Zim's Favorite Sign

Stormy had this great idea. Hey everypup, it's me - Zim. Stormy had this great idea about putting the Weather Channel control device on our blog. She thought maybe we'd be able to control the weather that way! It didn't work so well yesterday or the day before - it was awful out -- highs in the 70s or over 80. And sunny. We worked on it a little bit yesterday, messing around with it a little - and I think it worked! No snow, but right now (0830) we've got this "31 degrees, feels like 21" thing going. Ha rooooo! That's better!

We took cool pix on the way to the park yesterday, but before we share those, I thought I'd share my favorite sign with you. Am posted the one that confused us ... but here's a great one.

Pretty cool, huh? Whatever these guys are running for, they've got MY vote! I love their logo of the bug, don't you?

The only good bug is a dead bug!

Play bows,

Zim

PS: Remember to stay safe tonight! If you didn't read the tips in the newsletter Indy wrote, please click here to read. Safety first!

Flint Hills

Hey, pupperoos, Storms here! Some of my friends, namely Tubey and Meeshka, had some problems blogging over the weekend. I thought I'd take over for us today, in case blogger tried to give us any trouble. I am the ALPHA, hear me roooo! Don't mess with me, Blogger!

Anyroo, Marvin has been posting some mighty cool (dare I say "fandabidozi"?) pix of his hometown in Scotland. We promised to try to show what our side of the park is like; I thought I'd post a little bit about that today!

Our part of Kansas is called "The Flint Hills", and it's that - rolling hills. Not what "Wizard of Oz" fans might expect! There are some great web sites out there with scenic pictures; we liked this one best, possibly because the photographer gives credit to his dog.
As you may have been able to tell from Am's post yesterday, our house sits on the top of a hill. Here's another look; mom shot this when we were coming down the home stretch on a walk the other day:

That's me in the lead, of course. I always take the lead!
Can't see the house very well? Here, try this:

You can click for a bigger view. And don't panic - I made the neighbors' houses fuzzy. So yeah... those trees are on the banks of Little Kitten Creek. (I know, I know... we didn't pick the name!) From our deck, we can see the field behind the house, the Assisted Living place, the creek area, then the rolling hills/golf course. Oh. And in that first pic up there, you can see the Giant left his Tonka Toys laying around again and scattered the area with candy corn. He's pretty messy!
Here's a typical autumn sunset off the back of the deck:

Pretty, huh? Soon, it will look like this:

That's what I'm talking about! But before we get to that, we'll go through some rocky weather. Like yesterday, we had a 49-degree difference in our high and low temps of the day. And we'll probably have some "me's" roll in. (That's some "Storms"...) We've got a great view of them and mom likes to go out and take pictures instead of doing something sensible like going downstairs! Even when the great Siberian howls over the city's PA system, she goes out and takes pix. We sing along, just because. And it certainly makes more sense than going outside!
So... here's a good shot of a "me" taken from the deck last year:

Pretty wild, eh? And come to think of it... a bit more like "The Wizard of Oz" than I may have led you to believe.

Dorothy? Come in off the deck and head downstairs, Dorothy!

Ha roo! Hope you enjoyed seeing some of our scenery!
Tail wags to all!
Stormy

Say Your Prayers, Bug!

Ha roo, everypup! Zim here - or as some know me, Drill SGT Zim.
See... I'll go into more detail another time about how I got my name, but the short version is that I was named after a character in the Robert Heinlein book Starship Troopers ~ SGT Zim, the Drill Sergeant who saves the day! The enemy is giant BUGS ... and as they say, "The only good bug is a dead bug." It's a motto I try to live up to! Ha rooooo!
So... the other day I told mom I needed to use the yard, so she hooked me up and took me out. Then THERE! Right in the middle of the driveway! Look what I saw!

BUG!!!!!! Giant bug! Right outta the pages of Starship Troopers!
Say your prayers, bug! You're mine!
But then I looked a little closer. Check this out:

It looks like it is saying its prayers! Imagine that!
Mom explained to me that it's a special bug called a Praying Mantis. It was pretty cool looking... and I dunno, I decided to let it live to see another day. (Of course, if I didn't have mom on a leash, I may have made another choice... but hey, you know how it goes!)
There's also a movie version of Starship Troopers, but it's not as good as the book. The guy who plays me does a pretty good job, though!

Any cool bugs on your side of the park?
Dave likes the ones with chem sticks, as per his Haik-woo 15.
Storms hates flies. Just hates 'em! And there aren't too many things she'd use that word over!
Am likes to pounce the really big grasshoppers.
And thanks to yours truly, there's a Walking Stick somewhere around here that's now a Limping Stick. Ha roo roo roo! (Yeah, I know ... but see earlier comment about being on a leash.)

Until next time, play bows, everypup! And remember ... the only good bug is a dead bug!
Drill SGT Zim

Signs

Remember that old song, "Signs"? "Signs, signs, everywhere a sign..."? They're all OVER the place here! It's election season ... and bipeds are covering the airwaves, TV signal, and grass with signs!
Hi everypuppy, it's me, Amber! "Vote for this guy", "Vote for that guy", "We need more X", "We need less Y". They're everywhere! Most of the signs make fairly good sense, though there's some confusing local issue about more electives in the school system..... but as the Stormy Zoluschka Kryschtal School of Siberian Studies is a privately run institution, we don't really have to be too concerned about that.
We were out on walkies the other afternoon, though, and this one sign really confused me. I sat by it and asked mom to take a picture of me and Zimmie trying to figure it out. Here we are, with dad:

(You can click that for a larger view.)

What I can't understand is....... why is someone against road work? What do they have against it? I don't quite understand their desire to end road work. Bipeds! I don't think I'll figure them out any time soon.
On a separate note, if you look just to the left of the sign's pole, between it and the back of the sign on the other side of the road, you can see the back of our house! Hello, house!
If anyone can explain this anti-road work campaign, please let me know. To me, where there are roads, there are sidewalks - and that means more walking areas for the Ao4!!!
Happy Saturday and love,
Amber
PS: We've added some new cool links to our sidebar. We hope you'll check them out!

Stormy Speaks Human

Yes, I can speak Human.
Hey pups. Mom took this video of me a few months back but just now has figured out how to upload it here. She should have asked ME!
Anyroo... I had been given a bath a few hours earlier and was finishing off the drying-job on the bed. Of course. Mom thought she'd be funny and asked me if I liked my bath. Puh-lease. She forgot I can speak human when I want to. Listen closely ... and catch my winning smile at the end.

She shouldn't have asked if she didn't want the truth.
Tail wags,
Stormy

Haik-woo for Marvin

Wooo! It's me, Dave.
I've been really moved by the poems my friend Marvin writes. He even wrote a poem about me and my Haik-woo! Can you believe it!?! I feel very touched! You can check his poem out here.

One of his readers asked what Haik-woo is! Basically, it's my own version, the Siberian version, of the Japanese form of poetry called haiku. Three lines of non-rhyming verse, 17 total syllables: 5 in the first line, 7 in the second, and 5 in the last. That's haiku. And it's intense in its brevity! (Stormy taught me that word.) In Haik-woo, it's the same thing - except the last word is always "woo". That's my favorite thing to say, so I finish every poem with it. And it makes it even more challenging to say what you need to say in a limited "space".

So... back to Marvin. I was so inspired, I wrote him a Haik-woo. I hope you like it, pal!

Luv to everypuppy,

Dave ... With totally no disrespect to Robert Burns.

Wanted: Zim the Pirate

Harrr, everypup! It's me, Zim the Pirate.
My friend Maverick the Pirate linked to a very cool site yesterday. It was a High Seas Adventure. Sail on over and have fun with it! Look at what I found there:

click image for a better view

Cool, huh?

Stormy said I should say something about my post from the other day about "People Food". She said I should make it clear that it was a dream of mine to have cappuccino and that I don't really get to have any. It's on the "forbidden foods" list and mom and dad are real careful about that. We actually hardly get any "People Food", except we each DO get 4 slices of bananas a day. We love them and they're good for us. Dave even wrote a Haik-woo about them.

Speaking of Haik-woo........... make sure you catch Marvin's blog! He wrote a poem about Dave and his Haik-woo! How cool is that!?!?

So... while we're on the subject of being careful ... our friend and fellow Sibe Indy made a great post (among many great posts) the other day. He linked to the Harnessed to Hope newsletter he had just written; in it are some GREAT tips for keeping us safe and happy on Halloween. Please click here to read Indy's newsletter! Great job, Indy!

Until we sail again, mateys.........
Harrrrrrrr and play bows,
Zim the Pirate

Parallel Universes

Woooo, everypup. It's me, Dave!
I was checking back through our blog and read a comment from our friend Meeshka. She read Am's post from Saturday and saw the pic of Zim watching the new washing machine. She wrote:

You guys, your human woman gets EVERYTHING my human woman gets! I swear! Those washers and dryers look EXACTLY like those things the human woman just got about a month or so ago. You've got the evil simple human garbage can, you got the evil Dyson thing... what next?

So... Meeshka has one of these:

Cool washing machine

And one of these:

$200 trash can ~ the Ft. Knox of the garbage world

And one of these:

Evil Dyson

Wow. I wonder if she has one of these, too: "RAV4". I wonder if Meeshka has one of these Siberian Utility Vehicles?

We're living in parallel universes!

Luv,

Dave

Amber's Birth-Town

Hi everypuppy! It's me - Amber!
I didn't know what to post about today but then I read the D'Azul Siberians' blog. It's all about how Preston got there. Sweet Preston! I'm so glad the wonderful bipeds at D'Azul Sibes gave him a home! He's a winner and a champion in my book!
I thought maybe Preston and I were related; we both come from farms in northern Kansas. My birth-home is to the NW of where Preston was born, though. Cats! I thought maybe I'd found a long, lost cousin!
Mayetta, KS to Ozawkie, KS
That link will show you how far apart our birth-farms are. (My link from earlier didn't work, so I re-did it. If the map changes and you really want to know where those tiny towns are, then you can type them into the cool search engine of the map site!) Mayetta is where I was born; Preston was born in Ozawkie. I'm sorry we aren't related!

Here are my bio-parents. That's my mama Nikki on the left and daddy Hachi Bear on the right. My mom wanted to take EVERYpup home, but only could take me. I was something called a "late adoption" and there were plans for me to become "breeding stock" (on the farm, that is -- not here!). I don't know what that means, but I think I'm much better off here.
I did love being with my bio-parents, though. There were also lots of my aunts and uncles there. I think I mentioned to our friend Althea that we also had Siberian Husky / Malamute mixes at the farm. I especially loved a certain Malasibe (or Sibermute?) that we nicknamed Uncle Mal. Here is little me kissing my bio-mama g'bye - and to the right... see him, Althea? That's Uncle Mal. He kinda reminds me of your sweet brother Lares. I know he doesn't have floppy ears, but he has that same sweet look on his face.

Don't cha think? He was sad to see me go and wanted to come with us! I wish he could have, but the breeder said only me. Besides, I didn't know it yet, but I had Stormy and Booter waiting for me at home! (That link takes you to the rest of the story!)
That's the farm I came from, Preston. OH! And before I forget... would you please tell your brother Maverick the Pirate about this rock?

It really looks like the one on his Treasure Map to me! The only trees I saw close by were the neighbor's Weeping Willow and our King's Choice Elm, though. No palm-looking trees. I'll guard this rock, anyway, just to be safe. There could be buried treasure nearby!
Have a happy day, everypuppy! It's cold and frosty here! Yea!
Love,
Amber

Favorite "People" Food

Ha roo, everypup. It's me, Zim. I've been thinking...

or maybe it was more like dreaming. Whatever. Here's my question though - what is your favorite "people" food? You know, if you could have a ton of whatever you wanted? Even stuff on the forbidden list (chocolate, onions, grapes, etc.). What's your fav, if you could have anything?

For me, it would have to be cappuccino. With sweetener, please! And lots of frothy, foamy milk. Mmmm, yeah. Cappuccino.

Dave's somewhat obvious choice is watermelon. He goes bonkers for that juicy treat!

Stormy's favorite is cheese. Anytime mom gets some out of the magic box where the cold things are, Storm is right there to help. Gotta taste it and make sure it's OK, you know! (Has anypuppy seen Wallace & Grommit? Cheeeese!)

And Ammy... she just LOVES popcorn. Orville Redenbacher's Pour-Over Cheddar Cheese Popcorn. Don't try to give her anything "light" or that "Smart Pop" stuff -- no! She'll spit it out with a big "pit-ooey!"

How about the rest of you? If you could have your fill of any people food.......... what would you choose?

I'm off to dream of cappuccinos. Until next time -

Play bows!

Zim

Indoor Activities

Hi everypuppy, it's me, Amber today! Yesterday, it was in the 70s and mom and dad were comfy in shorts and tee shirts while we took them on walkies - and today, the wind-chill is in the 30s and it's raining. Yes, it's LOVELY out! For some reason, though, we got much longer walkies yesterday and today much shorter ones, so we're doing indoor things.

Stormy (at right) read all the comments you puppies posted on yesterday's blog and was very touched by your kind remarks. She loves Zim VERY much, you know! She came over to the computer to check for messages, then went to nap in the living room.



Dave, Guide Dog for the Color Blind, (at left) is busy planning the fabs for mom's next quilt. They exchanged batiks with the quilt group, and Dave is going through them, picking which ones to use. He is very good at what he does!



Zim (at right) is hanging out with mom today. They watched the Nittany Lions football game and are doing some laundry. The washer/dryer are still kinda new, so Zim's keeping a close eye on them. You never know WHAT they'll do! I think he's hoping they'll change the bed later on. He loves doing that!


I'm busy doing what I do -- checking on everypuppy else to make sure they're happy. After I post this today, I'll spend some quiet time reading my book "Kiana's Iditarod". It's a very nice book and has nice drawings of sled puppies and in this picture of me reading you can see my favorite part - where Kiana is greeted by school children. Us Siberians LOVE children!

Have a happy day, everypuppy!

Until next time ~ Love,

Amber

Zim's Adoption Story

Tail wags, everypup! It's me, Stormy. I read our dear friend Althea's blog yesterday morning and it just made the fur on my back stand up! Please check out the full post at the link provided above - but it boils down to some neighbors of theirs shaving their Siberian Husky and keeping him outside all the time! Althea lamented about this guy being shaved & neglected (and provided a great link to reasons why you should NOT shave your Sibe!) and actually said some mighty nice things about my little brother/puppy Zim in the process. We were all quite touched by Althea's kind remarks (Zim is still blushing) and so very saddened to hear about the condition of their neighbor-dog.
Perhaps it was good that our cable/internet went out; it's given me time to calm down and collect my thoughts. There were some great comments posted on Althea's blog between yesterday and this morning. I especially like what Sammy, Andy and Roxie barked, "Such morons! We aren't huskies but we know enough that you don't shave them! And double morons for not letting Bob in the house. Doggies are social animals and need to be around others." Such truth out of those Dachsies!
I guess in the vein of "a picture is worth a thousand words"... let me ask do you know the ghost of a dog in this picture?

Any guesses? That was when he was first picked up by a "good Samaritan" off the streets. He tried to care for him for a couple weeks, but this guy (Scout, as he was called) had also had no social interaction, as per the Dachsies' comments. Nor had he ever been in a house. :/ He was dumped at the shelter.
When my mom and dad found out about this (within hours of "Scout" being dumped), they flew to the shelter to try to spring him. Their rules are such that "Scout" had to be there for 5 days, in case his "real" owner was looking for him. Understandable, but a tad frustrating. :( Mom and dad visited him every day until he could legally come home so I could give birth to him. At that point, he looked like this:

At least his coat started to darken up a little. It had been totally sun-bleached, broken, and ... shaved.
Look at how tiny his waist was! The poor guy had never been in a house (he had been chained to a tree for his whole life, based on the scarring around his neck), never been socialized, never been on walkies..... and, as mom and dad learned from the vet, was clinically anorexic. Because he was half starved and so malnourished, he just couldn't even EAT!
He was pretty scared of people, women especially, so mom and dad took it real slow with him. They lined up a vet appointment for him ASAP - complete physical and to have him neutered. He had to be gone for 3 whole days and that was horrible! He was only here one or two days, but me and Amber really took to him - we missed him like crazy! Here we are greeting him after he got home:

Pretty scrawney and scared, huh? But he was still cool. I told him, "Don't worry, pup! I'll teach you all the ways of the Siberian! AND the rules of the house!" (He was pretty wild inside, to say the least!) Ammy told him, "I love you, little guy! I'll teach you how to love and trust and that there is good in the world!"
He couldn't even rest when he got here. I'm not normally the snuggly type, but here he is catching some zzz's on my hip.

Amber even tried taking kibble out of her own bowl and giving it to him - but his tummy was so tiny, it was an accomplishment if mom or dad could get him to eat 5 tiny chunks.
Yeah... do you think you know who this is now? It's been amazing what Amber's love, mom and dad's patience (etc.), good vet care, nutritional food, exercise, social interaction, being an indoor pup, my leadership and training, ETC. have done for him. Our favorite vet (well, who am I kidding, they're all our favorites!) told mom he is a Miracle Dog - they didn't really think he'd make it.
Of course, the scrawny wild guy pictured above became the handsome, healthy Sibe you know as Zim!

That's what he looked like by that winter. And of course, 5 months after I gave birth to Zim, Dave showed up - and he taught him how to play. :)
So you see why I was so upset reading about Althea's neighbor pup. I don't want to see anypuppy have the kind of life my Zimmie-pup had! Maybe Althea's neighbors will see how much happier and healthier Althea and Lares are and will follow the good example their bipeds are setting.
Tail wags, everypup.
Storms

Support Our Troops

Hey everypup! Storm here - tail wags to all!
I was going to add my own irritation and outrage on top of our dear friend Althea's post from today ... but our cable has been out and time is tight. I'll post my thoughts on it tomorrow or the next day instead. In the meantime, I'll leave you with this thought.

Until tomorrow... remember our troops.
Tail wags,
Stormy

Yard Shots and Miscellaneous Scenery

Hi everypuppy, it's me - Ammy!
I've been having such a nice time seeing the pretty pictures from where T-man and Ivy and Marvin and everypuppyelse live that I thought I'd share some of the more scenic shots from our side of the park!
First... here is Zim from a couple weeks ago on our lower deck. No, he's NOT allowed to sit on the table like that but Stormy said it's yet another one of those times where it's good to be cute and good that the biped (mom) had a camera. There is a myriad of reasons why the Siberian is cute ... and that being cute helps us get away with stuff. :)

I should note here that you can click each image for a bigger view.
Below is Dave posing in the yard. It's from last year, but you can see the pretty color our tree turns. That one is a White Ash.

And this is Dave doing one of his FAVORITE things - playing "fetch" in the yard with mom and the Kong-on-a-Rope. He loves that! I'm all for chasing something, but not about bringing it back. Stormy says fetching is a Lab thing. Ha roo roo roo! (Just kidding, Davy!)

Here's Storm playing in the yard, too. She likes to chase a toy, then pounce on it, shake it and run around with it.

She's VERY fast! And she does not believe in retrieving the toy.
Here is a picture of me and Zimmie. (It and the following pix were taken last Fall up where the Giant now lives.) I'm the one on the left. Mom loves this picture!

Here's one of just me. You can see the golf course way out behind me (and in the shot of me and the Z-man, too!). Mom calls this the "Amber and the Amber Waves of Grain" shot.

Lastly, here is one of a certain coyote look-alike. :) Just kidding. It's Zimmie, camouflaged in the prairie grasses. Pretty cool, isn't he?

I hope you enjoyed seeing a little bit of our yard and the Flint Hills of Kansas!
Have a happy day everypuppy!
Love, Amber

Fennec Fox or Coyote?

Hey guys. Yeah, it's me again - Zim. Still a little disappointed after the whole Althea misunderstanding. But hey... the REAL Althea said I am CUTE and wrote a whole day's blog about me. (sigh) She's so pretty and so nice.
Actually, she said that I am "the cutest boy husky on any side of the dog park" which brings me to today's post. Mom and Dad were watching TV the other night. Dad said, "Hey, check these guys out, they look like Zim!" They are called Fennec Foxes.

I always thought I looked a bit more like a coyote... but check this pic of Am and me from when I first got adopted.

Could be!
And now compare me to the coyote:

I'm the handsome one with the blue collar. The other one is a coyote. Close, don't you think?

I'll study my book some; I'm pretty sure Fennec Foxes don't live around here.
What do you think, everypup? Fennec fox or coyote? Or the cutest boy husky on any side of the dog park? Ha rooooooooo!
Play bows,
Zim

Three Altheas

Ha roo, Zim here! I got all excited last week. A couple of the trees the landscapers planted died a long time ago. Mom suggested that maybe they didn’t like it where they were planted and maybe they should try something else, but she’s just mom, she’s not a landscaper, so they tried again. With the same kind of tree. The new ones died, too. And ... again.
Two points to make here: first, contrary to what you may be thinking, I had nothing to do with these trees dying. Second, mom didn’t say, “I told you so”, though she was sorely tempted. So… the landscapers finally agreed to replace the two dead fir trees with something else – after consulting with mom, they decided on 3 Rose of Sharon bushes. Cool. We already have one of those, and it’s rather tast– ummm, I mean attractive. But THEN the landscapers called and said (and this is the kicker!) “The three Altheas are here; can we come put them in the yard?” WHAT!?!?!? The three WHAT?!?!? This is too good to be true! I mean … you know what I was thinking!

I couldn’t wait to go out there! No yard time over the weekend; mom was sick with a cold, so we took her and dad on walks instead. Ha roo! This morning, though … this morning, I got to go out with mom. “Zim! Let’s go see how the new Altheas are doing!” COOL! I couldn’t wait to go out and meet her and her twins, do some play bowing, chase each other around, sample some shrubbery together, you know – the basics. But… I was expecting this

And I got this

It's another kind of Althea. Not the good kind of Althea. I guess "Rose of Sharon" is its nickname. Humans really need to develop a more explicit language, don’t you think?

Oh, sure... they were tasty enough.

And the flowers even smell OK.

But how do you grab a shrub by the neck and let it do the same to you???
I had to go take a breather in our private thinking place. Here I am up there.

As you may be able to see, I'm giving mom the "How could you?" look. I feel so cheated. Sigh. Color me disappointed – to say the LEAST!

Play bows - especially to the REAL Althea,
Zim

Giant Dog's Waterbowl and McKinley and Nikki on the Hunt

Ha roo! Zimmie here, with a quick update about the Giant. We did some major league exploring up in his AO yesterday. No huge discoveries, but we did find this, pictured at right.

Storm was out in the lead, as usual; she always takes the point, so she was the first to see this big ... thing. It has our town's logo on it - so I guess it's some tourist-y souvenir. Then I remembered Indy's comment a while ago about wondering where the Giant keeps his pots and pans. Hmmm! The size didn't seem quite right, and we couldn't see a handle though, so I think it's maybe his dog's water bowl. Kind of nice that he'd treat his pup to a cool water bowl. Maybe he's not totally evil?

On another note, we got a cool email from our friends McKinley and Nikki of South Africa. It's good to know Siberians have the African continent covered - they were out hunting for BUNNIES!

Here is Big M little c, out on the hunt yesterday! He told us, "I know there's a bunny out there somewhere!" He's one cool pup, isn't he? And the service he does, keeping his bipeds safe from bunnies! He told us, "We are waiting to go walkies - saw the bunny yesterday afternoon so bipeds have promised to take us back there to look again. Maybe if the bunny is not there the buck might be or the guinea fowl!!" WOW! We don't have those guinea fowl things here, but if McKinley thinks they're worth pulling over, it sounds GREAT to us!

When they got back, Nikki paused for some quiet reflection in their garden. Here she is, thinking about the one that got away.

Don't worry, Nikki! You'll get 'em next time! Ha rooooooo!

Play bows, everypup!

Zim