Holiday bling from cousin Maggie

Turtle and Duncan had a holiday party last night, which meant they got to wear their new holiday bling from cousin Maggie.

Let the fashion show begin...

Here is Turtle doing his model pout (notice Tyler is wearing a matching flannel!).



Next up is Duncan looking sleepy fierce.



And finally we have Maggie, who looks like she should be in an Orvis catalog (the boys could learn a thing or two from her).

Best Post Turkey Poses

We all did a lot of lounging around this past week. Grandma had the best human post-turkey pose with the "leg-over-armchair" maneuver.



On the puppy side it was a toss up. Duncan went for the "pillow as taco" strategy. Well played, Duncan.



While Turtle did the old-school "single paw dangle." We'll let you be the judge.

First snuggle

Look who we caught snuggled up in bed...

Go Blue!

Despite Duncan's heartfelt cheering, Michigan lost the homecoming game to Iowa this weekend. But we're still a maize & blue family!

Bedtime

Last night Duncan passed out on the couch watching cartoons...



while Turtle finally got to some of his reading.

Conehead

Duncan had his boy surgery last week and got to wear a cone for four days straight. Duncan came out if it looking much better than the cone.





P.S. Duncan and Turtle were the featured pets this week on their dog walker's website (!): http://pet-n-play.com/featured-pet/

First dog park trip together

Duncan, Turtle and I arrived back in Ann Arbor this week. We were very excited to get re-settled in our apartment and go to our local dog park.

Duncan held back with me while Turtle made his usual rounds.



Turtle checked back often to make sure everything was o.k. and to get Duncan up to speed on dog park etiquette.



Then Duncan felt brave enough to go explore on his own!



Then it was back home for a nap on the cool kitchen floor.

Abby & Finn

My mom's two adopted puppies, Abby & Finn, arrived last weekend (the same weekend Duncan and I came home from New York).

Abby & Finn were abandoned by a river in Minneapolis where a fisherman spotted them and brought them to a local shelter. They were suffering from dehydration and neglect and would not have lasted much longer on their own.

We're so happy to have them in the family!

Meet Duncan

Turtle doesn't know it yet, but he became a big brother yesterday! Tyler and I were walking near our summer apartment in NYC when we saw an adoption booth with three cavalier/cocker spaniel mix puppies.

We held the puppies and reluctantly left to catch our ferry to Ellis Island. We were very distracted at the museum thinking about those cute puppies. My mom, aunts, cousins and grandma were all visiting for the weekend and when we couldn't convince any of them to take one of the puppies, they started trying to convince us. After about 30 min of deliberation (yikes!) Tyler and I decided to rush back in a cab to see if any of them were still left.

When we got there, we discovered two had been adopted and one of the boys was still left! It took about 20min to fill out the paperwork and then we were walking away with our new puppy (wondering if we had seriously gone crazy and if Turtle would ever forgive us.)

After discussing names with the family that night at dinner, we settled on Duncan, or "Dunk" for short.

Duncan had his first full day with us today. We took him to Central Park and let him explore the neighborhood. It took us a while to complete the tour because people kept stopping to meet him; one guy even wanted to take his picture.

Here are some of the photos we took today. We'll have Duncan in NYC for the next two weeks and then he'll go home to meet his big brother! Wish us luck ;)

Summer vacation

Old mom has been watching Turtle this summer since I've been in New York for my internship (I decided Turtle would have more fun this summer with access to his own back yard and a nice big house to roam).

It's been hard being apart for so long, but we did get to spend some time together over 4th of July. Turtle spent a lot of time swimming with his cousins Luca (rotweiller) and Maggie (lab puppy).







Hope everyone is having a great summer!

A birthday celebration

Turtle turns two on June 2nd, so we had a little garden party last night to celebrate while the whole family was together.

On the menu were Apple Crunch Pupcakes (recipe courtesy of Preston's blog) with peanut butter and cream cheese frosting (Turtle's favorite part).




We made Turtle wait to blow out the candles until we all sang to him (our family has some particularly talented singers, so Turtle really enjoyed the serenade).






What a great birthday!

Reunion

This past weekend Tyler came to visit us from Tokyo, where he's been living for a work project.

If you were ever curious how a Puggle reacts after six months of separation from his human, check this out...

Puggle or human?

We'll miss you, Sadie

Last week our family lost our dear friend, Sadie, to cancer. One of Sadie's favorite places is our lake house in Michigan where she used to go for beach walks (sometimes with her sidekick, Turtle). She was a beautiful, sweet dog and our thoughts and love are with her parents, Mary Ellen and Uncle Bob.

Snow sports

That was fun. Now what?

Winters in Michigan

Turtle misses California, but he's gotten used to Midwest winters and loves going to the dog park to play in fresh snow.


Michigan pups are pretty tough, so Turtle always has friends to play with even when it's snowing and twenty degrees out.






All the humans at the dog park were making a big fuss over Turtle's "sharp" jacket, so this dog got a little jealous and tried to take it right off T's back...

Visions of cheese plates danced in his head

When I was in Tokyo visiting Tyler for Christmas my mom was in charge of watching Turtle. I got an interesting update email about midway through our trip. Here's what the email said (Note: My mom also decided she wants to be called Turtle's "old mom" instead of "grandma"):

"We had the buffet table all set up in the dining room careful to have the ham and tenderloin out of reach of busy puggles but when our guests were ready to eat we discovered Turd had helped himself to the platter of sliced cheese which wasn't put back as far. He apparently loves Swiss and provolone and large quantities don't make him sick." -- Old mom