Another exciting (and hot!!!) weekend for the girls

First some exciting news from Alpha - she got another Salsa from West Paw Design!! She loves that thing and goes crazy whenever I bring it out. And then goes crazy trying to find it when I put it away. She hasn't ripped the pupils off of this one yet as you can see in the pictures. I used to put it on the bookshelf (which is probably about 3 feet off the ground) but she always managed to get it off the shelf. 

 

Then the girls had fun guarding the house this week. They just love checking out every person and animal that walks by our house:

It was another hot weekend in the 90's!!! I took Nari to the downtown farmer's market. She loves going on special trips with me and is usually smiling the entire time - we are definitely best friends. Everyone of course thought she was so cute and they all stopped by to pet her. She got to go in some of her favorite downtown shops that always love to give her treats. She especially loves Mast General Store because they gave her little peanut butter cookie dog treats. I think she charmed about 4 cookies out of the people who worked there. Here she is smiling in one of the little downtown parks.

Starbuck is especially getting sick of this awful weather. It makes agility practices pretty rough as we can't spend that much time running the girls. Sunday morning we had agility practice and the girls just crashed when we got home. I love how in these lazy Nari pictures you can see little Alpha in the background. 

And here is a really tired one of Starbuck, she looks quite serious in it. Or maybe she's just mad at me for taking yet another picture of her. 

Knoxville so needs an indoor agility facility. If it's not hot, humid and in the 90's it seems like it's raining and the fields are flooded. If we ever win the lottery then I am totally buying a building and turning it into Starbuck's Agility Center. Or maybe some super nice person out there can just donate a building to us :) 

Ugh... it is so hot!!!

Wow - it has been so hot lately! The girls aren't too fond of the heat and humidity but they do love agility and walks. I keep the harnesses on a low end table so whenever Nari wants to go out she stands up and taps her front paws on the table and makes a 'ah... ah... ah... ah... " noise, it is quite cute (I'll have to try to get it on video someday). I took them to the agility field on Tuesday night because we've been kind of bored since Aaron's been out of town this week. Here are some pictures from the end of the night. 

On our morning walk today our neighborhood was engulfed in a cloud again. You can see how humid it was outside in the first picture below - we were all damp from the moisture condensing on us as we walked. 

Another Sunday agility practice

We had another practice on Sunday and it was HOT! It was in the mid to high 80's and sunny by the time we left. Starbuck doesn't do too well with the heat, she has a much fuller coat than Nari. So about half way through she decided to that she done and just ran under the A-fram. Then she hung out in the shade with a bowl of water for the rest of practice. Nari loves agility so much that she can deal with the heat, she's just a little slower. Her only problem is that she refuses to go in those hot tunnels that have been baking in the sun for several hours and I don't really blame her. I put my hand near the entrance to one once and you could just feel the heat radiating out of it. Here's a video of the girls' practice and a couple of photos from the car ride home. 

Alpha's day out and about in Knoxville

We took Alpha with us to run some errands today in Knoxville. We like to give each girl their own special day every once in a while, so today was 'Cake's Day'! I always give people/animals weird and random nicknames that never make any sense and for some reason I call Alpha 'baby cakes', 'cup cakes' or sometimes just 'the cakes'. We were super excited because a MINI dealer finally opened up in Knoxville and today was the grand opening party. Here is Alpha being Aaron's navigator: 

And here is me sitting in a MINI, I so miss driving one! 

Driving a MINI is serious! 

Here's me and Alpha standing by a MINI that looks just like my old one: 

And here is what the MINI dealer looks like! The one I bought my MINI from in New Jersey was just an add on to the BMW dealer but the Knoxville one is it's own building!!! So cute!

They had these adorable center pieces on the tables inside and had lots of food. Alpha got to go inside and hang out with us at the party and everyone loved her. 

And it wouldn't be 'Cake's Day' without cupcakes! So we had to stop and pick some up from The Cupcakery on the way home. 

And here is me and Alpha on the way back home: 

And here is a picture of my MINI. I had to sell it three years ago because Aaron had his spine fused and after the surgery he couldn't handle the sport suspension or the low seats in the MINI :( I LOVED that car, I cried when I left it. I sold it to a nice guy in WI who had an adorable family, I hope they are enjoying that car. 

I ended up getting a Prius while Aaron recovered and planned on trading it in for a MINI E after a couple of years. But, the MINI E looks like it will be taking longer than I had hoped so I may end up getting another MINI in the near future until the MINI E is released in the US because they are such awesome little cars. 

Lazy Friday night

After walking a couple of miles today with the girls we just decided to lay around the house tonight. Here are some pictures from our evening. Alpha has been quite happy lately and we quite often see this adorable smile (I think it's crazy that the focus was so off that just her smile is in focus):

She was loving using her basketball as a head rest:

Here is Nari looking out the window and getting super close to the camera:

Starbuck likes to lay around on the footrest: 

And The Cheat loves to sleep in boxes, not kitty beds but boxes! 

Sundays are better with agility and steak

We had an awesome agility lesson today - it was a little over 1.5 hours. We take private lessons with Ace, but today George (he specializes in obedience) stayed to give me lots of tips. It was such a great day! Starbuck was really enjoying herself and her focus is getting better. Nari can tell when we are heading to agility, she just makes this crazy noise with every breath - George said that she sounded like she was sawing a squirrel in half!! I really have to try to get that on video someday, Nari just makes the most bizarre noises. Didn't get a chance to get any pictures from the lesson, but here are a couple photos from the car ride there - they were super excited! 

As if agility wasn't enough excitement for the day, Aaron cut up a tenderloin. The girls watched Aaron cut up that meat for over a half hour! 

Alpha loves her new toy from West Paw Design

While we were in New Orleans we found a pet shop and bought the girls some treats and a new toy - it's a blue furry monster thing from West Paw Design. We knew Alpha would love it because she absolutely loves anything fuzzy or furry. She was so excited when she saw it she couldn't stop smiling. Here are some pictures of her enjoying her new toy (we named it Sully). The tag said it was a really durable toy, which we definitely need around here because Alpha loves to rip apart any toy to get out the squeaker. So far she's only ripped off his pupils! I also love that their products are eco-friendly!

Nari's in heat right now which means it was time to get out the little boy underwear. She hates the little doggie pants they sell in the store (she'll rip them off in 60 seconds) but I've found that she doesn't mind the little boy underwear, which is really nice because they are so much cheaper. Here she is modeling her Toy Story pants:

        

I was looking back over my photos from the other day and came across this one: 

       

They were all so tired!! 

It's Luna!!

We had people over for a cookout yesterday and our friend Luna came! She is just so adorable and sweet. She spent her time hanging out in our laps and getting tons of petting. And she looked quite adorable in her little fourth of July dress. 

Happy 4th of July!

The girls were still at the kennel for the 4th of July so we went to Dollywood before picking them up. They were really tired, they pretty much just run around in the play yard the whole time. They were still sleeping most of today. Our friend, Meggie, gave us some cute little collars that had bandanas attached. I'm supposed to be cleaning the house because we are having people over in a few hours but instead I decided to procrastinate and take pictures of the girls in their collars. Here are some of my favorites.


Group shot - only possible because they are so tired today! Wow - it looks like Nari has the largest ears...  

Starbuck - 

Nari (she is always posing for the camera) - 

Alpha - 

Cute shot of Nari and Alpha -