Wordless Wednesday: He's so chill

At least that's what a couple said when they saw him. ;)
(I'm sorry I put my girly sunglasses on you, boogy, but at least you got attention from that cute, young chick. See? Always looking out for you, bud.)


Today we are participating in the Blogpaws Wordless Wednesday blog hop!

Monday Mischief: Chewed Pencil Edition

This morning, as I walked over to the bookshelf where I had left my glass of water, I looked down and spotted this in Petal's bed:

... What does this say about me?
Heh. Probably nothing good.
But allow me to defend myself. I was, to be fair, asleep when she did this.
Normally I can hear mischief from miles away, even while I'm sleeping, and I fly out of bed to put an end to it.
Seriously, I should have a cape.
Unfortunately my cold has weakened my supernatural abilities and I had no idea she even had access to this pencil until after she got bored with it.

I wonder what the AKC would say about this...


Look! There's even Collie hairs sticking out of it! Ha!

Let's see what Petal has to say about her pencil chewing...

"The cat did it."

The cat?!

"You lying little fleabag! Well! I've never been more insulted in my entire life!"

Nice try, Petal, but the evidence was found in your bed.

I'm still wondering where she found this pencil.
I had a few of them in my purse, from when the local pet store (now closed! :( darn it!) was offering free training classes for the Canine Good Citizen test (which Lassie took and passed);

"I don't chew on pencils."

they were giving out these pencils. I guess they felt they had too many pencils, because she gave me a whole handful of them. I don't know why. She probably looked at me and thought, "She's probably a student, she could use a few thousand pencils!"
Well I'm not a student and I've had these pencils for a year now and haven't so much as sharpened them.
I only have one, misplaced, pencil sharpener and dozens of markers.
So of course I use the markers.

Anyway.

I wish I could say this was the first time Petal ever chewed on a pencil, but that is not so. She has raided our pencil box once before, so we're careful to keep the lid on it.
She never swallows them though, thank goodness. Crayons, on the other hand...
Yeah, I'm looking at you! Miss Rainbow Poop!


"Crayons are good."

Black and White Sunday: Missing you

I miss this sweet girl everyday.


P.S. I made a goal early in the week to start post regularly again,
so of course I get a terrible cold.
Hopefully we'll get back on track this week.




Today we are participating in the Black and White Sunday blog hop hosted by You Did What With Your Weiner, Dachshund Nola and My Life In Blog Years.

Want to join the hop? Just follow the rules below.

•  Link up your blog name and URL using the Linky Tool below. 
• Follow the hosts, and follow as many other blogs on the linky as you’d like. 
• Please ONLY SUBMIT A FEW PHOTOS with minimal or no text, and make sure it’s in BLACK AND WHITE. 
• Grab the “Black and White Sunday Blog Hop” button and include it in your Sunday Blog post.

Wordless Wednesday: Balance

Black and White Sunday: I'm sexy and I know it

That song actually irritates me, but I couldn't stop the lyrics from running through my mind when I looked at this photo. ;P



Today we are participating in the Black and White Sunday blog hop hosted by You Did What With Your Weiner, Dachshund Nola and My Life In Blog Years.

When Collies wear clothes

The other day a lot of you asked about the shirt Lassie was wearing in our wordless wednesday post.

Why was he wearing a shirt, you ask?

The answer: my sister was going through her clothes and decided to dress Petal up in one of her old shirts and a skirt.

But why was Lassie wearing a shirt?

Stick with me here.

I rarely dress up the Collies, especially Lassie. He has so much hair that he doesn't need clothes. Clothes look weird on him.

Unless of course it's a pumpkin costume.

That's just plain adorable.

October 2005.
His pumpkin orange hair matches perfectly.


"Get it off! Get it off!"

Other than that (and a pirate costume the following year (to match my costume! ;P)), Lassie doesn't get dressed up in anything more than the occasional bandana.

Wednesday, however, after seeing all the attention and camera time Petal got just by simply wearing a shirt and a skirt, Lassie became jealous.
Okay, so it was more like he thought it was a really great game and he wanted to play too.
He kept photo-bombing Petal's pictures and barking and tugging at her shirt.
When I finally got the hint and took the shirt off Petal, Lassie was finally able to have his turn being the center of attention. He willingly allowed me to put it on him, even offering me his paws to easily slip through the sleeves, then he posed for the camera.

So to answer the question "Why is Lassie wearing a shirt?" he either...
a) really wanted some camera time
or
b) wanted a turn to 'play with' the shirt
or
c) really enjoyed seeing me laugh again and was willing to wear a shirt to get a chuckle out of me.

Take your pick.
I for one am going for a mixture of all three options, with 'c' as the most prominent one.
But that's just me. ;)

Now it's my turn to ask you a question...


It looks as though there is a fire going in our fireplace. Funny. There isn't, of course. We would die.

So, who would it be? Petal? Or Lassie?

Wordless Wednesday: Anything to be the center of attention

This wordless wednesday won't be completely wordless, because I want to let you all know that Lassie and Petal's vet appointment went really well!
I told the vet what I knew about Ella and he went over the Collies very thoroughly. Everything looked and sounded well.
I can't even begin to tell you how relieved I have felt since we left their appointment.
A huge weight was lifted and that worried/sick feeling in my stomach is finally gone.
Thank you all for your well wishes and for being so kind and supportive through everything.
♥

Off to the V-E-T we go!

Lassie and Petal are in for a fun day today.

Today they're going to the v-e-t.

Since Ella's sudden passing every little thing Lassie or Petal do worries me.

I know I'm being irrational. I know they're okay and I know I'm worrying over silly things.

But they're due for a check up anyway, so why worry?

Why worry over every little thing when I can have them checked out by a vet?

I'm also irrationally nervous about their appointment.

I can't handle any bad news. They better be in perfect health.

Wish us luck.

And wish me the return of my rational mind.

I'm starting to miss it.


"When will she realize I know how to spell?"

Our gratitude

I wanted to write this post the moment I started getting comments from friends and then from friends of friends, but I knew it would be an emotional one, so I put it off. I can't put it off anymore though.

You wonderful people sent me more wonderful people to offer words of comfort?

I am so blessed and so grateful to you.

Every comment that appeared in my e-mail made me cry. I'm so grateful for each one.

I can not thank you guys enough; words cannot express.

I want to give an extra thank you to Janet of Basset Momma and Leslie of Bringing Up Bella. I feel as if you two sent me an army of kind and thoughtful people to offer me their condolences. It made me feel so blessed and so loved, thank you both from the bottom of my heart.

I also want to give an extra thank you to Carly, my best friend. You used nearly every means of communication to send me your love and condolences, and I'm truly sorry I dodged every one of them for days. It honestly meant so much to me, I just didn't know what to say, I still don't know what to say, other than thank you.

Thank you Nola, Brianne, Pixel, Cotton, Essex and Sherman and their Dog Dad, Daisy's Mom, Kim, Theresa & Prudence, Donna, H and Flo, Teje, Cindy, HoundDogMom, Val, Julie, Melissa and Yuki and Rocket, the brown dawgs, Cinnamon and Linda, KSO (Betty), Pauley, and Collie222— I hope I didn't miss anyone— your kind words mean so much to me.

I feel I should give a little update on things around here.

It has been quiet and empty and lonely without my sweet Ella.

Lassie has taken it pretty hard, but you guys would be so proud of Petal. She has really stepped it up over the past few days. She makes sure Lassie and I get up and she makes sure we still go for our walks and we still play and have a little fun. I honestly don't know what we would do without her, but we probably wouldn't be leaving the couch all that often.

She always seems to know when I'm about to lose it and she knows exactly what to do, whether it be cuddling with me and letting me cry, or doing something extremely goofy to make me smile instead.

Lassie has been clingy. Tuesday I ran a few errands with my Mom, hoping that getting out of the house would help, and when I came home I was told by my Dad and my siblings that Lassie actually howled while I was away. He doesn't do that often and usually he's pretty upset when he does do it. 

I took a shower that night and Mom said Lassie cried for me.

He follows me from room to room. He's licked away a lot of tears and offered many hours worth of snuggles.

Lassie is wonderfully understanding when it comes to mourning and he brings me so much comfort. Petal has as well, but she also reminds me that— despite how hard it may be— I have to keep going.

Sometimes going, going, going helps, but sometimes... I really hate it.

How can everything keep moving and going after Ella left so suddenly?

Like she did with everything else in her life, she left so quickly.

One morning I thought I heard her shifting and getting comfortable in her crate.

When I leave the house I look for three furry faces to say "Be good! I'll be back!" to.

When I walk in the door I expect to see her dancing around me with a toy in her mouth.

I wake up in the morning, ready to feed and care for three dogs, and quickly realize there's only two now.

I miss her so much.

Ella - July 2006-August 2012

July 26 2006 - August 5 2012

I know you guys are all probably wondering what happened— believe me, I am too—, but I can only guess and the only guess that makes any sort of sense to me is that her heart just gave out.
It was very quick, very sudden. She didn't even make it to the vet.
I will tell you more of what I can, but... not now.

The Collies and I will be taking a break from blogging.
I don't know how long it will be.

Black and White Sunday

Today we are participating in Black and White Sunday hosted by You Did What With Your Weiner, Dachshund Nola, and My Life in Blog Years.

You dirty, dirty dog

Following a few certain posts, which can be found here, and here, and over here, Lassie felt that I should make something perfectly clear.
While I may allude, here on the blog, to Lassie being a neat-freak who avoids mud as much as humanly dogly possible, he does— supposedly— enjoy getting dirty.
He does— according to him— enjoy the mud.
To some extent.
Now he's sure you won't believe him (I don't believe him myself), which is why he has provided photographic evidence.


Warning: this may come as a great shock to all.




GASP!
IS THAT MUD?!
ON YOUR NOSE?!
THE HORROR!
THE SCANDAL!
Do you have any idea how long it will take me to wash that mud off your nose?!
(Stop your giggling, Petal! He tried and that's all that matters.)


Was my reaction dramatic enough for you, Lass?
Yes?
Alright. Good.
Guess we're done here.

Remember, act scandalized.
;)


Have a wonderful weekend!

So, so sleepy

Ever have one of those days where you feel too sleepy to function as a normal human being functions?

Or so sleepy that everything you type looks like you typed it wrong?

I'm sure everyone has had one of these days, and today I am having one of those days.

But I haven't posted since Wordless Wednesday and I wanna post something.

So I'm sitting here, staring at the computer screen, and thinking, "What to post? What to post?"

But all I can think about is curling up like this for a nice nap.

Which is how this post came to be.
I'll try to think of something better for tomorrow.

Wordless Wednesday: The only treat that has made her drool