My dogs live here.....

Well, we(Rhett, Keeva and I) just got back from the vet!
She weighed in at 12.2 oz....but had already eaten a light breakfast...so probably some where in the 11.5-12 range.
She was a good little angel, met her vet, her new Beagle friend, and walked all around the store. She was super excited that she got to see, play with and torture her brother...tomorrow when Tiffany and Huginn come over it will be the last time for a little while!  So Im hoping that they get plenty of play time in!!

The vet LOVED both of them, and Keeva was a VERY good girl for her micro-chip to be inserted.

We ended up going over to my friend Kathy's for a hour or so afterwards....she got to see Brody's parents and their kitties for the first time.  She was VERY good....not even really noticing all of the new sights and sounds!!LOL



AND now for the bad part......it snowed pretty much all morning!!  We have nearly 2 inches on the ground!!
HOWEVER....Rhett and Keeva both are LOVING IT!!!
Brody and Dixi not so much.....but the Collies are all enjoying it a lot!!
(Leo doesnt really care.....he will play but would rather be sleeping on the couch next to Daddy!:))

I saw this poem on one of my friend's facebooks and though it was awesome....so figured I would end today's blog post with it!!

My dogs live here, they’re here to stay.
you don’t like pets, be on your way.
they share my home, my food, my space
this is their home, this is their place.
You will find dog hair on the floor,
they will alert you’re at the door.
they may request a little pat,
a simple “no” will settle that.
It gripes me when I hear you say
“just how is it you live this way?
they smell, they shed, they’re in the way..”
WHO ASKED YOU? is all I can say..
They love me more than anyone,
my voice is like the rising sun,
they merely have to hear me say
“C’mon girls, time to go and play”
then tails wag and faces grin,
they bounce and hop and make a din.
They never say “no time for you”,
they’re always there, to GO and DO.
and if I’m sad? They’re by my side
and if I’m mad? they circle wide
and if I laugh, they laugh with me
they understand, they always see.
so once again, I say to you
come visit me, but know this too..
My dogs live here, they’re here to stay.
you don’t like pets, be on your way.
they share my home, my food, my space
this is their home, this is their place..
-anonymous

(And another shot of Rhett and Keeva playing in the snow!)

And today is the day!!!

KEEVA IS HOME!!!!

Well our little darling girl is home, and happily playing with her new brothers and sister!!

She is small enough that Dixi can knock her over if they are running around!LOL
Im not sure how much she weighs...itll be interesting to take her to the vet's tomorrow(she goes at 9am with her brother Huginn who she flew in to us with and who now lives with her Auntie Tiffany!  You can see more about the both of them at Tiffany's blog here...Im sure she will be posting a new one soon!:-) http://journeyinblackwhite.blogspot.com)

Giving Mommi that same hug as Rhett did at the air port!!!

Pretty girl sitting in her Daddy's arms!!:)

What can I say?!  She is a TOTAL natural at eating the way that she was naturally intended!!

Here is a video of Miss Caoimhe eating her first raw meal!!!

AND

Today is the 14th of January....that means that Rhett is 11 months old!!!

MAN I can NOT believe that!!!

My baby boy is eleven....**11** months old, NEARLY A YEAR!!!!!  

CRAZY!!!!!!


More pictures to come....

Wellll......Tomorrow is the day!!!

Well as most of you know we had to wait a whole more day until the puppies could come to us, due to weather.

But they are flying into us tomorrow!!!

We have had a pretty laid back week...of course it felt like it took 14 days rather then 7 to get thru...and the next 18 hours is probably going to feel like 3 days!!HAHA

But when she gets here it will be AMAZING!!

18 hours....18 hours is ALL we have to wait...and in 18 hours they should be in our arms!!!

I can NOT wait for Rhett to have "his" puppy!!  He keeps trying to get the other dogs to play...and they just do NOT want to!!HAHA

Soon all of our babies will be with us, and our family will be complete!!!!

Look for another post soon!

~Abi

Just a few days....

Only few days left until Caoimhe Butler-Crawford gets here!!

We are told to hope and pray for at warm-ish weather all the way across, so that they will let her(and her brother Huginn) fly!!

We are SOOOO excited for her to get here...our family will be complete!
Rhett cant get Dixi, Brody or Leo to play with him like he wants...I just keep telling him to wait just a few more days until he has a like playmate.....and then a few more weeks until she is big enough for me to be ok with them playing!LOL

She should get here Friday, then we will have all day Saturday with her, then Sunday morning is her first vet appointment with her new vet...then Monday Mommi has off from work, her and I are spending the day with Auntie Tiffany and her Brother Huginn.

Once again....we can NOT wait for her to get here!!!


And just a picture for the post.....Brody at 10 weeks old!

More later!
~~Abi

A little bit about us

This is probably going to be one of a couple post today...I feel chatty!:-D

Ok, so a little bit about us...Jesse is an electrician, and I am a legal courier....ok enough about the humans!!

The dogs, Rhett, Leo, Brody, Dixi (and of course Keeva as she will be here in less then a week), and cats, Ducki and Pidgin....well they are carnivores, and are fed as such.  We feed raw(meat, bones and organs)...I use This Blog as my main source of learning(thank you Jon and Natalie for your GREAT teachings), along with being a part of Dog Food Chat's forum and Raw Feeding on both facebook and Yahoo(and for the kitties rawcat on facebook).  How we feed mimics what carnivores eat in the wild, animal prey, so mostly meat(about 80% of the diet,) some edible bone(around 10%,) some liver(around 5%) and some other secreting organs(around 5%.)  My friend Tiffany, who is getting Keeva's litter mate Huginn, and who is joining me on my raw fed adventure wrote a great blog post about the scientific side of WHY for raw feeding(you can read it HERE.)

My dogs have never looked, felt or smelled better!  Their hair is SILKY, full and hardly sheds(even for Brody, who is part Pug, which is HUGE!)  Rhett was switched to raw at 14 weeks old and hasnt even once gone thru and of those weird growth spurts that put their rears WAY higher then their fronts, or vice versa!  Everyone's mouth is full of bright white, shinny, clean teeth(yes even Leo and Dixi where both fed a VERY low quality, grocery store brand "stew" style processed food!!)

So on top of training both dogs and their pet humans, training humans to properly feed their pet carnivores is one of my MAIN passions!
I post on facebook a lot about recalls in processed foods and treats, the main reason is I want people to really understand what they are pumping into their pets.  I am always very willing to help people better their processed food choices...but will ALWAYS HIGHLY suggest raw...but I can NOT stand to see pets fed a grocery store brand food, and thus will ALWAYS offer ideas on better processed foods!

I get lots of questions as to how we do it....about space and cost mostly so here is some of how we do it! :)

Currently Jesse, the boys and girls and I live in a house with about 600-650sq. ft.  We have both a fridge with up top freezer and a stand up freezer that is the same size as the fridge....I feed all 6(soon to be 7)carnivores from this arrangement and can easily store nearly 2 months worth of food for them and 2-3 weeks of food for us in them!  I also dont spend more then $1 per pound...try to spend under $.85/lbs! ;-)
We feed Rhett, Brody, Dixi,(and Keeva will as well) in their crates, Leo eats off of his mat....all in the bedroom.  They take no longer then 25min to eat unless given a fully frozen large meal, or a complicated one. (The kitties share the 2nd bedroom and are fed in there.)
I prep different ways;
1. Once a week and portion each pet's meal out per day(they are only fed once a day, other then Keeva who will be fed to her needs at 4 then 3 and then 2 times a day) which takes me between 1 and 3 hours, depending on how much thawing and hacking/cutting I have to do.
2. Once a day, having meat thawed in the fridge and hack it up per each pet's needs each morning(Ive been doing this mostly as of late....lazy season I guess!LOL)  This takes me between 8 and 15 minutes depending on what I am feeding and if I have remembered to thaw and dont have to speed thaw! ;-)

Neither way takes all that much time....I spend much more time a day on the computer then that....so I figure why not feed my babes properly.

Anyways, please feel free to ask me any questions, check into the links I provided, become part of DFC and again ask more questions PLEASE FEEL FREE!!! :-D
(I plan on trying to post a weekly post about what everyone ate the past week...so check back soon! :-) )

What is the name about?

What is the name about you might ask?

Well Beauregard was my best friend for 14 years, I got him when I was 9, he was 8 weeks old, but he was only 6 weeks old when we met.  He was a Lhasa Apso and him at my side got me thru moving all over the country with my family, childhood, teen-hood and into adulthood!  He was an always listening, never judging friend to talk to...he loved me first and foremost, would NEVER choose anything over me, and he also had a very close bond with my Mum, who cared for him when I moved out, both times...in his last few years he VERY much so belonged to both of us!

We lost him in May, his back had given out, and the pain meds he was taking had taken away his appetite, he wouldnt eat anything, thus couldnt keep his meds down...and thus couldnt walk or move without VERY bad pain!  He had only been living with me again for 2 weeks, he had just moved back in with Jesse, Rhett, Brody and me in early May....it was an...interesting experience, but he Rhett bonded(which was shocking because Beau didnt like most dogs) and he excepted Jesse as well.

 

But it wasnt to be, he seemed to have held out just long enough to come back into my life, just to leave...for the last time.

The day I took him to the vet my good friend drove us, and when we got back home, without Beauregard, Rhett searched ALL OVER for him!  For the next 2 weeks every time he would hear a noise he would go looking. 
I like to think that because of the connection between my self and Beauregard and my self and Rhett and that they some how have a connection still!!

                                                                (Rhett the 2nd day after Beau "went missing".)

I will always have a hole in my heart that will always be his.  I have the box that his ashes are in along with a plaque that was carved for me of his likeness over looking the living room, and his collar and tag hang on the mirror of my car to always be there with me.

So that is where the name of this blog comes in, he was named after the Civil War General Pierre G. T. Beauregard, who was also from Louisiana, and it means both "Beautiful Gaze" and "easy on the eye".

More to come!
(Thanks for reading!)

My first day blogging

Well Im starting up a blog again(according to my Mum I need to!:P)


I will be posting pretty much everything and everything here, from my tips and tricks for dogs and cats to cool stuff happening in our lives!:)

Im Abi I am a legal courier, and love working with animals.  Training dogs and their people is my main passion!  I love obedience training, and helping people "trouble shoot" as well as teaching people how to better their dog and cat's lives via proper nutrition! 
My life consists of my husband, Jesse and our pets as listed below:
Rhett Butler, my 11 month old Border Collie,

Caoimhe("Kee-Va"), my 8 week old Border Collie who will be coming home in about a week,

Leo-Nidas, Jesse's 4 year old Border Collie,

Brody, our 2 year old Pug/x,

Dixi, my 3 year old Mini Doxie(mix?,)

Ducki, my 1.5 year old Turkish Van Cat,

Pidgin, our 3 year old Rag Doll(?) Cat,

Krónos, Jesse's African Bull Frog,
 and
Cocoa-Mo(or "Mo",) my leased 13 year old Tennessee Walker Gelding.

I also have a passion for fish, fresh water community and Bettas mostly.

We live at the base of the Mt. Rainier and about 45 miles south of Seattle, Washington.

OH YA....and here are the 2 of us...from early last year!;)

Now, off to start writing my next post(the first REAL one!;))