Lucy and Ricky's New Collars

My brother is one of the best gift givers I've ever heard of!  Long ago, he bought me my first really nice guitar.   And also, as I've written about before, he's taken me to Hawaii a couple of times!  He picks sometimes extravagant, always cool, very thoughtful gifts.

So this Christmas, since I am all about my puppies all the time, the best gift anyone could give me would be something for them!  My off-the-charts-gift-giving-brother told me he was going to pay for both Ricky and Lucy to get custom leather collars by the uber talented Tricia Vaughan.  He had found her on the internet a while back when he had a super blingy collar made for his dog, Deville.

Here is Deville wearing his collar.

The Ricardo's and I were all super excited to start thinking about what their collars would look like.  Up to this point, they've had generic collars that really just weren't snazzy enough for them.

Old, boring collars.

 In fact, here's what Ricky had to say about his old collar:

Tricia doesn't live in Texas, so there was a lot of emailing back and forth.  I had some idea of what I wanted the collars to look like, but she was able to really bring it all to life and completely over-deliver!

We were so thrilled the day we got the package in the mail-- just about a week before Ricky and Lucy's 1st birthday.  How perfect is that?

So here they are~  (drum roll please!)

aren't they gorgeous?  and just perfect for my two?!

Ricky Ricardo's hand tooled congo drum is my favorite thing about his!

Lucy's girly hearts and flowers twinkle, just like her!

How snazzy does Mr. Ricardo look now?

And how sweet is this collar on Lucy?

We couldn't have been happier with the way these collars turned out.  The photos I took don't even do them justice!  They're really pretty unbelievable.  Just like Lucy and Ricky!

Rain!

Here are a few pictures of Ricky Ricardo after we returned from our run the other morning.  We got caught in the rain, which he didn't seem to be a fan of.  Sorry, Ricky.  I'll check Weather.com next time!

Happy Birthday, Lucy!

The little lady turned 1 yesterday!

She and Ricky have been eating birthday cookies all week from when he and I made the run to the pet store for his big day last week.  Lucy wants to keep her bikini body so we decided not to get any more cookies.

Instead, we went to one of her favorite spots- a park with a big field and some nice trails.  Fermin went with us, and we took her frisbee so she could catch some really long tosses!  She, of course, did excellent and it was worth enduring the cold-

When we got back home, she got a brand new hoof to chew on.  Of course, Ricky did too.  And then it was hours of relaxation while we all watched the Grammy's.

Celebrate!

Yesterday was Ricky Ricardo's 1st birthday.

Anticipation...is making me wait!

I wanted to make his day special.  We take walks every single day, and although I thought we'd take some extra fun walk somewhere for his birthday, well... it was a little cold, and neither he nor I really could get ourselves excited to get out in it.  So we just said, "Screw it!  Let's just go get some cookies and lay around all day instead!"

So that's pretty much what we did.

We didn't get lucky with cookies, but we did get a great toy!

First, we went to Lucky Dog Barkery.  I had just shoved a $20 in my pocket thinking that would be plenty for a few cookies and maybe a little toy.  But just the cookies there were right around $10 a piece.  Something that can be gobbled up in less than 10 seconds should not cost $10, should it?  That's a dollar a second!  (I'm super smart at math!) Since I knew they had equally fancy, although less expensive cookies at Pet Supplies Plus, I told Ricky I'd take him there for the cookies instead.

We did, however, find a cool toy that's also a pretty tricky food dispenser.

Here's a little video of Ricky getting to experience the new toy:

Since it cost right around $20, we had to swing by the house to get more cash for cookie shopping.

B-day cookies!

The fancy cookies at Pet Supplies Plus were only $1.35 which sounded like such a steal after our comparison shopping.  So Ricky got to pick out two cookies for himself and he even picked one out for little Lucy!  (I'm sure she'll return the favor on her birthday, which is in just a few days!)

It was a great day-  For a great boy!  I had know idea this time last year that he was being born!  In fact, I didn't even know I'd be in the market for new puppies only a couple of months later.  But life works out how it's suppose to work out, and sometimes the surprises are just so sweet.

Two very sweet surprises that came to me after a sad winter.

Happy Birthday, Dear Ricky!

My Little Ricky....

turns 1 today.

Leave it!

This past weekend, Ricky was supposed to meet up with his Therapy Dog Prep classmates at The Pooch Patio.

I was so excited- Love the name, and when I looked it up online, it sounded like a cool little spot~a fun, outdoor bar that was dog friendly.

Unfortunately, altho it is dog friendly, almost no one (dogs or otherwise) was there.  The two of us showed up a little early to check the place out.  I wanted Ricky to have time to settle in around all the guests and customers  before the other students showed up. 

 But apparently, it's not as hot of a spot as we had hoped for.  So not hot in fact, that they close around 5pm on Saturday-- What kind of a bar is that anyway?!

This little cutie was the only other customer that was there while Mr. Ricardo and I waited for class to start.

Only one other student showed up, and bad traffic made the instructor over half an hour late.

We didn't get to practice using good manners in a crowd, because, well, there wasn't a crowd!  So we just practiced without the crowd.  (Not near as challenging!) We had our pups walk near the grooming area with lots of loud sounds going on-- barking, blow dryers, etc. (Ricky handled it very well!) We also took our dogs off leash and had them practice staying in a sit and down position. (Again, way to go, Ricky!)  To make it a little more challenging, the teacher threw a few treats on the floor and we were told to tell our dog to "leave it" if they tried to go for it.

Ricky Ricardo paying close attention to the teacher's directions.

Ricky came to me when I called, but then the 2nd time through, he saw the treats and started veering towards them.  I was nervous because we were being observed (how stupid!), and I ended up using an uncharacteristically stern voice and picked up his leash and yanked it. :(  Usually, I sound way more like a cheerleader than a drill seargant.  Apparently, I completely freaked Ricky Ricardo out because he not only left the food, but wouldn't look at it or walk near it again.

We've played the "Leave it/Take it" game many times before with treats and toys.  But since that day at the Pooch Patio, once I say "leave it", game OVER.  I can't entice the "Take it" part the last couple of days.  I traumatized Little Ricky!!!  He's a very sensitive little man.  I won't make the same mistake again...

Exhausted on the drive home from school at the Pooch Patio