Allergy Weekend

Do you remember the shower tower? Rob built it last summer for the dogs . We hang a hose over the top and they go inside and play in the water. It's a very popular structure.


Several of them enjoy lying in the shade cast by the tower to play with their toys or to enjoy a snack.


This weekend Rob started dismantling the tower. We were all disappointed, but there was a good reason. The tower was built close to the edge of the hill and we're having an erosion problem. We were starting to worry that the tower might not remain stable.


The tower is being rebuilt on the other side of the yard where it'll be safer. The dogs will be able to enjoy it again in the hot weather.


Saturday was a bright sunny day, but quite windy. Rob and I have both been suffering with allergies for the last couple weeks and here are some of the reasons why.


The flowering trees and shrubs have been gorgeous this year. They've produced more blooms than we've ever seen, but along with the beauty comes pollen, lots of pollen.


The dogs are suffering, too. Fudge, Sky, Bailey and Tess all have 'allergy eyes'. Their eyes are red and watery.


I've been handing out Benedryl to three of them and Sky, who seems to have the reddest eyes is taking Chlortrimeton.


This is my Mother's Day present from my furkids. Rob picked it out and planted it in a pot for the porch.


I love the big pink flowers and so will the hummingbird.


This little guy was sunning himself on the bricks. I was surprised at how close he let me get to him. He'd better watch out because Morgan is on the lookout for lizards. She swallows them alive. Yuck!!!

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to everyone. We want to pay a special tribute to our Mom, Samba, today and to all our Grandmothers and Great Grandmothers. The ladies in our family are pretty sharp.

This is our mom, Samba. She was a super good mother and took great care of us when we were little. Look how well we all turned out.

This is our Grandma, Reia. She's Samba's mom and she was born in Portugal. Samba looks just like her. This is the only picture we have of her. Samba's whole family is from Portugal and there aren't many pictures available of her ancestors. They were working dogs that helped the fishermen on their boats.


The only other one of Samba's ancestors who has a picture is Margarida Do Zoo De Lisboa. She was saved during the revolution in 1974 and she and her mate Makuti spent the rest of their lives in the Lisbon Zoo. They were the only two remaining PWDs left in Portugal after the revolution. There were 25 other dogs that had been sent out of the country. Margarida shows up several times in our pedigrees on both Samba's and Fudge's family trees.


We have lots more pictures on our Dad's side of the family. This is Fudge's Mom, Del Syr's Mandalay Bay (Mandy).


Then we have lots of Great Grandmothers. Here are some of them. This is Del Sur's Makin Front Page News (Page).


Del Sur's Makin A Splash (Splash)


Sunnyhill Quiet Wind N Sails (Mariah)


Del Sur's Bubble Bath (Bubbles) from Canada


Le-Hi's Recherche Of Tywater (Jeannie)


Costa Azul Sophie's Choice (Sophie)


White Cap Graca Bravata (Gracie)


Del Sur Costa Da Caparica (Rosa)


Legados Brindar De Bidahoche (Lula)


Hunter's Ballantine (Balli)


Gentileza Do Mar (Leza)


Isodora Do Mar (Dora)


Olimpia Do Vale Negro (Olimpia) from Portugal


Trovoada De Alvalade (Trovoada) from Portugal


Kalinka Do Condinho (Kal) from Portugal


Renascenca Do Al-Gharb (Chenzie) from Portugal


Mare Do Vale Negro from Portugal


Farmion Keel (Amy)


Brinmar's Nehi To Le-Hi (Muffin)


White Cap Deep Sea Courier (Couri)


Natale Do Mar (Meera)


Keel Beleza (Bo)


Keel Torreira


Spindrift Keel


Farmion Alfambra


Weathervane's Neocles Charo


Zingara De Alvalade (Zingara) from Portugal


Isodora Do Mar

There they are, our lady ancestors. Aren't they a good looking group? We hope all you you take a minute today to think about the lady dogs in your family trees that made you the special dogs you are today.

A Surprise For Me

Yesterday the dogs barked and ran to the door. I hadn't heard anything, but I looked out anyway and there was a box on the porch. It was addressed to me. Goody, I love gifts. And what a gift it was. Check this out.


Inside the box were two bundles wrapped in hot pink tissue and tied with green ribbon. There was a little yellow flower tucked into each bow. Don't they look too nice to open?


The first bundle contained this little bag, beautifully made and closed with a zipper. Inside was a nice big pin cushion. Just what I need in my sewing cabinet.


I was so happy when I unwrapped the second bundle. Inside was Alfie. I had admired him only a few days ago on a certain blog. They are all gifts from Kathy at the Lizzie Jane blog.


Isn't he sweet? Kathy was one of my first blogging buddies. She makes these little critters and I've admired them for a long time.


Here 's Alfie when he made his first appearance on Kathy's blog. Each of her creatures is different and each seems to have his or her own personality. There are elephants and mice and rabbits, too.


Here's another of her designs. Kathy is one very talented lady. besides little creatures, she makes bags of all types, zippered ones like mine, shoulder bags and tote bags. She makes pillows and pincushions.


And lately she has begun making soaps. She uses all sorts of delectable scents and makes them look as pretty as they smell.

Kathy has the most gorgeous garden. I love seeing the pictures of it each year and imagining sitting there amid the flowers sipping tea. She also has a gift for decorating. Her home at Christmas looks like a page from a magazine. I feel so lucky to have found her, first as a fellow blogger, but now as a friend. Thank you Kathy, your gift is much appreciated.

Cinco De Mayo

We're celebrating lots of things today. It's Cinco De Mayo which means we'll probably go out for enchaladas tonight. Rob and I met in Acapulco, Mexico and were married in Mexico, New York, so we feel the urge to celebrate.


The next thing to celebrate is the ninth birthday of our friend Thor.

Thor is a Mastiff. He's a very big boy, but extremely sweet and gentle. Here are some of my favorite pictures of him.


Look what a gentleman is as he converses with the guinea pig.


He rests with his mallard, one of his favorite toys.


Happy birthday, Thor and many, many more of them.

Next thing to celebrate is Samba's checkup. It's been two months since her last checkup for the Myositis and six weeks since the paralysis began.


She's doing great. She has grown a new coat of curly hair. It's very thin and her skin is dry and flaky, but those are both caused by the prednisone. She's maintaining her weight even with the extra snacks she steals at every opportunity.


She can open her mouth pretty wide as she demonstrated by eating yogurt from a spoon. She can catch a ball and yawn, both good signs. The paralysis is causing a few problems, but they're mainly cosmetic. Her eye gets dry because she doesn't blink normally and needs ointment and drops.

She gets rather drooly because her lips sag on the left side. Dr B suggested cutting the hair on her muzzle very short and using a warm soft towel to dry her face when necessary.


She's doing so well that we're cutting her prednisone back to 25 mg on odd days and 5 mg on even days. Our aim is to get her to 20 mg every other day as a maintenance dose and so far we're making good progress.

We're also going to raise her dosage on her thyroid meds. She'll need to go back for another blood test in about six weeks. Dr B was very happy with her progress so far. He's even hopeful that the paralysis is temporary.

It's been a good day and we have a lot to celebrate.

Not Much

So far this week it's been pretty quiet around here. Things are going to start picking up tomorrow and we'll have lots of stuff to post about after that.

As you can see from this photo, I'm getting ready to make apple cake. The dogs and I are going to celebrate a friend's birthday and that's his favorite kind of cake. We'll tell you all about it tomorrow.

Samba goes for her check-up tomorrow, so then we'll let you know what Dr B has to say about her progress.

For now if you like looking at puppies, there's a fun quiz over on Dogs-N-More. It looks pretty easy but it's harder than you think. Let me know how many you can identify.

Have fun and we'll see you tomorrow.