03/20/2007

Springtime In Tennessee!

Well, spring is finally here. I love this time of year. Winter is finally over. Birds are chirping. Flowers are blooming. I'm getting destroyed in my office pool for the NCAA Tournament and dogs finally get to go to the park again, catch up with old friends and catch frisbees as well.

As you can see, Ramona fits right in with the family. She's learning how to be a dog at a very impressive rate. We're all very proud of her.

Happy Springtime, Y'all!

02/02/2007

Rare Nashville Snow

We got about 2 inches of snow over night. In the 13 years that I have lived in Nashville I have seen it snow about five times. Alice likes the snow. She's been in Indiana when we had almost 2 feet of it, but I don't know if Gage and Roxie have ever seen the stuff. I didn't know what they would do. I found out.

Gage decided that he likes the snow. He ran laps around my yard at around 450 MPH. Then he grabbed his basketball and ran more laps with it. Notice that he no longer wears his training collar, or Short Bus collar as I call it. He hasn't needed it for weeks. He learns fast. He's riding on the normal bus now.

Roxie rolled over and made perfect little doggie snow angels all over the yard. She was covered in snow. She also enjoys rubbing her head all over it. It made the most perfect little 'snow moustache'. She looked very happy.

Roxie's (now being called 'Ramona') been here a week now. The other dogs are starting to warm up to her a bit. She's been so well-behaved. I'll never understand how she wound up in the shelter.

Stay warm, y'all ...

01/28/2007

New (maybe temporary) family member

This is Roxie. Alice's mom (Heather) sprang her out of a Humane Shelter a couple counties away at the 11th hour. The folks at the shelter said that she'd been there for over a week and nobody had even looked at her. She surely would have been put down this weekend. It breaks my heart to think about it. I'm not sure about taking on another dog right now, but at the very least she's sleeping content at my feet right now instead of in a bag - and that makes everybody happy.

As you can see, she's a very pretty girl and so very well-behaved. She knows how to sit on command and she's perfectly housebroken. I think she's a purebred Flat-Coated Retriever, but we'll never know for sure. She's about 15 lbs. overweight - she was not neglected - but otherwise healthy. Her ears are the size of tractor tires. She loves everyone she sees and so far the other pups are tolerating her as well.

We're concentrating on finding her the perfect new home right now, but the way she's looking at me, I worry that she may have already found one. ;-)

12/26/2006

Gage's new training collar

I finally broke down and got Gage this new training collar. It's a SportDog SD-1200. Spiffy! He's finally learning to stay in my yard! Being able to play frisbee for an hour or so a day at home has done wonders for his mental health. It's like having a remote for my dog. If anybody ever needs advice about remote training collars, please ask. I spent months researching them before I took the plunge.

12/19/2006

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from Mark, Alice & Gage!

11/15/2006

Long lost puppy photo

I found this looking through old photos. Alice is about 10-12 weeks old here. Isn't she cute? Hard to believe that she'll be 3 in less than 6 weeks.

6/22/2006

Alice has a new foster brother - Gage

UPDATE: Oct. 2006 - ADOPTED (by me)

Acutally Gage has been adopted by me. I couldn't resist. We just love each other. I adopted him a while ago, I just haven't had time to update the site. Gage is learning to be a good dog. He will obey most basic commands. He's learned to play fetch, and he loves it! He can jump 5 feet in the air and catch a Frisbee like a machine, and he's one of the fastest dogs I've ever seen.

As you can see by the picture, Gage & Alice are getting along famously. I'm very proud of him. He'll have his own page soon.

Gage is a very sweet 2 year-old Golden Retriever/Great Pyrenees mix in need of a loving home. Gage has had a very hard life to this point - severely neglected living outside only. He's been in the 'dog hospital' recovering from sarcoptic mange for the last couple months, but now he's all cured and ready to turn handsome after losing a lot of his hair - something I can relate to... read more

UPDATE: ALL THE KITTENS HAVE BEEN ADOPTED

5/4/2006

KITTENS TO COME!

I've recently taken in a stray cat. She'd been coming around for a few weeks wanting food, and she eventually charmed her way into the house. In the course of checking her out for fleas and whatnot I noticed that she was, in a word: pregnant.

She's a beautiful black cat with striking orange markings that make it look like she's on fire. It's only fitting that I named her 'Blaze'.

Long story short: They'll be 5 kittens that need homes sometime towards the end of May. Why she decided to climb up inside my box spring under my bed and have them (loudly) at 7 AM on a Saturday morning is another matter, but Blaze had three that look just like their momma and 2 that are little mini-Dads (all orange). They were born the day before Easter. Please contact me if you would love to have a perfect 'Blazebaby' or if you know someone who may.

Thanks!