August Recap...late...

Yeah, yeah...fired...again...I know.

Dan, Tami, and the kids came out earlier in the month for a visit but we weren't able to spend much time with them. Maybe we shoulda had kids just so we could see them and their kids more often and not be thought of as the childless couple that always gets overlooked/left out... But I digress. We were able to have a couple of nice bbq's with them and both sides of our family. We also had a lake day at Beale's Point with the Shirley and Aldama clans. While they spent time in the swimmers only cordoned off part of the lake, Josh and I took the dogs down shore and were able to get them off-leash in the water. Abbi swam her little heart out, Hayden tried his hand a couple times, and Legion threw caution to the wind and paddled too!! He was actually better at swimming than Hayden. We had a blast with them in the water and enjoyed the rest of the quiet weekend while they were passed out. I didn't get many pictures of the fronts of them swimming because I got over my "I can't see the bottom. Oh, wait, what did I just step on?? It's slimy!!" and swam in the lake too. Josh was proud. ;)

Legion, getting used to the water.


Abbi, doing her 'beached whale' impression.


The dogs having a blast






Legion swam to Josh!!


Brother, I swam to daddy!!


Show-off ;)


If you look in between the splashes, you can see it's Legion there


He's gettin the hang of it!





We had an awesome day with our little family. The dogs did great in the water and it always makes us so happy and proud to see them "get" something.

July Recap

WHEW! Kinda a busy month!!

At the beginning of the month, the Cane Corso breed became fully recognized by the American Kennel Club. While it's a highly debated issue for Corso owners and enthusiasts, I think it'll be kinda cool to see them on Animal Planet in the big-time dog shows. Here's an issue of the AKC Gazette with a story on the breed.

I already posted about our 4th of July and my quick weekend trip down to Southern California to visit my traveling husband.

When he got back, I had one week to spend with him. Woo hoo!! We spent that weekend celebrating my dad's 61st birthday. Unfortunately, Josh was working the day of Legion's second dog show. I got horrible pictures from this one because he was freaking out just a bit. He'd calm down after a minute with the show handler but as soon as he'd see me, he wanted to G-O.

This time, he was up against three other Corso's and he ended up winning Best Male and Best of Winners. I still don't really have any idea what those mean though... But the judge absolutely LOVED him. In talking with our breeder and other "show people," we'll probably enter him into just a handful of shows for another year or so and then we'll hit the circuit hard. He's the equivilent of a 9-year old right now and has a whole lotta growing to do between now and then. We were only able to enter him into one show, on just one day out of a three-day event, and we were told that we probably could've Championed him if we'd entered him into all of the shows on all three days. Darn it...

Here are the not-so-great show pics:







A Presa Canario was also entered into Legion's same group. Josh and I recently had the opportunity to talk with a breeder of this dog and have put it on our "wish list" of dogs we'd like to sometime own. It looks similar to the Corso, just with a tail.






And then Josh left again for a two-week trip to Burbank... :(

While he was gone, I found a small lump on Hayden. This one was different than any that he or Abbi had had before so I watched it to make sure it went away or didn't grow in size. Well, it didn't go away but it didn't seem to grow. After making sure I wasn't just being paranoid or over-obsessive (yeah, like that even sounds like me!!) and checking with Josh, Hayden gets an appointment at the vet. It's a new vet for us and this is an important appointment so I'm nervous on both counts. Since Boxers are prone to all sorts of lumps and bumps, the vet did an aspiration to determine if it was a benign hystiocytoma or possibly a malignant mast cell tumor. A couple days, some Prednisone for Hayden, and 10 chewed-down fingernails later, the vet confirmed that it was, in fact, a cancerous tumor. An appointment was made for him to have it removed and I was a wreck. Josh was gone and Hayden had no idea that anything was wrong with him!!

The vet did the surgery and was very pleased with the results of the chest x-rays that were done to determine if the cancer had spread to his lungs. YIKES! His lungs were clear but the tumor that was removed had to be sent out to a lab to determine what grade the tumor was (grade 1-5) and if the margins were clear. The vet wasn't certain he'd be able to obtain clear margins because of where the tumor was located: on the side of Hayden's ribcage, right under his armpit, and because Hayden doesn't have an ounce of fat or extra skin on him! When I picked Hayden up that afternoon, he was the same bouncy, happy, silly boy that he always is. Which made me so sad to think that he might be really sick... I tried to give him special attention and love on him a little more but he was having none of it. He just wanted to play!! He's got about a 4-inch stitched incision on the side of his chest right now but seems none the worse for wear. I want his attitude!

We heard back yesterday from the vet and received the most awesome news: the tumor was completely removed and it was only a Grade 1. He said that it was most likely because we'd caught it so early. See, Josh, my paranoia and always checking over the dogs paid off!! We have to wean him off of the Predisone for the next week and constantly keep checking him for any more lumps for the rest of his life. The unfortunate thing with mast cell tumors is that once they get one, they'll get another, and another, and another, etc.

Another good thing is that I'll have my husband back for most of the weekend. But with the good, comes the bad: he leaves again on Monday for at least two weeks. But with the bad, comes the kinda good: he'll only be in the Bay Area so I'll be able to see him this time.

So far, the only highlight for August is that Dan, Tami, and the kids will be here!!! We'll see how the rest of the month shapes up.

...dead...

It may just be me but I was laughing very inappropriately at work while watching this. Good thing my co-workers are discovering more and more that I'm a little crazy...

SoCal Blitz Trip

Josh has been in Ontario for work since last Monday so things have been pretty quiet. We (read: I) thought it'd be fun to grab Legion and meet Josh down in Southern California and drive to see Legion's breeder. The opportunity didn't present itself until Thursday night so I made plans with the breeder, grabbed the baby, and headed down on Friday! Abbi and Hayden went to stay with gramma & grampa and from the report that I got, they got totally spoiled. Why am I not surprised...? ;)

Mike, our breeder, pulled together a really nice bbq. We weren't able to spend any time with his dogs but he had some cute, not-so-little pups out that we could play with. Josh told me not to get any ideas. I don't know why he would think something like that?!? Mike was super stoked to see Legion though and evidently, the pictures that I've been sending him didn't do him justice. He took a couple of pics of him. Here's one:

Spending time with other people that are familiar with and truly appreciate this breed was awesome. They know they're giant dogs and are used to the fact that everything they do is GIANT. We really appreciate Mike having us down there.

Legion did really well with the people that were there. He was really curious about the other dogs and even more so with the pups.

Since I was only down there for one full day, we didn't have time to do much of anything. Which was fine. It was just really nice to spend some quiet time with Josh and have the one-on-one interaction with Legion. He was a completely different dog: sweet and cuddly, rather than a monster. :) It was so heartwarming to see his reaction to Josh when he first saw his daddy. It's typically the other two dogs going nuts at the returning parent but he was INSANE by himself. Wiggling all over and trying to jump into Josh's arms. He was glued to his daddy the entire time we were down there.

And since I was staying with Josh in his hotel room, we had to sneak Legion in thru the back doors. How we successfully concealed at 100+ pound, sometimes barking, dog is beyond me!

We had a little time to waste on Saturday so we grabbed a quick bite. Legion decided he was hungry too.


The drive down and back wasn't so bad; Legion crashed out in the back seat of my car, yes, my car, the entire time. He was having a blast though, hanging his head out of the window.

On the way down:


On the way back:


It was nice to get away for that little, quick trip and would love to be able to do it more often.

Legion's New Dog Bed

Evidently, king-sized beds are made for king-sized DOGS. We're finding him in the bedroom more and more often lately. We think it's because it's cool back there. When the door is open, a nice breeze blows through. But when it's closed, the ceiling and floor fans hit directly on the bed.

Would you like me to fluff your pillows sir?

4th of July, 2010

We started the day by taking the baby to the Carmichael parade with us. The other two had to stay at home because they can't handle the heat like Legion can. Fragile little babies... We had to leave the parade fairly early last year because it was getting too warm...and because Ms. Procrastination had to prepare some potato salad. We stayed until most of the parade went through and then headed back. Legion did so well with all of the people and with most of the noise. There were a couple of musket shots that FREAKED HIM OUT though. So much so that he was shaking. Poor baby!! It was an awesome exercise in socialization for him too; we had tons of people coming up to ask us about him and his breed and he befriended a couple of kids that were hanging all over him.

Here are the pics from the parade:

He's happiest when he has something to chew on. Thankfully, it wasn't my shoe...


We didn't feed the dogs before we left so this is Josh getting Legion's breakfast of a hotdog. Hey, it's the 4th of July. Hot dogs are mandatory!


And Legion making friends.


My frozen treat. I'm not sure what they're actually called but I call them Mexican Popsicles. You usually buy them from Mexican guys pushing a cart with little bells on it. It's almost like frozen frozen yogurt on a stick - if that makes sense...


These are the people that made Legion almost jump out of his skin.


The Grand Marshal kicked it off. How does one become a Grand Marshal? And even more, what IS a Grand Marshal???


The parade of fire engines.



The first San Juan school bus.


ENOUGH WITH THESE HORNS!!


There were quite a few classic cars in this year's parade. Including one of the ugliest cars ever in production. And look how cute she is driving it with her matching hat.



The Shriners were there!!



The PT Cruiser car club was there and this fool was showing off. Nice car, dude.


Josh said this guy is a Sac Sheriff SWAT officer, I think. He's probably a Captain or something and I'm waaay off...


I guess anybody can walk in the parade. Josh and I were thinking of forming a group of Carmichael dog owners to walk next year.


Legion says he's ready to go home.


After the parade, we ran a couple of errands and bbq'd some steak and corn for dinner. The kids got the leftovers.


We can see the La Sierra fireworks from our house but we wanted a better vantage point so we got up on the roof. I almost had a heart attack getting up and down from there but I made it safely. Josh said he was proud. ;)


The fireworks were just okay this year; we thought they were better last year. But hey, it was free and we were able to watch them at our house. We didn't want to go anywhere because we didn't know how Legion would react and if we'd come home to him having busted out of his crate...


After the grand finale at La Sierra, we let off our own fireworks. Can I just say that Safe & Sane should be renamed Safe & LAME??? It used to not be a good fireworks show unless someone got burned...





This one was actually a little crazy. It lasted quite a while and in addition to catching fire halfway through (mom, you would've loooooooved that), it really did emit a shower of sparks. So much so that I jumped back for fear of singing my clothes. So take heed when the warning is there!!



We had such an awesome day! It's always great to be able to take the kids places with us, and even more so when they're not acting like nutballs when people come up to meet them.

Josh left for Ontario on Monday morning so we weren't able to stay up much later than the fireworks shows.

On a side note: Josh and I have been together for 5 years now. Crazy!!