Posted by Amie on Oct 31 2008 | Tagged as: family, hiking, maddy
On Tuesday, we went for a lovely walk up along the Blue Ridge Parkway where we thought we might encounter some snow. We did.  It was a beautiful day romping around in it and Maddy had a blast running everywhere and rolling around in it.
Posted by Amie on Jul 20 2008 | Tagged as: maddy
While out in the garden Friday morning, I noticed that Maddy was spending a lot of time underneath the power line looking up to it at a mockingbird and barking. And the mockingbird would be talking back looking down at Maddy. She’d fly to the tree, then back up to the power line, then down to the ground and the whole time making noises at Maddy. I thought how weird, are they trying to play with each other?
Saturday morning, Mat was looking out the door from the back porch and asked me to come check something out. By the time I got there, nothing was going on the bird was up on the power line and Maddy was below. Mat said the mockingbird dive bombed Maddy and pecked at her butt! I didn’t believe Mat because why would a bird do that? Don’t they know that Maddy is part labrador retriever…the retriever part meaning they were bred to retrieve birds?
This morning, Maddy and I are walking back to the garden to water it and out of nowhere the bird came down and pecked Maddy! And the mockingbird did it again about a half hour later! I guess this bird feels really comfortable with all of us and doesn’t feel threatened. We looked up mockingbirds in The Sibley Guide to Birds and it says they are “conspicuous and aggressive.” We’d have to agree on that one!
Posted by Amie on Jul 14 2008 | Tagged as: maddy
I love our dog. She’s amazing, beautiful, has tons of energy and is ready to go on an adventure in a moment’s notice. She enjoys hanging out in our yard and watching the world go by.
But, there is something that we haven’t been able to get her to stop doing…barking. She loves to respond back to other dogs in the neighborhood when they are barking. She likes to bark at the cows across the field, especially the small ones that look like her. She lets us know when someone is walking, biking, or running by. But she just stares at the garbage truck and doesn’t make a sound. We have a neighbor who goes on walks multiple times a day. If Maddy is out there she will bark at her every time. Our neighbor is really nice and talks to Maddy the whole time she is walking by, saying how sweet Maddy is and how beautiful. Cyclists going by either ignore her or when they realize that she’s not going after them, they comment on how cute she is. The mailman loves her and leaves bones in the mailbox for her and always calls her “sweetheart”.
Yesterday, the man running by didn’t feel that same feeling for Maddy. It must have been his first time running by our house. He came running up on the road close to our house and Maddy sounded the alarm. She’d been resting on the porch behind the rocking chairs, but as soon as she saw him, she scrambled up to be at attention at the edge of her fence. All the while barking. I had come to the front door to see what she was barking at again. The guy ran as fast as he could to the other side of the road and picked up the pace to get beyond our house. I felt terrible. So much so, that I yelled after him, “it’s okay, she’s in an electric fence.” I don’t think he cared, he was still working off the adrenaline from having a dog start barking at him out of the blue.
Times like that, I seriously consider getting one of those collars that when your dog misbehaves, you press a button on your handheld device it lets out a beep and if it still isn’t paying attention you can shock the dog. It’s along the same lines as the electric fence, but you actually cause it to happen to your dog when they misbehave. It seems so cruel…and I don’t know if I could do that to Maddy. We’ve tried telling her “Quiet” and spraying her w/ a water bottle, making her come inside, trying to distract her…but once she’s focused on something she doesn’t pay any attention to us. If she keeps scaring random people like the runner, we might have to do it though, because yesterday I felt like Maddy was incredibly unfeeling towards the runner. He looked so terrified! And I felt like I was being party to cruelty of a stranger.
Posted by Amie on Jul 07 2008 | Tagged as: events/festivals/music, family, maddy
Early on in the week I was trying to figure out what people were doing for the 4th. Not much. As far as I could find out there wasn’t a parade just fireworks later on in the night after the A’ville Tourists baseball game. So I decided we should barbecue, so we had Mat’s parents, Ron and Naomi and Sara and Mark and some friends over. We played some croquet and ate lots of good food. Maddy loved all the new people she got to meet and say hello to. By saying hello, I mean, overwhelming them with her eagerness to lick their face.
We played frisbee with Maddy before everyone showed up thinking it might wear her out a bit. I don’t really think it did. She did get worn out playing w/ the dogs who came over though. We were able to see some fireworks from our front yard and then we went downtown and saw the Asheville fireworks. It was a nice evening.
On Saturday night, we went to Shindig on the Green. We LOVE going there. This time we didn’t get rained on!
We enjoyed listening to great people play…
and people coming up to pet Maddy! Maddy was very well behaved. We find it is good practice for us and her to meet strangers and small kids to pet her.
We also enjoyed the end of the evening, when Bill asked if he could race the cop on the segway. Almost like COPS, the tv show, except for the fact the two had huge smiles on their faces!
Fore more pics of the evening, check out flickr.
Posted by Amie on Jun 12 2008 | Tagged as: maddy
because it will. Today we decided for our sanity to put Shelby in her crate and take Maddy to our house to spend the day. Before we left for work though, Shelby decided to go roll in some fresh horse manure! When we called her, she came back a different color…slightly green. So we hosed her down and put her in her crate w/ windows open because we couldn’t get rid of the wonderful smell. Mat got off of work before I did, so he picked up Maddy and came out to Weaverville. He found that Shelby had pooped all over inside her crate and outside of the crate too.
Shelby seems to be having a hard time without her owners! Mat was super nice and had it all cleaned up by the time I got home. 
Sara and Mark came out and made us dinner and did some laundry this evening. We had a wonderful time and Sara & I were talking and enjoying our ice cream when all of the sudden Maddy starts her heaving and barfs over the carpet. (Out came a whole rabbit that Tillie had killed, it was gross!)
We yelled for Mat and Mark’s attention and they didn’t understand what was going on because I was just yelling and standing on the couch not looking. It was so loud that Maddy moved over to the wood floor and barfed 2 more times. Mat, again, cleaned up the mess and I tried not to throw up. This is a serious deterrent for owning pets. I did assist in cleaning the blood and guts out of the carpet.
It’s been an interesting week. Now I’m just hoping to be able to handle whatever happens for the next couple of days.
I’m sure you guys will all be excited for me to move on to another topic!
Posted by Amie on Jun 11 2008 | Tagged as: family, maddy
Mat, Maddy and I have been enjoying housesitting here at Mat’s parents’ house. They have air conditioning. Since we are going through a heat wave, it’s a nice feeling to walk through the door and find it to be cooler than the outside! We’ve also been enjoying the sounds of the 17 year ciccadas outside. We definitely are happy to be able to watch their dog and cat because we REALLY appreciate all that they do for us and that they are very willing to watch Maddy.
Tillie has spared us from any more surprises on the doorstep so far. It has been awesome for Maddy and Shelby to have someone to hang out with together during the times that they are left alone. We were informed that we should be cautious about flip flops and put them away in the closet. So, one morning when I went to go to our house to check on it and water the garden, I took Maddy with me, I gave Shelby her kong with peanut butter in it. When we came back a couple of hours later, Mat’s flip flop had been chewed up all over the bed along with a portion of the kong. This was my fault, as I had just pushed Mat’s shoes underneath the bed. Now, I put all our shoes in the bathroom and close the door.
On Monday, when I went to go water the garden and run some errands I left Maddy here thinking that Shelby was probably lonely. So I left after giving both of them their kongs with peanut butter. When I got home, I found more of the kongs chewed up on the bed AND a big hole in the center of the quilt! I am crossing my fingers and really hoping that this is not a family heirloom quilt that has been passed down! Seriously. I gave Shelby and Maddy a stern lecture about how they shouldn’t eat quilts. (I didn’t see it happen, so there might be a chance that Maddy has decided to start eating things.) I am sure that they completely understood me…really, they probably just enjoyed my mouth moving.
Well, I had to go to work yesterday, so I put the quilt away and all the shoes in the bathroom and tried to keep these that looked like they might be interesting away. I placed one of Maddy’s blankets on the bed, so if someone felt like chewing it would be okay. Mat came home and everything seemed fine. Nothing eaten, just a few more chunks of kong chewed away. YEAH! That is very acceptable. When it came time to go to bed, I found Mat’s eyeglasses chewed up. I don’t know why it was thought that it could be a toy since it was up on the bookshelf. And the glasses were metal and glass, not a very soothing chew toy.
Today, before I head off to work, I will place everything we own in the bathroom. And hope for the best.
Posted by Amie on Jun 09 2008 | Tagged as: family, hiking, maddy
It’s been in the 90s the past week here in Asheville. It is way too early for such high temperatures. I hope that it cools down soon. We checked out Laurel Creek near Hot Springs because we had heard there were some good swimming holes. It was a nice trail that was all shaded by the trees.
Maddy had a great time!
My daring jump! As you can see I’m ready for some big cliffs…
It was definitely an enjoyable way to enjoy the hot day! Afterwards, we went and got ice cream cones. Delicious on a hot day…I don’t know how you Arizonians can survive the heat!?!
Posted by Amie on May 05 2008 | Tagged as: maddy, mountain biking
Mat and I took advantage of the beautiful spring weather and went on a great cross-country bike ride. After some road climbing and single track climbing we got to the downhill portion which was a sweet ride! Not too technical…just fun times! I was riding my Gary Fisher hardtail which was awesome and light. I was getting thrown around by the roots and rocks on the trail - which made for my own fun adventure - while Mat was enjoying his cushy ride!
Can you tell we are having a good time? Maddy just runs and runs while we are biking…so this is a well deserved rest.
It was definitely over too soon. We love that we live in an area that allows us to have such a variety of recreational opportunities!!!!
Posted by Amie on Apr 10 2008 | Tagged as: family, garden, maddy
Yesterday, I planted our starts for the garden and they are now incubating in our back bedroom. I am excited to see the plants pop up through the soil.
We hope to have even more food from our garden than last year! We’ve planted yellow squash, zuchini, hubbard squash, eggplant, peas, beans, heirloom tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, 2 types of basil, cilantro, sweet peppers, hot peppers, beets and more.
Yesterday afternoon, the news announced that there is a forecast of snow for Sunday night! Luckily, we have just planted these little seeds in start flats and didn’t plant them directly in the soil.  Hard to believe snow is in the forecast, we’ve been enjoying some beautiful sunny, spring days.
Our tulips are rocking right now! It is so cheery to see them as you arrive at our home.
Below is a picture of Maddy and Shelby playing.
Maddy has been getting out and seeing some other friends, but I do think she misses having another dog to play with when she’s just hanging out at home. Seeing the two of them play together makes us think of getting another dog! But, one is plenty and she has loads of friends to play with so she will remain in a one dog family.
Posted by Amie on Apr 02 2008 | Tagged as: maddy
Maddy has been LOVING life…she has a new best friend here at Ron and Naomi’s house. Shelby is also a labrador retriever mix, but a blonde and slightly smaller version of Maddy.
They have been playing and playing…
