Surprises!

Have you ever put your coat on after a long summer, and found a $20.00 bill in your pocket? Or maybe gotten a handbag out that you haven't used in a long time and found a tube of lipstick that was a favorite that you thought you had lost?

Well, I had a nice surprise of this nature the other day when I got my camera out. I've been using my Iphone to take pictures for the last several months, and hadn't uploaded pictures from my camera since I got back to PA! I was pleasantly surprised to find several adorable pictures of Lucy & Duke from Florida that I didn't know I had...



" Come on, Ma! Let us in... Daddy'll never know! We swear we won't tell on ya!"

Our house in Florida is mainly on one level, but we have a bonus/gameroom that is on the second floor. The only piece of furniture in the game room is a pool table. One evening, I was in the kitchen doing dishes and I could have sworn that I heard the balls clacking together. But, since I was the only one home, how was that possible? I brushed it off, thinking I must be hearing things when I heard that noise again. I decided to investigate. I found Lucy in the center of the pool table, pushing the balls around! When her Daddy heard about this, he insisted that I baby gate the gameroom! The result was two puppies that would sit on my stairs looking lost and forlorn because they couldn't play in the game room!

Funny Boxer Moments

If you've ever wondered about why Boxer lovers, adore their boxers so, read on... I can actually imagine each of my dogs with the following thoughts...

My Favorite Things

Have you ever heard the song "My Favorite Things"? Well, I happen to adore that song (and I've always love the movie "The Sound of Music"). When I played the flute, that was one of the songs that I mastered! This time of year, I think it's important to reflect on "da little tings and our favorite tings" that make us happy! Here are just a few of my favorite things...


My Little Gremlin Face... When Lucy rolls over and gets all wild eyed, no matter what I'm doing, or how late I am, I just have to stop what I'm doing, and play with her!

My Sweet Duke No matter what toy Duke has at the moment, he's always more than happy to share it with his human! And he's so gentle!! He's definitely a mama's boy!

My Favorite Wedding Picture I don't know what it is about this picture, but it's one of my favorites! I think it's the look on my new husbands face, or maybe it's that this was a stolen moment after our wedding ceremony that just happened to be captured!

The Dog that Ate Christmas!

I got a big kick out of this video, not only do the boxers in this video look just like my kids, but I can totally see Lucy getting into this kind of trouble!!

My Day With Lucy & Duke

After working about 90 hours since my last day off, I was more than ready for a day at home with the kids. I had planned to not even leave the house... (That never works out!) We started our day off out on the deck. Me in my bathrobe sipping a hot cup of coffee, both dogs by my side. Suddenly, out of nowhere, Duke leaps off the deck and Lucy follows right behind him. I have no idea what they saw, but I'm guessing it was something small that their mama couldn't see because she needs glasses. Try as I did, I couldn't see what got their attention.


Shortly after 10 A.M. I got a call that there was an emergency rocking chair situation (Have you ever heard of such a thing? Well take it from us, they do exist.) Since I had promised both boxers that I was going to spend the entire day with them, I shuffled both dogs into the car and we headed over to the Cranberry Store! Of course, Lucy called shotgun and rode most of the way there with her head on my arm! My little sweetie pie!


Mid-Afternoon Duke spotted something in the front yard that wasn't supposed to be there. I'm still not sure what it was, the only thing I could see that was out of place was a USPS box blowing across the neighbors driveway in the horrendous windstorm that we were experiencing. That box didn't come into our yard, guess Duke scared it away!


Around dinner-time, Lucy dropped the tire rope toy in my lap and waited for me to play with her. Of course, as soon as I got involved in the game, Duke joined in too! We played for a long time! I just love watching Lucy & Duke play together....


After the events of our day together, I had two very tired boxers on my hand, and they decided to snuggle up and take a nap while I finished the laundry, cleaned and cooked dinner! Good boxer puppies! Lucy thinks Duke is her own personal pillow!

Praises for Apple Cider Vinegar

Several weeks ago, Lucy woke up with a bright pink nose. The next morning, it was more like a fuschia color and looked like it had blisters all over it. So, Lucy went to the vet. Our vet did a culture and decided it was an allergic reaction to something. Lucy came home with a long coarse of antibiotics and a steroid.

A week after both were gone, Lucy was still bright pink and I came home one night and she looked like someone had attacked her muzzle... (Duke was the likely culprit- but there was no way of proving that one!). Needless to say, I was frustrated!

As many of you might remember, we've had a lot of issues with Lucy and ear infections. Back in September, Lucy had a bad one and I started doing a ton of research online looking for a preventative measure for the infections. I came away feeling strongly that her ear infections were likely a result of an allergy, maybe to grain (which is a common boxer allergy) or to something else in the food that I was feeding. I immediately switched both Lucy and Duke to a grain-free diet. They've been eating Taste of The Wild for almost 3 months now, and Lucy hasn't had an ear infection!

While eliminating the grain from their diet was a possible long term preventative measure, what to do about the existing ear infection? One of my friends on the boxer mailing list suggested "APPLE CIDER VINEGAR". He told me to clean her ears as many times a day with it as I possibly could. There is something about vinegar that restores normal PH levels.

Well, I chased Lucy around the house 3 times a day for a couple of weeks to clean her ears out with the vinegar. I got tons of exercise, and Lucy got her healthy ears back.

...And, the vinegar ended up being a great solution to the issue with her muzzle. She's still not back to normal, but after a week of dousing her muzzle with apple vinegar twice a day, she's definitely looking much better. Did I mention how much my totally silly little boxer loves the taste of vinegar? Well, she does! The other night, she actually drank it out of the bowl...ICK!

Notice the mess around Lucy. She got into a little bit of trouble this morning! Should have known it was way too quiet in this house!

Lucy, Duke and I want to send a special thank you to our friends Ron and Sophie for sharing with us how to get a great header just like theirs! It was easy and a lot of fun, and now our blog header looks just as great as theirs does! Thanks a bundle!

A Quiet Boxer is a....

Boxer that's being bad... Or at least that's usually the way it is in my house! I was thinking back to one October morning in our house when I was upstairs getting ready for work and there wasn't a bark, growl or loud bang coming from either of my boxers. Figuring that they were up to no good, I ran down the stairs to check it out...



Turns out that quiet boxers in my house that morning, were just 2 boxers who were perfectly content, relaxing in the living room!

I've Just Gotta Tell Ya...

I was so hyped up yesterday about that Crinkits toy, that I decided that I needed to write an email to the company that's manufacturing them and tell them just how much Lucy and Duke love their Crinkit! Enter a nice young man named Zach, who answered my gushing email almost immediately. I'm so excited, we're going to be receiving a t-shirt and maybe someday Lucy and Duke will be product testing Zach's newest toy! I have half a notion to buy a box full of them and sell them in my store... "The Amish Furniture & Crinkits Store..." lol

I had Lucy at work with me yesterday (Don't worry, we didn't leave Duke home alone- he was with Rob at work!). She and I had a wonderful day together, I think she was needing some alone time with her mama! We took lots of walks, snuggled in front of the heater, chased marshmallows across the floor, and made lots of new friends!

Lucy's so good on the job, I guess the first 3 months of her life with us, going to work every day, trained her that being at work is a good thing! I know that by 8:00 last night she was more than ready to go home. We took a long walk while waiting for her Daddy and Duke and then hopped in the truck where Lucy snuggled up on my lap and stayed for the entire ride home.

I am sure of one thing, Lucy is definitely the "Shot Gun" kid! She loves riding shot gun and watching everything that goes on!

Duke is content riding in the back and usually takes car rides as a great opportunity to catch up on his sleep! His day yesterday with his Daddy didn't go so well. Duke wasn't trained that being on the job is a great thing and usually whines and cries most of the day! He's also very good at escaping the "back room".

I had him at our store in the south one day, and I was working with a customer out on the sales floor. I was talking, and the customer kept looking down to my feet and I couldn't figure out why. Finally, I looked down and realized that my Duke had escaped the back room and was sitting at my side staring at my customer! I didn't know if I should laugh or yell at him! I ended up laughing and the customer got a good giggle out of his appearance! Silly, Duke!

We love....ZIGFLEX....CRinKits

Last Monday on our way to work at the store, Duke and I stopped off at a locally owned pet store right around the corner from our store. (I had a huge list of things that we needed to find, including new collars for both kids!)

Being the good big brother that Duke is, after he picked out an enormous bone for himself (and sniffed just about everything else in the store before shaking paws with the two guys working there), he picked out a toy for his little sister... And boy, did he do a great job!

Have you ever seen a cRinkKit? Well, it's most certainly a "hot" item in our home right now.

Both Lucy and Duke love plastic water bottles which make mama extremely nervous, and we all know that the stuffed sleeves that you can buy at Petco or Petsmart wouldn't last a day in our house, so I was thrilled when I found this rubber sleeve that goes around a plastic water bottle! Lucy was also thrilled!

Both dogs waited very impatiently at my feet as I struggled (while muttering some pretty harsh words) to stuff a water bottle into the sleeve. It wasn't easy! (And the two whining boxers at my feet weren't making it any easier!) I was disappointed that I didn't accomplish this task without smushing the water bottle to pieces, but even smushed, it still had the desired crinkling effect that seems to attract the boxers to the water bottles! Frankly, I was just relieved to have gotten it in there, and that I was able to get Lucy and Duke off my back!

Lucy seemed to forget that her big brother had been gracious enough to pick out and bring her back a toy, and as soon as I dropped that thing on the floor, she was off and running with it. She had no intention of sharing it, or even letting Duke get anywhere near it, which I'm pretty sure broke his big heart! Every time he got within a foot of her, she growled and snarled at him!

With a little help from his mama, whose heart was breaking because Lucy wasn't sharing, Duke finally managed to get his mouth around the toy, and he ran like the wind and wouldn't let Lucy anywhere near him and Crinket once he had it in his possession!

We've got to give this toy 5 stars! They have been beating the you-know-what out of it for the last week, and it still looks brand new! I'm thinking it might take them a very long time to destroy this toy, and when they do, I'll be right back at that pet store replacing it!!

Christmas Wishes For Our Furpals

I was hoping that this would be our real Christmas card, but it turned out that the resolution wasn't high enough for print, and I couldn't let it go to waste! I just thought it was too darn adorable!!

Merry Christmas Everyone from Lucy, Duke & I!

How Long Should It Last?

I'm sure you already know this, but my boxers have trained their human very well, probably too well if I were to tell the truth!

A few weeks ago, I was feeling insanely guilty about the amount of time I was spending away from the boxers at work, and I decided a trip to Petco for some new toys and treats was in order (boy does Petco like to see this one coming!). And of course, the kids with their sad faces weren't doing much to reassure me that the amount of hours I was working was okay!

I came home with several new toys for the kids, deciding that I would ration them out and only give them one at a time. Out came the colorful green snake- and off went Lucy and left a very sad looking Duke at my feet, so out came another toy!

Lucy had the snake, and Duke had a large blue plastic bone which he proudly carried all around the house refusing to let Lucy get anywhere near it the entire time.

Thankfully, Lucy was a little more willing to share the snake with Duke.

Unthankfully, (I guess that's not a word, but you get the point...) the snake didn't last very long with Lucy and Duke engaging in an insane game of tug-o-war! I think it was about 7 minutes to be honest. Isn't $16.99 a lot to pay for something tagged "TOUGH" that can only withstand the harshness of my boxers for only 7 minutes?

The checkout clerk at Petco didn't seem to understand, and a manager had to get involved in order for me to get my money back! I'm starting to think there ought to be toys especially made for Boxer dogs!

... Little Lucy knew the snake was dead, and she looked so traumatized!

Thankfully, the big blue bone is holding up very well, and Duke loves walking around the house with it. He looks adorable with that huge bone sticking out of that seriously serious face!

Bad, Bad Blogger Mom!

Just had a few minutes and thought I would pop in and say hello! The last several months have brought lots of changes to our lives, and I don't seem to have much free time anymore! On a positive note, Lucy & Duke are doing very well, and seem happy to be back in PA with their Daddy (as is I!). I am hoping that things settle down and I get a chance to catch up with everyone and update you all on our adventures... For now, this darling picture of my boxer babies will have to suffice! (This was taken as we were driving into work the other day! Aren't they darling? My little snugglebugs! They truly adore each other, and I couldn't be more proud, or feel more blessed!)