Giant Schnauzers

Happy New Year!

This last year has been a pretty good one until we reached December and lost our Greta girl.  The hole in our hearts is still large but is slowly being healed.  The healing is being helped by Miss Queenie who has arrived at our giant schnauzer compound out in the desert.  She is the sweetest smallest giant schnauzer I have ever seen.  She is petite and gentle and loves to give hugs.  She first stands on her hind legs and then gently places first one paw and then another on you.  Following that she grasps you in her paws and gives hugs and gentle butterfly kisses.  She has fallen in love with Tom and her favorite spot is in his lap.

She may be small but I don't think that will hold her back.  This morning she went outside to do her business, and Schultz was out there.  She watched him pee and then went over and looking him straight in the eye, peed right where he had peed before.  That is normally his job to pee where the girls have peed.  He didn't flinch but has been a tad more touchy today.  The pack is resettling itself and will restructure with the addition of Queenie. 

When we first came home and the first giant she met was Roger, she went right back outside and wanted back in the car.  If these enormous male giants were what she had to deal with then she wasn't staying at this stop, thank you very much!  But today she adores Roger and follows him around.  He is Big and she is Little. 

I just never realized how big Roger was before!

On the trip back Queenie got to walk on all kinds of stairs, used elevators and fell in love with every human she met. 

She went rockhounding and stopped at Quartzite where things are just starting to happen. But she met a lot more people there.

She walked on the river walk in San Luis Obispo.

She got a quick ride through downtown San Francisco on her way to the desert Southwest.

We are looking forward to a wonderful 2008 and wish you all the best in the coming year as well!

Merry Christmas!

It was a fairly quiet Christmas at our house, but very nice.  Tomorrow we celebrate Christmas with children and grandchildren. 

The house was quiet with the dogs enjoying new toys and treats.

Schultz couldn't be bothered with sharing with the other dogs, so he slept on the floor.

Roger seldom gives up his creature comforts and his favorite spot is the bed,  "Our bed."

I guess he thinks it is "His Bed".

Merry Christmas All!

Fun With the Grandkids

Monday is baby-sitting day with the grandkids.  We thought it would be fun to pick them up and make Christmas cookies and gingerbread houses with them.  The gingerbread came from kits from Canada and were cute and fun to do.  Bethany knew which of the two of us between Tom and me was the most creative and handy.  And she wanted him to help her finish her gingerbread house!

After making the houses, the kids headed outside.  Before they did, they each wanted pieces of aluminum foil.  BIG pieces of aluminum foil they said.  After several trips inside to get foil, we went out to see what they were doing.  They are true children of television.  When I asked what they were doing, they were remodeling the climbing set.  The aluminum foil became doors, wallpaper and new wood flooring and Matty was Ty Pennington, the carpenter.  Just as cute I think too!

After that we had to go to the park.  I was teamed with Quinn  and Matty and Bethany were a team.  I was supposed to kick the ball about 25 feet to score a point, and my opposing team only had to kick the ball ten feet.  Did I mention that my kick was also up about a ten foot hill?  They thought it extremely funny when they were leading 6 6 to zip!  My teammate did not like the situation at all.  Never mind that he is only 3 1/2!  Back at the house they enjoyed a snack of Christmas cookies but we never got the rolled out ones done.  Left those to be done later.

Our Greta Got Her Wings This Morning

After a very hard night, our beloved Greta girl went to sit with God at the Bridge.  I know she is on my shoulder as I write this watching every word with her new Christmas toy she didn't get in her mouth.  She was only with us just a little short of five years having come from a wonderful loving home to ours.  She just made it to her ninth birthday as I had prayed all year she would.  She had a horrendous bout with pancreatitis just a year ago.  Her liver enzymes were off the chart then and no one knew how much time she had left.  The boys are very quiet as they miss the Queen as much as we do.  Time will tell as to how they rearrange the pack order.  Cancer is such an awful disease and these beloved animals can't tell us when something is wrong.  Only in hindsight do we realize that very slowly they may have changed.   Greta was dancing last week but she had stopped coming for her favorite treat, an ice cube, as ofter as she use to do. 

 

She would wait for one or both of us to come home and always met us with a stuffed animal in her mouth so she wouldn't mouth us. 

Staring at her food so intensely that laser stare could have vaporized it.

She loved her creature comforts as much or more than the next Giant Schnauzer.

She was a wonderful giant and she was a part of our hearts.

God speed Greta girl. 

Greta

Skansens What A Riot CGC 

11/25/1998-12/12/07

Focused eyes burning holes from her intense stare,

Following commands with the utmost of patience

Knowing food is her reward

Playing and chasing Hank

Completely unaware that she is the

Senior schnauzer of the group

Whirling around and around

Showing her love of life

And her world

Smacking those paws

With authority demanding that

The boys play with her as ordered

By the Queen; as she surveys her “boys”,

She nips butts if necessary

To get them to play.

Loyalty is her name

Given to protecting

Her humans

She stares intensely at neighboring cars

Whose drivers’ heads turn suddenly

Feeling her intense stare

Warning them to keep on

Driving away from “her” car

And “her” passengers.

She was the love of Roger’s life,

Schultz’s paramour and

Hank’s buddy, baby-sitter, and playmate.

She was the love of

My and Tom’s life

But at least we were with

Her when she went to liven

Up the Heavens.

I know she;s twirling around

And smacking her feet

Finally free of the pain

But always on our shoulders.

She will remain in our

Hearts For Eternity.

Thank you Dana

 

Our Greta Girl Is Ill

Our Greta girl, our nine year old pepper salt giant schnauzer became ill last Saturday afternoon.  She started vomiting and by evening, we were very concerned.  She looked at us as if to say, please help me.  At 10 PM that night, we left heading for the wonderful vet hospital and her vet and our friend.  By the time we got there, Greta had swollen glands all over her body.  During the four to five days previous to this, she had gotten me up in the night to go out and pee.  She had continued playing with the boys until maybe the middle of last week.  But those were the only real signs we had that she wasn't up to par.   When the blood work came back on Monday, it was the worst.  She has lymphoma with some leukemia tendencies.  She continued to get worse and this morning we took her back to the clinic, not at all certain we would be coming home with her.  Above all, we don't want her to suffer as much as we don't want to lose her.  She got her first treatment of chemo this morning and although she isn't eating yet, a lot of the swelling has gone down in the lymph nodes around her neck.  When I sit on the floor with her, she now paws at my hand to pet her if I stop petting her.  We are taking this as a good sign.  She has been drinking water all along, but if by Thursday she still isn't eating, I would like to see about an IV of nutrition when she goes back in for another chemo injection.

In the almost five  years we have had this incredible girl, she has wormed her way into our hearts.  I think though that the doors were wide open and we invited her in.  My mom said she thought Greta is one of the most loving dogs she has ever met.  Greta does have an intense stare though.  I have seen her sit in the front passenger seat and stare at a neighboring car in traffic.  I have also seen the driver's head spin around when he felt this stare boring into the back of his skull.  Each time it has happened there has been a look of amazement when the driver sees this large giant schnauzer very intently watching his every move.  The driver always appears to be pretty intimidated just as Ms Greta intended them to be.  Here she is ready for Christmas a few years ago.

Here is Greta with her buddy Hank our youngest giant and her play buddy getting their picture with Santa.

Here is our beautiful baby...........

We are taking it hour by hour and grateful for every minute we are allowed to have with her.

Hummingbirds and House birds

I have developed a deep love and admiration of hummingbirds.  They dive bomb our backporch usually one of the larger more territorial hummers after another less alpha bird.  They zoom in and out and around and often come very close to ears as we walk outside.  At the moment we have one hummingbird feeder out there and an oriole feeder out on the feeding station post further out.  But I have asked for hummingbird feeders for Christmas.  The one we have now we got last Christmas from our oldest daughter and her family.  The hummers have loved it and we love watching them.  I think this is a white eared hummer.

Same white eared hummer in testing his wings........

I don't know if this is an Anna's or Costa's or it could be some other kind....feel free to let me know.......

And another........

This one is a little blurry, but the purple on its neck is just beautiful.......maybe a male Costa??

This is Bleu our guest ring necked who talks up a storm.  I will add a video of him talking at the end.  He is amazing and enjoyed having the hummers fly around his cage while he was outside this afternoon.

This is his cohort Tango who doesn't like to have his picture taken and the camera knows it. 

There was another beautiful Arizona sunset tonight that we enjoyed also.

And here is a video of Bleu talking to me.....

Download bleu_on_the_backporch_talking.wmv

Our New Front Door

Well, it isn't a new front door but a new edging on the front door.  My husband is incredibly talented and it shows most every day.  We had gotten steel security doors and in the process of putting it in, he had to remove the framing and stucco  that was there since the security door wouldn't fit. The old stucco  wasn't a favorite of ours at all, so Tom decided to take this old cedar barnwood we had gotten off Craigslist from another Marine and cut it to use for the new framing of the door. 

This is the way the front of the house looked before we bought it and moved in.  Tom is at the front door.

This is the way the front of the house looks now after Tom  put up the security door and the cedar barnwood around the door.  We are thinking of doing this to all the windows in the front and then we want to put up some sort of shaded front porch.  Something Western to add more to the Western flavor the house is beginning to have.

And now the door a few days later getting ready for Christmas!  I just love the new look it has.

Giant Schnauzer Behaviors

This afternoon Fiona was standing in the front door looking outside.  Roger and Hank heard the garbage truck coming up the road.  Hank walked to the door and with his head, moved Fiona out of the way.  She moved back and said nothing.  You need to know that our giant schnauzers are nothing if not verbal most of the time.  They talk and grumble and complain like teenagers.

Roger the pepper salt giant schnauzer moved in and moved  Hank to the side and Fiona further back, again with no sounds from anyone. 

Roger stood briefly with Hank and then by himself  like it was his doorway.  This seemed obvious from the back as well as the front I am sure.  Roger just watched the garbage truck outside without a sound until the truck moved on.

That is Schultz in the bottom of the top picture  just watching the process.  Tom says that is what  a Sergeant does... they stand back and observe the underlings at work.  I am not really certain which dog is the underling. 

It was just interesting to watch the body movements of the dogs as they moved in and out of position and never made a sound.

Yes, Virginia, There IS Water In AZ Every 3rd Year Or So!

For most of the last week, the weather bureau has been predicting rain with a severe weather alert. Now I know we have had almost no measurable rain since July or thereabouts, but a severe weather alert just for rain.  Right they were to predict such a thing.  As of this morning we have had 2.6 inches of rain in the last 24 hours.  We only get about 8 inches on the average and almost no rain in November but December is one of our heavy rain months.

Amazingly enough, the big 404 wash behind our house has no water running in it since the rain started out quite gently allowing it to soak in and give us a lot of water.  The wildflowers need one inch of rain at this time of year and two to three weeks of cold days and clear nights in order to sprout and create the artists' paintings of wildflowers in the Arizona deserts in the spring.  I have seen fields of flowers out here that waited ten to twenty years before they sprouted. 

We have water in the wells dug around the plants to help trap rain water and water the plants more deeply.

We have water where there are no wells............there is water most everywhere right now.

Now to watch for the wildflowers sprouting!  Did I mention that our less than two year old roof leaked into the dining room and that will be a mess that has to be repaired and cleaned up.  Luckily there wasn't too much that came into the house, but will have to wait and see what is up there.  Only in Arizona can you live in a house for almost two years and not know if the new roof is water tight!