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!