*hearts*

So my family came and went and Koji did FANTASTICALLY well. I am so proud of my bubs. <3 It was also a huge change of pace to be around my family again, and people who understand dogs. The girls, not knowing too much about what teasing a dog with toys looked like, had Goose and Koji jump a few times, but instead of blaming the dogs my sister or her husband would explain to them why they did that and how to not tease them next time. Even when Koji thought my 11 month old niece was rocking in a play bow, ran up to her, butt in the air, and barked in her face, everyone laughed and picked Natalie up, who had quite the shock (and would start to fake cry the next few times Koji would walk by) and everything was fine, no harm no foul. SUCH a relief that they knew that dogs were dogs, they won't change who they are and its up to us to act accordingly around them. Koji was so facinated with the girls, too, having so many new interesting smells. He followed me and the youngest around while we were walking together, it's like he couldn't get enough of this tiny walking person, and the oldest (6 years) loved to come over to give him belly rubs and pat him on the head, which I know he loved. For someone who was so afraid of little ones when we got him almost a year ago, he seemed right at home and went right up to all of them to meet them when they first came over. The middle child, Lindsey, is almost 4, and while she was sort of okay around Koji, I think she felt he was a little too high energy for her and kept thinking he was going to steal her food whenever he looked at her, so she seemed to prefer my in-laws' dog, Goose, also probably because that mini schnauzer could really fetch, and that's all she really wanted to do.

The only problem now is that I miss my family terribly as they've all gone back to California.

Family!

Not much has happened on our end of things recently. Mostly we've been trying to keep cool during the day and shake out all the crazies at night. The fourth came and went with much celebration from Koji, Dug, and Goose chasing each other around the in-laws' backyard, but the exciting thing is my family is coming out to visit today, and this is the first time my sister, her husband and my three nieces will meet my fuzzbutt! I'm excited and nervous and all around giddy. The girls are 6, almost 4, and almost 1, and Koji has been getting better around children, willingly going up for pets and kisses. I know things will turn out fine, especially since the girls have been taught manners around dogs, but the excitement is building, and thankfully Koji isn't catching on, being zonked out in his bed.

Key Fob Giveaway Winners!

I really enjoyed reading about everyone's favorite things about summer! Gave me warm fuzzies and ready to hit the summer activities! And what you've been waiting for, the winners (brought to us by random.org)!

#14 - Peter and Edgar
#6 - Kimberly and Bella

Please email me at thepaisleyfox at gmail dot com to claim your prize!

Adorable keys!

I have a perpetual need for cute. I love stickers, stuffed animals, pillows, keychains and kitchen gadgets, especially if they are cute. You can see my apartment key in the background there is an adorable little owl I picked up from Borders about a year ago (and the key that I hid up the owl has little pink sparkle hearts. Yeah barf, I know, but I love it.) So when I found this Shiba head key cover by Field Point from an awesome online compnay in Osaka, I jumped at it. They also had other dogs, such as Bostons and Corgis and Chihuahuas, but you know that there was only one that mattered to me. ;)

So after several emails, taking time to try and trust my rusty Japanese, and about a month to convert pay and get addresses straight, this little guy finally found itself in my mailbox. I could not be happier, either. It has upped the cuteness factor of my keychain tenfold, and it's slightly relevant, seeing it's on a spare copy of an apartment key to good friends of ours, who we refer to other friends as "the Shiba friends." (BONUS - they, TOO have a cute key!)

Also, I felt like it would be an awful waste of time and resources to only get one, so I got a whole bunch. But seeing that my husband doesn't like things on his keys (or keychains for that matter), and I only needed the one, I decided that I'd share the cuteness and offer them up!

So, right now, I'm giving away TWO (2) of these Field Point Shiba key covers! Keeping in the recent summer spirit, post a comment that tells what is a favorite aspect of summer for you and/or your dog. For example, I think Koji loves summer because that means I share my watermelon with him.

Two winners will be chosen at random 8pm central on Saturday the 19th!

I love my vacuum.

I really really do, and with the time crunch of working on costumes this past month, I figured I'd share one of the things that has kept my sanity, not only for keeping hair off of our fabrics and props, but everything else throughout the year.

I used to have a little Eureka Optima when I had my first apartment. Good enough to pick up the leftover chip and popcorn crumbs and the occasional hair of mine. When we moved, we noticed it didn't really pick up as much as it used to, and finding the replacement filters for it was a pain.

Then came the dog.

I heard stories about the fur, the blowing coat plus the intermittent shedding throughout the year. What I wasn't prepared for at all was having fur around my things 24/7 again. I mean, I had be without pets for a few years, so I had forgotten how it sticks to everything, especially things you don't want it to, such as your blankets or food. Needless to say, my little Optima just wasn't up to the task of making my carpets Koji free in the slightest, but it didn't leave dust in my carpets at least. With my quest for fur-free burber, I broke down, gathered a coupon or two, scoured sales, then hopped on over to my local electroincs store and purchased my monstrosity, the Dyson DC25 ball. They had all three there, the regular yellow, the Stormtrooper-esque Blueprint, and the purple Animal edition. I opted for the Star Wars-y one, since it was the cheaper of the three at the time (as well as the prettiest.) Why not the Animal if I was getting it for the sole purpose of pet hair? Because the only difference was, besides the price point, a scrubby pet hair hose attachment that didn't seem to make a difference, according to reviews. I had also decided to settle on the 25 rather than the 24 since it was a) bigger and b) had almost TWICE as much suction, and my carpet needed all the help it could get.

Needless to say, I don't regret that almost $500 purchase, even if it did take me a bit to pay off. This baby picks up anything I ask it to and more, it's easy to clean, easy to empty, I never have to buy a filter again, and works on several different floor surfaces. Not to mention it looks down right space-agey and cool.

I mean, just look at what it picked up from my supposedly clean carpet (I had vacuumed with the old one just before, and this is only from my small living room.) That's a full canister of hair and dust my other vacuum had left behind.

So in case I didn't make it clear, I love my vacuum. <3

Something exciting on the horizon...!

A secret event should be coming up soon. I'll try to post here when I've got all I need to do it.

Meanwhile, a hike is coming up this weekend and some Texas Shiba pictures (like the one on the left) are currently in "post production." Needless to say, there will be pics a plenty.

In other news, my temporary foster Umi found herself her new home! I wish her many years of happiness, warm beds, and belly scratches with her new family.

Happy Birthday, Koji!

Today is Koji's 2nd birthday, or at least the date we chose for him. Apparently we're not far off, since the only clues we had for his birthday was his old Dogster page, which lists him as a Taurus, and it does say he's 2 now. I just picked 29 since 9 seems to run in my side of the family (I'm 29, Jeff's 29, my sister is 29, my dad was 19, my niece is 19, my mom is 9...we have a lot of 9s.)

Today we will celebrate with an egg all to himself and a baked sweet potato. Maybe a trip to the dog park while we're at it. Because he's just not smelly enough from the last time we went a few days ago.

Happy birthday, pup pup. I'm sorry about the hat.

...okay, I'm not that sorry.

Stylish Sunday

Moving to midnight shift has taken a toll on doggy outings as well as blogging things. Lots of plans, but with an unorganized mind like mine, sometimes it's hard to put fingers to keyboard. So in the meantime, enjoy Professional Koji.

Mmm, scratchies good

OMG it's foster time!

Meet Umi!

She's what I think is a Shiba/Shepherd mix and a temporary foster dog for us until she can go to a foster home that can take care of her a little more long term than we can (especially since technically, she's not allowed in our apartment since we never told the office, shhh!)

Umi was our first pull by ourselves for the rescue and our first temporary foster, which has been a bit of a learning experience. One of the first things Jeff and I realized is that while we definitely want more dogs, and we will miss Umi (and I know Koji will carry on a sad song for a while) but we're looking forward to just having the one dog again. Not saying we won't do this again any time soon, or that we didn't like it, but it's nice to know it's temporary. Fostering is pretty cool like that, I guess, since we're able to experience and help different dogs.

Could also have to do with the fact that this little lady is currently in heat, which means she's bleeding randomly in the apartment. Luckily, she's sticking to the floor under the dining room table (as pictured) and Nature's Miracle takes care of any spots in the carpet right quick, but we're looking forward to not having to clean up after her so much. Also, she's a licker, though I'm proud to report she's starting to pick up the word 'stop' and usually moves on her merry way, which is letting me appreciate her more with dry appendages. She also rudely woke me up yesterday from a nap by licking my forehead, which I was not very happy about. Umi just happens to be a much needier and dog-like dog than Koji, which makes me realize how much I like the non-dog-like dogs. Jeff and I will never not have a primitive breed.

But she's sweet in her own way, and I know she will make some family extremely happy, but she's just not the girl for us, which is just fine. We'll give her love and encourragement for as long as she's here.

Some videos!
Koji and Umi
Trying to get Umi to play
Umi Plays!

Tired Tuesday

More snow!

Snow Day!

And it's still snowing outside! Koji took a liking to it much better this time around since there was no brutal wind to go along with it.

I wish I could have stayed home and taken him out on his 20' leash and have him run around all day. It seriously looks more like the Rockies than Dallas right now, and I'm loving it, even from the 6th floor of my office building.

Life at Chez Dill

or: Why nothing has happened lately.

Us here at the Dill residence are a bunch of wimps. I grew up in LA where the cold part of the year was watching fireworks off the harbor during 4th of July with that frigid 50 degree breeze blowing off the Pacific. Koji grew up the better part of his life before in San Antonio, where hot and humid is the norm (though not nearly as bad as Houston.) and while fluffier than last August, he still has a rather not fluffy coat when compared to his Shiba pals. Jeff can handle it pretty okay, but he and Koji aren't gone on many long walks in the frigid and damp outdoors lately.

We're in Dallas. I don't think we'd be able to brave anything much further north of us. Especially since the use of our heater last month hiked our electric bill an extra $100!! Ouch...

We braved a dog park over the weekend and met a very nice lady with the sweetest Basenji (which Jeff called the 'corgi inu' since the little African dogs look like a mashup of our favorites.) Jeff sounded like he'd consider one, though I was surprised by how short the little girl's fur was, though thinking on it, it's not like they exactly need to brave harsh winters down on the savannah. But even with the highlight of a Koji sized and attitude matched play mate, we didn't last much more than an hour at best. At least the road directly to the park is finally open, making it actually convenient to go to the nearby complex now.

I wished I had brought my camera with me, but hopefully we'll see her again. When I finally sort through a few of those photos I took at another dog park a few weeks ago with my new Nikon D5000, I'll put them up. Thinking of picking up a book about it at the store, though. Kind of a big deal, seeing I'm not a manual kind of gal, but seeing I have NO IDEA what I'm doing, it might be a first step into something good...

House Guest

Look at that happy smile!

Haku, a foster for the Texas Shiba Rescue, came to stay with us yesterday while Nicole and Ian were out. This little guy is a little needy as far as attention goes, so the long hours they were out would have been too much for him, so he got to hang out with Jeff, Koji and me.

And what a sweetheart, though his little doggie farts were something less than desirable. But even with that big ol cone head and a recent neuter, Haku tumbled a bit with Koji (with supervision, of course) and they shared toys and bullies and us very well. He falls right asleep in someone's lap and was just a joy to have around. Also made us realize how far we've come with Koji and how much we appreciate what he does. He may not know a bunch of tricks or commands, but the basics he has down like nobody's business, and that was something that Haku will still need to work on, though he looked like he was starting to get it but just didn't care enough. I know the cone is a big obstacle, so I'm sure he'll learn faster once that bad boy is finally off.

Hopefully his forever family is found soon. He'll be a great pet and I hope we'll be able to see him again after he's home.

Koji and Haku Play
Round 2!

Take your cold back, Canada!

Koji is having fun testing us recently since he's been getting a little stir crazy. We haven't been able to take our extra long walks around the neighborhood or take a trip to the dog park because it's been riddiculously cold with wind, which has left no one happy on the necessary walks. We're supposed to get back into the 50s by the middle of next week, which will feel like a tropical vacation compared to the teens we've been experiencing.

Don't worry, fuzzbutt. We'll take a trip to the park on Wednesday so you can get all your crazies out. <3

Yessss, they're over!

Koji experienced his first snow over Christmas and wasn't so sure about it while it was actively falling. He was better the next few days when the sun was out but the snow stayed behind so he could explore without getting that chilly wind and snow all in his face and through his not so fluffy coat.

Hope everyone had a happy and safe holiday season, I for one am glad they are all over. With work, deadlines for gifts, budgets and babysitting both my dog and the family I am a bit exhausted and ready to start the new year off with a fresh start on many things, including job searches, costumes, better weight training habits, and a new camera by the end of the month.

Cheers!

Someone is helping!

Or barely staying out of trouble. ;)

Take a hike!

Last weekend, Koji and I drove down with two of my friends and two of their dogs to take a hike around McKinney Park in Austin. It was a great day that left Koji's tail wagging while he walked toward the end of the trail that stretched a couple miles. A little cool during the day, but comfortable with a few shirts and a scarf protecting me from the slight chill, and seemed perfect for all of the dogs there. I was also proud that Koji did not pant in his crate the whole way down, as he did to the Alamo. He seemed a little more calm and relaxed, with only a few panting episodes, which is most definitely an improvement. He already gets excited by being in a car, and is a little nervous in crates in general (though will calm down after a few minutes to go to sleep when not in addition with the car.) Again, the dogs were all zonked for the ride home, and Koji didn't wake up until the race in the complex where we went over a few speed bumps (oops!).

The only tragedy was that Deshi, one of the Shibas, apparently is going through a Teenaged-Turd age and just suddenly decides he doesn't like some dogs sometimes, but is okay a few minutes later. It resulted in Baker's ear being bit, a little blood, and a few angry barks at Deshi (who completely deserved a telling off) but she didn't seem bothered with the injury and let us touch and handle it to help the clotting. I think she was just more surprised and upset more than hurt.

In other news, Thanksgiving at the in-laws actually went really well since we let Koji off the leash in the house. He was very well behaved, stayed nearby most of the time (except when he just HAD to run on the stairs) and got spoiled with lots of turkey. Maybe we need to just let him off leash in houses more often and he might behave better. Still going to take it slow and not have him go over all the time, though, for my sanity at least. Test #2 of off leash sleeping went REALLY well last night (as opposed to the first time we tried and he ate my favorite sandals...), he stayed in his bed the whole time and only came out of the bedroom when we called him out. I'm getting proud and pleasantly surprised with the small steps of progress my little fuzzbutt makes in being a well mannered member of our family.

As always, photos of the meetup can be found on the meetup page here: McKinney Falls Hike

I remembered, you rememberd?

This past weekend, I conned two friends of mine to drive the 5 hours down south to San Antonio and visit the Alamo with a bunch of other Shibas for a meetup. Koji did very well, though he hardly got an ounce of sleep the night before (motel freaked him out a little) and he was a nervous little leaf until we actually started walking on the Riverwalk, he was well behaved and greeted some of the Shibas as old friends he hadn't seen in quite some time, which was great to see. I made Texas flag bandanas to show off our proud Texas doggies at THE Texas landmark. I replaced the star with a paw.

We took pictures at the Alamo, walked along a scenic river, got asked what dogs we had countless times (and even overheard someone remark that we were a Corgi club...) and ate lunch out on a patio, where Koji insisted on sitting in my lap for a while, though he can never stand to do that at home. By the time the meetup was over and all the pictures had been taken, we walked back to the car, chatting up with Carina (the meetup coordinator and who I picked Koji up from those months ago) Koji was more than eager to get back into the car and his crate, despite the fact he panted the whole way down the night before. My little guy was so tired that he pretty much slept in the car next to his buddy, Dug, the whole ride up to Austin (for a few detours and dinner) and almost the whole ride home north of Dallas. I think he had a great day and was even tired the day after. Can't wait until the 5th for that hike we'll take at McKinney Park in Austin, I know he's going to have a lot of fun.

Some of the Alamo pictures can be seen here: Alamo Meetup 2009. You can tell which one Koji is since he was the leggiest and skinniest of all the Shibas there, as well as the one with the uncurliest tail. Everyone else seemed to have more of a donut tail while Koji was one of the only ones with a samurai tail (Crockett had one, I believe, though his is kept curled more than Koji's ever is.) He is average weight, too, so I don't know what to tell you. ;)