there to protect me by barking at strangers. It almost looks like she’s going to follow through, but then hides behind me. Anyone (friend or contractor) who has been here more than once knows not to worry about her!

Jack is 10, and new to our family. We’ve already ascertained that he’s great for ball, frisbee, and snowball fetch. He’s also very useful as a foot-warmer or warm-up-cold-sheets critter. He will unfailingly alert me if someone is going up or down the stairs, as well as if someone comes to the door. OK, often on that last one, but given the layout of the house, I can understand why he doesn’t always know (we’re upstairs in the kitchen, bedroom, & living room, door is downstairs by the other living room).

Jack’s job since he moved into our home is to follow me. Everywhere. He takes this job very seriously and will sulk in my room if I leave for a while. He gets up when I get up, and goes wherever I go. It’s like having an 18 month old, except that he barks instead of cries, and I don’t have to do diapers.

After falling down the stairs and then slipping and falling in the hallway, and then last night’s excitement of having the world spin while I fell last night, I feel even better about having Jack follow me. We weren’t thinking of him helping me when we got him, but we were grateful he followed me just in case - the combo of meds and clumsiness isn’t always pretty.

ACDs aren’t all that big, but they’re very sturdy. Think the rugby players of the dog world! Jack has been there to help me get up after falling on ice and he can go alert others if I fall. I’ve felt so much safer knowing he was there if I needed him. If he was Great Dane sized, it would be even more help, but I don’t think my house could fit a dog that size!

We had always planned to teach the dogs to find the phone or the remote, but now we have kids! The next step will be teaching the dogs to find things that were dropped - like keys!