WOLFDOG - NEWS FROM KUNA

Kuna is currently in California. She and her parents are staying in a cabin on 40 acres of land where she can chase mice and birds and hide her bones, apparently she does not like it when she is observed hiding the bones. She likes to keep it as her little secret. Her mommy attempted to send some new pictures but with limited internet access, is experiencing some technical difficulties so hopefully she will be able to do that soon. Can't wait to hear from you again Kuna, write soon.

Spirit

WOLFDOGQUEEN'S SLIDESHOW

Wolfdog Queen is Amy, she is the mommy of Cherokee. Enjoy their slideshow. It has been updated in the last hour. Mouse over the photos to see captions, click to go to website to look at each individual picture. Great stuff, thanks Amy.

WOLFDOG - SLEEPING WITH THE DOGS

Wolfdog here. Do your dogs sleep with you or is it the other way around, they let you sleep with them? I am allowed to sleep on the bed, a small portion of it. Then there is the struggle regarding who sleeps nearest to the warm body, that being me. When I had my schnauzer, Bentley, he slept with me at the head of the bed. Then I rescued Sierra who took over that spot and curves herself in position against my body, then stretches out pushing me over to the edge. Bentley was "allowed" to sleep at my feet. Sierra took over the bed. Then along came Spirit. Sierra and Bentley did not like having him on the bed at all because he was too big and took up too much space. Besides, he wiggles too much. He has to get up, turn around, sniff, and then lay down, then repeat all of that again until we would all get mad and send him to the living room. After Bentley passed away, it was just me and Sierra on the bed. Then I brought Cheyenne home. Oh my goodness. You would think that I was doing Sierra the most horrible injustice by allowing Cheyenne on the bed. Cheyenne is bigger and can push harder so she usually gets up around my head which of course sends Sierra into a tailspin. She sits beside us and stares. That is it, just sits and stares, boring a hole right through to the core of your being, and it burns. Not much sleep happening there. So, finally Cheyenne gets the hint and moves down to my feet. Spirit on the other hand is still too restless and is in the living room, again. Then Spirit and Cheyenne had puppies. That was the last straw as far as Sierra is concerned. But, she need not worry, the puppy that I kept is afraid to climb up onto the bed and, if he ever got up there, he would never be able to get down without help from his granny. I am talking about Sundance. He is able, however, to get up on the couch. It took a while but he accomplished it. Now, he and Spirit struggle over who is going to sit next to me on the couch while I am trying to watch TV. The sounds they make while carrying out this struggle is awful, a lot of howling and growling going on, so much so that listening to the TV is next to impossible. Not to mention that their struggle somehow occurs right in front of my face and on parts of my body, they use me as leverage against each other. Throw an old sock in there for good measure and you have a real struggle going on, not only are they trying to be the one that sits next to me but they are trying to be the winner of the sock as well. So, whether it is in the bed or on the couch, someone wants to be next to you. Does it feel good for your dogs to spar over who gets the best position in your house, it sure does. Enjoy the picture of some of the pups trying to get into my lap. I feel loved.

WOLFDOG DEN - CAN YOUR DOG GET YOU IN TROUBLE?

When I was growing up, we had a german shepherd named "Ginger". I grew up with two older brothers, "Mark" and "Steve". Mom mentioned that Ginger was very lovable, that she would have to step over her in the kitchen, step over her when she got out of bed and so on, the dog was always around her. Well, apparently she loved my brother Steve too. We know that because she would get excited and wag her tail whenever he would return in the middle of the night, climbing back through the window he would sneak out of. My mother always knew when he would sneak out because of that tell-tale thump (pardon the puns). I think it was her way of getting revenge on us. We used to blame things on her; like a broken window, a crack in the glass on the heater door, things like that. I don't remember what happened to the window, I think one of us was banging on it to get back in the house after the others had locked us out, but we were having a rubberband fight when we hit the glass on the heater door and it cracked it. Of course the dog did it. Remember, if you sneak out and then back in again, your dog is going to herald your return with a boisterous wag of the tail, maybe some whining, real body language that is hard to miss by others. Can your dog get you in trouble? I think so.

Wolfdog

WOLFDOG DEN - WHAT TO DO WITH GAS

I'm not talking about the gas you put in your car to make it go, I am talking about the gas that just came out of Spirit, whew! He passed gas, took a look at his bottom and then got up and came over to me and laid down, almost scared, as if he was saying "something just came out of my backside and it was not a good thing". He was right, it wasn't good, we had to hold our noses for a few minutes. Do your wolfdogs have gas a lot? Spirit and Sundance seem to have an abundance of it. Sundance is more subtle about his. He poots, gets up and moves, leaving it lingering around the rest of us. I think Cheyenne and Sierra, being girls (smile), do not pass gas, at least I have never caught them doing it. I think it is the food he sneaks around and gets. I don't think Purina is known for its gas-passing qualities. Because Spirit sneaks food, I have to be sure we don't have anything in the house that is dangerous to animals. I have lost an entire plate of spaghetti before, luckily it did not have onions in it. I turned around just in time to see his mouth open like a gators mouth and one bite is all it took. Lucky for him I had more. Sierra has taken her life in her own paws before when she grabbed a rotisserie chicken off the counter and started dragging it around the house. Come to think of it, Cheyenne has done the chicken dance too. Even though it was not edible any longer, I made sure I got it all up because chicken bones are bad for dogs. Enjoy the picture of some of the pups having something legal to eat. Have a good one and hope to see you all at dog night at Ritter's on the 7th. Cherokee will be there for sure.

WOLFDOG WEDNESDAY

How many of you think storms with thunder and lightning are scary? Well, Sundance who is afraid of virtually everything, is not afraid of a storm where, on the other paw, I am scared to death of them. I just spent a frightening half hour in mommy's lap, on her head, behind her on the couch, anywhere I could get close to her to seek shelter and comfort with the one person in the world I trust more than anything. She is supposed to keep me safe, right? Wrong! No matter how hard she tried, she could not make the thunder and lightning go away fast enough. I was shaking in my fur! Me, the alpha male, was skeered. Don't laugh at me, it only makes it worse. But at least I am not the only one in this house afraid of storms. Cheyenne was howling and Sierra was whimpering so I am not alone with my pathological fear of storms. Now that the storm has passed, I am going to get me a nap because, in Florida, you never know when another storm is going to pass through here and a wolfdog needs his beauty rest. Have a good day, stay safe and no matter how tempting it may seem, do not go outside to see what lightning looks like up close.

Spirit

WOLFDOG DEN MONDAY

Hey there, hope all of you dads out there had a great Father's Day. I was remiss in not putting up a Happy Father's Day message. Sorry about that. For my father's day, I got to go bye-bye's in the car, got a new bone to gnaw on and mommy gave me some great hugging and scratching. I even got a massage. Ahhhh.

The inspirational juices are not flowing right now, I need stories so I can post them. Any day now, we are hoping to get some new photos of Kuna on vacation and Cherokee has a funny banana-eating photo coming soon. As far as we know, Sequoia is doing well, due on or around August 3, dog night at Ritter's is always the first Monday of the month so it will fall on July 7 next month. I guess Cubby is doing okay, have not heard from her in a while, the silly girl, she is always up to something.

Hey, Neeko does not like his feet messed with, anybody else out there have this problem? Sundance does not like it when mommy tickles the hair between his toes, he jerks around like he is having a seizure or something.

And, I don't know if you are all aware of this or not but wolves and some wolfdogs groom themselves. I have trimmed my claws on occasion and have helped Sundance trim his, we trim the hair out of each other's ears and such. It is really neat to be able to do that. I kind of over-did it once and stripped my beautiful tail down to nothing. It looks much better now, mommy says it is a very handsome tail.

Hope you have a good week and let us hear from you soon.

Love to all, Spirit.

WOLFDOG DEN - LOL DOGS AND LOL CATS

Hi there. If you have not checked these sites out yet, please do, some of the captions and pictures are hilarious. Keep in mind that these are G to PG rated so you might want to check it out first before you let your cubs sign on there. I have not seen anything bad but I may have missed something.


see more dog pictures

WOLFDOG DEN - READ MY BLOG PLEASE

Howl everyone! It is very hot outside. We have been staying inside a lot because of the heat. It would be nicer if we would just go ahead and lay down in the pool to cool down, we just want to get our paws wet, do not have the courage to lay down, not sure what is up with that. Mommy has not been feeling well the last couple of days, has a sinus infection and had to go to the doctor. Please, please read our blog and comment on occasion. It lifts mommy's spirits to hear from you and to know you are reading. Don't forget to read older posts to catch up. Also, let all of your friends know about the blog. They can come and visit too. Thanks a bunch, Spirit.

WOLFDOGS DO NOT LIKE THINGS MOVED

Hi there, Spirit here. Sundance peed his pants today. You know why? Mom moved his baby gate. It was not where she usually leaves it and that is a cause for concern. She moved it about 5 inches total in order to get something out of the pantry and she failed to put it back. When it was time for Sundance to go to his room, he got to the door, saw the baby gate was not in the correct place, squatted and peed, right there on the spot. If that wasn't enough, he cowered like he was about to be murdered or something. How many of you wolfdogs out there don't like your stuff moved around? Cheyenne can tell if mommy moves a plant or candle or adds something new to the room. Doesn't mommy realize that everything has to go through proper channels? We have to be in on the decision-making process when moving, adding, or removing things from our den. How about sending me some stories about your wolfdogs behavior when you change their environment, we would love to hear about it.

Spirit

WOLFDOG DEN KUNA CHECKED IN

Kuna is currently in Denver, Colorado, on her way to California. Lucky dog! Her mom, Katie, has provided me with some information about the pictures in her slide show. Adam was trying to get her to jump up onto that stump. They were at Tahquamenon Falls in Upper Michigan. The one on the cliff with Adam, she is in North Carolina and mom says she was very agile and at home on the rocks and cliffs. Sundance would have stood there and cried, he had to have help getting in the car for dog night and he may not be going next month because mommy is still sore from pushing and tugging on him. When Kuna gets to California, we are going to receive a lot more pictures of her vacation and I will post them. I can't wait to see where she has been and what she has been doing.

Spirit

WOLFDOG DEN SATURDAY

Howl everyone! Happy Saturday! We are just hanging around the den, we have a pool full of water and muddy feet and are doing the happy dance. We are looking forward already to the next Dog Night at Ritter's which is the first Monday of every month. In July it falls on the 7th which is just a few days after Independence Day and I think we should all go with a red, white and blue theme. Let's see if we can get dressed up for the occasion. That would make for some great pictures dontcha think? Speaking of pictures, can you tell who this is in the picture? Comment if you think you know who it is and check back for the answer.

WOLFDOG KUNA'S VACATION

PATTY AND WINSTON

Hey everyone. This is a picture of my Aunt Patty and cousin Winston. Winston is a lovable Weimaraner as you can see, he loves to give kisses.

Spirit

RITTER'S DOG NIGHT SLIDE SHOW JUNE 2008

WOLFDOG DEN - BATHTIME FOR SUNDANCE

Well, Sundance and mommy just took a bath although I don't think mommy intended to have hers in the screenroom. It is a good thing we have a privacy fence because it wasn't pretty, mommy says it is like wrestling with an alligator. Sundance is now in his room drying off and pouting although I did see him turn around and give his granny some kissing and hugging so I guess he has forgiven her.....for now. I hear thunder in the distance and I know someone is not going to be pleased if we went through all of that and it winds up raining out dog night at Ritter's. As you can see from the picture, he does not appear to be very happy. Hee, hee. Better him than me!

Spirit

PET FRIENDLY AREAS IN FLORIDA

The 2008 hurricane season is upon us. Be prepared. I like this FloridaPets.net site more and more everytime I look at it. They have a very good section about pet friendly shelters and motels/hotels in the state of Florida and some out-of-state. Please read and print this, you will be glad you did. Have a plan in place for your family and pets. Click here for more information.