Basking

Walked into the room and found Mary basking in the early evening sun on top of the short-legged kotatsu table that I use for a desk when in the tatami mat room.

Mary is lucky in so many ways. I wouldn't mind coming back in my next life as her! :-)

In some ways, she acts like a cat -- does her own thing at her own pace -- but acts like a spoiled baby when food comes into play.

Am so happy to have her as a part of our family!

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Still a Puppy

Dale is still just a four-month-old puppy in these shots. Her fur is fluffy and soft!

Still having a little difficulty with potty training.

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Sleepy Mini

I have never seen a dog sleep so much!

Further, I didn't expect that she'd usually sleep on her back so much with her legs pointing up into the air!

Kind of envy her!  :-)

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Samukawa Envelopes

The two envelopes contain items we received from the Samukawa Shrine last year after we took part in a Shinto ceremony to pray for a good year and to ask that the "Gods" watched over us. In addition, the priest at the ceremony performed rites to ward off any evil or bad luck from our lives. 

This shot was originally rather bland. Added some slight saturation using editing software, which bad the blues almost look flourescent!

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Dog IDs

Don't know which would be worse, two rows of eight dog teats or a dog penis? Fortunately, Dale has much more fur to avoid her teats from being so darn noticeable.

I wonder why the ant-red-eye software doesn't work with dogs' eyes?

This is one of my favorite poses. Her proportions are good and her muscularity is well-defined.

One bad thing about Mary is that her claws grow rather quickly. She has a tendency  to walk on her claws like a cat when prancing around, which makes it easy for her to slip on the tatami mats. Her breed is for digging out varmints in the fields or around the barn -- not for living in a house with a slick floor.

In the end, this is the shot we chose for her pet insurance ID card and her dog run ID card.

She definitely looks "royal" in this pose. Miniature Pinschers are known as the "King of Toy Dogs."

As to be expected, she can's sit still long enough before having to start sniffing for some doggy snacks! :-)

When she isn't licking me on the face, hands, or feet, then she'll resort to licking herself and tidying up.

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Sunny Morning

It was a beautiful, sunny morning today! Dale has not been feeling very well. She seems to have lost a little bit of weight. The vet said that she seemed okay, so I guess there is nothing really to worry about.

The top of this wall is about six and half feet high. I have trained her to jump and crawl up the wall until she reaches the top. I wish we had the time and money to take her to dog school for agility training!

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Four of the Same

Got a new batch of flowers today. Hopefully with a little extra care, they'll stay fresh for a week or so.

Again, our local florist chose the flowers for me. She also gave me some tips on how to properly arange them.

I like to keep colors together in their own little group or try to layer them. Doubt anyone even notices besides me.

Interestingly, the violet colored flowers never open up once cut. I thought they might but was told otherwise.

Pix4Japan by R.D.S. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.