Disaster Preparedness for Pets

I have pampered house dogs.  They are like my furry kids.  Were something horrible to happen, I would most certainly take them with me on any evacuation order.  That's an absolute.  If they weren't welcome, I wouldn't go either. With that commitment comes the requirement to be prepared to bug them out.  And that takes some thought about what they need and why.  Some things they will need for their own safety and comfort and some things for the safety and comfort of other people you may be around.

I admit, I hadn't given it a lot of thought until this was posted in one of my Facebook groups.  It bears sharing and gives you some things to think about.  One of my first questions was what goes in a doggie first aid kit...  A group member supplied a link to some pre-made ones you can purchase but as I looked through them I realized the contents are the same as you would include in your human first aid kit.  This is is totally doable as a DIY  project.  The main benefit in the dog having his own would be that he can help carry the supplies and then they are right where you need them should you have to put the supplies to use.

Another article I was pointed to that gives some valuable advice is Saving Pets During Disasters.  There were several things I hadn't thought of before on their list of preparations and it pointed out some glaring holes in my plan that I now know I need to address.  Basic training being the #1 thing since my guys are not always the best little gentlemen.  We need to work on leash walking,  and the commands to stay, come and drop it.  We need to work on those things a lot!

When Rover Goes Missing

We've all been drilled in this modern day to microchip our pets so it's easier to find them if they should go missing.  Today, with the ulterior motive of finding out how to update the contact information, I asked the vet how they work.  And he was gracious enough to spend 20 minutes or so educating me and checking Lightning, Jack and Gizmo for chips.

Jack doesn't have one.  Or the one that the folks at Banfield inserted in his scruff is faulty and doesn't read.  No... I won't go on another rant about just how much I hate them.  I do hate them!  I'm just sparing you the rant about it.  Lightning and Gizmo, and Thunder I presume though he wasn't with us to check, have chips made and/or maintained by a company called Home Again.  I don't have the other names, but he said they are one of several companies to offer this service.

What got me thinking about this was the bill I got awhile back for Gizmo's chip.

Home Again wants $18.97 each year.  That made me worry that they could somehow 'turn off' the chip so he couldn't be scanned at a vet or shelter were he to be picked up loose somewhere...  That's kind of what the bill led me to believe and it made me a little nervous.  I thought it was outrageous!  Better to look dumb and be sure than end up with a problem down the road, so I asked about it.

The vet explained the yearly fee is for their 'location service.'  In a nutshell, when your pet goes missing you alert them and send them a recent picture so they can prepare fliers for you to print and post in your neighborhood and they fax the information to area vets and shelters.  I have a computer and the minimal skills needed to make a flier and I can place a few phone calls...  He agreed that the yearly fee is pretty much a rip off.  He also said that 5 times more lost pets are reunited with their families because of Facebook postings than those fliers.  Once the chip is there, it's there.  You may, depending on the brand, have to pay to register it and, again depending on the brand, update your contact information.  But unless you move or change phone numbers, the location service is a needless extra charge and not something you have to subscribe to in order for the chip to be active.

If you don't update your information, the chip will point the organization searching for you to claim your lost pet to the vet who originally purchased it and hopefully they will be able to reach you.  The biggest problem with this is if your pet is hurt at night or on a weekend while out on his (or her?) adventure and they can't reach the vet's office.  Most shelters will NOT provide even basic life saving care while you are being sought...

So tonight I'm updating the address and phone number on their microchips.  And 2 years down the road trying to register Thunder's and Lightning's chips because, even though Banfield was paid for that, it wasn't done.  Yay.  And yay, again, Jack will have to be chipped when I scrape up another $40 for it.

In the vets office, he brought out the reader to show me how it worked. It's kind of similar to and used like the 'wand' that TSA probes you with at the airport and when it goes over the microchip it beeps and displays an alphanumeric code in the display window.  That code, much like a barcode, is the identifying information linking you to your pet in their database.  The vet or shelter staff can enter it in to the website and get an owner's contact information and pretty soon witness a happy reunion.

And that, my friends, is what I learned about microchips today.

And no... I'm not happy that I have to come up with $100 to get everyone chipped with the correct information.  It's another place where it feels like I'm needlessly hemorrhaging money that I don't have but they kind of have me over a barrell.  Now that I know that Home Again is so fee oriented I will specifically request that they not be used on any future pet.

Come home to me...

When you lose a furry family member the grief is every bit as intense as when you lose a human you are close to.  And you don't know if to greet people who say cruel and horrible things like "It's just a dog..." with a hard kick to the groin or pity for the lack of unconditional love in their life so you end up so you end up looking at them with an expression that asks "Are you from another planet?" as melt into yet another stream of hot, lonely, heart-broken tears.

The past few months it seems like so many people I know have had to say goodbye to a well-loved pet.  I've watched as they've struggled through the pain of having the very fabric of their daily life ripped apart.  I know that someday I'll face that with my boys, too.  Hopefully it's a long ways off... but I already dread its coming.  I didn't start the morning with such morbid thoughts, but a tender poem came across my Facebook feed and left me sniffling and reminiscing about the fur-babies awaiting me on the other side.  I LOVE the last line!  If animals aren't allowed in Heaven, it isn't home.

To my dearest friend...

I stood by your bed last night; I came to have a peep. 
I could see that you were crying you found it hard to sleep. 
I spoke to you softly as you brushed away a tear, 
"It's me, I haven't left you, I'm well, I'm fine, I'm here." 
I was close to you at breakfast, I watched you pour the tea, 
You were thinking of the many times, your hands reached down to me. 
I was with you at the shops today; your arms were getting sore. 
I longed to take your parcels, I wish I could do more. 
I was with you at my grave today; you tend it with such care. 
I want to re-assure you, that I'm not lying there. 
I walked with you towards the house, as you fumbled for your key. 
I gently put my paw on you; I smiled and said, "it's me." 
You looked so very tired, and sank into a chair. 
I tried so hard to let you know, that I was standing there. 
It's possible for me, to be so near you everyday. 
To say to you with certainty, "I never went away." 
You sat there very quietly, then smiled, I think you knew... 
in the stillness of that evening, I was very close to you. 
The day is over... I smile and watch you yawning 
and say "good-night, God bless, I'll see you in the morning." 
And when the time is right for you to cross the brief divide, 
I'll rush across to greet you and we'll stand, side by side. 
I have so many things to show you, there is so much for you to see. 
Be patient, live your journey out...then come home to me.


Rest in peace sweet fur-babies... Rest in peace my Coley, Ugly, Buttons, Smokey, Daisy, Mittens, Lizzie, Pepper, Harry, Suzy, Baby, and Taffy.  I can't wait to see you again!!

Two Peas in a Pod

Lightning and Jack have become like peas in a pod... they act so similar to each other, play the same way, use the same vocalizations and will seek each other out for companionship.  The past few days I've been able to sneak up and snap a quick photo of them napping together and laying on the floor in the same positions just inside my living room.  This is their favorite hangout spot while I'm working in the kitchen or piddling around on the internet here at the table.

I love that even their paws are in the same position!

 These are the 2 that will click their teeth together at each other in the middle of a wrestling match.  Thunder and Gizmo take that as an aggressive act, but these two act like it's funny and do it toward each other all the time.  And their wrestling matches can stretch for hours with one on top and then the other as they roll and jump and twist and dive bomb each other.

Dos Amigos...

They are also the 2 who are most likely to lay their heads up over my legs to snuggle and nap for hours on either the couch or bed.  The other boys like attention until they are ready to sleep and then it's pretty much hands off.  But Lightning and Jacky... they like the physical contact with their human, me.

Lightning has been especially good at looking out for Jack since he was neutered on Tuesday.   They kept the play a little more gentle and let it escalate into their usual antics at Jack's pace.  It didn't take long.  He came home thirsty and very hungry but after getting his tummy full and a little more reassurance that we all still love him, he jumped right in!

He'll get his chance to console big brother soon enough.  Lightning is scheduled for a little snip snip of his own on Wednesday of this coming week.

Back to back this time, but still remarkably similar.

See that ring toy in the background?  Lightning finally learned to play tug with me using it.  He's the only one, so far, that will pick it up and pull against me when I hold the other end.  And then shake it mightily... sometimes so mightily that I think it's going to rip my arms out.  Yesterday and today, he's been teaching Jack to tug with him.

It's so fun to watch them together!

I love my boys!!

Random-nimity

When I was a baby, not even big enough to remember her ever working on it, my Grandma Clarke made me a true patchwork quilt.  Still buried in one of the dozen boxes to be unpacked when I finally get my 'woman cave,' it's made of randomly shaped and sized pieces of silky fabric that came mostly from her dresses or the scraps of material left when she made a new one.  I can sort of remember her in a couple of the dresses and there are old black and white photos where you can match the fabric pattern up for a few more, but most of them totally escape my memory.

I was thinking about that quilt the other day and how the random acts of a life can be a lot like one of those 'crazy patch' quilts.

And that's what today is about...

Random things.

Not so much that they're too insignificant to be the topic of an entire blog post, or even Facebook update, just that the post never came together and materialized in a form I wanted to share.  Mostly it's little things...  Things like how luck works.

It's no secret that we are pretty desperately poor and really scraping to make bills each month.  That's part of what irritated me, though I kept silent about it, when Derek bought the occasional lottery ticket.  Except... last night he got a winning ticket!  One worth more than the $5 he put into it.  A LOT more!!

That's right!  $500, baby!!!

That makes the mortgage for November a whole lot easier!

And I put up the fridge magnets (FINALLY!) that I kept during last year's move.  My friend's son's pictures have been in these magnetic frames for... well, I don't really remember when I put them in the frames but it's been a long time.  Those little boys have long been grown men by now.

Nathan, the older one, used to call me whenever he could sneak it past mom's watchful eye.  It was a long distance call - they lived in Wyoming then and I still lived in Idaho.  He was polite and thoughtful, almost like an old-time suitor.  He never failed to inquire about my mom's health, the weather, work, our small black poodle...  For a little man, Nathan sure could carry on the grown up conversation!  And it just tickled me pink and gave me quite the thrill that out of all the people in the world, he'd choose to call me.

I wonder if he remembers?

For about an hour this afternoon we all made a dog pile on the bed and watched football.  I think it was the Florida/Maryland game... but I'm not enough of a fan to really follow super close so I could be wrong.  For me watching a sports event is more of a social thing than actually being a fan of the team or sport.  I understand what's happening enough to enjoy the game, but not enough to seek it out on my own.

All of which has absolutely nothing to do with anything...

Pardon the puppy porn...

In the dog pile, Gizmo kept turning over and skooching around to find the most comfortable spot.  He ended up stretched along my side on his back with my arms around his butt.  (Insert bad joke about him being such a little cuddle butt.)  What I was noticing, though, is the skin of his tummy region where it's less covered by fur.  It's both dark brown and pale pink in blotches much like the Indian Paint Ponies made famous in B-grade western movies.  And so so soft and warm!

And, she says with an evil grin, ticklish!!

Mama's Boy

Jack is a mama's boy!

Actually, they all are... But it's my littlest one (for a few more months anyway) that makes it most clear, with all his 40 pounds, that he is mine.  Or I am his.  We are ours?  Well, something like that.

He has such tender little feelings.  All it takes for him to be convinced he's done something earth-shatteringly bad is to speak to him with a tone of impatience in your voice.  And to be 'bad' is like the end of life as we now know it!  Jack is surely my sensitive boy.

Sleepy sleepy Jack!

Last night was one of those nights when it was needful for me to have a break away from the boys so, after work, Derek took them downstairs to hang out and watch a football game he'd saved on the DVR while I holed up in the bedroom and watched a chick flick by myself.  It was a wonderful break!

About an hour in, there was a soft knock on the door.  It was Derek asking if I knew where the dogs were.  Smiling, I guessed they were sleeping in the hall.  And that's exactly where they were!  He laughed and said they'd been running down and nose bonking him and then disappearing back upstairs but he hadn't seen one for awhile and come looking because they'd got awfully quiet.  That usually means they've found something they shouldn't be doing to occupy themselves...  I laughed and told him he could let them in and all 4 climbed up on the bed and napped the rest of the way through the movie until Derek came back upstairs and asked if they needed to go potty.

All but Jack jumped right up to go.  When he sleeps he's out cold and it takes a bit of coaxing to get him up and moving again.  Derek got a little impatient and spoke with just a wee bit of harshness in his voice and that was enough to turn Jack into a cowering pile of puppy mush...  And when he finally got outside he didn't want to come back in past Derek and when they got past that hurdle he had another panic attack when he realized he'd be kind of cornered in the hall when Derek got there to open the bedroom door.  Needless to say, my poor baby was shaking and his face was creased with worry by the time he got back to me and crawled up in my arms.  He looked like he was carrying all the burdens of the world until I got him scooped up.  Then he was his normal happy wiggling self again!  He even gave Derek a slurpy wet puppy kiss.

It's a powerful feeling to be the mommy that can make everything right with your baby's world!

Peanut Butter Banana Pupsicles

I finally have the concoction figured out for the boys to get their Pupsicles!  For the past several days I've been paying attention to what foods my boys are the worst beggars about and surprisingly it's bananas that they love most for a people food treat.

A piece of banana, the pieces in a sip of my smoothie, banana bread - all of it sets off a look of pure felicity!

Are they weird or do all dogs like bananas?

My only previous experience with a pet and bananas was with my old cat, Lizzie.  She took a sniff of a banana... once.  And she was so disgusted by it that her whole head pulled back in a big wrinkle that would make the 'bitter beer face' of television fame look like a silly grin.  She shook her head vigorously trying to clear the air and then she retched.  No barf, just a super-dramatic gag.  She very graphically showed me that bananas had no place in her world.

But my dogs LOVE them!

They also love peanut butter.  I can't find any place where it says either of these things are bad for dogs and the vet didn't react negatively during our last visit when I said they'd had a piece of banana bread for a treat that morning.  Nor has she had any cautions when we've said we give them a fingerful of peanut butter now and then.  I'm using apple juice as a base.  Juice is ok.  Only large quantities of apple seeds are harmful to dogs from minute amounts of cyanide in the skin-like covering of the seed.  See?  I think things through and check this stuff out before just randomly handing them a bite of what I'm eating.

Peanut Butter Banana Pupsicles

Add to blender cup and whirl until fairly smooth:
1 1/4 cups apple juice
6 oz vanilla yogurt (1 small container minus a spoonful or so)
2 Tbl (+/-) creamy peanut butter
1-2 bananas broken into pieces




Pour into ice cube trays, or molds of your choice, and freeze.







Pop out and store in a ziplock bag in the freezer to give your puppy as an occasional treat during the hot summer.  It sure makes my boys think they've got something special!

I'm guessing that you saw right off that mine are round instead of ice cube shaped.  I confess.... I didn't go buy the ice cube trays I talked about a few posts back.  We had some of those appetizer-size frozen quiches we got on our Sam's Club trip and the plastic tray they are in inside the box is near perfect (a little bendy, but 'near' perfect) for both these little dog treats and for freezing cookie dough and I can get it in the freezer.  SCORE!!  I love free stuff!

Yes, you could munch these little disks yourself.  Or give them to your kid.  They would be quite tasty, I think, if I hadn't used Greek yogurt.... man, that tangy aftertaste and barf-o-rama smell that stuff carries are a turnoff!   The dogs don't seem to mind, but I do not like it and will be switching back to the plain old regular yogurt we've always got at the store from here on out.

If you object to giving your dog sweet treats, or you have one of those puppies without a sweet tooth, try chicken broth, unflavored yogurt, shredded chicken and mashed up cooked peas and/or carrots instead.  Next time I have a bit of leftover chicken I plan to make that variation for them.

How about that?

My puppies get treats better than some people give their kids!

Livin' The Dream

I woke up early this morning from a bad dream.

In this dream, it was Christmas and we were at some wealthy person's home as overnight guests along with a variety of other people.  Some of the other people I know, some I didn't and they have no real life connection to one another but we are all really tight friends in my dream.  It was early morning and everyone was either just getting up or arriving and we were all bustling around unloading cars and bringing in food and extra tables and chairs and presents.  Oh the presents!  They were so pretty with the glittery wrapping and the big fluffy bows!!

When I stepped out of the bedroom my foot landed right in the middle of a big cold puddle.  I cursed under my breath and hobbled off toward the kitchen for paper towels to clean up.  That done, I went in the bathroom.  And there was another puddle.  Everywhere I went in this house, there was a little puddle.

And it was irritating me no end to keep stepping in them!!

Finally, there was one at the base of the grand staircase in the entryway and I realized the puddles were pet urine.  I asked some of the other people coming in, if our hosts had pets and learned they had small dogs.  The guy answering said the dogs were afraid of people and probably hiding up in the owner's bedroom because of everyone coming and going.  I was thinking it was awfully strange... considering the number of puddles I'd found unattended to, the house should stink like a giant litter box and it didn't.  My friend, glancing over the top of the table he was moving inside, saw the puddle by the stairs and rolled his eyes and said "Usually the maid takes care of it pretty quick, but she's off for a few weeks to spend the holiday with her family in Bolivia."

Not because the maid had some time off, but that the pet owners themselves didn't step up and get the messes taken care of was frustrating me.  And I wanted to yell at them!

I woke up then, with my heart pounding and breathing hard and feeling that frustration come through pretty strong.  And then there was that deflating moment where I lay there looking around the room trying to sort out what was real and what was dream that I realized, "Oh yeah... I'm livin' the dream."

And so I got up and put my boys out for their first morning potty trip.

50-lb Thunder (looking straight at the camera) and 48.5-lb Lightning
(down with his head thrown back) wrestling in front of one of our fans.

Dog Pee

I failed epicly as a puppy parent tonight.

The boys have had 'accident' after accident all day long.  Sometimes I think it was revenge peeing... a way of getting back at me for hollering NOOOOOOOOOOOO! because they'd squat while looking right at me and then walk around the room to make sure it was splattered as widely as possible.  And they have giant bladders...  A racehorse, one of those famous for it's copious amounts of urine, has nothing on my boys!

I swear I've mopped up gallons of dog pee today.

Gallons!!

And in this moment I can't think of much I detest more than dog pee and peeing dogs.  Enough to declare I will never have another puppy and that any future dog needs to be grown up enough to be house-trained and have learned a few manners before I'll think about bringing it home.  I might even mean that.

And we all should have bought stock in whatever company owns Bounty.  I've used enough paper towels to create a quarter of record profits for them just from mopping up dog pee.

(Note to self:  I should hit them up for a product endorsement deal!)

Dog pee is making me crazy.  It's got me completely frazzled and feeling bitter about getting stuck with all the clean up.  Well, not all the clean up.  But certainly a heck of a lot of it.

It wouldn't be so bad if dog pee had even one redeeming quality about it.  But it is what it is... dog pee.

While I was cooking dinner they flooded the dining room for the second time today. Am I being overly dramatic calling it a flood when the whole floor was wet?  They've peed in the living room.  They've peed in the family room.  I think one of them peed in the bedroom... I swear my blood pressure goes up enough to make me wonder if my head is about to explode when I, unsuspectingly, step on that cold wet spot.  I just want to scream!

And tonight I'd had more of it than I could deal with and I did scream.

One of those blood curdling, top of the lungs, scare the pee out you when you hear it kind of screams.

Yes, it scared them and freaked them out.

And yes, they peed.

As if I needed more dog pee to deal with...

I have so had it with dog pee tonight... if the grocery store was still open I'd go get a box of Pampers and diaper the peeing hounds every second they are inside.  It's not like I don't take the rotten little beasts out every couple of hours all day long.  I do.  And they pee a gallon in the yard... or on the driveway... or on the carport floor then, too.

Dog pee, dog pee, dog pee, dog pee, dog pee, dog pee...

Are you as sick of it as I am yet?

But, yes... I still love them.  Or at least I will again by morning!

Dogs and Weeds: Both Are Growing FAST

When we first brought the puppies home, we had some 'big boy' collars, the black leather ones with silver spikes, waiting but they were way too big.  Even latching it in the first hole it would slip off right over the little fella's head.  This morning I moved Thunder's out to the next to last hole...

They're almost grown out of their first real collars!

At 15 weeks, just over 3 months, old both are near 30 pounds now!  Their growth is visible from day to day.  At times I just sit back and marvel how grown up they are getting, especially evident in the deepening voices of their barks.  They're sounding less like puppies and more like the big dogs they're growing into way too fast!!

Yes, they are growing like weeds!  So I thought today might be a good day to share some updated pictures and tell you more about their developing personalities.

Lightning, listening intently to some silly noise
I was making to get his attention...
May 17, 2013

Lightning is the slightly smaller of my boys and has become my mischievous little instigator... the first to head off and explore the woods or neighbor's yard, the one who almost immediately curls his lips back and snarls in that 'scary growl' while play fighting, scooper of food from bowl to kitchen floor and thief of all shoes, slippers and laundry he can sneak away to find.

Several people have commented on those behaviors being more the dominant alpha dog and a sign of superior intelligence.   And that sometimes it can be tough to get them to submit to training.  I can see that.  Lightning certainly has a mind of his own.  Sometimes I'd even call him stubborn like a mule when I want him to do one thing and he wants to do something else.

Thunder, giving me the look that says 'enough
with the camera in my face already!'
May 17, 2013

Thunder, my big boy, is much more chilled out and affectionate.  He likes getting, and giving, hugs and kisses.  And almost has the concept of 'soft kisses not bites' down.  Almost.  Given the chance, he will chew stuff up.  Me included!  He's the follower, the one who takes a lot of crap before he snarls back, and most often the one who comes first when called.  And he's the 'good' rider when we go in the car... napping peacefully through his brother's whines for much of the time. Thunder was also the first to master going up and down the stairs, sitting by the door to let me know he needs to go out and walking (relatively) calmly on the leash.

He's more the people pleaser and, I anticipate, he will be much easier to handle for any training we opt to do in the future.

They are so different from one another... but both well loved and so very much fun!!

Now if I could just keep them out of the woods and weeds.  And especially the ticks.  It seems to be an especially bad year for ticks in northern Georgia.  Even with the weight-appropriate monthly flea and tick treatment, we find ticks on them a couple of times a week picked up on their adventures out here:

Back yard on May 16, 2013.  Filled in so much in the last month!!

Beauty is a Beast!

In order to get that fierce guard dog look that is so classic for a Doberman, tails and ears are trimmed while they are very young puppies.  Then, their naturally floppy ears, must be splinted until healed so they are erect.  In the past that splint has been external and required almost a full taping of the dogs head to keep it in place for 6 weeks.  More recently, a system was developed to use a stent internally which, after healing, is removed via a single tiny incision.

Our boys got stents before we ever picked them up from the breeder.

And I was pretty sold on this method.  It's clean, neat and only requires us to tape the very tips of their ears *if* they flopped.  Both of Lightning's, and one of Thunder's, ear tips flopped.  And keeping tape on them has been difficult.  I couldn't imagine having to do the whole external splint and tape the whole ear thing.

But now that's changed...

In their 'boys will be boys' rough housing, one of Lightning's stents broke through the skin on Sunday evening.  I think it bothered us more than it bothered him but we dutifully made the appointment to have the vet remove it.  They couldn't take him until Thursday morning so we've had to just watch him and feel bad about it for a couple of days now.  When we got out of bed for the first potty run Tuesday morning, I noticed it wasn't just broken skin but an inch or so of stent poking out.  By the time I got him back in the house and cornered only about an inch and a half of the stent were left inside his ear.  I bit the bullet and pulled it out.

This is what it looks like.  The stent is a piece of semi-flexible plastic much like fishing line, or what you use in a string trimmer for the lawn, but it's heavier.

Now we've got about 3 weeks of externally taping his ear so it will hold its shape.  And he's a royal pain in the backside about it.  He fights about holding still to get the tape put on and then thrashes about trying to find a way to get it off.  And then his brother helps him with his predicament...  Thunder bites his ear and pulls the tape off sending me running to pull it out of his mouth before he swallows.

And I don't really know what I'm doing when I try to tape it so I'm finding it to be a real ordeal.

I wish there wouldn't have been issues with the stent.  If that had gone smoothly I'd have no hesitations about it.  But one of Thunder's twisted so he has an ear that sits at a bit of a wonky angle (we hope it will straighten when the stent is removed) and then all this mess with Lightning's ear...it gives me doubts.  I'm truly not sure what I'd choose to do if I could get a do-over!

And this is the sad way he comes out looking.

For the 10 minutes the tape lasts...

Our Family Is Growing

I'm excited to announce our family is getting a little bigger!  We get twins!!

Now before you all get the wrong idea, I'm not pregnant.

Oh heavens... THAT would be an epic disaster.  Even if we were married that would be rough considering health and schedules and the lifestyle we have planned.  What really works best for us is a furry family addition.

And now we've been blessed with the opportunity to get some gorgeous puppies!

The second weekend in April we've made plans to go pick them up from Shady Grove Kennel, a breeder in Dublin, GA.  We are getting two male blue Dobermans.  The 'blue' comes from the smoky gray shading of the darkest part of their coat.  (Black is the most familiar coloring, but there are also blues like we are getting and reds who have a rich coppery brown coat.)

Our babies were born early in February to parents who've each racked up an impressive number of championship trophies on both the domestic and international circuits.  Based on their genetics and how big these little guys feet are, we estimate they'll both be very large dogs.  As in more than 120 pounds at maturity kind of large.

Wowzers!  That's a lot of dog!!

This little sweetie is Thunder.  Doesn't he look muscular already?  And ready to head up our house's living security system.  Seriously... would you want to be an unwelcome visitor and come face to face with him when he's all grown up?

And this one is called Shadow.  (I'm campaigning to rename him Lightning.)  He's destined to become my personal trainer and take me on long brisk walks down our little lane and in the many nearby parks.

I can hardly wait to snuggle with these adorable furbabies!! Just look at their cute little faces almost begging for hugs and kisses!

I've been trying to learn a little bit about Dobermans the past few days while we've been plotting and planning and trying to figure out a way to make this happen.  And they are amazing dogs!

Realizing it's part sales-hype, I've loosely pulled these comments from our breeder's website:

A Doberman is a lively dog with lots of speed, strength, and agility. He can run with a horse, maneuver quickly enough to catch a rabbit, track faster than a Bloodhound, tree a mountain lion, and beat you to your favorite chair every time!

He is also a very gentle dog with the firmness of Gibraltar... He will let a baby crawl all over him or take his six-year-old mistress walking to show her off and guide her with mature judgment.  Sensitive dogs, they are keenly alert to your feelings and wishes.  If someone visits you whom you don't like, watch the dog. He will be watching your visitor. After he has been with you a few years, you will find less need to command him because he will know what you want and respond automatically. You become a part of him and he becomes a part of you.

Dobermans are the only breed of dog originally bred as guard and watchdogs yet they are also noted for their gentleness and obedience.  They are also beautiful with ample square-ish and highly muscled bodies, a sleek dry coat with precise clean markings, a long arched neck for balance and nobility, and a dark almond shaped eye set fairly deep.

Yup... I'm gonna be a very happy pet parent with the cutest furbabies in the history of ever!