A Letter to God For Kiana

A Vizsla blogger friend has crossed the rainbow. Farewell dear Kiana. We bid you safe journey over the Rainbow where you join all those who have crossed before you. Blessings and prayers to the family & friends who loved you. Hugs to Gabby & Flirtie.

A Parting Prayer

(© Brandy Duckworth, 1998)

Dear Lord,

Please open your gates and call St. Francis to come escort this beloved companion across the Rainbow Bridge. Assign her to a place of honor, for she has been a faithful servant and has always done her best to please me.

Bless the hands that send her to you, for they are doing so in love and compassion, freeing her from pain and suffering.

Grant me the strength not to dwell on my loss. Help me remember the details of her life with the love she has shown me. And grant me the courage to honor her by sharing those memories with others.

Let her remember me as well and let her know that I will always love her. And when it's my time to pass over into your paradise, please allow her to accompany those who will bring me home.

Thank you, Lord, for the gift of her companionship and for the time we've had together. And thank you, Lord, for granting me the strength to give her to you now.

Amen.

Lip Smackin' & Tail Waggin' Good

One day Rocket went to day care and I forgot to pack his food (bad mama!). You can't send your kid to day camp without his lunch box! Knowing that we are a little fussy about what Rocket gets to eat the owners of Play and Stay suggested some Merrick canned food they had. After reading every ingredient on the label - making sure there were a particular few that were not listed - we purchased a "lunch box" of cans. Rocket LOVES this stuff. Heck, in a pinch I'd eat it. Especially Grandma's Pot Pie or the Cowboy Cookout. You open the can and it just smells yummy. There's been a few times my husband and I looked at each other and said, "are you sure this is for the dog?"

Gardening Stuff

My mom and step-dad keep such a nice yard with all the plants and decorations. Wish we had the time to keep up with just the weeds let alone decorate. Of course they don't have to keep re-seeding the lawn due to a crazy vizsla running at break-neck speeds ripping up the turf!

This is what Rocket gave his Grandma for Mother's Day.

Here lies a 4-legged furry grandchild that was taken unexpectedly and way too young. Sophie was my brother's family dog, a shitzu. Just after Christmas while mom was babysitting she became unexplainably ill. My mom, a former vet assistant in the early '70s, did everything to get her the best treatment/diagnosis. Mom was with her at the very end speaking words of love into her ear and held her as she crossed the rainbow bridge. Sophie will forever be missed by ALL of us. Mom put forget-me-knots on her grave cause we'll not forget her ...... ever!

Bottoms Up! With A Sunset

We ventured to the Hard Rock Cafe in Destin for dinner one evening. We had wonderful pulled pork sandwiches.

Of course they had wonderful beverages there

So many to choose from!

Nothing like a Sunset Cinema on a dock after dinner. At the park where we found this spot there was a family enjoying a bar-b-que and they had their American Bull Dog with them. As we walked by he came lumbering/snorting over to me. I could tell he was friendly and he really liked me after I scratched his back. It was my doggie fix for the day.

A Little Relaxation

As you know we recently went to Coffee College to learn how to mix all the wonderful espresso and smoothie drinks we will be serving at our cafe. College was in Ft. Walton Beach, Florida and for us Michiganders the sudden immersion into such humidity was a killer. It took a few days to adjust.

Since this was a business trip we did arrive one day early so that we could possibly enjoy a day of relaxation. The beach called our name .....................

We parked at a place called The Boardwalk and we could see the pier.

We decided to walk along the beach down to the pier.

There was evidence of fun along the way.

I liked the sound of the waves under the pier.

Evidence of a little buried history. I wonder what once stood here?

This place smelled like a New Orleans gumbo. It made us hungry.

The pier was lined with people fishing and if you were patient you could see the dolphins swiming nearby.

After such a long walk we really needed a fruity beverage splashed with a bit of rum.

Sadly, you were not allowed to take your dogs on this beach. While driving from Ft. Walton Beach to Destin we did spot an area where people appeared to be having fun with their dogs off-leash at the ocean. But it wasn't near as nice as the beach by the pier. We didn't see any vizslas or a lot of dogs at all while we were there but we know that people must have them because there were vetrinary clinics around every corner!

Not Enough Toys

We need to go to Pet Smart and get some more toys! I'm running out of stuff to play with.

Photo Shoot

Oh geez, mom's at it again with the camera

Maybe if I lay real still she'll go away

She's still there

I'll cose my eyes and pretend she goes away.

It's no use ................

Oh that sunshine feels sooooo good.

Hey, you're disturbing my nap in the sunshine.

Ok, ok, here's a side pose for you.

Off To College

Sorry about the slow bloggery folks but mom and dad abandonded me at Play and Stay Pet Care and went to Ft. Walton Beach, Florida for something called Coffee College. I guess they both graduated. I'm so glad they remembered me and came and got me. A week at Play and Stay is exhausting. I lost a few pounds but wow am I glad to be home. I've pretty much glued myself to mom and dad so they know I'm here.

Party in The D .... Hockey Town Rocks!!!

Way to go guys! You brought Lord Stanley's Cup back to Hockey Town!!!!

LOL Dogs 'n' Cute Puppy Pics

Whenever you need a really good laugh visit I Has A Hot Dog. The pictures change I swear by the minute and you won't stop laughing. Here's just one of the amusing pics you will find at the site. There are 100's more. Caution .... your face will get sore from laughter

A Vizsla Anagram

I actually wanted this to say Vizsla Love (VZLALUV) but I wasn't sure people would get it so I went with Vizsla Mum instead. Howerver, I think it still confuses the general population. I see them staring at it in my rearview mirror. At a stop light some people will pull up along side and ask "what's your plate say?". After I say "vizsla mom" they still have this funny look on their face. So then I say, "A vizsla is a really cool hunting dog." Then the light bulb goes off. It's rather amusing.

4 Paw Swamp Rat

I LOVE THIS PLACE! I get to splash on some good smells when we come here.

Vizsla Zoomies

Took Rocket to the Wetzel State Recreation Area a few weeks ago (yes, I'm behind in blogging, again ..... and the computer crashing didn't help).

He loves this place. He gets to go off leashing. Some of this area is swampy and there are a few lagoons. It's a great place for him to scent on birds as well as rabbit ..... oh yeah, it's also a great place for him to get filthy dirty and smell like a swamp rat. We never go here without a pile of towels in the truck.

I'm still loving the new camera and the 'sport mode' or high ISO mode I can dial in. When the sun is bright it sure makes from some good zoom-zoom shots.

Then of course ............ sometimes he's just a camera ham.

Kitchen Supervision

My dad is the best chef! mmmmm .... beef brisket. Oh please dad, please put some of that in my dish. I promise I'll be a good boy.

Back On-Line

FINALLY! Mom has the home computer up & running. Not sure that she's all organized yet but things are much better than they were last week. I'll bug her for updated pictures.

Mom did it!

A few weeks ago the computer started running slow. Seemed to take a long time for anything to load and web surfing was more like crawling. Suddenly there was a McAfee warning about an intruder. However, this intruder was a pesky little sucker that had buried itself in the registry.

As a precaution, mom backed up the documents and most importantly she backed up all the spectacular pictures and video of me. Kudos to mom for that.

Then she went surfing in something called the c:\dir. I don’t know what she was looking for but she kept talking about a pesky little ‘virus heat’ stalker program and she was looking for the ‘exe’ file. She found some directory and put it into the trash can.

However, upon rebooting the computer ……….. well that’s when things got weird. Some programs worked and some didn’t. Mom decided to go fishing in the ‘reg edit’ area. She found some more stuff and triumphantly smashed it to the trash can. I kept looking at the white trash can in the kitchen and it didn’t look any fuller than before and still smelled the same. After a 2nd reboot that’s when I knew she’d screwed up. She kept saying 4-letter words that made my ears burn so I took my bone into the living room and stayed on the couch for awhile.

Apparently she smashed too many things into the trash can and turns out she had to do an F10/destructive recovery. That seems like an oxy moron?

She was able to get the computer working at a minimum. However, the printer was not connected, the pictures from the camera could not be downloaded – and there are always pictures of me on the camera so this was a priority to fix!!! Then she forgot where she put the software for the video cam. She told me to hunt for it but I didn’t know what to sniff for. Maybe we should have hired Tucker to help us out. Since the computer was sent back in time to factory default settings of 4 years ago, it’s been running a marathon doing security updates as well as software updates every time mom reloads something.

** BIG SIGH**

Mom’s doing her best to get our computer working but now she tells me she forgot where she put the video and photo discs! WHAT? There’s like four discs of missing video and pictures of me!!! MOM HOW COULD YOU!

I'm just going to go to my couch and bury my head....................

^^note from mom .......... I'm workin on it^^

Agility Practice

As requested by a few of Rocket's girly admirers. Some more pictures of the agility star in training.

Here we are working on the A-Frame. Command=Climb It

Going through the tunnel = Zoom, Zoom
No Mom! I don't like this one

One of Rocket's least favs, the teeter.
I'm paying attention mom! What's next?
I don't like this one either, let me down, please DAD! please help!

You're Not Paying Attention To Me

Here is what happens when I try and update Rocket's blog. The evidence clearly shows that due diligence was attempted on my part. However the attention monger had other ideas. Or maybe he didn't like the fact that I made a few posts which did not include his picture.

Only in Texas

We had to check out of our hotel and we had some time to kill before our flight back to Detroit. We ran across an antique place and thought what the heck. Here's a few bikes right out of the 70's what a hoot! Can you say "Easy Rider".

Then there was this gem. I guess it was "art" ???
I'll let you draw your own conclusion about this.

Take a close look at what the kangaroo has in her pouch vs. what the guy has in his apron. Too cute.

Texas Quail

I'm so behind in posting but better late than never.

Hubby and I had to make a business trip to The Big D (Dallas) -- no not divorce and not to be confused with The D (Detroit). We were on business so there's not much fun stuff to report. But we did find a GREAT place for food. We ended up at the Texas Land & Cattle one evening.

They had a lovely drink menu.
............... and when in Rome ............. eat QUAIL! mmmm, mmmm it was delicious! I didn't even have to go tromping through the woods for 3 hours to find it, shoot it, clean it, gut it, cook it. There's not many places I've been that have quail on the menu and as I suspected, this place really knew how to cook it. It was fantastic.

We ate at other good places too but the weather was crummy for a few days while we were there so I left the camera in the hotel room as there was not much to photograph. Minus the high speed winds and some rains while there we did have one lovely afternoon of shopping and it's not easy getting my husband in the mall!!!

Super V

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's ROCKET MAN!

Play time, tug time

Took Rocket to Big Dog Play Group one cold & rainy Sunday afternoon. Because we all know that a vizsla with brain cramps can be dangerous to your house. The indoor lighting conditions were less than optimum even with a 1600 ISO setting. I'm still fiddling with the camera settings and learning how to use my new toy but I very much love our new camera.

Beauty Rest

Excuse me! It's time for my beauty rest, can you please turn the tv down so I can sleep?

Introducing Ejay

Well, well, it looks like Rufus has a half-sister named Ejay who is just an adorable vizsla pup ...... and from the looks of the recent video she's also squeaky clean too.

Introducing Jake

Here's another Vizla who can blog but his parents won't get him is own account so he has to sneak onto theirs when they are not looking.

http://iamsomistreated.blogspot.com/

It seems Jake wants to be rescued. Maybe Dennis could come up with another fabulous spaceship for the crew to take another adventure. I had a blast piloting into the Gopher Brok :-)