Dog Park!

Today was a fun day for Ellie and me. First we went on a long morning walk, then we met my mom, step-dad and their dogs at Marymoor dog park!

Ellie got to run around and chase her ball and play with lots of dogs. There was one dog scuffle (they happen at all dog parks, right?) but luckily Ellie was not involved. Then the humans began to scuffle afterward, so we decided to exit the scene and explore the rest of the park!

There was a St. Bernard puppy!

Happy Ellie!

We noticed that there were agility competitions also happening in the park, so we decided to go check it out! I had some cute pics of Ellie snoozing on the grass, but they didn't turn out. :( Oh well!

Then Ellie and I made it over to Dairy Queen where I got a Blizzard and she got a doggy cone!

Yum!

Beeps are scary

Hey guys, it's Ellie. So last night when mom went to her exercise class, I stayed home. I usually have no problem because she's only gone for an hour so I just sleep the whole time. But this time was not so good...

There is a box by the TV that beeps sometimes. Whenever it does, I get really scared and nervous and anxious! It makes me start to pant, and want mom to cuddle me and make it stop.

Mom was not there, so first I tried scratching at the front door to see if I could open it. Then I went to the bathroom door and the bedroom doors and scratched at those. (mom keeps them shut so that I can't get on the bed)
I couldn't open those either, so I tried go outside on the balcony. Mom had the baby gate up (doesn't want me gettin on the couch) so first I knocked that down. The door to the balcony was open, but not the screen door so I started scratching at the screen. I scratched and scratched and scratched until it opened and I went outside!

I put my paws up on the rail to see if anyone could rescue me. Then I spotted my friend Goldie across the way! She lives in my building and our balconies face each other.
I whined and barked to try to tell her to send help, but I don't think she understood.

Luckily, mom came home soon after that.

This is me looking out

Goldie looking across the way at me

Mom found out everything I did because I was still outside when she got home to find the broken screen door and paint chippings on the ground by all of the closed doors.
I got in big trouble.

Ellie Noses Duck!

My crazy dog! This actually happened the same day that Ellie ate barnacles, but I hadn't gotten the video from Jon's computer. Now I have it, and it's here for your enjoyment! :D

Granite Lakes and 12 Miles of Hiking

(This blog is a bit longer this week, be warned!) :)

I was set on going hiking this weekend. It had been a few weeks, and I was itching to get out and explore the great outdoors.

Originally, I told Jon that I wanted to do Annette Lake, until he figured out we need to buy a parking pass. This was feasible, but I decided to take a gander at my hiking book to see what else there was. I landed on Granite Lakes. 11 miles round-trip, but only 2300 foot elevation gain, so it couldn't be that bad, right?

Fast forward to Jon, Stacy and Ellie hiking up the mountain and panting. "This seems a lot steeper..." we thought to ourselves. Oh well...

On the way up

We finally made it to a peak, at which point it went slightly downhill, then flattened out for a ways until we reached our destination. We wanted to consult the book to figure out how to get to the lake, and at that point, I realized that the book mentions a "saddle" at 4300 feet, which means the elevation gain was actually about 3500 feet! It was just the starting point to finish point that was a 2300 foot gain. How deceiving!

Not knowing where to go (the "end" seemed like a dead-end or a nice place to camp, but no lakes and no view), we followed a piece of cloth that was tied to a tree branch on the left. It appeared to be a trail, but it was severely overgrown, so we were getting whacked in the face and scratched up legs from all the branches as we pushed our way through this trail.

From afar, we finally saw a lake! So we pushed on, until we reached a clearing and some big rocks that we could sit on.
It was such a beautiful lake! Well it was small, so more like a large pond. But the water was clear and still, and surrounded on all sides by mountain. It was like we were in a giant bowl.

And I forgot to mention that the hike was quiet and desolate. We saw only 4 people total, going up and down, and there was no one at the top while we were there.

Jon and I were trying to take some good pictures of Ellie, but she was particularly distracted and not interested in looking at the camera, so Jon started to make whistle sounds to try to get her attention. He let out one loud one... and we heard it back about 3 seconds later. Both of our eyes lit up as we realized that we were in a giant amphitheater.

The next 10-15 minutes were spent making loud strange sounds to hear the echo. It was the most fantastic echo I'd ever heard because it went on forever! Jon and I both agreed it should have been called Echo Lake instead of Granite Lakes.

While we were marveling in the natural beauty, we swore that we had to come back to this special place. However, on the hike back down as we walked, and walked, and walked, we realized just how far of a walk it was and decided we were not too sure about hiking 12 miles at once again.... I think we've found our distance limit!

I'm Going to BlogPaws!

Guess what! Thanks to all your help (and the help of friends, family, coworkers, friends of friends, etc.) my video won and I'm going to BlogPaws West!

I received the e-mail yesterday (Thursday) but had to hold off on announcing it anywhere (so difficult not to tweet!) because the folks at BlogPaws wanted to announce the winners today.

I will be spending September 9th through the 11th in Denver meeting tons of pet people and tweeple! Unfortunately, Ellie will be staying home (I really wish she could come with) but she and I will Skype and tweet at each other while I'm away. ;)

In case you missed it, here is the video that won me the trip!

Ellie Eats Barnacles

We had an awesome Saturday yesterday! Jon and I drove 2 hours south to visit his parents on a beautifully sunny (and HOT) day.

First, we took a short hike to the beach where we looked for sand dollars and shells. Ellie ate a couple of barnacles, and I had no idea what was going on. I would look down and she's crunching on something and licking a rock with barnacles! Strange dog...
Then a wet black lab appeared out of nowhere and Ellie made a new buddy.

We went back to the house and directly to the pool! I have never seen Ellie swim before so we decided that today would be her day :)
So I got in the pool and Jon gently lowered Ellie in, however she clawed and scratched, scared out of her wits, so we took her back out. Oh well, so she's not a swimmer!

The rest of the day, Ellie got lots of ball-playing time and ate a couple of bugs.

Sunday, we headed over to my parents' house. On the way, Jon and I stopped at Dairy Queen and the girl in the drive-through window offered us a doggie cone. "Huh?" I wondered.... "Well sure, I guess!"

Me and mom watching Ellie and Jaxson playing

She handed us a small ice cream cone and I held it back to Ellie at which point her eyes bulged practically out of her head as she licked away at the cone. She LOVED it!

At my mom's she got lots of play time with Jaxson. What a great weekend for Ellie dog!

Ellie is tired!

Please don't forget to vote (once each day) for me - Stacy Wants To Go To BlogPaws!

To Crate or Not to Crate...

So Ellie is what I like to call a frequent vomiter. I suppose she has a sensitive or highly acidic stomach because she throws up at least once per week, and sometimes more.

I have been to the vet multiple times about this. The first time, I got some expensive prescription pills, the second time, they told me to feed her a bland diet of rice and cottage cheese, now they are telling me that it's fine to give her famotidine (Pepcid) daily to reduce the acid activity.

Despite her nightly dosage of meds, she continues to throw up once in a while, including 4 separate piles last night, some of which got on my curtains!

So now I'm thinking of changing two things: her food, and getting a crate.

I'm looking on Craigslist for a crate and they seem to range from $30-$60, but I found a store online where I can get the one I want for about $62. What do you think I should do?

Lastly, anyone got any good resources for first-time crate training? Anything is appreciated, thanks!

Vote for us!

I'm sure many of you anipals have heard of Blog Paws which is a pet blogging conference coming up in September.

Ellie created a video for me :)

They ran a video contest and are giving away two expenses-paid trips so Ellie and I got to work on our video. We made the top 5 finalists, and need your help to make it all the way!

Please click the link below and click vote (it's that easy and quick)! You can vote once per day for the next week, so you may be seeing some reminders from me :)

I really appreciate all your help!

http://apps.facebook.com/contestshq/contests/47722/voteable_entries/6977266

Tweet about it!

Walkie Weekend

This weekend wasn't too much out of the ordinary. I took Ellie on our usual long walk through the park (somewhere around 3 miles round trip I'm guessing) on both Saturday and Sunday mornings. On Sunday, she got lucky and got a bonus walk in the afternoon because I happened to be in the mood to get more exercise :)

On Saturday, we came back from our walk and checked the mail, and to my delight, there was a package for me, from @iLoveDogsInc! I had participated in their #WoofWednesday giveaway, and won, so I was excited to see my prize!

We rushed up to the apartment and sat on the floor to open it up. I told Ellie, "this is for you! What is it?" to get her all hyped up.

After opening, I dumped it out to find a leash, a key chain lanyard, a pen, a ball (which Ellie went straight toward), a mini Frisbee, and some doggie supplements.

Ellie dug into the ball and broke/killed it within minutes. But I switched her poo bag dispenser over to the new purple leash, which is super cute!

My boyfriend told me I should start looking for contests to enter in which I can win things for myself (because I seem to always only enter dog/pet contests and giveaways).

Mt. Si Adventures and Hungry Dogs

Ellie checking things out

Today, Ellie and I went on a long hike at Mount Si which is about a 45 minute drive from Seattle. It was a warm day at about 70 degrees, but with the intensity of the hike, I was sweating, and Ellie was panting, like crazy!

The whole hike is 8 miles round trip with a 3150 ft elevation gain.

So the hike itself was fun, tiring, interesting. We met so many dogs and I was amazed at how nice they all were! Every single dog we passed (except one that was in the arms of its owner) sniffed noses with Ellie and they were all so surprisingly pleasant. Usually on our hikes, we'll get a couple of dogs that growl or lunge at her, but not today. Maybe people are finally learning to only bring socialized dogs out hiking :)

When we made it to the top of the hike, Ellie and I sat and ate some snacks. I saw a few Vizslas sitting on a rock nearby with some people and thought that they were super cute, maybe a little underweight, but nothing more.

Skinny lost dogs on the mountain

Later, some people walked by and noted aloud how cute the dogs were, and the people next to the dogs said "yes, they are cute, but they're not ours. We can't find the owners."

No wonder they looked so skinny! As it turned out, they got hold of the owners and the dogs had been missing for two days. They live near the trailhead so the dogs must have wandered off and followed some hikers up the mountain. Poor babies! I offered them Ellie's last Milkbone and treats, feeling bad that I didn't have more to give. They quickly gobbled them up.

Mama and her son cuddling

Once I learned that the other hikers were going to bring the dogs down to the owners at the bottom of the mountain, I felt better and continued to explore what I thought was the top. After Ellie and I climbed a bunch of rocks, I realized that there's what's called the "haystack" which is another 300 foot rock climb!! "I have to go up there!" I thought to myself.

The "haystack". If you could see the people at the top, they would be little dots.

We followed some trails and climbed up some rocks until we reached the base of this "haystack". As I looked up, I realized that it had quickly turned from a hike to a straight rock-climb. I knew I could spider my way up there, and Ellie might be able to manage as she's pretty resilient.... but I worried about the descent. A 4-legger going face-first down a steep rocky mountain didn't sound safe. So we turned around (I'll have to go back there without Ellie sometime).

View from the top (iPhone doesn't do justice)

After the hike, I went to my mom's where Ellie got to play with my mom's dogs and my sister's dog. I got to eat some yummy dinner :)
Now I'm expecting sore legs tomorrow!