bring on the night

last night was the first not unbearably hot evening we've had here in quite a while so we attempted to enjoy some peace & quiet on the patio...

sometimes our ideas do not at all intersect with the dogs' ideas.

the glamorous life

this is our sweet, handsome, soft as cotton, huggable benny...

and this is benny's preferred look...

yes people that is what you think it is (clearly phineus doesn't want to believe it either).  benny likes to what we refer to as "put on a poop suit" as often as he can, usually at least once a week.  sheila e's life ours is not!

mr. loquacious

dear gravy is benny talkative, which is ironic since he can't hear a blessed thing, and i use the word talkative because it really does seem like he's just chattering away.  for some reason his mutterings ring as less annoying than just all-out barking but it does have a way of breaking you down eventually. 

i gotta give it up to violet - i would have let him have the bone just to shut him up.

it's a good thing he's not really an egg

it's hard to really concentrate on a book when this is what goes on next to you

violet's blooming

violet had her surgery and yesterday she had her 3-week follow-up where we found out that while she’s healing well she will definitely not have a fully functional leg, although it could prove helpful for balance and some other leg-centric activities.   the biggest issue is that violet seems to have written the leg off completely – won’t use it, won’t look at it, won’t have nothing to do with it, to the point that she many times lets it drag behind her and the sores and ground-down nails that result are of no consequence to her. 

up until yesterday i’ve been mostly concerned and worried about her just getting to live her life.  now that she’s been given the go ahead to return to basically full activities (which are fuller here than she probably is used to) i’m excited to see her start to thrive.  in a nutshell we’re going to do the things we can to try to get her to use the leg and if it becomes dead weight for her or is a continual problem trying to keep her foot safe then we’ll have it amputated.  since we’ve had two 3-legged dogs and countless 4-legged dogs we’re fine with either scenario as long as violet gets to live the life she should have been living from the get go. 

she’s such a sweetheart and so loving that i feel like a bit of a jerk for being upset about her joining our family (before i knew her) but it’s not the first time i’ve felt that way and it probably won’t be the last. 

i do have to interject into violet’s post to let you know that carly is the true star of our family.  i’ll save the whole shebang for another post but let me just say that she has been a fantastic ambassador to the new introductees into our family, as evidenced in this video…

once more with gusto

tired of carly & benny yet?  no, okay good - here's a little montage for ya!  i promise after this i'll move on.

dog days of summer

i know i've been light on the posting of late but at this point in the summer the dogs do little interesting beyond panting and sleeping, although i have managed to capture benny & carly in action a few times...

hope you're all enjoying your summer and having a wonderful holiday weekend.  

grabbing life by the back fat

speck does not get a moment's rest from benny, which i believe we can accurately refer to as karma!

9 out of 10 dentists agree

while 93.75% of our family adored benny from the get go there was one that was not only not impressed but downright scared of him.  as fearless as speck seems she is actually terrified of new people and new dogs, the only exception being carly who she adored right from the start (go figure).  speck spent benny’s first few days running away from him and hiding under things.  because murphy’s law is what it is benny was drawn to speck right from the start and followed after her incessantly.  apparently benny’s eggy charms proved irresistible and sometime after the first couple of days she and benny became thick as thieves.  they.do.not.stop…ever!  with every move you make you have to watch your step because there will inevitably be two drunk midgets rolling right around you.

speck for the most part has the upperhand but in benny’s defense she’s like a 40-lb cinderblock and so low to the ground she’s hard to knock down. 

barking up the wrong tree

i haven't posted about benny in a while through no fault of his own - i've got a ton of video that i need to get edited so stay tuned for that.  he continues to be an amazing little man.  this is just a quick clip illustrating that regardless of how adorable he is indi is still not interested in his antics (and that he can be clumsy).