And the Winner is. . .

The girls had an argument over who should draw the winner (the drawing involved pieces of paper folded around a piece of kibble.) so I decided to let them both draw a name. So, this giveaway has two winners.

*Drumroll Please*























































































































Picassa picked:

Lauren & Don

And, Paris chose. . .

Lisa, Ellie & Hosta

Congratulations to our latest Green Leash Giveaway winners!!

Thanks to everyone who entered! If you are interested in a leash of your own you can e-mail me at megstewart85(at)hotmail(dot)com and I will give you details, or check back in a few months for the next giveaway. ;)

Happy Birthday Picassa!

First of all, my puppy club is so cute and at this weeks meeting they threw a surprise party for me and Picassa since my b-day was yesterday and Picassa's is today. We played a few games and there were balloons and at the end we had brownies. The brownies had a paw print on them and said "Happy Birthday Megan and Picassa" I am sure Amanda got some weird looks from the person doing the writing. ;) It was so much fun and me and Picassa really appreciated it.

[Me kneeling next to Picassa holding the sheet of brownies.]
Anyway, today my girl Picassa turned one year old. She is a fabulous dog and I am enjoying every day with her. Today was pretty low key. We went to church and when I got home her and Paris ran around in the backyard while I made her a cake. Here are some pictures from the romp.

[Paris jumping on top of Cos while they are running.]
[Cos on her back (she spends most of backyard time on her back) while Paris runs up to grab a foot (something I am still trying to get her to stop)]
[Picassa taking a break on our sunken trampoline.]

[Picassa taking off the tramp to tackle Paris.]

[Cos and Paris laying next to each other in the grass with big smiles on their faces.]

[My favorite picture of Picassa. She has really grown into her head lately and doesn't look quite as awkward as she did when I first got her. She is laying in the grass looking very happy.]

[Picassa's cake. It's Peanut Butter/Carrot cake with Peanut butter frosting and Vanilla Yogurt for accents. The yogurt makes a loopy border around the cake and it says Picassa in the middle with a #1 under the name.]

Picassa had to wait to eat it through Sunday dinner at grandma's house, but once we got home she got to put on my silly birthday hat (my parents got it for me from Disney land when my 1st puppy turned 3 and my 2nd puppy turned 1. So, all my puppies have had a birthday in the silly hat)

[Picassa laying in front of her cake. She got a little impatient while I was putting her in a "wait" so the last A in her name has a lick mark through it. :D

[Finally got the "okay" and she dug in. I'd say she loved it.]

[Paris couldn't stand watching her anymore and so she jumped in to help Picassa eat her cake.]

[Close up of Paris with Peanut Butter on her chin, she is trying to lick it off with her tongue.]

[Picassa with her tongue out and Peanut Butter on her tongue.]

The girls got to eat about half of the cake and the rest is saved for later. It was hard to take it away because they were still taking desperate bites out of it while I lifted it from the floor.

Then Picassa got her birthday bone and has been chewing on it ever since. [Cos chewing a new nylabone.]

Happy Birthday Picassa!!

P.S. If you haven't seen my giveaway yet you have a few more hours to enter!

Green Leash Giveaway-Part 2!!

Well, I think it's time for another Green Leash Giveaway. What do you all think? I know how to make leather service dog leashes and would like to share another one with a blogger friend. These are leashes that can adjust to two different lengths and are braided together for extra strength. Here are a few pictures of the leash so you can see what they look like.

[This is the leash in green]
[And here's the leash in blue that I recently made for Paris. I really like the blue color.]

• To enter leave a comment telling me a unique trait you love about your dog(s).
  
• I'll give you a second entry if you blog about this giveaway, make sure to leave a second comment on this post letting me know that you've done it.
• I'll give you a third entry if you are a follower of this blog.

So, that gives everyone 3 chances to win.

If you don't have a blog please leave your e-mail address in your comment so I can contact you if you win.

You have until Midnight on Sunday July 25th (Picassa's Birthday) to enter the giveaway and a winner will be announced on Monday July 26th.

I will also give the winner the option of a different color if you want it to match your school's color, dogs vest or personal preference. I have green, blue, black and red and if you ask nicely I may be able to get another color if you want. (I won't do yellow or orange because the colors look awful and I don't want to give anyone a crappy looking leash. :D) I will also give the winner the option of having their dogs name stamped into the leash.

Good luck to everyone!

Hiking and a Play Date

This past week and a half I've been puppy-sitting Sugar. She is such a nice puppy and super sweet. I was bored one day and decided to take both the girls on a nice hike. They did really well together and walking on a loose leash. Picassa pulled a little because she likes to be in front but after the first half she was doing much better.


[Picassa and Sugar walking side by side] We went up to my favorite waterfall and it was hot (around 110 degrees) I didn't intend to go up to the falls because it was hot but I realized that Picassa hasn't been up there yet so we went all the way up. Here are the pictures from that.

[Picassa smiling with the waterfall behind her.] I didn't plan well and totally forgot to bring water so I let Sugar and Picassa drink the falls water for a second, they were both dying.

[Picassa lapping up water from the falls.] [A view of Picassa from above and you can see all the way down the second half of the waterfall.] [Picassa with green mountains behind her.] [Picassa and Sugar laying down on a flat rock with the water fall behind them.] [Sugars head with the water behind her.]

[Picassa up on a rock close to the falling water.]

Yesterday Picassa, Sugar and Kyle had a play date. I went and picked up Kyle and let him run around with the girls for quite a while. I was amazed with how well they all played together. Here are some pictures from that.

[Picassa in the lead looking back with Kyle and Sugar colliding behind her. I love that Sugars tail is wrapped around Kyles back.]

[Picassa and Kyle ram into each other while Sugar bounces to the side of them.]

[Picassa with her arm wrapped around Kyles head. Her tactic is bouncing, it's really funny to watch her run around.]

[Three way collision, each dog ran from a different direction until they all met in the middle.]

[The younger dogs (Kyle and Sugar) racing toward the older dog (Picassa) who looks a little terrified]

[SNEAK ATTACK! Picassa took a rest in the grass when Kyle came up slowly behind her and grabbed her by the ear.]

[It didn't take long for him to flip her over. It was pretty funny to watch him.]

[Running around again. Picassa in the front with Kyle next and Sugar bringing up the rear.]

[Sugar leading with Picassa next and Kyle last.]

AND, I've been working on an outfit for Kyle to wear at Fun Day. I finished it yesterday and I think it's pretty darn cute. So here are a couple pictures of that.

[Side view of Kyle in a "saddle" that I made. It's a fake leather jacket (like the old GDB style ones) with stirrups hanging down with western print sewn on them. A Woody (from Toy Story) doll is sitting in the saddle and on the back edge of the saddle is says KYLE.) I'm pretty ridiculously proud of it, I am so not crafty!

[A top view of the saddle. Where Woody sits is a horseshoe shape sewn on and you can see Kyles name better.] So if your at Fun Day in California keep an eye out for me and Kyle. (Who probably won't wear it the whole time cuz I don't want him getting hot, but he'll wear it for a while.

The Planetarium

Last week a friend came over and we decided to have an adventure in downtown Salt Lake. We ended up at the Planetarium which is always a great exposure place for my pups in training. Plenty of screaming children running around, lots of loud noises and things that move, and plenty of surfaces to walk on. I was so proud of Picassa, she did amazingly well. Actually, I am incredibly impressed with how far she has come in the 2 months that I've had her. Anyway, we were there for quite a while and Picassa didn't bat an eye and was perfectly calm the whole time. She had many little children come over and pet her and she did fantastic. Here are some pictures from the day:

[Picassa laying next to a slinky dog that was in the gift shop.]
Picassa on a scale that tells you what you'd weigh on different planets. This one is Pluto and she weighed 3 pounds. I think I should venture to Pluto because I only weigh 12 pounds there. :D
[Picassa on Mars with many red rocks around her.]

[Picassa sitting on the moon with an astronaut behind her.]

Also, I will be going to Fun Day at the end of the month and was going to take Picassa, unfortunately, she is showing signs of going into heat soon so I won't be able to take her. But, Amanda from my puppy club has graciously agreed to let me puppy-nap Kyle and take him to Fun Day instead. (Fun day puppy-less just isn't as much fun) I can't wait for Fun Day!

Random Week

I had to say goodbye to Keiko last week. His raiser is loving him and has agreed to let me puppy sit when she needs someone. I really liked him, he is a great puppy. Here is the happy boy sitting in grass with his tongue out.
Keiko on tie down in the kitchen. He has the cutest blocky face, I love it.

I also found a park in Murray and took the girls for a walk there. They enjoyed it but it was really hot so we didn't stay long. Here is a picture of them on a bridge over a river.

[Picassa laying in front of some really pretty flowers.]

At my last puppy class all the dogs showed up and because that doesn't happen often we took the opportunity to take a group picture. P.S. I have the greatest club ever, I am sure everyone says that but it's true. I love them all so much. We are all so supportive of each other and we could all talk about anything forever. And we are all so cute. :D

[Jacinda, Julimae, Kyle, Spike, Christina, Picassa, Keiko, Breeze & Sugar]

That's about it from here. Picassa turns a year old in 15 days, I can't believe it. She is the oldest female in the club now.

A Note from Tahoma

I don't hear from them very often and it's been over a year since my last update so I was ecstatic to open my e-mail and see this message from Tahoma's partners wife. Sounds like she is still up to her old tricks, she is such a smart puppy. I can't believe she is over 6 years old now! Anyway, here is a little part of the e-mail about Tahoma:

Homie is on the plane to Jerusalem (again!!!I I think this is like her 7th or 8th trip). She always hates it when she is deprived of her breakfast :-( and we feel terrible. Also, she has grown so used to getting a seat on the plane that when she doesn't get one, she is sad. Today's plane was crowded, so [Tahoma's Partner] gave her a pillow which she tucked under her head on the floor and it made her very happy! She continues to be such a joy in our lives! Words cannot express! [Tahoma's partner] is so much more independent and popular!!! (Even though he was pretty independent and pretty popular before!) And everyone in town knows and loves Tahoma. Even people who say they never before liked dogs are head over heals with Homie. And she is sooo smart...still finding ways to outsmart and "train" us. The latest is she noticed that we'd give her a treat if she came from behind, so she started tailing us on our walks so she could come from behind all the time! Plus, as I'm sure you now, she is a great snuggler (when she's not pushing us off of our pillows!). And she's still so beautiful. She has stayed in shape (over the years she has helped us to devise many methods of how to keep all the food out of reach) and is a sleek vision of black lab with just a touch of grey on the chin (and those little white spots on the belly) and that cute little kink in the tail. I miss her already! But there are a bunch of Israeli kids who wait for her to come twice a year in [Tahoma's Partner's] daughter's compound and they speak hebrew to her and she seems to understand just fine...she has fans wherever she goes.


I always enjoy hearing about my dogs. I am so proud of Tahoma, what an amazing life she has. :D

P.S. I know I am way behind on posts and I have a couple to post so stay tuned. I haven't forgotten all y'all.