Blarg is now on record as being against big vet bills, so I will agree with you there, Blarg.

My cat is healthy, sturdy like Russian ox. I feed her nothing but borscht and vodka, make her run naked in snow, teach her poetry, only long novels.

I've got a labradoodle called Poppy almost a year old. Very shy and doesn't bite or attack anyone and get along with great with every dog on the street. Not much else to say really.

Only got a couple of pictures of her on the PC and they are from when she was a puppy:





Will upload a couple more of her later

Poppy is a labradoodle, what a little sweetie. Labradoodle is such a great word.

Very cute puppy!

Labradoodle.

Everyone always repeats it in a surprised voice when they ask what type of dog she is.

Here she is this morning:

I can't tell if she looks perfectly fine or like she's got the hangover of the century.

I have a mixed black lab called Richy that my wife and I adopted from a shelter in October. He is very big. I walk him two times a day and usually have a lot of fun doing so. I specially like racing him and wrestling him. He prefers to play tug of war. It is very relaxing to walk every morning and every night with him.

That labradoodle is cute but the hair around his face looks like it would get yucky with food and water.

Where is the Irish guy at? I want to know how he's enjoying his Brittany Spaniel or whatever it is he has. I am contemplating getting one and have questions for him.

Blarg, I'm glad to see those Australian Shepherds looking so good and hearing about how they make your family happy. Yesterday, my wife and I adopted this Aussie Shepherd mix puppy. We named her Nutmeg.



She's about nine or ten weeks old. We chose her over another dog that had a gray coat and very blue eyes....really cute, but Nutmeg won us over. She's very laid back, and she loves to sleep.



We have been taking her for walks, and she is getting the hang of it. We're also trying to crate-train her. She does get whiny when we leave her in there and leave the room. But overall, she's been good about being in there. Nutmeg has started to eat and to earn treats. We have read that Australian Shepherds are eager to please and need mental stimulation to avoid boredom.

Unfortunately, our cat Meeko does not appreciate Nutmeg being in the house. Meeko is also very laid back, and he hasn't really checked Nutmeg out yet. He just keeps to himself. We don't allow Nutmeg to go everywhere in the house yet. Meeko does have his own space for now. We have caught Meeko sneaking into the room to spy on Nutmeg. Nutmeg doesn't even notice. We figure Meeko will get comfortable with Nutmeg on his own schedule.

Any tips about raising puppies or Australian Shepherds would be greatly appreciated.

What kind of dog is this?

I can maybe pass them along to my mom if you like. Probably a specific question would be best.

She is thinking of starting up a blog about Aussies now that she is retired. I got one started for her, but she was too wrapped up in her work and social life to bother with it before. She's a terrible technophobe, but I told her all she has to do is write and I can post it for her. We'll see.

Nutmeg looks very cute. Crate training is a great idea too. Nobody ever did this when I was a kid, but now it has caught on. I thought it was a little weird of mean at first, but now I'm finding my mom's adult aussies really enjoy their crates and go in them voluntarily quite frequently. It's their little indoor doghouse and they like it.

If Nutmeg expresses her Aussie side much, you will have to spend some physical time with her every day, like real walks, not just hugs, or she might develop problems that manifest in weird ways, everything from tearing up furniture to pulling our her own hair and having stress-induced illnesses. Aussies really are working dogs in every sense. They need to work. It makes them happy. They are not the lazy footwarmer type. In a way, an active dog like an Aussie is a dog you have to "live up to" if you don't want them to become destructive or sick or unhappy. They are simply too smart and driven to be treated like a potato or part of the living room decor.

So my first suggestion is, energetic walks every day without fail. Right after work is great. Our Aussies got a huge kick out of those slingshots you can get, the really big ones with surgical tubing and a metal brace that wraps around the back of your wrist, which you can use to launch tennis balls far away. They can get a lot of running in, and their curiosity is sparked. And every time they return with the ball in their mouths, you can praise them and pet them. They'll think the whole experience is the greatest thing on earth. In fact, so much so that you have to pace them or they'll run themselves flat and just plop down in exhaustion for a while and ultimately forget about the ball.

Also, if you're walking around outside, don't forget dogs don't wear shoes. Sometimes they get hurt feet from rough rocks, or blisters from hot pavement. You might not even know it until you see them limping, by which point they're already hurting and it's too late. So if you see multiple paths through a park, for instance, or that one side of the street has some cool grass for them to walk on and the other has only the hot sidewalk, make the extra effort to take the route that will keep their feet healthy. You don't want to have them making a long walk home on a blister, and a 40 or 60 pound dog is not easy to carry around for long.

We have three cats - we travel too much to have dogs.

Two of them "belong" to my wife. My cat is Fennimore - about to hit 22 years old.

Which is really old for a cat, and he's starting to have health issues - had a bladder stone about a year ago that needed two operations, but he pulled thru.

He walks into a room and looks around, like "what did I come in here for" - which is something that I find myself doing (I'm 54).

He's a great cat. I hope he can sneak thru another year - he'll leave a hole in my life when he's gone.

MM MD

Holy cow, a 22 year old cat? That is rare indeed. Is he a mix, or a particular breed?

Blarg,

I know I've said this before but these are some of the coolest dogs I've ever seen. Maile's eyes are amazing.

I think so too. They even match her outfit. Love the "blue" color on both cats and dogs, and I think the coats overall on these dogs are spectacular. The white on their chests is, I dunno, somehow absolutely brilliantly white, more so than the other white dogs we've owned and I've seen. I wasn't particularly prepared to like this breed, but their beauty plus their intelligence won me over hard and quick. It also doesn't hurt at all that the long coats of Aussies don't get tangled up much or shed much, and they clean off very easily, dirt not staining their coats at all. Compared to my long-time favorite dog, the German shepherd, whose coat is easily stained, can be oily, and sheds like crazy.

Isn't it funny how easy it is to see which one is the male and which one is the female in that bottom picture?

She's been on the internet again, reading Blarg's long Lounge posts.

Was just about to say that, do you feed it premium food or the cheaper brands?

it's an american eskimo...it's pretty damn small, picture doesnt really show its size. it's probably like 15 pounds tops.

decided to google big dogs after your post and came across this video. now i have to have one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2C5mF6LbxA

Just your standard "rescue" pound cat. I think he's lasted as long as he has because nothing bothers him. People, dogs, noises.....it's all good as far as old Fenner goes.

MM MD

****??? seriously? that's just sad that has to be starred out.

how much would it cost roughly a month to feed a big dog like a saint bernard? ive never owned a dog so i have no idea.

Definitely. There is something almost humanly distinctive in their look that tells you.

Is her mixed coloration common? It's incredible.

Yes, it's common in that breed. Not as common as in the litter picture I posted, but still pretty common. The coat coloration is called a blue merle.

That's how my cat is, like Buddha. Our earlier cats were so high-strung. One would crawl into kitchen cabinet whenever he heard thunder. The doorbell would send him scurrying off to hide. He was a great hunter, though. He'd kill these little gecko lizards and line them up on the front porch for us to admire. That cat meant a lot to me. He was solid white, and he was a grown stray when we got him.

When we lived in an apartment, our cat would stalk this dachshund. He'd hide in a tree and then pounce on it, but just to play. He loved to play. The dachshund's owner told this to my wife, and she capped it off with, "Heidi is terrified of him."