Secret Santa!

This post is way overdue! It's almost 2011! :) Well, Bailey and I participated in Kelly and Gibson's Secret Santa gift exchange. What fun it was to participate!! The event was held using Elfster (we love that site). Anywhoo, Bailey and I drew Jenny and Stanley (+Charlotte)! It's kinda funny because they were also our Paw it Forward recipients. :)Click on the link above to see what we got Stanley and his new little sister.

Anyways, our secret santa was Lilu and Kat!  When Bailey received the gift , he was already wanting to open it. As a side story - bailey loved to tear cardboard as a pup. I didn't mind because it was better than carpet and the baseboard. He;s outgrown it, but still loves to shred paper - so if theres a piece of paper on the ground - you'll bet it'll be shredded into a bazillion pieces. I swear i can somehow turn this into a business. Corgi Shredders at your service! hahaha..

Take a look at the pics below to see what we got!

 

bailey sniffing the present

 

bailey gently opening the present. going after the box of course. like any other 2 year old. hahah j/k

 

finally realizes its a toy!!!! he instantly started munching on it

 

we threw it a couple of times and he returned it back. It's a chuck-it surfboard toy?? It's floatable so it will be fun to use on our beach outings! Thanks Lilu and Kat! 

We went to the park this morning and i snapped this pic of bailey. thought it looked interesting cause he looks like a wild animal!!!!

 

and heres a pic of bailey in his new scarf, we found it on temporary price cut at target! woohoooo!!

 

and last but not least here's one of many videos of bailey opening up presents!

Meeting Uncle Parker and Penelope!

Note: our wonderful cousin Anna wrote our blog for today, because......  she's cool! I did make some edits (in parenthesis).


Ooohmygoshh! It was sooooooo fun today. I'm EXHAUSTED. Ok, so, today I woke up, and did my daily routine of trying to wake up my mom. When she finallyy woke up, I was totally wide awake and eager to begin the day. I ate my breakfast, (watched mom eat breakfast, get ready) and went into the car. Mom moved my cage to the trunk. Which was horrible, I repeat, HORRIBLE. After she lured me in with a treat, I was locked in (It's not that horrible! I drive a Rav4 - so its really NOT a trunk!!). 
 When we reached my cousin's house, which seemed like, FOREVERRR, I charged inside. My cousins love me and I love them, to. There was hugs and kisses- all for meee! Mommy was happy, too. They were excited to give my mom their Christmas cards to her. I sneaked a look and saw that the cards were totally seriously awesomeeee (the only gift i really ask from my little cousins are handmade christmas cards. they are so adorable!!!) ! Anywayss, I started investegating the house with my super duper nose. Soon, Mom made lunch (for the kiddos). Afterwards, we all packed into the car, but only the smallest two cousins, becuase the oldest one had to go to her friend's housse for homework. Well, she was dissapointed, and so was I.  First they did some shopping. And boy were there alot of people! Probably because there were lots of last minute Christmas shopping. I wasn't allowed to go to those stores, well, wasn't that dissapointing, they weren't pet shops anyways.
 
 It was about 2:30 by the time they finished. My mom and cousins went stright to Fort Funston, TO MEET MY UNCLE PARKER. Something weird happened when we were in the parking lot. So, my Mom was driving around looking for the closest spot there was, and up ahead was a car.. with the trunk open.. DRIVING AWAY! Woah woah woah. We watched in confusion as the car started backing out of the parking space. Suddenly, the dog jumped out of the trunk!!! My mom started honking to get the lady's attention, and so did some other lady. Thats when she realized that her trunk was open. She thanked us, herded her dog back into the car, and drove off (that was something.. so strange!!). 
 My mom took me out of the car finally and I ran out. I love Fort Funston! And the weather was the best today (its was pouring last week and today was the first time the sun came out in over two weeks i think!!) . Anna, the middle cousin, spotted Uncle Parker first. We ran over there, giving greetings, and smiles. Uncle Parker, on the other hand, looked.. EXACTLY LIKE ME. The only difference was that he had white fur on his neck, and I didn't. But besides that, and how small he was (uncle parker is about 27 lbs and I am near 35!!), no one can tell the difference. The adults blabbed on for a while amazed how similar we looked. Finally they moved. Uncle Parker and his sister, Penelope, were what I call ball crazy. People were all oohing about us, corgis, and I loved the attention(: . Then, we reached the beach- OHHYEAHHHH!!!!  It was Anna and Amy's first time going to the beach, because my mom doesn't always go there. Probably because theres this hill you have to climb down just to get there. Well Anna and Amy were freaked out. It was going down.. in sand! And the sand was wet because of the ocean? I don't know. Well, when everyone finally got down there, Uncle Parker and Penelope started chasing the ball again. I, on the other hand, ran over to the water, getting myself soaked. What can I say? It felt good! :D
 Well, we played on the beach for lets say.. two hours? About two hours. I was simply SO TIRED. Everyone eventually got tired and said it was getting late, so we started up the hill. When everyone was on top of the hill, we saw ANOTHER corgi! We talked for a while, and I was so tired that I just plopped down on the sand. We walked back to the parking lot, and said our goodbyes. It was sad, but on the brighter side, I am so glad I met my Uncle Parker and Auntie Penelope. When we got home Anna carried me into .. THE BATHTUB. OH NO. THE BATHTUB. NOO!! So, I had to take a bath. My cousins scrubbed soap on me this time, and Mom was the 'treat dispenser'. At least I got treats! 
 So the washed me and then I just rolled around all over the carpet, groomed my paws, and just rested. What a day! Tomorrow, I'm gonna sleepover at my cousins' house. ITS GOING TO BE MY FIRST CHRISTMAS AT THEIR HOUSE! Boy am I excited. So are they! Well, better get my paws off the keyboard. I need to get my rest for tomorrow! MERRY CHRISTMASS!!!!!! :D


(Thank you to Arlene, Perry, Parker and Penelope for the christmas present and a fabulous time today. We enjoyed every bit of it and hope to see you guys soon!) Merry Christmas!

Here's Penelop, Parker and Bailey. Penelope and Parker are 4 years old, and Bailey will be turning 3 on January 21st! Everyone is tired and taking a rest on the beach after some serious fetching!

Bailey following his cousins down the beach in search of seashells by the sHEESHORE

Bailey and his uncle Parker hanging out and enjoying the view on the bench.

Bailey peeking from the "trunk" on our ride to the park. His soft sided crate has a top opening and i leave that unzipped so air can circulate. he's so funny. hahhahahaha he froze like that for 20 seconds trying to see what was going on

on our way down to the beach, waiting for penelope cause she stopped to take a poo. bailey is in the foreground, parker in the back - in case you cant tell!

three corgi butts and one tennis ball mid air. Who's gonna get there first?!?!?!?

Penelope and Parker are such good pals. They even walk side by side back to their parents after retrieving the ball!

Here's bailey barking in his uncle's ear: "Hey hey uncleeeee stop chasing the ball dude!!"

Here are two videos of them on the beach (1 uploaded so far, another to come!):

bailey received a present from uncle parker and his family for christmas. we decided to open it early because bailey said he wanted to. we couldnt say no.

thanks!!!! we love all the stuff and bailey is already chewing the fleece apart and ripping it. thank goodness it seems to come out in long pieces! and we will be using the puppware for our sleepover!

There are more pictures on our Flickr site if anyone is interested!


Happy Holidays to everyone!!!!!

Bailey the Corgi - Winter Break

If Bailey had school, he'd be in winter break now. hahha. :) Anyways, I've taken some vacation from work this week, so of course Bailey was looking for some adventure this morning when I woke up. To our surprise, it was dry outside (mind you we've had rain for the last couple of days and the weatherman says there will be another couple of days of rain), so bailey and i thought the same thing.... DOG PARK TIME!!! I swear everytime we go anywhere i feel like I have a kid. Leash, travel crate, collar, treats, a towel, oh and some water for myself. It's quite a process. Bailey doesn't enjoying hopping in the car for some reason, so it takes a couple of minutes for me to lure him in the car (he doesn't get car sick or anything either). Hmm.. so we arrived at the park. It was nice, dry, and plenty of dogs were out because the whole city probably hadn't been to the park in the last week because of the rain. Bailey found some buddies to play with and i was only able to catch one of them on camera, and ummm Bailey was still a bit nervous until we got onto the sand dunes away from the other dogs, then he just about went back to his normal crazy self and rolled in the sand (its funny sometimes he will actually roll and roll down a sand hill,,,), and it was fun. Took some pics on the fancy cam, and well, came back home because we saw dark clouds coming in and we all know what that means!. We did have a minor scare again, Bailey saw a hound LIKE the one he is afraid of, and, he started running. This time, i just called him. he came close but not close enough for me to grab him so i pulled out his favorite cookies (Three Dog Bakery Lick n Crunch) ,  and he came close enough for me to leash him and he calmed down. Now, thats only because that WASN't the dog. I knew it wasn't.... now everytime i go to the dog park i have to scan for those two lil barkers. We were lucky this time, so Bailey had fun at the park. Woo... success!

 Bailey being a little poser

 

chasing buddies

 

rolling around on the sand dune

 

ruunning back to mom!! the cliff is dangerous!

 

looking at the storm clouds

 

being tired - goal accomplished!!!

On another note, we received our secret santa package today from Lilu Randall and her pawrents!!! :) Her lovely gift came with a cute little note .. about cute little Lilu telling Bailey she had a crush on him. She's 1 1/2 and Bailey is almost 3. I think thats close enough in age, eh?. LOL. :) Well that just about made Baileys christmas. lol. He loves the card and hopefully he will keep his paws off the present until Saturday morning.

Oh funny story - last night i had some of my dear friends from high school over for our annual Christmas dinner, and we were opening our presents, and well, Bailey decided hey let me open one too.... well he didnt ask his mom (me), and i didn;t realize it until i heard squeaking. so. Bailey snuck one in!! But I'm going to keep a close eye on the rest!!!!!!!!!

He managed to dissect 6/16 squeakers last night....

Confused Paws

Confused Paws. That's the name of Bailey's first art creation. I was painting something over the weekend and decided to get Bailey in on it. Bailey was being really sweet so I put two dining room chairs together like a bench, and we both sat there while I painted... then a thought came into my mind. like "hmmm since hes behaving so well perhaps..... ill lather paint on his paws and make some art!!". It wasn't too messy. I took some paint and painted them on his paws, pressed it against the canvas, and immediately wiped it off with baby wipes. He was good and didn't try to lick up any of the paint either. I think he was being very patient and obedient because .. I think to him, it felt like mud. He loves mud puddles, so perhaps he thought we were mud painting. Nevertheless, he created it all himself! :) And we think its PAWESOME! haha. Do you think we could turn this into a business? Bailey's kibble is only going to get more expensive... and we need some ideas!

Other than that, it was another quiet weekend for Bailey and I. I attended a funeral service for a really really close friend of mines who passed away unexpectedly, only 26 years old. Maybe Bailey was able to sense it. I'm not sure - but he was being extra sweet (resting his head on my lap, etc.). Things i noticed that he never does. I can't wait for some time off so I can take him out on a few adventures.

Have a safe and happy week everyone!

p.s. painting is very therapeutic!

Got myself a new camera...

Well! As an early present for myself, I purchased a new camera. The Nikon D3100. My first DSLR. I'm very happy about it. It shoots GREAT pictures indoor and in low light, and well its super fast and the pictures are very sharp! I'm still using auto mode and have the basic lens... but hope to learn how to use all the features in this camera so that I can take awesome-r pictures of Bailey, family and friends! I love taking pictures!!!

Here are some that I shot of Bailey this past weekend. They are not the original high resolution photos (with my internet speed that would take a very long time! All these pictures were taken in the evening indoors w/out flash!

Hi I'm Bailey and I'd like to attend your holiday party this year!

pant pant.. PAANTTTT (after chasing the ball)

Bailey was making growly noises and rolling all over one of his beds. It's so cute.

I sometimes play "peek a boo" with Bailey lol and i covered him in his towel and well, he came up from under it and i snapped a shot of his lovely self draped in a towel!

Hi mom -  didya ask for something? (he looks like a butler doesnt he?)

Now all I need is photoshop. Anyone have a copy they can send me that would be great!! ;)

Scary; Holiday Pics

This past weekend was pretty uneventful for Bailey. I had to take care of some things, so Bailey spent most of his time at grammas (my moms house) or lounging around while I did things at home. Plus, the weather has been wet lately, so we haven’t been able to get out much… and it gets so dark early now that I don’t even get to take him to the park anymore after work….. BUT I did manage to get him out to the park on Friday after work since I work shorter days on Fridays. We headed to the park, and everything seemed fine. About 5 minutes later Bailey ran for the parking lot full speed. Well, of course I knew what it was... but let me start with some background:

If you remember in this post, I shared with you a minor scare we had at the dog park involving two hounds that were chasing Bailey and barking (in hound fashion - the ARROOOFF ARROOOOO sound), and ran for hte parking lot. I managed to catch up to him and had another lady catch him in the distance so taht I could leash him. and well after that day, I learened that that is terrifying for Bailey. He still loves that bark but is now more aware of his surroundings. If you knew Bailey, you'd be like - nothing scares this little guy. Bailey's  so brave in all situations... why would a barking hound bother him?!?! Well for some reason, it scares the life out of him, enough that he will not listen to me and just RUN. So..... on friday.... it happened again.

We arrived at the park like any other normal day. the park is not fenced in, its acres and acres of open land with access to the beach, and  huge parking lot. Bailey started doing tih sbusiness and all of a sudden, out in the distance i heard a ARROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO ARROOO and well, Baileys ears perked up about 2 seconds and he turned around and started running. towards the parking lot. where cars are backing out. My blood pressure skyrocketed and i ran after him. Well, long story short, one of our corgi friends (Cow and his dad), saw bailey, recognized him and called him over adn leashed him. The hounds were leaving hte park as we were arriving so we let them leave (which took awhile because the two hounds would not listen to their owner as they started chasing down a shepherd who was also terrified). I took bailey on a leashed walk through the park, and didint let him off again. he calmed down, buti could tell he was on a lookout.

I don't know what to do. I guess I can't really tell the hounds' owners to keep their dog on leash, cause, well the dogs just chasing another dog. So - I'm just going to have to be more careful... but since Bailey's hearing is so much better than mine I don't know if that will work. And, we cannot stop going to this park. It's the best park in the entire world! So... we're hoping to just hopefully not be at the park when the hounds are there.  Losing him scares me as much as the hounds scare him. ARGH.

This weekend went by quick. We did manage to send out our secret santa gift last week too, so our lucky recipient should be receiving it soon. :)

On another happy note, Bailey and I did manage to get our holiday cards in the mail. we ordered them through shutterfly. We ordered three different designs because I couldn't decide (one of them is on the left). It took me forever to get a shot of us together looking at the camera because I did it alone with no help!!!Their cards are high quality! We hope to send those out soon as well. Bailey and I want to send them to you too... so if you don't mind providing me an address - we'd love to send you one. email your address to orangecorgi at gmail. We so far have stanley's and benny/butterballs's since we were paw it forward buddies, but for the rest - I don't! :)

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!

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!

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!