Thursday, June 24, 2010

Gumming Ham & Bubbles

Hey, pretty girl! Here you can see her eyes pretty well.


And here she is stalking a Corgi puppy.


This is Cate, the Corgi puppy. She is visiting for a few days. She likes to bark. And squeak.


This is Rowan before things got crazy with the Boomer ball. This is about as calm as it gets outside.


They are looking at me, expecting me to get the ball out for them. Not gonna happen. They go crazy after that stupid thing!


But, of course, Rowan takes matters into his own paws and gets it out himself. This is the routine. Shortly after this, Kai will (no doubt) take it from Rowan and hog it to himself while Ro stares after him with swirly crazy border collie eyeballs.


And, indeed, this is what happened.


Oh, and there's the Bean! With her beloved frisbee.


Finally, Rowan got a go at the ball. This is his happy Boomer ball face.


And here's Leelah's favorite way to run these days...


Full of grace, that one.


Oh yeah, I see ballet in the future. Or maybe so you think you can dance auditions...


Here she is, elegantly watching the Boomer ball fiasco. You can also get an idea of how tall she is these days, sitting next to the chair. Oh, and what's up with that GUT? My god, you'd think she lived on a diet of beer!


On other fronts...

She is in full teething mode! She has lost all of the little baby teeth in front (still has her baby canines) and is a crooked smiling gawky little creature!

And... she's 20 pounds! I'm sure her siblings are at least 30 by now, but without them by her side, she seems so big! She's all legs and polka dots. She is getting waves in her fur, the brown fur is much less fuzzy and the long white hairs are disappearing. Her ears are still up although each day one or the other tips down for a bit and when she runs they flop all over the place so who knows what will happen with that.

She's definitely getting to the point of starting to switch from the dewy attitude of puppyhood into the environmentally aware (and cautious) attitude of early adolescence. She notices things like it's the first time even though they've been there forever, she has decided trucks driving by are utterly terrifying (while on a walk) and so on. At the same time, she has a lovely new cocky side full of her typical piss-n-vinegar PLUS a little extra sassiness :)

We graduated puppy kindergarten and are planning on joining a second round. I really want to keep her interacting with young dogs. She is still super soft with confident dogs and a bit too pushy/bitchy with timid dogs. I haven't given her much practice time with being bitchy but since I've seen it, I want to do what I can to safeguard against it being a habit. She also gets very guardy with other dogs if they give her the option. I have a Corgi pup staying with me for a few days. Today she was eating her breakfast in her ex-pen and Leelah Bean (who had finished breakfast) went up to the ex-pen, sat in front of the food bowl and started growling at the Corgi. Nice! Well, it goes without saying I didn't let THAT continue. This has been a habit for her (but only with pups or dogs that allow her to do it... if a dog tells her to f*** off she is a perfect angel). So we do lots of exercises where she gets treats for sharing... and lots of practice with Leave It and Come so that if she's being a wench I can call her away from whatever it is. She's not guardy at all with people.

It's awesome watching her grow up. She's pretty amazing and I love her bunches. Kai and Rowan don't exactly *love* her but they are tolerating her pretty well these days.

So, that's the latest from Leelah land!

Thursday, June 17, 2010

A Question of Ears

All taken today, all taken in the same hour as a matter of fact!

Here she is with one up, one down.


Again 1 up, 1 down - hanging with the big Kai.


Both down?


Checking out the world through her frisbee.


Splayed to the side?


Two up!

Monday, June 7, 2010

16.5 pounds of polka dotted fun

Today Leelah Bean went for her first official swim! We had a great time and she was abso-friggin-lutely adorable. I am stupid smitten with her. Here are the days pics!

Oh, and I finally weighed her. 16.5 pounds, almost double from the day she came home at 8.8.

This is Kai. He likes to show his teeth to LB and occasionally bite her on the nose when she tries to crawl in his mouth. He would like it if she didn't exist but is willing to leave her alone as long as she leaves him alone.


hahahaha, look how ridiculous and GANGLING she is!





sticking her head under water to get the toy. such a brave little girl she is!


although she was pretty alarmed by the whole swimming business. she would swim out to get the toy and then realize she had to keep moving in order not to sink. this was apparently quite bewildering.


i don't know who she was trying to impress with this saucy picture but, hey, who am i kidding? it impressed me with bountiful cuteness.


i think she realized Kai was so distracted by swimming that she could possibly crawl in his mouth without consequences. but then she also realized that she, too, had to keep moving in order to stay afloat and this ruined her plans for kai.


poor pathetic puppy. and that ear that's flopping? that's the OTHER one... the one that was straight up before. great, thanks, little dog.


look at her go! isn't she awesome? i am a dork, granted, but i do love my little leelah bean!


like a pro.


this was in the beginning when she was astounded by all the wet water and the fact that mobility was a tad different than on land. ay, lassie, get yer sea legs!


really, seriously, both ears are tipping now? that's fine. symmetry is a lovely thing.


it was so much fun swimming today. i want to do it every day with them this summer. the place we went has beautiful clear water and even a little beach so she can wade in without full commitment (but of course swim if she wants to as well). open fields, flowers, big trees hanging over the river - just gorgeous. if i remember to take pictures of something OTHER than LB, I will post those too. i did photograph a blizzard of blue butterflies but they were crap pictures. anyway, a lovely way to spend a morning.

Monday, May 31, 2010

Memorial Day

To celebrate a holiday, we were lucky enough to have a playdate with Leelah Bean's brudda, Dandelion Denali. Here are some pictures with my injected commentary. Thanks to Sharon for having us over! We had SUCH a good time!

The pictures are in reverse of the day and so this one is DD basically crashing out over his toy after over an hour of intense playing. He regained consciousness a nanosecond later and resumed rambunctious playing insanity.


Leelah Bean looking very sassy. DD looking very flexible.


How awesome is this picture? Acrobatics!


And it doesn't stop there. Dandi is full of sparks.


Aw, almost a loveable pic :)





Love this shot, the look they are exchanging is so cute. And LB's ear is up (temporarily).


Rah!


So handsome!


You can't have what I have. Hahahahaha.


Nice butt bite. Every play date has at least one of these.








Puppy zoomies.


Puppy zoomies bursting out of bush.


"hmm, wonder if I can just tip over this dish and Dd with it?..."


"whoah, this thing MOVES!"


Maybe if they dig to the bottom they will find treasure.


LB and DD off for a run together. Sista and brudda!