We’re finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. The end of 100+ degree days are coming close. If you live in the Phoenix Metro area, or know people who live in the area, and are interested in joining our ExploraBull dog walking group stop on by our Blog for som up to date information. Also visit our Facebook page for more up to the minute announcements. We’re ready to get moving and shakin!
Our little house guest
One day last week I came home from work, did our usually potty routine and let Buddy out into the living room. I’m in the kitchen and all I can hear is loud, vigorous sniffing. Walking into the living room I can see Buddy in full point mode sniffing their pink blanket. My mind starting flooding with thoughts of “what is it?!?”. Maybe just a cricket but what if it’s a scorpion or even a mouse. There has to be something good in there. My heart starts racing but I’m trying to remain calm. I get near Buddy and think I hear a squeak. OMG it’s a mouse. There’s a mouse in my house!!!
Buddy smells something good
I put all the dogs in their kennels, last thing I needed to do was clean up mouse guts. I walk in the room, take a deep breath and toss up the blanket. Nothing. Hum… but there HAS to be something in this blanket. There is no other reason for it. My mind then switches from mouse mode to scorpion. I’ve lived here for over 15 years and never have seen one in my own home. This would be the first. I take another deep breath and slowly lift the blanket to see the underside. I squeal and drop it. There’s something on the underside!!! What was that!?! I put on my big girl pants and again lift the blanket. That’s when I see it.
Oh he’s just a little guy
It was a teeny, tiny little lizard!!!! I begin to formulate my plan. How to get him OUTSIDE the house without him running off into the rest of the house?? See these little guys are fast and I have a dog who is obsessed with lizards. Miss Bella will watch them out the back slider and has been known on two occasions to literally jump our 8 ft concrete block wall chasing them. I decide I’ll just drag the blanket outside and he’d jump right off. I open the front door wide open and slowly drag it out. Well Mr Lizard wasn’t having it. He liked his new soft home. I don’t want him to run back inside so I shook the blanket out. Nope. Not going. Now I’m pondering looking like the crazy lady with a pink blanket on my porch or hunting for the perfect lizard pushing utensil. Luckly I don’t have to go far. There is an advertisement hanging from my front door knob. Ironically, it was for pest control. Just gave the little guy a good push and off he went.
Good luck little guy!
If it had been any other day little lizard wouldn’t have been so lucky. Normally Bella has full run of the house while we’re gone. But that day we left her in the kitchen only. If she had been out, boy would she have been happy to have a little snack.
Keepin it fresh and tasty
Being that it is summer time, and very hot where we live, we have to be creative when it comes to entertaining the adorabully pups. We really can’t take walks until late evening so everyone can get a bit restless.
I’ve tried ice cubes in water, ice cubes as snacks, and even a kiddie pool. All we get is a “are you serious” look and no fun. So I decided to give frozen Kong treats a try. With some creative googling I decided bananas and peanut butter was the trick. Most dog recipes called for yogurt and honey in the mix. Due to our sensitive tummies I decided to ditch those two ingredients. All I used was fresh bananas and peanut butter straight from the jar. Popped the bananas in the food processor, added a little water. When they were about half mashed I added a few tablespoons of peanut butter. I may have added a bit too much water but it worked. Filled all three Kongs almost to the top and stuck a dog treat out the opening as a little incentive. I then popped them in the freezer for a few hours. Once they were hard the pups, who were eagerly awaiting them, dove right in.
I may have gotten a little over ambitious with my batch size. I used 5 whole bananas. Ended up with a lot of extra mix. What’s a mom to do? Why not freeze them into easy to use cubes! I had just bought an ice cube tray a few days earlier so it was super convenient.
I ended up filling the whole tray up. Once they were frozen I just transferred them to a container.
Now I have easy to use frozen treats for the pups. They are a little big for the Kongs so I just cut them in half length wise and they’re perfect! I highly recommend this nice frozen summer treat.
Summer Days
These hot, long, sunny summer days have made us a bit lazy. Once the thermometer hits the 100s every day people tend to hide away inside the ice cold AC. We are included in this trend and sadly it has affected our blogging. It can get quite mundane staying in until after dark. Even the pups don’t enjoy going out in this weather. The are out to potty then quickly begging to be let back in. We’re lucky to have a nice shaded balcony that we sit out on in the mornings on the weekend but by 11am or so, it’s way too hot to stay out.
Enjoying the cool morning
These longs days also result in lots of sunshine beaming through the windows. With the air cranked high the dogs love to find the sunny spots in the house to toast up a bit. They’re also working on their tans for when we go to the lake. Have to impress the ladies (and gents)
Devo’s getting his tan on
This is her “tough girl” look
But even with all the sunshine occasionally things can get a little boring around here. We try to keep the dogs entertained with toys and kongs. But sometimes Mom and Dad get a little bored and the pups have to suffer as a result. There’s nothing like playing a little dress up to pass the day!!
Hopefully we’ll be able to squeeze in a few summer time adventures up in the cooler mountains. In the mean time our posts will be here and there. But we’ll still be around and once those summer storms start and the weather cools down we’ll sure have many new stories to write about!
It’s alive!! (still…)
Remember back for Christmas when all the dogs got new collars and toys from Grandma Clause?
Well Buddy and Bella proceeded to slowly kill their toys. Buddy gutted his and played with the carcass for awhile and I think Bella’s was a causality of war (tug of war).
But that Devo, he sure knows how to take care of his stuffies. He carries his around with him every day. When I come home from work he greets me with it in his mouth making his adorable Chewy noises. And to our joy, even the squeaker is still intact.
Even when I went out and found him a new stuffie, he still prefers his good old orange one from grandma.
Is there a pause button?
We’ve been MIA for a little while now. You might have been wondering where we went. We’re still around but just taking a step back.
It seems like just yesterday I decided to write this blog. It seems like just yesterday I decided to create Explorabull hiking group. It just seems like every good intention I have is road blocked by life. My goal for the rest of this month, and the beginning of next, is to gather my life together. Even the little things make such a huge impact. I lost my camera cord therefore no photos to post. My laptop charger finally kicked it after about 4 years so even if I had my camera cord there is no where to post my photos. We had a few doggie hiccups, but everyone is well now. Just hang around and we’ll be back in full force before you know it.
In the mean time find a comfy spot and just relax.
A Camping We Will Go
This weekend M and I took the D boy camping for the first time this season. Devo was very excited he could hardly contain it.
Once we get all the photos and video uploaded we’ll post the whole story. It was a wonderful adventure!
Toy Time!!
We love reading our fellow pittie blogs. We get so many ideas for fun and exciting things to do with our pack. So when Love and a Six Foot Leash posted about making a homemade toy for their super duo, we thought why not give it a shot. I had extra fleece sitting around from my dog bed project. A little back story on me, I love crafts and projects but I am horrible at finishing them. I am what many may call a procrastinator. I call it just being an artist. So I decided one afternoon to give it a try. I wanted something a little more durable than just a braid so I thought why not try using those skills I learned in high school making friendship bracelets.
Just used a simple over under knot
I chose a fun floral pattern I had lying around and cut it up into 6 strips. They were on the thinner side in order to make the knots successful. I put all 6 together and made a knot at one end. Then I used the over under knotting technique to make the rows. I did forget that you are supposed to double knot on each strand to avoid curling. I’ll try to remember that for next time. It did make a fun curl in the toy which I think the dogs liked.
It makes nice tight rows of knots
I made it pretty long because we have a lot of short, small toys and I wanted something they could really tug at. I was very impressed with my finished product. Now to see what the dogs thought. Buddy was the first test. He LOVES to shake toys around. Just smacking himself in the face. This was no exception.
Getting the official "Buddy seal of approval"
Next was to test it with the Buddy and Bella duo. The love to pay together but haven’t really had any good long pull toys. They had been using Buddy’s boomerang but that left very little room to pull. I thought for sure they’d get the point that they could be far away from each other. But instead they thought it was great to bite it as close to each other as possible. Even thought that didn’t go as planned they still LOVED their toy.
This is how they thought it should be used
Devo isn’t much of a toy player. He prefers to coddle his toys and love on them. By the time it was his turn for the new toy he just grabbed it and walked around the house with it. He’s such a shorty that it would trail behind him or between his legs. But he walked so happily with his head held high. I haven’t gotten a photo of him with it yet but trust me, it’s adorable.
So, all in all, homemade toys are very successful. I probably used a couple bucks worth of left over fabric. Now a few weeks later it’s still in 1 piece and is played with daily. M loved to play tug with Buddy. It’s long enough that we can use the couch arm as leverage and actually win the game!! Next craft project… making something with a squeaker for Devo.
The final product
A Case of the Mondays
I came downstairs this morning bright and early to go to work. It was Buddy’s night to sleep out on the couch. Well someone sure had the case of the Monday’s because he sure didn’t want to get out of “bed”.
Must be rough being a pup. As I was making my breakfast he eventually strolled into the kitchen to be let out. And took his sweet time outside smelling the warm air. Then came back in and went back to bed. What a life.
Learning to be Prepared
I read many blogs related to pitbulls and dog ownership. Many have posted information about what supplies they bring on their walks. Two Pitties in the City did a great post about preparing walking bags. I did take tips and started to carry a bag with me as well. But there was one piece of equipment I didn’t think we would need. We mostly walk in our quiet neighborhood. We almost never encounter another dog and if we do they’re usually on the other side of the street with their owner. I do this on purpose to avoid any bad interactions. So on the list when it mentioned bring a spray such, a citronella or bear spray, I figured I would never need that.
That was until this past Saturday afternoon. Bella and I were on a little easy stroll around the neighborhood. The weather was beautiful and we were just enjoying the fresh air. As we were heading back home we took a side street back to the main road. As we near a house with a garage door open I hear this door chime go off and before we knew it this large, black, fluffy dog came charging up on us. I freaked out but Bella remained calm. She sniffed quickly and I said enough and started to slowly back her away. But this dog was not having that. He pushed himself up underneath Bella. She just looked at me with these terrified eyes. I screamed for the owner to come get their dog. See Bella is not an instigator, but she will fight back. She has gotten into a few little scuffles with the boys when they get a little toy possessive. I was terrified she was going to bite this dog out of fear. I have nothing to stop it. This other dog didn’t even have a collar on. I screamed again to come get their dog. They finally came out and said they were sorry. Bella and I walked back home. I praised her for acting so well and I was so very thankful I wasn’t walking one of the boys. They would have for sure started a fight on impact.
This event made me realize that you can never be too prepared for even a quick stroll in your own neighborhood. You can trust your dog but you can’t trust others. It’s terrifying to think that my dog could seriously be harmed or harm another when just on a walk. From here on out I will have a bag fully prepared for every walk we go on. Hopefully to be more prepared if an incident like this were to happen again.
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