Puppy club outing at the Hamilton Fire Station

 Our puppy club visited the Hamilton Fire Station in Novato. The folks there were great -- they led the puppy parade through the station, started engines, blew sirens, opened up the ambulance for the puppies to walk through and showed us all their gear. We had a great time!

 Lovely group photo. For more pictures of the outing, click on this link:

https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/112987909984668507901/albums/5682127833676116113
It will take you to a Google+ photo album.

I'll try and upload all the pictures from there to this blog later this weekend.

France and Half Dome

Here's a picture of France and me in front of Half Dome. It was pretty cold -- for us coastal folks. France did really well on his first trip to the mountains. More later.

Silky's 2 today!

Happy Birthday, Silky. Remember our trip to LA and how much fun you had with Dylan in Santa Monica? That trip was in January '11 -- not quite a year ago. Seems like a lot has happened since then -- especially after returning Silky to GDB in March and raising France since then. Best wishes, Silky, for a happy year and lots of kongs.

Big improvement

France is much better! Hooray!

His tests came back negative for parasites, so his digestive upset must have been caused by something he ate. I wonder about that little spider he snarfed up on one of our walks. Or gnats - he loves to grab gnats and little flies. I suspect we'll never know.

The combination of Flagyl and ID dog food/bland diet have worked their magic. France has given us a normal looking stool and we're back to work today.

Handsome boy -- hard at work!

Poopy puppy

France has diarrhea. Yuck. Poor guy. He woke us up at 3:30 Sunday morning, whining in his crate. He'd pooped in there and was super contrite. Needless to say, this started about 12 hours of mad dashes for the relieve area outside - usually about every hour or so.

We went right to the bland diet protocol, cooked up tons of rice, bought out the local grocery store's stock of cottage cheese. We started France on Pepto Bismol, which seemed to put a stopper in the pup. No more diarrhea for the next day and half so we stopped the Pepto. Guess what returned? Big time.

Today, we took a trip to the vet. They'll run a couple of tests to see if they can find a cause. And France and I came home with Flagyl and some ID dog food.

So what did he eat? Leaves? Sticks? Rocks? He's never off leash -- even to relieve. We live in a condo so we don't have a yard. It's a mystery. Whatever it was, it certainly upset his digestive system. Hopefully, the Flagyl and ID will calm it down and France will recover quickly. After all, we have an outing on Saturday at the Jelly Belly factory in Vacaville.

If you've had similar experiences with your pup and/or have a good remedy, let me know. France, especially, will appreciate it.

Puppies and ponies

Our puppy club was invited to visit the Sonoma Horse Park in Petaluma. We went last summer, too, so this was our 2nd annual outing. The manager, Ashley Herman Griffin, took a minute to hang out with France.

Apparently, France thought Ashley had been working too hard and needed a puppy pick-me-up.

Here are the puppies and raisers who were able to make the outing. Elizabeth (4th from right) is with her new breeder, Jaika. The black lab next to Jaika is Zia, a new transfer puppy. Welcome to both the new BLFs!

The horse park was busy. This is a young rider in the hunter competition. France enjoyed watching them in action . . . from a distance.

Here Ava and Canasta (puppies L and R) are walking with Nancy and Carol (humans). There were lots of horses and ponies, and lots of puppies and pet dogs.

Elizabeth taught us the right way to feed apples and carrots to the horses. Keep those fingers flat! Just like giving a piece of kibble to an excited pup who is on food protocol. France politely uses his lips to get the kibble.

We walked down the line of stables to meet more horses and see them in their stalls. Who's more interested here? The horse or Joe, Sharon and Bill's career change lab.

Three black labbies hanging out in a bit of shade. They are Zia, Jaika and France (left to right).

Great carrots!

France passed out as soon as he got into the car for the ride home. It was a big day for a little puppy.

Silky was adopted!

Silky found a new home. The folks at GDB worked long and hard to find the best family for her. She went home with them a couple of weeks. ago. We'll send our contact information to the Dog Placement folks to forward on to Silky's new family. Keep your fingers crossed that they get in touch and we can keep up with Silky in her new life.

Here's Silky with Stacy and Stockholm (Silky's in the middle) at Fun Day 2010. Her brother, Stefano, is waiting to be matched with his new partner. Another brother, Stockholm, has been selected as a breeder. Sisters Susie and Sophie are in training. And sister, Stacy, has been selected as a breeder. Their brother, Spencer, was donated to a guide dog school in Samsung, Korea.