Pathetic Pooch

Happy Friday!  

Don't have much time to post this weekend - lots of teeth to attend to!  That means more crate time than Brutus would like.  I think he has finally gotten over the kennel experience in general.  His barker is still on the blink, though; just a hilarious, hoarse sort of grunt instead of an piercing yodel.  Although I feel sort of bad about it, I kind of like this better - much easier on the ears!

So that I don't leave y'all hanging until next week, here's a few quick photos of The Brute doing his best to look pathetic when he's not the center of attention.  Have a great weekend everyone, and I promise to post the agility pictures early next week!!

How can anyone resist the persuasive powers of such a face??

As I've said before: when the going gets tough, the tough take naps!

Our Prize & Tribute to a Furiend

Like I mentioned at the end of yesterdays' post, we had a wonderful surprise waiting in our mailbox when we arrived home yesterday: Brutus' new collars bought using our Collar Mania gift certificate we won in Sugar's photo contest! 

I have SO been looking forward to doing this post, but I now do so with a somewhat heavy heart.  We received such sad news this morning, that our dear furiend Sugar will no longer be in our blogging family.  Martine, we thank you so much for the collars & for having shared both your joys and sadness with us in Sugar's blog.  We dedicate this post to you in hopes that it will brighten your day!

A box!  You say it's for me?  Cool!!  Isn't even my birthday & I'm still getting presents!!

Can't wait see what's in here!!

Red tissue paper?  Don't we already have some of that?

Oh, there's something inside the paper - I knew that...

Hey - these are the new collars from Sugar you've been telling me about!

I totally NEED new collars (notice I'm currently naked...)

The collars are awesome!  Great colors too!

The purple skull & crossbones are SO me!!

Ooohhh - but the orange one is cool too!!  Decisions, decisions!

So many collars, so little time :)

So we post this in honor of Sugar & Martine, and everyone who is selfless enough to take on a rescue dog!   Thanks again for sponsoring the contest & choosing us as winners - you two will both always be winners in our eyes!  

Homecoming

I'm happy to report that we are all home safe!

Paul & I got in at 2AM this morning, a bit later than we'd planned.  Unfortunately we had to sit on the tarmac in the 113F heat for an extra hour and a half while they cleared a broken-down plane (eek!!) off the only runway that was long enough for us to take off from!  Other than that, the trip was smooth sailing, so I can't really complain (and the 1st class plane upgrade really helped too...).

First thing this morning I picked up the boys from the "spa".  Both of them reportedly did well and looked every bit of their normal selves, as well as very happy to see me.  Mason liked his "cuddle time" and Brutus was all about "game time".  They both enjoyed their Frostypaws and grilled cheese sandwich bedtime snacks.  I did my best to get a picture of Brutus dragging one of the staff out to me - this is the best I could do in the midst of all the enthusiasm (sorry about the lousy photo):

Can you even see Brutus?  He was moving so fast the camera couldn't compensate!  He caught sight of me through the glass & couldn't get to me fast enough :)

Once we got back home, both Brutus & Mason were down for the count.  Don't think they slept well while I was away, and were just so glad to be back in their normal comfortable surroundings.  I had to laugh when Brutus barked, or should I say tried to bark - he is hoarse!  Must have been quite the noisy little guy while I was away; he wore out his barker!!  Brutus & I had a nice cuddly nap, him snoring away on top of me.  My phone was the only thing in reach, so here's a slightly fuzzy picture of our siesta:

ZZZzzzzzzzz......

We brought home some souvenirs, including a black bear stuffie for the boys (like they need another one).  Brutus was more interested in a sequoia pine cone, must have smelled really interesting.  

Going to give my not-so-green thumb a workout & try to grow my very own sequoia from the kit (ha ha). 

Brutus was very intrigued by the sequoia pinecone. Guess what happens next...

Yep, he tried to eat it!  

Supposedly only an little squirrel called a chickaree can open these, unless they are opened by fire.  Guess the pinecones never met a Brutus before...

 Here's a photo of the new stuffie, "Sherman".  We'll see how long this little guy lasts...

Mason with his new buddy Sherman.  After the picture he headed off to enjoy him in the privacy of my closet (away from Brutus).

Hope you all enjoyed Flat Brutus and his travel adventures.  It'll be a while before I need his services again, so he's tucked away for safe keeping for now.  We are all glad to be home and back in our normal routine.  Need to catch up on everyone else's blogs, did the best I could form the road!  I know I've been tagged/given awards by of few of our furiends, so know that I appreciate you all thinking of me & will oblige with the appropriate posts as soon as I can!

Speaking of that, we've got some good posts lined up for the rest of this week, including some long-awaited ones!  We found a few presents waiting in our mailbox (our prize from Sugar's contest finally came - yippee!!), and I also got a CD with some agility action shots of Brutus. 

Stay tuned for all that & more :)

Vegas, Baby!

Today's post is about our last day of vacation.  It is Paul & my 8th wedding anniversary (hard to believe he's put up with me that long already), so we did a few things to celebrate.  We went down to the strip, did a little shopping, had a nice dinner at The Palm & saw a show (The Lion King - very cool costumes!).  Walked around afterwards on the strip, watched the fountains at Bellagio for a while.  Vegas is in the middle of a heat wave, and it was still over 100F at 11PM!!  

Looks like a postcard!

Dancing fountains in front of the Bellagio

Been to Vegas a dozen times, but I still couldn't resist the photo op for Flat Brutus in front of the famous sign!

Just before we left, there was an unusual bit of excitement back at the house.  We had been hearing helicopters overhead, and saw all kinds of news trucks parked across the street.  Turns out that Michael Jackson's doctor (the one who'd been giving him with propofol) lives in the development next door, and his house was being raided!!  Got a few pics of the news crews & paparazzi, couldn't resist including that here!  Gee, too bad I didn't have Flat Brutus along - maybe he could have made the national news: "Crazy lady with cutout dog demands air time" at eleven ... 

Every local news crew was there to film, even CNN was on site.

The paparazzi!

Reporting live from the scene...  

Time to head for the airport.  As a last-minute surprise Paul upgraded us to first class for the flight home, so for once I'm looking forward to the trip (I hate to fly).  Never been so excited to get home - can't wait to pick up the boys in the morning!!

I've been through the desert on a horse with no name...

OK - actually it was a car, specifically a Denali.  But, still....  

We packed up and left the lushness of Sequoia on Sunday morning (after fiddling around with the air pressure in the tires for an hour), and headed east.  After four hours though the barren desert, Flat Brutus reached his next destination:

This is a park you can take in from the air-conditioned comfort of your car (unless you are into desert hiking), and it was a good thing.  The air temperature was around 1o7F through the desert, but went up to 122F on the valley floor. 

Talk about H-O-T!!!!  It was the same kind of kind of feeling you get when you open the oven door & a blast of heat hits you in the face - except it keeps going.  About 3 minutes outside was all we could take.  

Yep, the car thermometer is right, honey!!

In case you don't believe it, here's another temperature reading!

It was "scenic" in its own way, but most striking thing about the Death Valley was it's vastness. 

Here's Flat Brutus at the lowest point in the Western hemisphere - in case you can't read the print on the sign, it's 282 feet below sea level!  Badwater Basin is named for the permanent pools of water (which smell like rotten eggs thanks to the hot spring that feeds them) that exist there.  

It's a good thing that the real Brutus wasn't here - his poor little feet wouldn't have been able to stand the ground temperature (something I read said it was 180, but I wasn't taking off my shoes to check...).  Who'd want to go for a hike with their dog here anyways?? 

Here's some other scenes from Death Valley:

Sand dunes.  What else would you expect to see in the middle of the desert? 

Mineral deposits give these rocks their interesting color.  Maybe it was the heat's influence, but I thought this looked like spumoni ice cream!!

Really?  Guess it's for those dedicated golfers who just can't get enough of the links above sea level...

Makes you feel kinda small when you look at things like this...

We've seen some fantastic things the last few days, and it has been a wonderful getaway.  I do miss the boys, and have called to check on them several times.  All the girls I've talked to keep telling me how much everybody there loves my dogs!  Mason is A-OK as I expected, and the staff sound like Brutus has them wrapped around his little paw.  He can be a handful, so I wasn't sure how he'd go over there, but according to the girls there, "he has little hearts drawn all over his chart".  Hope the dogs are as happy to see me as I am to see them!!

Tree hugging

Paul & I have had such great time on our vacation that I haven't had a chance to post for the last few days!  It's been a great road trip out West - saw so many wondrous things that few ever get the opportunity to see. From the most barren stretches of the country to the most lush, Paul & I have had the honor to experience many things whose descriptions defy words!  It really gives you a new perspective when you stand & look at things that have been there thousands of years, independent (or for that matter, despite...) human civilization.

Not to keep you waiting any longer - onto our mystery location from Saturday morning's post!  Sedona had the best guess; she suggested that it was a California Redwood that was behind Flat Brutus.  Here is where we were:

Very close, but no biscuit Sedona!  That was a giant sequoia in the background!!  Part of the same botanic family as redwoods of California, sequoias are shorter, but more massive than their famous cousins.  We saw several whose trunks were 40 ft in diameter (!!!) and they do not taper as they grow, like most trees do - end up looking like gigantic pieces of broccoli when at their mature "monach" age. 

 

Although the redwoods grow taller, the giant sequoias have the distinction of being some of the oldest and the largest living things on the planet!! 

Can you even see Flat Brutus?  The size of the trunk was so big that I couldn't fit it all in the photo!

Even I get lost in the fire scar of one of the "monarchs".  These giants can survive forest fires, and live on despite this sort of damage.

We had a wonderful time, and will never forget the majestic grandeur of these giant trees.  The national park system is one of the biggest assets of our country, something that every American should experience however they can!   As far as our furry friends, probably best to leave them at home - the parks are best kept in their pristine state without any pee-mail or extra "fertilizer" around!  

Dogs are not permitted on any trails in the park system, so I have been canine-deprived for the last few days.  Here's a few canine companions whose humans were bold enough bend the rules:

This is Coco, who was happy to take a moment to pose for me!

These two pooches hiked up 400 stairs to "Moro Rock", for an almost 7,000 ft-high panoramic view of the park!

Paul & me atop Moro Rock

Maybe some of the rules are for their own protection, since Sequoia has a bit of a Black Bear problem!   I saw a bear within 10 minutes of arriving in the park, but poor Paul was driving & never did see one for himself! 

From Sequioa we hit the road again, and will showcase our next stop with Flat Brutus in tomorrows post!  BTW - I checked on the boys a few more times, and it sounds like they are doing just fine at the "spa"!

Road trip!!

It's been a LONG day in the car!  We left Las Vegas (Summerlin, Nevada, actually) around 10AM, and drove almost 7 hours through the Mojave desert.  Talk about the middle of nowhere!!  Nothing to see for hours, the biggest highlights being the California Agricultural Checkpoint, and the worlds tallest thermometer (sorry my photo of that didn't turn out...) to show that it was 105F.  

No fruits or veggies here, officer -  just us nuts!!

Guess when you live in the middle of the desert, you get to be creative with the road names...

We checked into our hotel around 4PM then (after stopping to drop off our luggage) pushed on another 45 minutes to the attraction we drove so far to see.  Here's some photos of our first day; I'm making it into a little game to see if anyone can tell where Flat Brutus is...  

Any guesses?  Not much in the background, but what's there is a GIGANTIC hint...

Good thing the real Brutus didn't come!

Guess the sign doesn't apply to them!  

Oh well, it's the first doggie I've seen in two days, so I wasn't about to complain.  

Scrappy little guy, isn't he?

Here's one last hint for you.  

That's little ol' me in the picture to put things into perspective.  The sign should give it away for you haven't guessed yet...

It's been a long day, and will be good to curl up under the covers back in the hotel.  The only thing missing is a little warm bulldog curled up next to me!  Gotta go - time to put Flat Brutus back in his envelope for the night!  Stay tuned for more of Flat Brutus' road trip tomorrow!