Potpourri of stuff!

The weather has been so nice lately, so we've been trying to spend as much time as possible outside! Willow has discovered this HUGE ball that has been in the yard for years.....why it's suddenly the best toy around, who knows! But she has the most fun trying to play keep-a-way with Echo and runs up to Echo, drops the ball and just when Echo goes for the ball, she grabs it and runs away. They can play like that for quite some time, neither tiring of the silly game! Willow is now 9 months old and her latest weigh-in put her at 115 pounds. She is 34" at the 'withers' and I certainly hope she slows down with her growing! She is still eating the Natural Balance Fish and Sweet Potato food and doing quite well on it. I've just upped her to 6 cups a day and so far she's tolerating the increase without any problems. She also gets raw meaty bones during the week, a raw egg mixed in with her food a few times a week, plain yogurt in her food occasionally, as well as supplements sometimes. I also put apple cider vinegar in the dogs' drinking water.
Kai is still hanging in there! Truly, I'm amazed at his will. He and Lucy are the very best of friends and where you see one, you'll usually find the other. Every morning, Lucy runs full speed to see Kai and it's like Christmas morning all over again. She jumps for joy, trying to reach is muzzle to give him kisses. And he just soaks it all up!

She keeps my feet warm when she's snuggled under the covers at night, but do you suppose she's keeping him warm? ha! But the company is appreciated, I'm sure!

And the LWT....well, we've been dealing with another issue now; giardia! UGH!! When is it all going to end? Thankfully, she's on meds that seem to finally be helping and she no longer has the runs. I've also upped her food and started the slow switch over to the same food that Willow is eating plus she's up to about 4.5 cups a day. I'm sure she'd eat more but I don't want to move too fast given her GI issues for the past month! We're still working on the same hand signs and I've *just* introduced down but we've got a ways to go with that one! She's a smart one, though....the minute she sees me walking toward the food bins and I sign "eat," she runs to her crate and waits to eat!

Echo also got her first taste of peanut butter by the way of a 'stuffed' kong! Willow was going crazy for it, but I made her stay away so Echo could enjoy it. And enjoy it, she did! At 13 weeks, she weighed in at 37 pounds, but is still underweight due to all the GI issues. She has definitely gotten taller and just in the past few days, it seems like she's finally putting on a bit of weight! She goes back to the vet on Tuesday, and I'm anxious to see if she's gained anything.

And as I mentioned at the beginning of the post, we've been enjoying the nice weather. So we decided to head up to the foothills for a hike last weekend and unfortunately, the wind was blowing horribly. We did manage a 45 minute walk or so and the dogs did really well. Better than the kids, I might add!

(Willow is wondering why it's taking so long for our friend, Teresa, to snap the picture. Just try getting two little girls and two pups to ALL look the same direction......not so easy!)

*I don't have a current picture of Halo to post, but thought I better mention the latest with her as well! Several weeks ago, we had to return to the vet with her because she'd shriek out in pain at the oddest of times. Even when she was asleep. It seemed isolated to her neck and was getting worse, so in for an exam she went. It turns out that her cervical vertebrae were injured in the attack and so is on prednisone (a weaning dose now) and seems to be doing much better, thank goodness!