Squeaky Fish!

Woo, everypup and everycat! It's me again - Dave! Did all of you like my video yesterday? If you had your speakers on, you understand it was Wordless Wednesday, but not Squeakless Wednesday!

We had small 's' storms all day yesterday and all night, but I thought I would use some pix from last week to show you my Squeaky Fish that I was playing with - since many of you asked about it! Here's a close up:

Squeaky Fish

Isn't it cool? So colorful! And Mom said it is the LOUDEST squeaky toy on the face of the earth and that it's an "outside playtime only" toy. Hmm. I'm not sure WHY it's "outside only", but I don't think my mom would make that up ... would she? It's made by Ruffians; you can see the details at this link. Even after reading that, I don't see anything about "outside only", but maybe it's in the fine print somewhere.

To play with it, get your mom to throw it, then go over and give it a good squeeze or two.

"SQUEAK! SQUEAK! SQUEAK!"

Woo! It really IS the loudest squeaky toy! What fun! How about a good round of Fetch?!!?

Me and Squeaky Fish

It's kind of tricky and tries to get away from you - so maybe it's not the toy for Fetch beginners. It also gets real slick and wet (I guess because it's a fish...), which adds to the challenge. Very fun!

Me and Squeaky Fish again

As you heard yesterday, when you run, you can't help but squeeze it and it goes, "SQUEAK! SQUEAK! SQUEAK!!!" It's GREAT! You'll want to run all over your yard with it, squeaking it as you go, so all of your neighbors can enjoy it!

"Hey, neighbors to the north! Can you hear my Squeaky Fish?!?!"

I hope that gives all of you a better idea about Squeaky Fish by Ruffians. It's really fun and really colorful and really LOUD and I love playing with it! Mom says even though this size is for big puppies, she will only let me play with it when she is right there with me. She says it's for safety purposes but I think she just likes to hear it say, "SQUEAK!!!"

Luv,

Dave

Wordless Wednesday

Luv,
Dave
(I hope your speakers were on!)

Happy Tuesday!

Hi everypuppy and everykitty! It's me - Ammy! I wanted to thank all of you for the wonderful wishes for my adoption anniversary yesterday! It was a pretty stormy day and we have more severe weather on tap for tonight, so I thought maybe seeing some nicer things would help everyone feel happy. How does that sound?

Here's something that makes all of us happy - playtime in a sunny backyard!

"Don't you move, Wubba!"

Me (Amber) playing with my Wubba. Well, it's really Davy's ... but ...

I don't play Fetch or Tuggy-Tug, but I do like to run after it when Mom throws it, then I wait for her to catch up with me - I make sure it doesn't move! - then she throws it again. We both get lots of good exercise this way!

Beautiful sunsets always are a big hit with all of us. Here is a collage from the third of May:

Red sky at night, Sibe's delight!

Doesn't it look like the sky was on fire? It wasn't, but it looked truly amazing! (If you'd like to see those pix individually, they are in our FlickR album Sunsets and Skyshots.)

Here's another sunset from the sixth of May:

Ahh! Does everyone feel happy and all warm inside? OK, just in case everyone hasn't quite reached their Happy Place yet ...

"You know it's coming, don't you?"

...how about a joke? My pose up there reminded me of one I just heard. I even made a little visual aid to go along with it. Ready?

What did the bunch of grapes say when the elephant stepped on it?

Nothing. It just let out a little wine.

Hee hee hee! Wine/whine. Hee hee hee! Is everyone smiling now?

"I feel funny. Hee hee hee! Wait.... did Mom turn me into a cartoon Ammy again?"

Love,

Ammy

Ammy-Versary Day!

Tail wags, pups and kittens! It's me, Stormy! Today is a very special day for all of us here at Ao4 Headquarters - it's the celebration of the day we adopted the sweetest, most loving, and certainly the funniest member of our family - AMMY!

Our Amberversary girl!

Ammy's adoption is very, very special to all of us - but I think especially to me! You see, I was quite the wild girl when Mom and Dad first adopted me, but oh, do I (and did I) have strong maternal instincts! Mom promised me that as soon as I learned to trust and share and a few other things, she would get me a puppy of my own. I tried my hardest - and sure enough in May of 1999 she brought home that little Sweet Potato, that dear little bundle of red and white fluff, my Ammy!

I hope you'll help us celebrate today! Happy Amaversary, Happy Homecoming, Happy Gotcha Day to my sweet girl puppy!!!

Tail wags,

Stormy

Serene Scenery Sunday

Ha roo, pups and cool cats - it's me, Zim! Need a little serenity in your life? You've come to the right place. How about a walk through our backyard gardens? That always soothes my not-so-troubled mind! Let's look around at what's blooming right now.

Wandering down to the southwest area, we can see a lot going on.

Me (Zim) in the southwest quadrant of the backyard

Right above me - see that tree? That's the Yorktown Snow Flower Tree that our Aunt Janet sent us last year. There's no snow involved, but wow, what a wonderfully soothing name ~ Snow Flower. (For a close-up of the blooms, please click here.)

Right in front of my snooter is a Butterfly Weed. Here's a closer look at that:

Me (Zim) and the Butterfly Weed

Aunt Janet sent that, too. In the Summer, it will have really intense orange flowers on it! And butterflies, too! It did a lot of growing this year, so Mom's all excited about it.

Beyond me, down on the bottom tier, do you see the pink stuff? That's Wine and Roses Weigela. We have three different weigela varieties in bloom right now in different areas of the backyard. Let's look at those real quick:

Wine and Roses Weigela

Red Prince Weigela

Minuet Weigela

Just across a little strip of lawn from those Minuet Weigela are some Day Lilies. Our first bloom has opened!

Day Lily

Before too long, there will be a big splash of yellow over there - I'll keep you posted!

Just up from those, in the northeast corner of the yard, our Miss Kim Lilacs are in full swing.

Miss Kim Lilacs

I have no idea who Miss Kim is, but she has some mighty wonderful smelling Lilacs! I just love those! (In Ammy's post the other day, you could see them in the background!)

I'll keep exploring, checking the AO for new and exciting stuff to show you!

Zimmle Mawson, Explorer Pup, at the Great Wall of ... Kansas

That's about all that's blooming right now, though I think I saw a couple buds on the rose bush. Oh, and some dandy-lions, but those REALLY don't make Mom feel serene, so I thought I'd leave them out.

Happy Serene Scenery Sunday to all!

Play bows,

Zim

Toy Review

Woo, everypup and everycat. It's me, Dave. Some of you have asked me about one of the really cool toys I was playing with the other day. In particular, my fellow Kong-on-a-Rope lover, Golden Sammie commented, "Love that toy - what you got there - some kind of ball-on-a-rope????? Cool!" Woo, Sammie! It's the coolest! I've had it for a while now, but just within the past week decided it's my favorite! Here's a picture of it:

Double Tennis Ball-on-a-Rope!

It doesn't squeak, but it's got all kinds of other stuff going for it! Here are some of the things I like to do with it:

Me, Dave, ready to PLAY!!!

It's easy for your biped to throw it really far - even in 40 mile-an-hour winds like we had the other day - so you can do lots of this:

"Here I come!!!"

If you need to catch your breath, you can chew on it a bit - and it's really strong!

"Gimme a minute here, Mom!"

Then, when you're ready to get up and start running again, it's ready, too!

Cool action shot of me playing "Fetch"

Doesn't that look like fun? You can play Tuggy-Tug with it, too, but Mom didn't get any pix of us playing that game.

"This cool toy wears me out!"

It's a very fun toy and I heartily recommend it - especially to those of you who love to play Fetch like I do. This is how happy it makes me:

"Happy, happy, happy!"

How's that for putting a smile on my face?!? Woo!

Luv,

Dave

PS: Some of you have also asked about Mom's camera - most of the photos are taken with her Nikon CoolPix P90. Some (including several of the shots above) are actually snapped with her iPhone. She is editing with PhotoShop Elements 6 for Mac. Woo.

Fun On Friday

Hi everypuppy and everycat! It's me - Ammy! Davy sort of did Photo Finish Friday yesterday, which would have made it Photo Finish Thursday ... but so Stormy told me I should wrap up the week with a joke. How does that sound to all of you?

I was out in the yard running after my soccer ball when I thought of a good one to share with you. Remember once I told you my joke about a piece of string walking into a bar?

"Hee hee hee! That one cracks me up!"

And another time I told you about a grasshopper who walked into a bar!

"Hee hee hee! I like that one, too!"

OK... so here's today's joke. Three guys walked into a bar ... but the fourth one ducked.

"Hee hee hee! He ducked. Hee hee hee! Ouch, that's gotta hurt!"

Have a happy weekend, everypup and everykitty!

Love,

Ammy

Let's Play!

Woo, everypup and everycat! It's me - Dave! Remember the other day - I told you about how Mom was working on her photo and PhotoShop skills? And how I thought it would help her a LOT to take me out back to play so she could get cool pix of me to play around with? Well, it worked! I had a great play session or two (or more) and Mom was able to sharpen those skills! Here's the best of what we came up with!

Here's a really cool action shot:

Me - Dave! On the run!!!

Mom was real happy to get that crispy-clean action shot! Here's another!

Here I come!

Mom put a cool border around it and stuff. I'm not sure what else. Want to see that same shot in a really wild frame? Click here!

Using another lesson, Mom did some other layering stuff and put those two shots together! Take a look:

Does it make me look even faster?

We played with another toy - umm... just so Mom could play with some color. Yeah, just that. Just for color and to help my mom. Aren't I nice? Woo. Let's look at those, OK?

See how that toy was trying to get away from me? Umm... I mean see the cool opaque frame Mom made? The color matches the color of my really cool Squeaky Toy!

It's a tricky toy, but wow, is it FUN! I think we should get some more cool action shots today, don't you? You know - to help Mom. Woo!

Luv,

Dave

Wordless Wednesday

Tail wags,
Storms

Two Fer Tuesday

Woo, everypup and everycat. It's me, Dave. And my kid brother Zim, too! ("Ha roo!") Late Sunday afternoon, Mom decided us boys were driving her crazy deserved a treat, so we all jumped in the car and headed out on an adventure. Can you guess where we went? Here's a picture from the way there:

The way there

Can you figure it out? Yep! The Top of the World! Woo! We haven't been there in ages and it was a blast. Unfortunately, not only did Mom forget her camera, but her iPhone battery was really low. She did get a few pix, though. Here's one of us!

Zim and me (Dave)

"Check out that view, Dave!"

"Woo!"

You can see forever in every direction up there. Here's a panoramic shot Mom put together:

View from the Top of the World

(For a bigger view, please click here)

All of our cool action shots came out really, really blurry due to that "low battery" thing. How about another pose?

Us boys

We walked all around, exploring everything - there were so many new smells up there, it was unbelievable! We just had a blast, exploring and sniffing and walking and pulling and woo, it was just a great adventure. I have to say, all we did was sleep when we got back, though; I hope Mom wasn't too disappointed about that!

Luv,

Dave (and play bows from Zim)

Hang On!

Ha roo, pups and kit-cats. It's me, Zim. Hang on!

It's Monday.

Play bows,

Zim

Serene Scenery Sunday

Ha roo, pups and cool cats! It's me, Zim, here with some photos guaranteed to help you feel calm and relaxed. Ready to have a look around Ao4 Headquarters?

Our snow chances are long gone until next season - but we do have some snowballs! Snowball Viburnum, that is. Here's a look at some of the blooms:

Snowball Viburnum

Aren't they cool? I mean as in "temperature". They're over on the side of the house by the Mohican Viburnum, just one tier down. If you need cooling down more, you can see more pix of the Snowballs here and here.

Do you know what else is cool? This little guy:

Robin

We have a family of robins living in one of our trees and they're letting Mom get real close with her camera! It was hard to decide which photo to post, but I thought that one was a particularly serene pose. To see more, please feel free to visit our FlickR album.

Also on the side of the house with the Snowball Viburnum and the Mohican Viburnum are three Korean Dwarf Lilac bushes! These guys are in full bloom now!

Me, Zim (wearing Ammy's leash) by the Korean Dwarf Lilacs

They are right by the garage; every time I come in the house, I brush up against them so I smell real nice. Lilacs are right up there with smelling like fabric softener! Mmmm... I love it! What a peaceful scent!

Do you remember last year when our friends Maggie and Mitch sent us some of their Lily of the Valley plants? They had PINK ones and Mom has never seen PINK ones! They're in bloom now - here's a look:

M&M's Pink Lily of the Valley

Not only are they very nice flowers, but we think of our friends and that gives us such a peaceful, wonderful feeling! Thanks again, Maggie and Mitch!

Is everyone feeling nice and tranquil now? How about I leave you with a sunset shot from last night?

I heartily encourage you to click here for a larger version. Mom also posted a closer-in shot here and a "painting effect" of that panoramic shot here, if you're interested.

Have a serene Sunday, everyone!

Play bows,

Zim

My Name's Dave ... and I'm Here to Help!

Woo, everypup and everycat! It's me - Dave. Mom is trying real hard to get better with her photo skills and needs to work on some new techniques she's learned. I thought I should help her and proposed a play session in the backyard. I mean... she could take some new pictures of me and play around with them. Doesn't that sound like a great idea? I thought so, too!

I think you all know what I love to do - right?!?

Me. Dave.

That's right - a rousing game of Fetch! Look at how fast I am!

ZOOM!!!!!!!

Pretty cool, don't you think? Then Mom confused me by tossing two of my toys at the same time!

"Woo! How'd she do that!!?"

But don't worry - I was able to grab them both, as you saw the other day!

"I ❤ my toys!"

It's sunny and cool out there now ... I think Mom should go out and get more new pictures of me playing, don't you? Woo!

Luv,

Dave