Holiday Gift Ideas

...for That Special Vizsla in Your Life! 

Read on for a bunch of ideas to spoil your pup (and yourself and other Vizsla-lovers too!)

Getting in the spirit!

The tree is up, decorated, and we're ready for the holidays!

And yes, I know... it's been over a month since my last post. What can I say, life's busy. But I always appreciate people stopping by the blog, and will do my best to keep it (semi)-active ;-)

Lil' Pumpkins

Happy October! (A bit belated). Requisite trip to the pumpkin patch with the nuggets. Nugget 2 wanted to carry and take home pretty much all pumpkins pictured. I could just see Captain rolling his eyes at her. Sheesh, little sisters... ;-)

Keeping Clean

Nugget 2 decides to wipe down Nugget 1...

Help, Mom.

Did I mention I'm not sure about this?

Happy Belated!

Oh no! I forgot to celebrate Captain's birthday! Captain turned 7 years old a few days ago, so I gave him some special treats to make up for it. I think he'll forgive me ;)

Marvelous Mendocino!

We took a little trip up the coast this weekend, finally making our way to Mendocino. After traveling along windy roads through Redwood forests, and more windy roads along the coast (carsick, much?!), we made it to the seaside town of Mendocino. The nuggets were excited! Read on for our adventures in this amazing (and very dog-friendly) part of the world.

Sharing is caring

A few recent pics from Nuggetland! Nugget 2 has gotten very good at "throwing" the ball to Captain (and, ok, trying to just put it right in his mouth too). She's also gotten VERY good at throwing food she doesn't want his way. Sometimes it's food she still wants, too though.... she'll hold a piece of bagel & cream cheese in her hand, take a bite/lick, put it in front of Captain, and then take it back after he's had a tiny taste.... all while I'm half yelling no, half laughing of course ;) To his credit, Captain always looks at me first before gulping something down. My good boy.

A few more recent pics....

Playgrounds & Pups

Our weekends have come to involve playgrounds. Regularly. And I can't help but feel slightly guilty, seeing Captain sitting on the sidelines like this...staring at us, sadly. I also feel bad that there are more outings that don't involve him - music class for Nugget, shopping, playdates.... we leave the house, closing the door to him looking at us, and just say, "We'll be back soon Captain." It makes me sad... but I suppose there is some inevitability in having human babies that the fur ones will get second priority. Still, we do a lot to make sure he's not a sad older sibling. And luckily, we have some great parks nearby that serve both nuggets well- read on for a little more on some of those!

SO Excited!

Nugget 2 is OBSESSED with Nugget 1 these days. She is SO EXCITED about Captain, and says his name all the time. She chases him around, giggling and shrieking, hands out, giant smile on her face. She is good at cuddling him, too.

Taking time

When Captain was a puppy, we spent every moment together. I worked from home, and we took many afternoons off to play outside. There hasn't been much of that lately, especially with nugget #2, but this Tuesday AM, we threw caution to the wind and enjoyed a fun run around a beautiful spot, Point Pinole. There is really something so awesome about watching your dog, completely carefree, and 100% pure joy, running through an open field... and we did that this week. It was a blast. ;)

Here's to taking time for beautiful runs!

RUFF months

Apologies for the blogging hiatus! There's good reason- it's been a hard few months. First, we lost our nanny and had to scramble for childcare, in the same week we were forced out of our apartment due to renovations & resulting potential health hazards, AND I was preparing for the job interview of a lifetime. Stressful, much?!! We were hopping around air b'nb's (mind you, with a 15 month old nugget), none of which were dog-friendly, so poor Captain had to stay with friends, apart from the family. That's no way for a Vizsla to live! I worked in runs with Captain on the weekends, but it was limited time with him, and hard to be unsettled.

Nugget walks Nugget

A momentous day- Nugget 2 walked Nugget 1 today! She insisted on holding his leash and walking him around the neighborhood, completely proud of herself, smiling from ear to ear and giggling whenever he played with the leash and tried to grab it in his mouth. Aaaaaaaaand there it is, I've never seen anything cuter in my life ;)

The Bumps are Back

Or rather, the bumps WERE back. I started writing this post in early December, when Captain broke out in a ton of those little skin bumps, but then I never got around to finishing or posting this. I had big plans to do a detailed search, track downs and provide tons of information on skin bumps and allergies in dogs in general and in Vizslas in particular.... and then suddenly, after only a few days, the bumps just went away on their own. And also, let's be honest- I just didn't have the time to do the research and write-up. But, I'm finally getting around to posting something, and figured I'd do a quick update, even if it's not the comprehensive resource I was planning to post. (FYI, you can see my previous posts on Vizsla allergies here: types of bumps and our first experience with allergies - in both posts, readers have left comments that may be useful to others experiencing these issues).

Captain the Horse

 Says Nugget 2: Hmm, he looks like he'd be fun to climb on....

Captain's First Year as a Big Brother

2014 was a big year for Captain's family. It marked the first full year that Captain was a big brother, that we had two nuggets in the household, that we shared in the amazingness of our littlest addition. It is also the least amount of blogging I've done, but.... you'll forgive me, I've been busy ;)