Ringing in the new year!

New year, new adventures, new problems.  :-)

Last night at 11:48 the neighbors started shooting off fireworks and probably a few were gun shots as well.  Onyx has never been a dog who fears storms, fireworks, etc....  One time this summer a few gun shots went off and she was on my bed shaking like i have never seen before!  Fast forward to last night.  The first round went off and she started pacing.  Second round and she was in our room, on our bed, on top of us.  75 pounds of labrador squishing me.  She was scared.  Shaking so hard the bed was moving.  Panting so fast I thought she might pass out.  When the gun shots started she was off the bed and started pacing around the house and then ended up in our closet.  She has never gone in our closet.  This dog was scared.  We felt so bad for her.  I brought her bed in our room and managed to get her calmed down.  When she finally took the deep breathe and then sighed I knew it was over for the night.  30 minutes of torture for her.  So I'm happy to say Onyx will now be partying hard on the 4th of July and New Years Eve.  She's getting drugs.  Happy drugs so she doesn't have to go though that again.

Happy 5th Birthday Onyx!!!

Our sweet (but big - 70 pounds) Onyx has turned 5!!!!!  Thanks for making us laugh funny dog.

It's love

Heel Oni

Grandpa Glenn has been teaching Cole how to train Onyx. He teaches Cole to have Onyx heel, stay and walk on a leash.

We have had to modify the heeling part after Onyx got made because she was getting choked and I got annoyed because Cole was dragging the dog around the house for 20 minutes at a time. :-)

The life

Sometimes being a dog seems like a nice life.

Happy St. Patricks Day!

I bet you thought you'd see cute little pics of the kids all dressed in green but you wont because today was such mess of a day that I didn't even have time to think about it till the sun light was gone.

The day started off at work finding out that there was a man with a gun in the Elm shopping center and it was evacuated due to him threatening co-workers (the guy got fired from Round Table Pizza yesterday) because that's what you do when you get fired from a job a pizza place. Right? What a freaking idiot. I hope they make him pay the bill for this. Anyways, the SWAT team, sheriff's dept, Auburn poilce, and the CHP helicopter where out in full force since 1am this morning until about 10:30 am. I found out about it when I got to work because I didn't turn the tv on to see the news this morning which is not like me. So anyways, for the first time in months I needed to take the kids to daycare because the Grandparents had some things they needed to do. I dropped the kids off and headed over to work. Got to work, found out what was going one and was laughing because yesterday when that helicopter was circling our house for 20 minutes I was thinking something was going on, but we called and they claimed they were setting up a speed trap on the freeway but I call that BS because the helicopter never once flew over the freeway in that 20 minutes. That is totally unrelated to this incident but still funny since it was two helicopter type things in 24 hours.

So later on in the morning I checked the CBS website and it said that the suspect had moved towards Auburn Ravine. The day care I use is off of Auburn Ravine. I jokingly said to my boss that I hoped the kids were ok. He laughed it off and said oh there fine! Well guess where the suspect was arrested......

Yeah, that's right, in the day cares front yard.

Thank goodness he didn't use his stolen .45 caliber handgun to shoot at police in front of the day care. I wonder if he will get in more trouble because he was on property of a day care with a loaded weapon?

So after all that excitement for the morning lets move on to Onyx. It's been almost a year since she was diagnosed with osteoarthritis in her spine. I wanted to see how everything was looking in there and see if there was any progression of the disease. Well there is only bad news and yes it is worse. She has 3 disc's in her spine that are totally fused together (#2 &#3) now and a fourth (#1) almost there. Poor Onyx. She is only 4 1/2! She still doesn't seem to be in any pain at this point but there is potential still for her to blow a disc or fracture the fusion sites. I am glad we have held off on any rough play with her however she hasn't slowed her self down and I think her spinning in circles is causing the most damage.

Cole has been the sweetest, cuddly little boy today. This morning in bed he told me he wanted to snuggle with me. This afternoon he started feeling warm and by this evening his temp was at 101.8. He is coughing and has a runny nose. Siena's is starting a runny nose as well so I am sure she is right behind him. It was so funny to watch him because he was super sensitive about EVERYTHING. He told me to come wipe his eyes because the blanket hurt him. He kept asking for a "diaper wipe tissue" and all he wanted to eat was fruit and moo cow yogurt. Siena just wandered around fake crying and wanting you to pick her up and then wanted to immediately be put down.

I am glad it is almost bed time. Let's start fresh tomorrow. I know we can't avoid sickness but at least no more helicopters.

kisssing dogs

Siena has officially discovered Onyx and all the fun things that come with a dog. Her most favorite thing to do is try to give Onyx kisses. Onyx has not problem with this.

This last photo cracks me up. Siena has her tongue out and is ready to go and Onyx is trying so hard not to lick her. It just cracks me up!

Cole and Onyx

Sometimes I wonder if Cole realizes that there is a difference between a dog and a human. He treats Onyx the same way he treats Siena. When Cole and Onyx get along it is the sweetest thing. They are nice to each other, Cole doesn't pester her and try to poke her but with what ever toy he has, and Onyx isn't spinning in circles biting her tail and barking.

Yes, even Cole thinks he is supposed to drink out of the dogs water bowl. This is one more reason why we have a gate on the bathroom door.

This is a pretty typical day time ritual for them. As long as Cole isn't driving her nuts they usually will lay next to each other for quite some time.

Happy 4th birthday Onyx!

Meet and Greet

Believe it or not, Siena and Onyx have not had an official meeting since Siena arrived on this planet. Finally last weekend when Cole was snoozing and Onyx was actually home and not wandering around the property we decided to formally introduce them.

Onyx starts with a sniff of Siena's feet.
Then she licks her feet which causes Siena to laugh and grab Onyx's head.

So then Onyx does what she does best. Licks Siena right in the face. That means she approves of Siena.

The crate

This is Onyx's "baby" crate. The last time it was up was the day Cole came home from the hospital. I brought it out for my sister's dog when she was here last week in case she needed a break from Cole. Well Cole decided it was best put to use with he and Onyx in it.

Cole, Onyx, and the hose

I never imagined that a kid and dog could love the same thing so much. Water to be exact. Cole mans the hose and Onyx catches the water. They are both perfectly happy with their jobs.

Cole has loved to "man" the hose for as long as I can remember. He actually gets really upset when you turn the water off. He does not understand water rationing.

And Onyx has always loved to get drenched by the water.

She just stares at it waiting for the water to come out.

It doesn't matter where she gets hit with the water as long as some part of her body is getting wet.

She's really not vicious, she just can't resist a mouth full. As a puppy we would have to be careful at the park because she would attack the sprinklers and those suckers spray out water fast and hard. Almost to the point of getting cut by it. She would just charged right on it and we'd have to pull her back out.

A little break before continuing to waste water.

I put him to work. He leaves way to may disgusting hand prints on the doors.