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Presto Dogs Help Me with Yard Work |
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This morning, I took the five Presto Dogs out to the back pasture land so I could effect some needed yard repairs. You can read about what happened & how the adverse situation was rectified by clicking here.
The dogs all barked, yapped and ran around as I completed the necessary repairs, but all in all we had a great time performing our Saturday morning chores. If you want to peruse more drivel at my other web site, you can click here and check out my ramblings.
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 30 March 2008 )
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Like most fine Americans, we dutifully recycle paper, cardboard, glass botles, plastic items, etc. I suppose at some point in the future, I imagine that we'll be using a plastic fork or eating off a paper dish or drinking from a bottle that'll have our finger print, lipstick or some other Presto Dog specific DNA-related item linked back to us.
And now the story. I had emptied a bottle of Coke, swigging down its caramel-colored carbonated swill in several eye-watering gulps. Placing the empty container on the kitchen counter, I noticed Dougie, our three-year old Collie, mournfully looking up at it. So, I washed it out, shook the errant drops out, placed it on the floor and kicked it across the room. Dougie happily ran after the bottle, pounced in it and ran into the living room squeezing the bottle between his huge jaws, reveling in the resulting crackling sounds emminating from the crushed container.
Maggie, our almost year-old Sheltie show dog, tries to take if from Dougie, as this has become the the toy du jour here at the Pesto Dog Phunny Pharm. No longer do we need to buy dolls, chewies, rubber balls or any other playthings for our dogs. After all, we've uncovered that true recycling is giving items that otherwise would get chucked into the back of some dirty, dingy garbage truck to our pack members.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 09 January 2008 )
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As I was walking through the living room here at the Presto Dog den, I noticed our tri-color Collie Dougie was luxuriating on our couch. So, I went and grabbed our trusty ol' digital camera and snapped this picture of him:
 Dougie on the Couch
He really enjoys getting off the newly carpeted floor and onto the new furniture. But, we really don't mind. We're dog people, and this is what it's all about. Can you relate? If you're interested, click here to see a picture of Dougie in a frozen field last year. I think it was a mere 12 degrees that day with a wind whipping around, so the wind chill made it even colder! This dog is really amazing, absolutely unphased by the weather. We've never seen him cold, upset that he's getting wet in the rain or buring up in the hot sun.
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 06 January 2008 )
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Declan Reclining in MY Chair |
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As I'm writing this post, one of our Shelties, Declan, is sitting right next to me in my reclining chair. Now, this little guy is alpha dog of the pack, bossing the other dogs around as, well, the leader of the pack. If you want to read a previous post here at Presto Dog discussing the alpha tendencies of my little pal, click here.
I think he enjoys sittin' next to me because he feels it's his job to "guard" me from the other dogs. In fact, if he's not near me, then usually his other, Lyric, is sitting right by me feet. She's an alpha wanna-be, who is second in command because the alpha gene is just so strong in her son, Declan.
Here's a picture of the li'l guy after I'd gotten up to snap this shot:
 Declan in My Chair By the way, there's NO WAY you'd ever know mother & son are related. There's absolutely no affinity between the two of 'em.
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 06 January 2008 )
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Shetland Sheepdog Turns Nine Years Old |
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We own four Shetland Sheepdogs: Lyric, Lily, Declan and Maggie. To mix things up just a wee bit, we also have a tri-color Collie named Dougie. They all get along real well, running, playing and frolicking around the large tract of land we reside on, a.k.a. the Presto Dog Phunny Pharm.
But, this brief post is about the first Sheltie named above, Lyric. On Dec. 29, 2007, she turned nine years old. She's a former show dog and actually earned two points towards the championship designation before she was retired from the ring. Seems the dog just didn't enjoy her show-life. She'd go into the ring but never really enjoyed it, never exuded the effervesence such a dog needs to possess. When her former owner realized Lyric really didn't want to revel in the show-life, she gave her to us. This was a fotuitous event for us, since we had just lost a Sheltie to a disease a while before. Oddly enough, Lyric was her sister! This wonderful dog has been with us for about six or seven years.
We've learned that Lyric enjoys two things in life:eating and staying in her own back yard. The former pleasure is evidenced by the fact that we need to "guard" the food dishes of the other dogs or she'll run over & steal their food; the latter when she only reluctantly gets in our blue van to go for a trip. And, heaven forbid we go to a dog show! Lyric must smell the powder, crates and various other odoors she remembers from her show days and really hates to venture into any dog show environment.
In any event, Lyric turned nine years old this past Dec. 29th. She's a great dog and always does everything she's asked to do. Her muzzle is a bit white with age, and she isn't as spry as she used to be. But, she's one fabulous Sheltie. We're so happy to have her as a member of the Presto dog pack!
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 05 January 2008 )
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Cruising around that huge, gigantice, provider of all types of information otherwise known as the Internet, I've come accross a few articles that might be of interest to you. Now, I present these with the conditional proviso that I haven't written these, so I state (with tongue in cheek, of course!) in no way are they as entertaining as the ones written by yours truly!
But seriously, folks, check out these words that cover a plethora of topics1:
Well, there you have a few articles to peruse. I might try this again, so it'll be a sort of one-stop shopping adventure for you...gravitate to Presto Dog and find links to other useful sites for our best friend...the dog!
1 Don't take this as an endorsement for PetSmart...it's just that I happened to find a bunch of articles in one place at one time
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 01 January 2008 )
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New Year at the Pretso Dog Phunny Pharm |
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It's New Year's Eve, & we're about to celebrate the festivities for the first time in our new home. As faithful reader probably already know, we moved into what we dubbed the Phunny Pharm in the early part of last May. Now, the move itself took place over several days, 'cause we had a ton of stuff that had to be transported from the old residence (about 80-90 miles away) to the aforementioned new home
We brought our four faithful friends...Lyric, Lily, Declan (all Shetland Sheepdogs) and Dougie (our tri-color Collie) along with us. And, after we'd been living here two months or so, we acquired yet another dog, a puppy we named Maggie. She's a show-quality dog & has already made her presence known in the ring.
So, the clock ticks inexorably on, hands creeping slowly but steadily toward midnight when the new year will arrive. Inherent with this anual occasion are the resolutions we're touted we all must make. Will I succumb to the pressure and try my hand at what inevitably winds up being an exercize in futility?
You bet. Although this site's for & about our best friend, the dog, I just might takew a sideline tour and write a few lines about what I hope to accomplish this year. It's gonna be interesting, so you might want to check back to see what's in store for the Presto Dog homo sapiens this year!
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You might like these Christmas pictures of the Presto Dogs!
I took a shot of Declan, our little alpha dog, along with Lily resting near Santa in our living room:  Declan & Lily - 2007
They were both good dogs this year so Santa left many nice presents and goodies for them.
And, a couple of minutes later, we finally managed to assemble all five of our dogs for a group shot. Note, this strange confluence of events doesn't happen too often. As a matter of fact, I had to take about four or five separate shots before I managed to get 'em all to sit still long enough so they'd all appear in the same picture at the same time.
So, here for your viewing pleasure in clockwise order are Lyric, Dougie, Lily, Maggie and Declan:
 Presto Dogs
Merry Christmas.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 25 December 2007 )
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Christmas at the Phunny Pharm |
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The five Presto Dogs woke up today to the sights and sounds of a fine Christmas morning. And one of them, li'l Maggie (a.k.a. the Magpie), all of ten months old, is realizing her first Christmas with our family.
Here's a picture of our Christmas tree, sans dogs, as they were too busy checking our the toys Santa had left for them in another room in our house:
 A Phunny Pharm Christmas - circa 2007 The tree is finely decorated with lights and our special liitle glass, plastic, wood and home-made ornaments garnering attention from all. Presents cascade out from under the tree, still wrapped in finery and bows, patiently waiting for their soon-to-be owners to take posession and wear them, drink them, play with them or otherwise appreciate their existence in our home. Delicious aromas waift in from the kitchen, forcing heads to turn in the direction they eminated from. And, surrounding me in various stages of enjoyment were all our dogs, chewing away on the treats Jolly Ol' St. Nick left for them in their stockings last night. As Lily was sauntering by, I placed her on our loveseat, in a contrived pose with Santa:  Lily with Santa - 2007 In a couple of hours, all the wrappings will be torn off the packages, contented family members will be enjoying the fruits of endless hours of shopping at malls and boutiques, and mountains of garbage will have accumuated for a pick up later this week. The dogs will be resting, sleeping on their sides, dreaming of the chewies they devoured, hoping they'll find other goodies waiting for them when they awaken. And the Presto Dog owners will be happy, too, in the knowledge that yet another successful Christmas Day had been experienced by the family, human and canine, at our home. Merry Christmas to one and all.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 25 December 2007 )
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After over five days of relative inactivity, the Presto Dog pack has once again been able to run, cavort and play in their big back yard!
As noted in the post immediately below this one, on Sunday, 12/16/07, we had a precipitation nightmare in the area where we live. Temperatures dropped overnight, and the next day we realized an iced-out, frozen over condition that prevented us from letting our pack run in their yard. But we didn't realize this turn of events until after the five of them were released into their yard where they in no time became stranded in the iced-over yard, unable to get any footing as they galantly tried to make their way back into their home. It took the combined efforts of both me & the Presto Dog bride to gather & rescue them.
Temperatures edged up past freezing today & the ice began melting. In turn, this gave the dogs purchase for their paws and we had another great time kicking a collection of balls around the yard, chasing each other and just having a good ol' time.
Things are back to normal, at least until Mother Nature, Ol' Man Winter or some other ficticious being with none the less the power to cause all kinds of problems in our lives decides to throw another potential knock out punch our way.
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 22 December 2007 )
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Phunny Pharm Ice Extravaganza |
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Over this past weekend, we experienced a couple of jabs from Mother Nature. First, she sent us a delivery of about 4-5" of snow. Then, it rained for a while, shortly thereafter followed up by high winds and freezing temperatures. As you can imagine, this led to ice-covered trees, fences and roads, the former two revealing picturesque landscapes, the latter wreaking havoc for motorists and anyone venturing onto the ice-encrusted ground. And with this seque I'll lead into the story I'm gonna share with you.
Because of the nasty weather our five dogs didn't get too much time to play outside on Sunday. The next day, Monday, I had to go to work and didn't get home 'til around 5:00 p.m. or so. I sat down to dinner, dutifully surrounded by our four Shelties and big Collie that always accompany me on such ventures. After all, who can tell when a prized morsel of food just might "accidentally" fall to the floor right in front of one of my expectant friends?
Follwing established tradition, after dinner I arose and put leashes on all my canine companions so we could go out to our large yard and play for a while. Immediately preceeding this I had to go out and see if I could force open one of our 10' long gates that the Presto Dog bride had informed me had been impossible to open as it was stuck by the ice. I went outside, put my shoulder to the gate & had no trouble forcing it open about two feet so we could all get through the gate & into the back yard.
A little lesson in the topography of the home we dubbed the Phunny Pharm. The rear expanse of our property slopes gently downhill. This can be evidenced by the large balls we have on hand for the dogs that always wind up down at the bottoom of the property after I'd brought 'em up to the top. They make their errant trips after the dogs push them or the wind prods them along. Now, it's not a steep hill, one that's not real difficult to traverse. Rather, it slopes on I'd say about a 20-25 degree angle or so, just enough to give one a pretty good cario-vascular workout if you walked from the bottom up to the top.
Geting back to our story, leashes were placed on all the dogs and we made our way out to the gate. When I had all the dogs inside the back yard, I closed & locked the gate & took the leashes off the dogs...and that's when the fun began. You see, each dog then proceeded to gently slide down the hill, slowly of course, since the ice-over grass offered no traction for their paws. After a few seconds, each of them stopped their journeys as they reached a more level stretch of our property. I suppose they didn't think too much of it as they then proceeded to do their "business." At least that's what I thought until I realized none of 'em could make their way back up the hill when they were done!
I had to carefully make my way to each of the dogs, falling myself several times on the slippery ice, and placed their leashes around their necks again. We then made our way carefully back up the hill, with me being ever so mindful that I'd need to immediately release the leash in the event any of the dogs slipped.
At one point the Presto Dog bride came out and I alerted her of our problem. She came into the back yard & heard Dougie, our Collie, crying to be recued! She tried to get to him but she slipped on the ice & ever so slowly skidded down the hill about 20-30 yards or so. It took us about 15-20 minutes to "rescue" all our dogs.
I think it's going to be cold for the next few days. Therefore, we're probably not going to make any of our after-dinner romps in the back yard until we're all able to obtain some traction.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 18 December 2007 )
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About three-four weeks ago, hunting season opened in the rural area we moved to seven months ago.
To be certain our dogs weren't mistaken for wildlife, each and every time they ventured outside we'd put day glow yellow vets on them. The Presto Dog bride found these valuable items in a store where we used to live, when we were preparing for the move to iur new home.
Here's a picture I took of our four Shetland Sheepdogs in our living room right after we put the vest on them, just prior to going outside to play:  Four Shelties In order, the picture shows Maggie, Lily, Declan and Lyric. By the way, Lyric is the mother of Declan and grandmother of Maggie. F/YI, we weathered the hunting season with no accidents.
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 16 December 2007 )
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