Games

Orion has a few games he likes to play, and we thought we would share them with our friends. These are in addition to the traditional games of "Chase the Kitty" and "Chase the little Girl".
The first is a hide game we call "Hide the Bone" although the "bone" can be a toy, stuffie, towel, cookie, anything he wants to play the game with. First, I give him the "bone" and he walks into the livingroom, sniffing and looking for just the right place to "hide" it. After several trips around the room, he will place it in its hiding spot (usually in plain sight, can't make it too hard on the humans). Then he sits by the sofa. If we don't notice he has hid the toy, he will let out a loud "sigh" to get our attention. Then, I'll say, "Where's your bone?" and he will keep his head very still and move only his eyes in the direction of his toy(I'm not supposed to notice, but it's funny that he does this). Then I make a big show of searching for the bone until I find it. Upon finding it I take it into the next room and "hide" it, coming back empty-handed. He then runs into that room to search for it, and re-hides it in the livingroom for me to find. This is HIS favorite game and he will play for an hour.
Another game we enjoy (which is MY favorite game)is the "Yawn" game. Orion has a tendancy to let everyone know when he yawns. The variety of noises he makes is very entertaining. So we will go lie down on the floor next to him and loudly yawn. He lifts his head and, since yawns are contagious, he loudly yawns back. Then we will either go around the room, with each person loudly yawning and the newf yawning back, or, if it's just the two of us, we'll go back and forth until he "Woooo-woooo-woooooo"s at me. This never fails to send me into a fit of giggles.
The last game is our own version of Monty Python's Fish Slapping Dance, only we use a cooked green bean. Very, very funny.

Wet's Gone Wild

Wet has taken a liking to his reflection, and can be found at all times of day and night playing with the kitty on the other side of the door. We finally caught him on tape, this guy is a maniac cat!

You can see him here (until I get it to upload on the blog)
Wet's Gone Wild

Count Drulzelot's New Year Resolutions

One of my fellow Newf-Listers posted her dogger's ten resolutions which prompted Orion to come up with a few of his own:

I will not lick people's faces right after cleaning my...oh, never mind, I broke that one this morning.

I will NOT chase kitties. I will NOT chase kitties. I will NO...Oh look! A KEEETTTTTTYYYYY!

I will not tear up Mom's magazines before she finishes reading them.

I will greet each of my people first thing in the morning when I get up. I had, up to this point, only greeted Mom and Dad. This very morning I opened the doors to the rooms of each of my kids and smooched them on the face. They all said their own versions of Happy New Year to me, and I liked it so much I shall continue on a daily basis. (Note from Mom, they screamed bloody murder as they were all still sleeping when he "greeted" them.)

I will sniff both ends of the kitty.

Orion Count Drulzelot

Musings

Happy 2008, I hope your year is filled with too many blessings to count!
I had a good semster, earned As in the two courses I took (Psychology and Geography). Both very interesting classes, though I really loved the Psychology. We spent some time on the brain, which, of course, is my favorite topic, as well as sleep and the importance of a good night's, development, and much, much more, all of it so fascinating. So now I have a bit of a rest before my next class, Anthropology. I may only take one this term, with The Nationals coming up, and posiibly hosting a foreign exchange student, plus gardening season, etc., I didn't want to bite off more than I could chew. I wish they offered Winter semester courses (accelerated 18 day classes), as January is the month to pretty much stay in and curl up with a book. It was -4 when I took the kids to school this morning, so The Count did not get his walkie this morning. Instead I will be making an appt for his yearly check-up, and Wet's first visit to the Vet.
Enjoy your day!

Introducing Wet

Although he has been a part of the family for a few months now, I've been too busy to even read any of my friends' blogs, let alone update my own. So now I have a few weeks' lull between classes and decided to introduce the world to Orion's new buddy, partner-in-crime, and confidante, Count Drulzelot's Aquarius, aka "Wet". For those who have read older posts about Orion's favorite stuffy, you know where we came up with Wet's name.
Wet is very confident, playful, and cuddly. He cuddles with Orion, always wants to be in a lap (like Orion), eats from The Count's dish (even with The Count's snoot in it), and bathes in the dog's waterbowl. He's fearless, which is not hard to be when you grow up around a huge, black Newf, but is "skeered" of anything that moves outside (which makes him run at the door, body-slamming it to get in). Overall, he is a very entertaining addition to the family, although Oscar puts up with him, and Sophia will not demonstrate even an ounce of tolerance for him in the presence of others (though they are both sleeping on my bed right now, thinking no one else knows).

I'm back!

Sorry about the delay, but as the saying goes, "Life comes at you!" Things are slowing down here, and as you can see, I've even had some time to mucky-muck with the format here (I don't know if I'll keep this format, we shall wait and see). Next week I will be working on a website (for a school) so I have a bit of time to play.
Reading the paper today I saw an article about burglaries in the neighboring town (which is less than a mile from me), and it reminded me of an incident which happened about 6 weeks ago.
The Count sleeps in our room with us. He rarely barks, unless he's playing with the kitties or with me. So we were surprised one night when Orion woke us by jumping to his feet and barking. We jumped out of bed, I thought he had seen a firefly out the window and it startled him, but he was very agitated. Once we were out of bed, Orion ran to the stairs, with Hubber in pursuit, and as soon as Hub opened the door, Orion shot out, racing through the yard and into the neighbor's field, all the while barking furiously. Whoever (or whatever) it was can consider himself very lucky, as Orion was fierce and furious. I've never seen him like that before. I ran around the house turning on all the lights and Hub flashed lights outside, but never found anything. Orion came back to the house, still very agitated, and spent time outdoors patrolling the house, then he came back in and patrolled the inside. It took some time for him to settle down. I am sure glad we have him, he's a super watchdog!

I've been tagged!

That's right folks, I'm IT! I always wanted to be IT, IT is what I AM....

Anyway, Mom has been very busy so she allowed me to come here and give my update. Mom decided to take three accelerated courses this summer, all online. Instead of 18 weeks, each course is 18 days. So she has a week's worth of work to do each day. I guess she did not have the ol' brain in the cavity the day she signed up for them, because she took two at the same time. So she has neglected all her housework, ironing, blog updates, and cooking for the pursuit of knowledge. So please forgive her for not updating and keeping everyone axiously awaiting a new update. At least she still can't resist the sight of a Newf sitting in front of her with a stuffie in his mouth. I am the only thing that can get her away from her studies! She promised to update my blog with some new fancy, smancy stuff when she is done with these courses, vacation, and catching up on her laundry. So life has been very dull here, except all my kids are home from school, so that does change the dynamics here a bit.

Now, on to the game of tag.
I've been tagged by Ayla, a Newfie friend of mine!

Here are the rules: Each player starts with 7 random facts/habits about themselves. People who are tagged need to write their own blog post with their 7 things as well as these rules. You need to tag 7 others and list their names on your blog. Remember to leave a comment for them letting them know they have been tagged and to read your blog.

Here are my random facts:
1. I love to have my ears rubbed, I groan with pleasure.
2. I love to chase woodchucks, they look like fat kitties when they run!
3. I think pugs are funny; when my cousin pug comes to visit, he thinks he's bigger than I!
4. I love Brussels Sprouts.
5. After I drink, I like to use a napkin. Laps make excellent napkins.
6. I love to go for rides. Going to Grandma and Grandad's house is one of my favorites.
7. They love me at Petco. When I go, they announce my presence over the loudspeaker so the employees can come give me some lovin's.

Now I get to tag 7 of my doggie buds, this will be FUN!

1. My cousins, Nanook and Pooka
2. My good friends, Tank, Isaac, and Princess
3.Kodos who needs an update!
4. Mollie and Zander, whose Momma makes the best dog cookies, which I love, love, love!


I only have time to tag four, since Mum needs to get back on the com-futer. I will have to think up some more and get back to ya.
Later dudes and dudettes!

Meatball!

The other day, Orion went with me to get the newspaper, when we found a delightful treat in the box, a meatball! Our next door neighbor made special doggie meatballs for her doggie, Anabelle, and shared her bounty with The Count. I let him sniff the bag, and he knew something very special would be his for breakfast. He was so thrilled, he forgot the newspaper and ran down to the house without it! He was dancing around the kitchen as I prepared the meatball to mix into his kibble. He greedily devoured the meatball, leaving the kibble in his dish. For Orion to greedily devour anything is quite a shock, he is extremely selective about what he ingests.
I was very pleased to have found something which made him eager to eat, so I asked my dear neighbor to share the recipe, which she enthusiatically did. I made up a batch of these delicious meatballs, which contained shredded carrots and cheese, and eagerly awaited their cooking so I could share them with my newf. I waited until they were cool enough, and crumbled one into his bowl. He didn't touch it. Not even a bite.
Now, I doubled the batch when I made them so I had a huge bunch of these meatballs which His Highness has decided he wouldn't eat. Hmmm. I served them for dinner with pasta. The hubber and kids thought they were delicious. Maybe The Count will only eat them with pasta and sauce.....

No Known Drawbacks

At one of my painting groups, we were discussing how to paint dogs. A friend brought in some books, and I copied the picture of the Newfoundland dog. Along with the picture was a write-up about the breed, which I had to bring home to show The Hubber.
First, the person who did the write-up and the picture had only a vague idea of what Newfoundlands look like. Other than being black (which some are)and having a fat fluffy tail (as The Count does) not much else in the picture was accurate. The color description said they come in "dull black and white with a black head and saddle." Orion is a very shiny black. No mention of the greys or browns. The part which struck me the most were the feet. The dog's feet in the picture (which was a painting)looked like chicken feet. Okay, not literally, but I can assure you, no dog of this size could walk on those front paws. They looked like skinny, lab puppy feet on a full-grown newf. Newfs have paddle-paws. The front feet on Orion can be confused with a club. Trust me, I've been batted by one while he was stretching.
The next thing I found amusing is the comparison picture. In order to demonstrate the massive size of the breed, a silouette of a newf is standing next to the silouette of an airdale. The airdale comes up to the newf's armpits. The airdale could walk underneath the newf without ducking, according to the author of this book. Holy cow, that is one massive dog. Mine is not so massive, I've not yet met an airdale who could walk underneath him.
It gets even better in the written description!
Advantages of the breed:
"Good guard dog" If you can wake one, he might sniff you. If he's already awake, he might follow you to the door to greet "his" guests. Anyone who comes to the door could only be there to see HIM. Oh yeah, good guard dog, right.
"Fierce when provoked" You'd have to do a mighty lot of provoking. I think most folk would get tired before he'd get provoked. I guess if you provoke him with a stick he will fiercely chase it. Then again, he may not.
"Good swimmer" This he is. He's also good at trying to drown people while rescuing them from knee deep water. He's just doing his job.
"Good with animals" Unless the animal is a kitty. Or a squirrel, which looks kinda like a kitty.
"Good with children" The breed is very good with children. Orion is especially good at removing munchkins from unsuspecting children's fingers. Saves the kiddies from a life of ill-effects caused by jelly-filled donut holes. Taking good care of kids is his primary responsibility.

The very best part of all, though, is that part which lists the disadvantages:

"No known drawbacks of this breed."

Wet

Orion loves his new pal, Wet. He loves toys, all toys, and he is pretty gentle with them. He carries stuffies to whomever he thinks should play with him, and he will sit and entertain himself (usually while I'm on the phone) by searching for the squeaker. Wet has no sqeaker. Wet meows. Wet, by the way, is a battery powered FurReal kitty. Orion treats Wet very differently than he does all his other toys. He takes Wet into his crate, he carries him very gently (though sometimes he carries Wet by sticking Wet's entire head into his mouth), and I think he knows if you press Wet in just the right spot, Wet will meow or purr. Last night, he carried Wet upstairs to bed. That was the first time Orion ever carried a toy up to bed. Wet, it seems, is very special.

Orion and Oscar

The Newf and The Feline have been plotting, and I caught it all on "film".

First, when they thought no one was looking, they starting having secret meetings.


What they were plotting has yet to be determined, but I know they are up to something....

Several times I have found these two, and they look pretty suspicious to me.....



"I'll check and see if anyone is looking...."

"Yup, someone's looking..."

What are these two planning? We will have to wait and see.....

Orion's new pal

After dear daughter took her Orange Kitty, and won't let us play with it (because, she fears, Orion will get it all slimey), I found Orion a kitty of his own. This one is a kitten, and he is "getting to know" it. For obvious reasons, we named the new kitty "Wet".
This video is not for the weak.



(no real kitties were used in the making of this film, even though it does kinda sound like it)