And It's Christmas!

Yes, it's Christmas time again :)... We're heading to FL this year, but Reilly has to stay home at the spa. We use the PetSmart PetsHotel. He goes there for daycare every week so he knows the people and he's familiar with everything.

He'll be spoiled as usual, daycares, ice cream treats, etc :).... I'll be more upset that he's there than he will.

I'll post more once we get home and I'll share his Christmas picture then.

Halloween - Doggy Style :)

This was Reilly's second Halloween with us, so by this time he's got it down. I did, this year, deign to put a Halloween bandanna on him - for safety of course. It's impossible to see him in the dark. It was cute, orange with little reflective doggy paws on it. Reilly didn't seem to mind.

He and I went trick or treating with the neighbor's kids and a friend and her daughter and I have to say he had a great time. We walked all over the neighborhood, greeting other children and making sure the ones with us stayed safe.

When we got back to the house, we joined the party in the front yard - we had invited everyone over to hang out during the trick or treat time. This turns out to be a great strategy, if you have dogs. There is no ringing of the doorbell which sets off the hound from hell, and it's much more pleasant to hand out candy without having to scream "SHUT UP" all the while.

Reilly was exhausted in the end - a full day of daycare and then the trick or treating was just too much for him to take.

Here's a picture of him pre trick or treating.

Our First Official Family Vacation

This was our first official family vacation. Yes, we've traveled with Reilly before, but its usually been with a purpose. This weekend was Doug's birthday so I rented a cabin in Ellijay GA. The cabin was called the Tree House and with good reason. Just look at the view!

Friday night was spent relaxing - well at least for Doug and I. Reilly paced I think almost the entire night. He just couldn't get comfortable with all the strange sounds.

Saturday we went hiking to Amicolola Falls. Amicolola is the trail head for the Appalachian Trail. We hiked part of the way up to the falls and found this silly tree.....


Reilly had a blast running as far as the leash would let him go. Once we were down we took some pictures at the trail head( ok, I was VERY tired and look a mess)....



Oh here's a pic of Reilly who really thought that walking all the way to Maine, wasn't such a bad idea :)





On the way home we hit the apple orchards, but didn't stay long as there wasn't any shade to park Reilly in.

So we reluctantly came home yesterday. I am already trying to figure out when we can go back. Reilly sacked out as soon as we got home and didn't move the entire evening. He's bounced back today and is in fine form :).

Agility and Rabbits

Well we LOVED the agility class! It was a great time! Reilly was a little afraid of the tunnel at first and the chute, but he got it in the end. We're leaving in about an hour to go and do some practicing. The DH is going with us to help me keep him on the teeter and the dogwalk.

Speaking of bunnies, I finally downloaded the pictures of our ex baby bunny..... I have attached them for your viewing pleasure :).

There is also a picture of Reilly pining to be let out to play with said bunny.

Agility, Rabbits and Life in General

Well, we start agility class on Sat. I'm so hoping that Reilly loves it. He needs an outlet for his energy and I think this will do it. He *has* recently begun catching the frisbee in the air, and that's been a great achievement!!! We were so happy!!!

We got rid of the baby rabbit in the yard. I wanted to post the pictures, but we can't seem to find the elusive cord to the camera. I am sure the DH has it here somewhere in the office, but since the new computer has been installed, I haven't been able to find much in here.

Hopefully while we are doing our practice agility runs, DH will come out and take some pictures so I can post them on the blog. I'm very excited to see what this boy can do. Just pray I can keep up with him.

It's Gone and he's sad.

Gone is the hidey hole. For his own good, and the good of our trees in the yard, Reilly's hidey hole is no more. :( We had some really nasty muscadine vines strangling our trees in the backyard and making a nice place for a dog to hide from his parents and to hide his toys.

When he realized were were demolishing his hiding place, he ran back and forth into it as if trying to protect it. I had to explain to him that it had to come down. For one thing it was going to kill all of our trees. On the other hand, when he got in there, we couldn't get him out. Once he got stuck in there, trapped in a vine, and it was all I could do to get him out.

There are toys in there, I haven't seen in MONTHS! :)

Pictures are coming.....

Tired and Cranky

Yes, that's me. Tired, and cranky and sick. And sick of being all three! I hate getting sick bc when I do, it just drags on forever and makes everyone miserable. Poor Reilly is stuck home with a mom who doesn't feel like doing ANYTHING when she gets home except go to bed. But since the DH is in Europe, that's not an option.

Don't get me wrong, he's been a very good boy - very nurturing and not too overhyper ( of course LOTS of daycare has helped with that) - but I still feel bad. It's summer!!! We should be going to the park and walking for miles in the hot, sticky twilight. It's a sin to go to bed in the summer before it gets dark, but darn it, I just can't help it right now.

And I know, I shouldn't be up blogging, I should be in bed, but I just had to vent. SO there! :)

See ya on the flipside.

The Long Ride Home

We've had a vistor for the past month, my dad's dog, which he decided he could no longer take care of, and so my mother said that she would take Pete. So in the interim, till we could get him to my mom, he stayed here with us.

Pete is such a sweet dog. Ten years old and grossly overweight(which we are working on) he lives only to please.

The whole arrangement put Reilly out to no end, and I don't think I realized how much till we got home yesterday.

Yesterday was the big day for Pete. I loaded him and Reilly into the car and off we went to Lake City TN, which is 1/2 way between my mom's house and here. I know Pete was confused, but I think he was fine once he saw mom again. The transfer went smoothly and after 30 minutes, Reilly and I pulled out and went home.

Reilly is an extremely good traveler and I love taking him with me. But we were both glad to get home yesterday afternoon, which is when I realized what a toll having Pete here had taken on him. I swear I don't think Reilly slept for a month, but he sure made up for it yesterday!!! He slept so long and so hard that when my DH woke him up walking by, he was so disoriented he started barking at him. :)...

He's better today and we're back to our normally scheduled programming. We miss Pete, don't get me wrong, but he's better off with my mom and her more laid back lifestyle :)....

Weekend with the horses

This past weekend( Wed - Sunday) I had the pleasure of being the paddock master at our local Georgia Arabian horseshow. It was a big show for us, 4 days with 2 regional qualifiers back to back. WHEW! A lot of horses and a lot of long hours in the hot GA sun.

Despite the heat, everything went well and I only got slightly crispy. Thanks to hubby forcing me to get 60plus sunblock.

My friend's 13 year old daughter came and she was my right hand the entire weekend. She was trying to get some service hours for her beta club. She got them alright!!!! She only needed 30 but we ended up clocking 51.5 hours for the 4 days. WHEW again!!!!

She was a trooper though and when my old legs couldn't do it she made the runs for me.

Hubby was stuck home with the 2 dogs( we have a guest) and he did a great job. Reilly pouted for about the first hour I was home, then stuck to me like glue. Tonight, Doug is at the Rush concert, so I have mowed the front lawn and am hanging with the dogs. Reillybug went to daycare today and he's passed out on the floor. :)

It's off to make some dinner, if I get some good pics from the show I'll post them later.

Catching Up and the Latest News

May was a busy busy month here, so I didn't get a chance to blog at all. We had birthday's to celebrate, a Mother's Day visit, and then Memorial Day weekend which was just a blast from beginning to end.

My mother came down for Mother's Day weekend and brought her friend's 17 yr old grandson with her. So we spent the weekend showing him the sights and sounds of the ATL. While we were doing that, Reilly hung with mom's dog Shadow and they both were exhausted at the end of the weekend.

Then my birthday came along and my wonderful husband took me to a really nice French restaurant for dinner, then out to a piano bar to celebrate.

Memorial Day weekend found us bbq'ing in the backyard with the neighbors and setting up an inflatable pool/slide thing that the neighbor's had. It was fun for both adults and children.

Once the partying was over, it was time to get down to work and Doug and I have started the massive task of a shade garden. It wouldn't be such a massive task if the ground wasn't as hard as a rock and if Reilly wasn't so intent on helping all the time :).... But that's ok.

And now we have a visitor. Pete, my father's dog, is going to make the transition from my father's house to my mother's and he is staying here in the interim. He's fat - too fat, so today was day one of the diet. I think once I can get some weight off of him he'll feel a lot better and maybe even play with Reilly.

That's all the news that's fit to print right now, here are some pictures of the shade garden and of Reilly enjoying the backyard :).

Can't Sleep? Blog.

Well despite the fact that I've hardly slept all week and am totally exhausted, here I am awake again.

So I thought I'd just write a little blog. I really don't have much news, except that our friends just had the most beautiful baby boy on Tuesday! His name is Jake and he was actually about a week early. But the pull of a full moon was too much for him to resist.

He's a sweet thing, very quiet and calm. They took him home this morning, to be a family for the first time and I wish them all the best in the world. These people mean the world to my husband and I, and we couldn't be happier for them.

Tomorrow being Cinco de Mayo, I somehow volunteered myself to have celebrations at the house, which I am sure Reilly will enjoy since our neighbors are bringing their 2 little girls. When Reilly sees them he doesn't see little girls, he sees food. Period. They are food to him. The poor girls walk around with food in their hands and Reilly comes up and gently removes it from them, before they realize what happened. He never snatches it, just takes it gently in his mouth and walks away. Always the gentleman.

Well I guess I will try to get some sleep.... elusive sleep. I hope I'm not becoming an insomniac. I love my sleep and that would suck. :)

I will post( with permission) pictures of Jake soon.

Rembering Connor

Four years ago today, we sent our beloved beagle Connor to the Bridge. It's the most heartrending decision any animal lover has to make, even when it's obviously the right one.

We got him as a small puppy from a backyard breeder, not knowing any better, and yet he was a wonderful dog despite his long illnesses. He was courageous through all of them, and he never complained. Finally, at the end, he told us he was tired of living in a body that didn't work right, and he didn't have the strength to struggle on anymore.

So we let him go - after 11 years of being the biggest part of our hearts and lives, we let him go. And until Reilly - that part of our heart was just a big empty hole.

I still miss him everyday and there are pictures of him everywhere, memories that people share and his urn, next to my bed where I say goodnight every night.

My friends and I have lost too many of our heart dogs to illness and old age, too many to count - Daisy, Apollo, Roxy, Sweet Keesha, Mandy, Mitsy, Doc, Annie, Angel, Beckett, Journey, Chugach, Alex, Tux,Cory, Darcy, Maggie and Caitlin - just to name a few...

The only comfort that we have is that they are all at the Bridge together, watching over us and each other and keeping each of us company until we get there and can all be reuinited.

Connor November 1992-April 25, 2003

The last night of a nice long visit

We've been dogsitting for some very good friends of ours, that went on an extended vacation to Europe. Or I should say that REILLY and I have been dogsitting, as Doug has been out of town pretty much since Tucker got here.

Tucker's a very sweet beagle girl - most of you who read my blog are familiar with her, and it's just been a joy to have her around. Despite some initialy joggling of beds and space, she and Reilly have gotten along like gangbusters, even sleeping on the same bed at night. ( although I think that was more of Tucker's choice than Reilly's).

So tommorrow she leaves. It's been a peaceful visit - she and Reilly have played- sometimes too rough on his part, but she's never afraid to let him know. She's enjoyed a lot of outside time in our backyard and today she was our official mascot for our garage sale.

I left Reilly at home to play with his neighbor buddies in our backyard and I took Tucker down to the garage sale with me a few houses down. She was a queen and enjoyed getting LOTS and LOTS of pats from the kids that came to the sale with their parents.

Now they are both sacked out - it's been a long active day and they are ready for bed( as am I.)

I think Reilly will miss her very much, in some respects, but in others, he enjoys being my baby boy.

I know he'll be glad to see Doug tomorrow when he finally gets home and Tucker will be excited to see her mom and dad too.

Here's a picture of them out playing.

A new start with a new blog

I started a blog last year when I was kind of in a funk. I've decided to delete that blog and make this a place where I can share some good news and good stories that I have. When I last blogged, I was feeling a bit low. I was missing my beagle Connor who has been gone now for almost 4 years. I'd been in a funk, bc my loving husband hadn't been ready for a new dog.

Enter Reilly. Last June, we picked up this sweet looking dog at the local rescue day at PetSmart. Poor thing looked so sad in his crate - covered in Mange and very dejected. With much persuasion, Doug ( DH) let me take him home for a week's trial. Like he was ever going back to the rescue. Reilly was thin, had mange, and had been living in a cage at the rescue for at least 5 months. We took him home, fattened him up, got him healthy and now he is a loving member of our family. My husband, got over his trepidation at having a new animal in the house and he just adores him.

Tonight, we graduated from Dog School - basic obediance class. I was worried when we started the class, the teacher and I didn't mesh when it came to our training methods. But thanks to some very good friends, we stuck with it and used the class as a buffet. We took what we needed and left what we didn't like.

So now it's on to Intermediate, with a goal to eventually do agility.

Our lives have changed a lot since Reilly came into our lives, and all for the better. Don't get me wrong, I still miss Connor each and every day. But Reilly has filled the void and captured our hearts in his own way, not replacing Connor, but just taking over another piece of our lives and hearts.