Elbie, Hoover, Dodge & Friends!

[Genabee]

Ok, so I am going to try and remember all the important things I was planning to comment on!!!

Firstly, names. Genevieve got her name after the dog in the kids series 'Madeleine'. We want to name our daughter Madeleine, so we figured she would need a Genevieve dog! ;) Unlike your OH KTB, mine was insistent that she had a 'real name'. Otherwise she would have been Coco (if I had my way)... If she was a boy... he wanted Sebastian ( needless to say, she was going to be a girl! I really detest that name... no offense to anyone with that name, or a child or pet with that name. I just have bad memories...). Originally he suggested Valerie for her. Once I suggested Genevieve though, he got all excited (for a split second wanted that for a potential daughter's name and I was like "How many daughters are we going to have!!!???") and we have never looked back. Needless to say, we have never some across another Genevieve dog!

OH is a cat person - left behind two cats with his parents, Harry and Colin. Prior to that he had Hamish, Marlon and another one I can't remember the name of. I am allergic to cats in a BIG way (and I will be honest, I don't like them), so we will never have one. I had to beg for a while to be allowed a dog! Like all good wives though, I won the battle and got my way eventually!

Yes KTB, when we received that pic of G from the breeder, I knew I was going to have my hands full!!! She looked cheeky in that pic then and nothing has changed, 6 months later! And what is it with dogs wanted to empty the contents of their houses!!!??? Genevieve drags her bedding all over the house, all the time, usually while doing zoomies. We have a toy basket for her her now, to put her toys in. It's funny, she won't go and get toys out herself, she stands there and barks at it until I remove one! This is helping prevent Mummy from tripping over all the dog toys, because I only give her one or two at a time! Sometimes she stands there in this room of disarray, crap everywhere, looking all innocent and I yell at her 'How many times do I have to tell you to pack your bloody toys away when you have finished playing!!?'. She is worse than a toddler! Unfortuantely, she hasn't learned to read yet, so labeling her toy basket hasn't seemed to help. I think maybe I should reassess the school she attends... :D

KumaAkita - I keep wanting to refer to you as 'Akunamatata' from the Lion King! Slightly dyslexic, so don't mind me!

That doggy birthday cake looks way better than mine!!! I think I got ripped off! I especially love the birthday party hats! I want to know what were in the treat bags?????

And how cute were those little ears! The one of Asti in the bath was especially cute...

James is a big boy!!! He gives me a run for my money on the scales! Poor Litte G is weighing in at about 5kgs. I don't weigh her all that often anymore. I used to weigh myself, then pick her up and stand on the scales, so I had a rough idea of what she was. But that method isn't quite so effective at the moment. Besides, I don't want her to have a complex about her size.

I would love to come to a doggy partay (as I sure my deliquent of a dog would), but Canberra is just that little bit too far to get there and back in one day!

Oh, Genevieve is confined to the laundry when we go out. She is usually asleep in her house when I open the door to let her out.... or wagging her tail at the door waiting for me! On a couple of occasions, I have come home to find her standing on top of her house (with a towel that she had pulled down from the bench!); on the laundry bench; and shredding/shredded the washing basket. So now, the washing basket (EMPTY) sits on the bench, so she isn't able to get up there. If she is stupid enough to get on top of her house, she can jump off it herself now! There is no way I would leave her to roam free in the house!!!!!

[Genabee]

Oh, PS. Genevieve likes to lick the top of the wine bottles that are waiting to go into recycling... apple doesn't fall far from the tree! Clearly she knows a good white when she tastes one!

[Clastic]

Oh... :D I can't see the pics of the birthday cake.. lousy work blocking particular sites!!

KumaAkita - Yaaaaay! You'll have to let me and kiddies know what Kuma likes so we can go birthday shopping.

[lilli_star]

*Pouting because she wishes she lived closer to Canberra to go to Kuma's birthday party*

Essay is finished! Yayyyyy! Just hope lecturer doesn't think it's crap...which it most likely is.

Ack! Just realised TAR is on and I've missed half of it! :D Stupid Commonwealth Games.

Will work on Roo's story soon.

Hope everyone has had a good day

[KumaAkita]

ok... photo time...

The Carnage that is the pigs trotter. (warning... vegetarians better look away now...)

Now, to some toy carnage. Kuma's not too bad with his toys.

Bunny went to the breeders for a week before he came home, so it smelt all family like when he left his pack. Now Bunny's armless and legless...

I'm a huge fan of the Pet Barn discount bins at the front of the store. I think the star cost me about $5 and has lasted a couple of months... each point has a squeaker (natch!)

And the latest discount bin fave, Mr Panda. It has a tennis ball zipped inside (great for covering up nasty tennis ball fuzz, because we have all read those horror stories...)

Mr Panda was clean before being trashed outside...

[Max#1]

Wow - James has a super cute face!!! And Kuma - I was expecting blood and gore! That's just a hoof!........And a very contented puppy! Ha!

Wizzle you did better than me - I was replying to all the threads all day (while I was reading this at work - ummmaaaah!) - but now I've forgotten what I was going to say..... hmmmm.... except did you say I could come to your obedience over at Williamstown? I'm afraid I'm in the far far east... so unless I come and camp - it might be a bit far!

Can I hijack the thread for a moment?

My Mum rang last night and told me she had to put to sleep our old dog Puppy - he was dying from heart failure. He'd been coughing really bad for nearly the past year, and then yesterday he didn't get up anymore. Mum was really upset - he was her dog really - and last night I got out the old photos and had a bit of a cry....... So.

A little tribute to Puppy.

Puppy arrived on the scene about 1.5 years after we got our first dog Sammy - this was back in 95. He got his name, as we'd always say 'who's fed Sam and The Puppy', or 'where's Sam and The Puppy'. Then he started answering to it.

A couple of anecdotes.

As a 6 month old puppy, he was unfortunate enough to get giardia. At the same time he got fleas, and it turned out he had a flea allergy. So he would sleep on the floor of our rooms - we'd take turns. We had wooden floors, and all night long you'd hear him go 'thump thump thump thump' as he was scratching - then there'd be this hideous smell after he'd pooped. Poor little guy - you can imagine this mangey looking dog that can't stop poo-ing. He recovered from both ailments - never got fleas again so all was fine!

He loved chocolate. The evil dog-killing kind. One time at Easter my Mum had a bag of little easter eggs she put up high on the bookshelf before taking them to school the next day for her kids. Anyway, the dogs got them. We could tell who had done it, because Sam spat out the foil, while Puppy ate them whole! He was such a little pig! There were amazingly no ill effects. Also a near-death experience: he loved riding in the car, up the back behind the backseats of the car on that shelf. He got a good breeze up there and could see everything. One time my Mum took a corner a little too fast and poor Puppy went out the window!!!! All we could see was him rolling along the road.... but he got up, came to the car, and was completely unscathed!!!

But Puppy was the dog for cuddles. He loved to sit up on your lap, and if you scratched his back he'd get so relaxed he'd just flop over to the side with the kind of flexibility often only seen in cats - making a 'u' with his body! He liked nothing more than to curl up behind your knees or in your stomach. Such a loving dog. And if you scratched him just right, he'd make contented little moans....

He was a bit nippy as a puppy and we discouraged this by cheering him when he licked. He ended up being a real licky dog - he loved licking feet, and post-shower legs, and post-exercise sweaty feet. So gross!!!!!! Most of all though, he was the best company. He was a real little character.

Here he is with my sister...

And with me being silly....

So long Puppy!

ETA; I can't stop laughing (and crying a little bit) every time I think of poor Puppy going out the car window. Was awful. But really funny! Benny Hill couldn't have done it better.

Edited October 7, 2010 by Max#1

[lilli_star]

I have always wanted a Labrador. Specifically a black one. Growing up we had a yellow Lab x GR as well as all sorts of other dogs and animals (I grew up on a farm, and my mum was the biggest animal lover around. I'm not kidding- it was almost a zoo), but I always wanted my own black Lab.

But of course, it was never a good time. 9 years ago, my ex and I had a pup on order, but when it arrived I had just finished Uni and had no job. Then I lived overseas, then when I came back to Oz, I lived out west (went for 6 mths, stayed 4 years...) and then moved down here and was renting all that time etc.

Two years ago, my brother and sister-in-law gave me a birthday present I couldn't see yet- they were planning to get their yellow Lab in pup to a friend's chocolate Lab, and one of the pups could be mine (as long as I didn't mind if they were yellow!). Well, we waited. And waited. And waited. But their dog was obviously playing hard to get.

When I bought my house last year, the first thing my friends said was "So when are you going to get your Labrador?" In January I actually made contact with a local breeder, but the puppies wouldn't have been ready until the school year began, and I wanted to spend time with a pup before I went back to work.

So, I kind of just let the idea go again (but still would look at the breeder listings on DOL and wish!).

In May, my niece rang me to tell me some exciting news- their dog had had puppies that day! They hadn't told me she was pregnant in case something went wrong. She had 10 puppies- all black- but sadly 2 didn't make it.

This was the first photo my sil sent me. They originally wanted me to have "Big Boy" (now called Sumo) on the left, and apparently still big! No idea if the other pup is Ruby though.

Due to one thing or another, I didn’t actually get over to see the puppies until they were 4 weeks old.

Black puppies do not photograph well in a group unfortunately.

It wasn’t until the next weekend that I chose which puppy I wanted. There were only 3 girls, and one was already taken, so I made my choice.

My niece with Ruby

This is Ruby the day I brought her home- in the box that she travelled home in. She was 8 weeks old the next day and it fit right in with school holidays.

Edited October 7, 2010 by lilli_star

[koalathebear]

Oh Max ... I have no words ... I'm so sorry to hear about Puppy but your stories are delightful and the image of Puppy flying out the window and rolling down the road shouldn't make me laugh, but it did even though my heart is hurting for you. Puppy is at the Rainbow Bridge guzzling chocolate, no doubt and probably playing with my old family dog Kitt, who still makes me tear up whenever I think of him ... I'm never going to understand the phrase "just a dog". Thinkin' of you and Puppy.

ETA: Your tribute to Puppy was awesome - your are so eloquent and have such a way with words .. pathos and humour.

Edited October 7, 2010 by koalathebear

[lilli_star]

I forgot to say that I filled in part of the gap wanting a puppy with His Royal Grumpiness, Jasper the cat.

Jasper came into my classroom one day in 2004 for News...he came home with me a few days later

ETA Max, I'm so sorry to hear about Puppy. It sounds like he lived a wonderful life and was a much loved member of your family. I loved the story about the car

Edited October 7, 2010 by lilli_star

[Clastic]

*Pouting because she wishes she lived closer to Canberra to go to Kuma's birthday party*

Essay is finished! Yayyyyy! Just hope lecturer doesn't think it's crap...which it most likely is.

Ack! Just realised TAR is on and I've missed half of it! Stupid Commonwealth Games.

Will work on Roo's story soon.

Hope everyone has had a good day

Road Trip!!! Hehehe..!

Hooray for your essay being finished!

Bunny went to the breeders for a week before he came home, so it smelt all family like when he left his pack. Now Bunny's armless and legless...

Bunny photo was hilarious!!

Max#1 - So sorry to hear of you and your Mum's loss of dear Puppy. He's running free now and licking all the legs and feet he can get to. I have many doggy friends that have crossed the rainbow bridge in the past few years, so Puppy will definitely have plenty of friends to play with and keep company.

[Max#1]

KTB: thanks for the kind words. I'm sad, but its okay. He had a really good life, a long life, and he was not really comfortable at the end, so it's good it was over. You'd have had to have met Puppy to understand the pathos - he was a, to use your words, 'spethal' dog. Its the end of an era in a way, now that both Sam and Puppy are gone.

Lilli_Star: nice story. Those lab puppies are so so adorable. You could eat them!

ETA: Clastic - Puppy didn't like 'other dogs' (not well socialised, a bit of 'small dog syndrome' - he would have a go at any other dog, then the minute they looked at him come SCREAMING back. So much so, that the poor owner would really start apologizing in case their dog had actually mortally wounded the little guy - not good by DOL standards at all, not good - but again makes me giggle. His screams would bring the whole street out to see who was getting killed......) At least maybe over the rainbow, he sees Sam and Bella, our old cat - the three amigos together again!

Edited October 7, 2010 by Max#1

[Max#1]

Oh okay why not.

Here's a photo of Sam and Bella - while Sam was still a Puppy. Just to complete the family portrait. (These are all scanned in photos - by the way - ah memory lane....)

Best buddies:

[Niques]

Oh, Max#1, I am so sorry to hear about Puppy He sounds like an amazing character (I confess, I couldn't help but laugh to think of him flying out the window) and very well loved

That last photo, LS...I may be a teeny, tiny bit biased, but labradors are easily the cutest puppies in existence And at last, you have your lab!

[Clastic]

Oh okay why not.

Here's a photo of Sam and Bella - while Sam was still a Puppy. Just to complete the family portrait. (These are all scanned in photos - by the way - ah memory lane....)

Best buddies:

Best buddies reunited.

[Max#1]

Thanks everyone really. Now go give your dogs a big hug!

[koalathebear]

Now going back to reply to older posts ...

SammieS - I thought nothing could be more impressive than Asti's ears, but that Dog Cake even made my OH go: "Wow!" The way they're licking their lips is just a scream ... Also, Asti's artistic photo is gorgeous - looks like a modelling shoot for Canine Armani. Should be a bit of a head tilt and backward glance ... Australia's Top Dog Model.

KumaAkita: OH & I also would like to know what Kuma likes as prezzies. We could give you Pet Barn vouchers which are boring but we shop there a LOT. The discount bin is also a favourite of ours ... dog and squeaky steak came from there.

Speaking of photo ops, I'd love a photo of the lady-like Genevieve sitting on Kuma's back.

I love the pig trotter carnage - love how it looks like Kuma's already polished off the pig and is now working on the trotters. Elbie has lamb flaps and then gets Lamb Flap Breath and wants to breathe it all over us ...

Regarding Mr Panda, please meet Hippo. OH bought him from Canada a couple of weeks ago. He's a 'bag' into which you're supposed to put a plastic bottle so that the dog can play with the bottle inside the toy. Why does he look sad?

Elbie bit a hole in his head and he had to undergo emergency brain surgery performed by an unqualified surgeon - me.

In my defence, stitching through dog saliva encrusted fabric is not easy.

See what my monster has done to Pig Blanket

Niques & Lilli_star: Yup. Road trip. You can stay with us, although Elbie wouldn't know what hit him with two gorgeous black labs bounding about the yard ... Then again, Kuma's birthday party seems to be on a school night so maybe that rules out road trips ...

OH makes bad jokes about naming dogs after my family members. Then again, when he plays X-Com, he names all the characters after his family and mine (us, too) and the body count is horrific.

My brother has called his turtles Nunchuk and Booya .. his girlfriend wants to get a snake and call it Kevin.

James looked so happy with the results of his Destruction. Poor Oscar ... soon he and badger will be running over whatever the soft toy equivalent of the Rainbow Bridge is. We just bought Elbie a Tuffie so hopefully that will stump him for a while.

Lilli_star: Those little lab babies ... Oh my goodness. I'm melting. This photo kills me dead though.

Such a pensive little face.

Puppy didn't like 'other dogs' (not well socialised, a bit of 'small dog syndrome' - he would have a go at any other dog, then the minute they looked at him come SCREAMING back. So much so, that the poor owner would really start apologizing in case their dog had actually mortally wounded the little guy - not good by DOL standards at all, not good - but again makes me giggle. His screams would bring the whole street out to see who was getting killed......)

I'm not sure why, but this is almost as funny as the flying out the window story ... Puppy was a testy and as tough as a boot, by the sounds of it.

Edited October 7, 2010 by koalathebear

[lilli_star]

See what my monster has done to Pig Blanket

Oh no! Not the Pig Blanket of a Million Squeakers!!!!!

Did you...errr...'find' the missing part of the blanket yet KTB?

Reminds me of this...

Niques & Lilli_star: Yup. Road trip. You can stay with us, although Elbie wouldn't know what hit him with two gorgeous black labs bounding about the yard ... Then again, Kuma's birthday party seems to be on a school night so maybe that rules out road trips ...

Bugger. Think my kids could just teach themselves?

Your brother's gf wants a snake??? Oh. No.

[Niques]

dog and squeaky steak came from there.

I love that you call it "squeaky steak" - I thought it was just me who just couldn't drop the "squeaky" prefix. He got his squeaky hamburger at the same time, but that simply gets called, "hamburger". Meanwhile, I'm forever asking James to go and find his "squeaky steak"

My brother has called his turtles Nunchuk and Booya .. his girlfriend wants to get a snake and call it Kevin.

I don't know which is funnier. Kevin's not an Up influence, is it? I know my father is quite bizarrely obsessed with Kevin from Up and I wouldn't put it past him to reference the film if he ever got a pet.

Does Elbie like his bottle hippo? I've seen similar ones and they seem like a good idea.

[lilli_star]

Speaking of toys to hide other things in, Ruby has this Got it from Petbarn...and I can tell you right now it was more than twice the price of the one on CleanRun

Edited October 7, 2010 by lilli_star

[Niques]

I can't promise that it's interesting, but nonetheless,

The James Story

Despite spending my childhood cajoling my parents for a dog, said dog never eventuated. So it eventually reached the point where I had become resigned that I was to remain dogless until I, you know, got around to moving out ;). So imagine my surprise when I was greeted one morning, a couple of days after New Year, by a Skype message from my Mum saying that she'd decided to buy me the much wanted dog

There had been moments of contemplation in the past so we were fairly well informed of the whole pet shop v bybers v registered breeders issue. The breed, however, was still up in the air. Despite all prior investigations being directed towards Labradors, Beagles were still a contender. I was in Turkey for most of January so Mum was delegated "puppy finder". With minimal results. Most had nothing available or simply didn't reply. One breeder had replied with some information, saying there was one black boy remaining and asking our location, but then never wrote back.

There was, however, some headway on the Beagle front - there was a breeder on the Gold Coast with two boys available. About the week before I came home I decided that a Beagle would be settling: I'm a lab person. Not to mention, they were only tan/white and I was (very superficially) more keen on a tri-colour.

Arrived back in Australia a little despondant about the whole situation and was preparing to send out a last couple of emails to the breeders we still hadn't contacted, but felt weren't of the same quality to others on the DOL site. Until, out of the blue, we heard back from that one labrador breeder who we'd replied to weeks earlier. This time, inviting us out to see the puppies and their dogs.

A couple of days later we went out...and the rest is history ;) I really didn't know a great deal about the breeder - they didn't have a website. But any worries were quite quickly vanished. We had struck paydirt! Our breeder was lovely, knowledgable and very involved in the QLD Lab club. And even if she wasn't, I don't think I possibly could have resisted James' mother. Ten adorable puppies aside, at the end of the first visit there were half-hearted jokes about taking Stella home instead. By the week before James came home, there were quite in-depth plans on how to smuggle his mother out as well She is the sweetest, most beautiful dog I have ever met.

There were only two black boys and the breeder was to make the final decision, which was fine with us as they were really impossible to tell about. Except, one of them had a funny scab on the back of his head. By the second visit, I'd grown a little attached to Wart Head. By the final visit, the week before he was to come home, I was quite prepared to be disappointed if Wart Head wasn't mine. He was a funny little pup - would sleep all the time while his siblings yapped and chewed on each other's tails and ears, but the second their mother entered the room he would magically awaken and be the first to race over and start suckling. Greedy pig

I asked about his scab that last week whilst the breeder was trying to distinguish between the two boys to let us know which was ours. Two minutes later, he was confirmed as my boy

Except for the last two, I have no idea if these are of him or his black brother. Or even his sisters, for that matter...

I love this last one with my mother. Look at those eyes...

And then came the naming issue. I wanted to call him Barney, full stop. My mother said if he was living under her roof and if she was paying for him (I think the concept of the gift was lost on her ;)) she wanted a say. She was quite definite on Barclay. Barclay has got to be the most god-awful name I've ever heard for a dog (no personal offence intended if there's someone out there with a Barclay!)...so we had a problem.

Magnus and Linus were two I'd liked prior to the whole "let's get a dog" decision. Magnus lasted a while on the short list but was eventually vetoed. I also, half-seriously, wanted a Simon - I pictured him doing my tax for me Another contender was Bruce. My brother helpfully contributed Harry and Indy. These were mentioned to the breeder - apparently two of his yellow brothers were going to be Harry and Barney. His black brother? You guessed it - Bruce! His favourite friend at Obedience is an Indy It would seem, we have very mainstream taste in dog names.

Ted(dy) was slowly making his way up the list and could have been a serious contender except my Mum started talking to people about him as James. James was one of the few names that received a "maybe" on both sides. Neither of us loved it but once you start using a name, it sticks. He is such a James though, as agreed on by those who can actually get past his name. So many people just sort of stare for a moment and then repeat it a few times, as though testing it out. It's a really peculiar reaction and we've not been able to work out why. It's not surprise - the majority of people just seem unable to comprehend that the dog is called James.

And now someone tell me to shut up - I talk waaaaaaaaay too much ;) Well done if you made it through that.