He got to meet his breeder, Anne yesterday and Anne’s husband.  He was quite happy to see them – and I think the feeling was mutual! They had a good visit and then her highness and Glenda got to meet the land sharks.  The FG didn’t meet them – but he sure liked the smell of them afterwards! They are apparently cute as buttons.  Whatever that means.  Anyway they are SUPER outgoing, adventurous, and although they DO like to chew on humans, they also enjoy a good cuddle. Here are just a few shots taken of a couple of them in a rare non-moving moment!

I must confess- they ARE pretty cute.  But I also repeat – my human is NOT coming home with one.  I think the three of us keep her rather busy enough!

Today they’ll visit the puppies again and then start making their way back home.  Rumor has it they stopped at an interesting shop yesterday  – and I’m hoping it was to buy some guilt gifts. Not that we REALLY need guilt gifts – we are having a great time with Char- but we’ll take surprises any time. The shop where they stopped is a combination dog supplies/grooming/day care/ human snack bar. When they came in, there were three small dogs running around to greet them. The FG was reportedly well behaved, despite the fact that one little guy was not impressed with the big Picard.  The FG just ignored him.  And he was pleased to get some complimentary treats.  This photo is a bit of a tease…

The adventure continues…

Have a good one! Peace and paws up.

Seizure free days: 12

They drove for about 9 hours – through three provinces – Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and a good part of Quebec.  And of course they had to stop at important landmarks along the way.  Like the Potato World Museum – where they were thinking that they might see the World’s Largest Potato.  There was no big potato.  It must be in PEI.  But that town also happens to be the French Fry Capital of the World. So here’s the FG with big French fries. Nice.

He took photos with other big things – like a moose and an ice cream cone.  Neither were real – in case you were wondering. 

Then he got to go on a ferry ride to Quebec City. He reportedly was a good sailor.

In Quebec City he posed with doors and stood in front of historic buildings. 

 Her highness took the door photo and then a man asked if he could take a photo of the FG too.  With his wife.  It got to the point that my human could have made some money charging people to take photos with the FG.  At one point my human went in a store while Glenda stayed outside with the FG.  My human looked out the store window – and couldn’t see the FG- he was surrounded by kids.

They ate at an outdoor cafe and the FG just laid by the table.  My human couldn’t believe it was the same dog as the one who runs like a banshee if he escapes through the front door.  He was SO well behaved.

Here he is in the hotel.

 The sheet is wrinkled because my human always takes sheets to cover the bedding.  Mind you – the hotel actually provided him with his own bed, bowls, poop bags and even biscuits.  Was he lucky or what?!

Today they will be on the road early to meet the FG’s breeder.  I wonder how that reunion will go.

Meanwhile we have been behaving brilliantly. There was an episode with a June Bug… but we all survived! We love Char!

Have a good one. Peace and paws up.

Seizure free days: 11

We knew something was up with all the cleaning going on the past few days.  That’s always a telltale sign that something is about to happen.  Then when our dog sitter extraordinarie arrived last night, we knew why the place was so clean.

We love our sitter, Char.  She KNOWS dogs very VERY well – so we are in very good hands.  In fact, she knows SO much about dogs, she is an interesting human to train.  She’s smart and doesn’t dole out treats for no reason.  I actually work for my treats. Can you imagine?   She’s super nice, and gives me TONS of belly rubs but she’s no pushover.   Char’s kind of the “Border Collie” of humans – quick to learn and fast on responses.  She is the PERFECT sitter for any dog – but especially for clever dogs like us PONs.  She’s also a much-in-demand sitter- she must have liked us the last time she was here – because she came back.  Guess I had better be on good behavior…My human feels totally at ease when she leaves us with Char.

As for the FG – he and her highness are apparently headed to Quebec to visit the FG’s breeder.  I told him he is being returned.  You should have seen the look on his face.

But he is NOT being returned.  It seems the FG’s half brother became a Dad – to a lovely treasury (litter) of  eight beautiful Picard puppies.  And before you read ANY further – NO – they are not bringing one home.  I mean can you imagine this zoo with another canine kid?!  No – they are just going to pay a visit.

Given that Einstein and I have been on several road trips over the years, I guess it’s only fair that the FG get one.  PLUS, Glenda the dog whisperer is going with them.  She’s another Border Collie human.  She’ll keep the FG in line – no shenanigans in the hotel room.  They better take pictures.

Meanwhile,  we’ll hang out with Char and guard the plantation.  No veggies yet.  I wonder how long it will be before Mr. Rabbit finds the buffet.  We’ll keep watching.

Have a good one. Peace and paws up.

Seizure free days: 10

On Saturday, my human spent the day getting those boxes ready to plant her vegetables.  Which I will refer to from this point on as the plantation.  Two 4 by 4 foot boxes.  Just to give you some perspective.  She bought a few sad looking plants on Friday and had to go yesterday to purchase more plants.  This will be interesting.

Anyway, on Saturday night, when it was time for our last pee, she took me and Einstein out at around 9:15. It’s still not dark dark yet- but it is definitely dusky.  And for some unknown reason, she took us off leash…

Now some might say that what happened next was just me being naughty.  I, on the other paw, argue that I was protecting the plantation.  You see, we came around the house to the back yard where the plantation is located, and we had an intruder who could be a threat to the crops.  At first, Einstein spotted the intruder.  But he didn’t care.  And for one one hundredth of a second, my human actually thought I would ignore him too.  I’m not sure WHY she would EVER think that.  It was a bunny.  A BIG bunny. And before my human could finish pronouncing the “V” in Viktor, Bugs and I were off.  Into the woods. And it was quickly getting dark.

Her highness futilely called my name.  Did she really think I would come back?! Einstein just stood next to her looking into the dark woods.  She shouted my name and then shouted “OK- no treats for you.  Come on Frodo -let’s go get some TREATS.  Frodo will get ALL the TREATS.”  I am not joking.  That is exactly what she said.  I couldn’t make this stuff up.  When I still didn’t materialize, I then heard her saying some non-printable words, and they went into the house.  

She went in to grab a jacket.  She fully expected that I would be waiting at the front door.  She opened it expecting to see me, but she just met some mosquitoes.

She marched around the house- shouting my name repeatedly.  Like I didn’t hear her the first 12 times.  She walked to the edge of the lawn and stared into the woods.  She could hear the feint sounds of me thrashing through the brush.  It was getting dark fast.

I think it was at this point that she started to plead.  And I was getting a bit hungry for my last snack of the day- so I bolted out of the woods and ran past her highness to the front door.  I had mud up to my leg pits and sticks caught in my coat.  I had also gone out without my tick force field bandana – so my human envisioned me as being totally infested with the vampires.

So when she opened the front door, I guess it shouldn’t have come as a surprise to me that I was whisked into the grooming torture palace. I figured I would get a simple brushing and be on my way to my late night treats.  Imagine my shock when she lifted me up and instead of putting me on the grooming table, she swung around and plopped me in the tub.  And we are not talking a simple rinse.  We are talking the full shampoo and blow dry with the dryer that has the jet engine. If there was a tick on me, it was blown across the room.

After the spa treatment was over, she still gave me treats.  For cooperating during the clean-a-thon.  So all in all, not such a painful event after all.  The bottom line- her highness was just relieved I didn’t encounter any porcupines on my adventure.  Always look at the bright side!

Besides that adventure, something is going on here.  It’s a major cleaning blitz.  So that either means company- or her highness is going somewhere.  Stay tuned!

Have a good one. Peace and paws up.

Seizure free days: 9

But I do have to make a shout out this week because there was a big event in human sports – and a Canadian team won.  It was in basketball.  And as I understand it, it was a really big deal.  Because although the sport of basketball actually originated in Canada, no Canadian team has ever won the National Championship.  Until this year.  When the team from Toronto, the Raptors won the big ball.

Humans across Canada went crazy.  I mean really crazy.  The team logo- We The North – was shouted, displayed and shared everywhere.  It evoked a sense of national spirit – even in non-basketball fans like me!

So to mark this basketball moment – I found some canines shooting hoops.  Here’s a variety of dogs using canine sized balls and hoops:

Pretty cool.  But then, of course, we have a Border Collie playing with human sized equipment:

Seriously.  Is there ANYTHING those Border Collies can’t do?!

Anyway, cheers to the Raptors and all their crazy fans.  Humans are so interesting…

Meanwhile, yours truly found himself in the doghouse last night.  Well, I ended up IN the doghouse because I was OUT of the house.  Tune in tomorrow to see why I ended up getting a BATH late last night…

Have a good one.  Peace and paws up.

Seizure free days: 8

When I went to take my shots yesterday , it had just rained.  So this is my Wet Nature Photography Day.  With a few extra shots thrown in for good measure.

Wildlife in nature is hard to capture. I didn’t see any bunnies but I did get a few elusive creatures.  Like this turkey vulture taken down the road a while back.  They are kind of ominous looking but apparently not dangerous.  They like to eat road kill.  We canines would prefer to roll in road kill- so we have a common “like.”

Here’s another creature.  A pileated woodpecker.  He’s hard to see but you can make out his red head.

Then we have the “disappearing wild coy-dog”.  He’s blurry – I was lucky to get this shot as he popped up behind his rock.

Now for some close ups.  First we have a tulip.  The one and only tulip in our yard.  And she still thinks she can grow vegetables…

Here are some wild flower things on our property.  THOSE we grow easily.  

Here’s a close up of moss.  The FG LOVES to dig moss…

Here’s a web.  A wet web. Before I peed on it.

This is a bunchberry.  I thought it was a Mayflower.  They’re all little white flowers to me. You find these in our woods.

These are water drops on Larch.  Larch looks like it has needles, like an evergreen, but it turns yellow in the fall and the needles come off.  They have just come back out!

These are rocks.  Very pee-able.

I like lichens….

I must include a hosta.  We have lots of them.  Her highness likes them because you don’t have to do ANYTHING to them.  And they always come back.  They completely withstand dog pee.  Lots of people can’t grow hostas because deer like to eat them.  Guess the deer don’t like hostas covered in dog pee.  Score one for the pee kings.

And lastly,  we have Einstein’s favorite.  Get it?

OK.  That’s it for this year. I know you humans like to take the “big view” of nature- but sometimes you really need to take a dog’s eye view of things.  Yup – another canine lesson. We teach you so much…

Have a good one.  Peace and paws up.

Seizure free days: 7

We seem to have stylists in our midst. And her highness is not too impressed.

I mentioned the other day that the pollen has been crazy this year.  I don’t ever remember our deck being covered in a film of dust like we saw the other day.  And I think that’s why Einstein has been overly obsessed with his feet.  They must be bothering him with all the pollen.  He has been licking and chewing at them which he has not done in years. And to make matters worse, her highness caught the FG chewing at Einstein’s feet too!  She heard this clicking sound and looked and saw the FG gnawing on Einstein’s hair on the top of his feet.  As you might expect, she told him to stop.

But the attractive styling didn’t stop there.  Einstein then started chewing the FG’s feet!  I think this definitely classifies as foot fetish.  Mind you, the mutual chewing extends beyond feet.  When my human was grooming Einstein the other day, she found some lovely designs around his ears too. 

Personally, I don’t like to chew Einstein’s feet.  Or my own either.  But I DO enjoy styling his face and ears too.  And he provides mutual styling to my ears and face.   Heck – it’s one big canine styling party.

Her highness finds it rather interesting that Einstein does not like her touching or brushing his feet at all.  Doing his nails is a treat – that is if you enjoy wrestling. Yet he lets the FG gnaw on his feet all the time .  Too bad she can’t train the FG to trim nails.

She’s thankful, though, that we all get along as well as we do.  She just wishes our “hobby” was a bit less destructive.  Hey.  Some dogs play jenga – and some of us prefer to style hair.  To each his own. 

Have a good one.  Peace and paws up.

Seizure free days: 6

The study is through the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience- and they are looking at whether dogs’ abilities to find hidden objects are predicted by their understanding of spoken words, as is the case in human infants and young children.

That’s just plain freaky.  That dog needs some sheep.  What’s he going to learn next- chess?!

Excuse me while I do something brilliant like chew on Einstein’s ears.  And watch the FG toss around a baby carrot.  Yup- they will never pick us for that study…

Have a good one.  Peace and paws up.

Seizure free days: 5

Well I went for my vet appointment yesterday. I didn’t actually see the vet because I was just there for blood work. But I got to see two nice technicians.

Before I went, I of course underwent the obligatory pre-socializing grooming.  When we’re at home, it’s OK to look like ragamuffins who have been living in the wild for months. But we go out in public and we have to look “presentable.”  Mind you – it’s not unlike her highness at home -who is typically dressed in stylish “dog clothes” which are covered in hair and slobber and have a drawstring waistband on the pants – for supreme comfort.  You would never catch her dead in the grocery store like that – but at home – and even out on walks, she looks like a  ragamuffin herself.  Just sayin. 

After the vet, she took me to the pet store where we get our food.  OK.  I haven’t been in there in awhile.  Well let me tell you, my brain exploded.  I just stood and stared at this big display of deer antlers, bones and other assorted chews.  Seriously.  I thought I had died and gone to heaven. I was paralyzed.  

Several people asked what I was.  I thought my human should have said “a cat,” just to confuse them,  but she told them what I was.  I was behaving so she told the truth.  Otherwise she would have said a Polish Highland Terrier.  Or a Doodle. 

One person said “wow- that must be a lot of grooming.”  My human wishes she had a dollar for every time someone says that. Now she just says “oh just a bit.”

I came home and Einstein and the FG had to do their “inspection” of me.   I passed.

We all went out on the deck when we got back- with my human threatening us with a squirt gun if we attempted to pee. After all the deck painting agony last year – she STILL had to do touch ups the other day where it was ALREADY peeling in spots. Bad enough about the peeling – here I was looking all dapper and clean – and the entire deck was coated in a fine dusting of pollen.  We all had green feet in no time.

Later in the afternoon, my vet called…

They don’t have all my results yet- but one important result was obtained.  One of my primary meds is actually below the therapeutic range for effectiveness.  So that means I can increase it substantially if I have any more seizures. That is really good news. We actually already increased it yesterday when we found out – just by a bit.  So HOPEFULLY we will get things under control.  My human was very happy.  I suggested we celebrate with some extra treats.  Old spoil sport reminded me of that extra lb. I had gained.  I suggested we go for another walk.  She pointed out it was raining. Score one for her.  This time.

Thanks again for all of your positive thoughts and good wishes.  They worked !

Have a good one. Peace and paws up.

Seizure free days: 4

Well check out my new bandana!  It seems the good folks at Atlantick – the place that makes the all natural tick spray that we have been using, read my blog.  So they sent us some cool bandanas!  Now we just spray Atlantick on our new attire, and those ticks take off in the other direction! So far so good. We give the product 4 paws up.  Out of 4.  We still do good tick checks – just to be sure one of the mini vampires hasn’t broken through the force field.  But as I said, so far so good! 

This isn’t a great shot of all of us – you know what a gong show it is to get all of us to take a shot – but we wanted to say thanks to Atlantick!

OK I know the “ticked off” line is kind of corny – but hey – it was the FG’s idea and we wanted to support his effort.  

In other news… today is National Pet Memorial Day.  A day to think about those dogs who have gone onto the Rainbow Bridge. And other pets as well.  Cats, gerbils, iguanas… any pet who has enriched your life.  Mind you, I’m partial to dogs….