Quail's new Christmas Dress

Quail was so excited to get a new dress for Christmas!  She is tired of being mistaken for a boy even when she has a pink collar on.

However, Harrison was not so thrilled with his new Santa hat.

Harley's First Christmas

Harley is six years old now so of course his first Christmas was years ago.  But since I am going through older photos right now, I thought I'd show how cute he was!

He was a good sport about wearing his Santa hat.

We were puppy sitting another Seeing Eye puppy over Harley's first Christmas.  Elke arrived on Christmas Eve and we had her for two weeks.  The two of them loved to cuddle in the living room -- Harley was destined to be a ladies' man!  He always loved the girls -- perfect for his future stint at the Seeing Eye breeding center.

Gusto's Letter to Santa

Gusto was very good at helping me clean up the house.

H.B. gets a bum rap

We put the tree up over Thanksgiving but it was another two weeks before any ornaments were hung.  In the days following, I had several discussions with H.B. about how the Christmas tree was not his personal source of chew toys.  Breakables go up high but he seemed to like this one wooden ornament in particular -- a cheap unicorn that came in one of those sets of wooden ornaments that we got for cheap for the tree I put up when I was in college!

H.B. now knows that his toys are really all in his toy basket and there is nothing on the tree meant for him.  He does learn his lessons fast!

I had been telling friends that H.B. is the first pup we've had that has ever stolen ornaments off the tree.  Then this morning I realized I needed to publicly apologize to H.B.  Gusto and Harley never ever had the opportunity to take ornaments off because we only put up a mini tree and that tree sat out of reach on top of their dog crate.  Anita was a teeny tiny pup at her first Christmas and she was really just content to sleep under the tree.  Ava would have stolen ornaments (since we thought she was channeling Gusto) but her Christmas was during our big re-model -- we were living with our in-laws at the time and they put a mini-tree on top of a table because there were 4 large dogs in the house.  I honestly don't remember what Quail did but I would really be surprised if she didn't steal ornaments -- we think she has surpassed Gusto in scootch factor.  And now we have H.B. who has stolen ornaments but does drop them when I tell him to and he hasn't broken a single one.

That honor goes to Harley whose tail knocked an ornament off the sofa -- a little glass ornament of a penguin playing a grand piano that I believe came from the blown glass shop that was in the Honeycomb section of the Staten Island mall -- and if you can remember that section of the mall, we won't talk about how old you must be.

The reality is that the cats have broken more ornaments than any of our puppies.  Both Harrison and Olivia liked to take ornaments off the tree and drown them in their water bowls.  Bad kitties!

Happy Birthday H.B.!

H.B. is 7 months old today!  November was a big milestone month for H.B.

First, he got his Seeing Eye puppy vest!  Doesn't he look handsome?

He's now about the same size as Quail, maybe a tiny bit taller.  She still weighs more but we won't tell her that.

Harley now thinks H.B. is a contender because Harley has started marking over H.B.

And most importantly, we learned H.B. doesn't have diabetes insipidus (very huge sign of relief!!!) and just may have an obsessive water drinking disorder which he will hopefully outgrow.

To celebrate his November and to get in the holiday spirit, we went to Woodbridge Mall with the rest of his puppy club.  He says he's been very good this year and can't wait to see what Santa brings!

Trick or Treating...Lab style

We lost power on Halloween around 2:30 in the afternoon but the doggies wanted to go trick or treating anyway so off we went.

Harley was very very concerned that the Headless Horseman wouldn't find his head so we scoured the neighborhood.  H.B. kept reassuring him there was a new sheriff in town and H.B. would find the missing head.

After walking around the neighborhood, we finally headed home, headless.  We think the head must be somewhere buried among all the downed branches that came down during the freak winter snowstorm we had BEFORE Halloween.

Quail retired to the sofa...even a little devil needs to get some rest.

I didn't even know that hubby was getting dressed up for work until he came home with his eye make up still on -- I would have watched the show!

H.B. goes apple picking

H.B. went apple picking over the weekend with the rest of his puppy club.  He was bummed that he didn't get to eat any apples (or cider donuts!) and horribly embarrassed at our William Tell re-enactment...no, we didn't shoot any arrows at him but doesn't he look cute with an apple on his head?

Happy Birthday Anita!

Anita was the third puppy we raised for The Seeing Eye and probably our calmest.  Hope she's enjoying her birthday!

Me and my pups

Before Harley could settle on the sofa next to me, Quail squeezed in from behind.  I didn't mind one bit :-)

Yum, ice cream cake

My nephew thinks ice cream cake is tastier when you wear it as you are eating it.

Yes, they do come in slim

We get a lot of comments when we walk our dogs, especially now that we have 3 and one is a very cute 4 1/2 month old puppy!  The most memorable comment came from a park ranger.  First he asked if our dogs were labrador retrievers.  Then he said to us, "I didn't know they came in slim."

H.B. with Quail and Harley???

H.B. and Quail were buddies from the beginning.

Harley is finally warming up to H.B. and actually lets H.B. sit near him now.  Maybe one day we'll have a 3 dog puppy pile!

Jersey Day Trips

We spent the last week of August going to different Jersey parks.  It's H.B.'s first really long walks and we had 3 very tired dogs!

Harley was so excited to get some swimming time in.  Quail did her usual "I'll-just-stay-close-to-shore-and-bark-at-Harley" thing.  She did manage to fetch a stick that we threw in for her -- she usually comes back with something we didn't throw in. 

HB wanted to go swimming but that's only because he didn't know what it was :-)

A quiet puppy is a bad puppy!

This is what I found when I realized H.B. wasn't making any noise...

H & Q, Q & H.B.

And no, I did not pose either one of these pictures!

HB at the County Fair

The first week of August is County Fair time! I spent lots of time at the County Fair with HB. His job was to look cute and my job was to help put on tattoos that we were selling for the puppy club.

All our puppy raisers put on tattoos for this picture.

And here's HB -- totally exhausted and zonked -- it's a lot of work to look cute and be pet. That's the best part of the County Fair -- I get a very tired puppy!

Couch Potatoes

It's hard to keep HB off the sofa when he sees Harley and Quail up there. And of course it was cute so I had to take a picture.

And after I took the picture, I made HB get off the sofa.

Lab Libations

Last October we went to The Wine Room. We bought 1/8th of a barrel of pinot noir -- we got to crush the grapes, or rather hubby did and then the wine sat in a barrel until it was ready to be bottled last week.

Of course, I had to have cute labels for our wine so we planned a photo shoot involving 4 separate shots and about 100+ photos. The first shot was of Harley -- he did not like sitting on the mesh patio chair. Next was Quail who sat nicely for me although she did get a little tangled in the chair at one point. HB was on top of the table and hubby was right there in case HB decided to jump off. The last shot was a bottle of wine and two glasses -- they just wouldn't sit still for the camera!

In the end, I had 4 photos that I merged into one wine label.

And the wine tastes really good too!

He is Growing!!!

It's been awhile since I blogged -- I've been busy chasing after HB and working on my Hawaii StoryBook.

HB woke up one day from his nap and I realized I no longer had a chubby little puppy -- I now had a little dog. The bottom photo is from June 30th. He's waiting for breakfast with Harley and Quail and he still has puppy face and puppy fat. The top picture was taken July 21st and wow -- he's a little dog now! I do wish they would stay smaller longer but I guess that's what happens when you feed them :-)

He is still small enough to fit under the sofa and for me to carry (barely!).

H.B. and Helen

H.B. had his first Seeing Eye puppy meeting on Monday. His sister, Helen, is also in our puppy club so they had a littermate reunion. She's on the left and definitely smaller than H.B. Maybe H.B. stands for Hefty Boy.

Helen and H.B. had fun saying hello.

H., Q. and H.B.

When H.B. arrived, Harley and Quail were in the backyard. I was a little worried that H.B. would get trampled when H. and Q. came inside but they were amazing really good. They walked in, gave him a sniff and then thought...oh, another pup. I guess it's a good thing we puppysit for other Seeing Eye pups -- it's gotten them used to having strange dogs in the house for a little bit.

Quail has definitely adjusted to having H.B. around. They play a lot although I do have to moderate since Q. does have the tendency to play rough.

As for Harley, he's being a bit of a cranky old man. He tolerates H.B. But based on past puppy interactions, it takes him about a week to warm up to a little nippy thing.

H Stands For...

H.B.

Yes, our new Seeing Eye Puppy's name is H.B. We've never had a puppy named with initials before and I've never met one either. So I guess the next question is what does H.B. stand for? Our Area Coordinator who drops and picks up the puppies didn't know. If you make a large enough donation to The Seeing Eye, you can name a puppy so maybe he is named for someone.

He is a big boy! He is 10.3 pounds and a little chunky thing. Our last three puppies were girls so I guess I am used to the more petite 7-8 pound puppies. Gusto was 9.1 pounds and Harley was 10.4. Maybe H.B. stands for Huge Boy.

Either way, it doesn't matter because he is just too cute!!!

Waiting for H Puppy...

We are waiting rather impatiently for our H puppy to arrive. He is supposed to be in our home around noon on Monday.

In the meantime, we had to kidnap another yellow male lab for my puppy fix.

Okay, in reality, his puppy raisers went away and we offered to care for Fathom. He's a six month old yellow lab (in case you couldn't tell from the photo). He's so cute and actually sits when you tell him to (unlike our Quail).

He came to stay with us on Thursday and left today (Sunday). Harley did his best to ignore Fathom while Quail played, played and played until even she didn't want to play anymore.

I do believe that in the picture Quail and Harley are thinking...geez, doesn't she know it is mealtime? Why is she taking another picture of us when she should be getting our food ready???

Wednesday Morning I Do's

A few of us went to City Hall Wednesday morning for my sister-in-law's wedding. She really is not one to want a big huge fancy wedding so she decided on something short and sweet...so off to City Hall we went. The ceremony took all of five minutes -- long enough for them to exchange their vows and to make the moms cry. It was beautiful.

I won't get all corny and say something hokey but I am very happy for the both of them.

Don't Sit Under the Banyan Tree with Anyone Else But Me

We saw so many beautiful flowers in Hawaii but I kind of expected that. I was just blown away by the Banyan Trees though. They were massive and really looked like they should have a family of tree elves living in them.

This Banyan Tree was in Kepaniwai Park and Heritage Gardens in Maui. At the time, I didn't know what kind of tree it was beyond knowing it was huge!

We saw this tree on a hike to Waimoku Falls in Haleakala National Park. I'm so tiny compared to the tree. It is neat how it drops roots into the ground from its branches -- eventually the roots will grow wide enough to look like a tree trunk.

This Banyan Tree in Lahaina, Maui -- yes, this is one single tree -- was so massive I couldn't fit it into the frame of my camera unless I wanted to cross the street in which case cars would have blocked my picture. When we walked under the tree, it was easy to tell where the originating tree trunk was but I'm not sure where it is in the photo.
Imagine the tree houses you could build in a Banyan Tree! You could have an entire village up there.

Rock Wins!

We walked on lots of beaches in Hawaii but didn't actually take the time to lie out in the sun or swim. Hubby said it wasn't in the agenda. And our travel agent had a good point -- we can lie on the beach anywhere. Or rather, I can lie on a beach anywhere since hubby has absolutely no desire to.

One of the beaches we went to was a black sand beach at Wai'anapanapa State Park towards the end of the Road to Hana on Maui. It had a section of really pretty rocks.

Since we had some great sand along the surf, hubby wrote in it and I took pictures while the waves came in. Of course, I miscalculated one wave and we had to outrun it or get wet.
See those big rocks on the beach? They are huge lava rocks and I had a slight "right of way" discussion with one of them. The rock won and I took a tumble. Hubby was really worried because he said it was a bad fall -- I had scrapes and bruises -- but all I cared about was whether my camera and brand new lens survived. And it did.

Photographer versus Rock -- Rock Wins and probably always will.

P.S. Did I use lie correctly??? :-)

It's a Boy!!!

Woo hoo!

We just got back from Hawaii yesterday. While we were gone, we got a message that a puppy is being held for us. We're tentatively expecting a boy on June 20th. Yippee!

I'm still sorting through Hawaii photos and will blog them over the next week. I was tempted to blog while I was away but hey, I had better things to do :-)

In the meantime, here's a picture of us.

Olivia

Quail's return to our home was dampened by the fact that a few days earlier we had learned that our oldest cat, Olivia, had cancer. We brought her back from the vet's office and she spent the following week eating her favorite food -- Gerber baby food in chicken, beef or turkey flavors.

By this past Sunday, she wasn't eating at all which made our decision to put her down on Monday a little easier.

She was 15 years old and one of the strays we picked up. When we first got her, she was 2 pounds and our vet thought about 2 months old. But one month later, she was 4 pounds and had teeth that come in around 6 months so our guess at her age was really off. One month of living with us on a well fed diet turned her into a foodie and she loved to eat cheerios, nuts, and crunchy things. For the rest of her life, if food went missing, Olivia took the blame.

There are no pictures of Olivia and our first puppy, Gusto, because he chased all the cats. Olivia wasn't so fond of Harley the first time around, but she did like Anita and Ava. She tolerated Quail.

She really seemed to like Harley after he returned to our family and I would find the both of them sleeping on our bed. I kept hoping for the day that they would cuddle but they both seemed happy to just share the same bed.

Of all our cats, Olivia got along best with Donovan who died five years ago but she always willing to share a plate of something yummy with Harrison.

Her original name was Oliver after the cat in the cartoon Oliver (Oliver Twist with cartoon animals). When we learned she was a girl, we switched it over to Olivia but she was always my "O Girl" and our beautiful gray kitty.

Quail is Home!

There's our tired little girl on her first day home.

We got the call on Wednesday that we could have her back -- she was being released because she collapsed during a training walk. They couldn't find any reason why despite all the tests they ran. She was just one day shy of The Seeing Eye sending us a letter to invite us up for her Town Walk so she could go into breeding.

So instead of going to the Breeding Center, she came home to us. When The Seeing Eye calls to let you know your puppy is being released, you have the option to take the puppy back or put it up for adoption. We're not grown up enough to do the adoption thing so we now have two black labs in our home.

Thursday morning, they called and said she was ready to come home so I went that afternoon. She sniffed the room for a little bit before realizing I was in the room and then she started jumping up trying to kiss my face...it was great :-)

She's shaved in a bunch of spots -- from where the put heart monitors on her and from her spay. The pretty collar is to stop her from licking her stitches and we only put it on when we're not paying as much attention to her.

We're so happy to have her back!

PS And YES, we are still on the waiting list to raise another puppy...we are crazy but in a good way :-)

Our Girl is Coming HOME!!!

Well, we are getting our first released puppy from The Seeing Eye. Quail is coming home.

We've been waiting anxiously to hear from her -- we were waiting for a letter inviting us to her Town Walk since last we heard, she was being evaluated for the breeding program. The longer we waited with no news, the better -- because as they say, no news is good news.

But we got our phone call today and Quail is being released for Exercise Induced Collapse which apparently is something that can be found in labradors. After she is spayed, we'll get the phone call to come get her.

There was the option to put her up for adoption but I don't think we're grown up enough to do that yet.

We are excited to have her come home but I have to admit, I was also really looking forward to another Town Walk and pictures of Mama Quail in the little wading pool with lots of little Quail puppies. I also liked being able to say that all the puppies we raised had graduated.

And yes, we are still waiting for another puppy. We are crazy! But in a good way :-)