Meet Locke.



He's home.  Oh boy, is he ever home.  He has some POWERFUL lungs, and he makes his opinion known all. through. the. night.  >.<  Ah, but that is puppyhood for you.  He is a wonderful puppy, and sure to develop into a wonderful dog.  He is outgoing, and clever, quick as a whip and so incredibly clumsy.



Precious boy.  The both of them...



His first bath.  "Is you sure us labs be waterproofed????"

Well, the Special ED crew and I are all doing quite fine.  We've had a few recent additions to our numbers, however, in the rather lengthy respite I seem to have taken from LJ.

Did I mention we have ferrets?


5 of them, to be exact.  They are as follows:

Pixel.


Babooshka. ("Baboo" for shorts...)


The Rover.


Buttercup.


And last but certainly not least, The Dread Pirate Roberts.


I have always wanted a ferret.  Hank grew up with ferrets.  So, naturally he was quite alright with the decision to get some.  They are wonderfully entertaining.  Our small room off the kitchen has been converted into their 'play room' in which they romp a good 4-6 hours a day.  It is filled to the bring with odds and ends for them to crawl through burrow under, dig into, or climb on...not to mention the wide assortment of toys for them to tackle.  They're living it up, here.

I know what you're thinking.  5 ferrets!?  Thats a LOT of FERRET!  ...Well, if it weren't for the room we had set aside for them, then no, it would not be so easy, I'd imagine.  But being able to just open their cage doors and let them out into the ferret room to play their little hearts out while we go do our thing is a godsend.  I scoop their litter once a day when I get home.  Their bedding is washed once a week.  Hank feeds them and checks their water before heading off to work in the morning.  Its our system, interlaced with the care of our other critters.

The ferrets are certainly OK with it.  And so are we. :D

We've been getting regular updates on Hank's puppy.  He is a roly-poly 6 weeks, now!  2 more weekends until we are due to pick him up!
He is one of these, we just don't know which yet:


Gah, the CUTE.

That will effectively make:
 5 dogs
 5 ferrets
 2 fish
 15 snakes
 2 birds
 2 cats

...In the Special ED household.  Are we nuts, or what?

Its been a while since my last post.  Mostly due to the fact that I have not been snapping many photos 'round here.  Bad Sawie.  This, we must remedy.

The Special ED crew is all well n' good, though.  Idolon lost a nasty battle with what we suspect must have been a bee.  She looked like her papa was a shar-pei.  Poor little naughty-spotty-doggy, she was downright pitiful until her face deflated...


She was back to her perky, pointy face in no time, though...

"Hai yes, you has things to throw for me?"


Most of our days the past couple weeks have been Lay-zay.  Last Sunday we attended our friend Jenny's house, where her family threw things for the dags to fetch until their feet bled.  Literally.  We kinda overdid it... *wince*  ...So, that meant that this past week turned into a restive one.  Monkey was alright with this, however...ever wekk is a restive one for her.



This also meant that the girls got to spend some quality time snuggling, for we all felt downright terrible about their pauvre little feetsies...





Well, we have news.  There will be an addition to the Special ED crew in a mere 5 weeks or so.  We're getting a puppy.  Yes, you read that right...a PUPPY.  And, not just any puppy.  An black english lab puppy.  He is to be Hank's birthday gift, his new best friend, and heaps and heaps of fun n' trouble!  ...These were sent to us via the breeder last weekend...baby pics, 2 wks old:



Hank's best friend in the whole world when he was a kid was a black lab named Jake.  This will be his first puppy since.  :D

We struck out last Sunday in pursuit of a marvelous way to spend the afternoon.  Success!  We found it: Arabia Mountain Park.  A perfect place to spend one's birthday, if I do say so m'self...

At least, Ido seemed to think so.



*AHEM*  It's *my* birthday, naughty spotty doggy, not yours! 

"Ooh.  My bad."


Ido made a new friend...and he totally made her afternoon.



"I believe you tossed this, sir..."


Despite the fact she was the most photogenic on our venture, Ido was not the only dag out there.  There was also a Monk, illusive and immersed in the scrubbery...



Rune was there too...occasionally.


Hank soon discovered that Ido and Rune were far too fetch-savvy to fall for the fake throws...

"Yeah right, sucka...Now throw it for real!"


Though he was very good at chucking things far out into the waters...



He was also good at providing the background music...



I shall end this entry with a picture of me, as they do not often reach this blog.  I do not play the guitar, it was a prop.  As is the short-bus next to me.  :D

"We graduated!"  ...The crates have been tucked away, and the girls have been baby-gated into the 'laundry room' of the house.  They've done very decently, no gate-jumping, no accidents...I think the next step, once we acquire a washer and dryer, is to bump them over into the studio room.



It was a rough first week--we had no water!  So a steady supply of jugs was kept on hand.  We drifted back and forth between the house, and Hank's brother's house.  My car is also still in KY...but that shall be remedied soon.  I've three job interviews next week.  Things are moving along...

Rune likes the new back yard...it has squirrels!


Ido thinks GA soil smells funny.



Monkey thinks it tastes...different.



But she's OK with this.

Because there is STICKS! ZOMG!


The weather has been lovely.  I couldn't ask for prettier days.  I've taken a few strolls around the neighborhood with the girls, and hopefully we'll be able to attend some nearby parks soon. 

Ido heard me mention the 'P' word....uh oh.


Our new place kinda looks like this:

Hai.  My name is Barkley.  Nice to meet you.



I'm cute.  And I know it.



I've got some BIG shoes to fill...





Barkley is my friend E's new 'brother'...her parents used to have the most wonderful bearded collie mix named 'Chase' who they lost to cancer a few months ago.  It was heartbreaking for the entire family...even to the point they considered selling the house.  But time heals all wounds, and in time they found themselves missing the presence of a dog in the house.  They tentatively browsed some rescues...and they found some good dogs, just none that fit their situation.  Then, they came across a very good reputable breeder in IL.  After some discussions, Barkley's future was set in stone.  They picked him up this past Tuesday, and brought him in today for his first vet visit.  I promised I'd bring my camera.  We all loved Chase, very much.  Barkley has big shoes to fill, but we have no doubt that he's up for the job.  He's precious, and everything you could ask for in a puppy.

To Georgia that is!

Yes, me and the special ED crew are headed south.  We have a lovely house picked out, with a gorgeous sun room and a pleasant back yard.  Its in a decent piece of town, and within range of several vet clinics I hope to apply to.

We've been spending much of the past week saying farewell to old haunts.  I took the girls out to Long Run Park on the way out to see my dad this weekend.  We hadn't been there in AGES.


Monkey liked the fact that the fields had just been cut, therefore grass tossing became prime sport:


Rune could hardly contain herself.  Really.


"O-hai...dis my tree hows."


Monkey was immersed in the wilderness...!  She got in touch with her rugged side...


Uh...really, really rugged side...?



Rune sped off on an adventure...


I think Ido may be part squirrel.....she is way too at home up in the whole tree thing.





So, GA....yeah.  We leave this Saturday.  Signed the house over... its out of our hands.  What, you ask, is bringing me to GA?  Bigger and better things, a fresh new start, new opportunities.  New and old friends...new and old love.  Just another chapter in this life, as just so long as my girls are by my side...well, we got 'dis.

Wassat?  Nap time?  Why, I could use a little shut-eye...specially when you have eyes as big as dis.



This is what it looks like when I bed down for a little afternoon nap...



Yeah.  I sleep with a bunch of bitches.  :D

Well, its been a while since I've come out with fresh photos of the feline crew.  I felt they were due their share...and besides, I've been cooped up with them all week, I couldn't NOT take pictures of them!


I think this is one of Turtle's most sultry come-hither looks yet...


The kittuns had it out the other day...

Beezle vs. Babbette...







All that wrasslin' tires you out....



I have turned to mush over several encounters with cuddly piles of bittun this week...





Don't ask me why they're still here! *sigh* Precious things...I do have a couple coming to see them this weekend, though...Cross your fingers.  They're gettin' big.  O.O

We can has lots and LOTS of snow!  O.o





In fact, we can has a bit too much snow...



*facepalm*



In all truth, the downed limbs and trees were due to an ice storm that swept in the evening after the first snowfall.  *sigh*  We spent the entire evening waking up every 10 minutes going "Uhh...what the hell was that????"  That, my friends, was more of this...




Gak!




Well, at least the girls have taken it upon themselves to do away with this whole tree limb invasion...



There is no shortage of limbs and sticks to chew and shred and wrestle over...which is  causing me as much anxiety as it is causing them joy. I just know I'm going to peek out there to discover a stick somewhere it shouldn't be...like gaping out of an eye or something.  Oi.  But its hard to deny them the pleasure...there is just too many damned limbs!!!  I'll be forced to board them for a day or so when we decide to cut up the tree squashing the fence and repair the damage.  As it is, that tree is the only thing keeping them IN.

All the same, its going to be hard to say goodbye to the snow...because that means its melted, and everything left behind will have turned to MUD. o.O



Even though we have a hole in our ceiling/roof, trees and limbs down all over the place, a squashed fence, a smashed grill, and a very slippery driveway....it has provided me with some beautiful photo material...





I hope the rest of you are faring well with all this freezy weather...