Apple Hill

From the website, http://www.meetup.com/, we were able to connect with other Cane Corso owners through a group that we're part of. Yes, I joined a social group. And even more amazing, I willingly met and socialized with STRANGERS. Big steps for Gina!!

We made plans to meet at Bolster's Hilltop Ranch on Sunday so we loaded the pack into the truck and off we went. By the way, mom and dad, there is a LOT of Apple Hill that we weren't exposed to as kids. I feel like I missed out on something here... The boys rode in the back of the truck both ways and LOVED it. Well, Legion did, at least. They were both going from side to side, sticking their heads in the wind, and Legion was biting at the air. People would pass us just laughing and we'd know that 1) the dogs were being crazy, and 2) that they were still back there... Abbi, of course, was sitting in the backseat of the truck, taking advantage of all the room she had. It didn't last long though because she ended up on my lap. Dang spoiled dog. See what Josh does to her???

In talking with the wife of the couple with the Corsos (Corsi???), I found out that both of her dogs were still intact, which could have presented a problem for us and our intact baby. Once we got there, we quickly discovered that the two males were not going to be able to be close to each other. It made me sad to see my puppy acting like he was but it's just nature and we were able to keep the two boys separated. Bob Barker PSA: Remember to spay and neuter your pets, folks. Unless they're show dogs, of course. ;)

We spent a little while up at Bolster's with the other couple and then we went our separate ways to enjoy some of the other places up there. As we were driving, we found an old barn that had been converted into a rental house. Josh went to inquire about it and we got the keys to check it out. It was old, like built in 1915 old, and as we were looking around, we were getting more and more excited about the idea of fixing up something like that. So we got the crazy idea to ask if the owner would be willing to sell and if so, for how much. Well, turns out the barn/house is on a piece of property on which there is also part of a vineyard and the property line cannot be divided. Sooooo, if the owner were to sell, he asked for $1.2 million. YIKES!! A lil too rich for our blood. So on down the road we went.

Of course, we had to go to High Hill. We unloaded the dogs and got no more than 100 yards from the truck and that's when what probably would have been a 45 minute visit, turned into something like and hour and a half. We got stopped SO MANY TIMES by people asking about Legion. He was so awesome yesterday. So patient with all of the people and little kids coming up and petting him. All of the dogs were! It makes us so happy, and proud, to see that all that we've done for them so far really does pay off. Just call me the Dog Yeller, cuz there's no whispering when we're training these dogs!!! HA!

We couldn't find anything to eat at High Hill. Seriously. We didn't want a burger or hot dog at the Pie House, all of the doughnuts were sold out, and some jackhole came right when they opened and bought 400 fritters. What the heck?!?!?! Selfish.

So we packed up again and headed to Boa Vista. They have better food there anyway. Hint, hint, High Hill... We got there around 4:20, ordered our ornament, and then made our way to the food area to get a yummy tri-tip sammy. Only to find that it closed at 4:30!!! Dangit!! The only thing left to do was to pick up our ornament and head home...with empty bellies and sad babies because they didn't get any tri-tip either. Maybe if they would've seen how frail and emaciated Abbi is, they would've taken pity and make us some food even after they'd closed.

Spoiled Abbi dog in front


Crazy boys in the back


Mom...mom...mom...I get tri-tip today, right???




The other two Corso's: Sebastino and Sicily. Dog snob alert!: can you spot the Corso's with bad conformation??




Sicily is a stick-muncher like Legion!





This is what happens when you're the smallest, most well-behaved dog...


Daddy had to potty and the babies stood guard.


High Hill

No matter where we are, or who is walking Legion, Hayden HAS to walk with him so he was "encouraging" me to catch up to daddy and his brother.



Being loved on makes for thirsty dogs!


Waiting patiently at Boa Vista for daddy to get back with the ornament


The ornament!


We had an awesome family day! The weather was beautiful and the dogs behaved themselves. Since we weren't able to get anything to eat while we were out, we dropped the kids at home and headed to Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner. Nothing spectacular there but when the waiter came to greet us, he promised us a show after dinner. Not really expecting him to actually come through with something, he surprised us with this:

Dirty kids!!

You know it's been a while between bathings when your dogs without the undercoats start smelling a little, well, fragrant.

Josh had the little sausage, er, Abbi, in and out in what seemed like five minutes so I wasn't able to get any pictures of her. But here are some of the boys looking like they're being tortured. Don't let the pitiful faces fool you for a second! They LOVELOVELOVE being clean and run around like maniacs when they're done.




Always has to tell me! :)




Notice the Tresemme bottle in the last picture. It's been empty of human shampoo for a while. We just cleared the shelf of the dog shampoo and loaded it all in there. They go through so much of it!!

Josh has to change his clothes immediately after bathing Legion, he's always last, because he gets just as much water on him as on the dog. And seeing them with their heads right next to each other really kinda puts it into perspective just how freakin huge the baby is... Good thing he loves us!!

Hee hee, you can see Josh's man poof hanging from the shower pull on thing. I have such a manly husband...with nicely exfoliated skin. Love ya, babe!!

He eats like a king!!

I like to make sure that Josh eats at least one good home-cooked meal while he's home. This night, I was the one that felt like steak. MMMMMmmmmm!!!

We went to Red Robin a while ago and they had these things called "shark teeth." They're fried jalapeno cheddar flour tortillas so when we saw them at the store, we picked them up to make some of our very own shark teeth. Turned out pretty decent. We paired all this with a Cameron Hughes Lot 170 Syrah. Wow.


By the looks of it, I really need to dust my table...

It's gonna be a toot-fest!!!

Rather than Top Ramen for dinner every night, I made a batch of chili and cornbread, portioned it out, and stuck it in the freezer. Now whenever I want to compete with Abbi to see who can gas everyone out of the room the fastest, I can just pop one of these bad boys in the fridge in the morning so it'll be ready to re-heat for dinner. FYI: Abbi always wins....

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.