meow/bark/blog

The key is to have an adorable, already well-behaved dog who sweet-talks the in-store dog trainers by showing off her pitiful repertoire of tricks. Then, while they’re cooing over what a good girl she is and how nice it is to see a pug who isn’t obese, and how good the big dog is even […]

We call Ty a horse dog because he’s such a giant, being a bullmastiff and all, so of course we assumed that he’d just love real horses. Boy were we wrong.
We took him to historic downtown Fredericksburg the other day while we were running errands. First we swung by the used bookstore, where Ty sniffed […]

The first time we took an adult Isabel to the vet, we took Jesse’s new truck. About 15 minutes down the road, she peed out the side of the carrier all over the center console. Needless to say, Jesse was not pleased. And amusingly enough (amusing, that is, if you’re Jesse and your new truck […]

Want another fun way to keep your dog cool and give him a summer workout? Check out Wal-Mart’s $11.99 plastic kiddie pool. We got one for our dogs and one for my sister-in-law’s four dogs, and they’ve been a smashing success.
Pickles is happy to jump right in and splash around, but Ty is more reluctant. […]

We recently got Pickles and Ty a ChuckIt! toy, and it’s the best/worst thing we’ve done for them. On the positive side, they’ve all but completely stopped digging in the yard since we started playing fetch with them every morning with the ChuckIt!. On the negative side, Pickles has become a total freak about tennis […]

If you want Ty and Pickles to freak out with excitement, here’s the key phrase: “Wanna go for a ride in the car?”
Today we went for a ride to the post office, which is always the highlight of their day. Ty jumped from the backseat right into the passenger seat, where he somehow managed to […]

Remember how I said the other day that getting rid of the litter box was going well, and that we hadn’t found any surprises? Well, we found them.
I walked into the laundry room closet the other day to make sure the cats had food and to get breakfast for the dogs, and I found a […]

He or she jumps in your lap (or on your chest) every time you sit down with a book. (Ty and Pickles)
He carries your magazines around the house and digests the contents by eating them. (Ty)
He eats pencils that mysteriously appear on the floor of your home office. Note: The cat may be in cahoots. […]

Now that we’re letting Zoe and Isabel outside since we’ve moved to the country, we’ve decided that it’s time to try getting rid of the litter box. I’m having some anxiety about it even though I’m eager to not have to scoop the poop anymore, and I’m thinking that parents going through potty training experience […]

Pickles and Ty have developed a terrible habit of digging in the yard. Honestly, we don’t care that much because we’re just excited to have a yard, but we don’t want them to get used to breaking the rules.
So, we’re trying to smack down on the digging thing. The first step was to fill all […]