Catching up and traveling on Throwback Thursday

Hi all - just thought I'd check in and let you all know that we have had to take a temporary break due to me needing to travel for work.  No worries - Monty and Harlow are doing fine and we will be back to blogging soon! 

Until then, I thought you might enjoy these photos from our 2012 vacation with Angel Sam and Monty to Christopher Creek, Arizona.  Have a great Throwback  Thursday!

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.

A Sam update and Fawkes Harlow

First of all, a long overdue update on Sam.  Right now our boy is doing a lot better than he was a week ago.  His testing last Monday revealed the lump to not be cancer, and in fact, to not be anything other than a very well developed muscle in Sam's shoulder.  The new theory is that Sam has an inflammed shoulder joint due to either valley fever or bacterial arthritis.  So, Sammish is on Prednisone, Tramadyl and Clavamox in the hope that one of those will defeat whatever is wrong with him.  Sam is getting around much better with only a slight limp.  We have a sneaky feeling that there is still something that isn't right and hasn't been covered by this diagnosis, but we are taking it one day at a time.  As long as Sam is happy, then we are too!

Thank you, everyone, for thinking of me.

Now, our timing has always been wacky, but in the midst of worrying about Sam, we added a new family member....

One... two... thr... wait a minute!

Originally, her name was Libby, but she didn't seem to respond to it.  We renamed her Fawkes Harlow, or Harlow for short.  She is a 9 month old female Golden Retriever.  Our boys are absolutely smitten with her.

I shall teach her everything I know.

Of course, Harlow is all girl and needed a very girly collar:

After all, what girl doesn't want to dress up in pearls and lace?

Harlow needs some work on her basic manners and potty skills, but she is incredibly smart and wants to please.  She also thinks she is Super Dog.

I'm sure I have the position right, but how do I get off the ground?

Did I mention she's not spayed, either? 

Monty at times acts horrified about her, although, we think he is pleased to finally have someone to play with.  Harlow pesters him to death, and Monty has stoically adopted the role of big brother.  Of course, if you ask him, he will deny that he likes her.

Dis isn't what it seems.  I was framed!

An update on Sam...

Friday morning I took Sam to see a specialist.  After much poking, prodding and smooches from Sam, he finally declared that he doesn't think the problem has anything to do with Sam's brain.  He said Sam's reflexes are great (as evident by Sam swatting him every time he tried to test Sam's blink responses), he has good function in his legs (Sam showed him his awesome Ninja kick - the boy has ticklish feet...), and Sam has excellent strength (it took two interns to hold him still).  After eliminating all of those worries he brought in a second vet for another opinion.  After her examination, they both agreed on what is the cause of Sam's issues.  There is a mass pressing on the nerves that control his front left leg.  The bad news?  The mass is hard and they both believe it is cancerous.

Sam was happy to make new friends at the neurologist.

Monday I bring him back for further testing.  As you can imagine, we are very anxious about the news.  We've been trying to keep from thinking of it, although it is impossible to not do so. 

Taking my stallion, Baron, out.  My sister, Kathy, is on her Clydesdale, Baie.

We are so appreciative of all the kind words and thoughts our boy is receiving.  Knowing that Sam has so many friends in the world is helping us so much right now.  We are still hopeful that he will fully recover and I can feel silly for being so worried.

We is worried too!

In the meantime, we are letting Sam just be happy and do what he wants. 

Feeling the wind in his snooter...

Snoopervising the pool fill-in.

Our Sunday - the Chalk Edition

Sometimes I like to buy things just to see how the boys will interact with it.  Today's find was a box of 15 large pieces of chalk for 99 cents.  How could I pass it up?

Here are the boys doing a "What's this?"  I took this picture about two seconds before Monty took off with the box of chalk.  You can see him starting to steal it here.

What's dis stuff?

 After chasing the boy through the yard, we got back down to work.  First off, the boys got to choose their colors. 

Blue for me, Mom!  Could I have orange?

....and we got to work!

I'm not in the way, am I?

Due to the day being bright and sunny, we kept losing Monty to his sunbeams.  Sam didn't mind helping all the way through.  Finally, it was time to get both boys to pose.

Mama's little helper...

You can tell Monty wasn't ready to give up on the reflections yet... 

I love these boys!

We hope you all have a great week!

Monty's Gotcha Day!

Today is Monty's Gotcha Day!  Can you believe it has been 3 years since I looked at a little pup on AZGRC's website, turned to Aaron and said "Can we adopt him?"

Dad said yes.  I is a lucky pup.

We decided we would throw Monty a Gotcha Day party!  It started with new collars:

Red Paisley for Sam

Green Monkey's for Monty

Of course, you can't have any kind of party without cake...

BarkBox supplied this one

It was easy to make.

In which Mom tries to get fancy....

The boys loved it!

Chomp chomp chomp...

Chomp chomp chomp...

Then, we moved on to presents!

Our April BarkBox came just at the right time!

Monty loves these hedgehogs.  They fit just right in his mouth and the wheezing sound is his favorite.  They are also the toy he is least likely to shred.  We buy him one every chance we get.

Dis mine, okay?

...and of course, Sam got a toy too!  Don't let his smile fool you, we know what he is thinking about this sock monkey!

Sock Monkey spotted.  All systems set to "Destroy".

There were other treats to enjoy as well...

Duck Jerky?  Please!

...and pretty soon the boys were tired and ready for a nap!

Dis boy gets no privacy...

Happy Gotcha Day, Monty!  We love you!

Happy 4th (or 5th?) Bloggiversary!

Can you believe it has been over four years (close enough to 5!) since we first started telling the stories of a little dog named Sam? 

Hi all!

Before long, we were also telling stories of his little brother, Monty....

Hi dere.  I has no more toys to defloof....

No worries!  He is getting new toys on his Gotcha Day.

Some of our stats have included...

• 447 posts with 10725 Comments
• Oddest search keywords that brought folks to our blog:  "nickname for beautiful eyes" and "Rocky Horror Picture Show". 
• 136 different countries have visited!  (Hello everyone!)

The boys (and Aaron and I) are so thrilled to have made so many friends across the world!

It's cuz we is so cute!

Thank you, everyone, for stopping by to read our stories and helping us reach another Bloggiversary.  We love sharing the boys with you, and look forward to another great year!

....and, an oldie but goodie...

The first picture of Sam that we posted on the blog.

Sam, rocking his car tie!

Wordless Wednesday - Profiles

Wordless Wednesday-Brothers

Frosty Paws Winners!

Let me tell you, this was a drawing that took three tries to get it right. 

First, I thought I would try the old fashioned way...  I put everyones name on a piece of paper and scattered them on the floor.  My thought was Sam could help me pick.  Little did I know that Monty would zoom through and manage to get most of the names stuck to his butt feathers...  It's been 6 hours and I'm still finding names scattered all over the house.

Innocent I is...

So on my second attempt, I carefully cut the names out, put Monty outside and once again scattered the papers on the ground.  I counted to make sure I had them all, but...  I only had 21.  I should have had 22.  So I gathered them up, figured out who was missing, made a new slip of paper and...  21.  By then, I noticed Sam wasn't looking at me.  He was stealing the one that got closest to him and eating it!  Sigh...  I realized the boys were scheming to keep the Frosty Paws coupons all to themselves. 

We want them all!

So, I borrowed a page from Augie and Ti's Mom - to Randomized.com I went!   ...and the winners are:

Thank you everyone who commented!  I will need a shipping address from all the winners -  please e-mail me at cafall @ aol dot com.

November BarkBox!

Our November BarkBox has arrived!

I've learned about letting the boys help me open it. Both boys have gotten really good at diving in, stealing something and taking off before I get a photo.  I decided I'd open this one on the pool table...

So what did we get?

An Acadia Antler Rope Toy....

A Bionic toy - we've got this in the freezer!  We can't wait to treat out boys.

Lots of coupons...

Fruitable Skinny Minis - the perfect size to treat our boys!  (They smell delicious!)

...and a Cool Treats Smoothie!

I decided to give the antler toy to Monty.  Right now he does not trust what I give him, since I slipped him an apple yesterday.  He is convinced I tried to poison him.  Let's just say he isn't snatching anything out of my hands right now...

This might be a trap....