Groomed Poodle

Today was "beauty parlor" day for Gyp. Not one of her favorite things to do. With the hot weather here she needed a shorter cut. If we cut her much shorter than this she looks like a refugee. Skin and bones.

Fathers Day Weekend

It is Fathers Day weekend. The weather on the eastern shore could not be better. My better half is actually away this weekend visiting friends and having a big time leaving me on my own. Well on my own with the exception of Gypsy and the herd cats. This leaves me as the responsible adult in the house in charge of Cat Box Duty.
Hey, don't you mean Cat Box DOODY???
Yep, lots of that going on.

The weekends that Sandi is away usually turn into Poodle weekends. Gypsy and I walk more since there isn't much else to do. Today we met Oliver the pig on the walk. Oliver is huge!!!

Hey Oliver, step away from the buffet!!!

He is a happy pig I must say. His little tail is always going. 

Poke (Po-Key) is also growing at an alarming rate. Plus he has a thing about messing up the rugs throughout the house and pulling towels down off the rack.
So, I'm going to get my chores done and embark on a poodle weekend with Gypsy.

More Birthday Pics.

Relaxing at "home base"

Birthdays are very exhausting...

Poke

Meet Poke. Pronounced Po Key. Like the super yummy tuna dish. Sandi has always wanted a Siamese and so she now has one. Sandi has a friend that is a cat magnet. I swear if there is a stray cat within 100 miles she comes across it.  She found Poke wandering around a Walmart parking lot. Who would dump a tiny kitten off like that?

It didn't take long for him to fit in. He learned early on that the dog bed is for cats too. 

The other boys showed him how to take advantage of the sun spot in the morning. I have to admit he is a cute kitten with a great personality. 

Birthday Gal

 Wow, I've not blogged since the beginning of April. I guess that shows what exciting lives we lead on the Eastern Shore.
We were going out for coffee on this cloudy Sunday morning and Sandi remembered it was June 5th. Gypsy's Birthday!
She is 11 today and that is hard to believe.
Hey, never mention a girls age dude!!!
Sorry about that.
She still looks and acts like a puppy much of the time. She still has a big smile on her face. She gets very excited when she sees a bunny or any other little furry thing. (with the exception of cats) She continues to keep our air space free from big black birds. She still gets very excited when she sees us putting on walking shoes.

She is showing some signs of age though. She is getting more gray in the snout, ears, and top of her head.
Hey, look who's talking!!!
True, no room to talk. She still loves to walk but our walks are getting shorter and slower. She is spending much more time in her bed either sleeping or just hanging out.

I think today will be a "Poodle Day" dedicated to Gypsy on her 11th birthday. We'll hang out in the back yard, I picked up a new pork chew thing for her, and who knows maybe we can convince her Mom to take her shopping for a new collar?

Athletic Poodle

 This is the time of year when we can start taking Gypsy with us when we go sit outside and have lunch. Although is snowed yesterday...
The town we are in is a very popular destination for the major cities on the east coast and in the nice weather we usually have many visitors from out of town. More often than not we'll meet people that are not that familiar with Standard Poodles and they are surprised when I tell them how athletic Gypsy is.

 She loves to run. In any kind of weather. You can tell she loves the snow. We are fortunate that we live in an area surrounded with fields and we can let her off leash and let her go. She loves it.

 When she was younger she was an amazing jumper. I'd set up a jump I made and she would put on a show. She can't fly quite as high as she used to these days.

 When she is off leash, running she smiles.

She is getting a older

and showing signs of aging. Can't jump as high or run as fast. She even tires out more quickly on her walk. Even though she is slowing down, she enjoys every minute of play time.

One Dog

For those of you that read this blog (handful) you probably are wondering why I haven't mentioned Prim. I've debated saying anything at all not knowing what feedback I'd get from the militant dog people out there. Short story is we decided to return Prim to the breeder. We loved Prim with all our heart and it was a very difficult thing for us to do. Prim was about as rock solid puppy as you will ever find however, we felt she had an issue that we just could not get past. I'm not going to go into detail about this issue but we felt it was serious enough to take the action we took. Prim is now in a good home and I'm sure doing great.
Gypsy enjoyed playing with Prim but has reverted to being a single dog just fine.
At least I don't have to share Dino!!!