The Dog & Pony Show...a seizure, a rock dog, a dragon birthday, and pony trailer training

Quite a title, I know, but I couldn't come up with another that covered such disparate topics.

Bear's last seizure was on Christmas Day 2011. Today he had a grand mal seizure at around 11pm. Having one seizure every 4.5 months is considered pretty good in the world of epilepsy. We rarely know what triggers a seizure-sometimes it is stress, sometimes it is due to a medication lowering his seizure threshold, sometimes his brain is just ready.

Regardless of the cause we do not take them lightly: a friend recently lost her 9 year old epileptic dog when he went into status epilepticus (a seizure that didn't stop). It is the ending that all of us who have epliptic dogs in our lives hope will never happen.

Here is my cute boy napping in his booties. What a sweet gentle boy he is. I love him with all of my heart and consider every day with him a gift.

 

Next up: it looks like we have a rock dog! Izzy B is so silly...it is obvious she grew up in a more simple world: her favorite toys are sticks and rocks! She is so darned cute! (for those who might worry we do not let her chew on her rocks and we encourage her to play with fuzzy toys instead)

mmmmm...rooooock...i love rocks!

chomp chomp chomp...

can I pleeeease have that big rock next to me?

And then there's Miss Sunflower B Snapdragon The B is for Blossom's third birthday! That's right! Snapdragon had a birthday :) She is such a good, sweet, funny little mustang!

Snappie as a 3 year old

Snappie as a 2 year old

And finally...to show you how far our little baby bouncing dragon has come...here she is debuting her newest talent: backwards trailer loading :) A million thanks to our new pony guardian angel Kirsi Kesaniemi from Longmont, CO...the ponies and I adore her!



Oh to be a Guppie...

To be or not to be (a Bear Guppie)...that is the question :)

We are all well: happy Guppizzies, happy mr and mrs smrp, happy ponies :) We are all enjoying the spring weather and getting ready to take this dog and pony show on the road on our westward migration this summer. Until then Bear has the right idea: kick back and enjoy the process :)

Life with The Guppizzies

I think it's time for an update on life with The Guppizzies. In a nutshell: it is SO much fun!

A family portrait on top of Monkey Hill (Bear is behind me)

mr smrp and The Guppizzies

Itty Bitty Izzy B is SO dang smart and is quickly learning the rules of her new family. But Jesse Guppie has stolen the show in terms of stepping up and being a wonderful big sister-she has been so sweet and welcoming! Bear Guppie is a riot-he knows that I will forever be his devoted slave so he isn't the slightest bit bothered by having a new family member in the house. Silly Beah. 

Doesn't Jesse Guppie look SO proud of herself?

Izzy arrived with some crazy insane energy after being fostered with a group of VERY rambunctious german shepherds. Her play style was to LEAP on top of other dogs while making wild growling noises. You can imagine that those antics were a bit unsettling to all of us the first few days!

We were worried about our sweet, gentle, soft J Guppie but we should have known better. Animals are amazing creatures and in just 3 weeks our little silly pointy eared black fox has gone from being a whirling tasmanian devil to being a mirror of our zenful gentle Guppies. We are so proud of all three of them! Jesse and Izzy have begun to play gently with one another and we know that in no time they will have found a play style that includes running and romping.

I LOOOOOVE my silly Jesse Guppie!

Our strategy to help bring about Izzy's inner buddha was to manage and control the situation to keep everyone as calm as possible while we taught her to be more gentle. We also live by the motto that a tired dog is a good dog so we have hiked, hiked, and hiked like crazy people and sure enough we proved that a Tired Izzy is a Sweet Izzy :)

can you all see the different types of leashes dangling off of me in various directions?

hiking The Guppizzies is quite a process but so much fun!

When we first started hiking her she practically knocked us over with her strength-holy moly that little girl can pull! We did not think that I'd ever be able to walk the three of them together so for the first two weeks mr smrp hiked Izzy and I hiked the Gups-but we knew that was not a long term solution.

So after some creative brainstorming and the right tools we came up with a strategy that worked and in no time The Guppizzies and I were winding our way through our beautiful wooded trails like a caterpillar all in a nice row with absolutely no pulling. What a joy! I love hiking with my fuzzy monsters and feel so lucky that our new puppy tries SO hard to do what we ask of her.

The caterpillar heading home! (I'm waving at mr smrp)

Thank you for being such a wonderful addition to our family little girl! We adore you! And a special thank you to the bestest Guppies on the planet for being such great, calm, sweet siblings.

Living by the motto; tired dogs are good dogs...

After a terrible year full of loss and heartbreak we are grateful beyond words to see our Guppies so happy and to welcome such a sweet doggie into our lives.

Nothing like a nice evening snuggle after a long day of hiking...

A little introspection is a good thing

Good Izzy B! She believes in the power of introspection and being the best puppy you can be! (we did not set this picture up). She makes us smile endlessly :)

Perfect life moments

There are special moments in life that are so touching and memorable that decades can go by and they seem like they just happened.

Today I had one of those...

A wonderful day with mr smrp, the Guppies, baby Izzy and the herd-coffee, chores, hikes, hikes, and more hikes.

At the end I came inside the house-exhausted after an argument with a frozen hose and an afternoon of seemingly endless mucking-and I collapsed onto the dog bed in the picture. The Gups came bounding over, one on each side of me, and we all took a peaceful and perfect nap together.

I am loving our new silly hilarious little Izzy more than I can say but those special moments with my perfect Guppies are priceless.

Hi! It's Me! Itty Bitty Izzy B!

Please help us welcome sweet little Itty Bitty Izzy B to our family!

We adopted this sweet little drop of sunshine over the weekend and she has already brought so much silliness and love to DVR!

The Guppies are not as convinced that she is a great addition but they are showing signs of giving in to her adorable personality. She is a 1.5 year old german shepherd mix and she is smart as a whip, sweet as can be, and full of playful silly joy.

The only real problem we have run across is that she is afraid of cameras! Oh NO! We have had a heck of a time trying to get pictures and videos! Hopefully we will soon get her to love cameras after a few good sessions of helping her associate cameras with YUMMY treats :)

Here are a few pictures that we managed to take as well as a short video I put together when she wasn't looking :)

Welcome to Dream Valley Ranch little girl! We are so excited! And we would like to thank German Shepherd Rescue of the Rockies for helping Izzy B find her way to DVR!

On her first hike...

Here she is hiding from mr smrp's camera...

Our Monkaversary and sending love to K

February 14th is a very special day for me and mr. smrp. For us, and for a few close friends, it is the day we honor our sweet, perfect little fuzzy girl, The Monkey. The Monkey found me on Valentine's day many years ago and, as a result, she changed my life forever.

Her heart was happiest when we were out having an adventure, when we would choose the path AWAY from the house, always searching for fresh powder and scents, exploring the unknown, and never looking back.

So every day, on February 14th, we honor her memory by going on an adventure of some sort-it doesn't have to be huge or epic-quality is always more important than quantity.

Today's adventure came in two parts: first mr smrp headed out to create all sorts of Guppie Habitrails so that we could wind our way through our woods to one of our favorite places that we call Monkey Meadow. The Guppies rolled and pounced in the snow and eventually we all sunk into the soft white fluffiness, took in the sun and the beauty, and immersed ourselves in memories of our sweet Monkey girl.

The second part involved a little road trip down to Boulder and an actual walk along the creek path to see if we can help remove a little of the "hermit" from the Guppies :) There were some funny moments with Bear letting us know that a statue was out to kill us and Jesse thinking a stroller might murder us-silly Gups. But eventually they calmed down and did their best to pretend they were City Guppies. At one point they even ignored seeing a puppy go running by (possibly helped by the delicious treats I was holding in front of their noses).

It was a very sweet afternoon with my best friend in the whole wide world and our two hilarious fuzzy monsters to keep our hearts full of laughter and love.

We will always miss our little Monkey girl-we lost her with no warning to hemangiosarcoma 2 1/2 years ago. I will always be grateful to her for reminding me to always look for adventure-no matter how small-to keep life full of surprises.

On a final note we want to send immense love to Miss K over at Romping & Rolling in the Rockies. She is an amazing chocolate soul who is fighting osteosarcoma with every cell in her body. Her people, KB & The Runner, are doing everything they can to give her more time on this planet. If you can please send them strength and support during this difficult time we sure would appreciate it. We love them all, and their sweet black lab R, very much and are hoping K has many more years of love and joy ahead of her!

Here's to the Pillars of Strength and The Power of The Paw!

Puppy Habitrails

When you get over 2 1/2 feet of snow it's hard to "just" go for a hike-first you have to create a snowhoe puppy habitrail-or as we like to call it a Guppitrail :)

I created the first set of Guppitrails the day of the storm and mr smrp created a few more sets the next day. We now have our happy hiking hermit trails in place until the snow melts (or until the next storm, hehe). Luckily the ponies make their own pony habitrails (though that's up for debate whenever we get more than 3 feet of snow...lazy ponies!)

Here are some pictures of a day in the woods with The Guppies. The last picture was a very funny moment when Jessica Guppie accidentally took down mr smrp-he was stuck for a while with both Guppies eyeing him suspiciously ;)

A snowiful play day at DVR

Wow! Almost 2 1/2 feet of snow from this last snowstorm-what a blast! The Guppies and Ponies had a silly day in the snow so I put together some clips of the critters having fun-enjoy the video below! And here are two still shots of Bear and Jesse napping with their little polar bear stuffy after a productive day of playing :) (no-we did not pose the toy) Hope all of our Colorado friends enjoyed the fluffy craziness, too!

Bear snuggles with his leettle friend

Jesse's turn to snuggle...

Jesse Guppie is the smaller one who pounces in the snow after the ball...

Bear Guppie is the goofy bigger Guppie...

And the little black mare acting like a complete goofball is Lily Bear Guppie Lips...

Guppies all around!

Quick! Somebody please call Guppie Protective Services!

A few days ago mr. smrp, The Guppies, and I were hanging out on the sofa at the end of a nice day. Or at least I had been thinking it was a nice day when mr smrp sighed deeply and said, in complete sincerity, "Poor Guppies. I feel so sorry for them. They had such a boring day."

I looked at him in confusion and asked "What do you mean?" to which he replied "Well-they really didn't get to do much today and then they had to sit in the house, alone, for four hours. Poor Gups...what a bad day they had."

I looked at Bear and Jesse Guppie and suddenly realized that they did, indeed, look quite pathetic and horrified at the awfulness of their day.

But then I started laughing at silly mr smrp...and here is why! I am pretty sure that no one is going to call Guppie Protective Services :)

A Day in The Life of The Guppies...

Hey Gups-wanna go on an adventure?

First a little 1.5 hour hike up Monkey Hill...

Hey! Wait for me! (it's me, Beah Guppie)

Lookie my pretty booties everyone! (it's me, Jesse Guppie)

Ooooooh...pretty view of the Continental Divide!

After the hike a little Coffee Table time...(Beah)

And then we go out again for a 45 minute hike in the woods-

we have to check our pee-mail!

Gosh this is boring...all we get is spam!

Don't forget to do some rock yoga!

And then a little snack while Mom plays with the herd...

Jesse Guppie plays with her little froggie friend...

Oh no! Bad Guppie! Poor Froggie!

The end...zzzzzzz

I don't know about you guys but I think The Guppies had a pretty fun day!