Rigby & Lulu - an average morning in the yard

Here's Rigby.  Handsome lil' puppy, isn't he...?

Here's Lulu.  Cute lil' girl who really seems to love herself some water.  Here she's wallowing in the wet grass as the sprinklers run...

She hadn't seen the sprinklers on before and thought they were her drinking fountain, popping up just to bring her water...

She couldn't get enough.  She's been that way since we've had her: a water drinking addict...

Still drinking.  Actually, I think she tried to bite it here...

Check out that tongue!  Slurp, slurp...

Rigby doesn't understand this behavior.  He'll immerse himself in a river past his armpits just to get a drink of water, but he doesn't like sprinklers, or hoses, or showers...

Lulu is fascinated with water...

More Rigby...

Lulu joining her big brother.  She likes to be next to him all. the. time...

What's that...?

And that...?

Ah, typical.  Mr. Calm and Steady and Miss All Over the Place...

Junior game warden and wardenette

Rigby has been a junior game warden for a while.

He loves going out with Todd in the work truck.  He sits so proudly on the front seat, watching for animals and helping Todd spot bad guys.

Todd has pinned him a junior game warden, a title Rigby takes very seriously.

Last weekend, Lulu went out for half a day on her very first trip as a junior game wardenette.

It was so cute to see Todd loading all his helpers in the truck...

Rigby actually doesn't need loaded.  He just jumps right in and gets settled into his seat...

All loaded up!  Lulu is checking out her new assigned seat.  I asked Todd if that console folds up so Lulu had didn't slide around and he said yes, but then she couldn't see.  Oh...

Here they are!  Ready to roll out for a very early morning (I think this was around 5:45 a.m.) of sage grouse counting and checking fisherman on Pathfinder Reservoir...

I joined them for a picnic lunch that afternoon and got the report that Lulu did great on her first outing.

She's a natural.

Introducing...

Tallulah Alcova Kittel or...LULU!

The cute little addition to our family...

We had to give her a "formal" name for her papers, so we used the name of the town/lake where she was born as a middle name.  Since we don't want Rigby to feel left out we've decided to do the same for him - assign him a middle name based on where he's from.  He is now Rigby Hermann Kittel!  haha

We've had her two nights now and aside from a few run ins and several potty training accidents...so far so good!

Here we are picking her up...

Rigby didn't really like this whole new puppy business...

There was an "altercation" on the car ride home regarding a twig.  And as you can see, Rigby wanted as far away from the puppy as possible...

But then we had a moment.  Ok, it was completely accidental, but it made a cute photo that I thought would represent their future bond.  If there is one...

They did have a breakthrough in the yard during bathroom time.  They played quite a lot and Lulu loved pouncing on Rigby from the bushes.  But don't be fooled - this photo was totally posed...  Todd tried to get them to snuggle together in hopes of fostering some love...

Here's where she's sleeping.  Rigby has a bed on the other side too.  The family we got Lulu from told us she would need let out every two hours and that they'd heard from the other new puppy owners they cried all the first night.  We lucked out!  She went down at 11 p.m. and didn't wake up again until 5 a.m.  And not a peep all night...

This is the start of her first walk on the first morning we had her.  I love this photo...

She wants to run with her big brother.  She can't take being behind him and tries really hard to keep up.  In fact, she tries to keep up with everything he does.  She really watches Rigby and follows him everywhere.  We think she couldn't have a better role model...!

This picture cracks me up!  This is what walking with Rigby is like - stopping to sniff evvvverrryyyy where.  Now her too...

Getting ready to be let loose at the park...!

Today, the puppies got baths.  Rigby needed one because it had been awhile, and Lulu needed one because she has never had one.  Rigby was SO good in the shower today!  Normally, he freaks out, but he just stood there and let the water flow over him.  Doesn't he look cute...?

Next...Lulu.  She really did very well too.  There was some squeaking going on, but no freaking out.  And once she realized it was water on her she didn't seem to mind at all...

We had another breakthrough this afternoon - they played HARD in the house.  There was pouncing, sliding, ambushing, tug-o-warring... and after bath time they went at it again!  That's why she's sleeping so hard here...

Nap time at the Kittel homestead...

And for fun, a picture of Lulu I messed with on Photoshop...

She loves that stuffed pheasant just as much as Rigby does!

They must be long lost family!

Expanding family

You thought I was pregnant, right?

Nope!

But we are adding a little one in about a month...

A Black Lab puppy!

The folks we went ice fishing with bred their full blood Chocolate and Black Lab dogs and are giving us one of their puppies as a wedding gift! Super nice, right??

They brought two of the puppies over last Friday for us to look at.  They are so cute and it was so hard to decide, so we went out to their place yesterday to take another look.

There are 12 puppies in total and many of them are already spoken for.  It was still fun to play with all of them though.  This is what it's like to be swarmed by squeaking, chewing, licking puppies...

We took our two puppy contenders outside to see how Rigby would react.  He was confused by the puppies on Friday night when they were at the house.  Actually, more than confused.  He acted like they were aliens and is terrified of them.  Or maybe he realizes he's soon going to have to share the love.  Todd wonders if maybe he doesn't associate them as little dogs.  Whatever his problem is he certainly is not amused by them and will do anything to not even look at them...

The girl we finally picked is on the right.  She has warmer eyes.  The other girl just didn't seem to have a connection...

Our lil lady is on the left in this shot...we don't have a name for her yet.  Suggestions?

And here's the new crew!  At one point, the puppy was at Rigby's feet and she reached out her little tongue and licked his leg.  That didn't seem to warm Rigby up.  He still had to be MADE to stand that close to the alien...

He'll warm up to her...right?

M.I.A.

My mom saw this lost dog ad on the local news page for Hermann, Mo., a couple days ago.  It makes me so sad!


I imagine this poor family - with kids - having a fun day in the country at the winery when all of the sudden their lil' dog doesn't come back when called.


It also makes me think of Rigby.  Sometimes we wonder if he was really abandoned or if he ran off and couldn't find his way home. (Of course, when he was found by my mom he didn't have a collar, so who knows?)


Regardless, we would just DIE if Rigby were gone.  Aside from this dog's size he looks remarkably like Riggs too.  And the description of him being extremely friendly and careless when it comes to approaching people is Rigby spot on.  


I hope this family finds their dog!
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A Berger-area family is searching for their dog that went missing from Bias Winery on Monday night.


The dog, named Riley, went out for a run with the other dogs and he never returned. He is a 2 year-old black lab/corgi mix.  Male, fixed, up-to-date on all his shots and microchipped. He was not wearing a collar. He is extremely friendly and careless when it comes to approaching people.

Pampered puppy

For Christmas Rigby got a couple doggie beds.

Before that he had been sleeping on what had to be the most uncomfortable mats.  We'd looked and looked for beds but didn't like anything we'd seen.  Some were just out of the question, like the beds with the faux wool.  His hair would get in that and never, ever, ever get out.

Some we just couldn't justify the price for what we were getting.  Some were too small, some too large.  Most couldn't be easily cleaned...

Then, last year we saw a bed a friend of a friend had made.  It was perfect.

The outside was made of a canvass-like material on one side and a fleece on the other...

It velcroed at one end and the inside bag pulled out so you could easily wash the outside.  The inside bag was filled with real wool that was cleaned and processed at a Wyoming company, Mountain Meadow Wool.  They're a premier provider of locally sourced, naturally processed, mountain merino and mountain merino blend yarns and products located in the small town of Buffalo.

Done.  After looking and looking we decided we'd much rather give our money to two Wyoming businesses than some large manufacturer and not even like the product. 


Rigby immediately took to the beds like a duck to water.


He. Loves. Them.

And we do too!


Heather makes them in various sizes, gives you complete choice over what fabric colors used, and is very reasonably priced.


If you're looking for a dog bed, may I suggest Heather Harlan with Comfortwool Pet Beds, 307.738.2667 or lonebearwy@gmail.com. 

Some action shots of the bed in use...

Parenting styles

In one of my classes I had to do a project on parenting styles.

I've had to do a few projects now, and while I mostly think they're silly (I guess I'd rather do them than a paper though), this one was really funny to Todd and I.

For this particular project we had to choose a combination of parenting styles predetermined by the professor.  I chose Warm/Authoritative versus Permissive/Indulgent.

And, at JWG's suggestion, I used Rigby to demonstrate the differences.

Check it out:

Pay no mind to the incredible amount of dust under that chair, something I didn't notice until I was looking at the photo...

He is such a good boy! What other dog would let you put your old Halloween halo on its head, or a shoestring, and not even try to shake it off or paw at it?

Rigby

About this time last year, I drove to Omaha, Neb., to pick up our lil' puppy.

I had wanted my own dog for so long, but was never allowed to have one in my D.C., apartment and with the lifestyle I led I couldn't have justified it anyway.  Todd had never been allowed to have a dog growing up and also wanted one.  We looked at the shelter a couple of times and each time I left in tears.

Then out of nowhere my mom called to tell me she had found a black lab sitting so pretty on the side of the road as she drove home one night.  She had him at home.

Two weeks later he was in Cheyenne with us.

He is the best lil' doggie ever!  (Aside from our last family dogs Cindy and Rajah - RIP).  Sure, there's been a few instances with the trash.  And just today he found Todd's rotting elk head in the yard and decided to gnaw on that, stinking himself up so bad he immediately got a bath!

But he's smart - he rarely gets punished for the same thing twice, he hardly barks - unless there's a squirrel, he's never once chewed up anything of ours or gotten on the furniture...  He just wants his lovin' and lots of it!

We just couldn't imagine not having him!

My mom says she thinks he was meant to be.  That there was something special about him - and I believe it.

He's got it good and knows it!

And so do we...