Happy World Cat Day 2010 !

To Laura and Josie, and all of our kitty friends. Have a really great day.

Your pals, Morgan & Maisie

Keeping busy!

Mom has been keeping us busy. Maisie started agility classes, and guess what? I get to go too. Turns out, it's sort of an all levels thing, and the contacts are set kind of low for the new students, and since I was off agility for awhile after I hurt my back, or knee (still not sure what it was) this class is perfect for me too. This is Maisie on her first day.


BOL - she looks kind of lost. I wasn't there that day, I started going after she and mom figured out what the class was like.
Here is Lucy, our teacher, telling her it will be OK.

This is a new doggie school for us. Mom has that stupid work schedule where she works at night and this club started giving Saturday afternoon classes, so that works really well for us, and, next session, they are moving to a new facility, that is air conditioned. Wowzers! Keep these classes coming, please!

This is Maisie after a couple of weeks of class. She is trying really hard to get her sit/stay all perfected. It's hard for her. she looses focus, and gets all wound up. Mom says I never had that problem, because I act like I am attached to her hip with Velcro.

This is me on the table, watching mom really close, so she doesn't go anywhere without me.


Awhile back, we went to an agility competition to see our breeder Terri. She came to town to visit and run two of her dogs. This is me, Maisie, cousin Trevor, and my half sister Kyrie. We are looking at Terri, but somehow, her face didn't make it in the picture. She is really nice. You can tell from the picture that we all like her.



Kyrie, Trevor, Maisie, Morgan


And, we went to a really cool luau party at the other doggie school we go to. We will tell you about that as soon as mom gets the pictures ready. If you are on facebook with us, you already saw us in our grass skirts, but we have more pictures of the party to show.
Later, taters.. your pal, Morgan

WHOO-HOO !!!!!

HELLLOOOO!!!! HI! HOW YA BEEN??? IT'S ME! MAISIE.. This is sooo freakin' fabulous!! It's called a pool. Mom says we need this pool because we are having something called a heat wave to us.. HI HEAT! HOW ARE YOU??? MY NAME IS MAISIE!
I don't think we got this pool out last summer, because I would of remembered it. Maybe that heat thing didn't wave at us or something.
Anyways, Morgan and I are out in the yard, and mom gets the pool out, and Morgan is like "Yippee", and I'm like "WHAT"?? and then mom starts putting in the water and stuff, and I didn't know what to do and then Morgan showed me.


and, then I still wasn't sure so mom squirted me,and got me a little wet with that hose thing


and then Morgan started running around


and she says "get in"!!


SO,..I DID!


WOWZERS!

How the M&M's got their names...

Mom has to go to work tomorrow, because the work holiday is Monday, so we are going to play Frankie's name game and tell about our names today.
Maisie and I are from Saranac Shelties. I was born at Miss Terri's house, when she lived in Pittsburgh, and Maisie was born at Miss Anne's house in Alabama. It's called Saranac because Miss Terri and Miss Anne, who are sisters, grew up near Saranac Lake, New York.
On with the story.. I arrived with my name. Mom hadn't even thought up a name for me. She was feeling sad because she had just lost her Sheltie (That was Clara, the one I inherited lots of good toys from) and when Miss Terri said she could have one of her pups, she got so excited she forgot all about a name. All she knew was, she would either get me, the bi-black girl, or the tri-colored girl, depending on who Anne and Terri were going to keep.
So, I'm finally ready to go and mom gets a call, and comes to meet me, and Terri says "so,what are you going to call her", and mum is all like duhhh....and Terri says, "I have been calling her Morgan, but she really doesn't know that name yet, so you don't have to keep it", and then mom says " is that a Scottish Name? - she must of finally come out of her "I'm getting a puppy, and that is all I can think about stupor" - BOL!.. And Terri says it depends on the source, It's probably a Welsh name, but sometimes listed as being Scottish. It's a form of Morgana, or Morcant (Welsh), and means "from the sea". So, mom thought about it, and I seemed to like it, and even though it is mostly a boys name, it is also used as a girls name, so that's how I got to be Morgan.

Now, with Maisie, mom was all over the name thing. She had her Scottish names all picked out. Maisie had first been named Emma, by Miss Anne's kids, and everyone agreed, (even the kids), that was not a good name choice for her. So, mom calls Miss Anne and is " how about Taylor? MacKenzie? Kennedy? there were more, but I can't remember all of them. Noooooo, Miss Anne says, she needs a CUTE name. So, mom started googling "cute Scottish names" well, from what we could find, the Scots are not big on "cute" names, but, suddenly, there it was... Maisie!!. Call to Anne,, some silence, and then " yes, that's it!!!
"Maisie" is Scottish familiar for Mairead, or Margaret. It means "pearl". To top it all off, our friend Margaret was transporting Maisie from the Sheltie Nationals in Georgia to PA for us, so that settled it. Maisie had a name!

Have a great holiday! And, if you are afraid of fireworks, STAY INSIDE AND BE SAFE!!! Let's not make Khyra's mum run all around the country looking for us, even though we know she would.

I'm Stunned, Shocked, & Amazed!

It hardly rained at all this week! Now,that hasn't happened for a very long time. And,we got to spend most of our days outside, which kept us out of trouble for "disturbing" this

or this.

BOL!!!!


We even got Mike, our lawn dude, to come and mow the grass, which was good, because the grass was so tall Maisie wouldn't even go pee in it, and I was finding it rather ticklish as well. He surprised us with fresh pine bark chips down there along the fence.





Thanks, Mike!




Oh, and Mom finally got it together and got Maisie registered with the AKC. Her "fancy" name is Saranac Shooting Star.


She thought and thought about it, and decided she liked that name because of the blaze of white that goes up her face. (she's pretty fast too - here is photographic evidence)..


And, I am Saranac Lunar Eclipse because I am a bi-black. Oh yeah, and there was a lunar eclipse on my gotcha day, so mum checked and sure enough, there was a meteor shower on Maisies' gotcha day, so, SETTLED!, Finally, A YEAR LATER!! Good grief mom.

Make it stop!!

It's still raining here. I mean like, EVERY DAY!
Look at this.. Here we are today, trying to go pee so we can go to this tunnel fun run, which really sounded like fun, except we couldn't even go pee, it was raining so hard, so mom decided we better just skip it.





We went out there, got soaked to the skin, and never did pee, so mom said never mind, just come back in. She didn't have to say it twice.




It thunders a lot too,and we think someone is knocking at the door, so we bark and then mom has to go open the door to prove nobody is there. That part is sort of fun.
We like the door, and here's why. It's the mailbox.



Aside from being pretty, if mom has already left for work, and Bill brings the mail, we get this...
Cookie mail!!! Every day!!!



How cool is that?

Flyball!

We got a note from Katie and her mom Dawn, wondering if we were still here. We are,it's just been raining on all of mom's days off, and the days it doesn't rain, she has to go to work, so we have been hanging out in the yard and walking the neighborhood. Nothing too exciting.
Except for these Flyball lessons mom has been taking us to on Saturdays.I am not exactly "feeling it", but Maisie is really liking it. Here's how it works. You have to run down these jumps to that box thing, run up one side of it and down the other side. On your way, you pluck a ball out of this hole it comes shooting out of, cause your feets trigger it to pop out at you, then you get the ball and run back the way you came, over those jumps again. On your way back, one of your teammates starts running toward the box to get the ball. You have to be fast, cause there is another team of dogs running against your team. I think that's how it goes, anyway.
Here are some pictures of some of my class mates learning to work the box.






They are doing pretty good. they are getting all 4 feet on the box, and triggering the thing that makes the ball pop out. We haven't started having the ball pop out at us yet.
Maisie pretty much has this part figured out. As for me, well, I keep trying to make it an agility obstacle. First, I was trying to sit on the box, but that lady would lean on it so I couldn't do that, then, I tried to squeeze between the box and that barrier, and jump over that little piece of wood, but that lady kept putting her foot there. So, now I am working on the "practice box", not the real box, and I am supposed to run up it from the right side, make a turn on it, and come down on the left side. Here I am at the "practice box/ramp" Look how thrilled I am!





Here is Maisie a couple of weeks ago at the "practice box/ramp" I told you, she likes this stuff!



There are some jumps to this Flyball stuff, and that part isn't so bad. I like jumps. This bull terrier is in my class - he is deaf, so his person is teaching him with hand signals - we think that is pretty cool. He is having a lot of fun learning this.





We practice 2 dogs going past each other over the same jump because you are not supposed to stop and "visit" BOL!



Here are those jumps I was telling you about. I didn't even need to practice this part! The baby gates are there so we learn to stay "in the lane"



And, look at this would you.. Here is Maisie, running down the lane as fast as her legs will go! Mom has a treat all ready for her. You go, sis!



Mom says I should keep trying to learn this Flyball thing, cause it's good brain work, if nothing else. Right now, I am just looking forward to this agility class I have next week.