Are you comfy?

By looking at this photo one could assume there is a shortage of warm, comfy dog beds in this house. 
By looking at this photo one could assume these dogs love to share a sleeping space.

One would be wrong on both those assumptions. Just outside of this shot is a very nice, warm, comfy and quite empty dog bed of another type. Apparently neither dog was willing to give an inch and this is how I found them in the morning. They have never done this before.

 Later that day I discovered that Bell (always the bad girl) had chewed a section of this new dog bed. I have STILL not forgiven her. 

Bad Dog!

This is the scene that greeted me when I came home from work Friday. 

This is the shredded version of one of the new dog beds I bought for them for Christmas. 

And this is Bell. Who do YOU think did the destruction?? Yeah, that's what I thought too. 

Furry Christmas

Nick usually doesn't mind posing in whatever getup is the subject of the day. 

Bell on the other hand usually employs her trade mark rebellion stunt. She becomes 'frozen dog'....unable to complete the most simple commands. This was 'sit pretty' and it took approximately 45 mins to get a shot with her face not dragging on the floor. 

Nicki loved the doggy bed she got for Christmas. 

Although 'frozen' in her bed because I had a camera in my hand...Bell enjoyed her bed too. 

Neither dog was too keen on the doggy jackets from Santa. You can't tell here but Bell is of course 'frozen'. Nick decided the jacket was fine with her when she realized putting it on meant she was going for a walk! It was the first time I saw Bell do 'walking frozen dog'...funny as hell. Tail held stiff, legs stiff, head stiff. She walked the whole way like that and never looked sideways or sniffed anything. I think she was embarrassed. I couldn't stop laughing at her. 

An Airplane You Say, Eh?

I got a package in the mail. Kaylee took a shine to the box. 

She was interested in the packing peanuts too. I was happy to find out they were made from corn starch and if they get wet they dissolve completely! Wonderful! 

The girls were interested in those packing peanuts too.....probably because I wouldn't let them have any. 

And they were deeply curious as to what Kaylee was going to do with this interesting package with those equally interesting packing peanuts. 

Nicki never paid this much attention before in her life!

Every once in awhile there would be a glance at Kaylee herself as if to say 'do you even know what you're doing here?'

I told Kaylee when she was a baby I used to put her in a box; tie a string to it and pull her around the house. She would pretend she was on a train. So she had to test this box for size. 

And eventually she created this lovely 'airplane'! You will note there is also a cup holder on one wing there and a cushion for the seat. The girl has her priorities in place. Unfortunately dogs are not allowed in Kaylee's airplane. 

Dogs At Mashapaug Lake

I took both the girls to lake for the first time this summer. It was crazy of me to take both but I never seem to learn the 'two dogs is too much' lesson or I'm plagued with guilt when I know one dog is having fun and the other one is not. Anyway once they played in the water for a little while I think they didn't really know what to do with themselves. Bell stationed herself on the edge of the water waiting for trespassers.

Every so often when someone in a canoe or a kayak paddled by, Nick would join Bell and a joint decision would be made on whether they deserved a duel barking effort or was Bell's surprisingly deep voice enough to meet the occasion. It was no surprise to me that all barking ended up being a two dog effort. They were both convinced that spot was OURS!

Bell felt she had to defend our spot from every direction and embarrassed me to no end when she let loose with a barrage of deep voiced dog smack talk on two very tiny little dogs that had the nerve to come happily bouncing into our area. Their owner was visibly startled; the little dogs were terrified and I was wishing I was somewhere else. The little dogs were on leashes but both ran in different directions; the owner jumped a foot off the ground and got tangled in the leashes and I tried to stop Bell from acting like there was a reward posted for these two little dogs.

  Meanwhile Nicki jumped up and added her two cents worth. The man didn't know there was two dogs with me so he gave a little scream and tried to turn to leave, stumbled in the leash mess he was tangled in and bumped into a tree while stepping on one of his little dogs. The little dogs were now screaming in fright; my two were bellowing at the top of their lungs; I was yelling at my dogs and trying to stop them and the man was just about peeing his pants but couldn't get his leg untangled from the leashes. 

I finally yelled to him that my dogs are not mean, just loud and they are tied...they can't reach you! Of course I'm saying this while both of them are just about foaming at the mouth to get to the little dogs. 

The poor man finally got loose, grabbed one dog and just about dragged the other one away. 

I decided we'd had enough fun for the day and packed up and headed home. 

Nicki slept the sleep of the innocent on the way home....completely wiped out from her day at the lake. 

Bell slept just as peacefully knowing she had successfully defended the integrity of our little spot at the lake. And no little dogs will be showing up all happy and bouncy there again! 

Sleeping Beauty

Against my better judgement, I took the girls hiking together. I'm fully aware that my dogs always misbehave when I take them hiking together. They are under the impression that they must obey commands while walking alone with Mom but when they are together they make their own rules. I know this. It never changes. Yet every once in a while I think to myself....they're going to be good this time. And then I learn that's STILL not true. 

But no matter what kind of trouble they may have gotten into I can't deny that this is by far the cutest picture I have ever taken of Nicki! They were both exhausted on the ride home and fell asleep in the back of the car almost immediately...not unlike human children. I noticed in the rear view mirror that the sheet I had covering the back seat was flapping around because the windows were open. When I saw Nicki sound asleep with just her nose peeking out I had to stop and take this picture. 

Bell had somehow managed to use the sheet as more of a blanket instead of a bonnet. 

Then Nicki woke up and tried to make it look like she had never fallen asleep with the sheet over her head. Nope, never happened...she would never let herself look so foolish!

But after only a very few minutes of pretending there was something very interesting to see out the window....she started a slow melt in her seat. 

And before very long big, bad, Nicki has fallen asleep again. 

And then it was Bell's turn to look out the window and pretend there was something interesting to look at out there. 

Mole

I was cleaning up dog poop from the yard when I came across this dead mole. I thought at first that he was poop. Nope...he's dead....he's a dead mole. I have no idea what killed him. I didn't see any marks or blood on him. My neighbor says she's having problems with bees and hasn't done anything with poison. 

His death remains a mystery. 

(Check out those front feet! Crazy!)