Paddle-boating in Forest Park

I'm quickly checking things off the St. Louis bucket list, but I keep forgetting to bring my camera to document these experiences. However, I did take photos of paddle-boating. I've wanted to do this for awhile, and it was a lot of fun, if only it wasn't so super hot the day we did it. It was probably at least 87 which, if you ask me, is waaaay too hot for the first weekend of May.

Going under these bridges provided a way too short break from the sun

But art hill, was as usual, beautiful.

And if you went close enough to the fountains you got a nice little misting - which was more pleasant if you didn't think about how nasty the water was

Then a little duck came and followed us for awhile. She was a pretty thing, but I think she was hoping we had some food to give her. Sorry to disappoint Ms. Ducky.

In other news, the boyfriend officially adopted Daisy. So they are both just thrilled about that. And it looks like Daisy will be getting a lovely home with a nice backyard for her in Lexington. I'll put up some photos of it, once all the details are set. I'll be sure to visit her there plenty. (Maybe, while I'm in Lexington I'll go visit the boy too, we'll see)

Graduation is on Thursday/Friday and then its a whirlwind of family and packing. I'm hoping to head out of STL (sad!) on Sunday and spend a week un-packing and re-packing for the road trip which I haven't been very busy planning. (My mother gave me a sickness- I plan with way too much detail...)

So excited for the road trip and then my trip to Ecuador! June will be very busy and I'll likely be very MIA from here. But - considering the number of views I got from the blog post about Thurtene was more than all the page views before combined.... I don't think there will be too many people broken-hearted about my blogging absence.

A Belated Happy Easter

I was with the Boy and his family for Easter last weekend and then school this week was trying really hard to kill me. Perhaps not an excuse, but that is why this pictures of Daisy as the Easter bunny are soo late.
Also, I wasn't going to bother posting these. But Chris hates them, and almost surely won't let me do this when he officially adopts her. So enjoy. And HAPPY EASTER!!

She has a large mouth for an Easter Bunny

How much hatred can a dog convey in a look?

Welcome home Ellie!

Well, this blog post has been severely procrastinated on. As I mentioned a couple times, my roommate Michele decided to adopt a dog and Ellie has been living with us full time since March 22nd, almost 2 weeks now.
This made both Michele and I a little nervous, since Ellie and Daisy did not seem like the closest friends the first time they met. Even at Ellie's foster mom's house, Daisy was being very stubborn about exerting her dominance over Ellie. She would hump her and that would cause Ellie to growl and snarl which just led to a bit of a problem. So needless to say, we were a little worried about how they would do living together and rather or not we would have to keep them separate for nearly 2 months... Added on top of this, when we picked Ellie up she had just had her spay so she had stitches and her cone of shame.

But we had spoken with a trainer at Stray Rescue who had given us advice on how to correct any of Daisy's bad behavior. So we did the normal long walks with the pups to make them feel comfortable and kept them both leashed while in the apartment to make it easier to break up any fights that may occur. 

But after just a couple hours, it seemed as if the girls were bffs. And before too long they were playing tug of war with each other and cuddling.

There is no longer any room for the humans on the couch

But, I'd say that they now feel pretty comfortable together

Tug of war is a frequent occurrence now, although it often ends up with both dogs running into the walls.

And then this is what told me that they were really and truly sisters. They were spooning on the couch!!! How completely precious is this?? It was even cuter in person because they were both sleeping, but my flash woke Daisy up.

Having two dogs in a relatively small apartment has been a bit of an adjustment, but it works out pretty well. Ellie is in the process of being crate trained, so she has been staying in Michele's room while we are away, but we are getting closer to her being able to stay in her crate! She jumps quite a bit, but is very relaxed on walks. 

We still have an occasional fight, usually over them getting too aggressive with a toy or fighting over food. But, Ellie is small and easy to pull up and away from Daisy if need be. Plus Daisy calms down pretty quickly once they are separated. So overall it is going well! YAY for Daisy learning how to share her space.

Daisy is rooting for UK tonight.... are you???

This is the position Daisy will be in as she roots for UK to win it all tonight in the NCAA championships.

She knows she has to root for UK, because soon she will be a Lexington dog, and you know those Lexington-ians are crazy for their bball. 

Her bracket is toast and she has officially lost out to all the humans who picked their brackets with the added ability to read and use logical reasoning. Maybe next year she'll have a shot. On a more positive note her Mama (ie: ME!) won it all, take the boyfriend's crazy, sport addicted family! Wooooot!!!

Post coming soon about the addition to Ellie into our household. I promise!!! School and nice weather makes it less desirable for me to sit on my computer and write blogs. 

Daisy visits Laura

My sister Laura (Hi Laura!) has been off traveling the world (or at least Europe) for the last 7ish months. So once she got back to the states, I decided I kind of missed her and planned a trip to visit her the first weekend she was back at school. And I decided to bring the boy to help me drive and the dog, because the dog waned to visit Knox College. (just go with it)

Daisy was really happy to see Laura and get a backseat buddy. Because you know, Chris and I were just torturing her making her sit back there alone for a whole 3 hours.

We had a great time visiting Laura and went on a walk around Knox College. Where Daisy got to visit some significant historical locations and roll around in a lot of new grass that she hadn't touched before. Overall thumbs up.

Here is Daisy and Laura at the site of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates. Daisy totally was amazed by the historical significance of this location.

Daisy did pretty well in the car. The biggest problem we had was that she kept wanting to hop up front with us. I think she likes to watch where we are going, because she takes a really long time to lay down any time we go for a car ride. We tried to keep pushing her into the back and she would creep back up and put her paws on the middle console - and then further - and further - until she ended up in your lap. (The passenger's lap, not the drivers!)

We'll have to work on that and find a way to keep her in the back if she comes with us on any longer car rides. Any suggestions?

Daisy's Bracket

So Daisy may not be the next psychic animal sensation. Her bracket success was limited, to say the least. Her two championship teams lost on the first day. Not a good start.

However, she did pretty good with the final four. She got Louisville and Kansas right! GO DAISY!
Unfortunately for her, those were pretty much the only games she got right... and now she can't get anything else right.... sad life right?

Oh well- at least she isn't losing the bracket pool. And the boyfriend is incredibly embarrassed because he is only ahead of her by 1 point. OUCH!

Leaving you all with a picture of Daisy enjoying the beautiful weather we had lately.
Also - will have to update sometime this week with Daisy's historical trip to Galesburg IL to visit my sissy (her first college visit how precious!) and with how life is with the addition of Ellie, my roomate's dog who has been with us for a little less than a week now.

Your March Madness Predictions from Ms. Daisy

So Daisy had a big and exciting weekend. First, she allowed another dog into her home and tolerated, (maybe even liked) her. This dog is named Ellie, which is the dog Michele is adopting from Stray Rescue. The fact that they were getting along is a huge relief, because Daisy can be a little picky about the dogs she likes. Daisy is a very dominant dog, especially with dogs smaller than here. And she also plays pretty rough and can get very scary looking if a dog isn't willing to keep up with her. At least, that has been our experience in the dog park. But we know that isn't the story all the time because over Thanksgiving she hung out with my cousin's very large and dominant dog and was willing to be submissive and played well with them. Which lead us to the conclusion that Daisy is territory aggressive, so when she decides an area is hers she wants all dogs to accept that. Hence, she decided the dog park was hers, and it obviously wasn't/isn't. This means, no more dog park for Daisy...

Wow- I got off topic. Point: Daisy and Ellie got along and no major issues. See here they are sleeping and watching TV.

Sorry, I didn't get a good picture of Ellie's face. But once she gets spayed and comes lives with us full time I'm sure she'll get plenty of pictures up here. Look for Ellie to join us here starting around March 22nd. 

Then, of course Daisy wanted to participate in March Madness! When I say wanted, this might be a slight exaggeration, since what she WANTED to do was sleep on the couch. But we convinced her to get up and fill out her bracket.

We wrote the name of the two teams on two different pieces of paper and placed them in front of her. Chris and I then both went and stood behind them and called for her. Whichever paper she stepped on was the team she picked. Doesn't she looked thrilled by this process?

Daisy started off very well. Her South and West brackets are almost reasonable. But her East and Midwest choices are highly unlikely, but who knows - maybe Daisy will be the next psychic animal sensation. 

Just wait if the Round 1 winner upsets UNC and Montana upsets Wisconsin, Vandy, and Syracuse. The media calls might just begin...

This screen shot is really blurry, so if you actually want to see the craziness that Daisy selected you can follow this link here.

Or - these will be some of the worst pick's ever, and we'll blame the fact that 1. Daisy thinks a basketball is just a giant chew toy and 2. She can't read. 

Any other pets selecting a bracket? How many of my friends did Daisy offend by not selecting their favorite team?

P.S. Chris and I are leaving for Gatlinburg, TN and the Smoky Mountains Wednesday morning. Hopefully, not too much rain and some nice weather!!!

It's a sad day in the neighborhood

Yesterday was gorgeous out so I thought Daisy and I would go for a walk and I'd take some picture to show off just how excited Daisy gets when you ask if she wants to go out. As soon as you say that magic word "out" - she is off to the door, where she sits really nicely waiting for you to put her leash and collar on.

Sorry - her eyes look SUPER creepy with the flash

Then as soon as the apartment door opens she is out- I usually just let her run, but do try and hold onto her leash until I make sure the hallway is clear. There is a little boy that lives down the hall that is understandably scared when a 50 pound pitbull comes racing out of an apartment. But unfortunately for Daisy, and luckily for everyone else in the building, she has to wait at another door. 

HAHA - why do her eyes look so funny? How do I fix that on my simple little point & shoot camera?

Then- when I open that door for her she flies down the stairs, which I tried to capture in this video. Ignore my annoying voice and the clip-clop of my flats...

See how excited she gets? Its cute and makes me a little sad that we don't have a backyard for her to just hang out in during the day. All the more reason why I loved the townhouses I talked about here.

So then Daisy and I went for a walk - and walked by the saddest thing  ever. Granted, I already knew this, but still need to document it over here.

Look how sad she looks!!!

The city/neighborhood association closed the tennis court/dog park. Apparently it was some issue with liability and they were concerned that if somebody got hurt they would be responsible. But it is such a disappointment, even if Daisy couldn't go all that often when there were other dogs there, it was a great place for her to run some energy off on a nice day... :(

Daisy's super fancy dog park

Anybody that has ever owned a dog while living in an apartment knows how glorious dog parks are. They give the dogs the chance to run around and get some energy out and also meet some new doggy friends. That is why when Michele and I choose a neighborhood to live in, we were thrilled to notice a  bunch of dogs playing in a "dog park" just down the street. Why the quotes? Oh - just check out the pictures.

What is this you ask? A tennis court? 

You let your dog run around on the neighborhood tennis courts?  

Who do you think I am?

Take another look...

Oh some large fences and netting in the middle of the tennis court.

Well, that makes the tennis court kind of useless.

 In that case, that's a great city - neighborhood dog park

Minus any grass...

And the fact that some of the dogs play so hard that the cement hurts their feet.

But, it's fenced and literally 3 minutes from the apartment.

So...I'll take it and so will Daisy

I'm playing with some online photo-editors, so this is just a basic collage using Picasa, but it was such a nice day and Daisy was having so much fun with that toy it seemed like a good place to start.

Daisy hopes you are having a good weekend! She enjoyed some play time in boyfriend's backyard this morning, and was super thrilled that Kentucky beat Vandy, because that meant that she could stay curled up in his lap during the game. 

Lazy Daisy

Daisy is a rescue dog. I don't know a lot about her past except that she was rescued off the streets of St. Louis in September of 2010. She was stuck in the shelter (I say stuck because no shelter is good - but Stray Rescue does a really good job of interacting with the dogs as much as possible and walks them at least twice a day) until March of 2011, when an older couple took her for a trial adoption period. But they returned her after just a couple days because she was TOO NICE. They even went so far as to say that their grandkids came over, and she didn't jump on them or anything. Thank goodness that they returned her, because this clearly was not the right home for her! So then she was back in the shelter for another 5 months until my roommate and I went to the shelter to pick out our next foster dog.

As soon as we got her home we found out that she is just a love bug. These are just some of her favorite things to do...

• Sleep
• Eat
• Lick her people's faces
• Sleep
• Play with her toys
• Sleep some more
• Eat
• Sleep curled up in my lap
• Sleep curled up next to me in bed

As you can see, ever since she got off the streets she has had a really rough life. But as with most rescue dogs she has her problems, but she has a lot more things that she does well than that she struggles with. We can delve into those another day. For now though, I'll leave you with the adorable video of daisy watching a pre-superbowl commercial of a bunch of dogs barking the star war's theme song.