Goodbye Sweet Boy-Ares

Ares 

In the fall of 2014, we met a wonderful woman & her sweet husky pup named Ares.   Around this time we found that Duchess was a Husky mix, so we were invited to join a local Husky group. 

Over the next year we'd attend a handful of Husky and get to know Stacey & her boy Ares.  Soon she added another Husky, Akira, to the mix.  I adored these handsome boys.  They were very vocal when coming to the meets.    

In 2016, after bringing in Peryn, we began to meet up with Stacey & her boys regularly.   Ares and Akira were Peryn's first friends.  Akira was often Peryn's wrestling buddy.    

Throughout 2016 my three, Peryn, Duchess, & Athena would meet up with Stacey's two, Ares & Akria.   I jokingly called Ares my boyfriend cause I just thought he was so handsome. All of Peryn's buddies, outside of the family, were huskies.   He learned to play rough.

My kids got excited to meet up with them.  When Lada joined, her first meetup with them was quite memorable because he put big ole Akira in his place and they were BFFs after that. 

Outside of our meetups at the local dog parks, our pups attended daycare together.  My kids always greeted them with enthusiasm and I always made sure to say Hello to my sweet boys.  

Except for Ziva, all my kids have met them.  Ziva was too young & the boys began having various health issues. 

Stacey let me know earlier this year that Ares was not doing well.  Eventually, after numerous tests, cancer & diabetes were the culprits.   When his health began to decline significantly, I made a trip to visit him in October.    

He reminded me of Athena.  Once a healthy robust pup, now a skinny shadow of himself.  He was partially/mostly blind, but still had his spunk.   I got lots of loving from the 2 of them.   It was heart breaking that his time was winding down.  His diabetes was out of control and his tumors were growing.    

It was a good visit. 

Last week Stacey reached out to me to let me know it was about time for Ares to meet up with Duchess & Athena and the rest of my pack he had yet to meet.   On Christmas eve, I took another trip to visit my sweet boy. He was completely blind and much more subdued than my pervious visit.   It broke my heart.

This once majestic dog who was so full of life and attitude was a shadow of his former self.   He was happy to smell me & it just hurt to see him, knowing this was my last time.   I had wished I could have brought Peryn & Lada, but it wasn't the time or place.   

Today, around the time this posts, Ares is making his journey. He'll be reunited with all his past husky pals and my pack.  He'll be free of pain and be able to see again.  He'll see his big sibling, Malibu, and he'll leave my sweet buddy Akira.   I hurt for Stacey and her family as they say goodbye to such a ball of life.   
Ares was a very vocal singer and just loved to play and swim with all his friends.  

At any park or meetup you could always tell when Stacey & her boys arrived. They would go nuts and could be heard from the parking lot when they arrived. Going to miss his sweet face & voice.

I'm going to make sure I pay Akira extra attention now that he's going to be an only pup.   I'll have to make sure Lada spends time with her BFF (cause she adores him). 

Ares, my sweet boy, run free of pain & suffering.  Have fun with all your pals waiting for you at the end of the Bridge.

Stacey, We love you.  We're sorry you have to go through this and we're here if you need.   

All our love

Peryn, Lada, Volos, & Ziva

Rich & Laurie

In Memory of Honey, one of the Crew

The second one of these I am doing today, but first one to post. This one hits very close to home.

Today the Crew lost one of their good pup pals, honorary Crew Member, & playmate,  Honey.  You've seen Honey posted on here at some point or another. She was often with the crew on THE couch.

She was seriously one of the sweetest dogs I've ever met.   She outlived expectation when she was diagnosed with a brain tumor and was only given about a month or two at most. Here we are a gazillion months (it feels like later) finally saying Goodbye. 

Please keep her little brother Charlie, Mom & Dad in your thoughts.  Sending our love...

 Goodbye dear Honey.   Say Hi to Duchess & Athena for us. 

Couch Potatoes Post 2

They're still at it .....taking over that couch at Play Care.    All photos taken by the daycare Staff. 

OH! Did I post this yet?? You know those Pettoonies ads you see? I did one before Christmas of my kiddoes..What do you think? From one of their "Couch Sessions"   HA HA

"Couch Sessions"   HA HA --The Crew & Friends.......

Where is the off button?

Sorry a few days late with our update.   This weekend I spent Friday night and Saturday steam cleaning the carpets throughout the house. This potty training thing has to progress before it kills me.

MC, Athena, & Peryn

The girls:   They've been very chill as of late.   Their baby brother is wearing them down.  Where they once used to bug us all the time for going to the park or for a walk. That's a rarity these days.  They're both content to play with their baby brother and the neighbors. Even MC (Athena's boyfriend) plays with Peryn.   It will be awhile before we can take them all to the dog park to play with OTHER dogs, so I'm glad this arrangement seems to be working for them still.  
I've definitely noticed a change in Duchess. She's more social and playful (for her) than she has been in the past.   Peryn has definitely been good for her.     I hope she realizes that he's going to get bigger soon and she won't be able to push him around much more.

Athena & Peryn

His & MC's tether tug

Athena has her puppy that she's always wanted to play with. It will be interesting to see her at the dog park when he can go. Will they ignore each other or will they go to town?  A few more months before we can find out.

Peryn. Peryn. Peryn.   This boy has some energy.   He's hilarious and frustrating at the same time.   He LOVES to play fetch.  So we try and tire him out with that inside the house.  He's gotten so BIG.  He's not a little puppy anymore ( to us).  He's a little doggy.    He goes for his 3 month appt Thursday, so I'll have a weight update then.

Training with him was at a standstill. He knew sit.   He's been shown Paw over and over and over, but he doesn't do it on command.  He understands Potty.  On the FB group there are all these people telling what their puppies can do and Peryn is behind the curve.

I looked into Clicker Training.   Read up and watched vids on it.  Picked up the clicker yesterday.   We now have Lay Down added to the list.   We're also working on Leave It, Cuddles, and Come.
I have faith it'll work.  He is really interested in the training.
What else to tell you?  Some days he's like the energizer bunny. He keeps going and going and going, much to his sisters' dismay.   Other days he's pretty chill.    
He sure loves his Mommy though! Well, he loves us all. He adores his sisters and it's so cute.  They're just not always wanting to be with him --even if he feels like they should.  I'm pretty happy at the progress we're making.

 He met his Uncle Davey the other day. Uncle Davey lives very far away and was the first in my family to meet the pup.  The girls were deliriously happy to see Uncle Davey as well.   They all fought for his attention.    It was cute.  Not sure how much Uncle Davey liked it though.

I wish my parents could meet him as he is now. Sadly, they won't until he's a bit bigger.    Hopefully I'll have him skillfully trained by then.

Peryn's doing a little better at night. Some nights we can get in 4 1/2 hours of sleep. Others it's every two. This past weekend was HORRIBLE.  Throw in a time change. Oh. It was awful.   Good thing he's cute ;)

Uncle Davey!

He's MINE!!

He prefers to be with us, but that is a common trait with Heelers.   They are very family oriented and want to be with the family and most especially their Person.    I'm hoping with the clicker training, we can have a better track record of Potty time.   FINGERS X'd.

So, this weekend marked four weeks with us?  I'm losing track--wow 5 weeks.    Sheesh.   So as I mentioned, he's such a big boy.  My little fur ball puppy is gone.    Now we have a sweet, rambunctious, little fur ball to contend with.

Snazzy! 

TWINS~!!!!

The Pack.

Sorry. IT's been awhile. A note from Mommy.

Hey Duchess & Athena fans.


It's been awhile and I apologize for not posting any updates.

I'll get right to it.

Athena had some issues the past 6 months or so with her right ear.  We started noticing that we couldn't rub behind her ear. She kept shaking her head and eventually it started to stink.  
We took her to the vet and they didn't find an infection. Just an overabundance of wax.

We had to start cleaning her ears every other day and putting medicine in the ear.   While it stopped the smell, it didn't stop her from constantly shaking her head.  Her right ear no longer was standing straight up.  

At hear annual visit, we mentioned her ear again.  They didn't see anything and told us to keep  using the ear cream and clean it.   Additionally the vet thought it might be a food allergy.

Thus began a change up with the food that was more of a pain then anything else.  Her ear still bothered her.   

Finally I took her in again and forced the issue. They found her ear infected and we got new cream and antibiotics.  Four days later, poof all gone.  She is no longer shaking her head. We can pet behind her ear and it stands up straight.

We just switched back to their old food because the new food caused digestion issues.Duchess and Athena protested the food change, but ultimately had no choice in the matter.  Now the digestion issues are all done.

The girls are in love with the new neighbor.  About a month and a half ago, the neighbors adopted a new puppy. He's the CUTEST thing ever. The dogs are obsessed with this puppy. It is so cute. I'll try to snap pics the next time they visit him.  

Duchess is becoming a bit more sociable at the dog park. I don't know if it's due her seeing the same dogs all the time or something else.   It's nice to see.


My parents came for a visit and stayed a week. The girls loved them, especially Duchess (surprise!).   I think they were both quite bummed out when they returned home. They also took to my brother when he visited a month prior to that.  


We did a DNA test on the girls. We'd done one on Duchess before, but were curious if it would garner the same results. We were curious to what Athena was.  I'll blog about that next time. It won't be as long in between posts I swear.

Athena is doing fantastic. Aside from weaker back legs than a dog her age would normally have, she's adapted wonderfully. She's very happy and loves her home, neighbors and friends.  She lives for the dog parks, eating and Rocky (her raccoon). 

New Friend

Athena here!

Guess what?! I have a new friend.  Her name is Zooey and she's smaller than me, but she's really fun.  

She and her brother live two doors down from us with the nice lady Megan-their Mommy.

I snuck over there today when Brinks (the brother) was out with his Mommy.  My mommy caught me, but instead of yelling at me , she called Duchess over to play with us too.

It was sooo much fun.  I like her. She's really full of energy.   They have a super cool yard too.  I might sneak over there more often.  He he.. Don't tell mom.

Duchess even liked her. Duchess doesn't like any dog.....well except my boyfriend.   But Duchess can't have her she's MY friend!