Hooray for the vet

Ha ha, never thought that would be the general consensus. That is why I love our vet though... happy dogs = happy mom. Ace was even a runner up in the clinic photo contest. His picture's right up there on the wall. The girls were all excited to point it out to me when I walked in, although it took me a minute to figure out what they were trying to show me. They were also impressed that both Ace and Nova are social, I guess they have a lot of one Sheltie families, and their dogs are more reserved.

They're both healthy, although Nova's getting a little on the big side. He's definitely bigger than Ace to begin with, but while Ace is right where he should be at 30 pounds, Nova's coming in at just over 42. The vet suggested we try finding a food that's a little lighter on calories, so that's my mission for this week. Also, we've got to do a little more work on their teeth, as they're starting to get some build up right at the back. Hopefully they'll be less upset about that than their nails. After their shots, they both got all their nails done, then had their heartworm tests. Nova had to get a little patch shaved on his leg, I guess he was just too fuzzy for them to be able to get the needle in right.

I thought all the shots would slow them down a bit for the evening, but it didn't seem to have any effect on them. We took a little drive before we came home to visit a friend of mine that I haven't seen in a while. They were more than welcome in the house, but Nova pulled out one of his ancient tricks and waited about ten seconds after petrifying the cats before peeing on a rug. Fortunately my friend was very forgiving and we cleaned up pretty quick. The boys got to explore the deck for a few minutes before coming back in for snuggles and a nap. When they needed to go back out, we took them for a walk around the neighbourhood and they got to go for a good run out by the water. Ace was even enjoying some rock climbing, which he used to be far too afraid to even try. Nova just jumps on everything, so it wasn't anything new for him.

We had a good visit, unfortunately I don't have any pictures, but here's the one that I submitted for the photo contest that's now on the vet's wall:

Snow is gone!

The weather is getting nicer, and the snow is finally gone. It was 28 yesterday! I've been trying to get the boys all brushed up and pretty for summer, but Ace is not a big fan of standing still and being brushed for more than about a minute. I got him settled on the couch yesterday and he let me do one side, but when I tried to flip him over, he pounced off the couch and went looking for his ball. Ah well... guess I'll just have to keep doing a little bit at a time. Nova's always very cooperative, he'd probably let me brush him all day if I felt like it. They're starting to shed again, the BIG shed, so I'm trying to brush lots instead of having cat sized fur balls all over the carpet. Nova always looks smaller after a good brushing, he's definitely got a lot of fluff.

Tomorrow's our big vet day... time for checkups and shots. Luckily I've never had a problem with them getting upset there, so I don't anticipate anything too crazy. I'm hoping maybe it'll be nice out (it's raining today) so we can do some caches on the way back. I guess a little rain never hurt anybody though. We'll see how the boys are feeling. Ace was pretty tired after their last shots, but I think they'd appreciate a hike anyway.