More Pictures of the Boys

I love to take pictures of my two Siberian Huskies - Today we went to Saylorville for a 4 mile drag Mom around in the snow. It was pretty darn nice - Almost 30 degrees and with the park closed to traffic, I love to let the kids play. Here's one of us messing around in the snow.

I have lots more pictures on the Picasa :http://picasaweb.google.com/thorandmarcopolo check out pictures and videos of the kids and my friends dogs also. Enjoy.

Thor and Marco's MOM

Snow, Snow and More Snow

Well, Mom isn't happy but Thor and I are thrilled with the new 4 inches of snow we got this morning. I love to eat fresh snow and Thor loves to plow his nose through it. Here's some pics of us enjoying the day. Thor just loves to lay in the new powder. I'm trying to figure out where the snow is coming from.

Mr Marco Polo (I am not a heathen)

My friend Cindy and her 6 Goldens

I love taking pictures especially of my dogs and my friend's dogs so Cindy asked me to take pictures of her and her 6 Golden Retrievers. These are really quite nice dogs but Jorgi and Jonny are not really adults yet and act pretty darn silly most of the time. I just didn't have enough arms to keep all of the dogs on the couch while snapping pictures but here they are: Jazzy, Keeper, Soleil, Ace, Jorgi and Jonny and of course Cindy.

What could be more majestic than a Bald Eagle

Bald Eagle over Copper Creek Lake.



It's finally get warm enough for the bike trails to be melted enough to walk without my Yaktraxs. So Marco and Thor got to drag me around the lake a couple of times and imagine my surprise to see this elegant bird in a tree ahead of us. He was so beautiful, you can't really imagine but he was so much closer than this picture shows. I had figured he would fly away when we got close but he just moved to this tree so I took this picture.

I need a stronger crate

Well, Everyone thinks Marco Polo is so sweet and innocent? Well, think that no more - I came home last night after work and Mr Marco had totally destroyed the drop tray of his crate while I gone and shredded the carpet into a huge pile. I didn't care about the carpet - it was just a scrap piece but nice for winter but the tray!!! He got to spend the rest of the evening after our walk in the snow, on a 6 foot leash attached to his MOM!!! So, don't feel sorry for him, he got to run and play at the fairgrounds in the snow for almost an hour. Darn, it gets dark so quickly. Tonight, we have to go to PetSmart to see if they have replacement trays!!! What do you think I will find when I get home tonight?? Stay tuned! The MOM

YAKTRAX to the rescue

It was so exciting! It was looking like Thor and Marco weren't going to get any exercise this winter with all of the ice. I stopped at store that specializes with winter gear and picked up these miracles. They strap on your regular shoes and have coils that you walk on - you can just walk great on the ice. The bike trail was a sheet of ice and we have a great 3 mile walk - the dogs were thrilled. It's really quite beautiful with everything covered in a coat of ice - I wish I had taken my camera with me but it was only 11 degrees.
My kids are sleeping at my feet - everything is right in our world!

obedience training

What else can someone do when there is ice everywhere and you can not walk the poor little pups because broken bones will hurt. Well, we play obedience games - Let's see if we can get Marco Polo to stay while there's a cookie right in front of him and it takes a while to get the camera. This only took a couple of 'STAY' commands and moving really darn fast. He does know what I want but there's the cookie and he has way too much pent-up energy. Whatever anyone says, running around the back yard does not constitute real exercise when you normally get to walk 3 or 4 miles a day.

December Ice Storm

The ice storm that hit Oklahoma and Missouri yesterday came to Iowa today. Lots of kids got out of school, businesses were closed, the mall even closed and my satellite dish has ice so I can't get a signal, but I also got to work from home today and play with the kids. Here they are having fun outside. You can't really see all of the ice on the tree branches but they are covered. Luckily for us, no huge branches fell in our yard. The deck was a sheet of ice so both Thor and Marco kind of slid off when they went outside but they didn't care. They loved digging in the snow and the ice. Marco spent a lot of time eating icicles. Thor continued his dig to Japan but at least with all of the snow and and ice, his feet got cleaned off before he came back into the house. I really could get used to working from home full-time. I get so much more work done - i even wiped down my living room walls, cleaned the windows, washed the mini blinds plus did a load of laundry while I watched TV and did my work! Talk about multi-tasking! Tomorrow we have to get out, I need milk so hopefully they will plow our street, of course, I will have to snow blow the driveway and sidewalks! Good thing I get to work from home tomorrow! Good Night!

MAMA

Mama, My wonderful little rescue cat. She was hanging around our store back in 1998 and John captured her and 5 little kittens so they wouldn't get hit and killed by cars on Hubbell avenue. Mama became our store cat and she had many folks that looked forward to seeing her when they came in to purchase bunny supplies. She often surprised us when we opened the store in the morning to a bloody mess and mouse body parts found all over our show room. She is now retired and living the life of Riley here at home with me. The dogs know better than to mess with Mama.

Meet My KittyCats

Here's Carolina and MrSippi enjoying a morning nap in their basket together. These two cats have been inseparable since they were young. At one time, Carolina was the same size as mrSippi but now she's quite plump.

My Snow Angel Thor

No one could possibly love snow more than my Thor. You could just see the joy in his face when he ran off of the deck the first day we had snow. Here's some pictures of Thor making Snow Angels. When we went for a walk yesterday, he snow plowed with his nose all over the grassy parking lot of the Iowa State Fair Grounds. I'm sure he was looking for little furry creatures to play with. Yes, he is quite the little hunter and I'm amazed how well he can find the little mouse and other rodents in the snow. I think he can hear them digging trying to hide.

He could spend forever outside on the snow - I think he likes the feel of it on his face. In fact, the colder it is, the harder time I have convincing Thor to come inside. He just likes to sit outside on the deck enjoying the winter air.

Marco Polo is a Houdini

Boy, Mom was sure surprised to see Marco Polo waiting for her at the back door when she came home from work. Yup, Mom was so careful locking the crate doors in the morning there he was. Mom had to do a quick Cat count. Yes, MrSippi, Mama and Carolina were all alive and not damaged at all. The house was still in one piece and all of the cat litter and poops were still in the litter box. Marco had been out for sometime. His favorite stuffed animal was on Mom's bed but the bed , carpet, everything in the house was still intact. What happened, Marco Polo's crate front was pulled inside of his crate - how he did it, we will never know. Thor was waiting patiently inside of his crate and Marco refused to tell us how he managed to get out of the crate.
Here he is enjoying the breeze from the deck.