Falon’s World

Tonight was group dinner at Mike and Tina’s. It was actually Tina’s turn to make dinner, but she had to work so Mike made it instead. We had: turkey noodle soup, chili, cornbread, rolls, and delicious salad. It was soooo yummy! After dinner we all sprawled around their living room and watched Happy Feet. It was about the best, most relaxing night I can imagine. Just like old times with my old group of friends…except without any underlying comments of cruelty. We’re much more straight-forward than that! Honestly though, about the most terrific night ever (I even got a short nap without getting crap for it ).

Well, after Midas and Magnum worked out their differences (i.e. Magnum learned that if he ignores Midas, he will go away bored), everything has gone very smoothly. I’ve noticed that while Magnum is very affectionate to me, he really likes men. We had a friend (guy) and my dad over tonight and he was soooo excited he could hardly contain himself. It was rather humorous really. He also is in dire need of a bath, which I’m hoping to get to later this week. And he’s a little frightened of stairs, but as we dole out dinner in the basement, he’s rapidly getting over that. He’s doing much better out on the tie-out but still would rather be by our sides all the time.

Except for when he’s watching the fish:

While he starts out back like that, he moves closer and closer. The fish, being fish, think that someone is coming to feed them and move into a little knot near the top, at which point Magnum BOPS the tank with his nose. Effectively startling the fish and slopping water. It’s pretty funny. Then he’ll wait patiently for the next “gathering”.

Imagine his excitement when I cleaned the tank this afternoon and he got to watch my disembodied arm float through the water (goldfish are SO filthy!). It got even better when I drew my arm out and in the split second that I reached for the towel Magnum and Mason each got a lick in (Midas is above that lol). Ewww.

Then we moved into the bedroom so I could do some work on my computer. There were a couple of growls while everyone settled into their spot. Mason is a little over-protective of Midas and any toy that he currently is playing with but we worked it out.

Midas looks very thick in the middle compared to Magnum (who is not headless, he was just snuggled right up to my chair), but he’s really not – he’s in terrific shape. Notice the enormous red bone that Mason is chewing on, while Magnum settled for the tiny white one by his leg? Yeah lol. Midas got over his great and abounding joy of aggravating Magnum to catch a little nap. They even cuddled…sort of:

While Mason continued his quest to completely destroy any toy we buy for him:

You can almost feel the enjoyment by the way his eyes are blissfully closed haha.

Eric and I decided to foster a German Shorthair Pointer from the West Michigan German Shorthair Pointer Rescue which is run by some friends of ours from the Ultimate Air Dogs Forum. Here is his (and his brother’s) listing on Petfinder.

We took in Magnum. He is one tall boy too. He’s four years old, housetrained, up to date on all of his shots, microchipped and neutered. He’s shown interest in birds and has even pointed. He’s an excellent frisbee player and can catch a decent throw (which Eric and I have not by any means perfected).

Jeff had a much better throw:

He’s very athletic looking and knows basic commands. His “come” is pretty rusty but that may be due to his constant moves the last few days from home to home and all the different people and animals he’s been in contact with. We took him to the park with a couple of Jeff and Beth’s GSPs to let him get to know us before bringing him to our house.

This is their dog Moose:

He hopped right into the truck and was ready to go. I didn’t realize how much taller he was than our boys until his head almost touched the ceiling in the back.

Eric dropped me and Magnum off at a park not far from our house and then went to get the boys.

We figured neutral territory would be the best place for him to meet our two unaltered males.

Magnum and Midas exchanged some growls but that was about it…until Midas decided that aggravating poor Magnum into growling and chasing was much more fun. We struggled with that little habit all evening. Magnum overall was very stoic but sometimes he got over-aggravated enough to snap at Midas, which was exactly what Midas was going for. He’s kind of a turd, he likes to aggravate. But, Magnum is beginning to get Midas’s measure and ignoring him, which ruins it for Midas and makes everything much quieter.

Mason and Magnum got into one tussle. Mason reached the frisbee first and Magnum tackled him and tried to take it from him. Mason reacted by snapping back and chasing Magnum off. Since then they’ve been relaxed. Neither pushes the others’ buttons and Magnum is very accepting of Mason’s playful advances. Mason tends to have a calming effect and seems to come across as endearing even to other dogs.

Look at the size comparison of Midas and Magnum.

I’m not used to having such a tall dog. He can see over the bed, out all the windows, the top of the table…and the counter tops.

We’re working on that.

After all that rough housing, we all had dinner…

…and then Magnum was whooped.

He’s quite the cuddler too. He rubs right up against me and just leans in. He is extremely affectionate and really likes to have the spot right above his tail scratched.

Today I woke up with a nasty cold: swollen, sore throat, stuffy and runny nose and extremely tired. I was supposed to go with Eric to see Branded in Kalamazoo but I thought that inhaling all of that cigarette smoke would make my throat way worse and with finals coming up I didn’t want to risk it. So, we stayed in. We invited people over and ate snack foods and played card games. I started feeling sick to my stomach early so I went to bed but everyone else stayed until about one in the morning. It was a good time .

The puppies are really starting to move around now. They are also beginning to develop personalities. While there is one male that is the biggest of the litter, there are none that are runty. They all run pretty much the same size. They’re all active and play and bark and rough house. They all can be flipped onto their back and have their bellies scratched.

This site states that “F1-B Labradoodle = 25% Labrador Retriever and 75% Poodle (F1 Labradoodle and Poodle cross) – This is Labradoodle bred back to Poodle, Wavy Curly shaggy look doodle very consistent in coat types. F1B is the MOST likely of any to be non shedding and Allergy friendly then ANY doodles and is the easiest coat to take care of”.

Here is the breakdown so far:

Females

SOLD The black female with the yellow collar is very calm and laid back. She likes to observe what’s going on.

This yellow female with the red collar is very quiet and slightly timid. She doesn’t mind being picked up though. She is the middle activity level of the three females.

SOLD The yellow female with the pink collar is the most energetic of the three females and one of the most active of the entire litter. She begs for attention from people and is very playful with both the other puppies and people. She really enjoys laying on her back and having her belly rubbed. She’s one of the escape artists.

Males

SOLD This yellow male with the black collar is the biggest pup of the litter. He seems to be able to see the farthest outside of the pen. He’s very people oriented. No matter what I was doing, he would follow my progress around and bark at me to get attention. He’s also the pup that seems to wag his tail with the most enthusiasm and purpose. He’s one of the escape artists.

SOLD This yellow male with the green collar loves to be picked up and cuddled. He cries and begs until someone complies. As soon as he’s picked up he snuggles right down and falls asleep.

This chocolate male with the blue and silver collar is very independent with a mind of his own. He’s very confident and playful and is the first to play with me when I am with them.

This chocolate male with the white collar is extremely active and tries to get the other puppies riled up to play with him regardless of what they’re doing. He runs around a lot and seems very content to do so. He’s pretty vocal and is one of the escape artists.

SOLD This black male with the silver and white collar is very laid back both when picked up and when in the pen with the rest of the litter. He’s the only puppy that I noticed repeatedly using his nose. He smelled all over my shirt, my flavored chap-stick and when we cleaned the bedding, all over that. He’s also the first to smell out the toys.

I spent a lot of time with Grandma and the puppies again this morning.

They are really starting to develop individual personalities and they’re so much more active than last week.

There are a couple that are escape artists already:

Although they are still dependent on Coco of course:

But, they’re still so darn cute!

This morning we got up very early again, let the boys out and then headed out to Grandma and Grandpa’s so that Eric could go out hunting again:

Sadly, unsuccessful again Only one more week to try…

I also took some photos around the house:

I also took some puppy photos and spent quite a lot of time with them.

Today we got up and go ready and headed out to Holland. We had to pack up the boys and all of their things because we were going straight from Holland to Shelby. At Eric’s Thanksgiving I ate just the right enough to be full but not sick. We also passed out our secret Santa wish lists. Dylan is getting so big:

Aren’t his little booties cute?

They had all of my favorite dishes: green bean casserole, scalloped corn casserole and cheesy potatoes. Mmmmm it was soooo delicious!!! Then we had to rush off to Shelby. We got to my parents house, unloaded and set up the kennels and stuck the boys in there and then it was off to Walkerville.

It was at my Uncle Dale’s house this year because my Uncle Doug is here from Alaska and staying over there. It was one of our largest Thanksgiving dinners.

Uncle Dale, Grandpa, Uncle Doug (can you tell they are brothers?)

Cousin Donnie with coconut cream pie on his face and the smile to the side is his girlfriend Michelle:

Eric had some too, but he eats his oddly:

Aunt Sue, the maker of the pies:

Grandpa ‘winning’ at CatchPhrase, “She can’t read” lol

Me

There were some interesting things throughout the house:

We also tried for a group photo with varied success…but Eric has those photos.

Eric and I got some free movie passes to a sneak peak for Hitman. We met up with Dan, Sara, two of his friends, and Adam and Sarah. It was lovely to see my brother for awhile. The movie theater was packed so we split up, two of us getting tickets, two getting popcorn to head into the theater. There was a line and when we finally got up there to go in the girl taking tickets asked me if I had my ID…Uhhh, why? Are they selling alcohol in there? I was totally confused so I asked her why and she just stared at me. Eric finally realized that it was rated R and the idiot girl thought that I was under 17…and at this point we are holding up a long line waiting to get in. I told the girl that I left my purse in the truck (starting to get angry). Ok, I realize it’s her job but come on…she’s six years off…and it’s dark, rainy, windy and cold and Eric parked in the end row in the second-to-last spot. Just as I’m about to get thoroughly pissed and head out to get my ID, Eric realizes that it’s still in his wallet from the bar on Saturday night – thank goodness!! The girl glances at it, blushes bright red, apologizes…and then blithely lets my brother and his girlfriend in – both younger than me (and Sarah looks younger than her age too)…idiot ticket-taker!!

The movie, was terrific. I really liked it. I had no idea going in what it was based on but Eric said that it was supposed to be good. It was based on a video game too. I really enjoyed it. It was semi-Bourne Identity-y (if that makes any sense). It didn’t hurt that I thought the lead male role was very attractive .

This morning we got up much earlier than we wanted to, showered and headed to the Novi Pet Expo (Eric surprised me with the news that we were going, I was sooo excited). It was HUGE! There were loads of dog breeds there and a lot of vendors. Eric took some photos, but while I brought my camera, it never made it out of my pocket because I was so busy pointing at and handling all the different goodies.

There were three ferret rescues/shelters and one-two stores:

They were super cuddly, and very cute. This one kept popping out of this blanket, peeking at us, and popping back in:

Several of them would beg and put their little feet on the bars, asking to be let out/picked up:

…until someone gave in:

Including me, this one kept trying to snorkel up my jacket sleeve .

We are debating which bully-breed will be our next dog. It’s hard for Eric because the weights seem so much bigger than they are. Here he got to meet a bullmastiff:

She was so cute, had her face pointed up towards people and her tail wagging the whole time. This is her friend, some people do horrible things to their pets:

This is the type of dog that our landlord had that decided him against allowing tenants with puppies (it was fun for Eric to see what we had been talking about):

The Boerboel, another breed we are considering:

Apparently this English Setter thought it was a long day too:

There were also cats, snakes, lizards, birds and huge aquariums set up:

It was a fantastic time. We didn’t get to stay long though because we had to jet back, get the boys and head to Holland for Eric’s Aunt and Uncle’s Anniversay Party.

We didn’t stay long though as we were very tired and after visiting both his mom and his brother we headed home for an early night.