Coot Lake

We are lucky to live in a neighborhood with lots of dog owners. Our neighbors in the apartment below ours have a 5-month old puppy, Bandit. Chai & Bandit will bark at each other through the windows or will sneakily pretend they have to go out to do their business just so they can play together. Along with Bandit, there are many dogs that walk past our apartment. German Shepherds, Pitbull Terrior mixes, Great Danes, Shih Tzus, French Bulldogs, mutts, and Max, a "Shocker" (Shiba Inu & Cocker Spaniel). Max's mom invited us to Max's 2nd birthday party at Coot Lake near Boulder Reservoir.

At first, we thought it'd be nice to meet the neighbors and be able to get to know them instead of just letting our dogs play for a minute or two while on walks. Not to mention, we assumed it was a gated dog park.  In the coming weeks we asked the locals about Coot Lake..... turns out there is no leash law here, just a "Voice & Sight Tag" program. "Okay?!" ...we thought.  "So it's just a really big dog park, right?" BOY WERE WE WRONG!

The only thing separating the dogs from the road is a very old barbed wire fence with huge gaping holes, and a parking lot.  Oh yea...... really well protected! The entire time we were at this "party" we were yelling "Chai" at the top of our lungs and running after him.  Great Pyrenees were originally bred to protect herds of sheep by themselves in the Pyrenees Mountains of Spain. Being true to his breed, he was wandering right off by himself through this 10+ acre park with a 1.2 mile trail around the lake. Atleast there were trails for him to stay on?! UGH! We let him off leash so he wouldn't pull us around while playing with the ten other dogs that were at the party and so he, also, wouldn't get the leash attached on the rocks and trees growing in the lake. What a pain!

Chasing Isa, 4-month old German Shepherd

Barking at birthday boy, Max

Isa, Chai & Max

What do you call a Great Pyrenees off a leash??

Begging for treats.

Half-Swimmer

Lakeside with Shelby, 8-month old Great Dane

Debating whether he should jump in...

Chasing

Isa & Chai on the rock ledge

Stick found!

LOL

Stick hunting

Found it!

Meanwhile, all of our neighbors, self-proclaimed dog trainers, were trying to pacify us by telling us to think positively and that he would come back.  WHAT?! Do you (1.) have a puppy? (2.) know our dog? and (3.) know the breed?! We think NOT! Keep your opinions to yourselves!  Do you know what a Great Pyrenees off leash is?! GONE! Take that "dog trainers." We could only put up with opinions and Chasing Chai T around for about an hour and a half...

At Four Paws

Mud laden and wreaking of wet dog, we took Chai straight to Four Paws and gave him a bath.  Luckily our breeder was there grooming German Shepherds. She has the best dryer! It only took 30 minutes to dry him versus the typical 45 minutes.

Twenty hours later.... and we still have a groany, sleepy puppy on our hands. Thank gosh we rescheduled our play date with Chai's sister, Nubikins, for tomorrow. He would have fallen asleep at the park! What a day! Oh, what a day.

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Origin of Chai

This one's for YOU, honey :0)

We named Chai after the Indian tea that Matt is literally obsessed with and has tried to perfect his recipe over the years. Today he discovered the REAL meaning of Chai!! Matt's friends have an ongoing joke about his curly locks -- the Jew fro.  He's half Sicilian, half German... not an ounce Jewish, but you'd never know! This morning Matt sent me an IM saying "Chai" means "life" in Hebrew.. then went on to tell me he is going to purchase the Hebrew pendant to wear along with his Pyrenees Pendant.  Ha Ha Ha! He's finally accepting his Jewish roots!! We knew it would come out eventually! Toda lecha (thank you), Matthew!

"This symbol, commonly seen on necklaces and other jewelry and ornaments, is simply the Hebrew word Chai (living), with the two Hebrew letters Cheit and Yod attached to each other. Some say it refers to the Living G-d; others say it simply reflects Judaism's focus on the importance of life. Whatever the reason, the concept of chai is important in Jewish culture. The typical Jewish toast is l'chayim (to life). Gifts to charity are routinely given in multiples of 18 (the numeric value of the word Chai)." (JewFAQ)

Ella's Walk

Sunday was Ella's Walk, a 3-mile walk to raise funds for the local humane society.  It was an EARLY morning for me, helping with vendor check-in and street monitoring at 6:45AM! Matt brought Chai to be a be a participant for the walk, but after a half mile tried to take a snooze on the sidewalk. He ended up hanging out with a pack of other Pyrenees at the Mile High Great Pyrenees Club booth.

LHS Mascot & our Lil Man

He took a snooze the rest of the evening and is still stiff 36 hours later! Lazy bum!

Pyrenees Pendant

I was searching for Great Pyrenees-related gear and found the cutest keychain pendant from Just Plain Simple on Etsy.  Obviously I HAD to buy it for Matt :0)

For all of you Great Pyrenees Lovers, you can purchase one too here!

Dog Licenses

Pardon my rant......

Today we visited the local humane society to get both dogs "licensed." Absolutely POINTLESS. What a waste of time and money!! According to the representative, licensing is "required" by county law in most counties across the US. [UM....... NO. It's definitely not required in any county I've lived in in California. I know they're not required in NY or VA..... I'm pretty sure this is just Colorado and their local humane societies making extra money at $15 for fixed pets and $25 for unfixed pets. Can we say rip off?] In Colorado, a "license" has the specific humane society name and address, plus an 8-digit number on a 1.5" acorn-shaped pendant. In their system they have your contact information, the name and breed of the dog..... and that's it. So what if their collar falls off?? If your pet gets picked up by Animal Control, brought back to the HS and does not have an HS tag, you "might" get fined more than you would if your pet did have an HS tag. Also, the $100+ microchip you thought would locate your dog if lost or stolen apparently "don't matter" to the HS. While they'll scan it to locate the owner, they "might" fine you more?? How does this even make sense??

The real kicker was when we were giving her the information for Starlet (our EIGHT POUND Chihuahua). She handed us the same size acorn shaped pendant that she handed us for our SEVENTY POUND PUPPY.  You're telling me they only have ONE size for dogs, cats, and pot-bellied pigs??? UM NO WAY is my dog, who can't even wear a dangling name tag, going to be wearing a stupid license that's as large as her chest. SORRY! Needless to say.... we ended up with only one size-appropriate license.

We are ALL for collars with their names, our numbers and microchips!

Just a bit too big..... 

Replacements

Bye Bye New Shoes & HELLO Replacements!!!! 

You know they're perfect when..... 

Your heart skips a beat and the boyfriend says, "OMG! Ashley, they're so you. They might as well have had 'AFORTHsz8' on the lid.":0)

Plate-Sized

We've gotten too many questions about the size of Chai's poops............ So I figured I'd take a picture :0) Matt claims this does not show the true size and depth (not to mention the putrid smell), however it's next to a dinner plate! Enjoy?! Ha ha ha!

Cuddle Monsters

All sorts of love going on at the Holz-Forth residence! Starlet began licking Chai's nose, snout & eyes to clean him.  How CUTE! Is there a second Mommy in the house?!?! She went on to try to attack two Great Danes thirty minutes later, but that's a whole different story! While surfing the web for jobs to apply for, the dogs cuddled up together.  As always, Star MUST have some part of her body touching me... and now Chai is learning her habit.

Cuddle Monsters

Star's head on my elbow & Chai's paw on my leg.

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Love, Starlet & Charles Trouble

Mama Cuddles

I mentioned a few posts back how Chai LOVES getting cuddles.... As soon as Chai starts acting up I give him baby cuddles and he literally falls asleep in my lap. Tummy rubs and ear scratches are his favorite pastime. It's great! Hopefully he doesn't get too big to do this!

Matt managed to snap a couple pictures over the past couple of weeks...

Late Night Cuddles

After chewing/shredding everything up.. 

Post-Workout

Four Paws

Dirty Birdy in the car...

Pre-Water

So skinny!

Fluff's coming back.. 

Second bath at Four Paws (the dog wash) and Chai, surprisingly, did quite well. Daddy came along this time!

BYE BYE NEW SHOES.

First pair of shoes he's EVER chewed -- and they happen to be my brand new shoes I just got in the mail from Style Addiction five hours ago.

LIVID.

Left = untouched

Right = missing half the shoe

From earlier in the day......... 

He seriously has ADD.  He has six toys out of his bin in 4 square feet.  REEEEE-FREAKIN-DICULOUS.  I should have known better. 

$99 Vet Bill

Every morning Matt feeds the dogs their respective meals with their respective medicine or vitamins.  Chai is on Cephalexin for his UTI and Star is on glucosamine to preserve her knee joints. Like all dogs, pill popping is not in their list of favorite activities. We've resorted to breaking the glucosamine pill and pouring  it over Star's hard food.  Up until Saturday, Chai was literally eating the whole pills straight out of his food.

Saturday 7:15AM Ashley fed the dogs and gave them their respective meals and pills.  Chai refused to eat his pills so she tried the standard cheese trick.  Of course, Chai ate the cheese and spit out the pill.  Unfortunately Star thinks cheese-flavored anything is amazing.

Five hundred milligrams of ingested Cephalexin, two spilled tablespoons of hydrogen peroxide at home, and a $99 vet visit just to make her vomit ...... all before 8:15AM! What a morning!

Loopy from the morphine....

For some reason, Star still had the energy to play with her little brother...

Star's "Play With Me" Nudge

Kisses?! :0)

Now THAT's a happy face! 

Play Nice

Over the past week, the puppies have been playing with each other atleast twice a day everyday!!! Chai has figured out how to play more gently with his sister by generally only lying down and nudging her with his nose or softly putting a paw next to her instead of pouncing on her or slapping her across the face. Starlet's glucosamine vitamins are vastly improving her speed and agility around the little man.  She can outsmart him by running around to his tail until Chai turns around or simply rolls over. Unfortunately, it generally ends in Starlet growling because Chai is playing too rough or the princess is simply done playing with her little brother.

Initiate

Chai letting Star pin him 

Wrestle

Nose to Nose

Nuzzle

Paw Biting