Down the lazy river

When Aunty Dawn and Katie came to visits - she and Mom went out one day to do some exploring and Mom found a new park we hadn't been too - so yesterday she took me over to it so I could claim it and add it to bark ranger patrol. Now this is only a tiny park with mainly a picnic area, boat ramp and a small walking path - but what it does have is about a mile of river front that we can walk along. The river is actually the St Johns river and it where are all the big ships go through to reach the Port of Jacksonville.  Across from the park there is also BAE Systems - this is a ship yard that does retro fitting for a lot of the military ships and also private ones too. Check out that Yacht behind us (actually there were two - one in the water and one behind it in dry dock) - Mom says either one would be perfect for us to cruise around the world on - dream on Mom - dream on !

A date with my girlfriend

Guess what - MY beautiful princess Katie came all the way to Florida to visit me again !!!  Is that pawsome or what!  Now sadly due to arthritis in my feet I can't really take her and show her many of the sights but yesterday was a good day so our moms decided to take us the Arboretum and Gardens. I was able to walk with her about half way and than the Mom picked me up and put in my walking wagon. We had such a wonderful time - although we REALLY didn't need that dweeb brother of mine being there as a chaperone. 

Smile Everyone (Left to Right - Katie, Reilly Denny)

Good Grief -they want more pictures

Katies Mom - she loves me !

My Mom- she loves me and loves Katie too

Me in my wagon

Comeon Mom - we gotta get up that hill.

Getting Old Sucks !

You know - for years we have listened to Mom complaining about being "old" and how her knees or back hurt after a long walk - but now WE understand. Getting old is no fun at all. I the Reilly dog have jippy feet (and I can't even wear my boots anymore )  and I have bad arthritis in my spine and back hips. The last time Mom took me for a 'real' walk I only got about a 1/4 mile and flopped on the ground and couldn't move. Thankfully by big human sister was with us and was able to carry me back to the car. Then on the weekend Mom and Dad took us to the beach - and before Dad could pick me up to carry me down the steps I tried to go down them myself and my back legs gave way and I tumbled down 4 steps. Needless to say I scared the bejeebers out of the folks but I was actually okay - just my dignity was a little hurt. Mom will now only take me places with no steps and a flat surface so she can put me in my wheelie cart (which I HATE) but it is better than nothing. I do enjoy my bike cart though - it is fun watching Dad huff and puff and do all the hard work :)














Now we also have had some scary news about my Dweeb brother the Denny. At his last yearly physical a few weeks ago -  his blood tests showed his kidneys were not working properly and his liver function was a little high. They decided to repeat the test one month later to make sure it wasn't just a faulty reading - and sadly the numbers came back slightly worse. So yesterday the Dweeb went off to the vets and had his belly shaved so they could do an ultra sound of his kidneys and sadly they showed he has "significant" kidney disease. He hasn't been showing any symptoms of anything being wrong. We are still waiting for some more tests to come back to see what kind of disease - and hopefully it can be treated with medications and a special diet - that will as the vet optimistically said - "keep him going a few more years"

We are also happy to report that after 8 months of living with us - cousin Max and his Moms are moving out tomorrow - they have an apartment about 7 minutes away but the big galoop will still be coming to doggie day care when his Moms are both working so we will still see him.  We are certainly NOT going to miss his tail though - both Denny and I squint and put our heads down any time he walks near us because we are so use to getting wacked in the face with that tail  And poor Mom has long whip like bruises on her legs from his tail....... she says can understand now why people dock boxers tail although she doesn't like the idea as there is nothing better then seeing a happy tail wag - unless it is knocking the coffee cup of the coffee table for like the 100th time :) :)

Look what Mom saw !

So the Mom went to the beach yesterday afternoon - WITHOUT US and guess what she saw? Well she stopped to chat with some fisher peoples and they were catching baby sharks!  Don't worry - they were releasing them straight away. Anyway - they told Mom they had caught 6 of them already in the last hour and two days ago when they were fishing they had caught and released just as many - seems our beaches have a baby shark boom going on. From some research we have found these are baby lemon sharks and they feed mainly on the bottom eating shrimps and mollusks. They also have very poor eyes sight and use sensors in their noses to find their food. The funny thing is Mom said their skin has a pretty pinky peach color and was iridescent so she wonders why they are called 'lemon' sharks' and not 'peach sharks'

Merry Christmas

We are not sure where the year has gone - it seems to have flown by while we were napping - but here it is again - another Christmas. Wishing you all a Very Merry one and the most wonderful New Year from Reilly, Denny and BIG cousin Max

Happy Thankgiving

We are sorry we don't blog much any more but this thanksgiving we are sharing with old and new buddies - from left to right - Reilly, Denny, Max and Jackieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Showing Max MY Parks

We thought we would take Max to visit one of MY parks this morning and went over to the Arboretum gardens for a look around. I explained to him the importance of being a bark rangers and his Moms say they will take him over the get his bark ranger tag soon. The big fella seemed to enjoy it a lot and we did too - we don't get our so much during summer as it is so hot but today we went early and it was just perfect under all the trees.

Smile Every Doggie

Max - are you drooling on me!

Gian Fungus - size of a dinner plate !

Max and his Mom Elise

Meet Max

Hi Hi - I KNOW - we haven't been around much. Mom has been busy with her little home business (she is saving for Denny's knee surgery) and has also had some sickies to deal with and my jippy foot has got so bad I have trouble walking much now so we don't get out and about as much as we did - but we are still here and now we have an extra buddy to play with. Meet Max - he is a boxer/mastiff mix and belongs to my human sister Elise (dad's daughter) and her Fiancee Tara. They have moved to Florida and are staying with us until they find an apartment. Now as you can see Max or Maxi-Moo-Moo as his Moms call him (gawoof gawoof) is one BIG boy.  The first week he was here we did have some disagreements. I had to tell him I was the oldest dog and therefore the boss - of coarse he thought being bigger made him the boss - but we got it sorted out and now we getting along fine. Denny basically ignores Max and just stays out of his way but he still a little scared of Elise and Tara although the last couple of days he has allowed them them to pat him. We are sorry we haven't been visiting you all - we think of you often and do read your posts we just don't comment much. Hopefully when Denny has his surgery things will be a little easier.

Happy 10th Birthday Reilly

Happy 10 Birthday to my most special of special sweet doggies.

Happy Fathers Day

We are making sure that Dad just sits and relaxes today -(we are not letting him move off the sofa)  Happy Fathers day to all the Dad's our there. Can you believe that dad "sometimes" calls us 'trip-hazards'  !!!

Wordy Wednesday

Hi hi - sorry we have been missing lately. Mom has been so busy with her little shell business we have hardly had time to do anything. Mr Denny continues to have problems with his knee and will be be having surgery on it soon. I am still having problems with my foot and even though in my mind I can walk for miles and miles in reality I can only go about three houses down the street and I have to head home again. We are also into the hot temps again here in Florida - it has been in the 90's for a couple of weeks and that means we spend more time at home because it is just to hot for us in our big flooofy coats. Anyhoo we FINALLY convinced Mom we had to go to the park so we got up early while it was still coolish and headed over. We both loved the sniffing and even though neither of us couldn't walk very far - we still loved it.

A Serious Disconnect

So Mom says we are going to have a nice "Spa Day" today and I am thinking - pawsome - trip to the beach, lounging in a chair - a nice hamburger patty (hold the bun), beach umbrella, gentle breeze, waiter bringing cold water and cookies when ever I want them - sigh!  Instead this is what I got - feet trimmed, nails done, butt shaved (Oh the indignity of it!!!!) ear cleaned and BRUSHED so much I barely have a hair left on my body!!!!! Mom - we have a serious disconnect when it comes to this whole communication thing about what constitutes a spa day !  Revenge is sweet though - she was so tired after doing all this and still had to start cleaning up and vacuuming !!! And YES - Denny got the spa treatment too !

Just taking it easy

Mom went to the beach this morning WITHOUT us!  Okay okay - so it is the ONLY beach where Mom finds the shells she needs but it is also the beach where we dogs are not allowed ...... which in itself is SOOOOOO wrong. Anyway - on her way back she came across this guy - a Gopher Tortoise (so named because they dig and live in burrows in the ground) Mom felt sorry for him as he was heading straight for a sand dune and she knows how hard they are to walk over for her - can you imagine how hard it is for a tortoise!!!!  Now although Mom was tempted to help him - she knows they are a protected species and are not to be touched so she left him alone - apart from sticking a camera in his face that is :)

Wordless Wednesday

I told Mom......

I told the Mom that as much as I LOVE my deck it is starting to get a bit hot out now's (we have been in the 90 for the past week) ....so I also told the Mom "I need shade - get me an umbrella woman" and she said "Yes Mr Reilly, Right Away Mr Reilly"  Okay - so it didn't QUITE go like that .....but Mom did get us a very fine Canter Lever Umbrella that we can tilt it all different directions to keep us cool when we want to be outside on hot days.

Now we must apologize for not being around much - Mom joined a new shelling art group on Facebook and has been undated with orders - so much so she hardly has time to take us walkies. She tells us that it is important though as Mr Denny continues to have problems with his back leg and it has got so bad we have had to put down rugs everywhere as he can't hold his footing on the wood floors. Mom thinks he might have to have surgery on his leggie so she is squirreling away as many pennies as she can.

The Bandit in MY yard

The last few days we have had a visitor to MY yard - it has broken 3 of our bird feeders and got into the trash one night - Mom KNEW it wasn't the squirrels and she was proved right - look who came visiting. Even though it broke Moms bird feeders (they were old and cracked anyway) - she still thought it was cute - what gives with that???? It has been really hot here ....in the 90's for the last few days and Mom was surprised to see that racoon pant to keep cool.

The Cowspotdog Lighthouse

 

We thought we would share our lighthouse with you - Mom says it is hard to get a good video of it but we think this works okay.

A smell is a smell !

One thing Mom loves about walking at this time of year all is the wonderful smells there are, cinnamon ferns, native sages and mints, lemon balms, lemon grass, peppermint - there are just so many and you can not help but breath in deeply as you go - personally though nothing beats the smell of good pee mail, deer droppings or racoon poop and that dead bird - it was blissful ! All depends on your point of view and level of your nose we guess :) :)

Happy Birthday Denny Boy

It is the scared weird little dudes birthday today - Happy 6th baby boy :)

Moms Happy Plant

So the Mom was wandering around a gardening center today when she smelled something wonderful in the air and after moving some plants around she found it - a Double Tahitian Gardenia. Mom had never seen or heard of this type of Gardenia before but dog oh dog - what a glorious perfume it has and the flowers are huge ! We wish we had smell-a-blog so you could all enjoy it with us.