Dog Crates

Our dog crates have been used and abused this winter and Lily is now in total rebellion. After six years as a crate-trained dog, she is over it. She's broken out of the crate twice daily for over a week; locks and carabiners can't hold her in. Today I finally bit the bullet and gave her (and Gunther) free reign of the house while we were out. We picked up and but away all toys and papers before we left. I cannot overstate how much I detest coming home to some unknown destruction, be it of a toy, book, or door frame. The dogs behaved themselves so this may be the way of the future.

With the crates mostly empty over the last few days, Ibbie has declared the space her new play area. We all love our dogs, even when they frustrate us and destroy property, but no one loves them more than Ib. I dare say she plays in the crates with the hope the dogs will join her.

For Monday

The Gunther Magnet

Cole's been enjoying the magnetic alphabet set she got from her Pop Pop for Christmas. I found some magnetic boards that we hung at her level.
The space between our dining room and kitchen now serves as a mini play area in addition to an organization station.
Its kind of perfect. She also has a Gunther magnet that she loves. It makes me laugh. 

These Two

In Georgia

We're home! While it's nice to be back in our routine, our week in Georgia was wonderful. The weather was gorgeous and the company was just what we needed. We visited with family and old friends. And ignored our email. The grandchildren on Peter's side are very close in age. Cole had a blast playing with her cousins, the big kids.

  

It's worth mentioning that the former Memphis street dogs are doing well in their Georgia home. Bailey girl has been there for three years and Memphis a little over three months.  You'd never know either of these dogs ever scrounged for food.  They've grown accustom to the cushy life and sleeping on the couch.

They Have Secrets

Four and Five

Today is Gunther and Lily's birthday. Yes, they have the same birthday.  Gunther is five and Lily is four.

Since I've lost my mind, I got them presents. Edible presents but presents. They loved them.

It's hard to believe how small they used to be. Heavens, Lily would cuddle in G's crate. It's just not an option anymore. 

On an entirely unrelated note, every time I hear this song on the radio it reminds me of other songs. And I hear it all of the time because it's being played to death. Recently, I watched this video and it all made sense, it does sound like other songs. (I know I'm a bit behind on this one. Let's blame it on baby time.)

Peggy Sue

Look at this puppy, Miss Peggy Sue!
That face. Those wrinkles. Can you stand it?
Peggy Sue belongs to my mom and Bigs.
She's growing up so fast. 
While we were in Maryland, I just couldn't stop taking her picture. 

Meet Memphis

The Slaton family is growing by one! Meet Memphis.
Formerly Parkway. Found on N. Parkway in Memphis by our neighbors. 

Last weekend Peter's folks heard that our neighbors were fostering a pup looking for a forever home.
A Lab, Great Dane, mutt pup. Just like Lily. Frankly, it was over before it began. 
Kathy named the pup Memphis before she'd even seen him.

After a short meet-and-greet with our pups on Tuesday, we knew this special guy was family.
A few phone calls, pictures, and videos later, it was a done deal.
And Aunt Lisa was headed back to Tennessee.

Friday, Memphis will head to Georgia to meet his family and explore his forever home.
We're so thankful for our kind neighbors and their hearts for dogs.
Who knows where Memphis would be had they not stopped their car to get him off of N. Parkway?

Impatiently Waiting

The Whole Picture

Yesterday, I snapped a lovely picture of Cole: 

Here is what was going on beyond the borders of the picture above:

Atop the dining room table, G was giving Cole all the love. No, the dog is not supposed to be on the dining room table. By no means is he supposed to have a lick-fest on the baby. But both happened. And it cracked our little girl up!

The Morning Routine

Peter wakes up, gets the pups from their crates and feeds them. We go for a walk. When we get home, Peter gets ready for work, I make breakfast, and the dogs climb into our bed. They linger until 8:30 or 9:30 when I force them out.  Tough, right? 

Geez Louise!

Turns out, I'm not the only one nesting in our house these days.

When we returned from our Thanksgiving trip Peter noticed Lily sniffing around the laundry closet with excessive curiosity and immediately knew something was amiss.  Upon inspection, Peter found a hole had mysteriously appeared in our dryer hose. Seeing no evidence of rodents in the laundry closet or around the dryer vent outside, Peter patched the hole with duct tape and let it go. A couple of days later, while I was doing laundry I heard unfamiliar sounds coming from our dryer. Peter checked again and, sure enough, something had chewed another hole through the hose. Upon second inspection, Peter found some droppings. He suggested that the droppings belong to a mouse (he was clearly overestimating the abilities of mice). When I looked I knew it was something a bit larger.

Peter disconnected the dryer from the wall so that we could sufficiently inspect the hose and dryer. After cleaning out the hose we turned on the dryer. Like confetti, dog food and leaves came flying out. It seems the invader was building a nest in our dryer. Not good! Once we finished up inside, Peter went out back with a flashlight to look in the dryer vent again and see if he could find the perpetrator.  To his complete surprise, he found it!  Staring back at him from inside the dryer vent was a fat rat whom was seemingly undisturbed by the company.

When Peter came back inside he told me about his discovery and I was not pleased. As my imagination wandered, I catastrophized a house overrun with evil rats attempting to invade the nursery, much like this Lady and the Tramp scene:

 

I put in an emergency request that Peter call a friend who had dealt with his own rodent issues so that we could  borrow a trap. Despite being late, this very kind friend got out of bed to fetch the trap and put it on his porch for our retrieval. Baited with dog food, the trap was set to catch the rat. So far it's been 48 hours and we have not caught the rat. But we have destroyed it's nest and Lily is ready to serve as executioner, if necessary. She's even spent the last 48 hours sharpening her skills.

A Man and His Dog

Peter raked a big pile of leaves. Lily exhausted herself running though and destroying it. It was a great afternoon. 

Dog Treats

Yesterday afternoon I found myself in a familiar predicament: we'd been to the grocer twice already and yet I was in need of another item. I hate going to the store without a list! Anyway, we needed dog treats. I figured the dogs could live without their treats for another day so I moved on to bigger and better things— like making fruit leather. If you've ever made fruit leather you know its a rather time consuming process, if you haven't just take my word for it. While my fruit purée cooked down, it struck me that I could probably make some dog treats with ingredients I had on hand saving me another trip to the store and at least $10. After a quick internet search I learned I could!

With a combination of seven wholesome ingredients and 90 minutes, we are now stocked up on dog treats. Gunther even assisted me by cleaning up the bits that fell onto the floor. He is such a helpful sous chef.  I'm hoping that the simple ingredients are kind to Gunther and don't upset his stomach. If all goes well, I will certainly be making dog treats again. I may even put the money we save into the pups' daycare fund. 

 

If you're interested in making treats for your own canine friend, the recipe from 17 Apart is simple and easily adaptable to the ingredients you have on hand: 

Ingredients
2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
1 finely chopped apple (or sweet potato or banana or carrots or a mixture of them)
1 beaten egg
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/2 cup cold water 

Directions 
Preheat oven to 350°. Blend flour and cornmeal in large mixing bowl, then incorporate the remaining ingredients until well blended.  Flour a workspace and roll out dough to desired thickness. Cut cookies into desired shape and size (I used biscuit cutters to make 1" discs for Gunther and 1.5" discs for Lily). Place cookies on greased baking sheet and bake for 35 minutes. After baking, turn oven off and leave cookies inside for another 30-45 minutes until crisp.

Q. and the G.

This weekend we had the pleasure of visiting Peter's family in Georgia. While it was nice to see everyone, Q. stole the show! At 5+ months, she is quite expressive. And amused by her feet. Other than ceiling fans, they may be her favorite entertainment. Every time I got the camera out, Q. was game! She is quite fond of both barrel laughs and serious faces. 

While Peter and I loved getting to see our growing niece, not everyone was delighted. The G. struggled. To be clear, G loves babies. He would lick Q.'s head, face, fingers, and toes every chance he got. He even scaled a couch in order to be near her. Something about babies drives Gunther wild! Of course, we had to control him because crazy animals and babies don't always play well together. And as a result, he spent most of the weekend like this: 

He doesn't do so well at second fiddle. Poor G.

The Talk

I told Gunther I have to go back to Nashville soon. It didn't go over so well. He was upset. Confused. And angsty, as usual. I got back on his good side by throwing the ball a few times, or so I thought. He was back to his reclusive self in no time. 

The G

Just another typical day for Gunther. It's not exactly the hard-knock life!

Moving is Messy

{I'm just keeping it honest, people.}

Since I don't have a job, I taking my sweet time packing. A little here, a little there, a big mess everywhere! I am moving Friday. Not next Friday or a couple Fridays from now but this Friday. I have less than a week. In preparing for this move, no part of the house safe. I leave a path of destruction wherever I go.

This happened to my closet about a week ago and I have not even started packing clothes.
I've been leaving piles all over the house.
I'm not sure what to say about our bathroom. It's bad. And you can't tell from the picture, but our toilet is actually in two separate pieces {that's not related to the move, Peter is fixing the plumbing}.
Through it all, Gunther and Lily are my helpers or more my encouragers.
Gunther likes to support me from his box.
Lily prefers the couch. With a pillow. She is very fancy.
I think they are both afraid to move from their safe places for fear they'll be buried alive or boxed and taken to Nashville.