You've got mail!

Well, maybe you don't, but Jack got some this week! From Aunt Jill all the way out in Barrington, Illinois!


(Hey look! A package!)

Guess what was inside!



New Chuckits! Two of them! Yay!

And a really nice card:




(You have very pretty handwriting Aunt Jill, I'm jealous!)


Jack was super excited! And honestly hasn't really played with any other toys since their arrival:


(Moments after opening the package, reading the card and taking the tags off...happy boy! Er, old man that is...)

Jack seems to think that now that the Chuckit has made its triumphant return, that it is playtime, all the time. Including when I'm reading on the couch:


(Hey mom, lets play!)


(Um hey, lets play now.)


(Is this close enough yet?)

Jimmy also wanted to play apparently, Jack didn't seem to want to share though:


(Nope, Aunt Jill said nothing about sharing...sorry dude...)

He was worried for a while that Jimmy was going to steal it, even after he went away:






I'm much better at throwing these than I am at throwing the weird triangle frisbee thing (that I keep forgetting to take a picture of...). So our midnight frisbee sessions have been much smoother since the Chuckit's arrival. Jack can also see these much easier, and can pick them up with ease too because of the raised sides. All in all, they are pretty amazing. Thanks Aunt Jill! And keep us posted on your search for your new furry child!

Hey Jack, say thanks to Aunt Jill!:


(This good?)

No, put a little more effort into that wave for me:


(Thanks Aunt Jill! Oh hey, Jimmy is sniffing my Chuckit!!!)

Close enough!





So, the other night, there was some picture taking opportunity gold...GOLD I tell you! And by some miracle, my camera was right next to me, when does this happen? Never. Did I manage to get a cute angle of what was going on? No. Here is what I was able to capture...just imagine these with better lighting and angles:







You get the point... They were not told to do this...at all. Jack was napping on one couch, while I was reading on the other. Then Jimmy hopped up, and curled up. Very cute. Stupid lack of camera skills...


The next morning though, the cats were enjoying the sunlight coming into the kitchen, and I got some semi-decent shots (please ignore my ugly 60's flooring):


"Here comes the sun...do do do do"


"Here comes the sun, and I say..."


"It's alright!"

Max is weird and slept next to the sun beam, my little nonconformist:





Well, that's it for tonight everyone. Off to bed we all go. Hope everyone is well!

Hey! A post!

Alright. I've been pretty lax with this blog due to being sick and having a bustling social schedule (weird, right?) suddenly. But I'm finally updating again, and I'm sorry for being so late!

So lots of things have happened since my last post. Most importantly, I have come to trust Jack 100% with Jimmy. Not with Max though. Max still hasn't figured out that if he runs, Jack chases him. It's gotten slightly better...but not really. The other day, I was getting Jack's breakfast ready, and Max was over (begging, he beg's worse than most dogs I know, including Jack...). Jack was sniffing him and raised his lip. Needless to say, Jack had his breakfast in his crate. I was talking to Ruth about this (I had asked her if she had any ideas why he would be fine with one cat, and not with the other) and she thinks its an alpha thing. That because Jimmy doesn't mind him and neither does Jack (Jimmy doesn't run away from Jack, Jimmy actually rubs up on him, Jack licks him...they really get along wonderfully), but Max still flees at the sound and/or sight of Jack...that Jack feels like he can be bossy and alpha over him, and get away with it. I've been trying to work with Max on this, like I did with Jimmy...but Max isn't nearly as clever and self confident as Jimmy is...so its taking a lot longer. Hopefully with more time, things will improve, I just hope there is no bloodshed in the meantime. Alright, next topic...



Jack got some stairs! They were a present from Uncle Mark and Aunt Nanette!!! Thanks so much you guys!

It took Jack only a couple tries to realize that the stairs a) aren't scary and b) are much easier than trying to jump up on the bed. He does still jump to get down, but that never seemed to bother him, so I'm not too worried. I think my next day off, I will teach him how to go down. Here are some pics I took tonight...It was interesting trying to make him only do it a little at a time, but we managed:


(They were already assembled, all I had to do was put the carpet things on)


(Why am I not allowed to go up, I don't get it...)


(Hey mom, stop being weird, let me go up the stairs, that's what they're there for...)


(Ehn! Why can't I go all the way?)


(I do not like you right now...)


(Yay! Bed!)

Jimmy thought he would help (more examples of them being good together):


(Ritual butt sniff)


(Buddies! Wish I had caught it when Jack was actually licking him...once again, poor camera skills...)


(See ya Jimmy! Notice that Jack isn't chasing after him :) )

Oh, and Zander loves the box the stairs came in! He loves to run inside of it, chew on it, sit on it. It was a good addition to his cardboard box collection! He, in sharp contrast to when I usually try to take pictures of him, was amazingly uncooperative:


(No one shall see proof of my love for the box!)


(This was staged...sorry for the horrible-ness of the flash...)

But really though, he does like it!


I also got Jack microchipped! It was very quick, and he immediately forgave Lena (who was the one who did it) when she threw him a toy after, its pretty easy to please Jack! Here is his tag:


(Front side)


(Back side with his number)



And more excitingly, Jack's spiffy new name tag came in! It looks great!


(Cute, no?)


(Hey look, its my name! Spelled correctly! It's a miracle!)

Jimmy felt the need to be in the picture taking session again:


(Oh heyyy! Pay attention to me too!)

And then returned to his favorite spot:


(MMM, comfy...)



Max didn't feel like making an appearance in this post either, but I told him "Tough":


(Max, on my laundry bag...)


(And Max lurking outside of my bedroom during the stair photo taking session...)


And Jack got more presents! From Grandma Winter, yay! His favorite being a new squeaky toy:


(I believe its a hot dog, my friend and I had a long discussion about it...they believe its a hamburger though, Grandma, what is it!?)

Whatever it is, Jack adores it, and hasn't killed the squeaker yet!


And remember that big bag of toys my landlord gave Jack? Well, he did in fact pick a new "go to" toy (besides his frisbee...). It would be his hippo. Which he knows by name.




(I said "Jack, get the hippo!")






(And he got it, yay!)


I can also randomly tell him to "Find the hippo" when he wants to play, and he will go root around for it, and bring it over to me when he wants to play. He is a very smart boy.



Alright, I am sure that I am forgetting something, but I am pretty tired and am going to wrap this up. I will try to be better about posting more often!


Jack says "Goodnight":









P.S. Keep those comments coming, I love them! To leave a comment on an entry, click the little thought bubble near the title of the post, then go down and type up your comment, and where it asks you "comment as" select anonymous, but please let me know in your comment who you are :) I think you can also select "name/URL" but I'm not sure!

P.P.S: This post was brought to you with help from my furry friends:


(Max, on my lap, helping me type)


(Jimmy watching from the back of the couch)


(And Jack, being a bum on the couch)

I am a horrible...

Daughter/niece/friend/blogger. Sorry about the lack of an entry over the past few days, I've been pretty busy. I also haven't been bringing my camera outside with me because its been below zero, which makes my camera angry to say the least.

So, as I said, its been pretty cold. One day in particular was around 16 below zero. That is wayyy too cold, thank you very much. Jack agrees. Jack however, does not agree with what I put on his feet that morning:



Yup. Those would be socks. Of course it was that cold the day before Jack's booties arrived. So because I bring him to work with me, which is about a mile long walk, Jack needed something on his feet. So some old socks, bag balm on his pads and a little duct tape made up those little numbers. They worked like a charm, and only started to come off right before we walked into the door at work. Jack didn't think they were quite in fashion, but he just had to deal. He was very good about me putting them on, and even good about me rubbing some bag balm on his pads.


(Hey Mom, these are stupid...and no, I will not sit still for you to take a photo of me in them either)

Happily enough, his booties came in that day while I was at work, so no more ghetto sock booties for Jack! Here are his new duds:







They stay on great, Jack doesn't mind having them on, keep his feet warm(er), protect them from sharp ice and also buildup of ice and snow between his pads, which can be very painful. I am 100% happy with these booties, and if you are interested in where I ordered them from (very cheaply too!) it was dogbooties.com. A big thank you to Deb for suggesting them, and helping me figure out which ones to get!


(Thanks Deb!)



Jack officially became mine as of Friday! According to New York State that is. I licensed him in my name:


(Shiny new tag, yay!)

And speaking of tags, I also ordered Jack a new name tag:



(The paw print one)

It's from Luckypet.com. Snowy has the heart one. That company is great, very quick. We got Snowy's tag about five days after we mailed out the check. I'm thinking it will be even quicker this time because I did it online. I also think I am going to get Jack microchipped this coming week too, although I haven't made up my mind. At work I preach the benefits of microchipping to people who don't know what it is or are skeptical, but then I think about Jack's age, and the fact that I am 98% sure that he would never ever go away from me when we are outside together...I'm not sure I want to do that to him. We'll see.

Jack also had a mini tooth scraping today. We had a great vet in that all the staff loves. She is young, nice and strongly believes in spaying and neutering (which makes us happy!). She was in to spay a female beagle mix we have. She hadn't met Jack yet and when she did, she noticed he had a bunch of tarter built up on his (remaining) teeth. She asked if I wanted to have her scrape some off. I said sure! Jack was pretty wimpy though, and Stacey only got a little off, but hey, every little bit helps right? I see a real tooth cleaning in Jack's (very near) future...his breath could kill! Does anyone know anything about this product?

Also, when I got home from work the other night, there was a bag on my door handle. My wonderful landlord gave Jack some gifts!


(I like my new toys!!! Thanks Brenda!)

This would have to be my favorite out of the (very large) bunch of toys in the bag:



Apparently Paige (her very old Lab) only plays with rope toys, and she had gotten lots of toys for Christmas that were being ignored...so Jack got them! Yay!

Jack is very grateful and happy with his new toys, but I still don't think that he has forgiven me for losing his beloved chuckit. Maybe out of this new batch he will find a new favorite, fingers crossed!


Alright, that's it from me tonight. Jack and I are both pooped. Off to bed we go!





P.S.: To leave a comment on an entry, click the little thought bubble near the title of each post, then go down and type up your comment, and where it asks you "comment as" select anonymous (for those of you who don't have a blogger account). But please let me know in your comment who you are :) Hope that helps with any confusions anyone is having!