Memorial Day Cookout

We had our normal memorial day cookout today. Keeley got to invite some doggies this year but the only one who could come was Keeley's good friend, Oliver.
Keeley is so social that he would have been content to have just human visitors but having Oliver there too made Keeley's day fantastic.
The two of them are really well suited for each other. They never bark and are both very laid back and submissive. It was so hot (the hottest day of the year so far!) that they both just wanted to find a nice shady spot to lay down. Keeley was very happy just to have another dog near him.

May Update

Wow! It's been over 2 weeks since my last post here on Keeley's blog. The month is flying right by. Here's a quick update about what Keeley and I have been doing in that time:
Keeley likes to spend some time each day looking out the windows. From this window he's looking down at his yard. Sometimes he'll see a bird land in this yard and this causes him to go running like a madman down the stairs and to the back door. As if he had any chance of actually catching a bird.
Keeley started this cute behavior of going to his clothing cabinet and picking out a bandanna to wear. With this orange one on, I think Keeley looks like a little doggie boy scout.
Keeley started seeing his new vet. Her name is Dr. Heinrich and we like her a lot. Keeley started taking a new supplement from Standard Process for musculoskeletal support because his foot still gives him some trouble from time to time. Also, we think he may be developing allergies because he's licking at his hind legs a lot lately. I hope that's just a seasonal thing. Right now he's got an eye infection but is taking drops to clear it up.

Just in the last few days I've noticed Keeley favoring his bad leg. He's using it but he does this kind of skip where most of his weight and most of the work is done by his good leg. I think his foot gets agitated by uneven surfaces like gravel and wood chips. I daydream about winning the lottery and building Keeley his ultimate indoor doggie park with padded rubber floors and a doggie swimming pool. But since that's highly unlikely to ever happen, we've been taking Keeley to tennis courts to run around off leash early in the morning before any tennis players show up. The level surface is best for him.

I've been busy doing yard work and gardening all month. I finished all the flower beds and my container garden this weekend but keeping Keeley's yard weed-free is a never ending battle. We finally got a patio set. I think it'll make me more willing to just hang out with Keeley outside. He just loves to lay in the sun. It's been about a month since Keeley was groomed and I personally think that this is when he looks his best.
Other than all that, Keeley has just been up to his normal shenanigans like finding the largest branch possible to carry home on his walks and wrestling with his pillow. Well, I think that's pretty much it. Hopefully I'll get a chance to get caught up on blog reading this week too.

the Miller loop

We live in the neighborhood called Martin Drive. It's very Milwaukee because it's close to Harley-Davidson and to Miller Brewery. Miller's property actually starts right behind our garage. When we take Keeley for walks in the neighborhood we usually do a walk that we call "The Miller Loop". We call it that because at the halfway point we cut directly through Miller Brewery. It's about a 1.5 mile long walk. Keeley is scared of all things on wheels but he does pretty well on this walk even though he encounters lots of semi trucks, buses, and motorcycles. After all, he's been doing this walk since he was just a wee pup.The one thing I really hate about this walk is all the trash. It's everywhere! Broken glass, used ear-plugs, used chewing gum, cigarette butts, fast food wrappers, etc. Keeley does pretty good with "Leave it!" but he's terrible at "Drop it!". I usually have to remove chewing gum from his mouth at least once on this walk.
Otherwise, it's a pretty good walk. The distance is good; not too much and not too little. And it's super convenient since it's right in our neighborhood.

Keeley at Minooka today

We went to Minooka early this morning so that Keeley could do some running. We took him to the small dog area even though Keeley exceeds the maximum height allowance of 15 inches.
The reason we went to the small dog area was that half of the large dog part is still all fenced off due to mud. Plus whoever designed the park needs to go back to school because there is now a pond were there used to be a field. They didn't plan for it to be a pond but when all the snow melted, there wasn't any drainage or irrigation system in place and all the excess water settled into a low field in the dog park. It's over 3 feet deep in the middle! We asked the park rangers if they were going to pump the water out and they said no. It seems like they're planning on keeping it as pond now. I think that's totally stupid and for so many reasons. First of all, I don't want to have to bathe Keeley every time he goes to a dog park. Secondly, I wouldn't want Keeley going into a shallow mud pond right were lots of other dogs poop and pee. I think that's like asking for disease and at the very least it would make Keeley's sensitive tummy really upset if he drank any of that icky water. Third, if anything would happen to Keeley, I sure as heck wouldn't be thrilled about having to wade out into that yuck to retrieve him. So in my mind, the large dog area is now unusable and I'm really mad that I already paid for the yearly pass.
The only problem with the small dog area is that there are no other dogs there! That's why there's only Keeley and no other dogs in these pictures. He had the whole place to himself and he was not very happy about that. What's the point of going to a dog park if he's not going to get to play with other dogs?P.S. This is the 100th post to Keeley's blog!

Windy Day

We like wind. It's just another way that Keeley takes after me.
It was really windy today and Keeley loves to feel the wind in his fur. It blows his ears back and into odd positions. I love this crazy pup!

April Update

BEFORE:On Friday afternoon Keeley finally went to his groomers' to get clipped. We started off doing handstriping but both Keeley and I hated that. Instead Keeley gets clipped 3 or 4 times a year. Here are his before and after pictures.

AFTER:The most wonderful thing about Keeley being freshly groomed is that I can see his beautiful brown eyes with his built-in black eyeliner. Personally, I think he looks his best about one month after being groomed.

Here's some good news... the groomers said that they think Keeley is at his perfect weight. His grandma has been complaining that he feels boney lately. Now that all his excess fur is gone, he looks like a lean, mean, Keeley-machine! We weighed him and he's at 40 lbs now. That means he's lost more than 2 lbs. Good job, Keeley!

I did manage to sneak a picture of Keeley sleeping on the couch. He sure does love to sleep in the sun. He is such a sweetie pie!

We're so ready for a little sister for Keeley. We've long ago decided that her name will be Teagan, which means beautiful (Keeley means handsome). Her signature color will be purple (Keeley's is green). Too bad that we've got to wait another 6 months for a new litter. I just hope we get her before we've got to deal with snow again!

Keeley sleeping & sad puppy news

I'm a little behind on my blog reading but saw on Maggie & Mitch's blog that Gaucho and Verdi are having a sleeping sweet dreams contest. I think maybe we're too late to participate in the contest but think it's a great idea anyway. I looked through a zillion Keeley pictures but found very few of him actually asleep. It seems that I'm not very good at sneaking up on him. He always opens an eye right when I'm about to snap the picture, but I will keep trying!He likes to nap out in the hallway. I figure he thinks that he can guard both apartments best from there.

Now for some sad news... I was hoping that we'd get Keeley's sister in early June which would mean that she should have been born earlier this month. When the mama dog didn't go into labor on time, Keeley's breeder took her to the vet and they found out it was a false pregnancy. We are so disappointed because we are really eager for a pup sister for Keeley, but we really feel bad for that mama dog that was expecting puppies and is not going to have any. Keeley's grandma read up about canine false pregnancy and she told us that the mama dog gets sad and tries to nurse stuffed animals and stuff. It's so sad.

We were thinking about what to do about the sister situation now. We met a really sweet little Welsh Terrier named Maggie at Lake Park a few weeks ago. She was really cute and acted very sweet, just like Keeley. So we were thinking that maybe a pup like that would be a good sister, or maybe a WFT, or a Wheaten? But then we looked back at Keeley's puppy pictures and our hearts ached for another Irish Terrier and so we've decided to wait till fall for a new litter to be born.

now this is Keeley's idea of the perfect weekend (sort of...)

Well, it looks like spring finally decided to start. It was a beautiful weekend here in Milwaukee. Keeley spent all day Saturday with his grandma. They went to Muttland Meadows for a whole hour and then he got to lounge in the sun while she raked his yard and cleaned up the garage. Then Keeley lounged in the car while she washed it. Keeley just loves to lay in the sun. I call it "sunning his buns".Since I didn't have to work on Sunday, we all took a walk together at Lake Park in the morning. It was an hour long walk which is more than Keeley usually gets and he loved it. He got to meet a 2 year old Golden Retriever named Comet who he shared a stick with and also a 15 year old German Wirehaired Pointer named Charlie who wanted to own Keeley.
Here's Keeley walking with his grandma. He sure has grown up to be such a wonderful dog. He's been really good with dealing with bikes and strollers lately. He used to be so scared of those things. He was even able to walk right past the heating and air-conditioning unit behind Lake Park Bistro without being afraid of the noise it makes.
When we got home, Keeley watched me transplant some seedlings into larger containers. This is the first year that Keeley didn't even try to kidnap any of the newly transplanted seedlings and take them into his yard. He was a perfect little sweetheart and just watched me do my work without disturbing anything. Even when I'd duck into the house to retrieve something, he just waited patiently for me to return. What a good pup!
Here he is sunning his buns again with our neighbor, Chris. There are a lot of kids that live on our block and they love to come over and visit with Keeley.
Later on Keeley's grandpa is going to come over and barbecue something for us for dinner. Now that's Keeley's idea of a perfect weekend!

8pm Note: Oh no! It seems that Keeley is not feeling well again. Maybe we over did it on our walk? Maybe his tummy is upset again? He's got such a delicate digestive system! He's acting very low energy and he's got his tail between his legs. Did he eat something weird? Could it be the pizza from yesterday? It's times like this that I really wish he could talk to me and tell me what's the matter with him. For now, he just wants to be petted and loved. I hope my little fur-baby feels better in the morning! Actually, I'm beginning to wonder if this is just an act he does on Sunday evenings/Monday mornings because he knows I've got to go back to work.

destructo-pup

It's been a year since Keeley has done anything like this. Besides tearing up a lot of this bed, he also worked on a pair of his grandma's shoes and some cardboard boxes today. Keeley's and my schedules got out of sync. I stayed up too late and he went to sleep way too early last night. We usually nap together during the day but today every time I fell asleep, he turned into destructo-pup. I think he was mad at me for not paying enough attention to him. I did chase him around the house 18 times and 4 times in his yard but it wasn't enough. He so needs a sister!

What a failure of a day. We tried to go to the dog park but when we got there we found out that it was closed due to mud. I tried to practice "No Marking" with Keeley at Petco but totally failed at that since he marked 3 times inside the store. He was completely not listening to me at all. Plus someone had spilled M&M's and Skittles all over the lobby to the store which was a major distraction to Keeley since he loves sugar. And in the parking lot someone had dropped a bunch of cookies and I hate it when Keeley tries to eat food off the ground. It's so gross and I'm convinced he's going to get sick from eating moldy stuff. Before I got Keeley, litter and gum and cigarette butts on the ground never bothered me but now I can't stand that stuff!

Today was a bummer. I hope tomorrow goes better.

Make A Wish Upon A Star

We've been tagged by Asta to make a wish upon a shooting star.



Linda's Make A Wish Meme.

The Rules

1. Think about what it is that you want more than anything, what your heart's desire and fondest wish is, and what it is that you would wish for if you were to see the above wishing star flame across the night sky.
2. Right click and SAVE the blank graphic above.
3. Use a graphics program of your choice and place your wish on this picture:
4. Post the Make A Wish Meme and your wishing star on your blog along with these rules.
5. Tag as many people as you like so that there can be wishing stars all across the Blogosphere and ask them to please link back to Linda so that we can see what wishes others have made and share those wishes with others.



Keeley would like to tag his blogging buddies: Kirby, Lenny, Bogart, Balboa, and Faya to take this challenge and make wishes of their own.