Wordless Wednesday (hint: look closely)

He's A Big Boy Now!

Remember this?  Astro and Zephyr on Sept 26, 2009, the day Astro came home.  He was such a tiny little thing, eight weeks old and barely 12 lbs.  

From day one Zephyr was so happy to have a brother.  I think he could tell right away that Astro was was for him and wasn't leaving.

Zephyr was always gentle with Astro when he was a babe.   Both Zephyr and Astro are really good with small dogs.

Here's the little cutey pie now at 16 months.  He went to the vet the other day for his year booster shots and he was 75 lbs.  Not quite as big as Zephyr, 87 lbs., but close.  These two are absolute best friends.  Zephyr has done an excellent job teaching Astro the ropes and Astro's even taught Zephyr a few things.

Astro is full of personality and great facial expressions.  He's very playful and lets me or Zephyr or a kitty know when it's time to play.  Even though he is 16 months old it seems like he is in the middle of complete puppyhood.  He's full of energy and needs to get some good running and playtime each day. 

He is always bowing to play or stretch.  Last winter in one of our basic obedience classes Liz, our instructor, suggested teaching your dog to bow.  All I had to do was start giving this a name and it didn't take long before Astro was "taking a bow" on command.  He started agility classes last spring and is doing an excellent job.  When it came time to teach his contact behavior I decided on the 2 on, 2 off.  After a little while I realized that all I needed to do was tell him "Take a Bow" on the contacts.  It is so cute!  I'm teaching it to Zephyr now because so far his contacts have been the "unintentional running contact".  ;-)

The little guy tears it up on the trail and he's got nice strong bones and muscles too, just like his big brother.  I have some great action shots of the two of them in the forest that I will hopefully post soon. 

Today we got our first good snow, about 6 inches and the boys had a great time chasing each other around the yard and catching snowballs that I threw.

 

 And chewing on each other.

Here he is looking handsome in a rare moment of standing still.  Hopefully I will be able to show him a little this winter and spring.

The lights of my life!

Fall Decor

Riley admires the plate full of leaves I found on some hikes.

Annie graces the table.

Pablo is the spooky Halloween kitty.

Cuddlers

Brrr!

Explorers

 

Happy Fall Everyone!