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dogs, Home, postaday2016

The trio of love muffins were so happy to see their Maman! I got smelled up and down, they were serious in their curiosity, there were so many smells, their tails were going a mile a minute, lol. I am very happy to be home.

The gang welcomed us home

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dogs, postaday2016

We’re home and the gang was so happy to see us. My husband had them at his feet the minute he started cooking lol. We are home for a while, but I’m sure the dogs will go back to normal by tomorrow. 

Stanley, Stanley, Stanley

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dogs, pets, postaday2016

When Stanley was a tiny puppy, it was relatively easy to walk him, he followed without a problem and he wasn’t that skittish, the challenge back then was trying to walk without being stopped every five minutes by someone who wanted to pet him and drool over how absolutely adorable he was, and he was adorable, all fluffy like a tiny bear cub.

Fast forward nine months, very few people stop us to pet him and drool over his cuteness. We most often get a wide berth from pedestrians lol. Stanley isn’t difficult to walk as long as he isn’t frightened or suddenly spooked. The problem with the city is that you never know who you are going to walk by and what noise may suddenly pierce the relative silence. When Stanely is spooked, he becomes anxious and all he wants to do is get back to my mother’s house. When Stanley is frightened by a person, he reacts with growling and barking, not very conducive to a pleasant walk. When Stanley barks, I talk to him firmly and calmly, he doesn’t lunge or pull, but he lets everyone know that he sees them. Stanley’s latest move which is challenging is his plop to the ground as dead weight, I have to psyche him out to get him to move, so far I have been successful every time he has pulled this little stunt.

I hope Stanley gets acclimated to the city soon, it gets very tiring walking him, worrying that he will bark or plop to the floor. He grew way too fast.

A trio of faces

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dogs, postaday2016

These faces only a mother can love lol, I’m just kidding of course, I think they are adorable. I have a confession to make, whenever Stanley comes over with his huge mouth open with slobber hanging down from his tongue, either I grab a paper towel to wipe his face before he’s allowed near mine or I tell him to go lay down, anything to not get that gooey slobber on me. Lulu and Jack don’t have that issue, but they have their own foibles. Jack is the mastermind behind holes dug all around the perimeter, taught Lulu and Stanley how great it is to sit on people even if the person doesn’t want to be sat on and the barking even when it’s not necessary. Lulu is stubborn and when she doesn’t want to move, she becomes stiff as a board and dead weight on top of it, trying to physically move her is difficult because she doesn’t help, she makes it as awkward to move her as possible with all four legs straight out. She also wakes you up at ungodly hours in the morning bringing the other two in on her morning wake up call. She leads the brigade up onto the bed, lays her head on yours and snorts in your ear until you move, however I burrow further under the covers and forcefully say “go away” that works most of the time. Thank goodness for the small things lol.

My trio of renegades, I’m teasing, I wouldn’t trade these three for the world, they keep us hopping and make us laugh at least once a day.

Scrambling for space on couches

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beds, couches, dogs, postaday2016

My husband and I do not share the same outlook when it comes to dogs on beds and dogs on couches. He delights in sharing his couch with all three dogs, while I grudgingly set aside space for Lulu and Jack but with Stanley, I draw the line, Lulu sometimes gets the hint that she needs to get off as well. More often than not, when I am sitting on my couch, I have my iPad on my lap, deeply involved in reading articles and subsequently writing commentary about my readings, my iPad and I aren’t conducive to crowding by dog. Jack in his defense has been used to sitting on my lap for the past five years so I try not to put him off, but Lulu is too big to be a lap dog as is Stanley, the two still haven’t accepted that small fact.

When it comes to bedtime, I draw a huge line against having big dogs hog the bed, Jack being only 14 lbs sleeps with us at his own peril. He’s allowed because he doesn’t wake me, no matter what he does, I am sure he comes and goes from underneath the covers and I don’t care, he doesn’t wake me up so he satisfies a prerequisite, do not bother Maman when she is sleeping. Lulu and Stanley are bothersome when they are on the bed and so I shoo them off, while my husband gladly hugs them and kisses them. He does shoo them off when he is ready for bed, but at 5:00 in the morning when Lulu’s tummy’s rumbling, all the rules of “off the bed” go out the window and both Lulu and Stanley stand over your head, licking your cheek trying to wake you in the most affectionate way possible, while Jack sneaks out from where he was sleeping, somewhere underneath the blanket and starts talking to the back of your head, while you try to pretend you’re still sleeping. My husband is much nicer than I, he gets up right away, when I’m alone, I pretend to sleep, to try to stay in bed as long as possible, I usually manage to stave them off until 6:30 which is much better than 5:00.

Getting my exercise

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dogs, pets, postaday2016

   
    
 My husband took me and the dogs for a walk. LOL

 It was his idea which I thought was so sweet, he knows how much I love walking the dogs and for him to offer to take us was a very lovely gesture. It was a great idea because we haven’t walked Stanley on a leash since before Christmas and I don’t think Lulu or Jack have been either, so those two were chomping on the bit, but Stanley was his usual mope yo- bope yo self, walking up ahead and sitting down to wait for us. He is such a mellow dog, Lulu and Jack were on sniff patrol, they acted as if they hadn’t sniffed anything in the park for a thousand years while Stanley lumbered after them, mildly curious. 

It felt good to get out into the fresh air and it was such a mild day in Blandford, a real pleasure to stroll in the park. I had so much fun with my husband and the dogs. It gave me the boost I needed today.

I haven’t forgotten Jack and Lulu

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dogs, Jack, Lulu, postaday2016

  
Aren’t Jack and Lulu sweet together sharing Lulu’s bed? Jack loves his own bed, but he isn’t shy about commandeering the other beds, not at all. When we bought the beds, Jack went and tried them all out before he went to his own bed. He is the little boss man after all and Lulu and Stanley know it. LOL

I tried getting rid of the weird space alien eyes, but the tools only work for red-eye, not wacky space alien eyes. 

I love how much Jack and Lulu love each other, they love Stanley too, but I think they are a little exhausted from the work of raising him. He can be a handful. LOL

The wonder of Stanley

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dogs, postaday2016, Stanley

   
    
 
We have never had a puppy like Stanley, he is unique on so many levels, the biggest surprise for us is how fast he is growing, I know I have said it before, but every time we come back from our travels, Stanley has grown at least an inch and a few pounds. What else is unique? The ardor of his affection, with his size comes his super sized hugs and he can overwhelm you with his vigorous physical affection. I’m not complaining, I love Stanley’s hugs, but with his 50 pounds, you need to be prepared when he decides that he wants to wrap his front legs and paws around you. I might start complaining when he tips the scales at 200 pounds. LOL

He also makes us laugh, what’s really funny is when Jack gets uppity and and yells at Stanley right up in his face. Stanley gets all forlorn and ducks his head down, Jack then walks away like a boss, it is too funny.

Our son was walking the dogs in the park, they came across a snowman and Stanley’s reaction, according to our son, was priceless, he was scared and started barking his big boy bark at the snowman, our son had to walk Stanley over to the snowman to show him, it was okay, the snowman wasn’t a bad man, Mister snowman was a good guy. We laughed imagining the whole scene with Jack and Lulu looking on with exasperation at their little brother.

Stanley is a gift, just like Jack is a gift, as well as our beauty lady Lulu. We are so lucky with our trio of dogs.

Introducing the Grinch to the motley crew

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dogs, Grinch, postaday2015

  
We are such naughty dog parents, our son sent a video to his father showing all three dogs reacting to our life-size  Grinch, Jack wasn’t fazed because he was familiar with the Grinch, but Lulu and Stanley had quite the reaction and the Grinch wasn’t even turned on at the time.

These two videos are mine and by the time we got home, the motley crew had had a chance to calm down and acclimate themselves with the Grinch’s presence so when we turned on the Grinch, the reaction was pretty  subdued, I have to confess that we were mildly disappointed, we were expecting a bigger reaction from Stanley, kind of like the reaction Rex used to have towards our vacuum cleaner, that’s why I said we were naughty parents, we shouldn’t tease our dogs, but sometimes it’s so tempting when you know it’s all in innocent fun. Wait until we dig out our singing Chipmunks! lol

   
 

     

A captive audience in the kitchen

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cooking, dogs, kitchen, postaday2015

   
 
Today is pre-Thanksgiving preparations, making as much as you can get away with so that the oven is freer, the schedule is lighter and your sanity stays intact. So far, I got the brioche dough done, it is doing its second rising, it might go in the oven tonight or at the latest tomorrow morning, the pumpkin pies are in the oven as we speak, the dogs were very excited with that one, they love pumpkin so I had a lot of circling and sniffing while I was busy spooning the filling into the pie shells and later I will be making my butternut squash soup. That should clear my time table quite a bit for tomorrow. I will also have more time to pay attention to our attention demanding beasts.lol

  

Jack, Lulu and Stanley are hovering in the background, focused on not missing anything that may fall to the ground. Wait until tomorrow my canine friends, you will be in sheer heaven because the poultry will be in the oven, basting itself with the blanket of white wine and melted butter I will have drenched the cheesecloth in that will be draped over the bird.

Who is going to be begging from under the table I wonder. lol