Oh NO! Someone Else I Have to Share MY Couch With!

One Good Looking Beagle

Copper is just as loud as Scooter, but he really has the prettiest markings I have ever seen on a Beagle.

I see how his owners got the name, he is really more of a shiny copper than orange or brown. He also is sporting the blackest black and the whitest white markings. Well, he will until he hangs out in my play yard for much longer - that will turn any dog into a dusty shade of beige.

I really like his extra white marking down his neck and back, another 'never seen that before'.

Maybe he isn't all Beagle...his wheel base does seem a bit too long and his legs are spotted. His voice , however, is ALL Beagle.

Remind me to never have two Beagles at the kennel at the same time.

Oh, That Explains It

I have often looked at Kaizon and asked the age old question that plagues the dog world, "What are you made up of?"

His owners cleared up the mystery when they pointed at X, a pug, and said that was half of Kaizon. The other half is Heeler. It seemed so obvious once I looked at X and Kaizon. Kaizon got the fur, the markings and the color of a pug with a pointy nose and pointy ears of a Heeler.

Ike and What's-His-Name?

I haven't completely lost my mind, just my memory. The Lab puppy is Ike. The Great Pyrenees is the one I can't come up with a name for. I will have to dig out the old calendar pages - this is driving me nuts. He is the only Great Pyrenees that we have.

And Ike tried to wear him out. I think he succeeded.

And This is Why You Have to Blog on a Timely Basis

Cute dog pictures dumped onto my computer on June 23. I no longer have any idea what the dogs names are.

Everything Just Seems So Much Easier...

Now that my knees both point in the same direction. (Let's just agree that pregnancy is meant for the young.)


The kennel has returned to it original location. Sometime in March, it started sneaking further and further away from the house. By June, I had a 5 mile hike out to the dogs.

Someone turned the thermostat down. Summer is some how about 20 degrees cooler.

And surprise, I have feet again. The dogs will be so happy. I can't tell you how many toes I stepped on in the past 3 months.

Just Because We Can Never Have A Dull Moment

As most of you have seen, I was hugely pregnant last week when my doctor told me that nothing was progressing. That would be baby doctor speak for "Yes, honey, you are looking at spending July the size of a whale."

I had just come to accept my fate of a couple, three week more of waddling and sweating, when my water broke at 8pm that night.

I was damp but not in pain so I was herding the kids and their bags out to the car when my son announced, "Mom, there is a dog out of the kennel!"

Oh, that can't be one of mine - it has to be one of Helper's Roaming Dogs, right?

Nope, it was Endo. Turns out that Endo can both open a gate latch and climb a 6 foot fence. Talented dog, I must say. Forunately for me, he is an escaper and not a run away-er. He just waited by the gate for me to let him back in. I tucked him in, chained his gate extra-closed and we all headed off to the hospital.

Baby showed up at 1 am that night. Yup, born on the Fourth of July!

We do love our birthday holidays around here.

Yawn-ICA

Yeah, that would be me. I just was picking up my messages and when replaying to catch a phone number I finally registered that I had been addressed as "Yawn-ica".

Yup, that would be me.

Hey, It Wasn't Me that Kicked That Poodle!

I had Teenso up on my lap yesterday afternoon, or what is left of my lap, anyway. She seemed a little put out by the lack of accommodations, but she was making the best of it. That is until the baby kicked, Teenso shot me a dirt looked and jumped down in a huff.

There is some really weird stuff out on the net

I have to admit that I spend far more time reading other people's blogs than working on my own. Especially lately. Having something to occupy my mind while my over-sized and over-tired body takes a break, has led to a number of new blogs for me to read.

This was posted to a blog named 'SnipSnip' and I think it is about the oddest thing I have seen in a long time.

If you would like to visit the rest of the hair-zoo, try here. Mouse over each girl and click for a bigger image.

After All the Rain, Comes All the Running

I Have Never Seen a Black Boxer

Isn't he just the cutest.

Some Dogs Just Know How to Have Fun

Yawning Dogs!

I think Sonny was yawning more than me, and that is really saying something.

Last Week

We are freezing today, but last week we had our first real days of summer.


Bella and Jinx have the right idea about spending playtime lounging in the shade of the apple tree.

I lost my huge peach tree last summer. That tree had to be at least 20 years old and it shaded most of the dog runs and half of the smaller play yard. I currently have a twig of tree trying to replace it. I guess I should have planted new trees five years ago when I started this business, but who expects a decades old tree to get killed off in one season by bugs. Damn those Snot-Hole Borers. They took out the best peach tree and did a number on my Italian plum last season. I am hoping the cold winter and delayed spring is hitting them hard, 'cause bug poisons don't touch them.

I want to get some roofs up over the outdoor runs so the dogs have more shade this summer. I should have done it last fall, it sure would have been nice not to have to shovel snow out of the runs all winter.

Laney-Girl

I have lost another good doggie. It seems that Laney lost a fight with a cat this week.

My mom always says that bad news comes in threes. I hope she is wrong.

This is Smuckers

I remember asking her owner how she came to be named after jelly, but I can’t recall their answer. Her family calls her, Mucky. I kept finding myself calling her ‘Smuck’, which isn’t really that nice of a name. She really is a lovely boxer and doesn’t deserve to be called ‘smuck’, ’shlemiel’, ‘shmoe’ or any of the other Yiddish words I know. Thank goodness no one in Utah, other than me, seems to know what I am saying anyway.

I was trying very hard to get a picture of Smuckers for this post only to discover that she doesn’t like to be photographed. I am many shots of the back of her head and a number of her left ear. Her little sister, Prudence, seems to love the camera.

I think Smuckers liked coming here just to get a break from her kid sister. Prudence gets to run with all the other bouncy dogs and Smuckers gets to hang with me. Us old ladies need to stick together. Whenever Smuckers would come around for some loving, I would have to work fast. Prudence likes to butt in and demand all the love for herself. And if Pru stops running and pays attention to me, so does Sonny, BB, Bailey, and Poky. That is just too much dog for even I to love all at once. Especially, since they are want to get on my lap. At seven months pregnant, there just isn’t that much lap to go around anyway.

We had a very cold and rainy day on Wednesday. We even got some hail. The dogs had been stuck in the kennel for most of the day, when the sun decided to show up for dinner playtime. I was letting everyone have an extra long playtime to make up for such a crummy day. I had been snapping pictures with the good intentions of trying to blog again when I gave up on the camera. My ability to get a dog in a frame seems to be even weaker than before. So I was just enjoying the dogs doing what they do best, hauling around the play yard at top speed. I was standing by the inner gate, trying to stay out of the way, when I heard and saw Smuckers fall.

Did she trip?! Dogs don’t trip.

Did someone run into her?! No one was anywhere near her.

I rush over and kneel down next to her. I want to keep the other dogs away incase she is hurt. Normally, if I get down on the ground, dogs overwhelm me: licking, or knocking me over. I should have realized when I wasn’t shoving dogs out of my face, that something was really wrong. Her legs were out straight and stiff so the first thing I think of is that she is having a seizure. My dog, Sam, had those. I am three steps ahead in my mind…finish the seizure, put the rest of the dogs away, and put her in the car and take her to the vet. I am holding her shoulder and telling her that everything is going to be fine, ‘cause I have a plan, when her breathing slowed and stopped. It seemed like a long time, but it was probably less than a minute.

My husband figures it was either a heart attack or stroke to happen so fast. We both decided that going that quickly while having a great time with your buddies would be the way we’d like to go.

Maybe I have led a sheltered life, but at 43, I have never been present when someone died. The last thing I said to her was, “Oh no, Smuck, don’t go.” It was really simple and peaceful, she was here and then she wasn’t.

Usually, I get to hear about the death of one of my doggies when their owners call to cancel on reservations or when they see me in the grocery store. I don’t usually have to be the one to tell their moms.

I guess I have to expect that after 5 years, I would lose some of my clients. It is just as hard with Smuckers as with the first dog I lost, Snoopy. The biggest black lab you ever saw.

We buried Smuckers under my favorite pear tree. My kids and my dogs saw her off. My son wants to light a candle for her at mass this weekend. I told him, that I doubt Smuckers was a practicing Catholic, but I think it would still be okay. St. Frances would be proud.

This last photo taken about 5 minutes before she died.

I Sometimes Have to Wonder if Owners Think Through Their Dog's Names

If this dog's name doesn't cause someone in Helper to take a pock shot at me, nothing will.

Shouting 'DAGO!' across the play yard just can't be good for my health.

And I though yelling 'BOOZER!', 'BOURBON!', 'WISKEY!' and 'DUFUS!' was embarassing.

Big Dog, Little Dog

I no longer believe that people either love little dogs or big dogs. I have too many families made up of the wildest ranges of sizes. Gunny and Chewy - Rottwieller and Shitzu. Amica and Teenso - Standard and Teacup Poodles. But Dago and Giambi have to be the largest range - Extra Large Standard Poodle and Yorky.

What I have now learned about sibling dogs that vary this much in size...
It is very hard to keep both a really big dog and a really little dog inside the same kennel at the same time if they really want to get out. Big and little dogs require entirely different techniques for blocking an escape.

Dago and Giambi really have a routine going. Whenever I put Dago away, Giambi walks right out under his brother's legs without me ever seeing him.

Tummy Troubles

I thought my tummy troubles were over when the snow finally melted away and I could open the play yard gate all the way. There was a point in February when I thought that if we got any more snow, I wouldn't be able to squeeze past the gate.

Now, my tummy isn't giving me a hard time trying to get in - it is letting the dogs out. I can't seem to step into a run without letting a dog out anymore.

I had been trying to find a button that flew off my coat and across my dining room a couple of weeks ago. No luck so far, it might have headed down an air vent or under the china hutch never to be seen again. Getting down on the floor and looking for it was asking too much of me so I asked the kids. Unfortunately, my children's observational abilities are severely lacking. They couldn't find an elephant if I said I lost it in the dining room. I have decided to stop worrying about in since I can't button the jacket anyways.