Norwegian for the Day

I love parades so I was excited when hubby said he wanted to go to the Norwegian Day Parade. Apparently there used to be a huge Norwegian population in the Bay Ridge area of Brooklyn so every year, the Norwegian Day Parade is held there.

I have to admit, I was getting a kick out of telling people we were going to the Norwegian Day Parade -- I don't think it is quite like St. Patrick's Day where everyone is Irish for the day. The reason we went was because hubby works with Boomer Esiason and he was the Grand Marshall of the parade. We brought Quail with us since it would be good exposure for her. We left Harley at home because we already know he doesn't like parades AT ALL -- especially the drums which must sound a lot like thunder to him.

Quail had fun and she was very excited to meet Boomer. After the parade, we bought sandwiches at a deli and ate in a nearby park.

Wells Mills Pond

It seems to be raining a lot so we were very happy to have a sunny day over one of the May weekends to go to for a walk somewhere new. We decided to head south to Wells Mills Pond because according to the great-places-to-go-with-dogs-in-New-Jersey book this was in the top 10. We went in hopes that Harley and Quail could go swimming.

It was a bit of a disappointment. Most of the pond was surrounded by brush and trees with a few small openings to water. Harley took the opportunity to jump in and Quail followed BUT the water wasn't deep at all and Harley ended up splashing away from shore causing a bunch of Canadian Geese to get very very upset at him. We called him back -- we're not that fond of Canadian Geese but we don't want to upset them either. The only decent opening onto the pond was at the boat ramp and dam and we didn't think it would be okay to let them swim from there since it would be off-leash and people were fishing. Besides, the water had an odor to it -- it stank! We came home and sprayed them off in the backyard.

The highlight of the day trip was our stop for lunch at our very first Sonic!

Synchronized Sitting

For Mother's Day, we had 5 doggies in the house! Oh, and some people too including hubby's mom :-)

Trinity is visiting while my youngest sister is getting settled into her new job. Plus we had Aiden & Bentley over too!

Everybody sat very nicely for a cookie -- don't they look cute?


Poor Harley gets all out of sorts when A&B are over. I don't think he knows where he falls in the pack when they are around. So he spent a lot of time cuddling on the sofa with whoever was there -- we made an exception since he was out of sorts. We did not allow Quail on the sofa since she is a Seeing Eye puppy BUT after everyone left, we found her stretched out on the sofa -- she was letting us know that it was her turn now! I took a picture and then made her get off :-)

Sheep, Sheep and more Sheep!

The Saturday before Mother's Day we drove to Long Valley (puppies stayed home) to go to a sheep shearing at the Valley Shepherd Creamery.

It was fun! We got to see lots of sheep -- some naked and lots waiting in line for their annual haircut.

I don't think the sheep was very happy about her haircut -- I think she was looking for a particular style.

We even got to see baby sheep, aka lambs.

Besides watching sheep get nekid, we sampled cheeses and wines -- we bought both. I did see yarn for sale but I'm on a yarn diet :-)

Afterwards we ate lunch at a pub/microbrewery in town -- it was yummy!

Joining the Bear Hunt in New Jersey

The black bear population in New Jersey is on the rise and hunting black bear in New Jersey is permitted again. Okay, so I've never seen a black bear in our neighborhood although we have surprisingly seen deer -- hubby has seen them alive, I've only seen them posing as roadkill.

Anyway, back to the black bear hunt...I've always wanted a bear rug so we decided to join in. Armed with a bow and arrow (we're traditionalists), we headed off into the great outdoors.

Look what we brought home.


Seriously, did you really think we would go bear hunting? I cried when the squirrel died in the trap even though we knew it was breaking into our attic and chewing up electrical wires!

This is as close to a owning a true bear rug as I will ever get -- I have absolutely no desire to own an animal skin of any type. Besides, my bear is a brown bear (grizzly) and New Jersey bears are black bears.

But isn't my bear rug cute? It's a decent size -- a perfect lap blanket -- and because it's knit out of a wool/alpaca/acrylic blend, it is warm! I'm thinking of making pink and blue bears for baby presents -- wouldn't that be adorable?

Seriously though, there really is a black bear population problem in New Jersey and I was very sad to hear that there will be a bear hunt in December.

Ava...Seeing Eye Dog

Today's mail brought bittersweet news from The Seeing Eye and a photograph of our beautiful girl. It's official -- Ava is now a Seeing Eye Dog. She's been matched with a 45 year old gentleman from the south and she's moved onto her new home and job in Georgia. She is his second Seeing Eye Dog.

As with all our puppies, we want them to do well and make us proud but at the same time we would be very happy to take them back into our home. Ava had a special place in our heart since she was one of Harley's daughters and we would have loved to have kept father and daughter together.

Harley got along really well with Ava and they loved to cuddle. It was sweet to see the both of them together.

We miss her and love her always.