Lady Flame admiring the pond

Does this panorama make my butt look big?

Just chillaxing on a dreary autumn day

Toby is an expert napper, and he enjoys being covered by a blankie whilst resting his weary head on my pillow. Now, I know where all the drool spots came from;-)

Walter - 50% Pitbull/50% Huntin' Dawg/100% Adoggable

Rob and Walter

Walter is the newest member of our circle of puppy friends. He is our friend, Rob's, newest lovable pup. Walter is approximately 1 year old, and weighs in at around 70 lbs of solid pitbull/hunting dog cuteness.

(Click on the photo set for a larger view.)

It is too bad that Walter lives in New Hampshire, a 3 hour drive away. We miss him already! We can't wait to have him visit and run around with the hounds.

Fear Induced Sofa Sharing

Lady jumps on the sofa growling her fool head off.
(By the way, Lady Flame is muzzled to keep her from "worrying" a wound
on her tail. One more week to go, and she can be muzzle-free.)

Fear can make even the worst enemies share a moment once in awhile. There happened to be a lot of gun fire outside, or maybe it was fireworks. Anyway, Lady became extremely nervous. We were upstairs when we heard lots of growling and a bark from downstairs. I ran down to investigate, because Toby was on the sofa in a drug-induced nap (hung-over from his vet visit,) and I couldn't figure out what the ruckus was about. I saw Lady Flame get onto the sofa next to Toby, as her fear of fireworks overtook her loathing of her little brother. Since she doesn't like anyone near her when she is in panic-mode (or otherwise), and she wanted the sofa to herself, she growled her fool head off. I gave her a warning to stop growling because Toby was there first.

Lady Flame gingerly lays down next to Toby still growling.

Lady decided to lay down, but she was none too happy about her company on the sofa. As you can see, Toby was still out of it.

Lady cannot relax because her "brother" is way too close.

Lady eventually started to settle down, but you'll notice that her eyes are wide open, and she is avoiding eye contact.

Even though she is settling down, Lady Flame is still on the alert.

Even when settling down, Lady has to be peeking out of her semi-closed eyes. There might be some catastrophe that might befall her, and she has to be on the alert all the time. I feel so badly for our sweet pup.

If only Lady Flame could relax, even for a few moments, like her brother,
life would be so much happier for her.

Lady is such an uptight girl, and she has so much fear, 24/7. Try as we might, we cannot seem to help dispel her mistrust of the world. I wish that she could realize that we will always, always, always keep her safe.

Toby's vet visit - aka The Horker strikes again

Toby waits for the vet to see him.

Well, I was awakened to the Horker hacking up bile again at 4:30 am. We decided to take Toby to the vet to see if they could figure out if the plastic bag (containing quinoa muffins) that he ate last week was still in his stomach. The vet suggested an x-ray (which seemed pointless because plastic does not show up on x-rays), yet we agreed to have it done. The vet saw a tiny anomaly in the x-ray (which may not have been anything), and she decided to induce Toby to vomit. Low, and behold, up came three decent sized shards of hard plastic (all with pointy edges.) Ummm... that is not what we were expecting to arise from The Horker's stomach. I immediately thought that it was from the Feta cheese container that Toby ate last year, but Drew pointed out that the plastic has a reddish tint to it, and that it must have come from something else that Toby has ingested. Geeezzzzzzz.... How much plastic is in our pup's gut? And, now we have to be on watch to see if he has symptoms of an impacted gut (not wanting to eat or drink and not passing stool) in case the offending plastic bag plugs up the works further down the line.

Lady taunts Toby with an imitation of his horking motion.

So far, so good. As soon as we arrived home from the vet, Toby enticed Lady Flame to race around the yard. Our big guy was feeling much better, thank you very much. Then, he slept for the rest of the day as there was a sedative in the medication used to make him vomit. We have to give him pepcid ac for the next two weeks to sooth his irritated stomach. Hopefully, he is done throwing up...

A little meet-and-greet at the vet office

All was not a loss as far as going to the vet was concerned. We got to meet some cute pups while we were waiting for Toby's appointment.

There was a Great Pyrenees (who lived up to its breed's reputation by weighing in at 140 pounds (almost 2x as much as Toby weighs;-) This pup was as friendly as could be. We also enjoyed a terrier-lab mix who looked a lot like a wire-haired pointer, and who reminded us of our first dog, Kasha.

Waste not - Want not

Auughhhh.... Toby threw up again, this morning, but by the time Drew could get to him, he had eaten the pile-o-bile, so Drew couldn't see if there was any plastic in it. Geeezzzzzzzz.......

Trick or Treat!

Happy Halloween from Devil Dog Flame & the Dread Pirate Toby!

Okay, we are a bit early for Halloween, but Toby and Lady Flame are so excited about their upcoming Halloweenie Pup Party, that they are trying on their costumes early. One can never be sure what they'll actually wear. Maybe Toby will dress up as a Great Dane, and Lady Flame will be a Chiwennie! Ha!  To create a cartoon of your own pet, go to cartoonizemypet.com.

P.S. Thanks, Veronica, for the introducing us to the cartoon pet site. Fun!
P.P.S. Thanks to Auntie Pat for creating hats for Toby and Lady Flame!