He still pees his pants

We are approaching the one year Gotcha day for Shane.  Shocks the hell out of me.  People say he looks like a different dog.  He should..he has gained about 6 pounds, lost at least a pound of fur, has pearly white teeth, his fur is white and he hasn't been bitten by a flea or slept outside in a year.  But who knew he'd still be here one year later. 

 I wish I could say his bladder had gotten bigger.  But in the year, I've learned that Poise pads are awesome and sold in bulk at Costco.  A diaper genie rocks at holding wet Poise pads and keeps your trash smelling like trash and not pee.  And Tinkle trousers are great and don't leak..even though they might resemble something from medieval times.  I promise he is not as miserable as he might look in this photo...I will get a standing one at some point..but he doesn't stand long.  He can't help that he pees his pants..he is old and never properly housetrained.

 So happy 1 year Gotcha day, Shane.  We will celebrate your 14 1/2 birthday in December.
Doc wants to know why we don't celebrate his half birthday..

Beach Bound 2013

It has been weird around here without Dante.  He was definitely not a wallflower and had so many health issues, that he was a large presence.  He was also always beside me and always underfoot.  But his urn is beside Henry's now and we are doing OK.  We had a party for him and burned his 'anti-poop' eating muzzles that he hated so much (but were SUCH a necessity since poop didn't agree with him and would come right back up).  It was a fitting memorial.

A few days later, it was time to pack up and head to Beach Bound Hounds this year. Kristen and I have gone 4 years in a row and try very hard  not to miss it.  The past years we have taken Cali, Dana, Stan and Jaime.  This year Kelli represented the black dog contingent.  We definitely missed Jaime's morning hoopty dances though.  It was fun having a young one again at the beach, though Kelli didn't seem too interested in the water.
it was hard to find a place for Kristen and I to sleep..

 Dana will be 13 in January, so she got to take it easy and not go to all the events. Stanley has a gimpy foot, so he kept her company when we did longer beach walks.  But typically, we did a lot of this

 The weather was perfect.  Mid to upper 70sF so the dogs would come out with us in the morning (under the umbrella) and we'd take them in at lunch for a break.  Then we'd usually bring them back out around 4. It even got a little chilly at night. 

 Dana would move out to the sun to get some warmth on her old bones.

Kristen, Stanley and Kelli

 Me, Cali and Dana

On Saturday, we had no 'planned' event for the evening so we stayed on the beach until the sun went down.  We lost our umbrella, but we didn't need it.  Stanley brought out the stuffie but dropped it pretty quickly.  Cali did not think the sheep needed to be outside so she held on to it for safe keeping.
Angelic Cali

Or not so much...

The final morning, everyone gathers on the beach. Typically, I get a shot from our balcony. But this year, we had a first floor room which was very nice and great for the older dogs..but the view wasn't the same.  it was worth that however to not have to wait for an elevator in the morning!  But we sat but for a bit and got some sunrise group photos.

 And a parting shot of Shiloh.  I was worried she'd grieve over Dante, but I think the dementia is just enough to make her not realize a lot of things.  So far she seems 'normal' for a 16 year old lady.

If only he'd had thumbs

He would have ruled the world.  Run free, my little buddy...you will be greatly missed.  Watching TV on the couch will never be the same without you by my side.  He put up a good fight and we tried everything we could. He spent 4 days in the emergency critical care center and he tried..but in the end his body gave up. He was Jason's faithful companion for 14 years..

We love you and will miss you.

Dante Stumpf

8/11/1998- 9/19/2013

 

 I will try to post some photos of him in younger years (pre-blog) this weekend.  Hug your hounds..

UK blog- Scotland

This will be a long one but the final installment.
We left Chester on Friday morning and drove the 6 hours north to Inverness.  On the way, the landscape and weather changed dramatically and constantly.  We never had rain for more than 5 minutes and the sky would be blue for a few minutes.  And that appears to be the weather in scotland..
Halfway up we stopped for lunch at Blair Castle. We didn't have time to go in. While planning, I found that distilleries had 'extended and in depth tours' that you had to pre-book but included tastings of rare and very old whiskeys..this is right up Jason's alley. So I booked a tour each day as they tended to last a few hours.
Blair Castle was beautiful .

 Then a few miles up the road we had our first tour at Dalwhinne (don't let the angry cloud fool you..it just meant high winds.).  This is the 'coldest' location in Scotland so they were able to use this to their advantage in whiskey making. And it was quite chilly.  There seems to be two things that separate all the distilleries. Their water source, which they guard and value above all else even purchasing hundreds of acres around the well/lake/pond to secure it and preventing anyone else from using it, and the shape of their distiller (more on that later).

After the tour, Jason did a tasting. At this distillery, the tour was free but the special tasting was extra. So we only did one, since I am not a Scotch fan.  But they did a Scotch and chocolate pairing.  I forget how old the one on the right is..but it is 18 or something.

Then we finished the journey to Inverness where we stayed at a B&B on the River Ness within walking distance from downtown. Our walk to and from dinner each night was pretty awesome.

And we would walk right under the Inverness castle. We were never in town during working hours so we didn't go inside. But it was pretty neat too (and we went in a lot of others). It is to the middle right on this photo

The next day we had a booking for a 3 hour tour at Glenlivit.  This was the biggest/most industrial of the distilleries but he got to taste some seriously old stuff here.

I tasted too..and honestly this is what mine looked like at the end of the tasting as well.  But I did learn to appreciate the differences in the Scotches.  The oldest one here is 25 years old. However, after this we went to the 'secret warehouse' and he got to taste a 36 year old straight from the barrel.  Photos weren't allowed in any warehouse or inside most areas. They SAID b/c there was alcohol in the air and the fear of fire was too great.  I don't know..

On our way here, I had told Jason I read about all the distilleries had a 'fill your own bottle' thing that although no cheap sounded pretty neat.  So he could fill his own bottle, cap it and label it. Usually with a Scotch that was only available this way so not distributed.  I told him he could fill A bottle. Why not? So he chose to fill one here.  it was really neat.  I think this was a 17 year old cask conditioned one
First he fills the bottle:

Then he caps it

And finally, he completes the label, writes in a log book and affixes the label.

 it was all very neat.

Driving out to Speyside (the 'area' of distilleries) took a little over an hour from Inverness.  We went through a lot of countryside and small towns.  No cities here.

 After Glenlivit and lunch in Dufftown, we went to Spynie Palace which is very close to the northern coast, so less mountains. We drove right by the ocean.  The palace is just ruins but we climbed to the top of the tower for some awesome views.

 The next day, we head to Loch Ness to search for Nessie!  I had learned about a cool castle on the Loch Ness. If you find yourself in this area, visit this castle!! Uruquat castle.

It was very large and had lots of vantage points and history.  Loch Ness is huge.

But from top of the towers, it was beautiful.  There weren't many people here due to the time of year and day..but those that were in the way were deleted. ;-)

There was obviously at least one other person!

This is probably my favorite shot..from the furthest point looking back.

 Then we drove the 2 hours back to Speyside for lunch and a tour at Glenfiddich.  they actually allowed us to take photos everywhere except in the warehouses.  So I was able to get more detailed photos of all the inner workings.
I feel sure I don't remember it correctly..but the barley goes in these things to soak and get ground up.

And then it goes in to these things for 8-72 hours to ferment with yeast..kind of like beer at this point.

Up to this point, every distillery was exactly the same except for the source of water. But the shape of the distillers were different.  They always looked like tear drops, but some were larger/smaller/taller/fatter/had divits/had inset/etc

And then we tasted

And yeah..remember the whole "you can bottle one, if you'd like"...turned in to two.....

They gave this one a great 'display' box which will be on a shelf when he gets home.  No, he hasn't opened them yet and let's hope they make it home in one piece.

 We drove back to Chester the next morning and I flew out next day.  I really enjoyed Scotland a lot.  Everyone did OK here.  Shiloh ate well for aunt Kristen and Dante ate well for aunt Nerice.  I did split them up so that not one person had to deal with all the difficult old dogs...I am used to it.  So Kristen took Shane and shiloh and Nerice stayed at my house with the other three.  Shane developed a tooth abscess while I was gone and Kristen took him to the vet. Antibiotics helped but we knew his horrible teeth and past dental care was the issue.  So I made the decision to have a dental done on the 14 year old boy.  He came out fine and his infections are all gone and his teeth look awesome.  He is doing great.

Jason comes home on Saturday.  He is ready and so are we!!!!!