Although the Scotties are not fans of Halloween, they wish all of their friends a happy day. Here are two of our favorite redone pictures of the Scotties in costumes. They were made into tiles in one of the classes available at our local library. Sophie can’t sit still long enough to get a decent picture with her siblings.

Has anyone had any experience with this disease? Sidney was diagnosed this afternoon. He has a bunch of tumors in his bladder. We thought that he kept getting UTI’s, but it was something else. The doctor did not recommend surgery because of the size and numbers of the tumors. He does not act sick. He just has blood in his urine.

Three years ago today, a three month old bundle of joy named Sophie came to live in our household. She was supposed to be the quiet one of the litter and the breeder warned me to watch the older dogs and make sure that they did not bother her. Boy did she have it wrong. Sophie has made it a career to keep Sidney and Shelby on their feet. She is constantly hassling them. She takes away all toys and is a general pain in the butt. She is also the giver of the most kisses ever. I guess that it equalizes out in the end. Here’s looking forward to many more years of happiness and joy.

It has been a long summer. Thankfully the hurricane did little damage to the house. It did take a lot out of the dogs.  I was very spastic and put up shutters on top of the hurricane windows. It was not fun to be alone in the house with three nervous dogs. They did not want to be walked on the patio and I didn’t want to walk out in 90+ miles an hour wind and rain. After a whole day, I finally had to give in. They were not happy and Shelby refused to relieve herself at all. The other 2 finally urinated and made a hasty retreat to the door. I was soaked by the time that I got them into the house.

They paid for their lack of pottying by having colitis and urinary tract infections in Sid’s case.  It took two rounds of drugs to get him better.

We were lucky to have only minor tree damage. I found 5 shingles in my yard. I have not found where they were located. It is possible that they belong to a neighbor. There were no leaks in the ceiling. Almost all of the people that had fences, found them uprooted and broken.  Some massive trees were dislodged and their roots  were standing way up in the yard. They are finally picking up the debris from the vegetation. All of the broken fences are still on the ground.  The picture is of a neighbors large downed tree and the impressive set of roots that are standing up in the air.

Today is Sophie’s third birthday. It is hard to believe that she is three years old. She still acts the same way that she did on the day of her arrival- very puppyish.  Here is to many more years with this free spirit. The picture is from the day that she came to live with all of us.

The Scotties do not have a real appreciation for this holiday. The three of them are in various states of fear. The loud noises from firecrackers has been going off for days. It is illegal in Florida, but there is always a way to get around something. you have yo promise that the fireworks will be used to keep birds from destroying crops. I don’t know much about birds, but I don’t think that they are busy looking for crops at late hours of the night. Composure, Thundershirts, and Xanax are part of the remedies for the shaking. In most cases they do not work. The last walk of the night will be even briefer than usual. Sophie is crawling out of the house and urinating 2 steps from the door. She is worse than Sidney. Shelby picks her cues up from the other two. It will be a long night.

This handsome young dog sired Drew’s litter in 1999. He has a whole bunch of Championships before his name, but we called him Duncan. He was the proud father of Tiffany Sue, Lexie Lou, and Tory. The proud parents and the pups are now romping over the Rainbow Bridge

In the spirit of graduation time, I did a memory page of Drew’s many graduations from obedience school at the library recently. Drew was not the most well behaved little girl. She got along with Corky and a small select group of other dogs. She seemed to enjoy obedience school. It gave her exposure to both large and small dogs. Small dogs seemed to be more tolerable for her. Most of the dogs in obedience were larger dogs. We went to a  total of 4 times different sessions of obedience. Her teacher kept  saying that one more group of 8 classes would be helpful. Since she seemed to enjoy them , I kept enrolling her until she became a mother. At the end of each group of classes there was a test and a graduation ceremony. She did improve each time.

10 years ago, Sidney and his two brothers made a trip from West Virginia to Florida. They were going to their new homes. One was dropped off in Orlando and Sidney and his brother Rowdy came to Royal Palm Beach Florida. I have lost touch with the Orlando brother, but Rowdy lives about 4 miles away. We get together every once in a while and visit. We have gone to the dog park together. It got a little harder when Sophie came to live with us.  Rowdy also has a little sister. Lacey just turned 3 recently. Here is to many more Gotcha Days for the boys.