Exiled to Siberia

We are having record lows - around 12 degrees last night. Even Miles, who loves to be outside, will hurry out to do his business and come straight back to the door. This morning was the coldest morning so far and I expected the same thing.

When Miles didn't come back to the door in 10 minutes I got worried and checked on him. He was on his outdoor bed under the poolhouse porch in the most perfect sit. The pups used to sit comfortably all the time but now are not really comfortable in that position anymore so rarely sit unless I ask them too. I figured it was too cold to lay on the vinyl bed.

Five minutes later I looked out again and he was in the same position and I could see him shivering from the house. I called him and he didn't move. Called again and he stood up briefly and returned to a sit on the bed. Very weird! Miles ALWAYS comes when called and fast. Called him again and he ran to the (off limits) flowerbed and sat there. I yelled at him to get out of the flowerbed and he moved a couple of feet and sat again in the flowerbed. I yelled several more times and he slunk out of the flowerbed very upset and came up on the porch but wouldn't come near me or the door. He returned to a perfect sit on the porch, shivering so hard that he looked like a giant Italian Greyhound.

Then I noticed a big marble sized piece of poop frozen to his tail. I would have picked up on that if he had been doing the butt scoot but he was just sitting. Had to go out in the cold in my jammies and slippers with toilet paper to get it off before he would come to the door and come in. Poor guy had exiled himself to Siberia for getting poop on his tail.


Miles did two Christmas Parades on Saturday - Travelers Rest and Pickens. He did great at both and wasn't afraid of any of bands, loud cars, confederate soldiers shooting muskets and cannons, or the police car with flashing lights and siren right in front of us. He did want to eat the miniature horses that were right behind us in the TR parade:0 He towered over the two the cute little horses. The TR parade was SO long! We walked and walked for miles then had to find our way back through TR to get back to our car. I love to hike long distances but had blisters from this. Am not sure how many miles we walked. Even Miles was tired. That took all morning and part of the afternoon. Later in the afternoon we had to line up for the evening Pickens parade. Fortunately that parade was much shorter. Why is it that few parades make a circle back to their original starting point?

Remember Roo? She was in some early puppy photos playing with Miles. She is a probably a small lab mix that was a week older than Miles and much closer to the same size when they were babies. Roo did the Pickens parade with us. The pups always remember each other and start wrestling right away. This time they were playing "reindeer games" I guess. Roo got pretty dirty after being rolled around on the pavement by Miles.


Now that Piper has been adopted, Miles is having to get used to not having another puppy here to run with every day. He definitely has a LOT more energy without her here. The very cold weather isn't helping because he hasn't wanted to play outside as much as usual and I sure haven't wanted to go for many walks other than the MILES and MILES we walked on Saturday at the parades. He had a sore between his toes that was pretty much healed before the parades but with all the walking it opened back up. With the cold and sore toe we didn't have his brother Otto come over to play today or yesterday so that only made matters worse.

Miles broke the coat closet door when his friend Jann came over. He was NOT behaving calmly at the door like he was supposed to and was jumping around excitedly. Ran into the closed folding door while he was bouncing around and broke one of the runners at the bottom right out of the wood. A big pup that is still working on self control and manners can do a lot of damage without LOTS of exercise every day.

Miles is becoming more and more of a snuggler. He has been sleeping with us most of the time but does still get down on his own bed for part of the night. He likes to poke his nose under your arm or in an armpit much like Streak did or he lays draped over you. He has taken Streak's place in the walk in closet and lays there while I am changing or putting away clothes.

One funny thing I have noticed that Miles really doesn't like is when I am shaking out freshly laundered clothes to get the wrinkles out. He doesn't like that pop and will run out of the room. Have been working on that strange fear and have him stay in the room in a down stay which is already helping a lot. Strange that muskets and cannons firing in the parade didn't bother him but the snap from clothes being shook out does.

5 Months Old And Smokin!

It has been a big week! Sara (the pups' mom) got adopted by a family in Columbia. Have gotten photos of her and updates and she is doing fantastic and is being very good. It was hard to see her go but I know she got a great home.

Sara in her new home


Sunday, Miles litter mate, Kohle came to stay for a few days while his owner was out of town. Miles didn't even seem to notice that Sara was gone until Kohle went home on Wednesday. I think he missed her some then, more because he didn't have anyone to play with than because she was his mom. He spent a lot more time playing by himself or trying to get me to play with him than he used to with Sara here.

The pups are growing SO fast! Miles weighed 44.3 lbs today when we weighed him so he is nearly the size of a very tiny female. A greyhound person came by yesterday and commented on what a tiny greyhound he was, not realizing that he was a pup. Kind of sad that they grow up so fast. That said, Miles is certainly NOT old enough to get caught smoking!






Of course, it was actually just a white raw hide he was chewing on. It looked so funny though I couldn't resist taking pictures.

Singing with Streak. His "cigarette" is barely visible next to his leg.





Freaky play eyes. A rope toy with two cow hooves tied on it is his favorite toy. His brothers love this toy too.

The First Week

It is hard to believe how much they have changed in a week. When I got them, Mark (now Ottobahn or Otto for short), didn't want to come out of the dog room. He was too timid to venture outside either. Stairs were a barrier for both of the pups the first couple of days but then they managed to do the two stairs down to the living room very carefully. Yesterday they managed 6 brick steps outside to get down off the porch. This morning they took the two steps in the house at a dead run and sometimes skipped the middle step altogether. They were running up and down the long flight of steps outside too. Otto is now happy to explore the rest of the house and chases his brother up and down the hall and happily goes outside. Here are some photos of Otto he is the one with no blaze.

Otto is being adopted by Joe and Shari. They are friends of mine so the brothers will still get to play together. They have been taking Otto to their house for visits for a few hours every night. When he makes the transition from his mom to their home he will already be acclimated to it. They even took my pup last night so he could have a chance to play with other breeds of dogs and be in a new place. Great socialization!

They have had lots of guests of all ages come by to play with them including a 7 week old golden mix puppy named Roo. We got to watch her overnight and all day. Three pups is a LOT more work than two BTW. Has something to do with the number of hands I have. It is hard to pick up dirty newspapers out of their puppy pen with 3 pups leaping on me and pulling on my pant legs. With two I can shoo them away OK but with three there is one more pup than I hands. One is going to either grab the newspaper and shake it or grab my sleeve and shake that or run through the mess. On the same subject they are doing excellent on keeping their crate clean. Not one accident in their crate! They always leave their crate to potty at the other end of the X-pen on the puppy pads. They loved having Roo here and played and played. Mom wasn't quite as thrilled whenever a pup yelped. She thought Roo was hurting them even though Roo was doing as much yelping as the others.




They had their first trip outside this week too. They have been outside every day since. They have been in their puppy pen and even down in the big dog pen in the back. They love playing in the leaves there and followed their mom around and around that pen as fast as they could until they were just exhausted. They are still at the age that they follow their mom or I very closely so we have been able to go on some great walks with the pups trailing us through the tall grass. They will even chase a toy on a string through the grass now as fast as their little legs can carry them.