TICKS me right off!

I guess it's that time of year again when we need to be extremely vigilant about scanning our bodies and the bodies of our family (and family pets) for, you guessed it...TICKS!  Unfortunately, Quincy had his very first encounter with a tick this morning!  I'm SO thankful that I decided to bend over and pet him this a.m. when he meandered my way and placed his front paws up on my leg waiting for me to pet him. 

THIS is the remnants of the spot approximately six hours after Bob carefully pulled the disgusting tick out of Q's shoulder blade (just typing those words gives me the heeby jeebies!)  I didn't want to thoroughly gross you out by showing you the nasty crater right after the tick removal so I purposely waited til now to show you!

A little dab of Frontline should help to deter those pesky ticks - too bad they don't make Frontline for humans - maybe we'd have less Lyme Disease to worry about!  I'm so glad they make a Lyme vaccination for pets but unfortunately, you can never be too careful when it comes to ticks!

Houdini...

This morning as I awoke, I heard Quincy stirring around in his crate at the foot of our bed (literally on top of the covers on my side since I'm so short)!  He decided to get out of bed around midnight and ended up having to spend the night in his crate after he went outside for some fresh air (translation...he did his business).  He's normally a very good sleeper and makes it through the entire night without waking up.

So this morning, I didn't want him to think that I was awake yet so I carefully opened my eyes ever so slightly to see what he was doing.  Much to my surprise, in a moment of great frustration, he slammed his paw against the inside door of the crate causing the latch to flip up in the air AND slide to the open position...all in one paw stroke!  Next thing I know, he was out like Houdini and jumping on me to make sure I was fully awake!  Bob saw the whole thing too from his vantage point and neither of us could believe our eyes!

If that wasn't surprising enough, Quincy decided to head back into his crate a short while later but the door of the crate was completely closed (unlatched but closed).  One might think that he would simply move on and forget the crate thing.  Nope, not Q - I kid you NOT, he grabbed the latch with his teeth, opened the door and scooted into his crate for a little nap!!! (Similar to the photo below.)

I swear, if I had video of each of those special moments, it probably would go viral in NO TIME!  Hmmmm, maybe we'll make those our next tricks since I'm slowly running out of tricks to train him (sit, shake left, shake right, chase your tail left, chase your tail right, roll over, play dead, high 10, and lastly, take a bow!).

Stay tuned...

Little Baby Angel...

So this weekend we had a visit from one of Quincy's favorite playmates (that is, when she's in the mood to play and when she deems Quincy worthy of her time)!  My eyebrow raised when my mom pulled up a chair at our dinner table for her "Little Baby Angel" and I about choked on my food as my mom hand-fed Abby chicken and potato wedges.  Then later, Abby sat on mom’s lap…at the counter, no less.  

 

 

 

She’s quite spoiled as you can imagine!  I’m not sure if they’re sharing the same glass yet but that’s where I draw the line! ;-)

Wordless Wednesday...

Spencer

March 7, 1997 - March 7, 2011

Quincy in training...

So, I got the bright idea last week that since Quincy is so darn smart and he has plenty of energy, that he would probably make a great candidate for agility training. 

Here's our make-shift attempt at it, just testing Q's abilities.  Yeah, I know, it's a pretty pathetic looking agility course!

So it appears that our furry little friend got game, I mean, has some really good jumping skills!  Now, that we've confirmed that he can do it and appears to enjoy it, we thought we'd put together a better series of jumps for him, challenging him a little more...

Ok, how funny is that!?  After several runs through, he finally got the hang of it.

Can't wait to take him outside to practice this in the spring!

Another Saturday Sitting...

I was blessed once again to work with my dear friend, Heather, to practice my photog skills.  There's still so much to learn but I'm hanging in there and loving this new hobby of mine!

Here's a peak...

At one point while we were doing our 'Saturday Sitting', I was trying to be creative and engage Heather so that she'd give me some really fabulous smiles; you know the kind - unposed and super fun!  It worked!

 You don't even want to know what I asked Heather to elicit this response!  :-)

2 much time+2 many naps-1 playpartner = 1 bored dog...

While I was doing some ironing yesterday, I guess Quincy got a little bored.  His normal M.O. is to just relax on one of many comfy spots on our bed and watch me iron in between his little catnaps.  Not yesterday - he hopped off the bed, ran down our back hall and grabbed his coat from the bench and came RUNNING into the bedroom acting like a fool, flipping his coat up in the air, then finally settling on the bed...in one of his favorite spots.

 I guess he was trying to tell me something...perhaps he wanted to take a road trip?  He does LOVE road trips after all.

Or maybe he was chilly?  He did just get groomed last week.  Nah, I believe that it was shear boredom and nothing more.  He proceeded to take a little nap while nestled on his furry coat.

 He'd wake up every now and then to check things out.

He does this sort of thing quite frequently but usually he heads under the bed where we can't reach him.  You can tell when he's bored because he WANTS nothing more than to have you chase him!  Just last week, I caught him stealing, yes, he's a thief, his brand new coat and running around with it, chewing it like it was a chew toy!

Boredom can be overcome but not easily for a 9+ month old little pup, especially when his play-partner (Bob) is away at work!  Later in the evening on Saturday (after the furry coat incident), Q found yet another article of clothing that he ran around with...again, wanting to be chased.

In case you can't tell what it is, it's one of Bob's gloves.  Quincy was just dying to have me chase him.  I'm not quite as good at chasing him as Bob but he sure was begging for a good chasin'!

If only I had all that energy!

Q's sister from another litter...

Friday, we dropped by Auntie Robin's to pick up Quincy's new jacket and what we found there was waaaaaaaaaaaay cuter that the little jacket we picked up for Q.  Robin happened to have Quincy's new little sister from another litter.  It was so much fun watching them interact with one another.  I just wanted to scoop her up and bring her home but I'm not sure Q was into her THAT much!  ;-)

The pointed finger effect...

Last weekend, Q and I visited my parents and one of Q's gal pals, Abby, my Mom's dog.  Abby and Q usually have a pretty good time until Little Miss Abby's mood changes, then watch out Q!

Mom keeps telling me that she has Abby "trained" to smile. She says that all she has to do is get Abby's attention and then point at her and she'll supposedly smile. I took plenty of pictures of Abby that day but at no time did I see her smile, despite Mom's many "pointing" attempts (see below). I think Mom's pointed finger had a better effect on my Dad as you can see below.  Mom points, Dad smiles!  (Mom must be confused!) :-)

Well, maybe we'll get to see Abby smile one of these days but for now, we'll just patiently wait for that day to come!  :-)

HFDA...

Wow, 23 years ago on this very date (2/1/12) we celebrated our First Date.  Who'd have ever guessed that you'd become my partner in life!  It's amazing now to look back at that time in our lives when we were so young and still in college.  I am STILL in awe of how God's hand worked in our lives to bring us together.

I remember looking forward to transferring from the Main Campus of W.A.C.C. and heading back to North Campus in Wellsboro.  I had it all worked out that I'd leave the big city of Wmspt and move back home with Mom and Dad.  Thankfully, my strong will took a vacation during that time in my life!  The decision to stay in Wmspt was pretty clear after having wonderful childhood friends (thank you Ron and Karen!) open-up their home to me for my final semester at W.A.C.C.

The class where we met, Supervision and Human Relations, led to our first date.  One date led to two dates, two dates to three and then we became inseparable, as we are even to this day.

There aren't enough words to describe how blessed I am to have such a wonderful husband - thank you for being you and for being brave enough to ask an ole' crippled girl like me on a first, second, third date and beyond!  ;-)