The Hunter or the Hunted?

The storms are over and we had another beautiful day in MN. When I got home from work I took the dogs down to the river. I don't have any pictures because trying to play with the two dogs in the river is really all that I can handle. Daisy fetched her while Rosy stood on shore and hid in the bushesand would pounce when Daisy would get near to shore.

We were not down there five minutes when I looked up and there was a bald eagle not more than six feet over my head - no camera. I'm sure it was checking Rosie out. Good thing she is at least twenty pounds by now.

After we played for awhile, I put Rosie on her leash and was going in the house to wash my hands. I heard a little commotion and turned to see Rosie's back paws on the lawn chair and

front paws on the table. In her defense, I will say I had the last of her dinner on the table so Daisy didn't get it. I put her and her food on the ground and she finished her dinner. She was ready to play again.

Daisy and Rosy wrestled for awhile. While they were wrestling everthing came to a stop all eyes up into the sky. A Great Blue Heron was flying over the yard. I think she is going to be a great bird dog. She is really interested in whatever is flying around.

A little later, Daisy took off down the hill and found one of their balls. I let Rosie off her

leash and she ran down to play a game of sniper. Most dogs place chase but not Rosie. She has figured out that Daisy is stronger and faster than she is, so she sits or stands in wait and then pounces.

Daisy Beware!

Rosie's Life not so Rosy

Rosie has had a few rough days. Last night we had company. Sarah, not our daughter, brought her children and dog for a visit. We all had a great visit. That is everyone everyone except Rosie.

Her dog is a beautiful yellow/white Lab named Bear. He is just over a year old and weighs about 95 lbs. He and Daisy had a grand old time chasing and swimming until they were exhausted. The problem was Rosie could not get out of their way fast enough. After about ten minutes in the chaos of two large dogs running rampant on your turf, she wanted to go in the house.

We put her in the house and when I went in to set the table, I didn't see her. She didn't come to the door to greet me. She wasn't under the table, her favorite resting place. I started looking for her. Finally, I found her in the laundry room lying quietly and trying not to be noticed. It's not that she has never gone in there before. It is usually when one of us is doing laundry. She likes to check out the piles of dirty clothes to find some embarrassing article of clothing and sneak it out to the kitchen to chew on.

This morning when I got up, Ronnie and the dogs were downstairs. Again, no greeting from Rosie. I found her in the laundry room again. Ron had put her ear drops in and they hurt, so after she was all done with her drops she went to her quiet space. We don't even have to give her time out she takes it herself.

Rosie and Daisy BFF

Before we get started with the Rosie update, I just want to share a picture of our beautiful lawn. It looks much better than the professional job done a couple of weeks ago. Ron is thrilled to be done with it as you can imagine.

Rosie had her third vet visit today. We ventured out in the new car. She was in the back and the barrier was in place. She could have escaped under it, but she kept trying to go over it and couldn't fit. She was not able to escape to the back seat, but she did initiate the car with just a little pee. I didn't have a towel or anything to clean it. Fortunately, the vet gave me some paper towels - no charge.

She weighs 19.25 lbs. We were pretty close when we guessed 20 lbs. She got a booster shot, Frontline, and Iverheart Plus. (The Vet said it saved us 20% over HeartGard this year.) Of course, that could not be the end of it. He noticed her ears stunk, and they do. He gave us an antibiotic, Gentamycin Otic. Saln., to put in her ears twice a day also, Chlorhexiderm Flush to clean her ears twice a week. You know I don't really mean that he gave it to us.

He thinks the ear infection may be caused by a food allergy. This is why he does not recommend more than one bag of Puppy food. He says it is too high in carbohydrates- sounds familiar. I think my doctor said my diet was too high in carbohydrates, too. If the ear infection does not clear up, he will recommend changing dog food. He is a proponent of feeding your dogs raw chicken and vegetables. I am keeping my fingers crossed that the ear infection clears up.

While waiting for the Vet, I was talking to the Tech and she just loves Rosie. She thinks she is so cute and friendly. I know they say that about all the puppies. Then, she told me they have a few Chessie's for patients that they cannot even touch. I'm always incredulous when I hear these stories about Chessies because our experience with them has been so positive. She also asked me if Rosie was getting along with her sister and I assured her they are BFF.

The eagle has landed

When I woke up this morning, Ron was sitting on the patio, sipping a cup of coffee, and staring into the sky. There is nothing wrong with that, but it is not like Ron. I went out to join him and it was immediately apparent why he was sitting there so enthralled.

A bald eagle was perched in our neighbor's tree. It looked like it was looking for something to eat. A few times it opened its mouth either to yawn, it was only 6:30, or to take in a few insects. I am not sure if eagles eat insects, but that is what it looked like.

Of course I was immediately concerned for our little Rosie. I love seeing eagles as much as the next guy, but I did not want Rosie to become breakfast.

See how appetizing she looks, She even has her mouth stuffed. We think she weighs close to twenty pounds now. Bald eagles are supposed to only be able to carry up to four pounds, but she looks awfully tempting.

You may notice that the concrete is falling apart under Rosie. She has been teething on our concrete or as Ron would say, "She has been excavating." He had to buy Quikrete so he could make repairs before the stairs cave in. The concrete is his next project because today he had to finish a much bigger job to finish!

I know I mentioned Ron was just sitting around sipping coffee this morning and he was. That is before he repaired the damage done by last week's torrential downpour. We had just had dirt hauled, holes filled, and sod laid. Then, the rains came.

Ron has spent the last week removing ruined sod, hauling and spreading more dirt, and laying new sod. Before he goes to bed tonight it will all be done and look beautiful again!

Gullible

During our torrential downpour this evening, I was trying to keep the dogs entertained and watch a couple episodes of LOST Season 3. I gave them each a Natural PetStore rawhide flip chip. Daisy was finished with hers and Rosie had quite a bit of hers left. I put a Milk Bone treat in the large kong to keep Daisy occupied, so Rosie could continue to chew on her rawhide. Although Daisy is a great big sister, she is no dummy. She wanted another rawhide chip not the Milk Bone treat.

She took her Kong and laid it down right next to Rosie. She pretended to be really interested until she caught Rosie's attention. As soon as Rosie let go of the chip, Daisy lost all interest in the Kong. Rosie was left with an empty Kong and Daisy was gnawing on her second chip.

Watching them reminded me of what a gullible

little sister I was. My older brother who was a great older brother most of the time, liked to trick me like Daisy fooled Rosie. His most notorious con was the money con. If I had a dime, he would convince me that a nickel was bigger therefore worth more, or better still two pennies was worth more than one quarter. I would give him the quarter and he would give me thepennies. He was pretty happy until I told mom and he had to give back my quarter. I think I got to keep the pennies, too.

I did not make Daisy give the chip back. She finished it too fast.

Happy Fourth of July

This is sweet, little Rosie around three o'clock this afternoon. Ron worked until 5:30 AM and he took this when he woke up around three. That is before I told him that I had to move his herb garden (in a pot) because she ate one of the basil plants this morning. Actually, the herbs used to sit right where she is laying in this picture.

After she ate the basil, she was pretty good today. It is hot and muggy here, so neither of the dogs feel much like playing until the sun is out of the back yard and it is shady.

The last few evenings I have been putting a leash on Rosie and taking her into the yard with Daisy and they play chase. The leash lets me catch her if she starts going somewhere she doesn't belong. This afternoon they were having a good game of chase and I was standing right in the middle of it. Daisy usually sets the boundaries and keeps Rosie in our yard.

Five minutes into the game something went awry. Rosie was in the neighbor's yard before I could get to her leash. I ran after her and grabbed the leash but not before she had some black thing in her mouth. EEEEE! I think it's a dead mouse - no it's a dead bird. Let me make it clear the bird was dead when she picked it up. The way she made a mad dash for it; I think she knew it was there all the time. I think she had been waiting all day to get that bird.

Once I had the leash, I led her up the hill, bird in mouth, then she dropped it. I had to get the poop scooper to pick it up. Trust me this is way outside my comfort zone. I let go of the leash - big mistake. While I was disposing of the bird, Rosie took off for the river. She was down the hill and into the water before I could stop her. The river is pretty high and moving pretty fast and she has a leash on her neck.

Although I was frantic, I carefully went down the hill, over the muddy bank, and down to the water in my sandals. Fortunately Daisy came with me and went out into the water to wrangle her back to shore. I did not have to go in the water, thank goodness. Rosie spent the rest of the afternoonon her chain.

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY from out little firecracker, Rosie.

Dog Food

We are doing something we haven't done with any of our other puppies. Upon the recommendation of our vet, she is eating regular dog food. He prefers to feed dogs human food that is prepared for them, but we haven't gone that far yet.

We are feeding her Purina One. He also recommended Purina because they have been around so long. She seems to like it. She weighs seventeen pounds now. That is up three pounds from last week. If you've watched any of the vidoes of her on this blog, you know she is an active, happy puppy. The adult food seems to agree with her and I think it is cheaper than puppy food.

She also got her last bottle of Clavamox Drops which she has been really good about taking. She's a good little girl.

We heard some fire crackers across the River this evening. I am keeping my fingers crossed that the dogs won't be bothered by them. If they are, it is going to be a long weekend for me.

Pooch Mobile

Well, we purchased the ultimate dog pamperer today - a new car. That is a new car to transport the dogs. You see Rosie giving it the once over. We used to just put kennels in the back of the truck and hit the road. Then, the dogs made it into the cab of the truck- not always so safe. I already told you about the contraption Ron puts in the car to separate the dogs from the front seat of the car. Those days are over.

There were a number of vehicles that we looked at the Mazda Tribute, Kia Sorento, and the Subaru Outback. The Outback won for a number of reasons the first being Sara and Ryan both thought it was a good choice. They know people who know people who have Subarus and they love them. I think another large factor was the Outback brochure. They actually market it as a great car to haul a dog around. You should see the cute picture a 4X6 glossy. 2010_outback_accy_brochure.pdf

We even had them install the pet cage. Now we don't have to imagine our dogs in the Outback,

and we can make our own 4X6 glossies. No more make-

shift divider attached with plastic ties. This is classy ride for a couple of classy dogs.

They look like they are about to fall asleep in their new wheels. Hopefully, they'll sleep all the way to Erie at least between pit stops.

Can't Buy me Love

The title of this blog lets you know what I am going to write about each day - spoiling a Chesapeake Bay Retriever. Ron and I love to spoil our dogs. I don't mean make spoiled brats of them. We don't condone excessive barking, jumping on people, aggressive behavior and even though the vet doesn't know it, we don't encourage our puppies to chew on us.

What we do is pamper our dogs. We buy them silly toys- no clothing, take them to the vet for a hang claw, monitor their waste disposal, llet them on the furniture (I can't believe I just wrote that much less do it.) etc. The truth is that dogs like children can't be bought. No matter how many cute little toys we buy, Rosie prefers to play with things that we have put in the garbage. Watch her play with the empty milk bottle. She is running circles around Daisy.

She is soooo cute which why we love to spoil her.