Sunday, November 28, 2010

Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a great thanksgiving. It's been a bit wet and cold around here, so there hasn't been much adventure. We've been playing a lot of ball at home, and well, bailey gets tired from that as you can see from the picture. It also looks like he's gained a few pounds since last week but I think its the angle since he still has a waistline haha. So, we spent thanksgiving over at my aunt's house - with all the family and cousins and boy was it noisy. I came down with the case of allergies and I just couldn't function on thanksgiving day. I was sneezing all day and blowing my nose. It did get a little better later on, but I was still so ready to go home. Bailey was too because we had him tied to the dining room table almost the entire time. But, we did have a great BBQ while the sun was out, and it was good family time. I hope everyone had a great day with their families as well.


I had also bought a can of the new Wellness canned stews for Bailey's dinner - which he loved by the way, he kept licking his bowl like more would appear. I forgot to bring it to our thanksgiving bash, so I ended up feeding it to him the next day. Of course, he didn't seemt o mind. Anywhoo, It's their turkey stew, and I just topped it over half of his regular kibble. 





Here's Bailey obeying the "wait" command before he chows down. :)
 Moving on.... About a week prior, I went in for allergy testing to see what exactly it was that I was allergic too. They poked my on my arm eight times to test several antigens... dogs, cats, pollens, molds, and dust mites. Plus they had a positive and negative control to ensure they were reading the reactions correctly. While I sat in the waiting room watching a video on how to encase my mattress to avoid dust mites.... I didn't see much grow on my arm in the next 20 minutes. So, after that they measured my bumps and said I wasn't officially allergic to anything. Oh geez. That just isn't right. I get allergies all the time. So while I was waiting to see the doctor, the nurse said ohh whats #5 (they labeled all the pokes 1-10 on my arm), and she wanted to measure that bump again because it was just a tad bigger than the others (even though it was still too minimal to be called an allergy). And guess what #5 was. Dogs. HAHAHAHAHAHA Oh i could've just dropped on hte floor laughing. My allergist didn't seem to think it was such a big thought since she was probably thinking  "its just a dog". She later advised me to bathe him once a week and to.... KEEEP HIM OUT OF THE BEDROOM. oh geez like i am going to do that. At that point, i knew she didn't have a dog because who in their right mind with a dog in the family would say that!!!! Well, Bailey isn't being kept out of the bedroom, but I will keep him off of my bed (that won't be too much of a problem becuase he's normally not allowed anyways). So. long story short it appears that if im allergic to anything, its dogs. hahahahahaha funny! she prescribed some nasal spray for my symptoms and off I went. There are no dogs at work and I sneeze all day sometimes, and theres no dogs in my closet and when I'm cleaning it out I tend to get allergy attacks. and heck even before i got a dog i would have allergy attacks from vacuuming (back in the day when they didint have hepa filters)... soo..... even though she says the test is VERY accurate... I uhhhh want a re-test!

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Love, Uncle Parker

Bailey and I received a surprise in our e-mail inbox yesterday. Bailey’s uncle Parker (Bailey’s mom was named Bailey and we think the grandma was named Bailey too – and well Parker and Bailey’s mom were littermates we think), anyways we know they are related somehow! Lol. So, we found them through mycorgi.com (where Bailey and I were most of the time before we found blogspot. We love mycorgi.com. I learned so much from others since I was a new dog owner! Ok. Anyways, we received an email from Uncle Parker and his family letting us know that, well, they’ve been reading our blogs (yay!). Uncle Parker and family live in Southern California.. and to our delight, they are going to be in the San Francisco Bay Area during the week of Christmas, and they want to meet up. Well, that surely made our day! We are so excited…. Can’t wait !!!!!!! More to come on this but I thought I'd share some exciting news and give Parker some fame too :)

Also – in the picture above, Parker is the one on the sand (doesn’t his face remind you a lot of bailey? And his big paws?)

We also met one of Bailey’s littermates, brother Leo at a random dog meetup in central California right before Bailey turned 1. We have yet to meet him again because his owners are too busy =(. We also know that he has a littermate named Quincy in the Sacramento area… that we have never met, but if anyone out there meets a corgi named Quincy... let us know!!!

Do you guys have any corgi siblings/relatives that you keep in contact with? I’d love to hear about it if you do!

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Ice skating, more beaches, meetups!.. and a scare...

As all of you may know, Bailey is my first dog. I never had pets growing up, and actually grew up as a cat person more of a dog person. I never expected to meet so much people just by owning a dog. At the park, at the store, and even online. It's so amazing. We've met so many great dog people, that I feel that those who do not own dogs are missing out on so much! There's so much support and camaraderie and even cool-ness in the dog-owning world.

Anywhoo! so lets catch up on the bailey's recent adventures. This past Friday, I had a day off of work, so we spent a good deal of time outdoors at the park, window shopping at pet stores, and even squeezed in an hour to have the doctor examine my cough that ive had for 3 weeks now.. well only for her to tell me in 10 minutes that it was allergies and that... she could prescribe me nasal medicine and get me along my way. it was a bit rushed.... Anywhoo, the weather has been lovely here on the west coast, so were trying to soak it up even though daylight savings time is leaving us dark before 6 in the evening..... So back to friday. Since I had the day off, and my cousins' grandparents were out of town, Bailey and I went to pick up our youngest cousin from school. Let me tell ya.. bring a corgi to a school full of elementary kids on a friday afternoon.. expect chaos. Bailey didn't mind a bit, but everyone wanted to pet him and what was supposed to be an in-and-out sorta deal went more like a "Can I pet him" x 20 sorta deal. :) hahaha but I'm not mad. Bailey makes a great corgi ambassador, and well, we gotta raise the corgi-owning community young, right?

Later on friday night, i ended up taking the cousins ice skating. If you'd saw me with them, you;d think im their mom. I take them out a lot, and well, I have to thank Bailey for that too - having Bailey has increased our cousinly bond since we have 1 major thing in common - our love for Bailey. :) Well! We decide to take Bailey with us! The skate rink is actually outdoors, right near the piers of San Francisco. It wasn't cold out, and, parking was free if you skated at the rink (mind you this is downtown SF), and well, since the Giants won the World Series (side thought - why "World" series??), friday was declared (at least by the rink) as Orange Friday (the team colors are orange and black), and well, if you showed up at the rink with Giants gear on - FREE admission!! :) Thus, the gear we have on in our pictures! Bailey hung out with Anna (middle cousin), who is deathly afraid to ice skate but jumped at the opportunity to watch Bailey while the rest of us skated. She did a great job, and I packed goodie bags to keep them entertained. Bailey did bark a few times, but, I think he enjoyed being out with us. Take a look at these pictures:


Here is bailey on the elevator coming up from the parking garage. I can't remember if this is his first time on the elevator or not. But, he was very anxious to get off!



Before we headed over to ice skating, we took a scenic walk along the piers and got some good photos. This on is Bailey and his entourage in front of the Bay Bridge in the background. It's the most heavily-used bridge in our area, but the Golden Gate is more well-known.


me skating.... ahhh i loved it.



So! Ice skating was a blast. :) i love it. 
Today was another exciting day. Bailey and I headed to another beach on the nothern end of the city, Crissy Beach (AGAIN! YES WE LOVE THAT PLACE), and Bailey went bonkers when i let him off the leash. he played for a good two hours before we headed to the meetup. Check out some pictures we got there, and coincidentally, there's the Golden Gate in the background. What can I say... maybe Bailey wants to be an engineer when he grows up (because he likes to be near bridges??) hahaha....


Bailey has an objective every time we are at the beach. It's "GET AS DIRTY AS POSSIBLE!!". He does a great job at it. Here's his face. Can you tell - he is so dirty he can barely open his right eye. Yepp thats my boy.


When Bailey and I don't have company, i rely on my self timer to take pictures. This one turned out good. Nice sunny day, bailey and i together on a nice bench in the sun. :) we love this spot. love love love it!

Next stop: Monthly corgi meetup. We were a bit wary about whether or not our group was strong enough to hold up... being that there are a couple of meetup groups around us, and, well, to our surprise, im glad its still going strong. We had a solid group of corgis there today: Nicholas, Mona, Dakota, Ringo, Madden, Waffles, Cow and of course, Bailey. There were also some corgi wannabes - a couple of aussies (Yuma and Jordie), and a corgi mix Shamus. It was a super fun day at the park. Lots of chasing and barking, as to be expected with corgis:


There's waffles fluffy white butt, and cow avoiding the camera and madden the darker tri. Nicholas is still on a lead since he doesn't listen to his momma that well. and shamus is sniffing nick's butt cause he is not neutered yet.


There's the gang again, except Dakota's now in the picture on the far left. chase chase chase

We stayed at the meetup for almost 2 hours, and during the last 15 minutes - two huge english sheepdogs arrived. Bailey seemed fine at first, but within 10 minutes, he stood at the entrance at the park/path (mind you its not fenced!), and looked scared.. but at first i thought he was tired and wanted to leave. He kept scanning the area and was not panting and just staring. I called him over, and he didn't listen but instead started trotting the other way. Let's just say Bailey almost ended up in the middle of a two way street, but thank goodness there was a lady leaving the park and got close enough to him and grabbed his collar. He was 10 feet from the road. Poor guy, he was scared and wanted to run off and hide. I didn't run after him because I knew he would sprint off if i did (NEVER CHASE A DOG)... but once i got him leashed and we were walking back to the car, he seemed to be his jolly self again. He just wanted to leave the park. When we got home he had a good nap, had a bone i bought for him, and he's still napping right now (well except when i pulled out a bag of sweet potato chips and he came running).. haha. But yes, hes home safe and sound and back to normal, but that was a scare!






Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Videos

Forgot to include these videos in my last post. They are videos from this past weekend. Bailey's friend Catch is a blue merle Australian Shepherd (also herding dogs), and is only two weeks younger than bailey - and they first met when bailey was a little over a year old. They're truly best buddies!





Monday, November 8, 2010

Beach Fun

Last week, Bailey and I made the most out of our dog park and the beach. Well, thats because with the new daylight savings time change this weekend, the sun will be setting 1 hour earlier than normal, and, well, by the time I get home from work, it'll be dark. It's quite depressing. And, what's even more depressing is that in our area, it was warmer than normal all week - with some cities even breaking high record temperatures (it hit 80 degrees and well, we're in November!!)!!! So, Bailey and I headed out to the park at least 5 times, and of those 5, headed down to the beach 3 times. Oh, and Bailey celebrated that all with a well needed bath yesterday.

When we go to our dog park (Fort Funston), we know we are very lucky to have a place like this. It's hugggeeeeeeee, offleash, and has beach access down a cliff. Bailey LOVES the water, so he goes right in, and the tide has been good to us this week. Everytime we went, it was low lying and came in pretty gently, so it was almost like a huge puddle for all the dogs. Bailey loved it. Of course, I only remembered my camera twice!! Anyways, thought we'd share some pictures -  enjoy!

Bailey and I on our trek up/down to the beach from the park. its a lot of exericse coming back up but we both need it. funny story about this cliff- when bailey was 5 months old, he decided to run down this thing and not wait for momma. well momma followed him one time but not the next. bailey had to run all the way back up to hill to me. since that day, bailey now does not venture down this hill without his momma in tow. :)

Bailey trying to climb a ice plant mountain. its funny hell run up there and plop down and enjoy the view. bailey even likes to munch on the plant beacuse they are very juicy.

the first thing bailey does... goes rolling in something. hes mastered the rolling technique

Bailey and I running off into the sunset. how cute. the sun will now set one hour earlier - so it'll be dark by the time i get home (5:30pm)

Bailey's favorite game - chase (he likes to be chased.... go figure)

enjoying the view. i loved the reflection. we came with a friend this day that will get a dog soon (right viv), and she was our awesome photographer that took pictures of bailey and I

Bailey watching the hangliders surf from the park. bailey doesnt bark at them at all!

little pools for puddle splashing. those rocks had clams all encrusted on them. well they did at one point!

conquering some rocks. look at that face. we couldnt get them two to look at the camera at the exact same time.

Bailey and his buddy catch playing on teh beach. Catch came to visit us this weekend so we took him to the beach!

Bailey found a ball and insisted we play catch. I threw the ball and it landed in some foam so bailey came out with all this foam on his nose. so cute!

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Happy Halloween!

So Halloween was a great night. Bailey had a blast pulling me down streets for 2 hours long, the cousins got a bunch of candy, and well, the Giants won game 4, 4-0. Yesterday, they beat the Rangers 3-1 to become the World Champions..... =D Best day ever for the Giants! WOO!!! I'm taking a day off work tomorrow to attend the parade. :) I wish Bailey could come, but for safety reasons, I will leave him at home.

So - Halloween day started off pretty neat. We went to the park (thanks mother earth for the lovely weather this weekend). Bailey and I met his cute friend Callie there for a play date. He perks up whenever I say "Where's Callie?". It's quite cute! We spent about an hour an a half frolicking along the pacfic ocean shore.. and bailey just lovessssss the beach. Check out the pics below! Came home and RELAXED (boy i miss just sitting down and reading a magazine).. and packed up and headed over to the cousins house to watch the Giants game.

gonna get you dog with a stick!! stop chasing that stick!!

mom betcha i could climb that mountain!

hey you guys get back here!


 We watched the first two hours, then headed out for trick or treating. I brought my emergency radio (it has a crank to generate power..), and well i did look a bit crazy but i cranked along every so often to hear snippets of the game. Either that, or asked the neighbors and or strangers what score it was. :) Anywhoo, Bailey seemed to have a blast. He has this weird habit of wanted to dash into crevices, doors, openings. He loves checking out alleys, jumping into peoples cars, going under the bed,.. and tonight it was all about bum-rushing every door he could get close to, in an effort to say hi to all the folks handing out candy. And he looked mighty silly in his banana costume doing just that. We spent 2 hours walking around.. and the time flew by quick.
There were two or three houses with dogs that came to the front door but they were so well behaved. Bailey would defintely run out the front door if i left it open. Something that.. has happened before about a handful of times, but he's never run off in full sprint. I've been able to call him back. thank goodness. but nevertheless such well behaved dogs surprise me!

So!!! we had an overall awesome halloween night. i always hope for: 1. no rain, 2. plenty of candy and 3. a good time. We had all three. it was great!