Happy Birthday Sally!

This post is for MY mom, Sally! Today (10/30) is her birthday. She is offically 35 years old (yes, she had me when she was 7). Kidding, but I bet you won't guess her age on the first try. So, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!! I love you!

Circle of Friends

For those that know Louie (my boss and old coach), you know how much he loves music. Whether he's playing it, listening to it, putting music on his ipod, or writing his own music....the man LOVES music. So he's been playing with a couple of friends in a throw-together-band called Circle Of Friends. The guys are Louie on drums & vocals, Tim on vocals, guitar and harmonica and John on bass & vocals. They've been playing at German Johns for the past month on Wednesday nights and this week was there last week there. They may play Par 5 or German Johns on a more regular basis, but we'll see! Anyways, last night sounded great and was a lot of fun! If they play somewhere on a regular basis and you are able to come out and support them, please do!!

Old Friends & Oysters

Last saturday I had one of the most fun nights I've had in a long time. David and I don't go out much but last Saturday when we decided to go over to Sunset Beach for an oyster roast at the Wallace's house, we had no clue what we were in for. I've known the Wallace's for YEARS.....I'm thinking close to 15+. I did gymnastics with Lindsay from the time I was 8 or 9 and actually graduated (and was good friends with) her older brother Aaron (we called him Opie). There is another older brother Shane who I didn't hang out during school but have hung out with him since moving to the beach. All of them are awesome and just plain crazy and I love it. Anyways, they have a beach house at Sunset and its the perfect party pad. Their granddad (Papa) was there and he's the only person who has successfully called me "Becky" for as long as I've known him. No one else does....just Wint. Anyways, after some seriously good oysters, we piled up and went to Victoria's and as Lindsay put it, added a little class to the clientele. Well, we tried to at least. Perhaps by the end of the night we werent adding much of anything, but it was an incredibly fun night. Laughing as hard as I laughed that night is extremely therapeutic and good for me. It was also nice meeting the new friends......Britt, Ashley, Casey, Chad & the neighbors. Good food, good people, good times.

Ten minutes changes everything

So this entire time of the puppies existence, David and I have been preparing for Hank to leave us to go to Genteel Plantation...aka...Bird Dog Heaven (heaven as in paradise). So the time came for us to take him this past Wednesday and we packed up the car with all three dogs (mistake #1) and started the trek. Like I said in an earlier post, this plantation is outside of Wilmington on the way to Clinton. SO, David, myself and all three puppies were on the way. About 40 minutes into the drive, the pups decided to shut up their whining. When we got to the little store where we were meeting Steve, we let the dogs out on their leashes (they not fans of leashes yet)and they played a little before loading them back up to go to Ricky's. No joke, once we got to Ricky's, they played for a solid hour and a half. That ENTIRE time, I was letting go of Hank, knowing he'd be in a great place for bird dog training and I just had a great time taking pictures and laughing at these crazy-fun puppies. So about 15 minutes before we left, Ricky decided to tie a dead quail to a fishing rod and watch the puppies (see if they would point it). We stood there in complete shock at what we saw......Reba and Watson chased that bird 100 times and Hank chased leaves. The freakin' bird dog prodigy (thats what we thought he'd be) was chasing leaves. And when he wasn't chasing leaves, he was laying down under the truck. David, Steve and I couldn't believe it......at that point, we felt like we should offer Ricky whichever dog he wanted because he's a great trainer and really needs a dog interested in birds. He immediately said Watson, although if really given the choice, he'd have taken Reba. So, homeward bound we were.....with Reba and Hank. I wasn't completely prepared for Watson to be gone....he was our runt and we named him after our street! We had a special little bond that was really sweet and I'll certainly miss that goofy face. BUT, he'll have a great time in his new home. As for Reba and Hank, they are still chillin' on Watson Avenue and today I introduced them to the kennel in the backyard as opposed to the inside puppy palace. They will eventually understand that the outside kennel is way more fun than the inside one. They barked a whined a good bit and I just couldn't deal with it. I need to work on them a little bit before leaving them out there. Its definitely time to start some obedience training with them and we have to make sure we stay consistent and on them.......they are sweet and cute dogs but they will grow nonetheless and they have to learn now what is right/wrong. So basic training begins on Monday. :) Anywhooo......now the fun part.....pictures!

Hadley Collage....

 

Babysitting Hadley Tate

Friday was awesome because Klug came up to Myrtle Beach for a meeting and brought sweet little Hadley with her. She asked me to come hang out with Hadley while she was in a meeting and we had so much fun (well I did). Hadley & I went to Petsmart, Target and had a little photoshoot in the Tahoe waiting on Klug to finish up her meeting. Hadley was such a trooper (dealing with a non-mom toting her in and out of stores). At one point, after I took Hadley off of the cart (I had the car seat on the cart b/c I had to get large amount of stuff from Petsmart), and put her in the car. I loaded all my stuff in the car and realized there wasn't a cart-catcher nearby and the store was the closest. I seriously spent a few minutes debating what to do. Hadley was in the car and I needed to run back to the store to put the cart away. Just the day before someone had been arrested for leaving their child in the car (although he was going to a strip club, not returning a cart). SO, after some deliberating, I RAN the cart back to the store and RAN back to Hadley. She was fine, of course....and so THEN, I had to use the bathroom REALLY bad. Well what are you supposed to do with a 4-month old strapped to a carseat when you have to use the bathroom? Take her with you, I guess! So that was our motivation in going to Target. I knew the bathrooms were big enough to handle both of us and so we loaded her up in her fancy-pants stroller (which I loved) and we went to the bathroom in Target. We walked around after that and tried to shop, but really, I didn't need anything. I asked Hadley if she wanted anything and she wasn't very interested in the clothes they had there. She said she needed some tights (leggings) so that she could wear her 12-month old 'shirts' as dresses in the winter (She gets her fashion sense from her mother). :) BUT, we decided to head back to the meeting. Anyways, it was a wonderful couple of hours with Hadley and Klug. We ate lunch at Mellow Mushroom and Hadley just hung out and slept in her car seat while we caught up on life. She's precious and I can't wait to see her and klug again!!

Puppies Week 7....Might be Hank's last week!

This week was a good week for the puppies. They seem to enjoy their puppy palace and have learned where to sleep, eat, play and do their business. They do have a habit of ripping the puppy pads apart and throwing them all over their palace. BUT, they aren't using the bathroom everywhere so that is wonderful! They all have learned how to go downstairs, upstairs, under the fence (Big no-no), run away from me when its time to back to their room, get excited for their food and they LOVE water with the biggest passion.

David and I went to Wilmington this week to take Sally back to her home (David's dad's house). While we were up there, we drove out towards Burgaw to visit Genteel Plantation. This place is 850 acres of BEAUTIFULLY kept land that is used for corporate hunts, outings, fishing, etc. Ricky (manager of this land) lives out there in a cabin and the property has an awesome dog kennel, bird (quail) house, fish house, boat house, skeet range, hunting land, plantation house, etc. Its immaculate! Ricky is the guy who gets Hank.....he's the owner of the sire (who Sally was bred with). This daddy dog's name is Sid and he's a beautiful setter.

Sid...Puppies Daddy

Ricky has about 10 dogs out there and they are all so good. Funny thing is, he currently has Sally's mom and Sally's brother and will soon get Sally's pup. He is running out of room, so will be giving David two of his older, good hunting dogs to keep out at our farm. They will be good to have because they can help David learn the best ways to train Watson & Reba. Anyways, this plantation has an old plantation house on it and its beautiful. The owner of the property (Bobby Harrelson) spared no expense in refurbishing this house.

The old plantation house on the property (this is NOT where Ricky lives)

The commercial kitchen...love it!

Half-Bath downstairs....I LOVE the counter & sink

So anyways, this will be Hank's new home after this week. We'll miss him because he is the sweetest dog but he is in great hands with Ricky. I loved playing with all the dogs there (you know I was in heaven) and I started playing with the focus on my camera. These were my two favorite pictures. Its the same shot, but two different focal points. One time on the dog...the othe on the fence with the dog in the background.

Puppy Palace and their first bath....

Week 6 of the puppies was more stressful than any other week. It could have been a combination of several things but I found myself really wishing these dogs would disappear for a while. Not really, because that would make me very sad, but when I opened their door to see dog poop EVERYWHERE, not once, twice but 3 times....I was ready to feed them to the wolves. Now I'm sure that anyone who doesn't know me is ready to turn my name into PETA, but c'mon. I wouldn't really do that! They are just learning and I know that......once I cool off, I'm fine. It certainly doesn't help that 2 nights in a row, my dog Jackson, has gotten sick IN THE HOUSE. I'm not kidding when I say that there was more dog poo than I've ever seen in my life.....on my hardwood floors, rugs, WALLS, etc. It was disgusting....but in his 5 years of life, he's done it so few times (and so very rarely in the last 4 years) that I know he must not be feeling well. We walk him and take him out often, so its not neglect, but perhaps he got into something while outside in the yard.

At any rate, the puppies destroyed their home last night.....they were in a rectangular area that was blocked off with plywood. Their bed was in one corner and their potty pads in another. When we came down this morning, there was no difference between their bed and their toilet. GROSS!. So we decided once and for all, to do something semi-permanent about it. After researching and measuring (while I bathed each dog individually in the bathtub), we went to Lowe's to get some plywood. We took most of the afternoon building the Puppy Palace and we think it might work!! It has their bedroom seperate from their playroom and all of that is walled-off from their bathroom. Puppies will be puppies and will play everywhere but atleast their area to 'do their business' is seperate from where they will sleep and eat. Hopefully it will work until they are ready to go out to the farm for bird-dog training.

Some of the things that happened this week with them: Reba can go up and down stairs with ease. Hank and Watson have mastered going UP but not down. They all had their first bath and might have been slightly traumatized. They ate ALL their food at the last few meals. They figured out their vocal chords and bark and cry loudly and for a good length of time. They play very hard with each other. They are all using the bathroom outside when given the opportunity. Their mom, Sally, really doesnt enjoy being around them anymore. They really do love playing jungle gym on any given object (humans, coolers, lawn mowers, stairs, jackson, chairs, etc.) They LOVE puppy treats.

Until next time...........

The holy terrors....weeks 4 & 5

Somehow when puppies get to about 4 weeks of age, they become really exhausting! I now understand why Sally (pup's mom) is so happy when we put her in her pen in the backyard. She gets a 7-8 hour break! With that, all the chores, pee and poop cleaning, feeding and playing is up to david and me. It is TRULY awesome watching them grow but its harder and harder to get good pictures of them because they want to BITE and CHEW on everything INCLUDING my camera. SO, bear with some of these pictures....they are still precious and seem to be growing daily. Hank is my fatty and eats everytime I put the food out. Reba is a little weird but is wired like a race car. Watson is eating well and playing more and more. We had a little set back weaning them off of mom when Reba would vomit continuously after attemtping to eat her puppy mush. One of the last times she did throw up, a large chuck of (I'm guessing) cottage cheese came up. I mixed cottage cheese in with their food once and haven't done it since b/c she didn't take well to it. Since then, she hasn't had any trouble keeping her food down. But she did give us a scare, especially when I looked up the symptoms online and saw EVERYTHING that COULD be wrong with my dog. But her vet reassured me that it PROBABLY wasn't anything serious and to just ease her back into puppy food. She's enjoying it now. We've been keeping Sally separate from the pups for the entire day and letting her back in at night. The puppies love to nurse when she gets back in and the poor mom probably gets no sleep at night. We took them out to the farm last week and it was so fun watching them play in the grass, play with jackson, explore and figure out life outside our house. I plan on taking them back tomorrow since this weather is amazing. Anyways, the other accomplishments of the dogs are as follows:

1. Can climb through BOTH dog doors and now get outside on their own. Not wonderful.

2. Are paper-potty trained or atleast go on the concrete in the garage if I let them out. Wonderful.

3. Can run and jump and its hilarious.

4. Bark and howl loudly when they see something they can't get to or have.

5. LOVE Jackson.

6. Love David and me more.

7. Actually listen when they want to....they may not know or understand it yet, but they do respond.

8. Falling down the porch stairs makes them dizzy and we try to avoid it.

9. Some of the girls from the gym came over to see them and Hank was definitely the favorite. That fatty.

10. Did I mention that they can go through both dog doors? Yeah.

And now for some pictures.....

Reba & Hank peeking out the dog door....this was shortly BEFORE they learned how to get out.

Reba hanging out with Jackson at the farm

Becca and the three hounds

Reba & Hank climbing on my leg and looking mighty guilty (& cute)

Reba learning the difference between a hole in the door (dog door) and glass...see her reflection?

Watson having a puppy moment in the corner

Reba pretending as though she's sweet

Watson sticking his tongue out for the picture

Hank, Reba and Watson starting to relax after a good playtime.