Wow!

We've been doing product reviews for chewy.com for well over a year now and the thoughtfulness of the folks there never ceases to amaze me!  If you remember, last year when I was in the hospital, Chewy's was kind of enough to send me flowers and to my surprise, a beautiful little painting of Monty and Harlow.  You can read that post here.

Imagine my surprise when I arrived home yesterday to find a package on the porch, addressed to Monty and Harlow.

A surprise!

I opened it to find a beautiful miniature portrait of Harlow and Monty.  I really love this one!  Harlow is wearing her cast (or the bonker as we called it) and Monty has his serious face on!

Don't you just want to smooch Monty?

Of course it needed to be hung up right away.  The only spot that would do was next to the other one.  We now have our own gallery of miniatures, thanks to Chewy's!

How wonderful are these?

Thank you so much, chewy.com!

Volunteering

As a member of royalty, Princess Harlow knows the importance of volunteering.  This past Saturday, we joined AZGRC for the Arizona Special Olympics Fun Day!  If you remember, Angel Sam and I volunteered to help out with this same event in 2012.  We had a great day then, and a great time this past weekend!

Our role there was as "therapy" dogs for the kids after their tennis games.   Harlow of course, likes to always look her best when she goes out....

Tennis bandana provided by AZGRC.

It was the perfect day to wear her flowers!

Harlow made sure to catch up on events from fellow princess, Leilani...

We must have dese meetings more often!

...and spent some time chatting with other AZGRC dogs...

She discovered a magical place where tennis balls rain from the sky...

Photo from the AZGRC Facebook page!  :)

...and had a heck of time with the wind...

I don't know how her flowers stayed in!

She manages to look even more cute when she is windblown.

While waiting for the kids, she reclined in true Harlow fashion...

The Princess has style!  (AZGRC photo!)

Big smiles!  (AZGRC photo!)

She was a pro at letting the kids love on her...

I like dis kid!  (AZGRC photo!)

I love her face in this one!  (AZGRC photo!)

...and wore a smile all day long!

(AZGRC photo!)

Of course, the day wouldn't have been complete without a group photo (we are on the left, bottom row!).

Click to see a larger photo - AZGRC photo

...and of course, some pup decided she wasn't being paid enough to make appearances...  (Thank you, Candy, for catching her drama!)

Click to see a larger photo - trust me on this one!

If you would like to see more photos, make sure to visit AZGRC's Facebook page!

Wordless Wednesday - The Fur is Flying

Throwback Thursday - Angel Sam and Monty Edition

The brothers...

I haven't posted a Throwback Thursday for a while.  This week I thought I'd show you our favorite redheads and brother's forever.

Wordless Wednesday - Monty Edition

Why Blogging is Special

Right around Christmas we received something special in the mail...

 To our surprise, a donation to the Search Dog Foundation had been made on behalf of Harlow and Monty!

How awesome is this?

Becky and I are Facebook friends, sharing a mutual love of Friesian horses. 

I love the team bio.

I wish I could describe the happiness I feel when we get cards like this, to know our pups, two little dogs with a blog, mean so much to folks that rescues and organizations benefit from it.  I am truly humbled by this generosity.

If you would like to learn more about Search Dog Information, click here.  Their website is fun, with a photo gallery of some of the work they have done, information on their teams, and additional ways to donate (you can sponsor a dog!).  Becky and Gary have worked with this organization for over 25 years.

Becky and Gary, thank you so much!

Wordless Wednesday - Harlow Edition

Smooches! January chewy.com Review

For this months chewy.com review, we decided to try Smooches, from The Honest Kitchen.  We've been hearing all kinds of good things about The Honest Kitchen from fellow bloggers and have been wanting to try their products for some time.

Wait, what?  It looks like the box is empty!

Something is wrong here!

Okay, just kidding...  They arrived on Friday and we opened the box for the pups. 

You had me worried!

These looked suspiciously (according to Harlow) healthy, their ingredients only being barely flour, chicken, molasses, water, eggs, organic coconut oil, cranberries and Parmesan cheese.  They only have 2.3 calories per smooch, which is just perfect - our Princess has been filling her puppy suit a little too well these days!

Be nice, da Momma.

More importantly, they are made in the USA!  Another thing I really like is there is a made on date (June 2014) on the box, as well as a use by date (June 2015). 

The pieces are roughly the size of a quarter and very hard to break.  You wouldn't be able to crumble these down into smaller pieces.

Seriously loaded with cranberries too!

Here is the segment of our reviews where we try to catch our pups making funny faces as they sample the products...

He's hard to catch!

Derp!

All in all, we like this product due to its healthy ingredients, and the pups like the taste and texture.  We would definitely order this again.




Disclaimer:  How Sam Sees it has not been compensated for this product review. We received a product to review.  We have no connection with the brand and were not influenced in our opinions. Our opinions are strictly our own.

5th Annual Pet Blogger Challenge

We decided to participate again in this years Pet Blogger Challenge.  We participated last year and had a lot of fun answering the questions and reading what other folks had to say.  If you would like to join in, click here!  Are you ready? 

Iz waiting, Momma!

1. How long have you been blogging? And, for anyone stopping by for the first time, please give us a quick description of what your blog is about. 

I have been blogging since July 2008, although at the time we had no idea what direction this blog would take.  It kind of fizzled out.  We consider our official start date to be April 2009.  We knew we wanted the blog to be about our dogs, but didn't quite have the format down.  We love to put up quirky stories, Photoshops, photos and posts that hopefully make folks smile.

2. Tell us one thing that you accomplished on your blog during 2014 that made you proud.

I've always been hit and miss with blog posts.  My goal was to beat my highest year for posts which was 2010 with 126 posts.  We managed to squeak post that number in 2014 with 130.  My goal this year is to pass that number.  

3. What lessons have you learned this year – from other blogs, or through your own experience – that could help us all with our own blogs?

My answer is actually the same as last years - the dog blogging community is wonderful.  They have shown that to me time and time again.  Don't be afraid to reach out and ask for help or questions.  Technical support, dog questions, and a great support team when life gets a little rough - they are there.

4. What have you found to be the most successful way to bring traffic to your blog, other than by writing great content?

I love visiting other blogs and reading what folks have to say.  I've had a jump in readers in the last month and I think that is mainly because I've expanded my list of blogs I visit.  Being friendly really helps.  I also share my posts on Facebook and get a few folks that wouldn't normally read blogs visiting that way.

5. What was your most popular blog post this year? Did it surprise you that it was your most popular?  

That's a tough one!  Reviewing my posts from last year I can see several that came out in top.  Harlow's broken toe had a lot of comments, as well as Sugar coming to Phoenix.  We also get a lot of comments on our humorous posts, such as Garth Riley's Dog in the Box contest and our new year's post from last year. 

6. What was your favorite blog post to write this year?  

Another tough question!  My favorite posts are when I get to tell stories through a series of photos.  I have the most fun putting these together.  Our most recent was where Harlow decided to take up hiking, or when our Halloween decorations caused some concern.

7. Has your policy on product reviews and/or giveaways changed this year?

I don't mind doing a limited amount of reviews.  Typically I have one review a month right now from chewy.com.  I'm not sure I want to change that amount, as I've noticed reviews get the least amount of traffic/readers.  This year I want to change my format of the reviews to see if I can put that "quirky" spin on them that I love to do.

8. What’s your best piece of advice for other bloggers?

Just have fun.  I love to do this because I have fun putting the pictures together and love the feedback I get from folks who read our blog. 

9. What goals do you have for your blog in 2015?  Well, as mentioned above, I want to get a little better with consistently getting posts up.  Last year it was a minimum of two posts per week, this year I'd like to try for three.  I also want to make sure I'm not just posting for the sake of posting, so that is challenging me to take a look at the content of my posts. 

10. If you could ask the pet blogging community for help with one challenge you’re having with your blog, what would it be?

Wow - that's a good question.  Right now I'm not experiencing any challenges that I need any help on, but I know if I do, I've got a great support group to ask for help!

Dis isn't what it looks like...

Wordless Wednesday - Monty Edition

Sick pup

Friday night we noticed Harlow seemed a little off.  Typically she's about as bright as a pup can be, active, constantly following us or into something, but suddenly her wattage seemed a little dim.  She took treats from us, but didn't seem that interested in eating them.  Our first thought was that maybe the treats had gone stale.

Saturday morning she was still off, not interested in any food or treat and she vomited a few times.  I don't usually worry too much, having dogs all my life means I've seen my share of tummy aches, but I also had to weigh in that it was Saturday, the vet was only open a half day, and if this did progress to something a little worse, our only recourse would be the emergency vet.  We made the decision to take her in.

She loves everyone at the vet and watches for them.

After taking a look at her, the vet decided it might not be a bad idea to take a few x-rays.  Harlow has a history of making bad decisions and tasting everything to see if its edible.  The vet was worried that she might have a foreign object causing her issues.  To our relief, her x-rays came back clear. 

As an added bonus, since her hips were clearly visible in the x-rays, I asked the vet what she thought.  Harlow loves to lay "froggy" style, and we've been told that means her hips were shot.  The vet said the opposite and said Harlow had wonderful hips!

They kept Harlow for the day, giving her barium and waiting to see if her stomach cleared itself.  I was able to pick her up at 7pm.  She's on a strict diet of bland food, rice and ground beef.  Monty is also benefiting from her diet - how can you feed that to one and not the other one?  He gets his mixed with a little kibble.

Hi dere, people friends.  I'z feeling better.

She is feeling better, and her happiness has returned.  We've been letting her rest as much as possible.  Monty has taken her place as ranch dog, temporarily.  He tends to like to nibble on the ponies and challenge my "no dogs in the corral" rule.

Dis hay is mine - go get your own.

I did try to do a more "artistic" photo shoot with the pups.  Monty is a little hard to take portraits of.  He's in love with the reflections from the camera lens and is easily distracted.

Monty is such a beautiful red color - and so serious in his photos!

...but, Harlow is always ready to pose for a photo or two.

A cold day in heck...

New Year's Day started bright and sunny and full of snow...  Yes, you heard that right.  Snow, in Arizona.  In MY part of Arizona.  We've had snow in the past down this way, it usually melts before you have any kind of chance to enjoy it but I thought I'd give it a try. 

As you can imagine, we aren't prepared for this kind of thing to happen.  Here is Harlow waiting for me to figure out what to do with an amazingly frozen truck. 

Da Momma, can you hurry?  My toes are uncharacteristically cold...

Our first stop is to take care of the horses.  I took a quick photo of the Superstition Mountains from my Mom's drive.

Since the front side of the mountain was very much occupied by folks wanting to take photos of this unusual phenomenon, I decided to head for the First Water Trailhead and take a close up look at the snow from behind the mountain.

Something is seriously wrong out dere, da Momma.

It really was beautiful!  I've done a lot of riding and hiking out this way, and a dusting of snow really changes how the mountain and desert looks!

Harlow really wasn't sure what to make of the icy ground.  This was her first encounter with the white stuff. 

My toes, da Momma, are cold.

If this was a regular occurrence she'd be getting a nice set of boots, I think.  ...and her own jacket.  She is wearing the fleece I sewed Monty a few years back - it's too big on her.  I also wondered how the cold was feeling on her freshly healed toe. 

All in all, it was a beautiful start to the new year for us.  I hope everyone had an equally beautiful day!