Ear Ouchie

Any breed with pendulous ears can be prone to ear problems. Cuts, scrapes, infection due to water or even hematomas from flapping their ears. Our dogs are flappers! They shake their heads and flap their ears when they wake up, before they lie down, when they want a scratch or even when they want something. It DOES get your attention.
Lilly got a scrape on her hear somehow and it just wasn't healing. Every time it would get a scab on it, she'd shake her head and flap those ears and there went the scab. It would start to bleed again, I'd clean it up and a couple days later the same thing would happen. It's not a bad cut and it's not the first time this has happened but this time we had to resort to extreme measures.
I cleaned up the cut for the billionth time, sprayed it with New Skin and covered it with a gauze pad. Then I taped her ears under her chin with Nexcare Flexible First Aid tape so she couldn't flap her ears. She's not very happy about it but the wound is finally healing.

Expressing her displeasure...

...and TELLING me all about it!

El Morro and The Big Fire

El Morro is one of the big forts near us where we go lots of times to run around with the dogs. On Friday morning there was a big fire at a refinery across the bay. El Morro offered a spectacular view of this terrible fire. We live very close and we could see the horrible huge cloud of smoke but it wasn't until we were at the grounds of the fort that we saw the flames. They were HUGE!
This was what we could see from our roof deck...

And this was the view from El Morro....


There were lots of people just hanging around watching the fire but we decided after a few photos, it was time to get away from everyone and go for our stroll. Lilly had to stop and take one last look before we got down to the business of FUN!


So we headed up the hill. Roxy and her Dad got way ahead of Lilly and me. The grass was getting tall and very pretty.




Geez Mom, would ya hurry up!

Lilly kept running up towards Roxy and than back towards me. Silly girl, she confuses herself!



Aside from the big cloud hanging over us, we had a great time running around. I took some more shots of the clouds and smoke which luckily wasn't blowing in our direction, but was really interesting looking.




Luckily no one was injured in the fire and they have since put it out.

Thanks to Lindsay and Life with Big Dogs blog for naming us Blog of the week. They always have interesting stuff going on over there!

The Lovely Lilly

A few shots of Lilly just being Lilly. She can be so silly and arrogant at the same time!

Friday Night at the Movies!

If it's Friday, it must be movie night! Roxy is all ready with the popcorn.



Uh oh! Here comes Lilly...



Maybe I better open it for you Mom.



Aww, OK, I'll sit here and look cute for a while.

It's Still Summer Here!

Here in the land of eternal summer, it's pretty much always a beach day. Lucky for us, it's been close to perfect weather recently with very calm seas. This is our usual beach which is only a 10 minute walk from our house.

Testing the water

The water was deliciously warm after the very hot weather we've had and even Lilly was quick to get right in. They strolled along the shore for a while cooling themselves off while I looked for sea glass.

Roxy tried fishing

...and pointing

She's fascinated by fish! I think she might actually catch one some day.

Then they started playing around with each other and Lilly had to have a massive shake to get the water out of her face. So silly!







Lilly had to do a little posing. She thinks she's such a princess!

Is this my good side?

Did you remember the sunscreen?

It was starting to get seriously hot and the dogs were looking tired so we decided to head home. I just want to mention sunscreen again for all you white and light colored dogs. It's very important to use it! We use the kids waterproof kind and rub it all over Lilly's face and neck when we're out in the sun for any length of time.

Heading up the hill towards our house. Aren't the colors of the houses beautiful?!





Almost home! Time for a quick rinse to get the salt water off and then....a SIESTA!

**for those of you wondering about sea glass, here's what we got on that short outing.

Super Sabado!

We had a bath today!

All the dogs are quite good about baths and especially on a particularly hot day like today, I think they quite enjoyed it. I don't bathe them really often, maybe about every two months or when Lilly has rolled in something really stinky! We brush first to get rid of all the loose hair. I then use a curry comb(actually made for horses) to rub the shampoo into a good lather. This also loosens more hair and gives them a great massage which they REALLY like. I use a whitening shampoo on Lilly and regular on the other two. We then towel dry. They love drying also. As soon as I say, "OK, let's dry", they're all shoving each other to be first. After that, I put on Show Sheen. This product is actually made for horses and I'm sure there's something similar for dogs but my background is horses so that's what I use. It's makes their coat VERY slick and shiny and also helps to repel dust and dirt. Plus, it smells good! After bathtime is treat time!



Roxy's looking for hers here. "Is it up there Mom?"



"We think we should get extra for our excellent "down, stay"!




Lilly has gone and rubbed her nose in the plants AGAIN and gotten dirty already! I had to wash her face yet again. Silly little slob that she is....

Dog Days of Summer

Another Wordless Wednesday!

Wordless Wednesday

Where we sleep

We've been tagged by our friend, Honey, to play a game showing you where we sleep.
Great Danes LOVE to sleep. They're often referred to as couch potatoes. Roxy and Lilly are not allowed to sleep on the furniture but that doesn't deter them from one of their favorite pastimes, sleeping.

First, a few pics of how we USED to sleep...







Then, some of the places we sleep now...

in the driveway

on the deck

on the harlequin bed

on the leopard bed

And when it's really hot, on the tile.





We would like to pass this on to a couple of new friends, Cooper, Falkor, and Dakotah & Maika.

Now, after all that work, it's time for a nap!