A Husky's Life

Mom Said This is Not Why She Pays for Me to Go to Day Care

2008-07-01T09:18:00.001-05:00

New Friends

2008-06-27T12:01:00.003-05:00

My mom stayed home with a mygrain yesterday, so I'm at school today. I made a new friend, a Landseer Newfoundland! Here are some snapshots from the web cam of us cuddling. You can watch us here.

Mom just can't get over how cute it is to see me cuddling with the Newfie. Doesn't she know I have a tough guy image to uphold???

My Weekend

2008-06-25T06:01:00.009-05:00

I had a lot of fun at Eastport a Rockin' on Saturday. The donation vests (and I, of course) were a big success. It was a nice day out, not too hot and there was a nice breeze. There were a lot of nice people and dogs there, and Harnessed to Hope's table was right near the entrance, so I, being the smart boy that I am, was walking up to all of the people who had just paid to get in to the festival and hadn't put their wallets away yet and saying "hello" and being super cute.
Here I am charming a little girl. Mom said my eyes look like they are going to pop out of my head.
Here I am showing how gentle Huskies can be.
Of course, we went down the street to the dog beach several times to help keep cool and check out the other dogs there.
I really wanted to play with this puppy, but he was already pretty tired.
Here is my friend Kayna begging my dad for french fries. She has really mastered that wide-eyed, innocent look!
Here we are resting under the tent at the end of the day while the humans packed everything up.
It was a good day. Unfortunately, the next day I had to have a BATH, because mom said she didn't want me to keep smelling like the Chesapeake Bay. Well, it was a good weekend up until the bath!

Eastport a Rockin'

2008-06-20T06:47:00.004-05:00

Tomorrow is Eastport a Rockin', a street festival in Annapolis, Maryland. Harnessed to Hope usually has a booth there, and it's a lot of fun. Annapolis is very pretty, and there are a lot of nice, dog loving people there.
My human grandma asked a friend of hers to make some donation vests that doggies can wear to summer events without getting too hot. Here I am modeling it. My mom and grandma picked out the mesh fabric, the vinyl for the pockets, and the straps and adjustable buckles. Last year I wore a donation vest made out of cloth and made $140 for the rescue at an event! Keep your fingers crossed that I can match that tomorrow!

Husky Slumber Party!

2008-06-18T20:52:00.011-05:00

Pee Ess: I'm at school today, you can watch me here.
Last Friday my humans didn't come home until later, like 7, and then dad came in and put me on my leash and brought me outside, where mom had a Husky on a leash. Only, he looked funny...
Figure it out? He's SHAVED! Yes, his stoopid previous owners took him to a groomer and had him SHAVED. They even shaved the cheek fur on his face!!! At least they didn't shave his tail. Sheesh! Here is an old blog post of mine on why Huskies should NEVER BE SHAVED!!!
This guy's name is Tucker. He was turned into the Frederick County, Maryland Animal Control shelter by his owners because he jumped their 5 foot fence (duh) and because he was heartworm positive. None of the rescues around here could take him...many rescues are full, heartworm treatment is expensive, and it's a long recovery that can take at least 6 months. So it's not easy to take in a heartworm positive dog. My mom sent emails to lots of rescues and rescue lists, and a nice lady named Rebecca, with Huskies R Us in South Carolina, said she could take him. My mom then started working on arranging transport to get Tucker from Maryland to South Carolina! It was tough, but a lot of wonderful people stepped up and offered to help. My mom wants to thank Barbara, Carol, Katie, Jeanne and Val for helping to save Tucker's life.
So last Friday Tucker came to our condo for the night. I really liked him right away and we started to wrestle. Poor Tucker started coughing really hard, so my humans made us stop playing so Tucker could rest. Mom put something called Rescue Remedy in the water bowl to calm us both down since Tucker wasn't feeling so good. After that we would wrestle for a little bit and then rest for a while. Here are some pictures of us wrestling:

And here are some pictures of us resting:

We played on and off until about four in the morning! I even shared my crate and my toys with Tucker. My humans were so proud of me. The next morning we got up early and went for a walk, and then we met a nice lady named Carol, said goodbye to Tucker, and he went away with her. He made it safely to his foster home in South Carolina, you can see him on their site here. Here are a bunch of pictures of me and Tucker playing - we had a lot of fun!

New School!

2008-06-16T07:22:00.004-05:00

Today is my first day at a new school! My old school was okay, but there were some new dogs, and some doggies were acting up, and the people there started thinking that Huskies were "problem dogs", so mom thought it was better to find a new school for me.
My new school is Doggie's Den in Germantown, Maryland. They have a live web cam so you can see us running around all day! There is no nap time, and it's a BIG place! So if a dog is tired they can go find a quiet spot to lay down. Mom brought me very early this morning at 7:15 since it was my first day. Jeff, the owner, wanted me to be there early so I wouldn't be walking into a big group of strange dogs that crowded around me. I've been having a blast! Mom is worried she won't get much work done because of the great web cam!
I also had a very exciting weekend, which I will post about later in the week. I have to get back to playing!
Afternoon Update: Here are some more photos:
Here I am playing with some new friends and having my butt sniffed.
Here I am looking out the window into the lobby at the dogs that are coming in.
And here we are resting at 1:35pm. That's my legs and tail in the lower left corner of the picture.

Exciting Weekend

2008-06-08T22:10:00.010-05:00

Hi everyone,
My mom and I want to thank everyone for their kind comments and wishes. My mom took some time to feel sad and she has also been remembering all of the wonderful memories she has of her grandma. This is one of my mom's favorite photos of hergrandmother.
That is my mom's grandma enjoying a beer on New Year's Eve two years ago. She had a great sense of humor.
On Friday mom came home from work, changed her clothes and took me to a local vet. It wasn't my regular holistic vet, because all I needed was my kennel cough nose spray, and it would be the same one at either vet, and my regular vet is 30 minutes away. So mom thought we would just use this local vet for my kennel cough nose spray.
Well, we walked in, and right next to the door on a box was a cat, right at my eye level. We didn't even know there was a cat in the office. We walked in, I looked to my left, and that mean old cat hissed at me and I jumped back. Mom said "Oh, I didn't know there was a loose cat in here". The cat hid under the bench in the waiting area and growled at me, so mom took me to another waiting area further back. Then she noticed that there was blood around my eye, and on two other spots on my face! Mom told the vet tech and she took me in the back, and they gave me penicillin injection at no charge.
When we got home, mom took these pictures of my face:
Mom couldn't get a good picture of my eye because I kept squinting. Mom took me right back to the vet, and she stuck her head in first to see if that cat was still out. She was hiding behind the counter, but when we came in she came out and glared and growled at me. The lady behind the desk picked her up to take her in the back and that mean old cat started flailing around and hissing and spitting and scratching. When she walked past us she glared at me and hissed. I heard her say "I HATE YOU". Khyra and Ammy offered to come to Maryland and visit that vet's office so they would learn not to have such a nasty cat loose in their office. Then the vet was not very nice to my mom and acted like there was no reason for my mom to be upset. Mom told her that she should have talked to my mom when we were there the first time, and that mom couldn't help but worry since that nasty cat scratched my eyelid right where my eyelashes were, and mom was worried that my eye had been scratched. She said that cat shouldn't be loose anyway since not all dogs are good with cats, and then we left. Mom said she is going to send them a letter explaining why she won't be bringing me back, and telling them that they need to treat their clients better. Mom has been cleaning my cuts every day. The one on my eyelid is much better, the swelling went away. The ones on my face are okay, but I'm not really letting mom get a good look at them.
Then we picked Amber up and she spent the weekend with us, since her mom (my mom's mom) is out of town visiting her family.
Here is Amber trying to get me to play. I was tired on Friday night and didn't really feel like playing.
On Saturday night we had thunderstorms. Amber is really scared of thunderstorms. Meeshka's human said that putting a t shirt on Meeshka helped to calm her down during storms, so my humans decided to try putting a shirt on Amber.
The only one they found that would fit her right was one of the shirts my dad had from working as a security guard during a festival. Mom also gave Amber two melatonin pills.
She was so relaxed she fell asleep a little while later!
It was a busy weekend, so I'm going to go rest. I hope all of my blog friends had a good weekend!

My Adventures

2008-06-05T10:21:00.006-05:00

Hi everyone. Sorry I have not been around much. My human mom's grandma went to heaven last week and my mom was sad and taking some time to herself. But she is feeling better now. Here are some things we have been up to.
Mom and I went hiking at Black Hill Park. It's very pretty, has a lake I splashed and waded in, and DUCKS! Here I am trying to get some ducks to play with me.
They didn't want to play with me for some reason.
Here is the lake.
It's a REALLY big lake, and it's pretty clean.
Here I am in the woods.

My mom is still feeling kind of sad sometimes, so I make sure to do things to cheer her up. Yesterday morning she was kind of sad so I decided to do something silly with my bowl and chew treat (it's a dried cow trachea - yum!)

What's Going On With Me

2008-05-21T14:41:00.005-05:00

I'm back! My mom has been busy lately with work, allergies and those grains. She said to tell our friends thanks for the good wishes and that she is not having as many grains now.
Here are some photos from a rescue event we went to a few weeks ago in Annapolis, Maryland.
This is me and Napa, a Husky/Timberwolf cross. Napa was very calm and friendly. Mom couldn't believe I was taller than Napa! Our humans had a hard time getting us both to look at the camera.
Here is a closeup of Napa.
He was feeling a little camera shy.
My friend Kayna was helping this little girl look for some change to donate.

Then she took a nap behind the booth.

And here is a photo mom sneaked of me the other night. For some reason she and dad think it's hilarious when I hold my toy like this.
I hope all of my friends are doing well, I will be visiting your blogs!

The Hitchhiker

2008-05-15T19:38:00.005-05:00

Dad found a hitchhiker on his sleeve at work today.
Mom and dad were fascinated with him, they said they had never seen a bug that looked like him.
The bristles on his back are hooked. I wonder why? He was a strange little bug.

Fun at School

2008-05-08T14:10:00.004-05:00

I'm at school again today. There are lots of dogs here and it's really fun! Here I am smiling at some of my freinds.
You can see two of the little dogs misbehaving here while the counselor isn't looking.
Here is one dog trying to box with another. He's pretty good at it!

Cinco de Mayo

2008-05-06T13:15:00.003-05:00

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. My mom has had allergies and something called My Grains lately and hasn't been feeling so hot. She's feeling better now though.

Yesterday was Cinco de Mayo! It's a Mexican holiday, but lots of non-Mexican people celebrate it, just like St. Patrick's Day. I am at school today and Scott, our day care counselor, is wearing a sombrero in honor of Cinco de Mayo. Unfortunately, we do not get margaritas.

I Have Something to Say!

2008-04-26T16:47:00.005-05:00

And that's all I have to say about that!

Rocky the Keeshond

2008-04-20T11:35:00.007-05:00

We had a visitor yesterday. My humans left at 9 am (on a Saturday!) and came back at about 11:30 with a Keeshond named Rocky. He was from the Prince Georges County Animal Management Division. Keeshond Lovers had a foster home that wanted to take him, but the lady couldn't pick him up until Saturday night. So my humans picked him up in the morning and kept him during the day until we took him to meet his foster mom.
Rocky was very scared at first, both of my humans and he was a little scared of me. My mom came in and got me and picked up all my toys and put them away. Then we went outside where dad had Rocky. Rocky liked me but I could tell he was a little scared, so I did everything I could to show him that I was not a threat. We went inside so that Rocky could cool off and relax. He was breathing really hard, and mom said that he had tested positive for heartworms at the shelter, so he needed to take it easy. Rocky rested for a little bit and drank some water and cooled off in the air conditioning, and then decided he wanted to play with me!

Rocky even started coming up to my humans to be petted.

Once Rocky was comfortable playing with me, he turned out to be quite a wrestler! He is really good at standing and walking on his hind legs!

You can see more videos of me and Rocky on my YouTube channel.
My humans can't wait to hear how Rocky does on his heartworm treatment. His coat also had a lot of really bad mats, so he will probably need to be clipped. I even showed him my tire toy and he didn't know what to do with it. I will post updates on Rocky when I hear how he is doing.

My Cool New Collar

2008-04-17T18:42:00.004-05:00

My mom was so taken with Abby's ACU collar that she wanted to get one for me! She found an eBay store that sells things made out of camoflage and ordered a collar for me!
Here I am modeling it. It has my name on it! I made a serious face like the Army guys do in their pictures.
Here is a nice closeup of my collar:
I think the AO4 needs some of these!

I'm a Genius!

2008-04-09T21:02:00.006-05:00

My mom heard about this cool new toy called the HI.Q. It's supposed to test a dog's IQ. My mom was confident that I would do well, and she knows I love treat dispensing toys, so she ordered the set of 3 so that they can be put together for more of a challenge.
Here you can see that the HI.Q conveniently comes with a rating system. Mom put treats in one toy and gave it to me. I had a treat out of it within 10 seconds. So mom connected the three toys together and put a few treats in each one. I picked the whole thing up and tapped it on the ground and they came loose, and then I took them apart and ate the treats out of all of them. Since I also went to school this morning, I was pretty tired after all that.

Firehose Toys

2008-04-06T20:53:00.002-05:00

My mom was talking with some other Husky moms, and they were talking about "durable" soft dog toys. Mom said the only soft toys I'd ever had that lasted were made of fire hose. I have two.
The red one is a Bamboo toy. The orange one is made by Katie's Bumpers. Bonus - the squeaker in that one still works!!!. As you can see, I like these toys and have used them too. They are great for tug of war!

Update on Abby

2008-04-04T08:06:00.004-05:00

Remember Abby, the Akita/Siberian Husky mix? The nice lady from Tails of the Tundra who fostered Abby sent my mom an update on her this morning! Her name is now Jersey. Here is what her new mom had to say:
"We couldn't have asked for a more perfect dog than what we got in Jersey . She is so loving, and makes us laugh a lot. She's a true daddy's girl and she and Clyde are so great together. They spend most of their evenings snoring on the couch because they tire each other out so much. It feels like she's always been with us!
Reid and I got engaged recently, so it's been an exciting time for all of us. He's away right now for 3 weeks and I can tell she misses him so much because at the beginning, she cried at the top of the stairs wondering why he wasn't coming home. Here's the pic I sent him this morning to say 'good morning daddy'.
She's wearing an ACU collar (army camouflage). One weekend when Reid came home from drill, I bought them for Clyde and her so that they could match him, and we got some adorable pictures of all of them J We also got her a Coach collar for when she needs to dress up for guests and be the pretty girl – I know, you must think I'm nuts! Hope all is well and thanks again for bringing us our baby girl – I can't imagine our lives without her!!!!!"
Congratulations Jersey, that is such great news!

It's That Time of Year

2008-04-02T17:26:00.004-05:00

Guess!
This is from brushing one side of me with just a steel comb.
This is from brushing both sides of me with just a steel comb. Mom said tonight we do the Furminator. She better have some good treats!

Help

2008-03-31T07:14:00.002-05:00

This was not supposed to happen!

Easter Sunday

2008-03-25T21:01:00.002-05:00

I hope all of my blogfriends had a good Easter! We had dinner at my grandma and grandpa's house, and I got to play with Chloe and Amber.
Chloe likes to lay on her back and wave her legs at me.
She also likes to get up on the couch so she is as tall as I am and then play with me.

Amber and I also played outside. Mom said Amber sounds ferocious when she plays!

Amber had fun catching her favorite ball too.

Here we are waiting for Grandma to give us treats.

I was TIRED when I got home!

I'm at School Today!

2008-03-19T08:59:00.002-05:00

Woohoo, school! I'm already having a great time! I was so excited to get to school today I tried to jump out of the car in the parking lot of the school, but mom caught me and made me heel. Sheesh!

You can watch us here.

Meeko is Back

2008-03-17T21:36:00.005-05:00

Remember Meeko, the Husky/Rottweiler mix? The people who adopted him couldn't keep him, so they called his previous foster home and his foster parents came and picked him up last weekend.

Mom was very sad for Meeko, that he has to go through another transition. He was very happy to be back at his foster home, and settled right in with the other dogs. He did cry during the first night, but his foster parents say that he is doing really well now. My mom is glad that Meeko is back in his foster home, and is safe with people who love him. Mom and dad were talking about going to visit Meeko in a few weeks. I think that would be fun! I wonder if he'll remember us?

A Nice Long Walk

2008-03-13T05:13:00.004-05:00

The other day mom and I went for a nice long walk after she got home. Mom took some pictures of the lake.

There were some geese there, but they did not want to play with me. We did hear a duck that was really angry and yelling at someone.
Then we came home and I took a nice nap with my Kong.

Lion Hugs Woman Who Rescued Him

2008-03-11T22:18:00.002-05:00

My mom got an email with an AMAZING video of an African Lion hugging the woman who rescued him. You can read the article here. There is a good clear version of the video here.
Just amazing!