PROJECT 365 PICTURE OF THE DAY 8/17/11

Cocoa and Liza at bedtime. Almost every night, Cocoa comes up with us to sit on our bed and crash out until Todd has to take her back down (which is very reluctant about doing). This is Liza's "room" so they often times join eachother on the bed. Usually, Cocoa is chilled out and Liza comes up and starts bugging her. Todd captured this photo last night as they were just hanging out enjoying KDVR News at 9.

PROJECT 365 PICTURE OF THE DAY 7/5/11

Just a cute photo of the dogs hanging out in the sandbox. They were absolutely crazy right before I took this photo. You would never know that Mocha has a sore knee. He has been very active this summer and climbing on the hill and is just happy as is Cocoa. We are so blessed to have these dogs as members of our family. I cannot imagine life without them and their constant energy and love.

PROJECT 365 PICTURE OF THE DAY 4/12/11

"WHAT'S UP???" Doesn't that look like what Mocha would be saying...and then he would continue "I have no idea why you are looking at me that way." This is the first time I have seen him snuggle into the piano bench with his front fee on the ground. He honestly looks completely comfortable and very relaxed so who can judge that? It's most definitely a "dogs life" and it looks pretty good.

PROJECT 365 PICTURE OF THE DAY 4/1/11

I love these photos I took this past week of Mocha and Cocoa. They definitely capture their personality in their individual shots and the one of them together is just perfect...together, looking in the same direction. I can't imagine what life would be like if we hadn't gone into the petstore on December 28, 2001 ...our love for chocolate labs was born that day and then, with the addition of Cocoa a few years later, we had quite a pair. As I type this, Chris' birds are scampering around out of their cage and neither dog even pays much attention to them (knock on wood)

PROJECT 365 PICTURE OF THE DAY 2/27/11

Oh, these two dogs love to go out with Todd on weekends. When Todd heads out to the garage, they will stand at the door. Mocha will hardly move a muscle and listen intently to see if he is coming back up the stairs to take them out for a ride. Well, these dogs are going to be pretty lucky because we just got them their own "staircase" to help them get into the new truck. I love this photo of both these dogs...Mocha is taking charge and Cocoa is right alongside her best friend. These dogs are amazingly special.

PROJECT 365 PICTURE OF THE DAY 2/7/11

How I love and enjoy Snapple and Limon. I must admit that when Chris wanted to get a bird, I wasn't so sure, but thought that we could try it...then he wanted to get Snapple a pal. I'm a sucker for companionship, I guess. Now, the "pal" part didn't just happen. We had many moments of Snapple attacking Limon at first which led to separate cages which now led to this large cage where they coexist and I'm pretty sure, neither one would want to be without the other. They sing and talk all day long, and it just becomes natural to hear them and quiet when they aren't chatting. When I come home from running errands, I will close my car door and immediately hear them greeting me with their chirps as I walk up the garage stairs. There is not a day that goes by that I don't smile and appreciate that they are here. Good call, Christopher!

PROJECT 365 PICTURE OF THE DAY 1/22/11

Oh, our sweet little Cocoa...you are considered a big dog...a chocolate lab at 60 pounds, but you truly believe you are a lap dog. Oftentimes, you will just come up and step on us and want to sit on our laps and somehow, you find a way to do that. We also watch you curl up into the littlest ball and snuggle into the pillows on the couch. Yes, you are completely spoiled that we let you on the furniture in the first place, but how can we resist when all you want to do is be close to us and nap at the same time. Today, we saw you with your tail covering your eyes and had to capture you. I think you must have been trying to keep the light out :). Even when you are asleep, you will start wagging that long tail of yours if you hear us talking about you. Today, you did the same thing. All you want to do is love and please us and trust me, you make us so happy and full of love every day. Zach took a series of pictures and he did a great job capturing you today.

PROJECT 365 PICTURE OF THE DAY 1/17/11

Liza loves her new cat condo that Chris and Todd made her for Christmas. Ever since it came in to our room, I don't think she has touched her old "house". After Tangent died, I was sure that I could not love another cat but Zach convinced me to look at the cats at Petsmart just for fun a couple of weeks after he died. There was sweet Liza...sitting in the first cage and so cute....the rest is history. She certainly has never replaced Tangent, but she has created her own spot on our house and our heart and I don't know what we would do without her. How many cats will play "fetch" with a small piece of paper and bring it back up on the bed and drop it in front of you so you will throw it again and again and again? She snuggles in with me every night and loves us all. She is actually very good friends with Cocoa and cautious with Mocha. So glad I went in to visit the kitties that day with Zach.

PROJECT 365 PICTURE OF THE DAY 1/10/11

We woke up this morning to find out that the boys did, indeed, have a "Snow Day." We didn't get tons of snow, but it was really cold and roads were to be bad so they are all home today. I am really glad because it's always good to have them home and, honestly, it would have been a pain to get them to school and picked up etc... So I'm halfway selfish in this happiness :) As is evident, even dogs look forward to "snow days." Both dogs absolutely love the snow and Mocha will go out and come in with snow all over his nose, and while Cocoa and I were out this morning, she was doing the same thing...licking the snow, catching snowballs and just enjoying something we haven't seen too much of this winter. Cocoa is such a spunky girl with a very nosey nose. I can honestly say that I have never seen a dog that wags her tail more than she does. Even when you think she is asleep, but will start talking to her or about her, her tail will get going. I took tons of pictures of the snow and our snowball fight this afternoon, but this one really takes the cake. It reminds me of the photos we took of her during her first snowfall as a puppy. I have similar photos of her with the snow on her nose and that sweet look in her eyes. How lucky we are to have both Cocoa and Mocha. The love and loyalty of a dog is pretty much incredible. They are both inside now, warming up from playing outside again and getting a good afternoons nap in.

GOODBYE TO VIC!

30 days ago, Zach brought a new pet in to our home. He was a green anole (mini chameleon) that he picked out. He had wanted one for a long time and had done tons of research. We purchased the tank and all the materials needed and set it up and then I took him up to Petsmart to pick him out. He knew that he wanted to name him "Vic" ...with the emphasis on ViC (with the strong "c" sound at the end :) ). Vic quickly became a member of our family and we would all walk by to see what he was up to or spray water in to his cage to make sure he had lots of humidity. Zach cleaned out his cage, made sure he had plenty of food and basking options and truly loved him.

He was a lucky chameleon, but on Sunday, Zach noticed that he was not looking very well and yesterday morning, he was on the leaf in the morning, but Zach checked on him shortly after and he was dying. Zach knew it and he was heartbroken (as was I). By the time he left for school, Vic had died, but was bright green and lying under the plant. When they are bright green, it means they are happy and content and that is what I reminded Zach of. He and Todd buried him in the backyard under the tree where all of Nick's firebellied toads have been buried. (Nick still has "Lucky" and we hope he is around for a while longer...but that's another "pet story"). Both Nick and Chris felt very bad about this for Zach. It's funny how a little tiny lizard becomes part of your family. Last night, Zach wrote about him in his journal. As he went to bed and we were talking about it, I told him that in 30 years, we would probably all be sitting around the Thanksgiving dinner table and remembering "Vic" and what happened. That brought a smile to his face. So people can say that pets are just pets, but when you love them, they become more than that to those who cared.

(Sidenote: Today, as we walked to school, we saw a black/white salamander on the sidewalk. At first I thought...maybe we should let it live in Zach's tank and he could have a new lizard for a while. Well, Zach was just going to move it into the grass and we found out it was no longer alive. THEN...we continued our on our walk and we saw a couple baby toads (no longer alive also) BUT to redeem our walk to school, Zach did save 3 baby toads and moved them to safer ground. Hope he remembered to wash his hands as soon as he got there. )