Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from Koda a pirate (left); Indiana a British rock star (center); & Riley a pirate (right)


Ready for the big night & waiting for Riley to arrive


Dakoda's second Halloween (no costume to rip up this year!)


Riley & Indy's First Halloween!!


Trick-or-Treat don't we look sweet?

Indy....growing...growing...

Just wanted to put some pics of Indy and show how fast he is growing. I captured some really cute pictures of him in the almost 2 months that he has been here. He's quite a handful but cute as a button.

As you can see, he has gotten quite big since we got him almost 2 months ago. He now weighs 27lbs, and eats like there is no tomorrow! He loves going for walks, meeting new people and dogs of course, and he especially loves his Koda Bear.

Besides wanting to eat and chew on everything, he's a dream. He does keep you on your though. I can't even imagine how big he will be in 2 months time, my gosh! Anyway, he thinks he is a lap dog but I got new for him, pretty soon I'll be sitting on him, lol. Anyway, as much as I can't wait until he gets a little older and out of the puppy stage, I am enjoying him now.

Indiana Jones

Our latest and last edition to our family is Indiana Jones, a purebred yellow English Labrador Retriever. Born on July 7, 2008, Indy came to us on Saturday, Sept. 6, 2008, just one day shy of 8 weeks old. I've only ever had one purebred dog in my life and that was a Lhasa Apso named Rambo when I was about 3 or 4 years old. Anyway, he's already showing signs of his intelligence. Potty training is a breeze with only a few accidents here and there. He already knows "sit", "down", and is learning "stay". He gets along with Koda fine. As a matter of fact, his first day home she greeted him with a toy. That's my girl! I have a feeling he'll be a handful when he gets a little older and bigger but with some guidance and direction, he should be a happy, healthy dog.

Hurricane Gustav

Well, it was bound to happen again sometime.....another hurricane threat. Only this time it wasn't that bad for us. However, this was Dakoda's first hurricane evacuation and who better to spend it with than two of your best buds, Harley and Coco!! (Coco, a mini schnauzer, was one of the dogs I was fostering at the time for Companion Pet Adoption who my aunt and uncle loved and thought would make a great companion for Harley and so they adopted him!).


Anyway, they were all so good, except poor Dakoda didn't know where to sleep. She's used to a routine and since that got broken for about a week she was a little confused. But none-the-less, we survived and it was a good expierience for her. At least all the dogs got along. Since Coco stayed with us for a few days before the hurricane, he and Dakoda got really close and I found it funny that when Harely and Dakoda was playing, Coco would try to defend Dakoda, lol. They are so funny and such good dogs. Couldn't ask for more.

Riley's Music Video

FINALLY!!...I present to you Riley's new music video. Since I don't have much video of just Riley, I wanted his music video to be of some of the things he loves the most...his sister and, of course, his pool. So, without further ado, here's Riley!! N'joy :o)

Wild Quaker Parrots

A few years ago, I made some "nature videos" with my new video camera. Editing has always been sort of a hobby for me and thought it would be nice to put some music to some of my recordings. The first video is of the pond when it was first established. Little Jamie & Oliver were just tiny babies that were under the 4 inch law. They were adopted so we were able to take them considering we had no kids and they would be in an outside pond. The pond has certainly gone through some changes since then. We had always planned on updating it over time. We had to do what we could afford, but I don't think fake plants and red & white rocks were necessary....DAD! Haha. None-the-less, I think the music video came out nice. It's very tranquel and relaxing.



For those of you who live in Louisiana, take a look up at the sky every now and then. I think you'll be amazed at what you see and even hear from time to time. What??? Is that a quaker parrot I see? It sure is. They've been flying around New Orleans and surrounding areas for a few years now. I noticed them after Hurricane Katrina. The tale is that a shipment got loose on their way to a pet store and since have been living freely amongst us. Apparently Louisiana isn't a bad place to live for a parrot. The weather is warm and they obviously survive the winters. At one time a bunch of them hung out in our backyard (I counted 19 once). I loved to just watch them hang around and make that God awful screaming noise. It felt like I was living in a tropical jungle. With a little patience and stealth, I was able to get close enough to film them. They were so beautiful I decided to put together a little video. Hope you enjoy it.

Oh, I thought the squirrel in the video was going to attack me! At one point, it started running in my direction. Yes, I was that close!

Backyard Bundle

I wanted to take some time to talk about some of the other animals we have. Well, first there is the finches. I believe we have 4 zebras, 8 or 9 society (2 were just born this spring!), 2 lady gouldians, 2 orange weevers, 4 spice, and 2 really small black ones (I forget the name of them).



Of course the gouldians are gorgious to look at but my favorites would have to be one of the zebras named Baby Christmas (he was born around Christmas time of 2006). I went to go feed them and I saw this little furry thing moving around in one of the nest and he was the only egg that had hatched. When he started to learn to fly, he would actually fly on my hand sometimes when I was feeding them. He's the youngest of the zebras and is almost white (probably will be a light grey when he's older).


Then there is one of our society's named Alfalfa (well, that's what I call him because of the way his feathers smush down on the top of his head). He's very calm and doesn't fly away when you get too close to him like the others. He's our little geek and a new father of 2! Very cute. They were born in April and I call them Hansel and Gretel.









Next we have the turtles: Jamie, Oliver, Sylvester, and Squirt. They are sliders who enjoy the water and basking in he sun.



Jamie is the only male of the four, he's also the more social of the group. He seems to know his name too. Oliver (who got her name before she was old enough to determine the sex) is Jamie's sister and a bit more shy. Sylvester was a rescue. She (also got her name before we could determine the sex) was almost road kill but thankfully someone was kind enough to stop and pick her up. Then there's Sylvester's homegirl, Squirt. Squirt was given to us by Dakoda's other favorite person and trainer Gloria. She is the biggest of the lot but very sweet. Squirt and Sylvester were the newbies at one time and Sylvester sort of befriended Squirt, who was very shy, when she first arrived. Basically, Sylvester, who was just a baby, would sit on top of Squirt during cleaning and followed her around alot.

The pond plays host to a school of goldfish. God only knows how many we have, I lost count. Most of them are comets that were meant to be feeder fish but my dad, being cheap like he is, brought them for $.19 cents and put them in the pond. They are huge now and definitely beautiful. To think something was going to eat them and to see them now....WOW!. Two of them are fancy goldfish. One is an orange fantail and the other is a black moore named Einstein. Einstein is the only one with a name because he was one of the very first fish we got that is still alive. We kind of look out for him because he's a surviver.

I also have my own little project I put together. We had a few really nice planters that weren't being used, so I decided to make two small ponds out of them. One is a water garden just for plants and the other is the home of 2 fancy goldfish named Pirate & Treasure. Pirate is a black moore and Treasure a fantail. I'm hoping to change the water garden into another pond for a couple of redcap oranda goldfish.
I had one but it died and so did its' mate who I think was just another fantail. They were both really small and I think they got caught in the plants or something. Their death remains a mystery but they were beautiful.






Last, but not least, there's Nieko and Bindi, the lovebirds who you've met in a previous post. Just a little update on the two. Bindi is the leader who will defind his/her territory at all cost. She got out once and, to my suprise flew on my head and went right back into her cage. Nieko is content just staying in the background while Bindi makes a fuss over every little thing. He/she loves to shred his shredding toys, swing on the swing, and hang from branches. They love to listen to people and aren't afraid to chime in on a conversation especially if it includes whistles. They are a handful, but a joy to watch and interact with.