Harley for Christmas and a Half

Harley really was a good dog and he let us do all sorts of silly things to him...like put a Santa hat on him and reindeer antlers too! He left our home in the beginning of December 2006 so we almost had him for two Christmases.

Harley and Harrison

When Gusto (our first Seeing Eye puppy) came into our home, we had 4 cats -- Donovan, Daphne, Olivia and Harrison. None of the cats like Gusto at all and we ended up with gates in the house to segregate the canine 4 legged population from the feline one.

Harley was much nicer with the cats -- he didn't chase them. Harrison was the bravest of them all and actually made friends with Harley...that is after he got over the initial shock of us bringing in another dog!

Fun with Harley!

We're not supposed to play tug o war with our Seeing Eye puppies. I don't think the picture to the left qualifies because I'm actually holding onto the camera that Harley is pulling on.

And the picture to the right...well, that really grosses my sisters our :-)

Look at those long legs! Besides having Beetle Juice head, Harley was one leggy puppy. He was tall!

Gusto and Harley -- two dogs for a little while

Harley arrived when we still had Gusto, our first Seeing Eye puppy. At that time, we were allowed to overlap puppies and so we did. We had both of them together in our home from September 13th to October 3rd.

Harley wanted to badly to play with Gusto and to cuddle with him too. Gusto was tolerant at first. After a few days they began to play and it was neat to see how gently Gusto played with little puppy Harley.

Gusto never did let Harley cuddle though. He did eventually let Harley lie on his back paw though...how nice of him.

This is one of my favorite all time photos. I earned a Brighton bag from Creative Memories and that bag had this photo imprinted on the side.

Gusto left our home on October 3rd, 2005. This photo was taken the day before he left.

Welcome Harley...September 13, 2005

Harley was delivered to our home on September 13, 2005. Like all puppies, he came with a pudgy puppy belly, puppy breath and that puppy smell that makes you just want to squeeze them tight and never let go.

Of course he had to have a nickname and Harley Barley Boy seemed like a natural fit. We used to say he had "Beetle Juice head" (yes, like the movie) because his head seemed smaller and out of proportion with the rest of his body.

Happy Birthday Harley!

Wow -- he's 5 years old already! It really doesn't seem like he should be but that's probably because for 2 years and 2 days he was up at The Seeing Eye Breeding Center.

Since my blogging started with Harley's Town Walk, I thought I'd spend the next few posts about Harley as a puppy because he was a really cute puppy...well, they all are :-)

Pettine & Skew

Maybe I have an obsession with the letter S...which would explain my current addiction to Shawls and Socks :-)

I finished this shawl in 3 days! I started July 2nd and finished on the 5th. It was a fast knit but it took me awhile to get around to blocking it so technically, I didn't finish until the 21st. Pettine used one skein of very pretty Dream in Color Starry in the color Pansy GoLightly. I love Starry -- it has silver thread in it too which makes it sparkly.

We have 3 upcoming weddings to go to and I've decided to make a different shawl to wear to each wedding -- it's cheaper than buying a new dress :-)

Skew is sock #61 for me. It was an interesting pattern and it was one of those patterns where you just have to trust the instructions. It looked terrible on the sock blockers (for non-knitters, that's the little picture) but they look great on my feet! I love this pattern and will have to make more in different colors.

Dreaming of Peanuts and Cracker Jacks

It's our annual club trip to the Somerset Patriots game. We went last Saturday night and it was hot! At least we were at a night game.

Quail had fun and it's a good thing she's small because she fit nicely on the floor under the stadium seats. Maybe she's just a bit too small though because she did manage to crawl under my seat and up onto the row behind us. With a little bit of wiggling, she managed to fit all the way through -- good thing since I don't think the Patriots would have been happy if they had to rip up some seats because our puppy got stuck!

We stayed til the very end and watched the Patriots beat the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs with a walk off 2 run homer. I'm not sure I got the baseball lingo right. :-) It was a long game and we were the last puppyraisers to leave -- Quail was asleep under my seat by that time and we're sure she was dreaming of peanuts and cracker jacks.

H, Q & Q

Doesn't Harley look so studly sitting there between Quail and Quote?

Q&Q Turn One!

Quail & Quote turned one on July 2nd! To celebrate, Quail and Quote had a sleepover last Saturday night. Okay, in reality, Quote's family needed a puppysitter for Sunday and we volunteered.

They look so much alike that we had to change Quail's pink collar to an orange collar so we could tell them apart quickly. Quote's snout is just a little bit narrower than Quail's and Quote is about a half inch taller but other than that, they really do look a lot alike.

I was tempted to send Quail home with Quote's puppyraiser to see if she would notice the difference but we decided to keep Quail :-)

Harley...coming out of retirement? NOT!

Harley is loving the retired life. He did briefly consider getting a job last year when an application for Dogfather came through my email. One of hubby's cousins was having a baby -- they had a baby girl last August. Before she was born, they sent out a job application to be a Godfather/Godmother. Harley decided to apply to be Dogfather and this is what he filled out.

Application for God Father/Motherhood

(Fields in bold are required)

Please fill out entire application to be considered. Note that this application has three sections: Fill in the Blank, Multiple Choice, and Essay. For more information on filling any of these sections out, please refer to your grade school memories.

Fill in the Blank:

Name: Harley Scozzare

Date: August 20, 2009

Phone Number: I am missing opposable thumbs and I can’t pick up a phone so I don’t see the need to have a phone #

Email: I can’t type on a keyboard because of my paws, so I don’t have an email addy. My mom is typing for me.

Favorite Band: Three Dog Night

Favorite Bottled Water Brand: I’ll drink any water as long as it is in my bowl or in a toilet which is really just a really big bowl

Religion: no particular dogma

Number of Pets: I have 2 people, 2 cats and 1 puppy

Names of Pet(s): Cats: Harrison & Olivia, People: Ed & Marian, Puppy: Quail

Favorite Sport: Fetch

Favorite Sport Team: Chudley Cannons and Manchester United

Favorite Transformer: all of them – as long as they are plastic and can be chewed on

Favorite Care Bear: all of them – as long as they are soft, I can tear them to pieces

Age: 4

Sex: M although I’m neutered

Favorite TV Show: anything on Animal Planet

Multiple Choice: Please circle appropriate letter. If emailing application back, please highlight your response.

1. If you are driving on your local turnpike and our child repeatedly keeps asking if he/she can go to the bathroom. Do you?

A. Keep driving and turn the radio up to drown out the noise.
B. Grab an empty water bottle and casually flip it back to the kid.
C. Pull over at a rest stop.
D. Pull over on the side of the road. – I’ll let him /her go first and then mark/pee over it so everyone knows I was there
E. None of the above.

2. You are in a house of worship and our child starts screaming and crying. Do you

A. Keep praying and turn up your internal volume control to drown out the crying.
B. Realize that the movie “Omen” could happen in real life and realize that he/she might have a peculiar mark on his/her head, and leave immediately fearing the worst.
C. Leave the service to attend to his/her needs.
D. Do nothing.
E. None of the above – I’ll bark loudly to try to cover the noise of the crying

3. After raising your new child to be a fan of a particular sports team, he/she comes home from school one day and announces that he/she now likes the team that is said team’s most hated rival. Do you?

A. Nod your head approvingly while dying inside knowing that this ungrateful ingrate purposefully did this to get under your skin.
B. Laugh, and buy tickets to the next matchup between the two teams, and go with your other kid(s).
C. Laugh, and buy tickets to the next matchup between the two teams, and go with your whole family.
D. Ignore him/her and buy them a jersey from the original team.
E. None of the above.—I would bury all their new team stuff in the backyard and pretend I have no idea where it went.

Essay:

In 250 words or less, or more, please tell us why you would be the best candidate for this position. Please include any awards or special skills you possess that will help in this most important decision. Also, please mention any recent shows you may have gone to that will give us a glimpse into the kind of culture we will be sending our child into in the unlikely event that something will happen to us.

I was selected to be a breeder at the Seeing Eye where I met 9 very lovely ladies and had over 70 puppies. Like a good dogfather, I am not involved in their care at all and actually don’t even keep in touch with any of the mothers either – once was good enough for me. I was very good at my job though and was usually getting the job done within 20 seconds. I do have my Canine Good Citizenship Certificate and one of the things I am good at is lying on the floor for a minute and not eating the cheeseburger in front of me. I’m not allowed to go to the movies (some rule about dogs not being allowed in) but my people do watch the tv show “Bones” a lot – I’m not sure what the show is about but it must be good since it does involve bones and I do love milk bones.

I walk on leash very well and know commands like Sit, Rest and Down really really well. I do hope that should anything happen to you, your child(ren) would at least be old enough to take me on walks through the neighborhood. I also have all my shots.

Diving into summer...not!

We went to a BBQ and Harley really really wanted to swim. It's a good thing he couldn't figure out how to use the pool ladder!

Disemboweling cushions is fun!

Yes, Quail likes to make a mess!

Laurence Harbor

We went to Laurence Harbor one afternoon after hubby came home from work. I needed sand! I decided to join in a "knitting swap" where I put together a package of knit stuff to send to a total stranger and a different total stranger sends me a package. The theme was summer fun so I decided to include some New Jersey sand.

We finally made it to Laurence Harbor. We tried to go once before but we didn't make it. I'm glad we picked the day that we did though because we got to see two planes practicing for the Red Bull Air Race. We had been seeing ads for the air race for weeks and I really wanted to go but tickets were pretty pricey. The race wasn't anywhere near Laurence Harbor but I guess that's where some of the planes were practicing. It was neat to watch although I did feel a little ill watching the planes make some of the turns that they did. :-)

Back to my swap...a hand knit item was supposed to be included in my swap package so I decided to knit Argante -- a really pretty shawl. I really like the pattern and already have yarn picked out for a shawl for me!

Two Princesses

Our home decor is eclectic and "dog". Our living room floor has several floor cushions on it to keep our 4 legged family members pampered.

Occasionally, the cushions are piled on top of each other for fur cleaning purposes. I found Trinity lying on top of the pile like a princess.

No matter how many floor cushions are available, Quail will always bark at the dog on the occupied cushion because of course, that one must be the best.

Quail barked at Trinity until she left the pile of cushions.

Quail is my little sweet puppy but I have to admit that Trinity looks cuter and more dainty on top of the pile than my much larger girl. :-)