Christmas for California Dogs

This is the second part of my massive attempt to catch up after two months away from the blog. Be sure to catch my first installment right below this one!

Our California dogs got their first snow experience before Thanksgiving. They were HUGE fans. After a bit of confusion they turned into big puppies and wanted to spend all their time outside. We haven’t had much snow since, but I’m sure they are crossing their paws for a blizzard sometime soon.






These videos are great - The first is their first look at snow. Lots of smelling the snow going on. The second was taken just a few minutes later. Snow is apparently a big hit! At the end Gracie and Cal go crazy playing. Luke usually joins in, but he was still too intrigued. The third is them just chilling and Gracie making a frozen treat bone her best friend.






We always like to say that Cal has a “sheep’s head”. Well, at the Christmas tree farm there were some sheep, and I think we’ve proved our point.





Okay. They were $1 at Target. What can I say? Gracie looks particularly "put upon", if you will.



Gracie


Cal


Luke




One morning this fall I came home to a very shocking site. When I walked in the garage door, Gracie did her normal stretching and shaking to great me. It was only after I noticed her ear gushing with blood that I took a look around. Somehow she had managed to get a long rosebush thorn to go all the way (completely!) through her ear! It bled literally all day, and when she shook her head blood sprayed ALL OVER our mudroom and kitchen. It really looked like a crime scene. Well, I’d been looking for a reason to repaint some of the downstairs anyway. I still can’t believe I had to repaint an entire room because of a dog.

Not sure this picture fully captures what it looked like, but this is one of the walls in the mudroom right before I repainted it.


We found out that Costco is an unbelievable place for dog toys and beds. We got these three fabulous stuffed toys that make funny animal sounds. I can't believe they have lasted two weeks now! The sound makers are broken, but like the Velveteen Rabbit the dogs are only more smitten. I would have taken a photo of Luke cuddling with one, but he is more intent on throwing or destroying them (which we're trying to work on). He'd obviously never had toys before we adopted him, and he still is a bit confused to their purpose if you don't chase it or chew it. Fair enough.

As you can tell below, the duck was the biggest hit. The skunk also makes an appearance. The poor hedgehog seems to be used more for fetch. Hmmm.

Cal

Gracie