Friday was spent down the beach...
Bruza showing off his Happy Face...
And Mac shows off his watermelon smile!
The brothers and Mac squash themselves in the kennel.
Cuddles after a night on the town.
Oh my Dog! Phoenix tries slippin' me some tongue.
Makes sense to us...sort of.
Phoenix & Sahara demonstrate with a broom.
Sahara & Sarah have a cuddle.Both pooshes have been super busy lately, but not doing a whole lot of anything interesting. We've all been testing out new parks around {hopefully} our new home (there's an off leash park literally across the road from {hopefully} the new place) and driving hundreds of kilometers in the meantime, searching for our perfect house. They've had a wonderful reference written for them to add to our house applications, and they've also been learning to 'speak' to show their appreciation for our current estate agent (please note the use of sarcasm). I needn't have worried - Sahara's not her number one fan as it is, and happily bared her fangs when the agent held an open inspection at our house last night.
Sahara is going to be entered for Swanky Pup Of The Week on The Swanky Pup today, so fingers crossed she will be a star as of next Thursday! I just need to choose a photo of her... any suggestions are welcome!
She's loving her new Fuzzyard Crush Proof Hot Ball - she's finding it nigh on indestructable, and as it's a glowing orange in color, it's super easy to spot when she gets sidetracked and leaves it in the boggy scrub.
I will update tomorrow - hopefully with some more exciting news after we spend this afternoon in the city doing some stuff for the RSPCA - they had a ball walking through the CBD and having full attention when we last went in December. And I might even locate my camera (I think it's gone walkabout in my car) and take some photos.
A while back on a sunny afternoon visit to Seah's, we discussed the possibility of welding together a sort of dog cart for the boys to pull (Phoenix & his brother, Bruza), and since then I've often thought of it - especially when riding my bike up steep hills or ending up on my knees when roller blading with the dogs. Last night over the batch of cupcakes we were making, we had a bit more of a chat, and on the way home Chef & I really got to business, throwing around ideas about what sort of tires, brakes and harnesses we would need, and the lightest possible materials we could make it with.
Generally, when it comes to my ideas, I'm considered somewhat mad. So it's nice to get together with with Dog People, because it usually means someone's thought of it first. See here.
There's hundreds of sites for cart driving construction (and instruction), weight ratios for what the dog is able to pull (apparently three times the dogs weight is maximum, which is great considering I only weigh 6kg more than Phoenix), harness requirements and motivation for the dog. It's wonderful! I have visions of myself racing along the foreshore with my big boof of a dog, tongue lolling and saliva flying while I'm in my little sulky, complete with my own little numberplate and flag on the back, yelling such exciting things as 'haw' and 'gee'. I obviously can't be instructing him to 'mush', as that's his release word to eat.
Phoenix's brother - Bruza - has a lovely mummy, Seah. Seah is now working for a lovely pet product company named Fuzzyard.
If anyone's after some quality Australian made products to pamper their pooch with, head to the site and find your nearest stockist!
I had a nice little browse at their website, and so far today I have bought Sahara the Hot Balls, which are apparently 'crush proof' tennis balls for the uber chewer, and a gorgeous pet tag I have had my eye on for a while - she somehow managed to chew through her stainless steel one, and is need of some funky new I.D to match the adorable new collar I just bought her.
Phoenix is the lucky recipient of their Organic Aromatherapy Spray, although I'm debating which 'flavour' to get him - Immunity, Uplifting, Calming or Refreshing. I think I may choose the Uplifting, and hope it fills him with some happiness and light. He's not a happy camper in this weather.
They had a wonderful midnight romp in the surf last night; it got to 11pm and none of us could sleep, so we were soon splashing about in the ocean with an 8 week old Bull Terrier we met down there. Heaven.
When Cleo the kitten came home, she bought a whole party of little friends with her. I'd just spent nearly $100 on flea treatment for the dogs, and nearly had hysterics when I noticed they had little jumping things on them. I immediately called the company from which our flea stuff is from, and was getting ready to have an all in war over the fact they had uninvited guests, but I had the loveliest lady on the phone - she actually knew what she was talking about, was brilliant at her job, and spent a good twenty minutes discussing the flea cycles and their product. It somewhat reminded me of all those house I spent in Horse Studies at school, writing up assignments on bot flies. Anyway, it turns out if I see a flea on the dogs, I need to investigate what cycle it is in, how energetic it is etc to establish if it is a juvenille flea or starting a new cycle. Or something. So she offered to send our free samples to top up their monthly dosage. I was worried if the flea side of the product was wearing off so quickly, it would affect their heartworm & intestinal worm treatment. And hell, it was bloody expensive. So I was delighted to receive 3 free products in the mail today - one for Phoenix (45kg +) one for Sahara (35kg+) and one for little Cleo, whom isn't old enough for any of the products on the market yet. I was also extremely impressed with the free tennis balls she through in - I think I mentioned the fact I have to bathe Sahara regularly as she's a fiend for playing ball, and likes swimming in The Bog Of Eternal Stench to dunk them for added taste. I used the comb she sent, and found several fleas on Sahara - my poor girl! - and one on Phoenix. I washed Cleo yesterday - the bleeding on my arm has finally stopped from her tiny but effective claws - and now I'm wondering whether to bath the dogs now, or wait until this evening. It's 41 degrees, and I'm seriously considering making a pilgrimage to the water and spending the rest of the day immersed in the ocean with the dogs.
I have an absolute fear of fleas. I groom Sahara daily (and I've finally located her actual brush, which is handy as I just packed all my horse grooming gear I'd been using on her) and give her little massages to check for lumps and bumps and so on, and I have never one found a flea on her. Phoenix has a skin condition and is constantly scratching, and he is bathed weekly in a special solution and used to receive steroids, but when he first came home we went through a few days of intensive parasite control with him. It's not the fleas that bother me particularly - it's that the blood thirsty suckers bother the dogs. I'd hate to be eaten alive daily by irritating insects - hence my deep seated and unnatural fear of mosquito's. So I feel horrible guilty for the poor things knowing they've got their little infestation, yet I know with the hot temperatures and long grass it's a fact of life. Still, I plan on making more complaints to companies and getting more samples, as $93 for a month of treatment is ridiculous.
I'm going to overlook the fact I've done something strange to my banner, and instead focus on more interesting things. Or at least add some photos.
So I did something that comes naturally to me. I hit the beach, with my two faithful steeds in tow. Sahara did some hot-man-without-a-shirt watching like the pervert she is, and Phoenix committed to roasting himself evenly on both sides. Lots of swimming and frolicking in the surf was had by all.
