Monday, February 12, 2007

Dogs 'R' Us

Word of the Day:

kobold \KOH-bold\, noun:
In German folklore, a haunting spirit, gnome, or goblin.


I invited Kathi (Katdoc) over for a doggie play date with her two dogs and our two dogs.
Boomer was not in the best mood to greet guests, so he spent the afternoon in Geoff's office.



Dog 'r' us
Three large black dogs...I couldn't tell which one Nellie was half the time!
Kathi and Belle with the chucker thingy
Kathi brought a ball-chucker thingy and Isabelle tried to learn to do it. It's kind of tricky, but Kathi helped.
Gracie
This is Grace. A beautiful, aged Rottweiler with a sweet personality.
Holly
This is Holly. A beautiful aged Lab/what have you with a sweet personality.
Grace and Holly
We had such a great time. What nice dogs. Kathi is like the Dog Whisperer...calm and assertive, and her dogs are well-mannered and polite. And I thought Nellie was a good dog. Well, she is, but these two are awesome.
Grace in motion
"There it goes! I'll get it!"


Nellie mid-bound
"I wanna play, too!"


Fetch!

dog drool on the lens
I had to add this one...Holly had just come by to give a kiss, and left drool on my camera lens.


After the Visit:
After the visit
One seriously tired, aged, Rott/Shep/what have you- dog.


Very tired stare
The thousand yard stare....


You taste like cookies
Boomer didn't really mind being left out of the festivities.
"Hey, little kid...you taste like cookies."

Later on, we took a drive to check on some nests:
Still sitting
The GHO is still sitting. The first day I saw her incubating was January 16, so she has maybe a week to go (33 days average incubation) I can't wait to see those little piles of dryer lint!
Red tailed checking out 275 nest
This was exciting:
Marc (RAPTOR, Inc....LURKER!) told me about this nest right off Interstate 275. I haven't paid attention to it until recently, and today I saw a red-tailed hawk sitting above one of the nests (there is another one just one tree over from this nest) and another red-tailed was sitting just down the hill from the nest. Birds are starting to pair up! The end of this crappy, weird winter is near.
And in that vein, we are awaiting3-6 inches of snow. That's a big difference they were forecasting yesterday. (12-18 inches)




12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yay! The bewds are starting to get together - woo hoo! Spring can't be that far behind. Hope none of us get too much snow. They're predicting a foot or more here. Bleck.
Cool dogs and great photos! Too bad Boomer didn't want to play!

Mary said...

What a great day, Susan! The bewds are pairing up and the days are getting longer (which I love) and the birds are singing louder. Glad you didn't get 12-18! Let's look forward to opening the windows and hanging around outside until 9 o'clock in the evening! Woo Hoo!

Don't you love to see dogs frolicking like that? Boomer was having an off day but my Bella might have reacted the same way. She needs to warm up to large dogs for a while before she's her confident and cocky little self :)

Anonymous said...

O my - so many dogs! I bet it was a blast having them all running around! Love the doggy kiss picture! Keep us updated on the GHOW!!

Unknown said...

Nice doggies.

hey, check this pet ecards

Anonymous said...

Hey Susan,

Thanks again for inviting us - we had a great time! As predicted, Holly and Grace crashed out and slept like babies all evening. Grace fell asleep in the car on the way home, but Holly thinks she has to stay alert to watch for traffic, birds, etc., when I drive.

Stopped at Meldahl Dam on the way home - still no peregrines. I did see a very cold and confused Eastern Meadowlark on a power line just east of Neville. He will get a shock this morning!

Thanks for the compliments - my girls are very good - but it's not magic, it's a lot of hard work. Still, that's the fun of having good dogs - you get to take them lots of places.

Your girls are sweet and funny. I loved how Isabelle wanted to show me ALL her toys.

Where is the picture of her fish?

~Kathi, preparing to brave the
"wintery mix"

Lynne at Hasty Brook said...

Sound like you had a fun day with katdoc (who needs her own blog please!). Gotta love goofy dogs!
What's that GHO sitting in?

Did you hear that "Laura-the Official-Cape-May-Tour-Guide" has offered foot rubs after the field trips?
;)

LauraHinNJ said...

Susan,

Please tell Lynne to stop spreading that rumor! We'll have all of blogland in Cape May along with us!

;-)

Glad the doggies had fun. My Buddy does not play well with others, so I love to see pics of groups of dogs together.

Anonymous said...

I have a soft spot for Rottweilers- I always think of my children's favorite books: "Good Dog, Carl". If you haven't seen them, find them. Isabelle would love them and so would you.

You are SO lucky to be able to go visit that GHO nest! So lucky. I love owls.

Sigrun said...

Years ago we had Rottweiler too. Children and dogs are the best things on the world.

Sigrun

Unknown said...

Cool doggy playday! Love it!

Patrick B. said...

Harkening back to my days of playing Dungeons & Dragons (my geekiness is not limited to birds), Kobolds were a creature that you'd encounter periodically.

Susan Gets Native said...

Pam:
Yep, Boomer needs a bit more socialization with big dogs.
Damn snow.

Mary:
Sunset at around 9 pm...I am waiting none too patiently.

Mon@rch:
I will be stalking that nest until I see some babies.
I couldn't understand why all of my pictures were blurry until I looked at the lens and saw the drips.

Kathi:
We had such a nice time with your nice dogs. We will be inviting you over when it's nicer outside so we can sit on the swing and chill out, instead of standing around being chilly! We didn't get a pic of the fish yet...

Lynne and Laura:
I'm not coming to Cape May unless someone rubs my feet.

Vicki:
Aren't Rotties the best? They look like they could eat you but just want to love you.

Hillside:
We are up to our necks in kids and dogs here.

Liza:
We had a blast. Those were some great dogs.

Patrick:
I did quite a few rounds of D&D, too.
(I was a elven archer with some serious "comeliness" points. That's how we got out of tricky spots...I would seduce the bad guys and then pump them full of arrows)
It's not geeky...it's INTERESTING.