Keeley Pup (and Teagan too!)

Comparisons

2012-01-02T15:54:00.001-06:00

We tend to make a lot of comparisons between Keeley and Teagan. Here are a few of them:

Keeley brings the funk. Teagan brings the noise.
Keeley has a distinct sorta stinky odor to him. I can't seem to get rid of it. I'll give him a bath and within 3 days his funk is back. I've just gotten used to it, but everyone else is constantly telling me how stinky he is. Teagan has a hard time containing her excitement and once she starts barking, it's difficult to get her to stop.

Keeley is interval training. Teagan is endurance training.
When walking the dogs together with another person, the person that has Teagan is going to get an endurance workout because she wants to go full speed straight ahead the whole time. It's hard work holding her back or matching her pace, either way. On the other hand, the person walking Keeley is going to get some interval training. Keeley likes to stop and sniff things a lot but he can't stand for Teagan to be ahead of him at the same time. So with Keeley you have to do these sprints to catch up to and get ahead of Teagan. But as soon as he's ahead of her, he'll find something to sniff for several minutes and she'll get past him again.

Keeley is the warm-up. Teagan is the workout.
When I walk the dogs separately by myself, I always walk Keeley first because he's my warm-up. Without Teagan there to catch up to, it's a much more leisurely walk with Keeley. I take Teagan for her walk second because she's all about go-go-go! She always makes sure I'm sweating by the end of the walk.

Keeley is the helper dog. Teagan is the simple dog.
If you don't know about Hyperbole and a Half, you have to check it out. The posts about her 2 dogs are the best! Keeley is a lot like the smart but neurotic "helper dog" and Teagan is like the "simple dog". The post about "Dogs don't understand basic concepts like Moving" is hilarious. When the simple dog finally becomes aware of something being wrong (even though the helper dog has been stressing about it for a long time already) and starts making a high pitched noise, that's so Teagan! And then the person yelling at the simple dog, and it thinks "Sounds! U R making sounds! Me too! We R sound making buddies!" well, that's very Teagan too. We used to think that Teagan was just dumb, but now we've pretty much decided that she's probably of normal doggie intelligence, but because Keeley is brilliant, he makes Teagan appear dumber than she really is.

Teagan and her xmas doggie

2012-01-02T15:14:00.002-06:00

Teagan's grandma got her this cute Barbie dog stuffie for Christmas. We think it's sorta looks like Teagan. I was calling it Teagan's baby but she's more interested in eating it's nose than treating it like her baby.

Christmas Pictures

2011-12-26T17:52:00.003-06:00

Keeley and Teagan's grandma has this app on her iPhone that treats your picture like a Life magazine cover.
The pups posed for pictures with their most adorable Christmas poses.
Pretty cute, huh?

Minooka on Christmas Morning

2011-12-25T20:17:00.009-06:00

I took Keeley and Teagan to Minooka on Christmas morning in their holiday outfits.

The pups really dislike wearing clothing, especially Teagan. But everyone there commented on how cute they looked.

It was a cold morning, so it was probably good that they had doggie clothing on.

I had to wash Teagan's dress when we got home because she got it all muddy while roaching around.

Merry Xmas!

2011-12-24T14:46:00.005-06:00

Keeley and Teagan can't wait till the evening when they'll get to open their presents!
Teagan thinks taking a nap will make the time go by faster.
Keeley has been watching the presents accumulate under the tree for the past couple of weeks. In a few hours his wait will finally be over!

Doggy Full Nelson

2011-05-28T20:49:00.005-05:00

Poor Teagan! This is what her Unkie Rob does to her on a daily basis - he puts her in a doggy full nelson hold. I know he's not hurting her and she really doesn't seem to mind it at all, but still it looks pathetic, doesn't it? My poor little girl! I don't know why she has forsaken me for Rob! I don't do stuff like this to her and I kept her even when everyone else said she had to go (in the past when she was attacking Keeley on a regular basis) and helped her to get better. I feed her. I clothe her. I bathe her. I love her. But in the morning she sits outside of Rob's door and cries until he lets her in. He pets her with his feet, not his hands. And he subjects her to doggy full nelson and half nelson on a regular basis. But she adores him! I just don't get it.

Lapham Today

2011-05-20T17:58:00.011-05:00

Today we went to Lapham Peak with Rob and Mom. The first thing we always do is climb the tower.
The pups were crazy insane because there were chipmunks all over the place!
Rob had his work cut out for him trying to hold Teagan back. Keeley is a bit more reasonable about these things.
We walked all over the place and the dogs lived it.
It was sunny and humid. The dogs drank a gallon of water on our walk!
Rob has decided that Teagan is going to be his dog. I'm not cool with that but it is good for her to have a fan, since everyone else always favors Keeley.
I'm rarely in pictures because I'm usually the one taking them, but Mom had her camera too and she took this one of me and Rob and the pups.
Every now and then I get worried that Teagan is going to give herself a doggy-heart-attack with all the pulling she does. Sometimes Rob has to force her to take a time-out and catch her breath. She hates these time-outs though.
I had a bad dream the other night that Teagan ran away from home to join the sled dog circuit because she loves to pull so much.
We walked for about 90 minutes and at the end the pups were completely exhausted! They've been sleeping ever since we got home. Now that's a good walk!

I was watching movie trailers and I came across this one with a wire fox terrier in it! The Ewan McGregor character talks to his dog and there are subtitles for what the dog says since he can't talk. I love that because I have big long conversations with Keeley all the time and I always tell people that he speaks with his eyes. Anyways, I thought it was worth mentioning.

Grant Park with Rob

2011-05-19T15:39:00.010-05:00

We went for a walk at Grant Park today with Unkie Rob. Teagan was crazy insane because there were squirrels out and about. Here Rob is trying to calm her down.
A different park is always a real treat for the dogs.
We have our regular parks which are Lake, Jacobus, Washington, and Curry, which the dogs like well enough. But anytime we go some place different, they consider it a special treat!
We went on the Seven Bridges Trail for a while.
And then we walked on the beach for a long while.
It was a beautiful day and there was a nice breeze coming off of Lake Michigan.
Teagan cares very little for scenery. All she wants to do is go! go! go!
But Keeley loves walking on the beach and staring out at the lake.
Keeley tried to entice Teagan to play with him on the beach, but she wasn't into that.
Rob was having a hard time with Teagan because all she wanted to do was drink gross lake water and hunt for squirrels.
Keeley likes to play tag with the waves and get his little doggy paws a bit wet. He had a big smile on his face while we were walking on the beach. And walking in sand is supposed to be good exercise for his bad leg.
Near the end of our walk, Unkie Rob posed for a nice picture with the pups.
What a great walk! We're all tired now!

Minooka with Mom

2011-05-07T15:20:00.005-05:00

We went to Minooka with my mom today (Keeley's and Teagan's grandma).
We are having a very mild (chilly) spring here in Wisconsin this year.
Lots of people are still wearing their winter coats but the dogs think this is like the perfect temperature because it's warm enough that THEY don't have to wear coats but still cool enough that they don't get overheated.
I've been taking the dogs for a lot of walks lately instead of going to dog parks because in the spring the dog parks get all kinds of gross with mud from the snow melt and spring rain showers. So this was a special treat today, going to Minooka.
It's good for them to run around at top speed without having to drag a human behind them on a leash.
They had a lot of fun! Keeley tried to entice other dogs to chase him by picking up a stick.
It's like he's saying, "Hey! Look at me! I've got a stick! It's a great stick! Don't you want it?!" but there were no takers. Poor Keeley!
Teagan is always willing to chase him though. But he doesn't like that because she's too fast and she gets mean about it sometimes.
Isn't this a great shot of Keeley running fast? I think the pups look quite happy.

A Springtime Walk at Washington Park

2011-04-30T11:30:00.010-05:00

Since I've been so busy with school, I haven't had much time for blogging lately. But today, I took my camera with me when we took our morning walk at Washington Park. Here are some of the photos I took.
The dog parks get so muddy in the springtime with all the melt and the rain, so instead the dogs and I have been taking our walks at different parks with their Unkie Rob who moved in with us a couple of months ago.
Spring is an exciting time of year for the dogs because there's so much to smell and lots of wild animals about. Check out these little baby geese!
Keeley really loves going to different parks. He likes to check everything out.
Teagan, on the other hand, just wants to go, go, go! Her motto is "Forward Ho!"
Keeley always falls behind because he stops to sniff something and then we've got to try to run to catch up to Teagan.
Today, there's apparently some music thing going on, because when we walked past the band shell, there were some musicians rehearsing this morning. There is also a community rummage sale from 8AM to 2PM today at the senior center.
We've had a lot of rain lately, but so far, the weather has been great today.
Rob and the pups stopped to pose for a picture with these German composer dudes.
Keeley and Teagan really wanted to chase some squirrels, but we didn't see any there today.
So instead, they chased birds here and there. It was a nice little walk and now the dogs are tired and I'm going to work in the garden for a while.

Autumn at the dog park

2010-10-09T08:12:00.000-05:00

I took some pictures of Keeley and Teagan at the dog park yesterday. It's been several months since I've blogged so I think it's pretty obvious that I'm taking a break from it. I'm going back to school so that is taking up most of my time. However, I will still try to post some pictures occasionally.
Keeley and Teagan are adjusting fairly well. They don't like the days that I'm in class all day and they don't like that I'm always telling them that I have to do homework. But they're good little dogs and are trying their best to be patient with me.
We still go to the dog park everyday but the schedule is a bit unpredictable. Keeley and Teagan have become quite a pair. They are always together and don't often allow other dogs into their little group anymore. Teagan still thinks she's the boss of Keeley but he has become more assertive with her and will only put up with so much now.
I think this picture is hilarious. Look at Keeley's expression; the poor guy! This is how Teagan chases Keeley. She really sticks her head under his butt and then like lifts up. It looks ridiculous! No wonder, her noggin always seems to smell like butt!

This morning at Uncle Pete's

2010-06-05T20:38:00.001-05:00

This morning the dogs' grandpa took them to their great-uncle Pete's backyard to run and play.
It's a really big yard with lots of space to run and lots of smells to sniff.
They really seem to like it there. When they first started visiting, Teagan would bark like crazy at Pete. But now she's realized that he's supposed to be there so she doesn't bark anymore.

New Outside Dog Beds

2010-05-30T20:19:00.002-05:00

Keeley and Teagan's grandma bought them some nice new doggie beds for lounging in the outdoors. Keeley took to them right away.
Teagan didn't get the hang of them until the next day.
I think they're great. I only wish that we had like 4 more of them! I'm constantly moving them as the shady areas of the yard change throughout the day.

At the Dog Park

2010-05-15T07:44:00.003-05:00

This is what Teagan does at the dog park. She chases tennis balls. For 45 minutes, she chases tennis balls.This is how she looks when you're about to throw the ball. Isn't she cute?
And this is what Keeley does at the dog park. He walks around sniffing things and peeing on things.
I'm not kidding. He pees on benches while people are sitting on them. He pees on trees, fences, clumps of grass, toys, posts, old dog poop, etc. He pees on other dogs if they're not careful about where they're putting their heads. He pees on water dishes. If someone sets their bag down, he'll pee on that too. Well, to each their own I suppose. Maybe peeing on things makes him happy. I don't know.
They are 2 very different dogs with their own agendas.
After Keeley is done sniffing and peeing, then he makes the rounds and gets petted by every human at the dog park. He's so freakin' charming that they usually give him treats too!
The whole time Teagan is still just chasing tennis balls. I tried to teach Keeley to fetch when he was younger and if I tried really hard I could get him to do it like 3 times in a row before he walked off and ignored me. Now I just let him do his thing. I'm too busy throwing balls for Teagan now and Keeley really seems to enjoy his independence too.
After he's done sniffing, peeing, and making the rounds, then he just watches things for a while.
Teagan chases tennis balls. But she won't chase just any ball. It has to be one that's thrown by me or her grandma. Sometimes someone else will try to throw one for her but she doesn't even budge for it.
I always thought it would be cool to have a dog that fetched. It's certainly one of the coolest things about Teagan. And she's so tired afterwards.
Before we leave the park, she drinks a bunch of water and then goes right to sleep once she gets in the car.

Dog Duty

2010-05-05T06:11:00.002-05:00

Perhaps my pups have grown too accustomed to me being home with them since I had been unemployed for the past year. The transition to me going to work each day hasn't been going exactly smoothly. Twice I've come home to find that Teagan has had a potty accident in her crate. And last weekend Keeley had vomited in his crate. Not to mention that I miss them dearly while I'm at work.During the week, their grandma is on dog duty. She takes them to the dog park and then they come home and nap together. She reports that they stick to her like glue when I'm gone.
Since both their grandma and I work during the weekends, that means their grandpa gets to do some dog duty too. He picks them up and takes them to their great uncle Pete's back yard. It's a big yard with lots of space to run and smells to sniff. They like to chase birds and squirrels while their grandpa digs in the garden.

When I come home they don't want to let me out of their sight. Keeley has taken to sleeping practically on top of me at night.

How strange is this?

2010-04-21T18:58:00.005-05:00

Today at the dog park there weren't many dogs around. At one point it was just me, Keeley, and Teagan. Then a guy and his dog showed up.

If there were like ten dogs there, I probably wouldn't have looked twice at this other dog, but since it was the only other one there I was paying more attention to it. It was the same size as Teagan, all long legs and tiny waist.

So I asked the guy what kind of dog it was and he said it was a lab. I responded that it must still be a puppy because labs generally get to be twice as big as Teagan when they're fully grown. He agreed that it was still a puppy.

So then I asked how old it was. I was guessing like 6 or 7 months but the guy said no, it's over a year old. He also said that he still expected it to gain another 6-8 inches in height over the next year and fill out. I thought that was kind of odd since I thought dogs were, for the most part, done growing once they got to a year old, but I held my tongue and didn't say anything.

I sat there watching this dog for a couple more minutes. It was a shiny jet black color with a tiny white spot on it's chest. It liked to run fast and play chase and was just as fast as Teagan. It's tail was about the same length as Tess's and had a slight curl to it. And it's body shape was exactly like Teagan's.

So I asked the guy if he got it from the Humane Society here and he said he did when she was just a puppy. Then I asked if her birthday happened to be March 10th and he looked surprised and asked how could I know that. I told him that's because it's Teagan's birthday too and told him I think they're sisters. But he refused to hear it and insisted that his dog was a black lab, not a mutt. So I let it drop.

I sat there watching the dogs run and play and the guy continued to talk about his dog. I became more and more convinced that this was another one of Teagan's litter mates. He said he got her when she was 10 weeks old and that her name was Mandy. So I asked him if her other litter mates at the Humane Society all had names that started with M's too. Again he was surprised that I knew this so I told him that Teagan's name used to be Mona but I changed it.

Still he insisted that Mandy and Teagan were not sisters. He said that his is a black lab and that the other dogs in the litter were black too but that there were only 3 of them total. But if Teagan and Tess had already been adopted before he got there, of course it would look like there were only 3 dogs in the litter. And for that matter, I've been saying that there were 5 dogs in the litter but I don't know that for a fact either since there could have been more that were adopted before I got there and I wouldn't have known. Anyhow, I decided not to argue with the guy.

Unfortunately, I didn't have a camera with me today, but you can be sure I'm going to be bringing one from now on in case we ever run into Mandy again.

Meet Tess

2010-04-20T16:53:00.005-05:00

Looks like Teagan. Acts like Teagan. But it's not Teagan, because it's TESS! Today at the dog park we ran into one of Teagan's biological sisters and her name is Tess.

They came from a litter of 5 girls and the Humane Society gave them all names that started with M's. Teagan's name was Mona before we got her. Tess was obviously renamed by her new parents as well.
I've always hoped to one day run into one of Teagan's litter mates. I knew she was Teagan's sister the moment I saw Tess. They do look an awful lot alike, don't they? Teagan is a little taller and longer. Tess is a little more blond and more sturdy. Teagan's tail is longer and curlier. Tess is more well adjusted and doesn't have any hang ups about other dogs or resource guarding. However, it is clear that they are related. They both love to run fast and chase balls. Also they both can entertain themselves for hours with just 2 tennis balls.
It was hard to get a good picture because Tess was moving so fast but here's a shot of the two sisters together. I wonder if some day we'll run into the other 3 girls in the litter. I hope so because it was so cool meeting Tess at the dog park today!

Foolishness!

2010-03-29T05:44:00.009-05:00

Here's a little update about all that's happened in the last couple of weeks....

Their birthday party got Teagan all riled up and in a bad mood. She was throwing around her bad attitude several times a day, everyday after the party. Then one Sunday, while she was giving Keeley a piece of her mind, she got him in the eye! Oh man, was she ever in the dog house then! What a b*tch, huh?

My poor Keeley boy! It didn't look very serious but there was a little blood. So obviously we had to take him to the vet because you don't want to take chances with eyes. Fortunately, he's fine. She didn't actually get him in the eye. Turns out she just missed and nicked his lower eyelid instead. There's no damage to his actually eye. He's just got eyedrops we have to put in everyday to prevent infection. We also decided that Keeley deserved some special treatment and Teagan deserved some punishment. Keeley was totally thinking Arby's and that sounded like it would fit the bill. So while Keeley got a special trip to the Arby's drive-thru, Teagan got left home alone (which she hates with a passion!).

The next day Keeley was thinking Dairy Queen and got a special trip to the DQ Drive -thru while Teagan got left home alone again. And the day after that Keeley was thinking McDonalds but I told him that enough was enough! I don't want him to get fat!

Since the eye incident, Teagan has not had any more psycho b*tch episodes. It could be in part due to us getting a D.A.P. Diffuser (Dog Appeasing Pheromone). Our vet recommended it and it seems to work. It was kinda pricey ($40) but I see I could get them cheaper on Amazon so I plan on getting 2 more and putting them in the rooms where the majority of her attacks have taken place.

In other news, we've been having some lovely early spring weather here in Wisconsin. There's still the occasional cold snap for a few days at a time, but still that's not too bad. Anytime it's sunny and gets above 50 degrees, then Keeley wants to go sit out on the balcony and sun his buns.It's supposed to get up into the 60's later this week so I'm sure we'll be doing more of this soon.
Keeley loves to sit and watch all the goings on in the neighborhood. However, Teagan feels the need to bark at everything which is really annoying.
The dogs and I are going to be doing a lot of yard work this week to start getting things ready for spring. I know it's a little early for Wisconsin. The reason we're going to work on it this week is because next week I start my new job. After being unemployed for over a year, finally someone hired me! It's only part time and I haven't worked for so little since college, but at least it's a job, right?

Last but not least, you know how I like to make up songs about my dogs. Well I sing one that really annoys their Unkie Ryan. It's to the tune of the Black Eyed Peas song "My Humps" but just to the chorus. It goes like this: "My pups, my pups, my pups, my lovely little pups! My pups, my pups, I love my little pups!" Ryan just rolls his eyes. I like being silly and my dogs don't seem to mind.

That was Then, This is Now

2010-03-20T12:32:00.000-05:00

We were inspired by McGillicutty's That Was Then, This Is Now photos on his birthday post. So we're going to do the same thing!

Here goes:

That was then,

This is now.

That was then,

This is now.

That was then,

This is now.

I love my fur-children so much! I don't know what I'd do without them. I can't believe I wasted 28 years being scared of dogs!

New dog park at Currie Park

2010-03-19T13:09:00.002-05:00

I forgot to post this a couple of weeks ago, but better late than never!

We were driving around and noticed that there's a Dog Exercise Area at Currie Park now.We decided to go check it out. Apparently it opened in October last year.
We met this cute dog named Cola there. He's a cross between a Westie and a Miniature Schnauzer.
Unfortunately, it was all icy and frozen on the day we went and conditions like this are hard on Keeley's bad leg. But I think he did alright.
Teagan was her normal goofy self.
The only problem with this dog park is that they built it on a hill. So on the day we went, it was an ice slick. And when it melts, it becomes a mud slide. Sometimes I really wonder who they've got designing these things! Do they even have dogs themselves? Have they ever even been to a dog park before?
There's Keeley getting a butt rub from his grandma.
Keeley really likes to explore new places so I think he had a good time even though it was icy.
After Keeley had sniffed all there was to sniff, then he played a little with Teagan before we left.

In defense of Teagan... and me too!

2010-03-18T14:44:00.008-05:00

Teagan has her issues but she's getting better. Really, she's not all that bad!

I've been told that I'm a bad dog mom and Teagan has gotten labeled as a bully by some people. I think that judgement is really unfair and wrong!

On the spectrum of dog owners, I think I'm pretty darn good. I walk them everyday. I feed them good food. I play with them and pet them (sometimes until my hands hurt!). I make sure they get to socialize with other dogs at parks and at doggie daycare. I bathe them and brush them. I take them everywhere that I'm allowed to take them and sometimes even to places that say "No Dogs Allowed". They have the run of the house. They have a fenced yard. They don't want for anything. They seem happy.

On the local news here a few days ago, there was a woman walking her 2 dogs and they ran onto a frozen pond after some geese. Then the ice broke because it's been so warm here lately. The woman went into the icy water to save her dogs. The reporter went around asking people who were walking their dogs if they would have done the same. And only about half of the people said they would. I think that's just crazy! Of course I would jump into icy water to save my dogs!

And I don't think Teagan should be labeled as a bully. Yes, she does boss Keeley around but I think that's just because she's a girl. And yes, she is reactive and gets aggressive when she thinks she needs to protect me or some other resource. But she's not a bully. She does know how to play nice with other dogs. I've seen her do it.

At Lake Park, there's a little corgie named Millie that is about the same age as Teagan. They play terrific together. They take turns pinning each other; just the way a game of bitey-face should be. And I asked at doggie daycare if she was having any issues there and they seemed truly shocked at the suggestion. They said she's really good there. They like her and she makes them laugh too.

I think in Teagan's mind, she thinks that she's a really small dog. And that's why she only wants to play with dogs that are smaller than her. She's scared of big dogs and tries to stay away from them if she can and if she can't avoid them, she attacks them. I don't think that sounds like the behavior of a bully. I think I bully would attack the little dogs, not the big ones, right? I think she's only attacking them out of fear. And this behavior is limited to our home so it probably has to do with resource guarding too. Being reactive is different from being a bully.

Teagan has her issues but she also has so many good qualities too. She trusts me completely. She's sweet and smart. She's insanely healthy. She walks like she's on a mission (sometimes never even stopping to do her business until the end of the walk). She loves her family. She has her issues with Keeley but she really loves him too. She never wants to be far from him. If he wants to play with her she'll get up and play with him even if she'd rather be napping.

She's a year old now and I'm not giving up on her! I think she'll only continue to get better as she gets older.

Party Time!

2010-03-14T15:17:00.009-05:00

It was Teagan's first birthday on Wednesday and it will be Keeley's fourth birthday on St. Patrick's Day. Yesterday we had a little birthday party for the two of them.It was just a small get together this year with just 3 doggie guests: Romare, Arnie, and LoJack.
It's been rainy and warm so there's lots of mud and wetness from all the snow that has melted. The yard is looking pretty bad.
LoJack came all dressed up as usual. She always has a fabulous outfit for parties.
If you're wondering why there are no pictures of Teagan, well that's because she couldn't control herself and kept growling and snapping at Arnie and Romare. After making her "get easy" four times, she got banished to her crate for a time out. And when she did return to the party, she attacked Romare again and that's when PK took over. Teagan is a very stubborn little girl and even though she got into the easy position she really wasn't easy because her legs and tail were rigid and her eyes were crazy alert. She stayed like that for over 2 hours never surrendering completely. So all Teagan's drama was a real buzz kill.
Romare and Arnie didn't want to be anywhere near her and they spent a good chunk of the party out on the balcony watching the neighborhood kids.
Keeley and Lojack seemed happy with all the attention they got since they were the only 2 dogs hanging with the people at the party. Keeley ate way too much pizza, cake, chips, cookies, and cheesy biscuts. I'm surprised that he didn't get sick!
Hopefully, Teagan can get over her issues by next year.

Just Some Stuff...

2010-02-25T20:55:00.003-06:00

Keeley's broken nail is doing much better. He stayed home from daycare again this week but I plan on sending him next time for sure. The nail never did break off though.

We started trying to get him used to the idea of me using a dremel on his nails, but he's fighting it so far. He's just so sensitive about his feet!

Teagan was a total angel for about a week after it happened but now she's reverted to her normal annoying and obnoxious self. I just don't know why she insists on being so dang mean to Keeley all the time!

Anyhow... I also wanted to tell you all about a cool event coming up here in Milwaukee. On March 7th, you can take your dog with you to the Milwaukee Admirals Hockey game at 4pm. I believe this event is hosted by Central Bark and could probably get more information about it by calling one of their locations. I think admission is like $12 but don't remember for sure. We're probably not going ourselves since I don't like sports but it does sound like a pretty cool idea.

The wonderful thing about Teagans

2010-02-21T07:59:00.000-06:00

Is Teagans are wonderful things!
Their tops are made out of rubber
Their bottoms are made out of springs!
They're bouncy, trouncy, flouncy, pouncy
Fun, fun, fun, fun, fun!
But the most wonderful thing about Teagans is
She's the only one!
Teagans are cuddly doggies
Teagans are awfully sweet
Everyone else is jealous
That's why I repeat... and repeat
The wonderful thing about Teagans
Is Teagans are marvelous pups!
They're loaded with vim and vigor
They love to leap in your laps!
They're jumpy, bumpy, clumpy, thumpy
Fun, fun, fun, fun, fun!
But the most wonderful thing about Teagans is
She's the only one!
(Thank goodness!)

Teagan's handiwork

2010-02-19T20:53:00.007-06:00

Teagan has decided that one of her household duties is to control the toy population. She feels that Keeley really neglected this job before her arrival.

Here's a photo of the downstairs toy box (there's another one just like it upstairs) pre-Teagan:

And here's what it looks like today:

Teagan takes this job very seriously. I think that Boston is on the menu for tomorrow. I'm afraid that by the time summer gets here, there will be nothing left!

Oh! He broke a nail!

2010-02-19T05:39:00.005-06:00

Very early on Sunday morning, Keeley ran outside so fast that he broke a nail. He was hopping around on 3 legs and bleeding everywhere.

The last time this happened, I took him to the vet. But only the emergency vets are open on Sunday and I don't trust them because they've twice misdiagnosed Keeley and they have done wrong by Teagan too.

Finally, we called Keeley's trainer, PK, to ask for advice. She said we could cut it off, take him to a vet who would cut it off, or just leave it and let it heal on it's own. Since there's no way that I'm cutting Keeley's nail and I hate the emergency vets, we decided that the third option was best.

However, now it's been 5 days and Keeley is still hopping around on 3 legs. It looks like it's healing though.

He keeps telling me how bored he is by putting his paw on me. It's like he wants me to take him for a walk but I think that nail should heal first before it gets exposed to outside germs.

What should I do with this bored little doggie?

The first couple of days, all he did was sleep through the pain. And since then we've been taking him with when I run errand like going to the bank, the pet store, the grocery store, etc. And we've taken him on slow drives though nice neighborhoods with cute houses since he like looking out the window. But still he's really bored. I wish I could make his nail heal faster.

Does anyone know how long it's supposed to take a broken nail to heal? I don't remember it taking this long last time.

On the plus side, Teagan has been on her absolute best behavior. See, she can be good when she wants to be.

The winter blahs, an update, and blogs

2010-02-12T19:16:00.008-06:00

I've really been slacking off when it comes to blogging lately. I think I have the winter blahs. I've been very sleepy lately, more so than usual. Anyhow, here's a little update of whats been happening:

Teagan seemed to be getting better for a while but recently she's relapsed back to her psycho bitch behavior. I know it's my fault because I started slacking off and not making her "get easy" everyday like I should have. So now I've got some more work to do with her. My mom has had it with her and says if I can't fix her than I'll have to give her up. But that is like totally out of the question if you ask me. Yeah, she's a little crazy and she has had a bad couple of weeks but I think it's just a little set back and that overall she's still getting better. I really love her and I think she's got a lot of good qualities. She's smart and sweet and can entertain herself for hours on end and she seems practically indestructible. Her problems are that she bosses Keeley around, goes psycho killer on him, she's a cry baby, and she is scared of kids and threatens to go psycho on them too. I don't think there's much I can do to make her less scared of kids because who's going to lend me some kids? But I do think I can get her to stop going crazy on Keeley. It's just going to take some work and I need to be more consistent.

Here's an example of a typical psycho Teagan situation: Keeley hates it when I used a particular colander when I'm cooking. He will bark like crazy and even nip at me if I reach for this colander in the cupboard. Teagan thinks she needs to protect and defend me so she will attack Keeley when he does this.

Now what I've got to remember to do is to tell Keeley in advance when I'm going to reach for the colander and also reassure Teagan that I'm in control of the situation and that she doesn't need to protect me. It's always a tense situation but as long as I remember to be the one in control, then everything goes fine and we don't have an incident.

In other news, Keeley and Teagan lost their off leash privileges in January because they ran into the ravine at Lake Park and would not come back when I called them. I yelled that I was leaving, ran across a field to the car, got in and even started driving down the street and they still didn't come. Then I freaked out. I was screaming for them for what seemed like a really long time to me, but was probably only 5 minutes in reality. Finally they came. I loaded them into the car and yelled at them all the way home. I thought they got the message because they looked pretty miserable and ashamed of themselves but then just a couple days later they ran across the street in front of our house.

Are they trying to give me a heart attack? We live on a really busy street with semi-trucks exiting the freeway all day long. When it's warm we put up a gate across the driveway but in winter we don't use the gate because of all the snow and we are putting the car in the garage. I tell them we're using winter rules and they're supposed to go directly from the back door to the yard and back so it's usually okay. But now after they ran across the street, I've had to put up the gate again. It's a pain but better safe than sorry. I've had the unfortunate experience of seeing what happens when a dog gets hit by a semi because a couple of years ago it happened to a dog that lived across the street. It's really horrible. There's basically nothing left but a blood stain when that happens. I think my heart would just break if that happened to one of my fur-babies!

So it's been a trying few weeks since I've last posted. Perhaps it's just that we're all sick of winter and eager for spring to come. My pups are tired of being cooped up indoors. Me too!

Wow, it seems I had more to say than I thought I did! We also want to tell our DWB friends about some new dog blogs:

Keeley's friend Lojack started a blog where she offers advice to humans and dogs who may be having troubles in their inter-species relationships. Here's the address if you wanna stop by to check it out: http://lojacksdownlow.blogspot.com/

Also, we found out about another Irish Terrier blog by a dog named McGillicutty. He's super handsome, of course since he's a terrier! Check it out here: http://www.themcgillinator.blogspot.com

We've encouraged both of them to join the DWBs. We love DWBs!

I'm going to try to make the rounds tomorrow and get updated on what's been happening with everyone else's blogs.

Finally, here's some pictures of Keeley and Teagan at Minooka on Monday. We've gotten another foot of snow since then!

we got snow

2010-01-08T14:47:00.006-06:00

Yeah, we got a lot of snow yesterday. I'd say it's about 10-12 inches worth of the white stuff. It snowed all day while Keeley and Teagan were at doggie daycare. When they got home, this is what it was like.
Teagan just loves the snow, but Keeley doesn't seem to care for it anymore. He'll got outside but then he just stands by the gate or by the backdoor waiting for me to let him back inside.
He doesn't want to play with Teagan in the snow and he certainly doesn't want to roll around in it like she does. Getting Teagan was supposed to keep Keeley young, but sometimes it instead seems to emphasize that he's getting older.
Maybe he just needs some doggie leg warmers? But I don't know if he'd tolerate that. I think he gets too much snow stuck to his legs and between his toes. Doggie booties would be ideal, but I know he wouldn't tolerate that.

Evil Teagan?

2009-12-28T18:39:00.002-06:00

There once was a girl, who had a curl
right in the middle of her tail.
When she was good, she was very very good.
But when she was bad, she was horrid.That's Teagan in an nutshell. When she's good, she's so very good. She can be so sweet and lovable. She listens well and is smart and tries hard to please.

She has good days and bad days. And even on average days, she has Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde moments when everything can change on a dime. It's like something in her just snaps and she turns into some kind of demon dog. She growls at children and attacks Keeley like she wants to kill him. It must be pretty scary because I see peoples' faces when it happens and their expressions range from scared to confused to angry.

I've gotten pretty good at being right there and putting her into an immediate "Easy". It usually only takes seconds for her to get fully easy and relax. And even after I tell her that she can get up, she usually stays like that for a while. To me, it makes me think that she really wants to be controlled, but isn't so good a doing that on her own yet.

One good thing that's been happening is that Keeley has been trying to take back his top dog position by asserting himself more. In the mornings, he tries to hump Teagan. It's not in a sexual way; I'm pretty sure it's just about dominance and Teagan seems to understand that too.

Teagan is definitely a work in progress, but I'm hopeful that eventually we'll find a peaceful balance in our home.

Romare visits for the Holidays

2009-12-26T15:39:00.000-06:00

Romare and his dads came to town for a holiday visit with us today. We used to always go to their house for New Year's Eve, but times change and so this year they came to us.
We exchanged gifts. Keeley and Teagan gave Romare a box of Buddy Biscuits and a package of Zuke's Hip Action. Romare gave Keeley and Teagan each two pig ears.

Keeley just loves hanging with Romare. Teagan, on the other hand, not so much. She still feels threatened by him because he's so big. She spent the majority of the time hiding under furniture. Fortunately there were no instances like last time when she attacked Romare. So maybe things are getting a little bit better with her. She did growl at him once but I immediately made her get easy and the moment passed and she acted a lot better after that.

It was a very nice visit. It's always good to see the Romare guy and his dads because they are totally pawesome.

Cute

2009-12-26T09:22:00.003-06:00

We have an Oscar Mayer wienermobile ornament that plays the Oscar Mayer wiener song. Everytime we make it play the song Teagan is completely mesmerized by it. It's so cute. She cocks her head to one side and stares intently at it. It's like she's trying to figure it out. Where is this sound coming from? What's it all about? She can be so cute with her little dog girl ways about her.

(PS this is another photo that my friend Lauren from Baltimore took of Teagan when she was in town recently visiting)

Merry Xmas

2009-12-25T19:10:00.004-06:00

Keeley and Teagan got to open their presents last night on Christmas Eve. They really enjoyed ripping through the wrapping paper. Keeley got a santa bear stuffie, a little snowman stuffie, a lucky bamboo stick, a 3 pack of yellow tennis balls, a green rope chew, and a new sweater. Teagan got a nylabone, a pink flamingo stuffie, a baby chick stuffie, a 3 pack of pink tennis balls, a red rope chew, and a new sweater.
After all the excitement was over, Keeley and Teagan curled up into little dog balls to take a snooze in their new sweaters from their great-aunt Carol. We hope all you dogs out there had a happy holiday too!

Happy Howlidays!

2009-12-24T14:38:00.001-06:00

Thank you to all our DWB friends who sent us cards and emails in the Annual Dogs With Blogs Holiday Card Exchange. We love to participate in this event. It's so much fun getting mail addressed to Keeley and Teagan every day.

This year we sent snail mail cards to about a third of the list and emails to the other two thirds. I would have liked to send more snail mail cards but being unemployed, this was all I could afford this time around.

We got snail mail cards from:
Moco, Foley, and Dawson
Lorenza
Dozer, Cooper, and Dottie
Dory
Twix
JB, Chester, CocoBean, Armani, and Gaia
Simba and Jazzi
Lenny
Jake and Just Harry
Mona
Randi the lab newf
Beowulf, Gryffin, and Indy
Noah, Willow, Tess, and Lucy
Velcro
Molly, Taffy, and Monty
Kirby
Lola, Karma, and Dixie
Lady, Zena, Cody, and Joyce
Addie, Lucie, and Hailey
Homer
Comet and BLU
Jackson
Koobuss
Faya and Dyos
Amici
Charlie
River

And we got email greetings from:
Sugar
Hoover
Stella and Willow
Laney
Luna
Opy and Benson
Chloe and Greta
Ruby and Penny
Happy
Tibby
Ailsa and Brodie
Ludo
Fred
Bajas, Virus, and Hyssing
Ginger Jasper
Gaucho
Lily
Paco, Milo, and Maya
Asta
Sweepy, Sumo, and Bogart
Romeo
Indiana, Shingo, and Molly
Tucker and Daisy
Abbey and Maya
Bolo
Kira and Scampi
Scout and Freyja
Chewy and Clover
Johann

Unfortunately, our printer broke earlier this month so we were unable to print out any of the email greetings.

My mom (Keeley & Teagan's grandma) took these last two pictures of the pups with her iphone last night while they were lounging around the Christmas tree. Happy Holidays Everyone!

Keeley Funk

2009-12-23T15:55:00.001-06:00

I call him my funky little monkey or sometimes, Dr. Funkenstein. Keeley definetley has his own special funky smell. When we first switched to raw, he seemed to stink less but now he's back to his funky self.

Keeley is incrediably lucky that he's so cute because he still gets petted a lot despite his funk. I mean who could resist this face? Even cat people love him!

Of course, everyone has to wash their hands immediately after touching him though. Really, he smells that bad. And I must really love him because I still let him sleep on my bed despite his offensive funk.

Sometimes Keeley stretches out in the middle of the night and his stinky corn chip feet end up in my face. That smell combined with his funk is more than enough to make me turn away and bury my face in the covers to escape the stink.

On Sunday I reached my limit on how much Keeley funk I could tolerate and so both he and Teagan had baths. (Teagan didn't smell but I figure there's no point to only bathing one of them.) And of course, I washed and fabreezed everything too. That was only 4 days ago, but already Keeley's funky smell is coming back.

Do you think it's his diet that's causing this funk? What am I going to do with this stinky little guy!?!?

(PS this is a photo that my friend Lauren from Baltimore took of Keeley when she was in town recently visiting)

Winter at Minooka

2009-12-22T18:24:00.004-06:00

We went to Minooka on Saturday. There's Teagan and her grandma.For some reason I was surprised that there were so many dogs there because it was pretty cold out. But I should have known better. I mean this is Wisconsin, afterall. A little cold is not going to keep people (or their dogs) indoors.
Keeley and Teagan had a great time. These conditions are hard on Keeley's bad leg and he often resorts to his 3 leg hop, but he never complains and is always happy to go places like this.
Teagan always sticks close by to me, her grandma, or Keeley. I feel bad for Keeley since little siblings can be so annoying sometimes.
Keeley likes to walk all over and meet every dog at the park. Here he is sniffing another dog's butt. He's such a friendly guy.

Winter is here!

2009-12-08T11:34:00.006-06:00

It's snowing! And it's supposed to snow all day long and tomorrow too.
This is Teagan's first winter and she is totally loving the snow. She especially likes to eat it.
The cold must bother Keeley's bad leg because he's been doing his 3 leg hop more and more lately. My poor sweet boy!
Teagan likes the snow so much, she doesn't want to come inside when I call her. At least Keeley is a good boy dog.

By the way, I think this is our 200th post!

our last 2 trips to Minooka

2009-11-29T17:36:00.005-06:00

Here are some photos from our last two trips to Minooka. I know I've taken more than enough photos of my dogs here, but it helps to keep me entertained while we're there.
On this day, my dogs were testing out their new Land's End fleece jackets.

It was pretty muddy and I had to wash them when we got home. At least they looked good!

Keeley and Teagan always have a good time at Minooka.

The next time we went, the dogs wore their Xmas tee shirts that their grandma bought for them. In the small dog area, lots of people commented about how cute their shirts were. I guess small dog folks just understand more about dressing up your pooch. People in the big dog area always make rude remarks about what my dogs are wearing. They just don't get it.

My what a big mouth you have!

2009-11-16T14:59:00.005-06:00

Well, my dogs have been on a totally raw diet for 2 weeks now. It seems to be going really well. The only thing that they don't like about it is that they only get fed once a day. I guess that's going to take them some getting used to.

PK, our SATZ trainer, said that the reason Keeley was so smelly was because of his diet. I guess she was right (haven't I learned yet not to doubt PK?) because just within a few days of this new diet, Keeley already started smelling a lot better.

Teagan continues to make quick work of her chicken leg quarter, while Keeley requires a little assistance. For Keeley I break apart the drumstick and thigh and then cut some of the meat off in strips. Apparently Teagan is a savage beast and Keeley is a refined gentleman when it comes to their eating styles. Keeley likes to savor his food, while Teagan just about swallows it whole. Could they be anymore different?

New Tee Shirts

2009-11-15T17:13:00.003-06:00

Here's Teagan and Keeley modeling their new Xmas tee shirts that their grandma just bought them. I think they look adorable.
I know it's a little early for Christmas but it is cold outside and so my dogs have been testing these shirts out all day.
I was hoping I could get a good photo of them for holiday cards, but as you can see, I didn't have much luck. Well, there's still plenty of time so I will try again later.

It's Romare!

2009-11-14T15:58:00.006-06:00

Romare came to visit us today! He's like the repeat guest star of this dog blog!Remember a couple of months ago, I reported that Romare, who is only 6 years old, needed a double hip replacement? Well, I've got good news to report now: it's looking like he may not need surgery after all! After talking with the vets, his dads decided that they'd first try everything else before resorting to hip replacement. Romare is on a special diet and he's already lost 1.5 pounds. He got medication for the pain and he's also getting a lot of exercise. It seems to be going well because Romare is acting more like himself. He has problems going up and down stairs and needs help to get up on a bed. But hopefully he will continue to improve and these things will get easier with time. So that's the good news!
The bad news is that Teagan continues to have issues. Everytime I tried to love up Romare, she went psycho killer on him. I guess she's just really insecure. I don't know if she was jealous of him getting attention from me or if she thought she needed to protect me from him. Teagan ended up spending the majority of Romare's visit locked in her crate. This is really distressing because Keeley always loved having dog pals over for visits and playdates and such. I hope we can get this problem corrected by March or else I don't know how we'll be able to manage a doggie birthday party if she keeps acting like this.

Aptly named

2009-11-13T09:02:00.002-06:00

Keeley was looking really rough around the edges and was probably a little past due for a haircut. So yesterday Keeley got groomed. His name means handsome and I think I choose his name well because he's looking mighty handsome!

Arg, now I've got to give Teagan a bath. Maybe I can get Unkie Rob to help...

Playtime!

2009-11-11T10:58:00.001-06:00

Here's Keeley and Teagan playing out in their yard. We've been having some really nice weather for November and the dogs are taking advantage of it.
They're playing chase and tug with their little orange Hurly.
They love this game but they only stick with it as long as I'm playing with them too.
I love my silly dogs!

Lapham Peak with Unkie Rob

2009-11-10T18:02:00.000-06:00

Today we drove up to Lapham Peak with Rob. Keeley and Teagan love going on adventures. They were so excited, they couldn't even hold still for a picture. They wanted to get our walk started right away!
This year Keeley made it all the way to the top of the observation tower. If you remember, last year he was afraid to go up very high. The view is great up here!
We got started on the Ice Age Trail.
Now that we're having a spell of warm weather, all the squirrels are active again. Teagan is determined to catch a squirrel to impress Keeley, but so far she hasn't had much luck.
It was a really nice day but the sun didn't break through the clouds until later in the day.
Keeley and Teagan got to meet a couple other dogs that were hiking at Lapham too. Meeting other dogs on walkies is the best!
We switched trails a couple of times and ended up on this nice paved one that they just call the Accessible Trail.
Then after a while we decided to follow the signed back to the tower where we had parked the car.
Now that the dogs were tired, they were able to pose nicely for a picture with their Unkie Rob.
It was a nice little outing.

Minooka with Unkie Rob

2009-11-07T15:02:00.008-06:00

We got an early start this morning and headed out to Minooka. You can see from these photos that Keeley and Teagan are already getting along better since doggie bootcamp. Teagan is a little less aggressive towards Keeley and Keeley is more empowered now and stands up for himself more.
We were surprised to run into Keeley's friend Kirby there. No not our DWB friend Kirby, but a frenchie named Kirby that Keeley plays with at doggie daycare.
Also, Unkie Rob is in town for his yearly visit. Keeley just adores him. And this was his first time meeting little miss Teagan.
I know Keeley loves me, but sometimes I think he would have been happier if a guy was his owner. Keeley just really respects men more. How did I end up with such a sexist little dog!?! Woe is me.
Anyhow, the weather today was absolutely gorgeous! Rob really lucked out.
We walked around the park 3 times and then the pups really started looking tired.
Keeley was especially tired out and is still sleeping it off as I'm blogging now.

Doggie Bootcamp

2009-11-03T15:02:00.013-06:00

On Friday and Saturday we went to doggie bootcamp with PK. Things were getting out of hand with Teagan's resource guarding and fear aggression. We needed an intervention because we were scared for Keeley's safety. Plus she had growled meanly at the kids that came to our Pumpkin Carving Party the week before and she probably would have attacked them had I not been there holding her back.

PK was Keeley's SATZ trainer when he was still a puppy. SATZ is a way of communicating with your dog using simple language so that you can get along in harmony. For more information, you can check out PK's website: For Love Of Dogs. For Keeley this was a SATZ refresher course, but Teagan had to learn everything for the first time. It's a good thing she's so smart and was able to pick it up rather quickly.

With SATZ, it's sorta like that game of Hot & Cold that kids play. You know like, "You're getting warmer. Warmer..." But instead of saying warmer or colder, we use the letter X since it's an uncommon sound in English. So if I tell Keeley to come here to me, the whole time he's moving towards me I'm saying "X, X, X, X..." and if he turns away then I stop giving him that guiding signal. It works really well.

The first thing we worked on at bootcamp was to get Teagan to stop barking and growling at people. This took a lot of work since she's a pretty darn vocal little girl. Whenever she'd bark, we'd all run into a different room and close the door leaving her alone. Then we'd make a lot of noise in praise of Keeley for NOT barking. If Teagan wanted us to come back, she had to be quiet. At one point she almost bit one of PK's assistants in the butt as we were running out of the room because of her growling.

Next both Keeley and Teagan had to learn to wait at every door until I told them they could go through and also to not run up ahead of people on stairs since that could be dangerous. My dogs still need a lot of work on this at home now since old habits are hard to break. They also have to come to me immediately if I say "Here" because that's a safety issue too.

Another aspect of SATZ is "Get Easy". It's like this, basically dogs have 2 options every time they're in a scary situation: Fight or Flight. SATZ gives them a third option of just relaxing until the scary thing has passed. That's what "Get Easy" is. We need to practice this everyday till it's second nature for my pups.

Amazingly, Teagan excelled at this at bootcamp. Since she had growled at kids a lot, PK made her get easy while there were loud and fast moving kids in the same room. Oddly, Keeley who loves kids, was the one who had a hard time with this. We kept having to do it over and over until he got it right.

Another great thing Keeley and Teagan are learning is to "Check In". When they're off leash, they're supposed to "Check In" with me, meaning that they run past me and make eye contact. They have to learn that it's their job to watch me, not the other way around. We've still got a lot of work to do with this but I can see it's going to be great once they master this. I won't have to worry so much anymore.

Keeley and Teagan are also working on walking with a loose leash. I'm walking each separately until they're really good at it. On Sunday, Keeley walked the best he's done in his entire life. I was so proud of him!

And Teagan is also learning not to jump up on visitors. She really needs work on this. Sometimes when people ask what breed she is, I tell them that she's part jumping bean. She's got so much energy!

Already my dogs seem to have a new respect for me. At first, I wasn't thrilled about having to go to bootcamp but I think it's really paying off big time. People always say how cute my dogs are, but now they're going to be saying how well behaved they are!

I think that's about it. Oh yeah, I was also going to talk about some other changes around here. First, Teagan is back to sleeping in her crate since she lost the right to sleep in my bed. She may regain that right sometime in the future if she continues to do well with this new training and learns some manners. I've told her that she's relied on her looks for far too long and that now she has to learn some discipline.

The second change is my dogs' diets. Teagan had been eating Narure's Variety Instinct grain-free kibble and Keeley was eating that kibble in the mornings and Nature's Variety raw medallions in the evenings. But now both dogs have been switched to an all raw diet. This morning they each had a raw chicken leg quarter, the bones and everything. I thought it would take them a long time to eat something like that but Teagan was done with hers in about 5 minutes! I almost threw up in my mouth because the sound of her gnashing up the bones sort of grossed me out.

Also I was worried about the bones since anytime Keeley swallows anything larger than a dime, he throws it up. But so far, so good. There's no throw up yet. It's so weird to be blogging about puke but I know all you DWBs understand.

I'll end this rather lengthy post with a cute picture of Keeley that I took a few days ago.

Dog Park at Estabrook finally open

2009-11-03T13:45:00.001-06:00

Whoops! I've been really falling behind on my blogging lately! I can't blame Mitch for that but I do blame Facebook. I was all set to blog about the doggie bootcamp that we attended last Friday and Saturday when I realized that I had started this post about Estabrook 3 weeks ago and never got around to finishing it. That's lazy I tell you! So I decided that I better finish this before starting another one. Here goes:Alright, so we finally heard that the dog park at Estabrook Park was open for business. Keeley, Teagan, and I went to check it out.
This dog area was supposed to be open by Memorial day, but didn't actually open till sometime after Labor day. That's very behind schedule if you ask me.
I think Keeley and Teagan thought it was okay. But I'll say that there's not much too it. It's supposed to be 3 acres, which in my opinion is already fairly small for a dog park. Plus once you subtract out the small dog area, the entrance gates, and the pavilion, it's probably more like only 2 acres. There's already a few mud pits too. I'd like to know who is in charge of planning these things. Do they even have a dog themselves? Have they ever been to other dog parks? I just think it could have been done so much better.
At least Keeley and Teagan enjoyed it for variety's sake. They like going some place new. There weren't many dogs there to play with but Keeley still had fun sniffing everything. I would think that for being so small that people could at least clean up after their dogs a little better. I was disappointed that there was poop everywhere. I really had to watch where I stepped.

update

2009-10-11T20:24:00.011-05:00

Teagan has been taking her Clavamox antibiotic for almost a week now and there is no longer hardness on her belly around her boo-boo. So I think things are going well. The sore is healing and she leaves it alone. So that's the good news.

The bad news is that Teagan's resource guarding is escalating and my mom has become scared for Keeley's safety. Teagan always did this food guarding thing since I got her but she only does it to Keeley. I can take anything away from her and she doesn't care one bit, but if Keeley even looks at her from across the room she'll go psycho killer on him.

I supervise their breakfasts and mornings are the most peaceful. Their dinners they eat in their crates so that's not a problem either. It's when they have treats that it happens most often. If Teagan finishes a treat before Keeley is finished, she takes the rest of his away and eats it herself. But if Keeley finishes before Teagan and he even just looks at her, then she goes insane.

This week it started happening for apparently no reason at all. Neither one has a treat but for some reason it's like Teagan gets it in her head that he's got something and she just goes crazy. I've had to separate them several times. I don't know what to do so I'm going to have to ask Keeley's SATS trainer for some advice.

On a different topic, Keeley is super ripe! Boy he's a stinky dog! He was just bathed 2 weeks ago, but he's already really stinky and dirty too. The vet says to only bathe him every 6 weeks or so, but everything starts to stink around here in the meantime. Do any of you DWBs have some advice? Do you have a stinky dog too? What do you do to make them not smell so offensive? Plus, when I pet him and then wash my hands, the water is all brown. I don't know how he manages to get so filthy so fast!

And last but not least, my aunt and uncle gave me a new digital camera. Woohoo! This morning we tested it out at Minooka. Here are some of our pictures:

Teagan's Boo-boo

2009-10-05T09:22:00.005-05:00

On Thursday I was petting Teagan's belly, as I do most mornings, when I felt a weird lump. I looked at her belly and didn't see anything out of the ordinary so I figured it was just the scar from when she was spayed at such a young age. On Friday, the lump felt bigger and I started to become concerned. But I'm still unemployed and since Teagan was acting perfectly normal, I decided to ignore it in the hopes that it would go away on its own.
No luck. On Saturday it was bigger still and I considered calling the vet for advice but ultimately didn't. Then on Sunday, as Teagan was getting loaded into the car to head to Minooka, I saw that the lump had changed greatly. It now looked like a big blister or boil.
The trip to Minooka was great and Teagan took a long nap when she got home. When she awoke, I noticed that she was licking herself more than usual. I looked and of course the lump had burst and the sore was all bloody and puss. I cleaned the wound as best I could and bandaged her up.I think she looked like a little sumo wrestler.
First thing this morning we went to see Dr. Katie. Teagan's boo-boo got a thorough cleaning and she was given some antibiotics to prevent it from getting infected. Teagan really wanted to lick her sore so she ended up in one of those Elizabethan collars.
Poor Teagan. It's all fun and games until someone ends up in a cone.
She didn't like that thing one bit. In the movie UP, the dogs refer to it as the "cone of shame". I think that's a fitting name for it since Teagan looked pretty ashamed when she was wearing it.
When we got home, I took the Elizabethan collar off since Teagan didn't seem to know how to walk or lay down with it on. I put her little sumo wrap on again since that seems to do the trick. For the most part she leaves it alone but I'll have to keep watching her all day.
The unfortunate thing is that we still don't know what's wrong with her. We're trying antibiotics first since that's the least invasive thing to do. The vet said it could be a foreign object got under her skin some how, some weird reaction, or something inside her causing the hardness and the boil. I asked if it could be a bee sting because Teagan is a bee hunter. The vet said that yeah, it could be a bad reaction to a sting but we just don't know.
So for now we'll see how the antibiotics work. The good news is that Teagan is acting perfectly normal so it doesn't seem to be causing her any pain. I hope she doesn't end up requiring surgery.

A Fine Fall Day At Minooka

2009-10-04T15:53:00.012-05:00

This afternoon we took a trip to Minooka. When Teagan was younger we always went into the small dog area because she needed socialization but was scared of any dog that was bigger than her.
She's still timid around dogs that are bigger than her and she always sticks close to me at the dog park. But overall, she's doing much better with other dogs so now we go into the big dog area.
Keeley just loves going to Minooka. He starts whining in the car as soon as we get close to the park.
I hate standing around and not doing anything at the dog park. When we go to Minooka now, the dogs and I walk around the perimeter several times. For me it makes the time go by a lot faster. And it's a good way to make sure my dogs are moving the whole time instead of just standing around sniffing butts.
Doggie daycare must be paying off because now Teagan is more able to make friends with other dogs.
It makes me so happy when I see she's made a friend.
Still most of the time she's totally focused on Keeley.
I take the dogs on a little path through some trees and when we come out into the field, then I tell them to "find mama". They are so happy when they spot their grandma and they go running to her.
I'm very pleased when they come when I call them.
Some how they can run and play bitey face at the same time.
Check out that ear action!
It's been about 40 minutes and Keeley is looking tired. It must be time to go home. The dogs are sleeping here in the computer room with me while I'm blogging now. This was a great trip to Minooka.

Washington Bark Day and other news

2009-09-17T11:26:00.007-05:00

Last Sunday was Washington Bark Dog Day at Washington Park.

Last year we got tons of free stuff: treats, samples, balls, can lids, a dog coloring book, a bandanna, etc. It was well worth the $6 admission. But that was last year....

This year it cost $11 admission (two dogs with Teagan now) and we got just about nothing to show for it. We were really disappointed. I told Keeley that it must be because of the economy. Boy, that economy is really reeking havoc on our lives.

The only good thing about Washington Bark Day this year was that we met Keeley's friend Oliver there with his mom and his new dad (they just got married last month). And then we all came back to our house for a visit.

I thought Teagan would love Oliver because he's so sweet like Keeley. But no, she seemed to absolutely hate him and I have no idea why. She growled at him almost the whole time. They kept staring at each other with stink eyes.

Maybe Teagan thought she was defending our house and yard even though I explained to her that Oliver is our friend. Anyhow, I don't know what their problem was. Keeley is smart, so he just kept his distance from all their shenanigans.

Sorry, no pictures since my camera is still lost. I'm beginning to think it is gone for good. Bummer.

Later that same day, Keeley and Teagan were rough-housing in the backyard and they injured Keeley's bad leg. He's been walking around on 3 legs. There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with it so I think he just needs to rest it. We sent Teagan away to daycare twice this week so that Keeley could get some rest.

Also, yesterday Keeley threw up 6 times and had diarrhea. I was just going to ride it out but then I got a little freaked and decided to take him to the vet afterall. They gave him fluids and some pills. He seems to be doing much better already now.

Well, it's almost lunch time here so Keeley and I are going to go sit out on the porch. He loves to watch all the people walking around on their lunch hour. We live right next to Miller Brewery so I figure they are Miller employees.

Where does the time go?

2009-09-01T15:06:00.012-05:00

I've been really slacking off when it comes to blogging lately. Here's a quick update of things that happened in the last few weeks:

Keeley got the weird growth removed from his foot. It was benign. He just got his stitches removed last friday and seems to be doing good.I thought it looked like he had a little race horse leg when he had this bandage on it. But I sure am glad that it's all over now.

We went up to Madison to visit with Romare and his dads last Saturday. Keeley and Teagan had a great time. But we have really bad news to report: It turns out that Romare needs both his hips replaced. He hasn't been acting like himself for quiet some while and now we finally know why. Poor Guy! We totally love Romare and it makes us sad to know that he's been in pain. Now he's on medication to help control his pain until he has the surgery. We brought him some Buddy Biscuits and a Tug-0-war toy to cheer him up. His dads said that was the first time they saw him want to play tug in a very long time.

Also, Irish Fest happened. Her are just a few quick pictures I took of some of the Irish dogs that were on display there this year. They always do hand stripping demonstrations on the Irish Terriers, so that's why they're all looking so scruffy. This was only the second day of the 4 day event and so these dogs haven't been stripped yet. They had other kinds of Irish dogs there too, like these Irish Wolfhounds.Celtic Canines also include: Irish Setters, Red and White Setters, Irish Water Spaniels, Glen of Imaal Terriers, Wheaten Terriers, and Kerry Blue Terriers.

I'm worried that I might actually get hired sometime in the near future and I have no idea how my dogs are going to be able to deal with that. They've gotten really super attached to me over that past 6 months. Anytime I leave them home with my mom, she reports that they are all out of sorts and unable to settle themselves while I'm away. She keeps telling me that I should put them in their crates and leave for several hours each day, but like where am I supposed to go? Today I took Teagan to daycare and went grocery shopping. When I came home, Keeley was so happy to see me that he threw up his breakfast. Maybe he's a little sick or maybe it's his way of expressing some kind of separation anxiety... I don't know. I've decided that I really do have to get serious about getting them adjusted to me not being around all the time. I'm planning that I'm going to start on this tomorrow and really try to stick with it. We'll see how it goes.

Doggie Dip at Washington Park

2009-08-16T20:09:00.011-05:00

Today was the annual Doggie Dip! This year we decided to go to the pool at Washington Park because we heard that last year there were only a few dogs there. You know, because Keeley likes to think that he owns the pool and barks and growls at everydog there. So unlike how Keeley normally acts! And very embarrassing for me and his grandparents. Teagan, of course, took her cue from Keeley and acted the same annoying way. Her constant yapping is still ringing in my ears.
Once Keeley got up the nerve to jump in, he was swimming laps around the pool. He seems to really enjoy swimming.
Everyone there laughed at their doggie life jackets as usual, but I figure it's better to be safe than sorry. Plus I think they look really cute with them on!
Teagan absolutely hated being in the pool. Her grandma threw her in a few times since she wasn't going to be going in on her own. I ended up having to carry her in and then releasing her to let her swim back to shore. She was fine as long as I was holding her, but wasn't too happy when I'd let go of her.
Since it wasn't crowded, we stayed for 40 minutes. That's twice as long as we've doggie dipped for in the past. We finally decided to leave after Keeley marked on some guy's shoes and bag. Oh, how embarrassing! But dogs will be dogs and I sorta feel like this guy should have known better than to leave such an enticing target sitting on the ground with a bunch of dogs running around.
Keeley had a great time barking and swimming. I think Teagan enjoyed barking, but not so much with the swimming.

Tiki Toys

2009-08-06T12:43:00.007-05:00

When I saw these Squeeki Tiki dog toys, I simply could not pass them up. I have a tiki mug collection and I love tiki stuff! I was convinced that my dogs would love these toys.
I guess, I was blinded by the coolness of tiki stuff though, because I should have known that Keeley is just not into this type of toy. Sure he took it from me when I first handed it too him, but then he promptly dropped it and walked away.
At least Teagan was into it. But then again, she's a puppy and she likes anything.
It seemed like she couldn't decide which one she wanted to chew on more.
But that only lasted a short while before she decided to go find something more destructible to chew on. Now she's busy shredding a stuffie teddy bear. Oh well, at least they're cool looking toys.

Keeley's weird growth

2009-08-03T14:10:00.001-05:00

I had to take Teagan to the vet to get weighed on Friday so that I could get her the correct dose of Interceptor for heartworm prevention. She weighs 25 pounds now. She's growing up so fast.

Since we were there, I had them give Keeley a nail trim. He hates it. I'd rather pay someone else to do it instead of having him associate it with me. While they were at it, I asked them to please try to remove the tar or gum that was stuck to his hind leg near his foot. Or at least I thought it was tar...

Turns out it's some weird growth. No wonder he didn't like it when I tried to cut it off earlier. It's actually a part of him. And it just figures that it's on his bad leg too.

We've decided to have it removed. If it continues to grow, it could cause Keeley discomfort. Plus it will be more complicated to remove if it gets bigger because of it's placement.

We don't know what it is or if it is benign. After it's removed we're going to send it out for testing.

Keeley's surgery is scheduled for the 18th. He's got an ear infection right now so we have to wait till that's gone.

I'll try to get a picture of it once I figure out where I put my camera.

New Toys

2009-07-30T17:35:00.010-05:00

Recently, Keeley and Teagan got some new toys. They're called Hurleys and they're made by West Paw Design.
First I got the little one for Teagan because it said it would stand up to aggressive chewers. She is still teething and aside from that, she's really just the kind of dog that likes to chew.
I didn't get one for Keeley at first because he's not a chewer. But after seeing how much he liked the one I got for Teagan, pretty soon I got one for him too.
They love to chase each other around the yard for one of the Hurleys. And they like to play tug-of-war with them too.
We take one with us to the park in the morning and all the dogs there like it too. They like it so much that Keeley and Teagan almost never get a hold of it there.
We bought one for Romare, our giant Airedale friend, and he loved it right away. And we gave one to Kirby for his birthday too because they float in water. We hope he likes it.
I know that my dogs probably have enough toys to last four lifetimes, but I so love to give them stuff. It feels especially good when they very clearly like what I've given them.

Today at Minooka

2009-07-19T13:20:00.013-05:00

This morning we took the pups out to the dog park at Minooka in Waukesha again. We didn't see any dogs in the small dog area at first so we decided to give the big dog area a try. Keeley was really excited to be there.
But there is still the giant stinking puddle in the low spot that dogs go in which I think is just gross. There was a ranger there and he said that they're eventually going to put a fence around it to keep the dogs out. We told him that it was about time and that they should have done that a year or two ago.
Anyhow, we went to the other end of the big dog park to play. After a while, a lot of other people got the same idea and soon Keeley and Teagan were joined by other dogs.
Teagan is so very scared of dogs, especially dogs that are bigger than her. So she always stayed close by to me or her grandma. From this side of the park we could see across the way to the small dog area and saw that there were now other dogs there too, so we decided to head over there.
Teagan is much more confident around small dogs. She's still very shy and prefers people, but after a while she started to play with a group of little dogs.

Now Teagan has met 57 dogs in total. She's more than halfway to her goal of 100. I praised her for being brave today.

Teagan's first trip to Minooka

2009-07-15T11:43:00.006-05:00

On Monday we took Keeley and Teagan out to Minooka in Waukesha. It was Teagan's first visit to a dog park. We went into the small dog area for Teagan. Keeley came with even though he's not a small dog. The sign says small is 15 inches or shorter. Teagan just has more confidence when Keeley is with her. She really needs to get socialized because she's fearful of other dogs.
When Keeley was a puppy, I read that the way to socialize a puppy is to make sure they meet 100 different kinds of people by the age of 3 months and 100 different dogs by 5 months old. It worked great for Keeley. He loves all dogs. He even loves dogs that don't like him. And with people, well... Keeley loves people as long as they're not walking on crutches or wearing masks or holding umbrellas. It's hard to think of everything, but still I think we did a pretty darn good job with him.
So now we're doing the same for Teagan. She loves people so much that I'm not worried about that goal, but she's super scared around dogs, so that's the goal I'm focusing on. At Minooka, Teagan got to meet about 14 small dogs and she did pretty good with them. She did hide under a bench a few times and sometimes went to her grandma for protection, but she was pretty brave and didn't bark or get her hackle up.
It was a good trip. Both Keeley and Teagan were smiling and had fun.
Continuing with the socialization, today I took Keeley and Teagan to Lake Park. There Teagan got to meet 9 other dogs. They were all bigger and older than her which made her very scared. She positioned herself between my legs most of the time. At first her hackle was up and she growled at any dog that came close to her. I told her that wasn't acceptable and soon she gave it up. After about 20 minutes she started to get more comfortable and would run off after Keeley every now and then. She let out a scream 3 times when she felt like a dog had gotten too close to her and then she'd run back to me for protection. I don't know why she's so fearful of other dogs but I'm going to stick with the socialization goal and hopefully she'll get over her fear. I think she's met about 41 dogs so far, not including Keeley. There is still another 3 weeks or so before she's five months old so we'll keep working on it.

Visiting friends in Madison

2009-07-11T19:31:00.014-05:00

Today we took a day trip up to Madison to visit our friends that live there.Keeley got really excited when we told him that we were going to Romare's house.
Doesn't he look happy?
This was Teagan's first time meeting Romare and his dads.
We thought she'd be scared of Romare because he's so big and she's scared of most dogs, but she warmed to him immediately. Maybe it was because she had Keeley with her that she was feeling more confident.
This is Louie. He stopped by for a visit too.
Arnie is Romare's pal. He lives across the street from him. And soon, he came over for a visit too.
Teagan loves to hide underneath furniture.
Keeley always looks so serious.
The dogs had a great time together.
Teagan was impressed by Romare's wonderful yard and spent a lot of time exploring.
Romare is a great guy. He likes having visitors.
I don't know what Teagan thinks she's doing in this picture. Oh, the things Keeley has to put up with!
After visiting with Romare and his dads, then we stopped for a quick visit with Belle and her moms. It was a lovely day full of dogs. Now I think it's time for a nap.

Oh how time does fly!

2009-07-08T12:36:00.002-05:00

I guess I forgot how much work having a puppy is and I've been totally neglecting the DWBs and blogging. SORRY!Keeley is still somewhat in shock by the arrival of Teagan. She can be so very annoying to him at times. Still other times, he seems quite happy to have another dog around to play with. He is awfully good to the little munchkin. Mostly, the only correction Keeley gives her is to turn his head away from her or try to walk away.
I continue to find scabs on his ears, chest, and cheeks from her sharp little puppy teeth. I feel bad that he has to suffer but also feel that I should not intervene too much and just let the two of them work it out. Every once in a while Teagan will manage to get his Irish up and then she comes running to me for protection. I offer her none since she brought it on herself and think maybe she'll finally learn but as soon as Keeley calms down again, she's right back at him.

It is very interesting to me how Keeley and Teagan are turning out to be so very different.
1.) Keeley has several toy boxes that are overflowing with stuffies because he doesn't destroy them. The most damage he has ever done to his stuffies is to chew off their noses if they're made out of hard plastic. Other than that, occasionally a seam might split here or there and I just sew that back up. But Teagan is quite different. Sometimes I think she's taken it upon herself to single-handedly control the stuffie population. She SHREDS them! All day long I'm picking up fuzzy stuffing off the floor. The stuffies that Keeley or I particularly like had to be moved into Keeley's "housey, housey" for protection from Teagan.
2.) Keeley goes crazy when he hears thunder or fireworks. He gets so worked up, there is just no calming him down sometimes. Teagan, on the other hand, would sleep though them (if not for Keeley's uncontrollable barking).
3.) Keeley HATES to have his nails cut. I pay to have other people do it because I don't want him associating it with me. Still, it's a 3 person job and he cries though the whole thing. But Teagan doesn't mind it in the least. Heck, she'd even sleep though it.
4.) The only time Keeley ever barks is to alert me to something. He barks whenever he hears a noise at night. He barks at other animals he sees in the yard. He lets out one sharp bark if I fall asleep at a time he thinks I shouldn't (it pisses me off but I know he's only trying to protect me). And he barks if he hears someone at the door or a car in the driveway. He feels like it's his job and other than those situations, he never makes a peep. Teagan though, barks all the time. Or I guess I should say she yaps all the time. It's so loud and it's so annoying. She yaps at Keeley. She yaps at me. She howls in her crate. She whines if I leave the room. She grunts when she scratches her ear. She growls when she roaches. She squeaks when she stretches. She's ALWAYS making noises.

The three of us have pretty much settled into a daily routine of napping, playing outside, eating, napping, and playing outside some more. Teagan is at her most annoying right after breakfast, after dinner, and right before bedtime. So I think those would be the ideal times to start taking her for walks. I've decided that I'm going to walk Keeley and Teagan separately. For one thing, I've already tried to walk them together and it was horrible. I swear I don't know how Noah's dad is able to walk 4 dogs at once! The other reason is because I don't want Teagan to learn Keeley's bad habits since I think she's got a shot at being one of those dogs that walks nicely by their master's side. I can hope, can't I?

New Sandbox & Dog Entertainment

2009-06-14T20:13:00.010-05:00

If you knew nothing about me and saw my backyard, you might think that I have human children. There's a wadding pool, a pop-up play tunnel, a toy box filled with balls, and now there's a sandbox too. It's all for the dogs though (aka my fur-children).Since Teagan likes to dig and has been digging holes all over the yard, her grandma decided to get her a sandbox for digging. And I bought Teagan some plastic toys to bury in the sand for her to find.
Oh-my-dog! She totally LOVES the sandbox!
Keeley thinks it's pretty cool too.
Teagan really loves to dig and the good thing is that it really wears her out.
Often, Keeley just watches Teagan's antics. I wonder what he's thinking.
In other news, I went to see the new Pixar movie, UP, in digital 3D yesterday. It was really cute and funny. It's got a lot of dog humor in it, which I probably wouldn't have been able to appreciate 3 years ago (before I got Keeley). I'm so totally a dog person now! I love anything with dogs in it.
Also, there was nothing on TV tonight so I was flipping around and came across Heidi 4 Paws: A Furry Tale which is a retelling of Heidi only with dog actors instead of people. It was really goofy but it had both Keeley and Teagan completely mesmerized.

The Monster Under The Chair

2009-06-07T11:11:00.007-05:00

Our morning begins at 5 AM. First we go outside so all the dogs can do their business. Then we come inside and I give the dogs their breakfast. And then the early morning antics begin. It's a game that Teagan invented all by herself and I call it "The monster underneath the chair".
She crawls under her favorite chair to hide. She starts yapping like crazy. I mean really crazy and for like several minutes on end.
She waits for Keeley and I to stick our heads under there to see what all the commotion is about. Then she lunges at us like a little demon with her teeth showing and her growl going.
Keeley gets the worst of it because I quickly pull my head up and away from her.
Poor Keeley.
He literally lets her walk all over him.

Silly Teagan

2009-06-05T07:39:00.002-05:00

Keeley went to doggie daycare yesterday so it was just me and Teagan hanging out together all day. I have to blog about some of the funny things she did before I forget about them.

Since it was nice out we bummed around outside for a good part of the day. She's pretty good at entertaining herself since she loves to chew and play with toys. I was just relaxing while reading a book and every couple of minutes I'd look up and check on her. At one point she started walking really erratically all over the driveway with her nose to the ground. At first I thought she must have caught the sent of some animal that had come through the night before. But as she continued this erratic style of walking for nearly 5 minutes, I got up to inspect the situation more closely. I discovered that it was an ant that she was following around. She was being so cute! Finally the ant disappeared through a crack in the concrete and Teagan was quite disappointed. She sat down and waited hoping for Mr. Ant to appear again but with no luck.

Then later on, she found a worm and proceeded to bark at it for a good 3 or 4 minutes. When I looked closer, I found that it was a dried up, dead worm. It wasn't even moving and she was barking at it! What a weird dog!

She also caught her second bumble bee. Keeley has never been able to catch one of those, but Teagan has already got two of them. I had to quick take it away from her before she got stung.

When Keeley was a puppy I was so busy and stressed out that I didn't get to enjoy his puppyhood. But with Teagan, I'm grateful that I have the time to notice and appreciate all the goofy little things she does.

Two Good Dogs

2009-06-02T10:30:00.001-05:00

I love it when they're calm and quiet.Teagan relaxes in Keeley's old dog bed with Keeley's old stuffies.
Keeley hops up onto the daybed to relax because Teagan can't jump that high yet. (But she does try!)

MKE CO PARKS: Estabrook Park

2009-06-01T18:40:00.012-05:00

On Saturday Keeley and I took our morning walk at Estabrook Park. It is 126 acres and runs along the Milwaukee River between Capitol Drive and Hampton Avenue.
Its got several soccer fields, sand volleyball, a skate area, a couple of playgrounds, a softball diamond, and more. According to Residents For Off-Leash Milwaukee Parks, there's supposed to be a new dog park at Estabrook too.
They said it was supposed to be open by Memorial Day and it's what we came to check out. But we were disappointed because this is what we found. It looks sort of smaller than what we were expecting. There's no fence up yet. Heck, there's not even any grass yet. Major disappointment.
So Keeley and I just continued our walk instead. We walked around this pond even though there was a sign that said "No Dogs".
I used to catch tadpoles here when I was a little kid.
Old train tracks cut the park in half almost.
This spot along the Milwaukee River is supposedly good for fishing.
Keeley loves to sniff stuff on his walks.
This little tunnel goes under Estabrook Drive and emerges at the Eastside Bike Trail where it runs along Wilson Drive.
There are also little paths through the trees but Keeley and I didn't go exploring any of those this time. Instead we just stuck to the Oak Leaf Recreational Trail which is all paved.

Teagan in a box

2009-05-27T09:54:00.002-05:00

Teagan just discovered one of Keeley's toy boxes. It wasn't enough for her just to look into it. Instead she decided to hop right in. She burrowed around amongst the toys and every now and then she'd plop down a chew on one for a while. Keeley just watched the whole thing. I think he's baffled by many of her behaviors.

Memorial Day Cookout

2009-05-25T18:31:00.010-05:00

We have a cookout every Memorial Day. This year Piper came to visit with Keeley.
But he found that he was often the odd man out since Keeley and Teagan have quickly become inseparable.
They're constantly going at it. Teagan even did her first play bow this morning.
Keeley has a very strong sense of fair play and allows Teagan to have a turn pinning him.
They're acting just like siblings now. When one of them is relaxed the other one goes over to them and starts something up. I've had to separate them a couple of times because they both just don't know when to quit.
We'll get back to a normal schedule tomorrow now that the holiday weekend is over. Until Teagan has all her shots she can't go for walks with us. So Keeley and I will continue our normal walks, just the two of us. I think it'll be good for both Keeley and Teagan to have some time apart. When Keeley is at daycare, then Teagan and I can have time alone together too.
Lastly, I wanted to say thank you to Jane for these awesome WFT playing cards! Aren't they just so cute? I love them!

Day 3 - Progress

2009-05-24T17:31:00.008-05:00

Here's a picture of Keeley with his new haircut. He looks sharp! I like him scruffy but I also like it when I can see his gorgeous eyes.Well, I think we've made a lot of progress today. Keeley is starting to realize that Teagan is not just visiting and that she's here to stay. He seems to be adjusting his attitude accordingly.
He's trying to teach her how to play. He says to her, "Here's how it's done. First you do a play bow like this. Then sometimes you let out a little bark or a growl. Then you pounce!"
Keeley has also started to discipline her. Here he's telling her not to dig in the yard on my behalf. He's just a wonderful boy.
He says to her, "Come on! Erin said NO DIGGING!"
They've been playing bitey-face a lot. Teagan latches onto Keeley's cheek, eyebrow, or beard and then just holds on for dear life while Keeley tries to shake her loose.
She has those puppy needle teeth. But she also has a very gentle mouth so I don't think she's hurting him. And he doesn't seem to mind it either.
Keeley says to Teagan, "Come one, let's play! You be the rabbit and I'll chase you."
Teagan whines, "Why do I always have to be the rabbit? How's about I chase you for a change?"
Keeley also had a playdate with Belle today. But he was so tired that they didn't do much playing together.
They spent most of the day lying around outside since it was nice and mild.
Teagan likes to be near her big brother for protection. She was a little bit scared of Belle. Keeley is warming up to his new sister too. He acts like she belongs to him and keeps a close watch on her.

A very eventful day

2009-05-23T13:53:00.004-05:00

It's only two O'clock and I'm exhausted! Little Teagan has diarrhea and has to poop about every 1 to 2 hours. She kept me up all night and Keeley too. He's so tired. He's looking like he's got a doggie hangover or is a dog zombie or something. Anytime Teagan falls asleep, Keeley and I take that opportunity to sleep too.

Today we went to Lake Park and then we took Teagan for her first vet visit with Dr. Katie. We got medication for the diarrhea which is probably due to all the excitement and the abrupt change in diet. Other than that issue, Dr. Katie said Teagan is perfect. She actually slept through her exam! Puppies sure are silly. Dr. Katie also suggested that Teagan might be part Beagle due to her small size and white feet and the tip of her tail is white too. I think that would be great because I don't really want her to get bigger than Keeley. And it sort of makes sense because she howls a lot. She's probably a bunch of different breeds. We're going to just think of her as an adventure because we don't have any idea how big she's going to end up or how she'll look when she's all grown.

After the vet we took Keeley to get groomed at Dapper Dog. He hates getting groomed but he really needed a haircut since he doesn't do too well in hot weather to begin with. He looks gorgeous now. The picture below is from before the grooming appointment. I'll have to get one later of him with his haircut.
Now we're home again. It feels so good to be home because it's been such a long day already and it's not over yet. In a few minutes Jane, Kate, and Molly are coming to visit Keeley and meet Teagan. Keeley just loves them and they love dogs. Jane says Keeley is her favorite dog, after her own dog, Jean Wayne (a little French Bulldog) of course.

And then later, Keeley's grandpa and Uncle Ryan are coming over. They don't know about Teagan yet, so it's going to be a surprise. My dad is going to grumble and roll his eyes, but then he'll fall in love with her I'm sure. He's like that.

Keeley is beginning to realize that Teagan is not just visiting and that she's here to stay. I think he's starting to warm up to her at least a little. She is super annoying to him but he's so sweet to her. Turning his head away from her is the only correction he gives her.

Yesterday, Keeley and I left Teagan at home while just the two of us went to Jacobus Park, Arby's, and Wisconsin Garden & Pet. I thought Keeley needed some individual attention and he seemed to really appreciate it. Our plan is to treat Keeley and Teagan differently by giving Keeley special privileges so that Teagan learns her place. I think she's going to fit in just fine since she is sweet and submissive also.

Keeley has a sister!

2009-05-22T08:54:00.010-05:00

Keeley had quite a surprise waiting for him when he got home from daycare yesterday.... a new sister!Meet Teagan. She's 10 weeks old. I just adopted her from the Wisconsin Humane Society yesterday afternoon. They are calling her a labrador retriever mix, but I think part husky and maybe a little terrier too. Isn't she sweet?
Originally I had been planing on getting another Irish Terrier in 2008, but first there was a false pregnancy and then the breeding didn't take the second time. Keeley's breeder was planning on trying again this year, but then I lost my job and decided that I just couldn't afford it. Irish Terriers cost about $1,000 or more. Plus getting shots, getting spayed, getting 'chipped... and that's like another $2,000 right there.
I was thinking that I made the right decision and that I'd find a job right away. But as the months have gone on, I started thinking that right now would probably be the best time for me to raise a puppy since I'm home everyday and the job market looks worse with each passing week. And even if I found a job next week (however unlikely), I wouldn't be able to take a chunk of time off for at least a year. And I've been talking about going back to school part-time to get an MBA which is like a 4 year commitment. Keeley is 3 years old now. After I find a job and finish a graduate program, he'd be at least 8 or 9 years old. And it made me worry that he'd be too old by then to put up with puppy shenanigans. So I made the decision to seize the opportunity and get a pound puppy.
She came from a litter of 5 girls. Two of her sisters looked like her and the other two looked more like black labs. The entire litter was surrendered. I got first pick and I chose the most submissive one of the bunch. Her name was Mona, but I've renamed her Teagan since I think that name goes better with Keeley. I just checked back on the Wisconsin Humane Society website and it looks like the other 4 girls were adopted yesterday as well because they are no longer listed as available for adoption.
Keeley is not quite sure what to make of her. He keeps making this face at me that sort of looks like he's rolling his eyes at me. Like he's saying "Erin, what is this stupid, annoying, little cry baby doing here?" She's eating his food, taking his toys, peeing in his yard, drinking his water, monopolizing my time, and I don't think Keeley likes it one bit. But he's so sweet that he never makes a peep or acts aggressively towards her, even though I wish he would correct her when she's being really annoying to him.
Teagan already knows her new name and comes when called. Since she's been with her littermates up until now, she has already learned to have a gentle mouth. She slept in a crate last night. And she's been peeing and pooping outdoors. However, she did have one poop accident indoors this morning. While Keeley and I were eating an orange, she hid under a chair and did some puppy poop. I had just finished telling Keeley that I thought she needed a bath because she smelt a little poopie, when I caught her in the act. Oh well, everyone makes mistakes sometimes.
Keeley is just so sweet. Even though he was extremely tired from doggie daycare, he still mustered up the energy to romp with her for a little bit in the yard. He did his play bow and everything. He's already a very good big brother. I'm going to make sure that Keeley gets some individual attention today so that he knows that he's still top dog in my book. And I'm sure Keeley will grow to like his new sister in time.

MKE CO PARKS: Grant Park

2009-05-18T07:13:00.000-05:00

Yesterday we took our morning walk at Grant Park on the southside of Milwaukee.This is the entrance to the Seven Bridges Trail. It says "Enter this wild wood and view the haunts of nature." And on the other side as you're leaving it says, "May the God given peace of this leafy solitude rest upon and abide within thee."
This is one of our favorite trails because it is so pretty.
Keeley's grandma came with us because I get lost on the southside and also so that I would be more free to take pictures. She's so sweet to us!
If you walk in the direction that the water in the stream is flowing, it leads to Lake Michigan.
The lake was very calm this morning.
Keeley looks like he's lost in thought, staring out at the lake.
Keeley climbed up on this groin to get a better view.
These things were built in the 1930's to help prevent shoreline erosion.
Keeley sure is a handsome pup!
He doesn't usually like to go in the water, but his grandma threw a stick in so Keeley had to go retrieve it.
He was looking pretty happy running with his stick.
After walking on the beach for a while, we decided to continue on the trail.
This is a good time of year to walk on this trail if you're interested in native woodland plants and wildflowers because a lot of the underbrush hasn't grown in to hide them yet.
I'm not sure why this is called the Seven Bridges Trail, since there are really ten bridges.
I included this picture to show Keeley's cute butt.
There is a lot more to Grant Park than just the trail. It's 374.6 acres in size which is pretty darn big. It has 3 playgrounds, a soccer field, a couple of softball diamonds, tennis courts, and more.
There are also picnic areas, pavilions (like this one), concession stands, clubhouses, and an 18 hole golf course. The Oak Leaf Recreational Trail also runs though Grant Park.
And there's even more still! There is also the Wil-O-Way Recreation Center, where persons with disabilities can participate in all sorts of activities and also the Wulff Lodge, where scout troops can camp overnight in the park.
We found some pine cones while we were walking around.
Keeley likes to stop and sniff everything.
This was a good walk!

If you want to see more about Grant Park, you can check out our previous posts:
July 13, 2008
June 1, 2008

Keeley on the internet

2009-05-15T21:55:00.001-05:00

I've been so busy getting my garden ready that I almost forgot to mention that Keeley was featured as one of the Daily Smilers on The Bark magazine website last weekend.

MKE CO PARKS: Menomonee River Parkway & Hoyt Park

2009-05-10T20:54:00.017-05:00

For our morning walk yesterday, we went to the Menomonee River Parkway since it's not far from our house. Keeley's grandma came with us so that I could take pictures. That was really nice of her.
Keeley left some pee mail so that other dogs will know that he was here.
We've been taking Keeley for walks at the parkway since he was just a wee pup.
This is my favorite tree along the parkway. I think it's got a good shape to it.
Keeley sure is cute with his ears flapping while he runs. This parkway is part of the Oak Leaf Recreational Trail that connect all our major parks together.
That's the Menomonee River. We've been getting a lot of rain storms lately so the river is really high right now.
On the other side of the river is Hoyt Park. It's 20.48 acres in size.
Keeley decided that he was going to lead us on a trail along the river even though it's a bit muddy today.
It sure is pretty now that everything is getting green.
Oh boy! Keeley found some ducks sitting along the river edge. His grandma had to hold him back. Look at him pull!
The ducks hopped in the river and paddled over to the bank on the other side.
Keeley was wondering how he'll be able to get them now.
This is a pretty river but I think this past winter was hard on it. There's lots of erosion happening. Trees are falling into the river and some trails are being washed away.
Hoyt Park also has a playground and a sand volleyball area.
This is the old Hoyt pool. When I was in middle school, I'd come to the pool with my friends almost every week in the summer. It's been closed since 2003 because of some kind of structural problem that is too expensive for the county to fix. But there's an organization called Friends of Hoyt Park & Pool that is trying to raise money for a new pool.
I love the bright green color of the tree leaves in the springtime.
There are more trails behind the old pool.
This bridge was built in the 1930's with new deal labor.
Crossing this bridge we leave Hoyt Park and are back on the parkway side of the river.
Not a bad 45 minute walk.

MKE CO PARKS: Big Bay Park

2009-05-06T11:36:00.009-05:00

After our normal morning walk at Lake Park, we decided to scoot on up to Whitefish Bay to check out Big Bay Park. This park is only 8.68 acres in size.
The lannon-stone stairs that Keeley and I used to get down the bluff were constructed in 1940 with WPA labor.
This groin was also built around the same time to help prevent shoreline erosion.
Keeley just loves exploring new parks and he was so brave, running right out to the water.
After we explored the Lake Michigan shore for a little while, then we headed back up the bluff; this time using the paved walkway.
Keeley was looking a little tired as I was making him run (or trot) up the bluff. It was kind of steep and he had already walked for an hour at Lake Park.
Still, I think Keeley enjoyed this mini adventure to a new park. I figure any day that he gets to go to 2 parks probably counts as a good day for him.

As soon as we got to the car, Keeley slept all the way home. And even now as I blog, he sleeping in his grandma's bed.

Another stuck bunny

2009-05-03T10:42:00.006-05:00

Keeley got the jump on a rabbit that was in his yard this morning. It wasn't able to escape using it's normal routes since Keeley blocked them. Instead the bunny retreated into my secret garden behind the garage. Keeley's not allowed back there because my plantings are just getting established and I don't want him to trample them. The bunny went under the gate to get in there but once there, had no where to go since the fence is buried in the ground.

Keeley barked like crazy at the bunny from the other side of the gate and must have really scared it. The bunny wanted to get far away from Keeley's jaws so it tried to fit itself through one of the links in the chainlink fence. And of course, it's bottom half was too big to fit and then it was stuck there. No, this isn't the first time this has happened. Bunnies sure are dumb. First of all, why got into a yard you know belongs to a dog and secondly, why try to force your butt through a tiny little opening where it doesn't fit. It's just so dumb!

Anyhow, what I ended up doing was taking Keeley inside for about 30 minutes hoping that the bunny would be able to free itself once the threat was gone. The plan worked. When we went out again later, the bunny was gone, but it left a ton of fur behind. That bunny must have a pretty bald butt now.

MKE CO PARKS: Riverside Park

2009-05-02T10:44:00.017-05:00

This morning Keeley's grandma took us to Riverside Park. This park is kind of different because it has two distinct areas divided by the Oak Leaf Recreational Trail.
The first half on the park has a big playground area. This is just a small portion of it in this picture. The other play areas are made to be like different natural habitats such as wetland, woodland, etc.
There's also a softball practice field,
several tennis courts,
and a running track (behind this sculpture). And there are 3 rock sculptures like this in the park.
South of the track is the Urban Ecology Center. They offer summer camps for kids and a variety of workshops and activities for both adults and children. Much of the recent park improvements can be attributed to the Urban Ecology Center.
This foot bridge takes us to the second part of the park.
The bridge goes over the Oak Leaf Trail. When I lived on this side of town, I would often ride my bike on this paved recreational trail.
This part of the park is a wooded area. Here's a nice little campfire area.
Keeley was having a fun time. He likes to explore new places.
Riverside Park was also designed by Frederick Law Olmsted & Co. Back then it was called River Park. As you would expect, it's right on the Milwaukee River.
Keeley, of course, had to sniff everything. I guess that's just part of exploring a new park for him.
People can go canoeing and kayaking on the river.
Keeley walked with his grandma most of the time so that I could take pictures.
We saw some ducks along the river. And Keeley chased lots of squirrels too.
Keeley enjoyed this adventure. He gave this park his mark of approval.

MKE CO PARKS: Jacobus Park

2009-04-29T16:23:00.015-05:00

Keeley's walk at Lake Park this morning got cut short due to a gas leak in our basement. Now that it's all taken care of, we decided to take a short walk at Jacobus Park in the afternoon.
There's a big playground, a wading pool, and a sandbox. It's empty right now but on the weekends and after 3pm on weekdays, this place is packed with people.

Jacobus Park is located in a nice little neighborhood that is very family oriented. The only bad thing I can say about it is that it's a little too white bread. Other than that though, I think it would be a great place to raise kids especially with the park right here.
There are paths all over the park. You can enter/exit the park from multiple different points in the neighborhood.
Keeley was driving me crazy on this walk because he was in total sniff mode. I hate it when our walk goes so slowly.
Jacobus Park is 26 acres. It was named after Charles C. Jacobus who was an early Milwaukee businessman and also served on the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors.
Sometimes our walk at Jacobus Park only takes 20 minutes because it's not that big. But today it took us over 30 minutes because Keeley was walking so slow.
Jacobus Park is also a nature preserve. A lot of the paths have markers like this that tell you about the trees, plants, and animals that live there.
The park has an excellent variety of native woodland plants.
And a lot of the oak trees are over 150 years old.
There's also a park pavilion and the neighborhood association holds events there throughout the year. For example, in the fall they have a nighttime trick-or-treat event at the park.
There's a pond too. It's only about 3 feet deep in the middle but it supports some ducks and geese.
Today we saw this goose family. The baby geese are so cute. The only bad thing is Keeley thinks goose poop is delicious and I think eating goose poop is gross.
Across from the park is the Menomonee River. Keeley and I crossed the street to check it out. We've had a lot of rain lately so the river is high and moving pretty fast too.
The park also has 2 picnic areas and a small practice field.

For more information about Jacobus Park, check out the Charles Jacobus Park Neighborhood Association.

MKE CO PARKS: Bradford Beach

2009-04-28T10:57:00.021-05:00

(and the bluffs on the south end of Lake Park)Keeley and I were taking our normal morning walk at Lake Park today when we decided we'd go explore Bradford Beach a little.
A lot of the Milwaukee County Parks connect together. And almost the entire lakefront is green space and parks. Here we are at Lake Park looking down from the bluffs. Below is Lincoln Memorial Drive, Bradford Beach, and Lake Michigan.
Lake Park extends almost all the way to the Old North Point Water Tower which you can see in the distance here. It's a victorian gothic style tower that was built in 1871.
To get down to Bradford Beach, there's this nice path that takes us down the bluff.
Keeley really loves this path. Once the leaves grow in on the trees, it will be covered in shade.
Keeley's got a cute butt.
When we get to the bottom of the path, there's a little pedestrian bridge that goes over Lincoln Memorial Drive. We're leaving Lake Park now.
The bridge takes us to the Bradford Beach House. In the summer they have some volleyball events here. There's a snack shop and patio tables and chairs.
Bradford Beach is 29 acres. It's quiet here this morning because it's kinda cold and windy.
Keeley likes exploring. He doesn't mind a little cold.
And he likes wind a lot. Check out his ears blowing in the wind here.
Keeley likes to walk on sand too. It must feel good on his paws.

In the summer we often see people with retriever type dogs playing with them on the beach. Keeley always wants to follow them into the water but I'm reluctant to let him because I don't think it's clean enough.

Five years ago, the beach was really bad. There was a lot of bacteria like e coli in the water. Recently there's been efforts to clean up and revitalize the beach. Companies like Miller Brewing Co donated a lot of money. And the beach is trying to get Blue Wave Certified by the Clean Beaches Council.

I'm still reluctant to let Keeley go in though. Just this past week the city dumped raw sewage in the lake, overflow from all the rain we've been having.
As we were leaving we saw this sign. Keeley made sure he left his mark on it.

MKE CO PARKS: Washington Park

2009-04-24T17:22:00.003-05:00

The second park we decided to check out is Washington Park. It is 128.95 acres and was also designed by Frederick Law Olmsted & Co.
We live just a couple of blocks away but Keeley will not walk to it since he's scared of buses, trucks, and motorcycles. So we had to drive and park in the Senior Center parking lot. In the above picture you can see Miller Brewery in the distance.
There are 2 playgrounds like this at Washington Park. Keeley voluntarily went down one of the slides on this playground. It's weird because he usually doesn't like it when I make him do stuff like that.
Here are a couple of interesting facts: In the late 1800's Washington Park was called West Park. Also, there was a zoo at Washington Park during the first half of the 20th century. In the early 1960's the zoo and its animals were relocated to the current home of the Milwaukee County Zoo.
From the 1890's through to the early 1970's, the Washington Park neighborhood was mostly German and very middle class. This statue of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller was created in 1908. It is supposed to represent German people's pride in their artistic achievements.
This is The Temple of Music band shell. Its construction was completed in 1938. It has recently been restored by Harley-Davidson.
Keeley climbed onto the stage with his grandma to do some tricks. Here he's demonstrating "Give Paw".
After WWII, middle working class African American families began moving into the Washington Park neighborhood and the white population began moving further west into the suburbs. In 1970, Milwaukee was at its industrial peak with very low unemployment levels. The African American population grew as families migrated here from southern states.
Unfortunately, these good times didn't last. A decade later in the 1980's, manufacturing plants along the industrial corridor, the Milwaukee River, and the Menomonee River started to close, causing great job losses. The Washington Park neighborhood was hit hard by this and the poverty rate soared. During this last quarter of the 20th century, the county neglected Washington Park and let it fall into disrepair, perhaps reflecting the unspoken racism of the time.
Recently though, revitalization efforts have been gaining momentum. For example, behind Keeley in this picture there is a new boat launch being constructed.
In the last 20 years, the Southeast Asian (Hmong and Laotian) population in the Washington Park neighborhood has more than quadrupled. I think this group is fascinating because of how rapidly they've assimilated.
These 2 cement arch bridges go over a huge lagoon. In the early 1900's park visitors could rent row boats. The lagoon was designed to only be 4 feet deep to lessen the chance of drowning if a boat were to overturn.
That's the Urban Ecology Center on the other side of the lagoon. They offer a summer camp in Environmental Education for kids.
It looks like they also take kids out on the lagoon in these canoes. And we saw a flyer for a fishing workshop for kids, so we figure the county must stock the lagoon with fish.
Isn't this cool? All the doors to the Urban Ecology Center are painted with different nature scenes like this one.
Our neighborhood is called The Martin Drive Neighborhood and we border Washington Park on the south. Our neighborhood association is trying to take claim of Washington Park by staging several events here this year. For example, there is a neighborhood rummage sale being held at the Senior Center from 8AM-NOON tomorrow.
Washington Park also has a public pool. It's still empty right now and there seems to be some construction going on too. We hope it'll be ready for operation by summer. We plan on attending the Doggie Dip here this year.
There are also basketball courts, tennis courts, and 2 baseball diamonds. Although these things are in a serious state of neglect, especially compared to other parks within the county park system.

Here's an interesting photo comparison on someone else's blog: Washington Park Vs. McCarty Park

For more info about this park, you can check out our past posts:
August 10, 2008
August 12, 2007

MKE CO PARKS: Lake Park

2009-04-23T17:31:00.036-05:00

Since we take our morning walk at Lake Park several times a week, we decided that it would be the first park that we wrote about.Lake Park is 137.76 acres. It was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted & Co.
This, the Lake Park Pavillion was built in 1903. It is currently the home of Bartolotta's Lake Park Bistro, which is an expensive french restaurant. But when I was a kid, there was just a little snack bar inside. After our walks we would beg my mom (Keeley's grandma) to let us stop and get something sweet like a popsicle, a soda, or a licorice rope.
Keeley and I ran into George and Gracie in front of the Pavilion this morning. I'm not sure whether this dog here is George or if it's Gracie, but I sorta think it must be George. They look just alike so it's hard to tell. We know the names of almost all the dogs that have their morning walks at Lake Park. Sadly, we only know the names of a couple of their owners though.
Right across from the Pavilion are 2 lawn bowling rinks and a clubhouse. Keeley's grandma always says that when she gets old, she's going to take up lawn bowling. You can find out more about this sport by going to the Milwaukee Lake Park Lawn Bowls Club website.
This bridge was built in 1905. It goes over Ravine Drive which is my favorite road.
The road exits onto Lincoln Memorial Drive (my second favorite road) which runs along the lakefront. That's Lake Michigan in the distance there.
There are several ravine trails throughout Lake Park.
These trails were Keeley's Unkie Rob's most favorite thing to do at the park when he was a little kid. But we're not going to take the trail today because it's probably a little muddy since it's been raining for the past 2 or 3 days here. By the way, that's the bridge that we just came across in the background there.
Here's Keeley going across another bridge. I think this one was built in 1892, but I could be mistaken.
And another bridge. Both of these bridges go over the Locust Street Ravine Trail. After we get across this one, then I let Keeley off leash for a little while.
He takes off running because there are almost always dogs to play with up ahead. I think it's supposed to be a soccer field but the dogs have taken it over as theirs.
Keeley sometimes goes onto the tennis courts to play too. That is, if there aren't any tennis players there, of course. There are also 2 kid playgrounds and a park building with restrooms nearby.
After a quick romp with the dogs, we continue on with our walk. Here Keeley is checking out what remains of an exercise station. See when I was a kid, there was a fitness trail. Every so many feet there was an exercise station and instructions on how to do a specific exercise and how many reps to do and whatnot. Not much remains of this fitness trail today though.
The Oak Leaf Trail is a 108 mile long multi-use paved recreation trail that goes through all the major parks and parkways in the Milwaukee County Park System. It makes a loop around Lake Park.
In the distance here you can see what some of the huge houses that border the park look like. We often wonder if anyone lives in these houses because we almost never ever see anyone outside them other than a random gardener or landscape worker.
Lake Park also has a nice little golf course.
Keeley likes to lead the way. He says "Hurry up, Erin! I know where to go!"
Continuing on this way, we past the North Point Lighthouse. You can go inside, but they charge admission.
Keeley convinced me to go on one of the ravine trails even though it is a bit muddy today. This trail goes under a bridge which is one of 2 that were built in 1897. The trail exits at Bradford Beach.
These bridges are framed by 8 stone lions. Sometimes in the winter, the lions wear red ribbons around their necks.
The other bridge is currently under construction. It's not expected to be completed until September. I hope it ends up looking pretty like the old one did.
All along the side of the hill there are daffodils beginning to bloom at this time of year. It's really pretty.
This is called the "Grand Stair". Keeley's cousin dog Tully's parents were married here at the middle landing. A pretty setting for a wedding, don't you think?
Keeley and I often end our walks at Lake Park by going up this staircase. It makes us both a little tired. That's the Pavilion at the top so we're back to where we started once we get up there.

There is also a softball diamond, picnic areas, birdwatching, and a statue of Dr. Erastus B. Wolcott that we didn't get around to on this walk. If you want to find out more about this park, you can go to the Lake Park Friends website.

Or check out our previous posts about Lake Park:
February 14, 2009
August 30, 2008
April 6, 2008
January 26, 2008
December 29, 2007

Keeley loves to visit our parks!

2009-04-22T15:34:00.018-05:00

Keeley and I decided that we'd start exploring our Milwaukee County Parks since we haven't had much to blog about lately and I'm still unemployed. It's finally starting to feel like spring around here and it would give us something good to do everyday.

First we'll start off by telling you a little about our park system and then in later posts we'll talk about specific parks.

The Milwaukee County Park System was founded over 100 years ago. It is an interconnected system made up of over 15,000 acres of parks, trails, and beaches. The parks are sometimes referred to as "Milwaukee's Emerald Necklace" and they have a rich history.

Many of the parks started out as neighborhood squares and private gardens. Some were purchased, donated, and expanded over the years. Frederick Law Olmsted & Co. designed some of the city's best parks including Lake, Riverside, and Washington Parks. You might recognize the name because he's most famous for designing Central Park in New York City.

At one point the the city parks and county parks were governed by separate commissions but economic problems during the Great Depression caused them to be combined. The Depression also brought about the largest period of growth and development for the park system. Roosevelt's New Deal provided huge amounts of relief labor.

First there was the CWA (Civil Works Administration) in the early 1930's. There weren't much funds available for materials so much of the labor done at this time focused on things that didn't require many materials and most of the work was all done by hand. Miles of trails and walks were created. Sprinkler systems were installed. Phone wires were taken off of poles and put into the ground to improve asthetics. Electric systems were installed. Lagoons were created. Lots of grading was done. Underbrush was cleared and trees trimmed. Thousands of feet of sewers were installed. Trees were moved and more were planted. Benches, picnic tables, row boats, and signs were built.

Next came the WPA (Works Progress Administration) in 1935-1941. Labor completed during this period included the construction of 6 concrete pools, filtration plants, and bathhouses. At Brown Deer Park, the lagoon was enlarged and a pavilion and arch bridge were constructed. An administration building, service building, and new golf club house were built at Whitnall Park. Service buildings were also constructed in Jacobus and Jackson Parks.

Also operating around this time was the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) in 1933-1938. The CCC was created "to battle erosion and the destruction of natural resources". They constructed the Honey Creek Parkway and straightened a portion of the Milwaukee River. They also built piers, jetties, beaches, lagoons, roads, bridges, walls, park shelters, dams, and more at many of the county parks.

Much of the work done during this 11 year period is still around and still being used and appreciated by park patrons today.

Over the next 70 years work continued on the Milwaukee County Parks, although at a much slower pace. Significant postwar developments include the relocation of the zoo to it's present spot, the construction of the old County Stadium, the replacement of the conservatory at Mitchell Park with The Domes, the expansion of the bike trail system, and the continued development of the lakefront including the art museum and the marina.

Photos from top to bottom are: 1 & 2 Menomonee River Parkway, 3 Jacobus Park, 4 Grant Park, 5 Runway Dog Park.