Our gratitude

I wanted to write this post the moment I started getting comments from friends and then from friends of friends, but I knew it would be an emotional one, so I put it off. I can’t put it off anymore though.
You wonderful people sent me more wonderful people to offer words of comfort?
I am so blessed and so grateful to you.
Every comment that appeared in my e-mail made me cry. I’m so grateful for each one.
I can not thank you guys enough; words cannot express.
I want to give an extra thank you to Janet of Basset Momma and Leslie of Bringing Up Bella. I feel as if you two sent me an army of kind and thoughtful people to offer me their condolences. It made me feel so blessed and so loved, thank you both from the bottom of my heart.
I also want to give an extra thank you to Carly, my best friend. You used nearly every means of communication to send me your love and condolences, and I’m truly sorry I dodged every one of them for days. It honestly meant so much to me, I just didn’t know what to say, I still don’t know what to say, other than thank you.
Thank you Nola, Brianne, Pixel, Cotton, Essex and Sherman and their Dog Dad, Daisy’s Mom, Kim, Theresa & Prudence, Donna, H and Flo, Teje, Cindy, HoundDogMom, Val, Julie, Melissa and Yuki and Rocket, the brown dawgs, Cinnamon and Linda, KSO (Betty), Pauley, and Collie222— I hope I didn’t miss anyone— your kind words mean so much to me.

I feel I should give a little update on things around here.
It has been quiet and empty and lonely without my sweet Ella.
Lassie has taken it pretty hard, but you guys would be so proud of Petal. She has really stepped it up over the past few days. She makes sure Lassie and I get up and she makes sure we still go for our walks and we still play and have a little fun. I honestly don’t know what we would do without her, but we probably wouldn’t be leaving the couch all that often.
She always seems to know when I’m about to lose it and she knows exactly what to do, whether it be cuddling with me and letting me cry, or doing something extremely goofy to make me smile instead.
Lassie has been clingy. Tuesday I ran a few errands with my Mom, hoping that getting out of the house would help, and when I came home I was told by my Dad and my siblings that Lassie actually howled while I was away. He doesn’t do that often and usually he’s pretty upset when he does do it. 
I took a shower that night and Mom said Lassie cried for me.
He follows me from room to room. He’s licked away a lot of tears and offered many hours worth of snuggles.
Lassie is wonderfully understanding when it comes to mourning and he brings me so much comfort. Petal has as well, but she also reminds me that— despite how hard it may be— I have to keep going.
Sometimes going, going, going helps, but sometimes… I really hate it.
How can everything keep moving and going after Ella left so suddenly?
Like she did with everything else in her life, she left so quickly.
One morning I thought I heard her shifting and getting comfortable in her crate.
When I leave the house I look for three furry faces to say “Be good! I’ll be back!” to.
When I walk in the door I expect to see her dancing around me with a toy in her mouth.
I wake up in the morning, ready to feed and care for three dogs, and quickly realize there’s only two now.
I miss her so much.

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You dirty, dirty dog

Following a few certain posts, which can be found here, and here, and over here, Lassie felt that I should make something perfectly clear.
While I may allude, here on the blog, to Lassie being a neat-freak who avoids mud as much as humanly dogly possible, he does— supposedly— enjoy getting dirty.
He does— according to him— enjoy the mud.
To some extent.
Now he’s sure you won’t believe him (I don’t believe him myself), which is why he has provided photographic evidence.

Warning: this may come as a great shock to all.

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GASP!
IS THAT MUD?!
ON YOUR NOSE?!
THE HORROR!
THE SCANDAL!
Do you have any idea how long it will take me to wash that mud off your nose?!
(Stop your giggling, Petal! He tried and that’s all that matters.)


Was my reaction dramatic enough for you, Lass?
Yes?
Alright. Good.
Guess we’re done here.

Remember, act scandalized.
😉

Have a wonderful weekend!

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"Wow! Look at those show dogs!"

When I take Lassie and Petal out we get a lot of “Lassie! Come home!” calls, which Lassie of course responds to and then everyone has a good laugh. Including me.
Apart from the Lassie jokes,
“What’s that, Lassie?! Timmy is stuck in the well?!”
we also get the occasional “Wow! Look at those show dogs!” and I smile.
I smile because I think it’s quite the compliment. I do try and work hard to keep them well groomed.
I also smile (and chuckle) because those people haven’t seen them looking like this,
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Adorable still, yes.
But they’re not about to enter a show ring, are they?
😉

Oh, and yes, I did have to go all the way back to the winter time (early December, to be exact) to find a goofy, candid shot of Lassie. That’s when he really lets his hair down; when there’s snow.
He’s obviously not a mud fan like Petal and Ella are.
Speaking of Ella,

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Ella is 6!

Today is Ella’s birthday!
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Yup! It is!

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Today Ella is 6 years old!

Or 42 in dog years!

To celebrate her big day she got

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a new collar and a new ball!
Spoiled pup.

Ella hasn’t had a new collar in two years (that’s a world record for her; she ruins the usual collar within weeks, thank goodness I discovered Dublin Dog collars) and though she didn’t really need a new one, I got her one anyway, because hey, it’s her birthday!

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The new collar.

She also got some tasty dog cookies from our local pet store/bakery.
Because no birthday is complete without cookies!

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Cookie time!


Today is also Thankful Thursday.
How great is that?
Today, on Ella’s birthday (and everyday, but today especially), we are thankful for Ella.
We’re grateful she’s so strong and healthy.
We’re grateful for her kisses and snuggles.
We’re grateful for her silly, wiggly dances, even if it does hurt like the dickens when you stand too close to her tail.
Yes, I did just say “hurt like the dickens”
Anyway.
We’re grateful for her hilarious “roo roo roooo”s and the way she’ll shimmy down a dirt hill on her back.
We’re grateful for her entire sweet self.
Especially her extremely soft ears.
:)

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Happy Birthday, Ella!

Thank you Cokie the Cat for hosting this blog hop!

Today’s walk

Our morning walk today looked like this:

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Well, that’s what the sky looked like. It was definitely brighter than that out. 😉

It was so cool and lovely out.
The dogs were surprisingly mellow.
That’s not to say that they didn’t run around and have a blast though.
They just weren’t as ZOOM! WHOOSH! as they usually are.
So, after they got a little running around done, our walk was pretty calm and peaceful.

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Lassie was, of course, glued to my side (where the treat bag is!) after he played for his usual 2-10 seconds.

Petal and Ella, once they were done racing, hopped around, going from bush to bush, as they sniffed about.
Then we (we being me, my Mom, and Ella) came across this little guy:

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Or girl.
I wouldn’t really know.
Speaking of me not knowing, I’m not entirely sure what he/she is.
Anyone know?
After doing a few Google searches he looks like a tiger salamander to me.
Though I don’t know what he was doing out there. There wasn’t any water in sight.
A few slightly (very slightly) rainy days and suddenly the salamanders are moving in. ;P

Walking in the rain

This morning when we woke for our walk, we found it was lightly raining.
But we figured, since this is Utah and all, that it would probably only rain for another five to ten minutes or so.
It wasn’t too hot or too cold.
So we took advantage of that and went for our walk.
It
rained
the
entire
time.
Of course it didn’t rain hard, but we got pretty wet anyway!
And oh so muddy!
It was wonderful!

At first the Collies weren’t so sure about this walking in the rain business.
“Get our fur wet? You’re joking, right?”
But then they realized it wasn’t so bad. In fact, it was nice and cool and refreshing!
Lassie played more than he usually does with Petal. She loved that.

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We came home with two muddy and soggy Collies. Our bone dry and squeaky clean Mutt sure was happy she stayed home!

With the unfamiliar weather and the slight change in our walking routine (we usually walk the trail and then turn around and go back the way we came, but today we walked the trail and then went out onto the road and walked around the block instead (to get away from the slippery mud)), Petal was much more alert and would respond to me at the drop of a dime.
It made for one of those moments where you realize all your hard work with training really paid off.

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Petal kept so busy on the trail. Everything smells stronger and different when wet! She loved sniffing everything.

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“Alright, time for breakfast!”


We came home, dried the Collies, fed them breakfast, washed their muddy paws, and now they’re napping.
I think I might join them. 😉

Have a lovely weekend!

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