GRANDMA!

Dog oh dog, we couldn’t believe our little wagging tails when Momma told us that GRANDMA would be coming for a visit!!  We LOOOOVE her but for some reason, she always keeps asking Momma about non-furry grandbabies.  We don’t understand why.

Grandma always brings us the best treats and this time around, Momma enlisted her help in giving us a walk.  We are really impressed.  See, even though we jump on her and give her lots of licks and kisses and don’t leave her alone when she’s here, she just doesn’t seem to want to, you know, play with us.  So we were super stoked Grandma jumped in this time around.  Love you Grandma, see you next time.  Licks – Finnie and Charley

Way to go Ma, I am really proud of you.  And thank you for helping me walk Charley. Love, Marianne

Charley’s First Walk in the Woods

On Saturday, we headed out to our local state park for a walk in the woods.  The park had been closed right after Hurricane Sandy and had only reopened about a month ago.  This pic was taken on Saturday!  Still a lot of down trees.

It was nice to get out and enjoy it again. We were concerned because Charley’s been swallowing sticks, but he did okay. And, I mean look at these pics; these guys are like frick and frack.  Just delightful.

I have to say, the double sit is difficult! I am very impressed with you guys who can get your dogs to line up and look at the camera! Anyway, a great time was had by all on our walkie!  (Is it me or does Finn look like she wants out of this walkie?  BOL!)

We’re Doing Okay!

Hello folks! We just wanted to drop by and let you all know we are doing ok. My Momma (aka, The Assistant) just needed a little blogging break, and so I have granted her one. If she doesn’t get back to work on me soon though, I will have to find a replacement! We’ve been keeping track on all of you and we are so glad some of you dropped by to see how we’re doing.

We had a pawesome Christmas! This was the first year the peeps put up the tree with me around and they were so impressed that I didn’t destroy it! Sheesh, can’t I be trusted?

I got some really great loot this year!  This is actually a stuffie toy that they can hide treats in and I have to tilt it in order to get them out!  And I got some new shampoo and conditioner and another stuffie toy, some treats…

I must have been good all year!

And the peeps have been doing a really good job of taking me out on some adventures!

Here I am in a little town called Port Jefferson. Hanging out with the peeps, you know…

And today they took me back down to the marina where we have been before, you know, playing in the water…

It’s been good. And of course by now you may have heard that I am being escorted by Wally to the ball in a couple of weeks!! I am sooooo excited.  We mailed him a little something on Saturday just to let him know we are thinking about him and the dance.

I am letting Momma go back into hibernation for a little while, but we hope you are all having a great winter so far!  See you at the Ball!

Longest Operation Phat Yet!

We took Finn to Brookhaven State Park, where we have had varied success in the past.  

Hubby convinced me that instead of doing the usual BLUE 

1.7 mile trail with Finn, we should up it to the RED 3.7 mile trail.  

Well, it seemed as good of a time as any, so off we went.

Sometimes you gotta just follow the tail!

Can you see that in the middle??

A deer!  We saw quite a few, here are some tracks.

3.7 miles of nice woods.

C’mon slowpokes!

What?  Is someone trying to pour me some water here?

I am trained to look at the camera!

Little father/daughter time during a rest.

She did really well!  We knew she was getting a little tired towards the

end, but I am glad we decided to up the walking length!

Grumman Memorial Park

Hewwwow!  Finnackles here.  I wanna show you a little trip my Momma and 

I took one rainy Saturday.  We headed out for a little ride to the Grumman Memorial Park.  

Do you know about Grumman?  If you are an American and are proud of our WWII 

vets and the advancements we made during the Space Race, you should.  Even though 

wiki is what wiki is, click here for a little history about Grumman.

Here we are!  Momma said it’s important to learn about history stuffs, 

so off we went to read about some of the stuffs they had out.

Missiles:

Runway gear:

Then Momma let me practice jumping and down off things 

because I needed a reading break…

Yowsa!  Look at that!

And this!

And this:

In case you can’t read it, it says:

In honor of the men and women of Grumman who served in the armed forces of the United States and in memory of those who made the supreme sacrifice in World War II.

1941-1945

Operation Phat – The Secret Path

See this opening here?

This opening has caused Momma such shame.  She and Pops have been living in their house for two years, and she just now noticed this opening.  It is essentially around the corner from her house, and she didn’t even notice the path that cut through it!  Silly Momma.  So, off we went to explore…

Look at these little hills.  What could they be for?

Finn heads down one to investigate.

Hmmm – which way to go?  To the left or to the right?

We chose to the right and almost immediately got run over by an ATV!  Ah-ha!  Hence the man-made hills!  So, we went to the left and quickly discovered we had popped out…

…in the next neighborhood!  

So, directly across the street, the path continued, and we followed along.  We were behind some house, and a dog came over and started barking at us, and Finn gave me the sign to turn around go back home, so we did.  But we shall venture to the right again and see where that leads us!  Till next time!

The Dog Walker

First, I’d like to say that Finn is doing much much better now.  She’s eating normally and she has gone on a couple of 20 minute walks and seems to be more peppy.  Thank goodness!  We are unsure about how to proceed with finding a new vet.  But we are mulling it over, and of course, we shall let you know.  Thank you for all of your kind words!

Now, our regularly scheduled post for today was this:

We’ve hired a dog walker!…kind of.  She has come twice.  The first time, we asked her to give Finn a walk at about 2 in the afternoon.  When we got home that night, we thought Finn was ramped up a tad bit more than normal.  She had chewed her way into a cardboard box, behavior we hadn’t seen in her for months and months.

The second time, we asked her to give Finn dinner and let her out, since we were at an evening family event on a weekend.  When we got home, we thought she would be asleep, but she wasn’t.  I felt like she was waiting at the door for us.

I am sure this has nothing to do with the dog walker herself.  She came to us highly recommended, and Finn just adored her when we met with her before we hired her.

Do you use a dog walker?  How often do you use him or her?  Any behavioral side effects?  I feel like the more we use her, the more used to her/the situation/the midday walk she will be.  Any suggestions?

Sans Souci County Park

“Sans Souci” – French for “Without Worries”  

You know when you think you are going to have everything under control and then it just turns out the complete opposite of how you would expect it to be?

For instance, going to a park with a name like “Without Worries” 

should be an enjoyable spring morning.

But…

First, we couldn’t find the entrance.  Yep, it’s clearly marked, as you can see here, but I drove right past it.  And then went down a side street to try to find it and wound up parking in front of someone’s house before I realized that I had to have missed the entrance.  And then that person came out and stared at me wondering why I was camped out in front of their house.  Thank goodness for my little foursquare checkin which told me I was about .6 miles from the entrance.  Oops.  Try again!

Okay, off we go.  Lovely hiking trails.

Except Finn just didn’t want to go in.  Oh, she made a little effort…maybe trotted herself in about 300 feet.  And then turned around and went straight back to the car.  So, we tried again and again, but she just had no desire to go into the park.

So, we just spent the morning sniffing around the parking lot…

Letting the wind blow through our golden locks in the parking lot…

And then sniffing our way over to the fire department, located right next to the park…

And then dragging me back to the car.

No worries!

Bald Hill

Well, the vet told us that Finnie was fat, and not the kind with a “ph”, although I certainly think she’s phat, but I digress.  So, we must get more exercise!  Off to a new place we go!

I drove past Bald Hill one day and wondered exactly what is was.  

After a little googling, I discovered it is one of the tallest points in our area.  

A Memorial was built here in 1991 as well.

Pretty! Well, essentially, the park is a large hill, go figure.  And the memorial is on top.

But another new place to sniff and poke around!

If that’s not a “Thanks-Momma-for-taking-me-here” face, then I don’t know what is!

Anyway, so hopefully we’ll be getting in plenty of new 

walks soon as we begin Operation Phat!

Christmas Eve Walk

On Christmas Eve, we decided to take a walk here…

We saw a lot of this…

and this…

And did some of this…

And a lot of this!

Yes, tons of smiles!