Happy birthday Dexter!

The doodles turned 4 years old yesterday. He's grown into a fine young man, as you can see here. No, he's not spoiled.

Sue's 52nd birthday is coming up on Nov. 11. I think we'll celebrate that at Thanksgiving. Then we are done with birthdays for the year, starting over with Zoe in January and Bailey in February.

Bailey is going to be 9! Hard to believe. But the queen of the house is still going strong.

Weekend in New York

As I said in the previous post, Ed and I went to New York to visit his family. His grandmother celebrated her 90th birthday, and his grandfather, who has had both legs amputated because of circulation problems, was busted out of the rehab facility for the day on Saturday to celebrate the occasion.

I hope if and when I reach 90 that I'm still plugging along as well as those two are. Since I never really knew any of my grandparents, I consider Stanley and Jeannette my grandparents. They are definitely two peas in a pod, and it was good/fun to see them interact.

Ed's brother, sister-in-law and their two infant boys -- Jack and Sawyer -- came down for the weekend too. Jack is hell on wheels, but boy is he a cutie. He'll be a good big brother to Sawyer, who was just born in May.

We took Bailey along for the ride, leaving Dexter and Zoe behind with Josh to watch for the weekend. Having all three dogs would have been a nightmare, especially with the two youngsters (the dogs) being the crazies that they are. But I think Bailey had a great time, as the picture above shows. She loves to ride in the car and put her head out the window.

All in all, a great weekend.

No, she's not spoiled at all ...

... With Dexter looking on from afar, Ed got this picture of a "lounging" Bailey before he went to work today.

What a baby.

Bailey

Had to take the queen of the house to the vet today because I found a lump in her right groin area. Turns out everything's fine -- it was just a fatty deposit. But she is 8, and after the ordeal we went through with k.d., I didn't want to take any chances.

For those who don't know, k.d. was the dalmatian Ed and I owned before we got Bailey and Dexter. When she was 5, a nasty cancer attacked her and killed her, all within a matter of a few weeks. I don't ever want to go through that again. We bought her at a pet store, and we think that had a lot to do with her becoming so ill. Never, NEVER buy a pet from a pet store. Bad, bad news.

The vet says Bailey is just fine, very healthy, and that we can look forward to more fatty deposits as she gets older. Fine by me, as long as she lives about another 8-10 years...

*Update: Had to take Bailey back to the vet yesterday (May 28) because she was having a few "female issues." An antibiotic and some estrogen were prescribed, so she should be good to go in about 10 days. Been giving her some Glucosamine too. I think some arthritis might be settling in her back legs...

Canyon comes for a visit

Our friends Matt and Greg are off to Las Vegas this week and needed somebody to watch their yellow lab, Canyon. Ed and I love the load that is Canyon, having watched her last summer when Matt and Greg went to Hawaii.

She's a very good dog, but full of energy. She'll keep Bailey, Dexter and Zoe quite busy this week I think.

Not to mention Ed, who will have to deal with that energy when he's home at night and I'm off at work. He'll probably be just as tired as everybody else by the time Canyon goes home on Saturday morning.

Funny picture

I was just going through some old iPhoto pictures and found this picture of Bailey. She hates the camera, so getting this shot was pretty lucky.