Santa Paws 2012

We've gone to the SPCA's Santa Paws event to have the pups' picture taken 7 years in a row. This was definitely the best of the four I received this year.

Stocking #2

I finished Mikey's stocking tonight. I ended up choosing the Grey Heather yarn because it has the same silvery sheen as his fur.

So Pleased With Me

Several years ago, I bought Christmas stockings for everyone and had their names embroidered on the cuffs (burgundy for the girls, deep green for the boys). It wasn't an issue last year, since Kodiak was just a foster pup who'd be heading to his new home the following month. Or so I thought.

This Christmas, I realized I was one stocking short. I checked with the place that did the original stockings, but they weren't selling them anymore. Obviously, Kodiak couldn't have a stocking that looked completely different from everyone else's. I thought about buying some generic stockings at Wal-Mart and writing their names on the cuffs with glitter, but I generally suck at that sort of thing. I pondered the problem for a while, and then one day I was working on an afghan and it occurred to me - there MUST be crochet patterns for Christmas stockings out there somewhere! I hunted around, found a book with designs I liked and a couple of patterns on the internet, smushed them together into something more personal, and voila! We have Christmas stockings!

I started this one yesterday afternoon and finished it up a little bit ago (didn't get much else done yesterday). I'm really pleased with how it turned out, especially since the only things I've crocheted so far have been afghans. Everyone will get a different color and a slightly different look to the cuff. Belle's stocking is Victorian Rose, Reyna's will be Wine Country (a nice deep red), Khar'pern is getting Persimmon, and Per'la's will be Sunshine. For Loki, Mikey, Parm, Duncan and Kodiak, I have Light Country Blue, Sage, Ocean, Forest Floor, Orchid and Grey Heather (yes, I realize I have one color more than I do boys). I just haven't settled on who gets which color...

Merry Christmas!

It's A Long One...

This one took me a long time to post, partly because it took a while to get through the 400 pictures I took the Sunday it snowed. There are only a few pictures here, relatively speaking...

The three pups and I left early Christmas Eve morning, heading west to see the family. Lunch was with Mom, Ronnie, and Josh and his crew. Kodiak stayed in his crate while he was in the house, and looked like this for most of the visit.


Kodiak did go outside and enjoy his semi-freedom at the end of a 30 foot leash, although he really didn't know what to do about the fact that my niece was often holding the other end.

Dinner was with Dad, Krysti, Ganna, Aunt Merrill, and Josh and his crew. The pups all enjoyed the chance to run around the pasture for a bit. I only let Kodiak run free for a few minutes before putting him back on the long lead. I still don't trust his recall, and I didn't want to risk losing him in the woods.

Christmas Eve was very stressful for Kodiak, but he must have realized he wasn't going to die, because he was much more relaxed Christmas Day. We had a romp in the woods (Kodiak on the long lead) before breakfast, and then headed out before 8am to get back to Raleigh. For the first time, Kodiak actually sat up and watched the world around him, rather than curling into a ball on the passenger seat. He wasn't thrilled when we passed big trucks, but he was much better than he'd been the day before. He even walked a few steps at the rest stop, rather than completely shutting down.

Prior to Christmas, I'd apparently lost my mind and agreed to babysit (for a fee) a dog from the 26th through the 30th. I ended up getting Daisy after work on the 25th because of the bad weather. Daisy didn't seem to appreciate the humor, but I thought Reyna's initial response was pretty funny. She bounced up to Daisy, obviously doing the "Hi, my name's Reyna, and this is MY HOUSE" routine, right before she put Daisy on the ground. Luckily for everyone, Daisy was a very submissive 35lb girl, and was content to spend most of her visit hiding in her crate. She did try to play a few times, but she was very unhappy when she discovered that she couldn't outrun Duncan. Kodiak harassed her quite a bit, but by the last day, they were playing like good buddies. As long as Duncan and Reyna didn't get involved.

I had to work Sunday morning (and did not enjoy the slow crawl to the kennel before daylight), but it was still snowing when I got home. We ended up with 7 inches by the time it finally finished Sunday afternoon. The pups and I had a great time playing in the snow, and I just loved watching Kodiak bound through drifts that were higher than his stomach. I particularly like this photo, because even though the pups aren't grouped together, I think it gives a pretty decent idea of the conditions.


To make life a bit easier on me, I grouped the photos together, rather than keeping them in the order taken.

Here are a few of the pack playing together.





Reyna playing with Kodiak.



Duncan playing with Kodiak (love the one with all the teeth).






Reyna and Duncan playing together.






Moving on to the individual shots...

This is Daisy, our visitor.


Reyna...










Duncan...










And the freakish cuteness named Kodiak. The poor pup was covered in snow balls every time he came inside.













The snow was fun, but we were all happy to see it go. After we'd packed it down pretty good, it basically turned the yard into a sheet of ice. Not nearly as much fun as the soft, powdery snow.