Happy Birthday Moe!

Have a Great Birthday!

Elbee's Walk to Fight Canine Cancer

Today was a great day for Elbee! Being our couch potato, and our "little dog," (a 15-pound Pembroke), she often gets overlooked when it comes to outings that require exercise, but the K9 Walk to benefit canine cancer research was a nice chance to show off our most well-mannered dog. Given that there would be hundreds of dogs and Elbee gets along with everyone effortlessly, she was a perfect candidate!

 Here's what the T-Shirt looked like! And Elbee got a matching bandana, which she was wearing during the walk, and still is!

 We also told some of our dog friends about the event. All three corgis in this photo are ForPaws Rescue dogs! My own, Elbee, plus Guinness, (black tri) and Scooter, (red tri). And of course, my long-time friend, Jennifer, with her sweet yellow lab, Molly! In this first picture, Elbee has just come from visiting the Pet Food Express booth. They hand fed her a selection of treats and she is still smacking her lips!

 Here's the "nice picture," in which all of the people and all of the dogs are smiling!

 This was the first K-9 Walk to Cure Cancer in our area. We walked through Vasona Park, which is one of the most beautiful, and largest, parks in our area. I've run here many times and it was a beautiful morning.

 I liked this special moment between Dave and Scooter. Scooter has just found his new furever home, but Dave and his wife, Linda have been taking Scooter out for regular exercise while he's been in foster care. It has been a great help to the foster person and Scooter has definitely bonded with Dave and Linda. But then, Scooter will bond for a belly rub - a very cheap date. He's definitely one of the sweetest corgis we've had in rescue. Next weekend he meets his new people!

 Jennifer, modeling her "Woof" hat. These hats were giveaways at one of the vendor booths! There were tons of great free items for dogs and people who love them!

 Virtually everyone there was connected to a dog...or two. This little boy was more interested in the souvenier balloons, while his dog watched.

 I told you there were tons of give-aways! We ended up with three bandanas, including the one Elbee is wearing, plus three tennis balls, which made Sage really happy, and lots more!

Dave and Linda brought friends too. This team of six people was the third highest fund raising team! Great job!

 When we got home, someone was very curious as to why Elbee and I smelled like a gazillion other dogs!

Sage knew we had some cool stuff in that big Home Depot beach bag! And he also knew that some of it just had to be for him!

 Now we're talkin'...hand over that tennis ball - my favorite!

 MINE!

 Someone else was tuckered out - but still fashionable in her pretty bandana.

Elbee, you're the BEST little dog ever! Even if I did have to carry The Princess for part of the walk! Elbee will be 12 years old in January. She has definitely reached the point where she'd rather survey her subjects than scramble about among them!

Valentines Dogs

With the idea of making a doggie valentine card for Moe, I took the crew outside to pose for pictures. Afterward I discovered that Denali had, once again, included the Family Tongue in her best shot. Of course, this was the signature picture for the front of the card!

Six Words - Times Three

For Denali, Sage & Elbee

You are everything a dog should be!

AND...

The Best Dogs in the world!

A Good Day for Dogs in 2009

Thanksgiving Friday in Napa

A day to remember in 2009

(LtoR: Cappy, Malibu, Fig, Elbee, Sage, Denali, Watson)

More Party at the Ranch

Another wonderful day in Napa! Many thanks to Alden and her parents for allowing us to create another Corgi Invasion so soon after the last one just a few weeks ago!

Moe took 76 photos. A few of them are below and you can see them all if you click here

Alden - you're a dynamite hostess - thanks loads for a wonderful time!

Here's the newest member of the pack, and little Star of the Day! Watson was soooo cute playing with all the big dogs, but it was a lot of action for this little guy. At a point, he crashed under this chair, sleeping soundly.

This is one sweet puppy! Welcome Home Watson!

Pretty Denali

Sweet Duncan

LtoR: Cappy, Malibu, Fig, Elbee, Sage, Denali, Watson

As they had at the previous get-together, the three littermates, Fig, Cappy & Sage, played ALL DAY long!

Sage & Fig

Three boys, all vying for position. Sometimes it got pretty heated, but never more than posturing. They all seem to honor one another when it comes down to it. Carolyn observed that they are still retaining their relative positions, learned when they were very young and tussled with one another in their pen.

Pink and Blue merles - cool suits!

Here's the view off the deck, a little later in the evening. The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco is visible on the left horizon, located about 50 miles away!

By the end of the day, Watson was downright exhausted! Thank goodness his mom scooped him up for a rest (and because she was probably afraid he might end up going home with someone else if she didn't watch him closely!) A fair concern with this cute boy!

Big Day for Denali & Sage!

Yesterday was a really big day! It started VERY early! Up at 5:30AM and off to Napa, CA for Denali's first-time performance entry in Rally!

Denali has been training for quite awhile, starting with formal obedience. But from the start it was apparent that the pace of the formal obedience was too slow. As well, this is a very social girl. She is much happier when you interact with her. Not being able to talk to her proved a real detriment.

One of our training classmates suggested we try Rally instead. From the very first lesson, Denali was smiling and happy. I looked down to see her sitting next to me, tail vigorously brushing, awaiting the "heel" command...a different dog! This is the performance experience we'd hoped to achieve!

Yesterday morning, Denali was ready to show just how much she's learned!

And, did she ever! First time showing, she earned her first leg, snagging a second place finish in an entry of 9 dogs. It would have been a first place finish, with a score of 98, had her handler (me) not made a silly error!

One of the rally stations requires the dog to come forward to the handler and sit three consecutive times. Denali does this perfectly. But on the final sit, I didn't give her enough time to get her butt all the way down before motioning her to finish and move forward. Given her 5-inch legs, and her generously fluffy pants, I had no idea that she wasn't sitting. From the front, she looked to be fully down. But from the judge's side view, she saw that Denali was not quite there. This meant a ten-point deduction for failure to complete all of the principal parts of the exercise. A big deduction! So...lesson learned for the handler - put a little pause in there before moving on!

Special note of huge thanks to Trenton for coming to watch Denali's Rally debut. Your support meant so much and I really appreciate that you made two trips to the show in one day on our account!

Here's our little qualifier, just after her showing, hanging out with Sage and Elbee, waiting for some friends to show up.

Now for the second part of our day - time to get together with Sage's brothers, Captain and Fig, and their people! Sage was pretty excited to see his brothers. He hasn't seen Cappy and Fig since they were all 10-weeks old. Cappy was showing in conformation at the show too!

And if you think that Sage was excited, here's Cappy, leaning out the car window upon arriving at the show and seeing Sage! Cappy's "sister," Malibu came along for the party.

A handsome boy, Cappy and Sage look very much alike - two merle boys in different-colored suits! Their coat quality is the same. If you don't look down, you're not sure who you're petting, just by touch. They can thank Grandma Phoebe for the texture of that beautiful, soft coat!

Other party guests included Sage's other sister, Elbee. The teeny Pembroke who played Grand Dame of the group at age 11.

After the dog show, Alden was kind enough to host the Birthday Party at the family ranch in Napa. A most spectacular location up in the beautiful hills, the ranch is home to Alden's parents, as well as their pets.

Onc of their two dogs is this little Scottish Terrier, Tartan. He is about the same size as Elbee and appeared to think she was quite special! This picture of him, next to the plaid blanket at his owner's feet, was too precious for Moe to pass up!

Naturally, Denali was there too.

As was Denali's maternal Grandfather, Alden's sweet boy, Dunkey (Duncan). Seeing them together, we don't have to wonder where Denali gets her beautiful face!

We've been related to Alden by dogs for quite a number of years. It was wonderful to see her again, to meet her son, Ian (Fig's Boy), and to see our canine family members together. Officially, the senior member of the group, Duncan is 13 years old now, and just as sweet as I remember!

Of course Cappy's human parents were there. Here's Denise with Malibu. Denise took a lot of great pictures of the dogs playing together, so we'll be looking for them on Trenton's blog soon!

Here's Trenton, with our boy, Sage. If Sage is looking a little tired here, it is because he and Cappy and Fig were running and wrestling non-stop from the time they hit the ground at the ranch. It went on for a good couple of hours and was exhausting just to watch! They had SO much fun together!

They did find time to pause for Birthday Cake however. To commemorate the first year of these three Tree Litter boys, I made them a Meat Cake! Four layers, beef, chicken, talapia (fish), and chicken gizzards, mixed with a variety of about seven different vegetables, topped with liver crumble "frosting." It was a real hit with all of the canine guests, and there was plenty leftover for an after-party food fest the next day.

Of course, the humans all had to play party games. This one was How Many Corgis can you Fit on a Table? Several of us took multiple pictures of this little group, so you're likely to see them appearing on other blogs too! From left to right: Captain, Malibu, Sage, Fig and Duncan.

The group shots were great, each one slightly different.

Our party took place on the back balcony/deck of the ranch house. The views looking out over the Napa Valley were absolutely tremendous. The ranch is located on a little slice of Heaven. Thanks again Alden, this was a perfect way to celebrate the many gifts of the day!

NOTE: Moe took the pictures above, as well as a number of others. To see all of his pictures from the day , click here.

And...to see Denise's photos, visit Trenton's blog, click here.

Today's "Daily Corgi!" Check it Out!

Guess which dogs are featured

on today's "Daily Corgi!"

Click Here to see!

Something Came for Elbee!

Elbee...you've got Mail!

(Click on image to enlarge)

And, a nice added extra - our dog training club makes these cool little identification cards for the CGC dogs. As one of the other members said, "Now Elbee can drive!"

Natasha, the club photographer, did a great job with the pictures. Not that it was difficult to get Elbee to smile. She looked like this during the entire time she was at the CGC test. Typical Prima Pemmie...it's all about me!

And, of course, a girl needs her signature jewlery. Like Denali, Elbee now has her official CGC identification tag.

Congratulations again Elbee! You're the sweetest little Pem Princess ever!