BOOM! HERE COMES THE THUNDER!!

 We have had a little bit of spring weather this week.  Dark clouds hover, with just a tad of thunder, and even a smaller amount of tad in the raindrops department.

 Izzy, our scaredy cat girl, felt the arrival of a storm in the distance even before we knew it would be coming, and she began a bit of panting and pacing around....

 So we pulled out the mighty Thunder Shirt and before long she had settled into the day and stopped the panting and pacing routine.

 She used to pace and pant for hours and hide away in a dark room.  Nothing seemed to calm her down, and although she is still not perfectly calm when storms are approaching, her huge panic attacks have now become much more manageable for her sweet little pea pickin' heart.

Izzy weighs around 80 pounds and wears a size large, just to give you an idea.

IF you have a pup who suffers each time storms approach, or fireworks boom overhead on New Years and the Fourth Of July, try making the investment of a Thunder Shirt for your little sweetie pie pup.

Just For Them

I suppose you could say that we have lived in enough homes, that by this decade in our lives we know all of the finer necessities and elements in a house that make it a livable house.

Now, when you have a back door to a house, it's imperative, in our humble opinion, that there be a cover of some type over the door... front door of the house too.  Simply entering or leaving a home by way of a door with no cover and having to stand out in the pouring rain or snow just doesn't cut it.

The BEST thing we added to this house since our purchase in 2013 was the roof covering over the basement entry to the house.... 

Having rain, or snow that piles up. butting up against a door sill leads to wood rot as well.

IT will save you headaches and construction repair costs in the years ahead to add some type of cover over your entryways.

And, it gives your guests a feeling of welcome if they aren't soaking wet when they step indoors.

Dress the area up a bit and everyone will be happier.

And, if you have fur babies, they will be happy about this too!

It gives them time to consider if they want to step out from under the dry roof and do their business.

It can be a BIG decision for them when it's raining and thundering.

Yes yes.... we built our entryway roof just for them.

Hit Or Miss Endeavor

 Although we have had LOTS of tomatoes from the garden this year, the rest of our home grown crop has been discouraging.

 No cucumbers at all, and only a few very small squash with bell peppers not nearly as bountiful as in years past.... in fact I probably won't be stuffing any peppers this year.

 But we are thankful for what we have grown successfully and will simply hope for better weather during next year's growing season.

 But what has been good enough to pick goes straight up the hill to the house.

 Rowdy helps in any way he can.... like following along behind.

That's helpful, right?

 Izzy needs a refreshing drink too....

 There's just nothing quite as tasty as cold cold well water from the hose.

It's a delicacy.

 Gardening.

It's a hit or miss endeavor.

How To Spend A Chilly Day At Home

Earlier in the week there was nothing but rain.

Cold. Hard. Rain.

 So we killed time indoors and made some chicken broth.

We like chicken broth, and our humans... the best humans in the world we might add...

well, they give it to us daily over our kibble.

While the broth was wafting it's delicious, chicken aroma all over the house, we were busy selecting something to watch on TV.

 It's quite confusing because there is always so much to choose from, and unless it has a canine star in it... well.... we tend to lose interest and our minds wander off elsewhere.

But then we finally chose something,

 but once again it does not hold our attention and we drift off into nap-ville for an hour.... or two....

Since it was such a chilly day we decided to snuggle up, sort of a two dog night afternoon.

 We finally woke up... shook our fur a bit, thought about watching another movie,

but decided we needed to get a move on and do our daily duty of watching for anything that moves in the yard.  THAT holds our attention longer than any canine show will ever be able to.

"How many birds did you count, Izzy?"

"Eleventy seven, Rowdy."

Have A Sunny Thanksgiving!

 Guess what happened.

I mean... guess what we got.

 Can you see it now?

Take a closer look.

*best rug for disguising boxer colored hair.  LOL*

 Mom got us a new rug for in front of the doorway.

 It's where the sun comes flowing into the house.

 And it's one of our favorite napping places and bird watching locations, and whine at the deer in the yard locations.

Pretty much a great location for everything we dogs love.

 It's the location where we will be spending a good portion of our Thanksgiving Day.

Hope you get a nap in the sunshine on a soft rug too!

Love and stuff,

Rowdy and Izzy in Virginia.

We're Not Fancy Folk

 It's a blustery, windy day.

Good a day as any for a game of tug-o-war.

 No need for expensive toys with these two, that will be destroyed in minutes.

 Simply open the door and toss them a rope and they are entertained.

 It's why in many of the photos of my front porch you may just see a pile of rope on the doorstep.

 We're not fancy.

We Each Have Our Limits

Speaking of the best dog ever...

what?

we weren't?

Well, I'm going to.

 You see...

Rowdy, our eldest boxer boy is the best dog ever.

He knows his place, and the extent of his limits where it concerns our property.

We NEVER have to worry about him when we turn our heads away.. not like Izzy.

She can't be trusted out of our sight for even one moment.

Rowdy on the other hand knows.

His dad walked down to the end of our lane, and Rowdy watched, wanting to go see where his dad had gone, but he knows....

 He knows he was not invited along, and so he goes to the end of the driveway....

looks, stands, and waits.

then he turns and looks to me,

and then returns to his girlfriend for some play time until his dad returns.

Yes.

Best dog ever.

Don't EVEN get me started on Izzy!

Pet Personality

 These two.

Although alike in breed, and in so many other ways,

they are such different personalities.

This is typical of pack animals.

I've read that we, as owners.... all owners....assign personalities to our dogs, that we make up their personality.

I don't think we make up things,

I believe that different dogs within a household truly do have unique personalities from one another.

 For instance:

This is our Isabelle/Izzy, and she is adventurous and will always wander off by herself if not watched with eagle eyes by my husband or me.

She enjoys the company of a human, but usually at a distance, like 30 ft.  

She is friendly and fun, but watching the world from a distance is where she is more comfortable for the most part.

When in the house, which is most of the time, she will go to the basement to sleep where it is cool and dark and quiet, but she will come and find her mama (ME) when she wants a doggie biscuit or something to eat.  She has a strong inner clock that tells her what time of day it is and leads me to the laundry room where their food bowls are to make sure I do not forget to feed her.

She's like the badass badger on the internet.

She does not give a shit.

 This is Rowdy.

He is most secure when VERY near his people.

As you can see, he does NOT miss a meal, but usually comes to his bowl after Izzy has done the work of tracking me down within the house and leading me to their feeding area.

He is the one who reports any of Izzy's wrong doings to me, by making his grunting noise which alerts me to come with him so he can show me what she did wrong.

He obeys the rules.

His feelings are easily hurt.

He stays quite close to us, unless he wants on the back deck to keep an eye on the world below.

Rowdy follows me from room to room.

He is the protector of the pack.

Different dogs.

Unique personality to each one.

Don't believe everything you read, that 'we assign personalities to our pets'.

Whoever thought that up is just wrong.