Dackels – Page 7 – The Dackel Princess

Unstuffing

On Friday I had worked for a little while stitching up some dog toys that Arnie has torn apart. I worked on the repairs, and then gave the toys back to the dogs. With lightening speed, Arnie gutted them once again!

I stood there for a moment and thought. What do I do? Do I sew them back up, throw them away, or…

Then a commercial came onto the TV. It was for Crazy Critters. This gave me an idea! I had all these wonderful torn half full toys, that simply could not remain stitched up, so….I started pulling! I pulled the fiber fill out of each and every toy until I had 6 little dog toys, completely un-stuffed!

Arnie looked at me with quizzical eyes as I pulled the fill out and trashed it. Anneliese waited expectantly, and Greta took each new toy as I tossed it and claimed it as her own!

By lunchtime, Arnie has collected each of the toys and taken them into his man cave, where he was either lying on them or holing them, but definitely enjoying them!

By dinner Anneliese had most of them, at least the best ones!

Now, as bedtime draws near for my little babies, they are all happy, each one of them, with their un-stuffed toys!

Who says you don’t get good ideas from commercials?

Feeling Lazy

I woke up on Friday morning feeling warm and happy. Perhaps you’ve had that feeling too. No alarm clocks blaring, no place that you absolutely have to be, or dogs insisting that you get up to tend to their needs.

You can just lie in bed, curled up under the sheets and blanket, cradling your pillow and revel in being relaxed and well rested.

I opened my eyes and moved. That is the signal to Anneliese that Mommy is awake and she did her commando crawl up from under the blankets to rain down kisses on my face!

Hubby and I sipped our coffee and had breakfast and knew that today we just didn’t have all that much to do, and so we just enjoyed the lazy morning.

We should all have more mornings like this. Mornings when we can just enjoy being with the ones we love, and taking the time we need for ourselves.

Yes there is much to be said for feeling deliciously lazy!

Thursday Thirteen

This & That

1. We’ve had some really cold temperatures this week. I am all for snow, but I detest sub-zero temperatures!

2. I think I need to just sort of relax with my cooking. I keep trying to make a “great” dinner and although I am not failing, it hasn’t been as tasty as I would like.

3. Can you get addicted to “The Cooking Channel”? I swear, there is not a lot on regular TV and suddenly watching the cooking channel is fascinating!

4. Hubby helped me get a problem sorted out today and I am really grateful. It’s always nice to have your best friend on your side!

5. I went outside today and watched the dogs playing. They are all cute, but you know, Greta is so funny. She really gets into digging in the snow and you have to drag her inside or she would freeze to death.

6. See how she listens to her Daddy when he is directing her?

7. I watched the Oscar Nominations on Tuesday morning, and all I can say is, did any of the members of the Academy see any of the movies I did? Most notably snubbed was “The Town” which I think is Ben Affleck’s best performance!

8. So, what do you all think of Oprah’s new sister? She seems like a lovely lady. I know my sister is a real blessing, so I hope Oprah will feel, in time, that Patricia is a blessing to her.

9. With the cold air, brings dryness to my skin. What do you use to keep your skin hydrated and not itching?

10. After 5 washes, I finally got a grease stain out of my favorite, lovely, light gray pants! Yay, Tide!

11. I have a date with Hubby to see “The Kings Speech” this weekend! I’m so excited because I love Colin Firth!

12. A recent fabulous find, was Christmas lights, on sale, (clearance) for $1.50!

13. I know for some of you this would not be good news, but dinner tonight is bacon, onions and liver, with mashed potatoes and peas! This is one of my favorite meals!

A Snow Day

Yes, it snowed again. It seems we are suddenly getting a lot of snow. In fact, after a really dry December, January is more than making up for all we didn’t have then. Aside from the snow shoveling, and snow blowing, Hubby is enjoying this boon to the New Hampshire ski areas. My guy just loves to ski. I’ve decided to actually accompany him on Monday and go. If I just sit here waiting to get excited about skiing, well, the season will be over and the chance will have been missed. So, on Monday morning, I will be on the slopes, no matter what!
Friday was so tremendously beautiful. We watched the snow fall all morning, I ventured out and took pictures, and then early afternoon the snow stopped and cleanup began.

That was when we brought the dogs out to play. The first item here is a montage of dogs and snow. Wow, did they have fun.

January Snow Dogs from Dackel Princess Maribeth on Vimeo.

I also took Fritz out earlier to take this little movie of our front yard, so you could see the beauty of the snow, as it fell. Fritz is a good boy, and he stays right with me when I am filming.

My Yard from Dackel Princess Maribeth on Vimeo.

I hear we are in for another big storm next week. I guess Hubby and I need to grocery shop on Sunday and stock up before more snow rolls in.

Furry Best Friends

Sometimes I forget how lucky I am to have these wonderful dogs, who hang around me and shower me with so much love. Then one of them will do something as simple as jumping up into my lap and look, with such love, into my eyes. Then I know. I am the lucky one.

Today it was Anneliese. She’d been tearing around the house barking at chickadees, who were resting on the branches of our snowball bushes, out front. Frankly, the barking was driving me insane. Then the next thing I know, she has jumped up, and got into my lap, and was looking at me with the most beautiful eyes.

And I felt loved.

When I was out and about in town today, it was bitterly cold. Still, there in the front seat of various cars and pick-up trucks were the beloved best friends of their owners. Some wore sweaters, some didn’t. All were beyond thrilled to be out with their masters, on the Saturday morning errand run.

I came up to my car and a little dog in the next car, was wagging his tail expectantly. Right behind me was her Daddy.

“That’s a really cute baby you have there.” I remarked.

This man, a big old New Hampshire woodsman, with steel toed boots, a stocking cap and woolen plaid jacket, smiled and picked up his friend.

“She’s the best friend I got.” he said, as she licked his face.

He put his tiny mixed breed mutt back into his truck and off they went.

I stood there for a moment watching them, before jumping into the Jeep and heading home to my brood.

There is something to be said about man’s (and woman’s) best friends. Mostly, how very lucky we are to have them in our lives!

The Pack

All day on Friday, as I was puttering about the house, I noticed that Anneliese and Greta were always cuddled up, fairly closely! Okay, now what is wrong with this picture?

Since almost the moment that Greta kicked Anneliese off her teets, Anneliese has been trying to gain the upper hand in the relationship between mother and daughter.

Greta and baby Anneliese.

A few times, they’ve even gone at it with each other, and only my heavy clogs and a lot of hollering, got them apart. (Remember: Should you ever have to break up a dog fight, Do Not Do It With Your Hands!)

It’s all about position in the Dog pack in the house. We all know that Hubby is the Top Dog, (Or thinks he is!) I am the next dog in line, followed closely by Greta. After Greta is Anneliese, Arnie and at the bottom of the food chain is Fritz.

Dogs fighting with each other, is not allowed. Once the offenders are separated they are crated until they have calmed down. I think the last time they fought was a year ago, and since then, nothing.

It could be that Greta is now spayed and has no desire to maintain her position in the pack, but is happy just being a member in it.

I digress.

So, today it seemed that every time I turned around they were sleeping together, almost cuddled up! In the morning they were lying in the sun by the back door. At lunch they were curled up together on the carpet. In the evening, (as I write this) they are curled up on the sofa asleep.

This is a strange but welcome change in attitudes! Still I am leery, that the peace may be shattered at any time.

Pups

The winds blew in about noontime, bringing with them cold dry air and darkening skies. Bogart left us shortly after that and suddenly we found our house was eerily quiet! We have four dogs of our own, but that one little guy sure livened things up! I’d really forgotten what having a young dog in the house was like.

You know, Arnie and Annelise will be four years old next month! FOUR YEARS OLD! I still can’t believe it, and yes…they are calm and quiet and have a certain amount of maturity, that they previously lacked.

Gone are the days when I had to run through our fields calling them because they’d taken off on me. Fritz and Greta are now senior dogs. They tend not to get in trouble too often. I say not too often because on Saturday when Hubby got home from the park with Fritz, Fritz jumped out of the car, sort of over Hubby’s head, leaving a big scratch mark on Hubby’s neck!

Greta can be bribed. The words “Cookie Bone” will bring her back, no matter how far she has roamed!

So, tonight the house is quiet. Arnie and Anneliese are chewing rawhide bones sitting next to me in my chair (gosh the bones smell truly yucky), and Greta is on the sofa asleep with Fritz having already retired to the bed room!

Hubby noted that Anneliese misses Bogart especially and he is right. After his departure, she looked for him for quite a while. He also noted that they all seem just plain bored with us.

If he starts talking about getting another dog I will simply go mad! That is, unless I get a fenced in yard! A young puppy with no fence means I’d be walking that little pup round the clock…again….and I’m kind of liking my grown up pup-a-roos!

It Cold!

Although we do not have snow on the ground yet, tonight it really feels frosty and cold! During my trips to the great out of doors to walk the dogs, I have literally frozen my fanny off!

Anneliese likes to play a game where we go out and she sniffs around, but accomplishes nothing. A half an hour later, she demands to go out for a walk, and again, nothing!

It’s never really bothered me to go out after dark with the dogs until this year, when the bear and coyote went through the yard. Now I am so paranoid that I will run into them, that I get extremely stressed!

I’m hoping that they will all move on and I will stop finding their poopy calling cards on my lawn.

Until that time, I will continue to sing Christmas Carols, and children’s songs to scare off the preditors!

What I Did This Weekend

Our host is Gattina. Come join us and tell us what YOU did this past weekend!

Since we have our little grand-puppy, Bogart with us, our weekend was consumed with playing little dackel games. Hubby did go off to a friend’s home to help him with some tree cutting, and log splitting, but true to my promise of being the best dackel granny, I was home, running around the yard, taking walks and tossing toys.

Bogart and Anneliese Playing from Dackel Princess Maribeth on Vimeo.

He has the best personality, and is such a love, quite an amazing little boy. He’s a year and a half old now, and full of life! He is smart, thoughtful and learns new things very quickly!

Besides playing with the doggies, I also cooked Julia’s Boeuf Bourguignon for Hubby! I have trimmed down the recipe a bit so the calories aren’t quite as bad, and the taste is…out of this world!

It’s been quiet otherwise, and as November works it’s way toward the winter months, I’m again reminded that I truly do like this time of year, just for that reason. It’s quiet.

Ahhhhh yes, quiet!!!

Life in A Kennel

Saturday was day of fun and frivolity. I was up early with the hounds, and took Bogart out for a walk on the leash. He was so anxious to walk up the driveway, and there I was in my pajamas, bathrobe and slippers, topped with a winter jacket and gloves, as I made my way up the drive.

I saw my neighbor, and a car drove by us. Yes, it proves that you can never go out and “hope” you never see anyone when you look the worst. I looked terrible and several people were my witnesses!

The dogs played, inside and outside and Bogart has really made himself at home. He has taken over Fritz’s bed, and has located every toy, bone and pillow that had previously been lost.

There is nothing that a puppy cannot find!

The day was also a beautiful one. I was able to get a few pictures of our lake while it was still as glass. Although we are well into our Autumn season, there are still many trees that are quite beautiful!