Phoebe and I love having the ramp. Not only has it made car rides much less stressful for us, but we have also started to have Mom and Poppy set up obstacle courses in the backyard with it. Poppy brought out the tunnel and set it up so that we can run up the ramp onto the plastic picnic table out back (that is about three feet off the ground) run across the plastic table, run down a ramp Poppy built with some sanded lumber, and then run straight through the tunnel! I started doing it the minute it was complete, but Teddy acted nonchalant and pretended to be not interested. Then, as soon as Mom and Poppy went inside, he ran straight up the ramp and laid down on the picnic table to take a nap. Mom saw him from the upstairs window in Lucy’s room, and as soon as he heard her laughing, he got down. But from then on he didn’t try to hide his desire to run up and down the ramp. He and I spent the next playing on it with mom and Poppy. Teddy is a natural at the ramp, but he takes his sweet time coming out of the tunnel! I have to bark at him to hurry up!

Our other favorite game with the tunnel is during our chase sessions, Teddy will run into the tunnel and I have to try and figure out which way he will come out. He likes to trick me! He stays in there for a minute trying to confuse me, and I run back and forth between the two ends waiting to pounce!

Anyway, here are some pictures of us playing with Mom supervision!

Don’t you wish you had a ramp-tunnel obstacle course?!

We are off to play some more!

Much love,

Teddy and Phoebe

We are very excited to show off our new spring collars! Just in time…okay maybe just a little late-for fashion week!

On the lovely Phoebe we have a lovely bright green accessory adorned with pink and white daisies. I think it has a very cool vintage 60′s-70′s feel to it. Retro floral patterns are going to be very big this season! Especially in the canine crowd.

Modeled on the handsome Teddy Henry we have a more masculine spring collar. Blue with yellow and black cartoon dogs chasing each other accentuated with a festive orange zigzag trim. (Teddy Henry would like to interject here that it wasn’t his idea to do a fashion shoot and he doesn’t want anyone to think he is a sissy or a vapid pretty boy…though he is very pretty.) Cartoon collars are a great why for boy dogs to be expressive without feeling emasculated.

We would like to point out that once again it is us corgi’s who set the trends for the fashion world. Heidi Klum wishes she had our style! And Ralph Lauren doesn’t make a move without consulting Ted the Man. Okay that last part is made up, but corgi’s are definitely the most fashion forward pups around, mainly because we are already so damn cute even without fun accessories.

Anyway, sorry it took so long to get the pictures up from the party, Katie tells me she just figured out how to upload photos from her phone to the computer. I shall punish her for her delay by hiding all the towels from the bathroom.

Anyway, Teddy is telling me it’s time for bed!

Much love,

Phoebe

Everyone on Mom!

When Phoebe is in the car, she has to be kept in the back by putting up a cushion. Otherwise she plows her way to the front and demands to sit on the drivers lap. Poppy will allow this, as he is tall enough to see over her ears, but Mom and I cannot. Once when she did this on the way back from the grocery store, I was able to see around her head, so I let her stay (plus the grocery store is three minutes by car from the house) but I could read the lips of the people in the cars on the other side of the road. Clearly they could not see me behind the ears, and I could make out more than two people saying “is that a dog driving?” Anyway, I snapped these pictures of Phoebe in the drivers seat with my camera phone awhile back, but only just figured out how to put them online.

Phoebe apparently pulled one of her hop-to-the drivers-seat moves on the way to the Grand Canyon with Poppy, Mom, Lucy and Stephen and Stephen’s cousin – the latter of whom stated he was uncomfortable with her driving. To which Poppy promptly replied, “Why? She hasn’t had an accident in three days!”… I don’t think Stephen’s cousin found that very amusing. Annother time over the summer, Cortie and I were Geocaching, and Phoebe was along for the ride. When we got to the site, and were looking for the goods, Phoebe (after two minutes) grew impatient and clambered into the drivers seat. While we were digging we heard two honks come from Cortie’s car and saw Phoebe behind the wheel with her paw on the horn (I don’t think she knew it was her honking, really) but it sure looked liked like she was thinking “Come on guys! Hurry up!”

Teddy decided after awhile that if Phoebe was going to drive. He should get shotgun, because he soon began to follow her up from the backseat! They have since stopped trying to get in the front, thanks to Mom and I being diligent about them staying in the back (the cushion block helps too.) But it sure is cute when Phoebe takes the wheel!

Phoebe on the road

Want to race, Subaru?

With these ears, I am the safest, most alert driver on the road.

It has been a long time since the “paparazzi” (i.e. Katie, Mommy and Poppy) have updated our blog and let our adoring fans know what we have been up too! In all the buzz of the holidays, it kept getting postponed, but we are back now!

Christmas was sooo much fun! Katie came home from NY for a month, and Lucy came to visit from Flagstaff for a week! We ate good food, and played games and watch all three seasons of “Arrested Development.” The only thing that Teddy didn’t like was having to share his la-Z-boy chair with the lambskin cover with Katie and Lucy. He called dibs, but they never listened…the barbarians…seriously, who doesn’t respect dibs?!? Anyway, as soon as they left he quickly jumped back into his chair to re-establish the Teddy indent he had worked so hard to make and that Katie and Lucy messed up. All that lounging wasted…ah well, he’ll just have to start making it again….

Teddy and I liked having Katie home all the time to take us on walks and play with us. Every morning she would get up when Mom and Dad left at 6, and move to the couch, and Teddy and I would jump up and lay on top of her and we would all nap and do cross-word puzzles till noon…ah, such fun.

Anyway, here are some pictures from the holidays! Hope everyone else had a great holiday season too!

Lots of Love,

Phoebe and Teddy

Teddy and Phoebe at McGuckins hardware

Phoebe and Teddy at McGuckins

Teddy, Phoebe and Mom by the Christmas display at McGuckins

Lucy and Mom

Teddy and Phoebe claim the canyon as their own

Lucy and Stephen

Lucy and Poppy

Phoebe on the way home

Hi Guys! Teddy Henry and Phoebe here!

For Thanksgiving, we all (Poppy, Mom and us) went down to see Lucy and Stephen in Flagstaff, Arizona. We had lots of fun and lots of Turkey! We got lots of attention, I mean, why wouldn’t we? Teddy was a little sheepish and embarassed by all the loving, but I ate it up! On Friday, we went to the Grand Canyon. I decided that the canyon should be renamed Corgi Canyon. I tried to get Teddy to scratch out the word “grand” on the sign, and rewrite “corgi” (since he is a better speller than me, and has clearer paw writing) . But he told me that would be vandalism to a national park. I say, “blah blah blah phoebe!” We are now home, Teddy was very excited to be back in his den. He raced up to the front door as soon as we got back. I liked the road trip, although Poppy had to hold me the whole way back, because I whined if I wasn’t in his lap.

Anyway, we hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Love,

Phoebe ad Teddy Henry

14 and a half years ago, three barn cats living on the same farm each had their litter of kittens the same night. A total of 16 kittens were born. The kittens all got mixed together and, subsequently, each mother took turns nursing different kittens. It was never clear what kitten belonged to what mother cat.

We were family friends of the owners of the farm and Lucy was in the same class as their daughter. We went to visit the kittens and Lucy and I were each allowed to pick one. Lucy went back and forth between a few different kittens. But I knew what kitten I wanted. Toonces. She was the only short hair gray and white tabby of the bunch, with hints of beautiful peach fur. Many people wanted her, her unique coat and chatty demeanor endeared her to everyone. But I picked her first. The next day, when we  went to pick up the kittens, the owners of the farm told us that Toonces hadn’t been seen all morning. It seemed she had gotten lost. I refused to pick another kitten and instead searched all day for Toonce. Just when all seemed lost, the owners of the farm’s son, found Toonces asleep behind a hay bale in the barn! That night, Toonces came home with me, and Myrtle, a long haired calico, came home with Lucy.

We called Toonces Jinx originally, but changed the name because she didn’t seem to like it very much. I taught her to give high fives with her nose, every time I said “pudgie” she’d sit on her hind feet and bunt her nose against my flat palm. She loved to chase flashlight beams, lasers, and the rainbow reflections cast by prisms. When she was happy, and would rub her nose against my face and hands and start to drool. She would yodel and meow loudly when she felt she wasn’t getting enough attention. She would crawl behind the piano and tv, get stuck and then yowl for rescue. She liked cantip that came shaped as cigars, turkey and tuna. She ate dinner on the dinning room table, and slept on my bed every night. She would get the crazies and run around the house, then sit for hours on the window ledge. She didn’t care if the curtains were drawn, she loved watching the shadows of the squirrels as the raced back and forth. She would cackle at the birds that ate from the feeder out front. And she would chase away the neighbors cat when she came over to use our lawn as a litter box.

Although they were sisters, Toonces and Myrtle were very different. They didn’t get along very well, Myrtle was most fond of our dachshund, Brock, who was elderly at the time we got the cats. Toonces was fondest of Henry, whom we got a year after getting her and Myrtle. Myrtle got sick and passed away when she was ten. From then on it was just Toonces and Henry. When Henry passed away in the summer of 2008, the house became Toonces’.

We adopted Phoebe in late December of 2008. Toonces, for her part wasn’t crazy of the young pup, but Phoebe caught on that Toonce was queen of the house, So Toonces didn’t fuss for long about Phoebe coming into her home. Toonces was very fond of Teddy, I think because of  his gentle demeanor and the fact he was scared of her.

Throughout the years, Toonces was my best friend and constant companion. She would sit by her food bowl and yowl at me to pick her up. If we left the windows down on the car, she would climb inside and sleep on the drivers seat, leaving behind paw prints all over the windshield. She had the softest fur in the world; smooth and silky and radiant in all lights, it always made me think of the coat of a seal. She had beautiful green eyes, lined with white fur.  On her back and tail, she had tiger stripes, and on her peaches and cream belly, she had beautiful leopard spots. She had a perfect little white diamond shaped spot of fur on her chest. She was and always will be the most beautiful cat in the world. There was nothing more dear to me then that little gray kitty and I will never forget her, and no other creature will ever take her place in my heart. She was and always will be, my Baby Toonces. The Pudge.

Toonces, I love you and always will.

Love,

Katie

This past weekend I got to see Momma dog Pippin, Brother dog Finn and Sister dog Lucy! All three of them came up to Boulder for an agility competition at the fair grounds! Only Pippin was in the competition, but the other two came along for moral support (and to see me and Teddy!)

Lucy, Finn and I all turned one year old last Thursday, so we had ourselves a little party while we were together at the fairgrounds cheering on Pippin.  Lucy, Finn and I had fun romping around with each other, and we got lots of attention from everyone for being so cute! Teddy had never met my extended family before, and he was instantly smitten with Pip. He followed her around and cooed at her, and she flirted with him by dancing and showing off her agility moves. He likes Lucy and Finn too, who loved him and wanted to play with him like they play with Uncle Merlin back home!

Pippin did beautifully in the competition, sailing over every jump and darting in and out of every weave pole. She was definitely the best dog there. And Teddy wants me to add that she was also the prettiest dog in the competition!

Happy birthday to all my brothers and sisters!

Love,

Phoebe

Phoebe, Teddy, Lucy and Finn

Phoebe, Teddy, Lucy and Finn

This past week was super exciting! Katie came home from college to visit! I was so happy to see her! I howled and pounced on her when she came in the door, and sat up on my back haunches and reared up like a little bear. Phoebe completely lost her self in all her excitement and started grunting and squealing and jumping and biting anything and everything. Katie is home!

As if that wasn’t exciting enough, to have Katie home, on Wednesday it snowed! It has snowed here a few times since I got here, but never enough to stick on the ground. I was a little confused at first, and it made me kind of nervous, but Phoebe reassured me it was nothing to be afraid of. We went out to play with Katie once a few inches had fallen, and I discovered something…I love snow! I immediatly got over my fear as soon as I discovered how soft and cold the stuff was. I  took to bounding and leaping in the untouched snow, making little paths. Since I am bigger and faster then chubby little Phoebe, I am better at prancing in the snow. I like to get her to chase me, following in the tracks I had already made. We ran and leaped in the snow for a long time, I would tackle Phoebe and roll her in the snow and then bound away in a joyous frenzy. Katie would tromp around and make little pathways for us, but I preferred to make my own. Phoebe followed Katie’s paths though because she otherwise would get stuck in the drifts.

Phoebe also demonstrated to me that snow was not only fun to play in, but also to eat! Though she instructed me, very wisely I might add, to not eat the yellow snow. Phoebe likes to root around in the snow and get it on her face. I copied her, and Katie said I was really cute with all the snow flakes caught in my whiskers.When Mom and Katie went out to shovel the driveway and our neighbors driveway (because he has a broken wrist) Phoebe and I went to help. We patrolled the neighborhood to make sure none of our other neighbors who were also out shoveling needed help.  We did our part to help by chasing the snow that was being flung off the shovels and told it to stay off the driveway with loud bossy barks.

A few days after the big snow storm, Katie took Phoebe and I on a walk since the roads were pretty clear. There was still a lot of snow on the ground though. That was I encountered something else for the first time….something very strange and scary. A snowman.

As we drew near the man of snow, I put my ears down and let out a few growls to alert Phoebe and Katie to the presence of the stranger. As we got even closer, I realized that this was not a person, bu instead some kind of white mute beast. I let out a few barks of warning and raised my tail to signal red alert. This was the strangest creature I had ever encountered. His face was rough-hewn, with big black eyes, a long beaky orange nose and it had a strange leer. He wore a hat and scarf and nothing else…like that will keep you warm! What about pants? But the strangest feature of all was his arms. They were far too skinny in proportion to his body, and looked oddly stick-like. They were raised as if in attack mode, however the Beast made no movements toward me, Phoebe and Katie. That was when I noticed that the creature had no legs! What kind of animal was this? I barked a few more times to let the beast know it was neither welcomed or wanted, and that if it tried any funny business I would quickly attack, however it just stayed exactly as it was. That was when I realized perhaps I had been too quick to judge him. In all my alertness and eagerness to protect and defend, I hadn’t even thought that this beast may in fact be scared of me. It certainly seemed to be paralyzed with fear. I slowly approached, taking a few steps toward the beast and a few steps back. When it did not move, I approached it and sniffed it. That was when I realized that this snowman was in fact not hostile or a threat at all, in fact, it was (true to the name) just a big heap of snow! It wasn’t a real creature after all! I showed my sense of relief and my apparent dominance by peeing on its rump.We left the snowman where he was and continued on our way.

On the next day’s walk, with Poppy and Mom, when I went to find the snowman, he was half his original size and his hat and scarf were puddled together on the mass that had been his head. Poor snowman. I had defeated it, and it was now crumpling at my mere presence. I ignored it today and we continued on our way to the park. At Buffalo Hills Park,  I had fun rolling in the snow like I like to roll in the grass in the summer time. Poppy made snow balls and rolled them along the path for Phoebe and I. We chased the rolling snow balls and brought them back to Poppy. Now and then though they would break in our mouths and we would be forced to eat it.

I had such fun running in the snow and chasing snowballs I didn’t want to leave the park, but when we got home, Poppy made Phoebe and I our favorite treat; canned green beans and pumpkin mash with dogfood. We all then settled on the couch to watch TV.

Unfortunately, Katie has gone back to school, but it was so much fun having her here, especially having her here during my first encounter with snow! She, Phoebe and I had a lot of fun playing (both in and out of the snow) and I can’t wait to see her again, and for it to snow again!

With much love and many tail wags,

Teddy