Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Happy Birthday Nike!!!

Jubilee, Coal, Nike, Hunter, July 27, 2011
Nike turned 13 years old today. She came to me at the age of 20 months, from California. She has been, quite simply, a marvelous addition to my life. As a young dog, she was a spitfire and a flier--drawing blood in protection work when the helper didn't play by what she considered fair rules.
21 months old
A small girl with compact muscling and bearcub ears, at first she thought the only thing I was good for was throwing the ball. Pets were for in-between ball throws and snuggling was not high on her priority list.
An early training session in Virginia, around 1999







2002 or so, getting her Sch2 title
Nike's first litter--Blackthorn's B litter out of Bodo v Tiekerhook

In her time with me, she produced a number of excellent sons and daughters, and it is an amazing pleasure to see her with her grandchildren nowadays.

2010 -- Nike, age 12, with grandson Lynx, 18 months

Nike, followed by grandson Lynx, grandson Musket, and daughter Hunter, 2010

As she has aged, she has only gotten so she enjoys life even more--people have become a great pleasure to her and she loves nothing more than to find a visitor and climb in their lap on the sofa with her ball.
Coal and Nike, 2010

Nike and granddaughter Macha, 2010

Nike and Jasper, around 2009

Nike and Flint voted in 2008

Nike and Ruffian

Today, I took pictures of her with her son and two daughters--Jubilee (Ash daughter), Coal (Ash son), and Hunter (Alex daughter)--and then we went into town and walked through the aisles of Petsmart, letting her explore and sniff and pick out a few toys to take home. Then I bought her a bag of ice (my icemaker is broken, tragedy!!!) and at home, I gave her a toy, a bowl of ice, and a marrow bone. She wasn't sure what to enjoy first!
A marrow bone, a squeaky toy, and icebones--life is good!

eenie, meenie, miney, mo....

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Yet More Quteness!

red collar girl
I was going to make a substantive post, with thoughts and everything, but I decided that it was too hot for extended thinking, so instead, I will just throw you some more puppy pics!

This smile *kills* me.
  The good news is that the boy and the 2 bicolor girls have found excellent working homes.


on a mission for cuddles...
Little sable girl is looking for a nice pet home--she's not as forward and bold as her siblings, so I think life as an active companion will suit her best.

yellow collar girl, green collar boy
 Yellow girl is a real wild-child--bold, athletic, and full of scamper and win, while her brother spends most of his time looking squishably handsome.

As always, additional pictures are in the picture gallery.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Puppies Are AWESOME

Quick and Quest
Five weeks old today! These guys are wonderful, awesome, amazing--and completely beautiful. I think I get to a stage with every litter where I am unbelievably in love with each and every one of them. I've gotten there with these pups. They are waggy and affectionate and make eye contact and snuggle and like to have their bellies scritched while they wriggle on the ground.

Query and Quarrel
Quick tries to grab my thumb and run off with it. Little Questy (yellow girl) is full of bounce and scamper and fierce. Quarrel (red girl) is turning into a very focused snuggler with mischief lurking in her grin. Sable Query has decided that she likes to be held close and whispered to.

Quarrel

Query
More pictures in the gallery, here.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Q puppies gather for dinner

The Q pups had their first solid food on Tuesday and they took to it immediately. I, of course, videoed it.


Here's a teaser--I couldn't keep from cracking up....




I had to break the rest of the videos up so I could upload them, so it's in 5 shorter parts.

Enjoy!













Friday, July 8, 2011

3 week puppy videos

Almost overnight, they turned into tail-wagging, eye-contact-making, roughhousing, barking, growling, climbing, playing puppies. <3

Last night they were all riled up and making me laugh, so I grabbed the camera and started filming. It's a bit dark but you can see most of the video pretty well.

Today, they were just being adorable, so I went for the camera again.

They were climbing out of the box, so I have set them up with a double-box set up to give them more room.






Red string = Quarrel (big bicolor girl)
Yellow string = Quest (smaller bicolor girl)
Green string = Quick (bicolor male)
no string = Query (sable girl)

Thursday, July 7, 2011

First tastes of food


It was a busy weekend, with guests here for my annual July 4 BBQ and Pool party, we celebrated the 1 year birthday of the O litter on the 4th, and of course, puppies were adored.

Oda supervises puppy snuggles.

Clean-up duty (it WAS her birthday!)

Oda got a prezzie!



Who's a happy girl, who?

Friday, July 1, 2011

Qutest Puppies IN THE WORLD!

This post is going to contain shameless puppy pr0n. Caution is advised. This blog may not be held liable for any noises, urges, impulses, or squees that may occur during viewing of this post. View at your own risk.






Query is not happy to have her nap interrupted



I think that's the boy on the left. You can see Quest's chest blaze.

"Quest"

"Quest" was having a howling fit

"Quest"

"Quest"

"Quest"

Now she's just being coy.
Happy Hunter is SMILEY. :)