Puppy shots & new puppy bed!

It was gorgeous yesterday and we knew the snow was coming again so we took Kali & Uma to a nearby, relatively secluded park where we could play and do some training. Tom decided to chill out in the sun for a bit but Uma took it as an invitation to try to jump on him...

Uma's still growing of course... up to 25 lbs now. She still wants to snuggle with Kali but they're running out of room on Kali's bed. I picked up some more upholstery foam so I can make a bigger bed...

Napping in the sun...

Something wrong here... while I've been working on making a cover the two foams were individually covered with old bed covers but whenever the girls wrestle the beds end up flying all over the place. This time the beds somehow ended up stacked with Uma victoriously hanging out on top... probably one of her few victories...

This morning I finally found time to work on the bed cover. The girls were a hassle of course, trying to help with the pinning, climbing under the table where the pedal is (Uma at least), and just generally hanging around.

Here are the girls snuggled up on the new king-sized puppy bed. One of the foams was a bit smaller than the other so I might stuff the bed to make up for it. It's a thick, smooth, soft fleece on one side and the grey side is a fuzzy, woolier fleece.

Mooks has been feeling like a bit of a neglectarino on this site so I thought I'd slip in a cute shot I took of her... She's still ruling the roost of course, but Uma likes to push it.

Yard Work

Last weekend it was so beautiful that Tom and I took advantage of the weather to do some yard work. The previous owners kind of let the trees go, and many of them were planted too close to the house, or fence, or randomly jutting into the yard. We're clearing out most of them so we can put in a vegetable garden and leave room for the dogs to run around.

This is a shot from the backyard towards the door and shed that provides the back of the carport (a bit of a needed sound barrier as well). The sliding doors lead to the bedroom.

A view from the deck towards where the last shot was taken... By this time the trees have been thinned quite a bit from what they were, but they'll be gone completely. We were going to keep the one in the very corner but after trying to clean it up we realized that it's not going to be very salvageable (and I got really frustrated with thinning it) so we're going to put in something like a Japanese maple... something with a nice simple trunk and canopy that develop all kinds of suckers. Both Kali and Uma have been up on the deck and find it pretty nice for sunning... although the stairs are way too narrow and rickety to be safe and Uma fell through them on her first attempt up.

This is the deck and back of the house... no idea why there are no windows out here but that will be changing soon. We're shaving off some of the deck to make it narrower and free up more yard, extending it out to cover most of the back, and adding a single patio door on the right. This crab apple tree is one of the two we are keeping. The deck is actually in rough shape with some rotting boards so we're going to redo it completely and put in some safe stairs that will lead off this corner by the tree.

View of the far corner and Tom working on clearing out a second apple tree... it's still a work in progress. You can see the pile of brush we've already cleaned at this point, and it's still growing. The brush pile is over the area where the garden will be.

View from where Tom was standing showing the width of the yard. It's a good-sized yard but most of it is length rather than depth. The girls spent most of the day outside with us helping to remove branches by chewing them... sooo helpful.

A final backyard shot looking down the far side of the house with the second entrance.

We just got 10+ cm of snow last night so the yard doesn't look like this anymore... so much for the hint of spring...

Another Puppy Update... wow, 12 weeks old already!

It's kind of hard to believe Uma is already 12 weeks old, but she's growing like a week. She's close to 25 lbs now - 10 lbs more than when we got her a month ago! Some days it seems like I go to work and a she's scrawny, and by the time I come home she's visibly grown... Last monday we took her in to get her second round of boosters - only 1 more during the first week of April and then we can finally start taking her to fun places like puppy parks. She's still not quite sleeping through the whole night, usually waking up around 4am. Tom suspects that might be when the buses start going by and wakes them up because it certainly isn't my alarm clock or when they get fed. She had a bit of a relapse with the house-training during a cold snap we had last weekend but seems to be back on track now that it's nice and warm again (+7ish the last couple of days!). Uma's also doing quite well with walking now... we've had her out for a few 1 hour walks around the neighbourhood. Fortunately she loves copying Kali so leash training has been mostly a breeze although if Tom & I walk them together (1 dog each) there's a bit of pulling going on because Uma wants to walk beside Kali or hassle her.

Tom chilling with the girls:

When we had the cold snap I bought some fleece to make Uma a little puppy coat so she'd go out easier/longer... I got a bit lazy (and I needed it fast) so I only threw in a few stitches and ended up making a puppy cape (she'll out-grow it soon anyway). Meet Super-Uma!

I love this picture because it's hilarious. Mookie was sauntering by, considering snuggling Kali and I caught her mid-yawn. I love it because it looks like she's attacking them...

Zoom back to previous posts to check out the comparison of this shot with when we first got Uma to see how much she's grown. I'm sure they're wondering why we're always snapping pictures of them... especially when they're sleeping...

Uma's big enough that she's having trouble fitting onto Kali's bed. I picked up some more upholstery foam and fabric and I'm working on extending Kali's bed into a double-puppy bed so she can sleep without having Uma on top of her...

Tom and Mooks snuggling, also wondering why I keep harassing everyone with the camera...

Puppy Update

We've had Uma for a week now. Uma's been busy getting used to the house and learning all kinds of things. By the second day she had picked up on her name and started getting used to going outside instead of peeing on the floor... although we still had trouble getting the timing and signals down... and she had trouble navigating the steps to the door. This weekend she's big enough to get down the stairs on her own and I think she'll be pretty much house-broken from now on. She also had to get used to being in her happy-fun place (a.k.a. crate). She had trouble sleeping through the night most of the week and often woke up at 4:30 (fortunately Tom was sweet enough to take care of the middle of the night problems). Since about Thursday though she's been sleeping in until 5:30/6ish when I get up for work anyway.

Kali spent the first few days trying to avoid Uma, but Uma's persistence has paid off. They now nap together frequently...

... and they've become great friends play together all the time!

Mookie's been doing well too. Uma has been a bit hesitant about approaching Mooks, but they've had a few encounters where Uma got put in her place. The only problem we've had is that Kali's decided to try to push the pecking order too and has been trying to gang up on Mooks whenever Uma tries to check her out. Overall they're all getting along and Mooks can go wherever she wants mostly un-harassed.

... and sometimes all four of us get to hang out together.

Complete Overhaul

We had a pretty busy weekend... had friends over Friday & Saturday night, helped another one move Saturday morning, and then both Saturday and Sunday afternoon were filled with the last in our series of bike maintenance classes at Bow Cycle. This one was the Complete Overhaul, so we got to dismantle, clean, assemble, and adjust our bikes. It was definitely worth taking because I learned a lot and got to reinforce what I learned from the previous three classes... and best of all my bike hasn't been this clean since I bought it and it's ready for summer! No waiting to get it taken care of at the shop and we can do it ourselves now.

New Car....

Well... we bought a new car. After having our car in and out of the shop all month we were told that our engine was down to 3.5 cylinders and failing. Replacing the engine with a used one (with more km than we had!) would have cost just about as much as the car was worth so we headed out to check out a few used CRVs and ended up buying this pretty one. It's a 2006 with less than 40,000km on it so we're hoping it will last quite a few years... sure put a damper on our reno budget though.

I mostly took this shot for a picture of the front of our house. We're getting some new windows next month and might paint it this summer since neither of us are a big fan of peach.

More puppy pictures

Well, we brought Uma home on Friday. Kali wasn't so sure of her and mostly just ran away from her and growled when Uma got too close. Of course, Uma was fascinated by having another Ridgeback and just wanted to play and cuddle. Uma & Mooks haven't interacted too much yet. Uma's watched Mooks from a distance and wandered after her once, but no face to face. Mooks has been only slightly more scarce than usual.

When we went to pick up puppy stuff we saw a little bunny that matched the one that Kali had so we had to pick it up for Uma... but when Uma got home she ended up romping around with the big one and Kali was checking out the little one... I'm pretty sure in this shot Kali's saying "Why am I stuck with the little one?".

This morning they were on a bit better terms with Kali growling a bit less and letting Uma get closer. Uma keeps trying to crawl into Kali's bed, but she's not having any of that quite yet (although Uma will probably wear her down). Apparently it's okay for them to sleep near each other with a "mom barrier"....

And once they were settled for a while I was able to sneak out and leave them on their own beds next to each other.

Meet Uma

We picked out our puppy this weekend! We decided on the little ridgeless girl. Meet Uma Makena (or just Uma). She was born on Dec. 16, 2008 and gets to come home with us on Feb. 13. She was a lot more active this time, in fact all of the puppies were. When we showed up we were swarmed by 11 litttle puppies all trying to jump up for snuggles and nibbles.

We were initially deciding between the ridgeless male (left) and Uma (right). They're both adorable, but Uma ended up having some traits that we decided we liked better... besides looking exactly like Kali did as an 8 week old puppy.

For example, we got to take both of them out individually from the pack. The little male went right for our shoes and started trying to chew them... Uma on the other hand went off exploring, figured out how to navigate the couple of stairs by herself, and entertained herself by playing with the pillows and an empty plastic water bottle.

The top two puppies are Uma and her ridgeless brother playing outside.

Anyway... should be interesting getting Uma home and introducing her to Mooks and Kali. We've tried telling them that she's coming, but I don't think they believe us yet. We'll post more pictures next weekend!

Birthday Puppy

Tom decided to get me a puppy for my birthday this year now that we've got our own house. It's going to be another Rhodesian Ridgeback of course... ridgeless again even. The breeder is Kariba Ridge and they have two ridgeless puppies for us to choose from (out of a litter of 11) - one boy and one girl, but we're not sure yet which we will choose.

The little puppy on top in the red collar is the female. She's really sweet and shy, but got a bit rambunctious once the other puppies all went back to bed. She reminded us a lot of Kali in her looks and temperament.

Close-up of the girl:

This little guy was a bit more out-going and feisty than the girl... probably will be a bit of a trouble maker, but then he crashed hard and became a cuddler (definitely a big selling point if you know me!). When I tried to put him down to go he crawled right back into my lap.

Any votes on which one we should choose? The girl is very mellow and sweet, just like Kali. The boy is a rambunctious cuddler, and may possibly develop some minor attitude, but nothing we wouldn't be able to handle.

Tour the new house...

Tom and I have now had our house for a week... we've been there every day painting and starting to put in hardwood floors in the upstairs bedrooms. Apparently we forgot to take pictures of the front of the house and the backyard so I'll post those later. The house is 1080 sq.ft, located near the University and a bunch of really big dog parks. It's a 1960s bungalow and some of the features definitely show it... some we like (like vaulted ceilings) and some have already been ripped out... We'll post more shots of the updates as we get various rooms done.

Entryway complete with little milk door under the window:

Kitchen, in need of a make-over for sure. It's a bit cramped and the cabinets aren't super functional. The appliances are fairly new at least!

Kitchen skylight:

This is the divider between the living room and kitchen, totally wired up for power and provides some much needed extra storage.

The living room and other side of the divider .... with the lovely faux fireplace covered in some yellow-green laminate. We've ripped off the laminate and it looks much better already. Eventually we want to replace it with a real gas fireplace.

Upstairs hallway:

Master bedroom with sliding glass doors that open onto the deck:

The ensuite off the bedroom (or pee closet as Tom has named it since it's really about the size of a closet and very ugly).

The two other bedrooms (and one of the closets... all of the closet doors were removed and just had ugly drapes covering them).

We'd like to redo this main bathroom as well... obviously the people who were here before were quite short since the showerhead is about shoulder-height. Down to the basements... with this lovely painted wood panel and un-insulated walls. Behind that door is a downstairs bedroom: Tom's new workshop is in the basement too: View towards the other end of the basement and laundry room door: Laundry room, furnace room (door to the right) and downstairs bathroom: Basement bathroom: