Dr. Dolittle and the walk

"Oh ho!" said Dr. Dolittle, "Who would like to accompany me for a stroll around the lake?"

Wild Thing sat upright, some stuffing from the toy giraffe falling from her muzzle.  She was perched on the fireplace ledge because M., the maid, had been mopping.  

"I would like to swim and chase the ducks," she mused.  "But I don't know how to swim, and the ducks might quack very loudly, so is it worth the scary car ride?"

"Oh, well," she continued aloud.  "I'll come if Harry and Mommy are coming."

Ellie, her mom, certainly was going to go to the lake.  Why, the lake was her favorite walk of all.  Lying in the water, even cold as it was this time of year, refreshed her greatly.  Any day now, one of those ducks would swim right at her, and she'd catch it and squeak it, just like she used to do with her favorite toy that Woody and Toby pulled apart so long ago.

Toby pranced and danced around Dr. Dolittle's striped pants.  He pawed the freshly ironed crease.  

"Now!  Are we going now? Or is this one of those plans for two hours from now which I am to anticipate and remind you of?  I shall swim in the icy water, for that is what I do!"

In the midst of all this excitement, Harry, Wild Thing's shaggy brother, cocked his head to one side and then another.  Car rides were getting familiar, and the lake was quite enjoyable, really, if one were to walk on the leash in the right direction and not get confused and pulled.  However, it was rather tight in the back seat with just him and Toby.  Where would Mommy and Wild Thing sit?  He recalled the last truck ride, in which he had tumbled off and been forced to finish the journey beneath the seat.  It was just a bit uncomfortable, and Dr. Dolittle had exclaimed, upon opening the door, "Poor Harry!  What are you doing under there?"

Nevertheless, Harry was game to try it again.  Perhaps Toby would be invited to ride in the front seat.  Then he and his sister could have more room in back with Mom.  Yes, that would be the ticket!

Meanwhile, Woody, who shuddered at the thought of riding in an automobile of any sort, studied the floor.  If he did not meet Dr. Dolittle's eyes, he could convince himself that he was brave, and simply forgotten.  Yes, avoiding eye contact was the key.  He was sure the doctor would notice the quaver in his voice if he made some excuse.

"So, we'll work on the computer a bit, talk with grandmama on the telephone, and be off by 10," Dr. Dolittle said cheerfully.

Just as Toby has feared.  A two hour wait.  Ah well, there were five of them now.  Always something to do in the meantime.   He led the parade outdoors and broke into a gallop when he heard a squirrel scold.  

The squirrel, who's name was Sadie, said, "Oh you hooo!  Dr. Doo-little!  You've forgotten to fill the bird feeder!"

The doctor was an absent minded man, but luckily, he could understand every single word the animals spoke.  Clear as a bell.  Truth be told, he was becoming a bit odd.... 

This week is a treat

The Hinsons came over Monday evening, and we so enjoyed them!  I do believe there is some magic dust out there that matches up puppies and people.  Izzy Star is a perfect fit.  How lovely to be with Texans again.  We lived in Dallas for a dozen years, and I rediscovered the warmth and politeness of the South last night.  Darn it, though, I should have offered them water!  Adjusting to this altitude is tough enough without it.  Star helped herself to Jaycee's apple juice, and Harry knocked over Kim's Chardonnay.  The puppies were celebrating too!

James promised Jaycee some snow, so they're headed for the mountains today.  We'll see them again Wednesday.  Kim & James, thank you for the card and all.  Very kind of you.

Tanya stopped in Monday morning with Nellie--now Maggie.  They are so happy together!  Maggie just ran around in the front yard, playing with her sisters and brother, like she remembered it all over again!  Tanya, thank you, too, for the lovely card and everything.  Another match made in heaven!  Roger is totally bowled over by Maggie too.  Rubs her belly all the time.  Every belly is different!  That's what I was noticing yesterday....

So, today, off to Nordstrom's for lunch with Mom, after we conduct a bit of banking business to cover payment for the condo.  Tonight's a choral concert at McKenzie's school, which should be brilliant and fun.  I've heard her practicing.  Oh yea, I need to find some green elf pants for McKenzie's Halloween costume today, or dye.  So, embarking on a fun week I think.  And the weather's good to boot.

Skip the pasta

Ok, revised restaurant review here:  do not order the pasta at Lucille's.  We've had it three times, and on Saturday night about 1 am, our mouths felt like they were cemented shut with salt.  The fish is divine, and honestly, we had such a good time with the family that it really didn't matter all that much.  McKenzie was determined to find a name for Wild Thing.  So she brought the book of baby names (Aaron to Zoe) and we went round and round with them.  Finally, I passed my plate of pumpkin linguini around for everybody to draw straws.  McKenzie's noodle was about half an inch longer than Geoff's, so she got the honor of naming:  Gabriella it is.  Now, we just have to stop calling her Wild.

Today is a momentous one for Kim and Izzy Star.  Kim and her family are flying in from Houston and will be here in the evening to meet her.  I'll take a photo over the next few days and keep you posted.  I told Izzy Star this morning that she gets to meet her mommy and daddy and sister, and she gave an enormous excited yawn.  These doodles always yawn when they're worked up, so they can go, "Aaaaaaaarrrrr!" 

Toby's skunked & the babies learn about luxury

Toby was blasted by a skunk last night.  Of course when he came in the house he had to give me a kiss.  Yuck!  The poor boy is not used to sleeping on the deck...guess we'll make a bath reservation at Chow Down, and I'll wear my oldest clothes and an apron to pour special skunk shampoo on him.  I'll deserve a Wendy's strawberry shake after that (dinner at Lucille's too).  Maybe, if Toby's lucky, he'll deserve to sleep in his bed again tonight.

The babies found their true place last night.  Geoff piled them on the bed with us and they were in hog heaven!  This is where poodles belong, they seemed to say.  Forget the lab part that goes hunting and wears LL Bean collars.  We are definitely Ritz Carlton puppies!  Harry complained when they went into their pen for the night.  He wanted room service.

Gabriella or Molly? Wild Thing stays too

Looks like we're in for a miserable day on the stock market again.  Other than that, all's well.  Geoff's thinking of a name for Wild Thing, so you know what that means!  Molly?  Gabriella?  Trouble?  One thing it means is that with five doggies, we'll be considering selling the town lot, subdividing here to build our house in the woods, and buying adjoining meadow land from our next door neighbor who's dividing his acreage into 3 lots.  We're crazy. 

The puppies went in for their follow up shots, and had Heartgard pills for their worming this time.  Mainly because Izzy Star's off to a warm climate.  Harry got his hair shaved under his eyes.  It's so neat to make eye contact with him now.  I'll bet Dr. Fogg opened up a whole new world to him.

Mom is hard at work selling her house so she can move into her new condo.  We spent hours with Dave at Karpov Design yesterday, and she ironed out the cabinetry (customized to her needs).  Today we'll meet again to figure out the tile for the kitchen/hallway, choose a laminate for the bathroom counter, etc.  She's picked out some beautiful carpet and granite already.

Kim's coming next week to get Izzy Star.  She, James, and Jaycee are flying up from Houston on Monday.  It's going to be sweet to see them finally get together with Star.  They've all waited so long.  After losing her 16 yr old poodle, going through a hurricane that made a tree fall through their bedroom, and then a lengthy audit at the office, Kim sure deserves this vacation & a wonderful puppy.  Jaycee's never seen snow, so they'll take her up to the mountains if we don't get more here.

Hayley's getting a new filly on Monday.  She did all the looking, bargaining, and made all the arrangements.  She's paying for it, and a little nervous about the investment.  Geoff and I are really proud of the way she handles things though.  She's willing to take risks.  The 6 mo. old will join Teddy, the yearling she's had for a month, and grow up together.  Sophie, the filly, is an Oldenburg/Thoroughbred cross with bay and white pinto markings.  Gorgeous!  But Hayley did get a better deal buying Teddy from Oklahoma.  The Arizona market Sophie came from is pricier.  This morning she's ordering a little blanket --  Sophie will need it! 

Last, but not least, I went down to the Lexus dealer to get a flat repaired and ended up selling the car back to them.  Makes getting the Mini in 3 weeks a lot easier.  It is always fun to wheel and deal with the car salesmen.  I truly get a kick out of it!  Driving the truck for a while, and then will put studded tires on the Mini for whipping around in the snow and ice.

Tried bling bling blinkers

Tonight we took 4 little Tinkerbells on our walk in the woods.  Attached a bling bling blinker to each puppy and they were so incredibly darling!  It helped to find Harry, who'd hung back and didn't know which way to go--home or forward.  Supposedly, you can see these lights from 1/2 a mile away.  Well, we did spot Harry back there in the bushes, so it helped!  

I'm giving you a link to Amazon.com, but they're also at Chow Down (cheaper, $6,  if you figure in the shipping):

I just ordered a few more--very useful!!!  Hope I didn't clean out the inventory.

Keeping Harry

Geoff came home from the office yesterday and told me he'd changed his vote.  I know Wild Thing means a lot to him, so it's very very kind and sweet, and he must have put a lot of thought into it.  So, if anyone knows of a really wonderful home for her, please help us out.  She's a sweetheart, beautiful, loving, funny, and always into everything.  She's well put together, will be quite large, and is an alpha girl.  Brave and curious!!!

Who to keep? Brother Todd or Geoff himself in girl dog body

Harry or Wild Thing or both?  How eccentric are we?

At the bar last night, waiting for the hunters to arrive, Geoff and I got truthful about the puppies.  

"Ok,"  I said, "Harry is everybody's favorite except yours (and Hayley's, but I didn't mention that).  So we should just keep Harry.  What do you think, Honey?"

"Well, I can see that, and then again I can't."  (or something like that)

"I've just never felt close to Wild Thing, like I do Harry." (me)

(Geoff) "That's because she's like me and Hayley."

(Hmmm?)

"You know how we are. " (meaning, he's not the huggy type)

public clarification here:  I do feel close to Geoff and Hayley, this is Geoff's dreamlike interpretation, and remember where we are at the moment.

As an aside, getting out of the fascinating development in bar conversation, I will brief you on the Ridder family history.  Geoff was the wild one, who was always out with friends, getting into trouble, and whose teenage horoscope was consistently the same:  Play today, for tomorrow you'll be sent to the penitentiary.

He had 4 brothers and 1 sister.  They were not like him.  Thus, Geoff has always felt different.  Brother Todd grew up to be Brother Todd in the Catholic sense.  He was always Rose's favorite (according to Geoff, again).  Yesterday morning we had this flashing insight:  Harry is Brother Todd, reincarnated.  Todd passed away way too early in life, and has been much missed through the years.  He loved to cook, loved people, loved to eat, and was just a joyous guy.  He taught music at the University of Dayton as part of the Marianist community there.

So, back to the bar, yea, sure, everybody likes Harry better.  They always liked Todd too.

On the other hand, McKenzie and I were off having a gay day shopping at Cherry Creek earlier in the day.  When we came home there were dirty dishes, pans, and cracker boxes in the kitchen.  The papers by the front door were piled with poop and pee, and the babies came running over madly and Harry was so happy he bit my lip.  Mommy's home!  

Mommy said to Daddy,  "There's poop by the door here."  

Daddy (watching the news and having a beer by the roaring fire) said, "Yea, I cleaned up three piles already."

Andy enters.  "Geez, those puppies pooped all over the place.  I had to clean up three piles."

Mommy, dressed in her long tartan skirt and textured hose, daintily mashes the papers together so the pee won't drip, and carries it to the garbage on the breezeway.

Which is why the bar conversation last night ended with, "Maybe we should just sell them both.  They're an awful lot of trouble."

(Geoff)  "Yea, I can see that, and then again I can't."  

And then the hunters arrive to drink iced tea, while Geoff and I proceed to become embarrassingly inebriated, and I drive home exclaiming, "Goodness, it's eleven o'clock!"  Only to discover it's 9:15 when we walk into the kitchen.  

Any wonder we're in a muddle?  

Ice Age

Harry's instincts were right on target.  The Ice Age has moved in.  Dressed like a woolly mammoth, Harry ventured forth this predawn morning to bravely crackle through snow and ice, and is still out there, hopefully not getting eaten by a fox (or one of those saber tooth tigers).

On the other hand, Izzy Star who is told constantly that she's moving to Houston, had to be cajoled into coming outside.  She hunched her back and pranced around the threshold.  But really, Iz, you can't hold it till then.  Kim's not going to be up here for a couple of weeks.  So, she carefully tested the grass, hurried, and trotted back to the door.  

Wild Thing said, Oh!  Fun!  Ate the great crunchy stuff, and slammed through the crackles, exploring.  

Ted & Scooter are together for good

Ted & Scooter, I forgot to take your picture!  Ugh.  Maybe you could send me one.  

Dropped Scooter off at Walmart for Ted a couple of days ago, and she just settled right in.  Ted's car is so neat.  As in clean and organized!  I'm used to the Mommy/doggy car with half full water bottles rolling around, straw wrappers, and leashes.  Scooter is going to love riding around with him!  They were a match made in heaven.  Out there among the fruit trees and leaves....

Walks and Stocks, much rather the walks

ah, it's been a busy couple of days....

Took Harry, Izzy-Star & Wild Thing on a walk with the big dogs twice today, and they're doing fine with it.  Enjoy it emmmesley!!!!

Harry's now sleeping with his ear in the water bowl.  McKenzie's baking brownies.  Whew, it's Friday.  

Tomorrow Cherry Creek, lunch at Nordstroms, the whole nine yards.  Forget stocks, pretend you're still rich, and clean up some puppy poop when you get home.  

Best to all!  Can you tell I'm exhausted?

  

Chicken drops in

The babies are so cute, running around the driveway.  They discovered the culvert this morning.  Luckily, I found 4 around it and called out the 5th before it was time for the garbage truck to come roaring over it.  All the big dogs are so joyous this morning (as the litter dwindles), that I egged them on rousingly, "Chicken, who wants chicken?" and proceeded to drop the slippery thing into the sink full of dirty dishes.  Yuck.  McKenzie was feeling sick yesterday after school and left her cream of wheat & cocoa downstairs.  I'd brought them up and filled the cement and goop with water.  Icky chick!  Oh well, will throw a little parsley into the pot...and garlic.

Discovered a great blog this morning, and am still in pj's with coffee breath at 9:30, but try the link to The More the Messier I've posted to the side.  I'm going to keep up with her!  She's a lot of fun.  Oops, hear the chicken water splashing on hot burner--will go dunk parsley now.

Quiet around here

With half the puppies gone, it's so different!  Five are quite manageable.  They can all climb into your lap at once, you can keep track of them--and actually shut the front door.  Which is perfect, because today it suddenly got cold, cold, cold--ice on the deck kind of cold.  So they all went out, and they all came in, and they all went out again, and they all came in, and I put some paper by the front door, but so far everybody's been good and hasn't even used that.  Of course it's only 8:30.

Mom's excited about the condo move.  We signed the contract last week, and have inspection and appraisal this week.  She's especially looking forward to remodeling.  That will be fun.  Think we'll get some new carpet downstairs ourselves...and maybe take out the built-ins from 20 years ago and get something from Pottery Barn.

Hope all the puppies who have gone home are doing well!!!  

Jasper and Chloe go home together

Lisa, Mike and Jake came by to pick up Jasper this afternoon.  I forgot to take their picture!  They visited a bit, and rubbed a towel on Ellie for the scent, then off they went.  Five minutes later (they hadn't even gotten to Buffalo Park Rd yet) and they were back for Chloe!  They'd been going back and forth about her for days, but having Jasper cry in the car sent them back for his sister.  It's really good, because they'll get along beautifully, and Mike felt a strong connection with Chloe from the beginning.  They're very much dog people.

Lisa Luck's (Mia-Josephine's mom) reunion idea

Lisa, what a great idea to have a puppy reunion next fall.  Almost everyone is local.  The only puppy going long-distance is Izzy (Star).  Kim had to put her 16 year old poodle down last week.  She was pretty broken up about it.  Luckily, her dad is giving her an early Christmas gift of their trip up here.  She's going to love her Star because she's so bright, combining the best of both breeds.  I've come to appreciate the poodle aspect quite a bit.

Anyway, the blog will go on, because as Eloise would say,

It's absolutely Christmas

so come to the top floor please

come all of my friends where ever you are

For a trinkle with

ME

ELOISE

Lucille's of Jersey

Geoff and I had the best dinner last night.  May have found a favorite place without having to drive down the hill to Abrusci's or 240 Union.  Lucille's of Jersey is in the new Conifer Safeway complex.  It's between Sonic and Chili's, but go in the Sonic entrance or you'll end up on an entrance ramp to 285.  Absolutely great food--sophisticated Italian, steak, fish--my salmon with a creamy cognac/butter sauce was outrageously good.  If you like Chardonnay, try a twist on white with their White Blend by the glass.  Unique and exquisite.  Lovely atmosphere too--much nicer than is shown online.

Four more go home

Nellie went home with Tanya yesterday.  Tanya is our horse trainer, and she'll take Nellie back to visit so it wasn't really goodbye.  Nellie's so smart and talkative, it's more like a daughter for Tanya and Roger than another dog.

Lambie Pie went home with Eve, Andy & the girls today.  It was delightful to see.  We'll miss that little lamb boy!

Kirby (Pablo) will be picked up in a couple of hours by Maggie, Clayton and Elise.  He's going to be a real kitchen dog!  Probably was a chef in his former life.  He loves food, especially now that he's discovered there's a whole world of tastes out there!

On Sunday or Monday, Jasper will go home with Lisa, Mike and Jake.  They're really looking forward to it.  He's such a sweetie.  

So, we'll start out the week with five less in the puppy household.  It'll be odd to have so few!  Thank goodness we're keeping Wild Thing, or we'd really feel the loss.  McKenzie tucked her into a ladybug backpack this morning, and we took her to Foothill Flurries for their fire sale.  Got there a bit late for any real good buys, but Wild Thing rode in the car without complaint and shopped with only a little whine once.  Yea!  She'll be a town dog.

Scooter met Ted this morning

Ted's picking up Scooter next week, but she got to see him today for awhile.  Turns out she's a very good car rider, as we met at King Soopers because Ted was bringing by some Alaskan king crab and halibut for us, also an old sweatshirt to leave to get puppy scent on for Scooter's homecoming day.  It was nice to sit on the sidewalk and visit, and Scooter's going to very happy with her new dad.

Everybody got wormed yesterday.  Not so much fun, they thought.  But all survived the yellow goop.  They'll just have to go back in a month for more shots and another worming.  yuck.  Poor babies!

Harry and Chloe are still available, but they're so sweet I'd love to keep them.  Chloe's really grown on me.  There's just no way we can keep that many.  So....

Oh, Deja Vu!  I swear I've had this experience before.