puppy – Dust Bunnies and Dog Toys

Brinley Goes for a Ride

Published on August 8, 2016 by Jenna1 Comment

Hi! My name is Brinley and I’m taking over the blog today so Momma can catch up on her t0-do list after a busy week! I wanted to share a little story about my recent ride in the truck when Mom and I got stuck in something she called “construction traffic.” Because I’m a puppy I don’t like to sit still for very long so being in the truck for a long time isn’t very fun for me. I tried to be patient and just hang out, but that didn’t last long.

So I tried to be helpful by cleaning the crumbs out of mom’s cup holder. I thought I was doing a pretty good job, but she didn’t seem to appreciate my efforts.

So I tried being patient again. But like I said, that really isn’t my thing.

So I tried to take a nap on the center console. But I’m getting bigger now and don’t fit there very well anymore. I couldn’t get comfortable so I moved back over to my seat.

Next I tried giving mom puppy dog eyes to see if it would get us out of traffic any faster. She said I looked cute but it wouldn’t help with traffic.

After a while I was starting to have a serious case of cabin fever, so I really laid on the puppy dog eyes. Still no luck.

So I found a toy and invited Mom to play tug-o-war.

But she said she was too busy watching the other cars. How can you be too busy for tug-o-war?

So I tried to help her watch the other cars. But when they didn’t move I got bored again.

This is my impersonation of what Mom and the other drivers on the road felt like sitting in their vehicles on a bright sunny day.

I thought maybe if I didn’t look the traffic would go away… but that didn’t work either.

Then Mom started to whistle to the song on the radio.

I tried to ignore her, but I couldn’t because she was right next to me and I’m trained to listen to whistles!

She finally stopped, but then she wanted to take a selfie. Whatever that is….

I moved back over to my seat to relax and I thought she was trying to shade my eyes from the bright sun, but it turns out she was just taking more pictures!

Finally the other cars started to move and I was excited to see new scenery out the window.

Luckily, I could tell we were almost home by what I saw out the window!

But then we stopped AGAIN! It was so frustrating!

I was pretty darn tired from all this crazy traffic, but I tried my best to stay awake and keep Mom company. It was really hard!

I just wanted to rest my eyes from the bright sun for a moment, but apparently I was more tired than I thought and fell asleep.

At least I’m super cute when I sleep!

Mom told me later that this is why we stopped again. We had to wait for this GIGANTIC metal thing to get off the highway in front of us. It was bigger than Mom’s truck!

I woke up just as we pulled in the driveway and told Mom I didn’t want to be in traffic ever again. She said she couldn’t promise anything but gave me a scratch behind my ear before she let me out of the truck.

So that’s my story about my ride in the truck with traffic. I hope you liked it. Mom will be back later this week with new projects she and Dad have been working on, so watch for those. You never know when I might pop up in the pictures! 🙂

Our Family is Growing by Four Paws!

Published on April 15, 2016April 15, 2016 by JennaLeave a comment

Pup By the title of this post you can guess what the big announcement I promised is! We’ve been talking about adding a third dog to our family for a few weeks now. We’ve had time to grieve the loss of Bacardi and feel ready to welcome a new heeler to our home. For us, pets are family and that means they stay until their last days so we always make sure that any new addition will get along with our other fur babies and be able to adapt to our busy lifestyle before we commit.

We started looking around locally for a young heeler that we could adopt who would be a good fit. Since most heeler owners in Alaska brought their dogs here from the lower 48 and cherish them dearly there aren’t many who end up needing a new home. Although we found a couple, there wasn’t a perfect match so we started looking at breeders as well. We contacted several and found one that we liked in Oregon, just a few hours from the hub’s mom’s house.

This breeder matches puppies with new families based on personality and what is desired from the pet – companion, working dog, etc. She had just had a litter of pups when we contacted her so we put our name on the list and eagerly awaited the puppies 4 week birthday when the breeder starts to pair pups with prospective families. Luckily, because we were very open in what we wanted we were matched with this adorable female blue heeler, who will be joining our family Mother’s Day weekend! How perfect is that?!

The hubs and I will fly down to pick her up and have a quick visit with his mom while there. The breeder has already been taking the pups on car rides and starting house breaking with good success so hopefully she will adapt quickly to us and her new siblings.

While we wait we’re trying to decide on a name to continue our alcohol theme. A few of the current contenders are Brinley (from Brinley’s Goldcoast Rum), Brandy and Julep. We’ve also considered Grenadine, Hennessey, Disaronno, Grigio, Kahlua and Chardonnay but decided they don’t quite fit her. I also like the names Mojito and Martini but they both sound like names for small dogs to me. We’re still considering other options so if you have a suggestion we’d love to hear it, especially if it’s rum related since that’s my alcohol of choice on the rare occasions we do drink! It is pretty ironic that we have alcohol named pets since we aren’t big drinkers, but they are strong lickers! 🙂

Bringing a Little Bacardi to the Party

Published on February 28, 2014March 11, 2014 by Jenna2 Comments

Our little family will be growing by four more feet in a few weeks when we adopt a new baby blue heeler! A woman we met through a local buy/sell page had a litter of blue heeler puppies and was expecting another, by accident.

We contacted her about the dogs and got good feedback so we made arrangements to meet the expecting momma dog and see what her personality was like. Although she wasn’t very social with our dogs – who could blame her a week from her due date – she was well behaved and definitely people friendly, especially when those people gave ear rubs.

The woman who owned momma dog was excited to hear that we had a Rottie as well, which is the other breed in their home. She also liked the fact that we are previous heeler owners so we know what to expect and have plenty of space for such an active breed. She liked us so much that she told us we had first pick once the litter was born!

A little over a week later she emailed me to say there had been 3 boys and 3 girls born the day prior. We knew we wanted a girl, so she sent pictures of those three. One was all white with just a snip of black on the tip of her ear. Another had a black mask on her head, but no other spots. And the runt had a black mask with several body spots. Including one shaped like an upside down heart on her side.

We discussed it and unanimously agreed we wanted the runt. As you can guess by the title of this post, we decided to continue our alcoholic theme and name her Bacardi.

She will be ready to join our family in mid-April and we’re excited to see how everyone reacts to her. Baby momma’s owner says momma and the pups are all doing well and although little Bacardi is by far the smallest, she’s a fighter and does get some one-on-one time with mom. Sounds like she will fit right in around here.

Hopefully, the Alaskan spring will appear soon after she comes home and we can get the yard finished so everyone has plenty of space to romp. Regardless of weather, I foresee many puppy photos in the near future! 😉

It’s Snuggle Time!

Published on January 27, 2014January 27, 2014 by JennaLeave a comment

Stoli has officially become comfortable in his new home. So much so that he has now developed a new habit of laying on the back of the couch like a cat. We believe it started because that’s where we keep the throws and he figured out it was the cushiest spot on the couch. It was quite comical watching his facial expressions as he climbed up there right in front of us and settled in – like the one in this photo I posted on Facebook!

This weekend he expanded his new territory when he climbed up on the back of the chair while Matt was sitting in it and curled up behind his neck, atop the throw we keep there. At first he just took in the room and the yard outside from his lofty perch. Then he watched TV with daddy, both from his shoulder and over top of his head. I guess it was their father-son bonding time.

How totally stinking cute are they?!