When you love a dog you dread the day when you may have to say good-bye. Good bye forever. That dreaded day came this month. Yup another Sundog goes over the rainbow bridge. Two in one year. I argue it … Continue reading
Goodbye Mr. Sunshine
Tag Archives: Golden’s
Wordless Wednesday: The Brothers x 16
Wordless Wednesday: Like Mother, Like Daughter
Hot Day at Sundog
This gallery contains 67 photos.
Anyone who has visited Sundog Ranch knows why we might want a large body of water near by. Not just to keep humans cool… What else it there to do besides try to keep cool on a hot summer day? … Continue reading
Weekly PhotoChallenge: The Golden Hour
How could I not pick this photo for “The Golden Hour” Who is this?
Out of the Archives: Cute and Cuter
I love my grown up Sasha….the baby of the Sundogs. But now since we’ve decided 5 dogs are ENOUGH dogs I get a little sentimental about the puppy years. So I have to share what I’m talking about. 
Around 8 weeks old. She’s a retriever through and through.
How about that confirmation. I mean body.
In the mornings sitting on the front stairs looking for crawling things was a favorite activity….and still is.
Learning how to swim at a young age is required at Sundog Ranch. Sasha is around 10 weeks here. She started her swimming career in the puppy pen.
It can get a little intimidating competing with the big Sundogs.
So drying off and watching is good.
Summers are hot at Sundog so staying near the water is imperative.
“In fact if sitting in water does not cool you down fast enough lie down in it.”
In case you wondered Sasha is allowed in the house.
Even on the couch
Now do you see what I mean about missing puppy time?
Adios Amigo’s
Meeting the Manx Brothers
We have a couple new family members on the Sundog Ranch. Every animal on the ranch are intrigued by them….especially the Sundogs. When we go to the barn to feed the first thing on the Sundog’s to do list is to check on those new little critters in the barn.
We have this sliding door to the hay room tied so it won’t open all the way and BIG animals can’t get in thereby giving the Manx Brothers some recluse.
But the tie is not working so well. Lassen is able to muscle his way in. Poor Manx Brothers.
I yelled at Lassen (I mean gave him a command) to come out of there and he actually listened to me. Until all hell broke loose and almost all of the Sundogs burst in to greet the Manx Brothers. The Manx Brothers live on top of the tack room. They are our new barn cats. You see we have quite the wood rat population and something has to be done about it.
Here you have them. I could hardly get mad. Yolo of course was posed for the photo and little Milton Manx posed along with him. Lassen is trying to get closer and find out were Mangus Manx is. Mangus is Milton’s brother. Maisie is trying to keep her cool because she thinks the Manx Brothers may be tasty. Nevada looks at Maisie wondering why she is acting so weird. Sasha is a bit weary of the Manx Brothers since that other BIG kitty we used to have gave her more that one swipe across the nose. 
Sasha stays outside and Momma Maisie joins her. If was not so hot she’d be chasing dragonflies. The temp is already in the low 90’s.
Maisie returns salivating at the mouth now…but not foaming yet. You can’t hear her whining, good thing. Yolo is still posed in the best spot for kitty viewing and brother Lassen stays nearby for support. 
Milton gets closer to the Sundog Brothers and lets them know it is NOT OK to come any closer. Mangus is tucked away in the box refusing to come out. 
Somehow between the time I went to grab something out of the truck and then turned around to return the Manx Brothers decided to make a bold run past every body and make a dash for the tack room. I tie the door to the tack room too and the tie stays. The brothers are able to poke in and out and tease the Sundogs. Here is Lassen doing what he does….sitting very still and drooling over the brothers. Here is Mangus posed to sprint back to the hay room since Lassen won’t stop drooling over him.
Here he goes.
Milton makes a dash too staying with Mangus but oh no! The Big Brothers are working together now.
The BIG Brothers are closing in…what should we do?
Somehow Milton made it back to the tack room. The BIG Brothers don’t care. One kitty is tasty enough.
What is a kitty to do?
“Maybe I should hiss and swat now but I’m frozen” Poor Mangus. I’m proud at how he is handling this. Do you hate me now for not rescuing him? Don’t worry I trust my Sundogs. Besides they had a big breakfast.
I know this looks like Kitty abuse but it is part of getting to know kitty. After this look CAMERA DOWN kitty in my arms. The Sundogs still have a ways to go to quell their obsession with the Manx Brothers. We will do this routine every morning until the Manx Brothers are no big deal anymore. I’ll make sure we don’t have any unsupervised visits with the Sundogs and the Manx Brothers down at the barn. AND I will make sure I feed the Sundogs well before our visit.
Adios Amigos 🙂
Black and White Sunday
I have decided to start what I call EASY blogging every other day or so. Wish I could be more specific. It’s just that blogging can be time consuming. At least for me it is. I have so many stories to tell and SO MANY photo’s to choose from. On top of that I am a SLOW writer or blogger or what ever you want to call me. In this day and age you need to make a quick easy connection with who ever it out there almost everyday. Otherwise you are forgotten. Sad reality huh?
So far I’m doing Weekly Photo Challenge, Wordless Wednesday and now I’m joining Black and White Sunday. I think that will be it. Longer quirky posts about Sundog Ranch and our travels will fill the gaps…….hopefully. Here goes my first post for B&W Sunday.
“Pretty by the Pool”
As usual Yolo is front and center. Maisie and Mr Lassen in the background. If you know anything about the Sundogs you will know Yolo likes to be front and center in almost every photograph he is in. Seriously, I DO NOT plan it this way. Immediately when we start posing he gets right in there in front. I’m convinced he knows what he is doing. I think he wants to be seen and to be famous some day. We’ll keep trying Holy Moly Man.
Mountain Dogs: At it Again
I, we and they are at it again. “I” meaning I’m finally back to this blog. “We” meaning Rockin Roy and I took the Sundogs to one of their favorite places in the world. And “they” meaning the Sundogs doing what they do best. Strutting their stuff at Tahoe in the Truckee River. This year Sasha is a whole year older and becoming quite the competition for the Yolo the “king” of our retrievers. As you can see above Sasha has the upper hand with the BIG stick. Yolo clings to about one inch of it. I don’t know who found the BIG stick but they really scored. They found a LONG stick too since the BIG stick is a bit heavy to retrieve every time.
Here is the LONG stick. Can you see the way Sasha grabbed the end next to Yolo? That is her strategy for knocking him off the stick so she can get back to shore solely with the stick in her possession.
It is time to throw the BIG stick again. Dropping the BIG stick at one’s feet is how it’s done.
Grabbing the BIG stick without getting your hand stepped on or mauled is a good thing too.
Keeping your eye on the stick while it is being thrown is a good thing if you want to get to it first.
This time Yolo gets a better grip but Maisie is out of the running completely.
“Today is just not my day” says Maise.
Yolo and Sasha make it back to shore AGAIN after I don’t know how may retrieves. “We have to live up to our name mom”.
Meanwhile Mr. Lassen our noncompetitive Sundog strolls on the beach.
And rolls in the course mountain grass scratching his back. Who needs to fight for the stick?
Nevada wants to fight for the BIG stick just once at least.
But Sasha and Yolo joined at the shoulders are not letting anyone else in on their rivalry.
Guess who eventually wins out? Hopefully Sasha retains all her teeth after proudly prancing around on the beach with the BIG stick.
And since 20 retrieves is not enough they have to go for one more plunge.
“Boy that one really got me wet all over. Getting the water out of ones ears is important”.
Last return after at least 21 throws. It’s time to dry off don’t you think?
Sasha says no way. I am in perfect form and peak performance.
I’ll just take this BIG stick into the river on my own.
After a few tries on her own Sasha agrees to do her dry off dance on the beach.
Soon we vanish into the forest and let the warm mountain sun dry wet paws and pants.
The dreaded leashing up for the walk home.
“We get to be leashless while we dry off some more in the sun”. The truck is another favorite place of the Sundogs because it takes them to their favorite places.
Time to close the tailgate for the trip home. Yolo contemplates how far to the ground just in case the need for escape.
Once home the couch rules. Rockin Roy is exhausted from throwing the BIG stick and and Maisie contemplates how to get back her groove as the top retriever. “Boy swimming against the river current really wears me out these days”.
“Life is good though. I can’t complain”.
Adios Amigo’s…stay tuned for the “The Precious” .
The Sun Dog Drift 