Tayla and Kiri collages

Cosmo collage

A killer walks among us

So it's summer time - we get the occassional fly in the house but I bet now there be nary a fly in our house once the word gets out about the "killer". Kiri say it first. Kiri has been and never will be graceful in her "hunting". She just waited until it got kinda close and snapped at it and then got kinda board.

Tayla on the other hand...well that's a different story. Having been a stray she has honed her hunting skills and it was a matter of seconds before she took that little fly down it didn't stand a chance.

Is this the face of a killer??

Her partner in crime

You never forget the first time

I have been having problems with the muscles in my upper right leg. They go into spasms for no reason and has been sore for awhile. Last week I had a massage and the massage therapist could not believe how horribly tight it was - she is also an accupuncturist (is that a word?)

So today for the first timeI had accupuncture. I wish I could explain it but I couldn't. She put ten needles in my upper leg - 5 at the side and 5 on top. W-E-I-R-D!!! She left them in for 20 minutes and it was surreal. I called her in shortly after she put them in all freaked out. I felt like my leg was going to go into spasm at any moment but apparently that's normal. After she took them out the leg felt much better - since it's covered by my benefits - it's definately something I would do again. If I can get past the whole needles in my body thing .

A funny thing no make that a weird thing happened while walking the dogs tonight

So I am taking to dogs out for the last walk of the night. This man comes walking up with a water bottled filled with a dark liquid. He says - do you drink? He sounds sober but what a weird random question. He asks me to smell what's in bottle and I throw my suspicions aside and do it. It smells like some sort of peppermint. The bottle has some black flakes on the side of the bottle that look suspiciously like pot or hash.

Apparently this guy chashed his son home and saw him throw something away and he is worried about what it may be. In the end he decided to take it to the police to figure out what it was.

A little bit about each one - part two

Kiri

Now on the downside she loves poo - duck, goose and rabbit are particularly tasty.
to
She's our little Kiri girl, our silly goose and my sweet pea and we love her dearly.

Tayla

Tayla is the newest member to our canine clan. We got her at 8 months on May 21, 2009 which makes her 10.5 months old now. At the time she came to us she knew no commands. She now knows - sit, stay, come, lie down and shake a paw. Come is selective though and dependant on whether she sees a bird, a bunny, a squirrel, another dog or really anything at all.

She is a poodle cross and looks a lot like a stuffed animal.

She is very playful and loves playing with Kiri. She wants to play with Cosmo but is a little timid. She is timid of both people and other dogs.

With Joe and I she is very much a people dog. She inists on lying with you, sitting beside you, laying on feet while you stand to do dishes and follows you around whenever you move like, well like a puppy. She is a big on cuddles but not kisses. She hates sleeping on the floor and waits until we are asleep (sometimes) and jumps up the bed to sleep with us.

She's crate training and while she doesn't really like her crate she tolerates it because it usually involves treats. She loves the water but hates baths. She'd like to swim but we haven't let her (on purpose) yet.

If you put ice cubes in her water dish she will fish them out with her paw and eat them.

She is the fastest running dog I have seen like a little speed demon. When you are playing with her she will curl her lip, squint her eyes and becomes 'demon dog'.

She a chewer but she doesn't chew things she shouldn't (shocking to see what that's like).

She our Tayla, our little muppet and my silly monkey.

Demon dog Sitting pretty

Our little stuffed animal

Kiri's reaction to

fireworks

Tayla fishes for icecubes

A little bit about each one

A big reason for writing this blog is because a lot of parents chronical things about their children and I am doing the same thing about my dogs. So here goes:

Cosmo

Cosmo is the oldest member of our canine family. He will be 8 years old on September 8th. He is the only one that we have an exact birthday for - he was picked up in a pet store by my brother's family. Linda runs a day care and while Cosmo took the pokes, prods and pulls for a while as he grew up he grew less tolerable. While he never bit nor niped a child he got more and more cranky and it was best he was kept in the basement - however with the busy, busy life of the McCool/Lumini household he was occassionally forgotten. So he came to live with us. He is definately a momma's boy (I believe I have Linda and Teresa to thank for that). He loves older people and can tolerate children. He does get stressed out when we have a lot of children over - he gets growly but when that happens we take him to the bedroom to chill out.

Cosmo was named because he had a star shape on his forhead which has since disappeared. I don't have puppy pictures but I have A LOT since he's lived with us.

He has his own quirks - after he "marks" he territory he runs like a little fiend - like he's so very very excited that he's told the dog world he's been there. He loves to give kisses - lots and lots of kisses. He also loves to get picked up and often crawls under the bed when he wants to get away from it all. He gets his haircut 4-5 times a year. He loves fetching (at home) and he 'loves' some toys more than others. He will play with Kiri but not Tayla - he's not too sure about her yet - but he doesn't hate her either. He will do anything for a treat - he knew sit, stay, come and sit pretty when he came to us. He also now gives a paw, lies down and rolls over. He has a little bit of arthritis in he left leg which is bothered more in the winter and when it does he just picks it up and hops along on three legs. He is my little man, my Cosmopolitan, Moe, Cosmoses and I love him very much.

Kiri

Kiri came to live with us in September of 2008. She was five months old and oh so adorable when we got her. We got her so Cosmo would have a friend. Although it tool a few weeks he finally realized she was here to stay and now he loves her. She looks up to Comso and plays with her but Cosmo was older than her puppy self so she had a lot of energy.

She knew sit and come but now can stay, give a paw and lay down. Roll over is a challenge because she gets scared to going on her side and when I put her there she freaks out and stuggles to sit up.

Kiri HATES loud noises; snowblowers, lawnmowers and most importantly fireworks. Fireworks don't scare her; they terrify her. She won't got out, hides in the basement and if you do try to take her out she crawls into the closet and hides there.

She is a people dog but only on her own terms. If you try to cuddle or sit beside her she gets up and moves but often will come up and lie by you - as long as you don't do if first. She's also a chewer - we have lost: shoes, cds, phones, socks, underwear, hats, photos, books, bed sheets and other things which I am sure I am forgetting.

While she loves us both she clearly favours Joe. She will give kisses on her terms - however I find it terribly funny that if Joe asks she might give him kisses but 90% of the time she's give me kisses.

She loves getting carried upstairs but is getting a little too heavy but often won't come to bed unless you carry her up - at least partway.

All in Disguise

I am currently in All In Disguise with KWLT. I am an Italian maid (can you say typecasting - ha ha). After months of rehearsal last night was our opening show and it went fantastic. Here are some photos Rachel took. And some other from the dress rehearsal taken at the dress by a professional photographer - My hair is down in the dress rehearsal and up in on opening night.

Whose that doggie in the .....mirror??

Tayla is vey funny. She is fasinated with the dog in the mirror - she stands and stares at it repeatedly. She is either very curious and wants to know who the dogs is or is like the Evil Queen in Snow White and asking the mirror who the cutest dog in the mirror is :)

Introducing Little MissTayla

We have decided that a younger puppy is in order to give Cosmo a rest. We initially picked up Toby who was a Lhasa Aspa - he had little to no human contact before we adopted him. He was basically a good dog but he was jealous if you paid attention to another dog. The Guelph Humane Society doesn't let dogs meet before you take another one home. You have them for a seven day trial. He lasted two days before attacked Kiri not once but twice. The same day he went back we got a call from the KW Humane Society (yeah we're on a list). They advised that they had a little eight month old poodle mix female. We met and it went very very well. So adopted her. She's the last one we can have as there is a by-law that only lets you have three per household.
She is named Tayla and is very sweet. She and Kiri love playing although jealously is a bit of factor between the two of them . She's sitting next to me right now. She's not housetrained but she's quite smart and I hope she picks it up pretty quick.
She sleeps about 5 hours a night. We were up at 5:30 this morning, but us I mean me and the dogs, Joe was still sleeping. And stayed sleeping until 7 - I am so jealous and so tired :)
We are going to Stratford and the off leash dog park today

Here are some pictures of the new little girl:

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Yep we're expanding the family and loud noises

We are going to get another dog (yep another one). The Waterloo region allows three dogs per household so this would be it. We went to KW humane society and met a three year old miniature poodle. She was perfect- energy, so so cute, friendly and playful. Twenty minutes later the worker decided to tell us that she needs knee surgery to the tune of between $1,000-$3,000 and recovery would take 12-24 weeks yep up to 6 months where she'd be confined and not allowed to do much except heal. We bit the bullet and said sorry but we can't take her and it literally broke my heart.

We have now met Mimi (who hated Kiri), Princess (who went home with another family - we were next of the list) and Rocky. What can I say about Rocky, well we met him in the Guelph humane society who don't have the dogs meet, which I find weird, we took him for a walk, he's a three year old Lhasa Apso here is his profile:

A SUPER playful guy who loves rubber squeaky toys! Rocky seems to be house trained, walks well on a leash, and likes the company of other dogs. He knows how to sit, but is looking forward to obedience classes to help with some food intensity. Rocky will require regular grooming and brushing, and does have a non-shedding coat. He would do well in any home environment that can give him is daily exercise

We went to meet him on Friday but he was in surgery (getting neutered) so when we saw him on Saturday he wasn't very active and didn't seem very happy - I felt so bad for him. Anyway I have a phone interview of Tuesday and if that goes well we get him for a seven day trial and if that goes well he's ours; so we'll see.

On another note we went for a walk tonight and we already know that Kiri hates loud sounds, snow blowers, lawn mowers, nail guns scare the crap out of her....and so does the sound of fireworks - which happen to be going off. She was terrified, currently she is downstairs with Joe which NEVER happens - I went to give her a treat and she wouldn't even eat it. Can't wait until Canada Day!

Miscellaneous puppy stuff :)

Cosmo and Kiri bring so much joy to our lives - here are some new pictures

Puppies under the bed - this bed is in the spare bedroom Cosmo loves going under it - it's like his little cave and we know if Cosmo likes it ....Kiri is bound to follow :)

Kiri loves getting a bath however she also likes sticking her head while you are in the shower - repeatedly:

Talk about a bad hair day

Cosmo has a stuffed bone that he absolutely loves (in more ways than one). Kiri loves to destroy some most thing and loves to rip out stitches. Cosmo however pulled all the stuffing out of this one.

Cosmo views the carnage he caused

They say you should sleep when the baby sleeps - does that inclue little dogs too??

Christmas

So we spent Christmas day at Joe's parents - we had a wonderful time.