Cassie's First Professional Grooming

Dear Uncle Chris,
Friday was a VERY big day for me! I had my very first professional grooming by Bonnie. She came to the house with her mobile beauty parlor and I had the works. She willingly used the Mars Coat King (in lieu of the clippers) because I want to keep my hard coat; she trimmed & filed my toenails; and she used scissors to start my face shaping. WOW! I can even see better now. What a surprise!

It should take a few more visits to get my face up to snuff. Hopefully my hair will continue to fill out because I want to be just as pretty as Momma Haley.

Thought you might want to know that my back has the most beautiful finger waves - something that Grandma would call 'Marcelle Waves'. They are NOT curls but my hard coat actually has waves. Only time will tell if they'll last but I like them.

Hugs, Cassie

Black Hills Westie Party

Unfortunately, most of the action had already ended when we finally had the presence of mind to get the camera. Here we are at Rafter J-Bar Ranch in Hill City, SD near Mount Rushmore. So many folks travel in their RV with their fur children that this seemed inevitable.

PS: MPEG4 format didn't work well. WMV wouldn't load. Replaced with MPEG2.

Cassie Learns to Swim

Okay - We know that all dogs supposedly know how to swim instinctively. ;-) BUT - Scotties just sink because their little short legs aren't big enough to support their body mass in the water.

Knowing that we would definitely be around water during our Summer trip to Tennessee, Bill decided to give Cassie a chance to learn the basics. Gramps's pool in Whittier proved to be just the spot!

Enjoy!

PS: This is a test from our new toy generating a MPEG2 file. What fun!

Cassie's Vacation

Hello Uncle Chris – It’s been way to long since I wrote and I see from your blog that a lot has happened in your world while we were traveling. WOW and Congratulations!! I even see that I have some new half brothers and sisters from Momma Haley. Life is sweet!

To fill you in just a little bit… In August the three of us headed off on 2-month RV trip covering parts of 17 States. While the primary reason for the trip was to see the new granddaughter in Franklin, TN, we had tons of fun all along the way. Eden Grace was just precious and I liked pushing her swing and giving her kisses. Her fur-sister Maggie & I ran and ran all over the house! What jolly fun we had but there are way too many pictures of our time in TN to share here.




Although every place was extra special, here are photos of some of my favorite activities: Climbing through the mazes of rocks & silly pictures at Rock City (GA); Walking along part of the Appalachian Trail (Great Smoky Mountains, SC); Hiking & once again rock climbing around Sylvan Lake (Custer State Park, SD); Being carried in a sling on trails that didn’t allow pets; Chasing seagulls at Illinois Beach State Park; Seeing cousin Brian at Great Lakes Naval Training Center (IL); Just chillin’ in the motorhome; and Discovering that toilet paper can be fun.

I’ve become a regular social butterfly and made both 2-legged and 4-legged friends all along the way. There was cousin Maggie, of course, but we also had a Westie (and Cairn) party in the Black Hills of South Dakota, a long romp with a black lab puppy at Old Faithful, and absolutely tons of playmates at campgrounds all over the country. WOW!!!

You can probably tell by the photos that I’ve grown quite a bit. At 14.5 pounds, Dr. Suzy wants me to loose a pound so that I fit my petite frame a little better. Oh well... I really like my food! It’s nice to be back home and I’ve become quite comfortable on the love seat in the music room even though Mom quickly shoos me off (after taking a picture, of course!). ;-)

Will sign off for now but am sending hugs your way,

Your niece Cassie

Cassie & Sadie Play Date #2

Dear Uncle Chris – It’s been quite some time since I last wrote but things have been quite a whirl wind around here. Mommy & Aunt Vicki went to California to see their Mom and help with her new house. Boy – Did I have a ball being alone with Daddy or what?!?!? Now we’re getting ready for our BIG trip to Tennessee to see my new niece Eden Grace. Two or three months in the RV will be absolutely fantastic because I’ll have sooooo much of their undivided attention!


[I'm in front and Sadie is standing.]


I’ll be laying low for a couple of weeks because I’m having my ‘procedure’ next Tuesday. In the meantime, I’ve been having an absolute TON of play dates to work off some of this puppy energy. My favorite has to be my 2nd play date with cousin Sadie (formerly known as Katie). We all went over to Lynn & Bernie’s house to see Sadie yesterday afternoon for a romp.


Now… ‘Romp’ may be to gentle a word for this get-together. We ran and ran and ran and chased each other all over the house. Then we would roll around on the floor and wrestle before taking short rest times under the coffee table or under one of the dining chairs. Oddly enough, we were so very quiet during all of this playing. We didn’t need to say a word to each other – we just read each others minds and acted accordingly.


We were both VERY well mannered, like good White Diamond Westies should be! It’s a good thing that I wore my red collar (left) and Sadie wore her blue one (right) so that all of the parents could tell the blurs apart!



I think you’ll see that I’m much bigger now at about 12.5 pounds. I'm the smaller one on the left. My hair is shaping up nicely and I’m starting to look more like a grown-up Westie each and every day.

Sending many hugs your way, Cassie



PS: Sorry for the poor picture quality. Cell phone cameras are nice but really don’t catch all of the action. Oh well….

Cousin, Cousins Everywhere !

Oh Boy! Oh Boy!! Oh Boy!!!

We had cousin company from Hawaii this week - YIPPEE!! Uncle Brian and Cousin Conor came all the way here just to see me!

Not really - They actually started off with the Pac-10 Track Finals at Hayward Field at the University of Oregon. Of course, being the good Ducks that they are, Cousin Megan & her boyfriend Matt joined them for the events. They even included Daddy for the weekend.



Afterwards, they ALL came over to the Coast to be with us. Oh Boy - Did I ever eat up all of the love!!

Oh - How I've Grown!!

I'm just growing by leaps and bounds and was trying to think of just how to show you when I came up with this WONDERFUL idea. I really am quite a lap dog and one of my favorite activities is stretching up on Daddy's chest for scratches and kisses.

When I was little, I barely reached as you can see from my 'just adopted' picture at 9 weeks old and a little over 4 pounds.


Now look at me! Here I am at 15 weeks old and a little over 8 pounds. Boy - Can I ever reach or what? I can kiss noses and ears and a bunch of other pieces. I especially like to gently grab Mom's pony tail, but you'll never see a picture of that because she's usually the one who takes the pictures. ;-)

I'll follow soon with another post. We've had just oodles and oodles of company and I can't wait to share the joy with you.