So we’ve seem to have reached the hot humid high heat phase of the summer.  Fun.

It is a perfect Saturday.  Pefect for puppy class.

Here is Coco after puppy class.  20 minutes of sheer play with other puppies.  She had fun.

So today being Dog’s on Thursday, we of course have to see more of Coco, because I’m sure you haven’t seen enough of her this week. 

Something really funny happened yesterday.  I decided to kennel her for an hour or so while I went out to the vet with Chrissy.  When I got home I heard frantic meows.  I put Chrissy down in the hall and rushed in to see what the commotion was.  The first thing I see is Madison’s black fur pressed up against the door of the crate.  I whipped the door open and out she saunters complaining loudly the whole time.  Probably saying “do you know what you have done to me.  I wake up from my nap to find I’m stuck in here with this ball of fluff and teeth.” What’s funny is she won’t allow any of the kitties to touch her, so this was a whole new ball of fluff for her.

I have to say though no one was hurt or even remotely off their temper by having to stay together.  Note to self - always check the crate for sleepy kitties before putting Coco in.  This is Madison perfectly happy this morning, sunning herself.

So, there are several whiskers that reside in this house.  I know you may have forgotten with all those cute puppy pictures.  Last night we noticed Chrissy was having issues.  Other then shooting evil looks at Coco.  First there was a howl and then DH noticed an on coming squat.  Yup… looks like another bladder infection.  Off to the vet for confirmation today.

This is when she was feeling better. Of course she still has that “don’t mess with me look.”  It may be permanent.

Update:  Well we’ve stumped the doctor.  She doesn’t appear to have anything wrong with her right now.  I  would’ve bet on the UTI.  So now we think it’s just stress, so she’s getting some kitty Valium and just resting today.

Well, Coco it is…

We had a really great night last night.  She’s really getting the hang of going outside.  We retired about 11pm and she stayed in the kitchen with the TV on the weather channel.  She finds the voices soothing.  I set the alarm for 2AM and we went right out an she did business.  Finally we got up at 5AM and did a little more business.  She went back to bed, but only for 1/2 hour as DH got up and I decided just to get up too as she was ready for some serious play. Big doggies went out then and before you know it a little breakfast and a little play to start the day.

I’m really happy we did this in the summer as it’s way easier to stand outside at 2AM when it’s only about 65-degrees out instead of 35-degrees.  I’m thinking by that time, she will be well trained.

So this morning we went to the vet to have a meet and greet.  Her puppy wellness exam went well and she got a clean bill of health.    Saturday starts our puppy socialization class, so already the schedule is filling up.  It’s so worth it though as I’m enjoying myself immensely.

Knitting has resumed last night as we cuddled on the couch.  I just have to knit the toe and the argyles are done. This is how she looked when we got off the sofa last night.  :)  Too cute.

Everyone give a hardy welcome to the new baby.  She’s a 9.5 week old toy poodle.  She should be between 5-6 pounds full grown or about half the size of Max in the picture above.  Finding her was serendipity.

DH and I have been talking about adding another little dog, most likely a poodle to our family for over a year - maybe it’s been two.  Sophie our older white dog has had declining health.  It’s just age catching up with her.  She’s 11 this year.  Max our black poodle is so attached to her, he will go into a deep depression if anything was to happen to her.  I know this for sure as Sophie had to stay with Mom for about a month once and he lost 20 percent of his body weight.  When you’re only 12 pounds that’s a lot.  The vet said to us - get her back right now.  It was only a temporary situation, she was always going to be with us, but we were in the middle of a move and just had to sneak her into an apartment.

Anyway on Saturday, I decided I really, really wanted another little poodle.  I’m an enthusiast of the breed and that’s when the wheels started in motion.  Sunday I picked her up.  When it’s right, it’s right.  Now just picking the right name.  The short list includes Coco (which she has answered to), Pearl, Dolly, and Dixie.  Feel free to toss in a suggestion if you have one.  Mother is already voting for Coco - she thinks she needs a French name.

First off just let me say, if you sorry if you stopped by earlier and could not get on.  I’m not sure what happened.  It was some sort of server problem.  I did some tinkering.  Don’t know if it’s something I did or it just got done, but it seems all cleared up now.

It rained overnight and was hot, muggy, and cloudy most of the day.  It did finally clear up later, but it stayed hot.

So, I did get to play with my loot a little bit, but mostly I spent the day with DH.  He’s been working a ton on a big project he has going on and we haven’t gotten to just hang for a while.  We just ran some errands and had a big lunch, but it was nice.

Onto the loot.  First off I love, love, love this little book.

This book has not gotten near enough press and it is the cutest book.  I also met the author and she is very nice.  There are some great new concepts in the book and new designs.  There is also some great kitty things I will be making for the feline members of this family.  However, I have to tell you all a new little canine member may be joining our family soon.  So, there will be some special knitting for her.  All will be reveled in time, but when I say little, I mean little.

This will be the first thing I knit from this book.  Isn’t it adorable.

One of the things I love about these shows is the plethora of patterns.  They knit up awesome samples to touch and examine, so you can make your own.  They also have such variety and all of the new things.

Now I really liked this one regardless if she looks like Nancy Reagan or not.

I think Mom would look fantastic in this sweater.  I don’t know about this year, but maybe next.  She has other “I wants” on her list.  I also loved the raglan cabled sweater, you don’t see that much.

Finally there was the must have shawls and this delightful pretty shawl/sweater combo (on the far right), which I think would be gorgeous in an oatmeal or off white.

One of the things that seemed to be plentiful as this festival was indie dyers, which let me just say was a blast.  I found many, many things that could’ve gone home with me, but I was totally in love with Gales Art booth.  She does these crockpot random batts that were super reasonable.  She is a really nice person too.  These were just super fun and I can’t wait to spin them up. So all in all, I stayed on budget, which was good and I had a great time.

Today I met up with Beverly and Dawn for a fibery road trip.  We headed out to three different stores on the way to the 2008 Midwest Fiber and Folk Festival.

This year the festival was held partly inside and partly outside at the McHenry Community College.  They had some very nice vendors and overall I think it is a very nice festival this year.  Tomorrow I’ll post my loot, but tonight it’s just photos of the festival.

I did have one bad experience as I was snapping a few general blog pictures, some woman yelled at me for taking pictures.  The worse part about it was she was extremely rude and very aggressive.  She never did give a reason as to why we couldn’t take pictures.  I did post on Ravelry about this and hotliked to the organizer, so hopefully she could explain why.  If you’re on Ravelry hotlinking is an ok thing to do.  You get a little message that says something about your ears burning and you can go to the link.  I should also mention, I never saw a sign about no photo taking.  I also checked their brochure and there was no mention of ‘no pictures’ in the brochure.  DH thinks I should have persisted and asked why until I got a reason, but I think that would’ve created a scene.  I also should note, I’m not profiting at all on these photos and was just going to post them here to let folks know they should go out to this nice event.

Anyway, since I have the pictures already, I’ll share them with you.  This is the inside gym area.  This first picture was the last one I took and was the spot I got yelled at.

This was the outside.

Here’s my friend Beverly.

Here’s one of my friend Dawn.

Here are a couple of others.  So if you decide to head out there, you should have a good time.  Just beware if you take any pictures.

One thing I love about poodles is their cute little shaved feet.

I keep Max in poodle mode year round, since really he’s a true house doggy it doesn’t matter too much.  Don’t get me wrong he enjoys the outside, but would much prefer being in the cool house.  It makes sense with that black fur.  Poodle mode to me means super large top knot and a matching poof on the tail, also the shaved feet.  It took a while to find a groomer here to poodle him up the way I like.  I did it for myself for a while and I wouldn’t have a problem touching them up or do in an between groom if I had to, but I love just picking him up nice and fluffy.

Here he is with his #1 fan - Sunshine.

Kitty’s were out side on the screened in porch this morning just soaking up the heat.

This made for some nice shots in natural light for a change.

Gosh do I hate this type of heat.  I think  it’s supposed to peak today and get down into the mid-80s, but still that’s way too hot for me.  Thank goodness for AC.  I couldn’t live without it.  I couldn’t knit without it.

I managed to weave in and seam up the back.  It now looks like a sock.  Yeah!