Langley is in the house!

Langley's dad has some meetings on the mainland so he asked us if we would watch Langley for him overnight. I was excited to see the wild man again but the canine members of the family have been somewhat less enthusiastic.

Salinas: "I thought you loved me enough to not put me through this butt sniffing maniac!"

Chima: "What were you THINKING woman?! Have you lost your mind?"

Langley doesn't mind their discomfort though. He is busy doing all the things that Langley does best - running, barking, begging for belly rubs, eating copious amounts of poo...

Langley: "Someone ate about 3 cups of poop and then puked it up?  HORRIBLE! Who would do such a thing!! Did you ask the girls about that?"

There have been a couple close calls with Chima who does not appreciate Langley's intense staring into her eyes when he wants to chase her. Most dogs have trouble reading Langley's awkward "dog speak" and find his intensity a bit much. We hear he has a buddy named Pippa in his dog class though who he tears around and plays with after class for about 30 minutes of non stop wrestling and chasing. He's also the star of his doggy class thanks to the overdose of brains that dog ended up with.

Langley tries out Frodo's favorite pose on the couch while Salinas watches distrustfully

Anyhow, he'll be going home this evening so it was a short trip. We enjoyed our time with him but I'm pretty sure that Chima, Frodo and Sal are happy to send him back to his island.

Simplify

Lately I've been on a mission to clear away the clutter - get rid of all the extra stuff in our house that never gets used and just adds to stress. While I've been on one of these kicks in the past, this time instead of diving all the way in and getting completely overwhelmed by all the organizing I made a goal to choose a minimum of three things each day to get rid of. It could be extra kitchen utensils that don't get used, clothes not being worn, out of date medications in the medicine cabinet, or in the case of the canines in our house - old damaged toys and extra leashes and harnesses. It's been going great and already after a few weeks of doing this, I can see a change coming over the house.

Salinas supervising my decluttering of a kitchen drawer

Luckily the little changes don't get my anxious crew of dogs worked up and while they do like to watch what in the heck I'm doing while I'm organizing, for the most part they just see it as one more odd and mysterious thing that their human is doing.

But today I happened to cast my eye upon their toy basket. There were plenty of chewed up squeakie toys that I could be rid of.

Their basket of tough toys and chews

A Cuz, desqueaked by Frodo

As many of you know though, a dog never loves a toy more than at the moment you decide to throw it away. Oh, the conniptions, the pacing, the snuffling of the cabinet where the garbage can is kept. They were beside themselves for quite awhile. They'll get over it though.

Langley absolutely loved this Jolly Ball and would throw it everywhere by its handle. Sadly, Chima decided the handle needed to go and chewed it off 3 days after I brought it home. 

So as much as they find my mission to get rid of things perplexing (and alarming when the focus is their toy basket) in the end, simplifying the environment is a great way to calm oneself. And calm humans are just what a dog needs.

Full Sail

Guess who's looking all grown up - it's Mesquite!  His mom sent me a photo and let me know his ears popped up all of a sudden and have stayed up for the last several days. Isn't he just the cutest little guy!

Death to the Turtle

I have a lot of plush type toys that are kept in the hall closet and only brought out when I have time to closely supervise play. The reason? Well, a terrier being a terrier, it's not long until they decide they want to play the ultimate terrier game and gut the poor stuffie.

Salinas and Chima inspect the turtle

So these nice tough plushies (and by tough I mean that they would last 3 minutes in a toy killing spree as opposed to 30 seconds) are extra special to the dogs and yesterday I decided to let the girls have a turn with the Velcro turtle who is full of all kinds of great sounds.

Once Chima found the "grunter" in the head she really went to town on keeping the noise going

The cool thing about turtle is his back Velcros on and off so the dog can rip the back off and it's all good. And then there was the plus that the Velcro stuck to the carpet a little too so Chima got to pull it off the carpet occasionally too.

There are 9 squeakers in the turtle's back, and 4 in it's legs and then the head has a "grunter" which made Chima step back and tilt her head when she found it.

Sal giving me a very pathetic look and wondering when it will be her turn and why I won't put the camera away

All in all she had a ton of fun and can't wait until I pull out the next surprise toy. Salinas was interested but a little shy so later with Chima crated and the camera tucked away she got her own turn to kill the turtle and had her chance at fun.

Power Napping

While the girls definitely have their bursts of energy and both love to play and hunt, one of their most practiced of activities is the "power nap." This nap typically follows a mouse hunt and a "power chew" and requires mounds of soft blankets, a few throw pillows and preferably a human working on a laptop nearby.

Chima

Salinas

Pupdate: Mesquite's first camping trip

Little Skeeter's new parents just adore him. While they are at work he gets puppysat by his grandma and hangs out with her pack, but at home he gets plenty of attention from mom and dad.

Over the last weekend they took him on his very first camping trip and he had a blast - tents, campfires, fishing, lots of laptime and plenty of his favorite game: fetch!

Mesquite had a blast and check out his cute little coat!

He has his own little tent to kick back in and warm up under the blankets

Or at night he snoozed in the tent with mom and dad

Fishing was pretty interesting

And so was sniffing along the lakeshore

Of course he made sure fetch was regularly played

Although he's a plenty active pup, he's also an expert snuggler. Here he is with his dad.

So happy this great little dog ended up in a family who has made him a beloved member of their family and part of all their adventures.

Rescue Railroad: Two new dogs arriving in WA foster homes this week

Adoptions have really been slow so it seems like a long time since I've been able to do a "Rescue Railroad" post. Well I'm happy to say that tonight we have two new foster dogs who will be arriving for Washington foster homes.

First up is Domino. She's an active ten month old female Rat Terrier with  very cute markings and a spunky little personality. Gotta love her curly little tail. She's about 14 pounds and she'll be fostered with our wonderful new foster parents in Gig Harbor, Washington.

And our other new rescue is Timken. Little Tim is about 2 years old and weighs 14 or 15 pounds. He was living in a house where the four other dogs there bullied him and will be working with his foster parents to gain confidence.  He's a sweet guy who's never spent any time outside of the house he lived in so will also be working on getting used to being around people too. We can't wait to watch this guy blossom in his foster home.

Pupdate: Langley, the Island Boy

I'm pleased to share a recent update I received from Langley's dad Bruce. The guys have successfully moved from Redmond to a cabin in the San Juan Islands. Initially Langley had a rough time with all the changes going on (he actually lived at the Marriott Hotel with his dad for a week while the move was underway!) but once he realized that the cabin was home he settled and is doing great.

There is a lot of wildlife on the Island so he is having to learn to not get so excited when he spots deer, turkey, and even some llamas that live near him. He is taking training classes with a great positive trainer and even visits the off leash dog park on occasion although recently he and a Norwich Terrier had a fight there recently.

So it sounds like they are really enjoying life together and other than having to regularly hide his treats under cushions because he doesn't trust his dad not to steal one, he's doing great!

Snoozing in his favorite chair

Waiting patiently for his dog class to start

Hanging out with dad

Dog Pillows

I sure love how comfortable the girls are getting during evening television time on the couch. Chima likes to turn Salinas into a pillow and Sal will put up with it for quite awhile. Last night though she got her turn to use Chima as her butt pillow. 

Chima resting her butt on poor Sal's face

Salinas using Chima as a butt pillow