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Stampy is funny on the couch

Poppy and Odin - making Stampy jealous

Odin and Poppy became friends. Peony is thinking about it right now. Stampy is jealous, sitting on the couch (I think he's scared).

Poppy and Odin - BFF

Peony and Poppy - out in the open

Here's their interesting coloring.

Stampy and Peony

Peony and Poppy

I got two of the coolest kittens from Janis' kitten-source in Oregon. We are still getting used to each other, and their names aren't set in stone, but they are the coolest tabby/calico cross kittens (sisters) with some nice orange thrown in.

Here's two pictures.

Stampy is gross; Odin is old

Odin is getting really lumpy. And he is starting to breathe funny - in the past month or so - it sounds like he is gurgling a lot. I know that heart failure starts with some pneumonia (the heart can't pump hard enough to get the blood out of the lungs?), but he seems to be feeling ok. He hasn't wanted to sleep on the bed much lately, and some nights sleeps on the couch all night, which is very unusual. I think that's probably arthritis though. He was sore after camping, but that was also because the hill was so steep.
Stampy has not calmed down. I heard some unusual licking sounds yesterday morning, and went out to see what it was, and he was licking a strainer sitting in the bottom of the sink. I knew he had been running his nose along the edges (ok, running his tongue) of the counters and the table, but I don't put things there. I had no idea he could reach his head up and over the sink. He was just standing there, he wasn't even straining. What's the worst is nothing is safe, because all it had in it (before it was empty) was strawberries and blueberries. It was so gross.
I still can't leave him alone, or trust him in the house, and I don't know what I'm going to do this winter.

Return from Silver Lake

More of Silver Lake

Silver Lake - Camping

Barf-o-rama

Last Saturday we went hiking. I am a bad mom because the hike was much longer than I thought it was (9 miles), it was hot, there weren't enough streams, and Odin wasn't up for it. When we got to the big stream at the end, he went and sat down in the water like an alligator. For a dog who has hated every single bath he's gotten for the past 8 years, and who once held it for 30 hours because it was raining, that's saying a lot.
As payback, he barfed ON Stampy on the way home. And the dog bed. And the other dog bed. And the sheets in the car.
Stampy clearly was disgusted because yesterday, as I sat in here on the computer, I heard the unmistakable "reck-a reck-a" and I ran, but was too late, and he barfed all over the futon. Unlike sweet, perfect Odin, he managed to barf on the futon, in addition to the futon cover, and the carpet. A Great Dane can generate a LOT of barf.
We are planning on doing some camping this summer, if work allows, because most of my horse shows are out of the running.

An attempt to show scale, funny running

Stampy bounding around in the field

Couch Feet

Stampy was standing next to the futon, and I walked past, and he decided to step up onto it. Well, where he was standing, I could clearly see imprinted in the carpet the shape of his feet. He is so heavy, that he leaves indentations like furniture does. He couldn't have been standing there for more than a few seconds.
And the doggie daycare people were more people who said they were good dogs.

I guess they are good dogs

There have been a rash of people telling me Odin & Orion are good dogs:
1) At Neil & Marcie's party; Paddy after riding in the car with them there and back
2) At the vet
3) The contractor and his co-worker
4) Other places that I already forgot, but was surprised that people kept mentioning it.

Odin's Heart Murmur

It is still a category 2, same as it was last year.
He being kind of dopey tonight. Maybe the stress of having clean ears wore him out. Stampy, in contrast, is a maniac.

Vet Visit

Odin went to the vet today because when I was cleaning his ears yesterday, the right ear was discolored on the inside. It isn't smelly, but it had extra wax, and he hasn't been shaking his head or pawing at it or anything. Regardless, he had a yeast infection. I brought Stampy with me a) for the experience, b) because I couldn't leave him at home alone with the contractor there, and c) to get his 3 years rabies shot (a few months early).
The vet tech said they were well behaved for big dogs.
The vet said that Odin was chubby. I looked horrified, because he said "only about 5 pounds or so" (after a while) and pointed out the places Odin was fat.
Odin might have weighed a little more than the weigh in with "O'Ryan" (123.6), today's weight - 127, I think, but that's because of his binge last night on Stampy's full bowl of food while Stampy was getting his bath and his Saturday eating a whole bag of wheat thins. (though maybe Stampy split them).
Mom and Dad are treating the boys to a couple days at Fido's Farm while the contractor is here which is a huge stress reliever for me because we have some deadlines at work.

Stampy just lost his in-house privileges

Last night, he tore up the cushion on Odin's couch (that we've had about 6 years now). Baby Betel chewed up the bottom of it a little, but Stampy went to town yesterday and tore up about 1/4 of the cushion. I was upset, especially since he was on a walk, ran around in the yard, and then has one million toys to play with.
Today, I made a mistake, and I forgot to put up the dog gate that separates the bedrooms, office, and bathroom from the rest of the house. I know he has been getting stuff off the counters in the kitchen, but he blasted through two of the doors, and then chewed up stuff that was mine. My pajamas, my special socks, my bathroom skin scrubbing gloves ....
Starting tomorrow, I am locking him in the dog room with some dog beds, his tub of toys, and the door cracked open so he can go in the yard. He's a year old. I'm exhausted by how much he still destroys. There was absolutely no need or reason to blast through the doors, then take things off the top of the dresser, top of the bed, top of the bathroom counter, just to chew them up.

Final photos from Falls