Sunday, October 21, 2007

Halloween Party

Aidan and Ellie went to a Halloween party today.

Can you tell they had a ton of fun?


The weather was perfect, there were so many great people, and of course more beautiful dogs then you could count. It certainly was a wonderful day for all.


Aidan's jacket trying to eat him


Hey how come your jacket fits you??


Ellie and mommy


Aidan and mommy


And some other shots of all the beautiful dogs that were there

Marley and Me


Mommy just finished this book last night. I won't lie and say that tears weren't coming at the end as Marley began his sad decline as all animals do at the end. As a whole the book was touching and personal but really the story was a memoir about the Grogan family as well as Marley. It was watching the journey of 2 newlyweds as they changed from young adults into parenthood with Marley along for the ride. In many ways this book reminded me of my husband and I and I think that was part of the appeal of the book. When Jenny suffered her miscarriage and Marley was there it made me think of Ellie. Ellie and Aidan must of thought something was wrong with Mommy as she was hugging them almost through the end of the book. I also did see at the end where John writes his thanks that he mentioned Jon Katz as one of his inspirations for this book. Jon Katz is also one of my favorite animal writers and I read his column in the Slate about life on his farm as well as a few of his books including, A Dog Year 12 Months, 4 Dogs, and Me, A Good Dog, and The Dogs of Beldam Farm. Jon's books focus mostly on his border collies and his one book A Good Dog focuses on his border collie version of Marley named Orson. Having enjoyed Jon Katz's stories I can see the similarities of John Grogan's as well.

In the end the book tells us a few things one I feel is that unconditional love is given to us by animals in a way that's unlike humans. Their unconditional love is simply that unconditional. No matter what we do to them and how bad we can treat them at the end of they day they are right there by your side with sloppy kisses and a shoulder to lean on. The other thing I thought was how sad that the lifetime of these animals are never long enough for the hearts they find their way into. The tragedy of having a pet is knowing that in time their age will outstrip yours and slowly you have to watch your best friend slip into the darkness. Though Aidan and Ellie are still quite young I know in time that will happen to them as well as their cat brothers and I am sure part of my heart will go with them when that happens. You can't beleive sometime I guess how much you have grown to love them, like they were your children your family.

Fall Day

Since it was a lovely fall day yesterday Mommy took the pups out for a little fall photoshoot. Here are her best shots of the pups

Aidan experiencing his first fall



Enjoying the breeze


You've come a long way baby


Ellie's turn outside


These tree shots were so hard to get as she kept running towards me every time I bent down to take them

My little girl enjoying the leaves


And the wind


And my favorite of the series of them


Hope you're having a wonderful fall as well!

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Jackets Are In

And look how happy the pups are!!







Its funny to say this as they are dogs and all but they truly seemed so excited when I pulled out their jackets and when I put them on they just seemed so happy. I mean look at those smiles right ;)

After they got over trying to bite each other's hoods off I did get a few good pictures of them in their new coats




And this last one was just cute I thought. My persnickety little boy heehee