this Christmas

John and I just kept it simple this year on Christmas. Didn't really go anywhere, and didn't really have anyone  over. Just the two of us, with the dogs and the cat, at home, chillin'.

We had good food and beverages, of course.

And the dogs really liked their Christmas treats, too!





And yes my dogs make funny faces when they take their treats.

Hope everyone's having a wonderful holiday season!

doggie play date with schnitzel

Shaun and Daena brought Schnitzel to visit us and our dogs yesterday.

Schnitzel is a hyper, happy, and polite dog. I was glad our dogs were nice playing with him!


Schnitzel.

Shaun and Daena, with a-gui.

Yama says, "gimme the ball. pleeeease."

And I took a little video of them playing:



Everyone had a good time! We should totally have more of these play dates!

nuki is 12

Nuki.

Nuki is "unofficially" 12 today. We adopted him 10 years ago at the Spring Super Adoption. He was listed as 2 years old at the time. We figured we would make May his birth month.

Happy happy birthday Nuki!

And as of May 2011, Yama is 6 1/2 and a-gui is 1 1/2.



Yama.


a-gui.

slightly elevated food bowls

We've been trying to find elevated dog food bowls for our dogs for a while. There are quite a few kinds out there, but most of them are the two-compartment ones (which would take up too much room for us since we have three dogs!) They also get a bit price-y.

John shopped around for a while, and decided to re-construct our own using easy-to-find materials, and this is what we came up with:

We use these IKEA plant pots for the elevated base:



And a simple food bowl:


(Product photos from IKEA.com)

This is how it came out:


The dogs seem to like the new creation of their "food stand!"

Another good thing about this food bowl/stand coolness is that you can stack the bowls, and the bases, for easy storage, when the dogs are finished eating. I love it!

foxtail sadness

Yama was walking on three legs the night before yesterday, so John and I checked to see if anything was caught on his foot that was not touching the ground. We didn' see anything unusual or feel any broken bone at first, but then we noticed there was a puncture wound in between two of his toes.

John tried to clean it up but it was making Yama very uncomfortable. We decided to call the vet and bring Yama in yesterday.

The vet checked Yama and realized soon that there was a Foxtail seed that burrows in his foot! Apparently this happens a lot to dogs, especially around this time of year. Poor Yama!

These Foxtail seeds will work their way up into an animal's body (usually through their feet or ears and act as barbs) and it can be fatal if the Foxtail seeds get into the animal's lungs or other organs! Scary.

The Foxtail seed almost worked its way through Yama's foot. The vet had to sedate Yama and dug out the little pieces of the seeds.


Yama is OK now but he's on antibiotics and some pain meds.


The open was on the opposite side of the red spot on his foot.

I'm sad Yama was hurt, but on the other side I'm happy we caught it in time. Here's what I found about removing a Foxtail from dogs' paws if it's still only on the surface. We've been checking out each of our dogs' paws and fur after they play outside.

behind the slightly-open kitchen door

John bought a dog nail filing trimmer and we used it on Nuki the other night.

Of course there were quite some treats (dehydrated duck tendor strips,) and me singing (!) to Nuki involved for him to lie down and stay almost still as requested by us.

I must say the nail trimmer worked quite well. At least we didn't have to worry about clipping the dogs' nail and accidentally draw a bit of their blood.

While we were trimming Nuki's nails in the kitchen, Yama and a-gui were asked to stay out of the area.

But they really wanted to come into the kitchen to see what's going on.


Yama said, "Please let me in, pleeeeeese!"


"No?"


"But I really want to see Nuki right now! Can my head fit through this?"


And a-gui said, "Oh oh oh allow me. I'm only about half your size. I may be able to go right through."

It'll be nice if they still want to come and stay in the kitchen when it's their turn to have their nails trimmed.

holiday greenies

Part of the big box of Christmas presents for our pets from Joyce's sister Irene was two boxes of Greenies! One for small dogs and the other for big dogs.

I gave the box for small dogs to Joyce when Torsion was returned to her. Torsion is the only small dog after all!

I didn't open the box for big dogs until New Year's Day, and gave them to Nuki, Yama, and a-gui as a Happy New Year treat.


Keen-y on the Greenie!


"Umm... are you sure this is safe to eat?"


"Oh! A new treat! lick lick lick. nom nom nom."

The dogs loved the presents! Thanks again to Irene and Michael!

a year

Naicha!

It's been a year! Not much has changed, but I guess you probably have heard there's a lovely little guy in the household:


A-Gui runnin'. I think Yama is chasing after him.

He likes running and playing, and chewing on lots of things... just like you!


Yama and Nuki are teaching A-Gui how to play!


and there's a friend Torsion visiting.

And you know it, the kitties are being kitties!

We love you!

hanging out by the door

Nuki and Yama really like to stick together when they hang out.


... especially by the kitchen door.

Usually looks like Yama is leaning againt Nuki. Cute.

torsion at play

This is for my friend Joyce! Her little dog Torsion is staying with us.


Looking serious.


Being invited to play (and didn't quite know what to do!)


Yama says, "Just come and run with me!"


And Nuki says, "Or you can sniff my nose."

not small after all

We always call Yama "our small dog." He is... especially when compared to Nuki (100 lbs) and Naicha (140 lbs.)

Torsion has been staying with us for a few days, and he enjoys hanging out with Yama. After seeing them together I've realized Yama is not small after all.


Yama and Torsion "forced" to pose for a picture while watching John prepare food. I had to take the picture from this angle so both of the dogs could fit in the photo!

three big red tulips

Spring is here, and we've been finding little flowers here and there all around the house.


There were three really big and red tulips off the side by the front door.


And Yama really likes to sniff them whenever he walks by them!

rock-hard baguette

John bought a fresh baguette for sandwiches. It was 2 days and the baguette became rock hard!

So no sandwich baguette for John. Who likes rock-hard baguettes?


Nuki did.


So did Yama.

play

Nuki and Yama like to run and play in the backyard. Sometimes I even think Nuki acts and plays very "puppy-ish!"


Maybe one of the rules is that only two of each of their feet can touch the ground while playing.

I think the little brown piece by Yama's back feet was a wet pine cone. Shouldn't be a piece of poo.

And maybe Yama wants to be a ballerina!?


"Two feet off the ground" running and chasing funness.

I think they really love spring!

vintage pyrex water bowl

Nuki and Yama's water bowl in the kitchen was a big stainless steel mixing bowl, and we moved it to the "dog room" yesterday to replace the old Club cast aluminum pot that was in there.

I had been looking for another good bowl for their water, but didn't see anything I liked. Then I thought of something.


I decided to use one of my huge vintage Pyrex mixing bowls as their in-the-kitchen water bowl.


My mom (and some of my friends) would probably pass out when they see this.

But hey, this is probably the best-looking and easiest-to-clean water bowl that I can find for my dogs. Yay for vintage Pyrex, and yay for my doggies.

happy sunny day

It's really nice today. The sun is out, and the temperature is about 70. It's totally spring, and totally happy.


Nuki gives a big smile!


Yama, too!

Ahhh... a happy sunny day.

someone REALLY likes the blue ball

Gimme, gimme, gimme the blue ball!!!

Yama loves the squeeky blue ball. He loves to chew on it, chase it, run with it, and carrying it around.


He can do this for hours if we let him!


How big can his mouth get?

Yama REALLY, REALLY, likes the blue ball.

christmas ham bone

I was putting away groceries in the fridge and saw that we still had the ham bone from Christmas! We had wrapped it tight after we cut off all the pieces of ham, and thought we'd give it to the doggies some time soon... but we (almost) totally forgot about it!

John carefully examined the bone to make sure nothing went bad, and then seperated it with his sharp sandoku knife. Half for Nuki, and the other half for Yama. They loved it!


Hmm... bones.

Thank goodness the smoked bone was still good after more than 2 months... the doggies didn't have funny tummy after eating it.

strawberry smoothie

I've been enjoying strawberry smoothies at home quite a bit: frozen strawberries, strawberry yogurt, ice cubes, and some smoothie powder (I think you can substitute this with dry milk) together in the blender. I'd sometimes add some whipping cream to the mixture, too. Yumminess. Hmmm... strawberry smoothies.


and I like serving (myself) my stawberry smoothies in the strawberry yogurt container.

I also love drinking it with a fat straw (normally for bubble teas)!


It's so good even Yama wants some.

snow dogs

It snowed quite a bit on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day... and I belive a little bit of snow continues to come down here and there throughout the weekend (so far).

Nuki and Yama loves the snow! They'd play and chase each other in the backyard, and occassionally settle down in the snow and eat some of it as a treat.


Playing in the snow.


Close up. I love Nuki's expressions!

We do have snow dogs at home!