Freeze's 4th birthday

Freeze turns 4 today. he had a trip to the pet store to choose some things he wanted. the pups went along too.

The dogs are walking the people

Comet and Freeze really like walking on the ice at the lake. Comet is taking Tristan for a ride, or a slide....

glimpse into the day

Why is Freeze wearing clothes today (I asked)

Because he asked to wear clothes today (daughter replied)

I decided it was easier not to press for details.

No good pictures, kids and dogs were on the move.

I was on the couch, coughing as usual. This cough makes me so tired I hope is goes away soon. I did get some cleaning done and meals made but not much else today.

Freeze goes to the pet shop

Hayley likes to take Freeze to the pet shop, I don't like to take Freeze to the pet shop. I know it's fun for him but he is sooooo crazy and can escape any harness, collar, or other restraint system. His latest harness seems to work better than most so I agreed we could go to the pet shop. Freeze looked around for about 20 minutes, discounting multitudes of toys as just not the right one. Then Freeze suddenly found just the toy he wanted and grabbed it off the shelf. He made a beeline for the door as if he thought someone would take his toy if he didn't go fast. As he rushed by I grabbed the tag off the toy and we were able to check out.

Freeze walks Hayley around the pet store.


He walks fast and randomly making photos difficult.


I found it, I found the perfect toy!


I just LOVE this squeaky hedgehog, I must have it, Freeze seems to say.

Freeze is Happy: I captured the hedgehog and will bring it home!

Beach Day

The day started off cloudy but quite warm. I got in an hours walk with one of the dogs and then we got ready to go to the lake. We decided to take Freeze to the lake since he loves to swim and likely nobody else would be on the beach with the clouds. That was the case indeed and we had a fun couple hours swimming with Freeze. The day seemed to be clearing and we needed lunch so we brought Freeze home, had something to eat and then headed back to the lake. The sun came out and we all had a nice time swimming and playing. A couple other families were at the lake too. Tristan was able to talk to a big kid who'd just gotten his cast off after a skateboarding injury, they had fun comparing "battle scars and tales". One family at the lake had 6 kids and brought their dog(the lake is supposedly no dog in the summer season but lots of people take the chance and nobody ever seems to mind), it was fun to chat with them and the kids played together some. There were a bunch of new signs at the lake which gave everyone a good laugh such as no diving (huh, kids spend half their time diving), no extended under water swimming....lots of strange stuff. I wonder if someones child was hurt last year and they tried to sue the town or something, pretty bad when we need rules to compensate for a few people's lack of common sense. More likely his might be due to the new-ish parks and rec director in town who seems to be over zealous about most things. The signs gave everyone a laugh anyway, there were about 4 sets of different ones all over the place.

Colin checks out the latest "Boys Life" scouting magazine before we head to the beach.


We found a solution so that Tristan can play in the sand without getting any in his cast.


Freeze had a grand time swimming with us.

One set of the new lake signs, I think this is overdoing it a bit.

The sun came out, hooray!

It was a very nice day and we're all tired now.

Wet dog and paper scraps

Not much rain today, just cloudy. The dogs got good walks and Freeze had a fun time at the beach.

The picture below may look like paper scraps...

but it's actually what's left after a WWII battle paper fighter planes and paper battleship style. Tristan had some vehicles to deliver supplies to the men, others to carry the weapons, some to go into battle. Battleship Cove really set his imagination on fire for the WWII period in time.

Halt Freeze

Below Hayley's 1 year old puppy Freeze models his latest restraint wear.


He looks smashing in this harness and Halti.

Metal links and buckles coupled with confusing closures are a sure winner.

This combination is all the rage on the catwalks...make that dogwalks all over the world.

Or maybe we're just trying the latest combination of things to try and walk Freeze without him escaping, breaking the harness or collar or all of the above.

So far we can't quite figure out the "Halti" device but the fetching new blue harness seems to work much better than the last one we tried.

Walking Freeze continues to be an adventure but dare I say he does seem to be catching on to some amount of training now. We still say daily (hourly?) we've never had a dog like this before... but Freeze ads lots of laughs to our lives so it's all good.

Raising Freeze, Freeze encounters a window

Freeze may look innocent.....

I don't have pictures of the incident but in the attempt at full disclosure about Raising Freeze ('cause we'll laugh about it later) I must document one of Freeze's latest escapades.

There was a fly in the living room. Freeze wanted to catch the fly. The fly flew towards the window which was slightly open. Freeze jumped over the couch towards the same window.

The fly made it out.

Freeze jumped at the window and it broke into a zillion pieces.

Clearly Freeze thought that if the fly could fly out so could he. He missed the part that he is much larger than the fly.

Thankfully Freeze wasn't hurt even a bit and all the glass went outdoors so clean up was easier. Also thankfully it was one of the "older" windows in the house not a newer one.

So now we have yet another "Raising Freeze" story. None of our other dogs has ever done anything like this!

Freeze goes to the park

Freeze had his neuter surgery last week. This week after his re-check (after all hedidn't need stitches out, he already took them out himself!) we took him to a park in the town where the Vet. is located. Unfortunately that park hasa smelly swamp and Freeze escaped his leash. Above is a video we made of the "event". After all who wouldn't want to remember driving an hour home with a massively smelly dog. The video was short but Freeze "enjoyed"the swamp and park for an hour before we could convince him to go home and have a bath!

Raising Freeze

Freeze, Hayley's black Labrador puppy, will turn 1 year old next month. Daily we are amazed and surprised that he has made it this far. Freeze is trouble, that's for sure. He is stubborn, determined, perpetually hungry and clearly doesn't have a fully developed brain as yet. Freeze eats things that in no way could be mistaken for food. Freeze chases cats and then pays the price since cats are smart and have sharp claws. Freeze wakes the kids up early if he is bored in the morning and they get mad at him. Freeze escapes from the house, pulls on the leash and thinks everything in the house is his toy. The only good things about Freeze are that he is cute and that he is potty trained. Those are his saving graces. We have never had a dog like this before. It's one of those cases where we can say if Freeze had been the first dog we had then he would have been the last. We read books and watch videos and try to train the rascal. I *think* he is making some progress but it might be wishful thinking.

This day Freeze had to join us on a trip to drop off some books and curriculum for a homeschool book sale. He had eaten something inedible and although we were pretty sure it was no longer stuck we didn't exactly know where it went after it ceased to be stuck. Unsticking is is yet another long tale involving the entire family, Internet searches, tongue depressors and flashlights. It may never have been stuck but he coughed hard a few times and we just weren't sure. The re-assuring part is that we knew there were two veterinarians on the route we would take to drop off the books. Thus we had a good chance of being within reach of emergency help if needed. Anyway, that is why Freeze joined us for a trip that day, we didn't want to leave him home in case he did have something stuck in his throat.

Freeze seemed all better once in the car he didn't like being in the back seat though and kept trying to get up front with all his might.


I suppose he wanted to drive.


Freeze enjoyed the outing and by the time we were home we felt that whatever had caused the choking incident earlier had resolved.

On to the next adventure with Freeze.