Fancy Collars and Revisiting Paramours

Hi there, my name is Fred and I've got a brand new collar.

Hi there, my name is Elsie and I also have a brand new collar...

After going through three dog tags in the last six months I decided to be a little more creative in ensuring the safety of the pups and got some customised embroidered leather dog collars off Etsy. 

They look great on - my only thing about them is that I measured them a little big. Mainly because I measured lower on their neck than I should have. The only way around it is to feed them more so they'll get fatter. 

The collars are super durable and I can tell they will last a long time. I went to a lot of trouble (a few misunderstandings with the seller) to get them the way I wanted (dark leather, red nylon backing, red writing with tan stitching, serif font, etc etc) so don't really want to go through the whole rigmarole again any time soon. The collars have both their names and my mobile number on them so that if they wander off I can be contacted without the person having to squint at a very small engraved piece of metal.

Other than the sizing issue, I'm super happy with these collars. They're good quality, were a decent price (especially compared to my options in Australia) and they do the job while looking elegant at the same time. And if there's one thing I'm insistent on, it's that my puppies look elegant ;)

Elsie thinks so too..

Everyone's having a marvellous time at the moment although with the change in weather I'm noticing the puppies are moulting again. I was playing around with Fred's mohawk the other night and came away with fistfuls of fur (!)

Elsie's also giving as good as she can get and no matter how often I brush her I still come away with more doggy fur.

Here she is trying to ignore my comments and pretend that she hasn't heard anything.

I've discovered that Elsie is a surprisingly efficient footwarmer and most nights I find myself putting my cold feet under her belly or underneath her thighs and pretty soon my feet are toasty. 

She hasn't objected yet, although this photo suggests I should start looking into other ways to keep my tootsies warm.

Such a sullen teenager look..

She looks surprisingly big in this shot. When you think about it she's a decent size - not that you realise it when you put her beside Fred, or when you look over at night and she's curled up into a teeny weeny croissant.

Here's a great moving shot of her, I love how you can see some of that wolfie muzzle. And check out those ginger highlights. We didn't even see those when we first got her. I only saw them after I'd given her her first decent shampoo. Talk about being pleasantly surprised. So many women would kill to have highlights like that..

A few weeks back we also went and visited Elsie's paramour, Harry, for another love in.

 

Here is Harry licking his lips at the thought of meeting Elsie again:

However, despite last time's success, it was a rocky start with neither willing to speak to the other, 

 but eventually the ice broke and here is everyone having a good time

Well, almost everyone.

Her face says it all really.

On The Outside

YIKES.

So I come home tonight to be greeted not only by a little wallaroo/wallaby fairly close to the house on the driveway, but also Elsie, running straight at the car as I reach the house.

The irony was that as I watched that little wallaby/roo hop past I think to myself, gee I hope that little thing hasn't been taunting my puppies. They might convince my puppies to try and risk the electric fence!

Next thing you know, out comes Elsie from the right running at me! WTF!!

I drive up and spot that the metal fence is down. I had put a table at the 'door' entrance to their pen and that had also fallen down. But in the other direction. The only thing I can think is that it has been so windy that it pulled down the big metal gate. Which in turn fell straight across the electric fence.

I would've stopped to take a picture but Fred was still within the pen trembling, being a good boy and refusing to come and join Elsie On The Outside. So I quickly sorted out the pen gates to reward Fred for his good behaviour. I just hope I was effusive enough with my praise when I got there. I probably wasn't. But either way, my Fred is a Good Boy. And my Elsie is a Bad Girl.

I wasn't sure how effective our electric gate was, considering that I've spotted Elsie lying quite closely to the fence in the past, and at one stage when the electricity wasn't connected, she was lying ON THE FENCE wire itself.

So seeing her On The Outside didn't necessarily surprise me per se. But I am pleased that Fred still believes the fence is active. That or Elsie managed to get out and didn't dare come back in. Since I assume the gate might've finished the circuit and was electrified as it's metal. Who knows. I'm definitely not about to test it to make sure it works!

big dog, little dog

Elsie and Fred went down to the coast last weekend. It was Elsie's first time down and her first encounter with Harry the Jack Russell.

In the past Fred and Harry were firm friends. However once Elsie got on the scene all bets were off. Harry was totally enamoured with Elsie and spent much of his time trailing Elsie and showing her how much he loved her. 

What's even more amusing is the fact that Harry is also desexed. Still doesn't stop a boy from trying though..

Here is Harry checking Elsie out..

Harry: "hrmm.. she's not a bad sort. here goes.."

 I like how she's sniffing his under arms to make sure he's a hygenic type of boy.

 

Elsie's catching on and is starting to circle. 

I love how I've managed to capture her tail which is totally embracing Harry. To me it looks like a sea monster who's caught her prey. But for Harry I think he's viewing it as a sign that his seduction technique is working.

 Later in the afternoon Harry shows his attention hasn't wavered from his One True Love

 

And later still..

You can tell she's starting to tire of his stamina. She doesn't look as impressed here.

 

Here is Harry showing another seduction technique. Elsie doesn't seem to be falling for it.

 

In her defence Harry wasn't the only one doing the attacking. I did catch this later...

 

Which is either Elsie just sniffing Harry's tummy or she's doing her part to show she can be on top too. Of course you can't really tell since she's a lot bigger than he is. Either way Harry looks a little stunned.

But it's not all love and kisses. Here is Elsie showing how a big dog plays with a little dog.

Isn't it sweet how she ducks all the way down so she can play with him properly?:

This one is very cool. you can see that Harry's head fits pretty much in her mouth. You might want to watch what you say to her Harry. You don't want to upset someone who can fit your entire head in their mouth...

So where's Fred in all this I hear you ask? Well Fred's here.

It's not his fault that he's not getting any loving.

Poor Fred.

Tuesday Funnies

Going through my camera last night came across some very cute piccies of the puppies.

This is my favourite of the girly. She makes the cutest faces when she yawns.

 

These were taken on a very hot day at home. I wish I had better pics but the puppies were facing the wrong way and the camera was pointed at the window. I tried moving the puppies for a better shot but they weren't interested, surprise, surprise.

So hot, so hot!

 

Isn't he a cutie?

 

Now, let's not forget Elsie.

 Here's the thoughtful pose..

In the middle of this photoshoot Elsie decided that the most comfortable spot was on my lap.

Didn't see that clearly enough?

.

Everyone together now... "awwwwwwwww"

These were taken yesterday evening. I love how her bottom canines stick out.

 

You can see that she's definitely nice and healthy now. Quite stocky. Her fur's decent and she's filled out.

 

 

Who's a pretty girl?

 

Oh? Sorry I didn't quite catch that..

 Sorry, I still can't hear you. You'll have to speak louder.

 And of course, we can't end a post without a funny.

Here's Elsie caught in mid jump trying to get away from Fred. That or she's trying to show him what a kangaroo looks like.

Mugshot Elsie

 

The girl is getting more and more settled every day.  Hard to believe that the scrawny little thing we brought home five months ago is now this little sweetie.

Well, hard to believe that she once had matted fur and stunk to high heaven and you could feel her ribs.

She always was a bit of a sweetie.

 

Every morning she wakes me up by putting her long nose in my face. The cold wet nose and tongue manages to find my nose, mouth, eyes and ears.

When I let them out into the main house she skitters along the tiles and does a little dance as if to say 'the day's begun! yaay! let's go play!'

I still remember when she was let into the yard at the pound how jumpy she was. I think it's in her nature to dance around on those white socked feet of hers. It's very sweet to have a morning person in the house.

Fred's just dopey, although I've noticed that ever since we put in the electric fence both dogs tend to bolt the minute a door is open anywhere.

I've had to caution them to slow down before they hurt themselves, or hurt me as they hurdle past me.

Least Elsie always turns around once she's out to try and greet me.

Here she is sticking her tongue at me for telling tales on her.

And some cute profile shots of her sitting down trying to figure out what's going on.

  

Elsie: "eh? whatcha doing there?"

She does a great confuzzled look:

As well as a high and mighty one:

 

But I think her cutest as the moment is the ears down, wtf look. 

A little scare..

Was out gardening today and let the puppies out to play around and mooch. While I was pottering I spotted Fred trying to pounce on something and look confused/inquisitive. I sidled closer to investigate and saw a long dark grey/black scaly body.

Snake! I didn't look closely but instead hurriedly called Freddie over. The last thing I wanted was for Freddie to engage the snake.

I called out to the hubby to let him know and he also immediately helped me corral the puppies and get them back into their pen. We then went back to investigate. Snake had disappeared.

Am now starting to wonder if what I saw was in fact a snake. But it was long, at least a metre or so long, fairly thick, and it looked wavy, as in the shape wasn't in a straight line or curled up. I didn't look for a head. All I did was spot something long dark and scaly and immediately tried to get the puppies out of vicinity.

Fred was closest as he was the one who pounced and it was that sound that alerted me. Elsie was about a metre behind. Fred was probably only about a hand's breath away (again probably about a metre) from that snake (or whatever it was)

Talk about a scare! I'm glad we were calm enough to get them away and that the puppies listened. But I found out fairly quickly despite my calm exterior that I was pretty scared. I was shaking afterwards.

It's not even a super sunny day. It's overcast and the sun had only just started coming out despite all the cloud cover. It's been raining the last few days.

The other scary thing is that the snake was so close to the garden. And the garden is right next door the house. I'm starting to think I was pretty lucky and smart to have cleared up some of the area as it was. Just the other day I tidied up and moved the fallen down shadehouse so that I could use it again.

Did I perhaps simply have moved the snake's hideout? Or was it simply passing through?

I have no idea but I really dislike snakes and am terrified that they will do something to the puppies simply because they don't know any better. The fact that Freddie tried to pounce on it says it all.

I'm just grateful he did it nearby and that I was able to act. The last thing I'd need was for him to do that further away from the house where I hadn't noticed. That could've turned out badly.

Am still a little shaken now and don't really know what else to do about it. We're out in the country, so it really is to be expected that we would have snakes. I guess I just naievely hoped I'd never see one. Especially since everyone else around here tells me that they don't see them often (eg the previous owner probably only saw 3 or 4 in the ten years that they lived there. And they owned a cat!)


The long grass needs to be mown, but we have rocky ground and the whippersnipper apparently won't start at the moment. *sigh*

Cutey Puppies

It's been very hot at home lately. As a result the puppies have been allowed inside whenever we are home. Sometimes Fred gets a frozen wet face cloth on his back to cool him down. My big furry wolfies aren't really designed for the heat.

Here is Fred looking forlornly at hubby hoping the temp will drop

I had taken another one where he's looking upwards to the right which was even cuter but unfortunately turned out totally blurry.

So you'll just have to make do with this one instead