AKA Ahwahnee One Eye, AKA AOE , AKA “Little Dude”, AKA  Cap’em.    AOE was dubbed Captain Morgan by Rockin Roy’s best friend and hunting partner Jim Winters.  Let’s just say Jimmy, as we like to call him, is a fan of good rum…..and good dogs. Meet Erin Winters (Jimmy’s daughter) and Drew Chapman, long time family friends. The NEW parents of AOE.   Can you tell they are VERY proud and HAPPY to be adopting AOE AKA Captain.  Easter weekend was Captain’s last stand (at least for now) at Sundog Ranch.  Drew could not wait to introduce Captain to you know what.In our household this object is termed “The Precious”  In no time at all Captain was doing perfect retrieves.No ball is too big to handle for Captain.  Good Boy!Here is Captain gazing upon his new found delight.  Of course “the big dogs” had to be kept outside during this play session.  Do I need to tell you why? 

Big Daddy Drew was extremely impressed with Captain.In fact he was so proud he did not care if puppy teeth were tearing into his forearm.After all that playing Captain retires to his favorite indoor spot under the stool.And then on to the cool concrete floor for a little rest and relaxation.It was hard to stop taking photo’s of this little guy.  I’ve only been fixated on him for 9 weeks.   Here are some LAST photo’s.Last lounge in the puppy palace yard.Last play with Sasha.Last suckles.Last of the wet dog food going home with “The Little Dude”.Last bundle of joy leaving Sundog.Everybody wanted to go for the ride.  They don’t get to leave Sundog very ofternBut only Captain Duck Morgan (and Shasta) could go with Erin and Drew.  Lucky Boy…have a wonderful life.

Sniff Sniff.

Adios Amigos…….next post I’ll be catching up on some unfinished business caused by puppy priorities.  Stay tuned for “Driving with Nattie”

If you are a puppy between the age of 5 and 8 weeks old this is where you want to end up.   Sundogs’s  PUPPY PALACE.

We call this the puppy palace because it has everything a puppy (or doggy) could want.   It is an insulated house with sliding glass windows for light and ventilation.  It  has added features like a heater for winter or air conditioning and misters for the SO HOT summer months.   It also has a shaded indoor patio with running water and pine shavings to roll, pee and poop in.   This photo shows the palace looking very fancy AFTER a litter of puppies has vacated.  NO the puppies are not allowed in the roses.  A little green fence is erected so they have lots of room to run, play and goof around like puppies do OUTSIDE the palace walls.

This is what I face every morning when I open the front door.  Crying, barking puppies who want to get out and go were they are not supposed to go.   And since there is nothing better than puppy breath in the morning,  I have to pick up each one of them up for hugs, licks and kisses.    Tough job I have, huh?

AND….. did I mention the palace has a doggy (I mean puppy) door?    All our babies learn to use it immediately upon arrival.

Sometimes getting in can be a challenge as there may be five other puppies on the other side trying to tackle you for the best spot.

Made it in! Yeah.  Now who can I harass?

Inside is pretty nice too.  We draw the line at big fluffy dog beds because some members of the gang are too lazy to go outside in the middle of the night to relieve themselves.   Rockin Roy and I have a debate about this.  He thinks we need the big fluffy beds in there but I think the puppies are just fine with some old bath mats and soft fleece blankets.  WHICH CAN BE THROWN IN THE WASHING MACHINE 🙂

During the day if it is warm the french door is left open so the puppies can lounge about and watch me pick up poop outside.   I’ll leave out the photo of the poop scoop.   A very valuable tool in raising puppies.

Cheyenne in her favorite lounging spot.  Then getting a mouthful of Chinook.

Chinook decides to step out into the “pine patio” for a drink perhaps.  No he is NOT sad.   He just has a pathetic look that gets him lots of extra love.

Chinook waits for his turn at the watering hole.  What a gentleman.

The watering hole is full.  Gotta get that bowl hooked up to a automatic waterer.    We must fill it 3 times a day now.

Shoshoni finally gets in there for a drink.  He is the quiet patient one.

As you can see he is pleased and refreshed.  Ahwahnee tackles Cheyenne until…..

Big sister Sasha arrives at the door.  Sasha LOVES to play with her younger siblings in the outside pen or better yet in the big FREEDOM yard.  Which is where they are going right now.  Tenaya take the first steps to FREEDOM.

When time permits the puppies are allowed out in the big FREEDOM yard under watchful eyes.  They get to act like big dogs AND play with the big dogs.  This helps them with future socialization 🙂  It is one of the secrets that makes Sundog babies so special.

Lakota stands quivering in front of giant Mr. Lassen waiting for acceptance.

Finally he gets the approval he has been waiting for.

After Lakota gets acceptance, Chinook goes in for the ritual.  Tiny head in Lassen’s big mouth is the name of the game.

Cheyenne is not ready for the ritual.  She high tails it out of there and quickly.

Ahwahnee follows Cheyenne using his heightened sniffing skills.

Then the  rest of the group follows to a big scary place far from were they are supposed to go.

Sasha tries to attract attention with her game, “chew the manzanita”

So after about a 1/2 hour of these games back and forth, time to go back in the PEN.

WHAT GIVES?

Adios Amigo’s until next post.

Mama Jo took us on our first big trip outside this week.  Our real Mama Maisie came too.  She made sure we were OK because we got a little scared. 

She nursed us and then were were fine.
Now a days we start by standing up to drink.

Then when our mom gets tired and sleepy she lays down.

When we get scared we just HOWL really loud.

Or we huddle together and STAY together.Ahwahnee knows just how to squeeze in and stay safe.

Everybody takes care of Ahwanhee.

Chinook the white fur ball is one of Ahwahnee’s best friends.

They explore the world together.

When things get too stressful we just shut out the world.Until we get the courage to move on.

Some of us even had the courage to venture out onto the gravel.  It felt weird under our feet

I am Shoshoni.   Despite my smaller size I am very confident.  I found lots of things to sniff in this thing they call a garden.

Some of  us chose to stay close to the front door.  It is getting close to another feeding time.

Momma Maisie finally showed up again to feed us.

Our mom seemed to enjoy feeding us outside.  Maybe she is getting sick of being inside with us all the time.  We are getting so big to feed!

After this we all fell asleep again.

What a BIG day.  We were happy to go back inside and felt very secure once we got back into our puppy living room.

So long everyone!  Until next week when we will be A LOT BIGGER!

     This is a hard post.  Life does not always go as you wish.  Our little miracle baby Sundog, Ahwahnee, born 1/27, seen above in the China bowl is going to have a challenge in life.  But he does not know it.  Life is going along just fine as far as he is concerned.  You see today we found out that Ahwahnee is missing his left eye.  Or at least that is what the vet determined.  Ahwahnee COULD prove them all wrong since he IS the miracle puppy.

        Ahwahnee wants to share his story “FIRST VISIT TO THE VET”

                Here we go. Snow, hail and frigid temps did not phase us.  I was scared at first but soon learned all was good once the engine started up and my human turned on the tunes.

We arrived at the vet and got checked in.  I chose to stay sacked out in the basket.  Just too much stimulation and were the heck was my real MOM????   The nurse came right in to see us.  She held me down and stuck some things in me but I was a perfect gentleman.The big dog on the wall was a little worried about me I think.I weighed in at a whopping 2lbs 3oz.  After my cat nap the vet was worried because she could not find the GLOBE behind my shut eye, whatever that is.  She thought I needed a bigger examination and to be sleeping deeply.  If I could talk I would of told her I would have held still for her.  My human mom started to get quiet and I got kinda worried.  THEN they put us in this really nice but kinda sad room to wait for my big examination.

My human was wiping her face with the wipes in a box.I don’t remember this part.Next thing I remember is I was back in my basket and my human kept checking on me.Nope……….. I’m not waking up till we get back to Sundog Ranch.  My REAL mom greeted us the minute we stepped in the door.  Thank goodness she waited for me.I was SO hungry!!AND I needed a little cleaning up.After this wonderful feeding I got to go back to my buddies and back to sleep.When I woke up I had a new American Indian name….Ahwahnee One Eye!  My human tells me I am already famous.  I’m not quite sure what all the fuss is about.  I am just happy to be home.  Until next time…Big Puppy Hugs and Puppy Breath to everybody.

I lied.  I have some secret new family members at Sundog Ranch.  They are a litter of three week old Golden Retrievers.  Let’s just call them the THE SUNDOG BABIES for now.  They are babies of our Miss Maisie Rose and her special friend who lives in another town, Black Jack Casanova.  Whenever we have a litter of new Sundogs we have a puppy name theme. This year we have named these babies after American Indian tribes and names.  Here we have Chinook, a big white male with a green ribbon.  He is seen here cuddling with Tenaya, a girl,  in lavender.   As you can see they are very comfortable with each other.

Are they some of the cutest things you have ever seen?  At this stage it is hard for me to get anything done around the house.  I just want to watch them, hug, smell and kiss them all day.

Here goes Tenaya.  She is on the move.  She has places to go.   She likes to do this and yelp at the same time every morning around 6 am.  WAKE UP everybody.

Here we have Shoshoni in the our farmers market basket.  He was not into this photo shoot.  Please let me go back to my whelping box and sleep who ever you are with that big black thing in my face.

Here is Shoshoni again showing his pretty golden color.  He’s under a tiny huddle BEFORE the crazy lady with the camera whisked him away to the basket. He is smothered by our little Ahwahnee with the yellow ribbon.

Here is Ahwahnee showing his size.  He too wants to go back to sleep in this photo.  If fully awake he would of been out of this bowl in a second.  We think Ahwahnee is so tiny because he was a little premature.  Some how the biological parts of his mom and dad must have hooked up later in the game.  He has not quite woken up like his siblings YET and one eye is still closed so say your prayers for him that he is just a little behind and will catch up in no time.

Here we have Lakota.   He thought hanging out in the basket was just fine.

Mom is checking to make sure he is OK.

Next we have our big girl Cheyenne.  She too was cool with the basket but soon became bored and tired so after this photo shoot back to the whelping box for everybody.

Here I am.

Here I am again in a slightly different pose, showing off my new claws.

I’ve had enough, out of the basket.

Time for a nap again.  That photo shoot in the basket was hard work.

Sasha’s White Magic

I have a good excuse as to why this post is so late!   Maisie had her puppies January 27th  and I have been keeping a watchful eye over them.  One of the pups was extremely  tiny so I had to put my nursing skills to good use and supplement the poor tiny guy so he could put some meat on his bones and compete with his brothers and sister for some much needed momma’s milk.    I’ve lost a pup before and I was not going to let that happen again.   Stay tuned for puppy pics coming soon.

So go backup about a month which will take you to these images BEFORE Maisie’s puppies arrived.    We had a blast playing in Tahoe before all this puppy work started.

Being with my dogs and camera in the powdery snow in my favorite place in the world is heavenly.  Not only heavenly for me but for my dogs.  Even in the dead of winter my dogs want to head for the water.  Last post you saw Maisie and Sasha near and IN in the Truckee River.  This post shows Maisie and Sasha at Lake Tahoe.  I put the brakes on swimming this day.  Was afraid Maisie’s puppies would get too cold inside her and I was not in the mood for wet dogs in the house since the backyard was literally covered in sheets of ice and snow.

In the mornings and afternoon I pry myself away from the computer and we journey to the lake.

Here is Maisie shadowed in the late afternoon, temperatures plunging,  looking out to the most beautiful lake in the world.  What do you suppose she is looking for?  Most likely something moving.  Birds, buoys or maybe just the gentle mountain breeze ruffling across the ice-cold water.

Here is my beautiful Sasha posing for the camera.

Sasha posing again with Mom looking on.  The very long Tahoe Taverns Pier in the background.  The temperature started to plunge, my hands were frozen and it was getting late so we did not venture out to the end.

I get frustrated when they keep sticking their heads in the snow.   I don’t want to photograph your butts all the time you guys!  I honestly don’t know what they were digging for.  Probably some poor critter trying to stay alive.

The next day on our morning stroll by the lake Sasha leads the way to the pier.  I just love the way the sun shimmers on the water.

More digging and butt shots.  Still not a clue what they are after.  It seems to be driving them AND me crazy.  Hope you enjoyed my SUNDOGS IN THE SNOW vacation.  Next post back to reality at the SUNDOG RANCH….reality is not so bad.

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