People, let me tell you 'bout my best friend...

Maxamillian of Junction Creek CD,RN,CGC

06/21/97-09/04/99

Ten and a half years ago we brought home a gorgeous fox red labrador named Max -

yesterday he left us to join his buddy Cody at the

Rainbow Bridge...

We brought Max home in December of 1997, he promptly lifted a leg in the house, growled at Cody and had a little sheltie mix called Penny bite his nose to teach him who was boss.

I thought - Holy Cow, what did I bring home?



Did I mention he loved the bed? For the next 10 years he slept next to the bed 'cuz I was not sharing my bed with an 85 pound galoot - Jeff takes up enough room! I will always look before I put my feet down in the middle of the night!







He loved water - from Tabitha's kiddie pool to the CAP when we were out hunting!





Max was a tough dude, he beat cancer and valley fever. We dealt with his behavoir issues (he was dreadfully unsocialized) and taught him manners and obedience. He learned to share his life with other dogs, cats, a teenage boy named Justin and a very active baby girl named Tabitha.

Out hunting with Latte!

One of his grandsons, Winston

His first leg of his CD, 1st place at the Sheltie Specialty!

Did I mention the ball obsession? The football was his alone - as none of the other dogs could get their mouths around it - and boy could he go long!

Oh and food! Oh my - there isn't anything he wouldn't eat!

And he knew how to scratch his back! And he would grumble and groan while he did it!

Even at 12 years old, he was very handsome!

But he leaves me a lovely legacy, this photo has his son - Champ, his granddaughter - Sammie, and daughter Cassie.

I miss my Maxie terribly - he was a challenging, intelligent, loving lab! He got his first title at age 9, proving that you can teach old dogs new tricks. He sired his first litter at 8 years and his last at 11 - 32 lovely puppies and 23 grand puppies that are now bringing joy to their families.

He was tormented by his ladies, his babies and our whole family.

He tolerated us and returned our love wholeheartedly.

He was my bubbie boy - and my grumpy old man.

He was my leg lifting, mad-dog ball retrieving, rabbit chasing, bird crunching

DUDE!

He was one of the finest dogs it has been my pleasure to know!

Love you man - see you at the bridge!

Peace and Love,

Momma Teece

July is here!

Howdy All!



I have been playing way too much Farm Town on Facebook! I even want to harvest the farms I drive past on the way to work! My carbon gardens are driving me nutty - so messy! LOL! The 21st of June was Max's 12th birthday and the 5th of July is Ruger's first! The little dude and the old man! Ruger is now taller than all the labs and weighs in at 61 pounds! But as you can see below he is still a tall and sleek looking guy. He has done so well in obedience and now has his PAL (Purebred Alternative Listing) from the AKC so we will be doing some trials with him this fall! We will also be taking him out to the field this fall to learn about birds!





Speaking of gardens - some of the first fruit of our labors: carrots, radishes and snow peas.

The fun of Arizona is that it does cool off later in the evening, Sammie and Latte are out with us chasing sticks:

While the storm is headed our way:

And we let our latest visitor go free! He was sitting in our carport when Jeff came home on Monday night. He walked past him in the dark twice and then turned on the light in our carport and there was an Arizona Sidewinder! He was a little guy, only about 16 inches long and so very cool-looking (except to my reptile fearing friends, sorry Joyce and Judy!) Jeff caught him with the snake stick and we set him free to about 5 miles away in the Ironwood National Monument that runs behind our house.

So never a dull moment around here! We have our share of Colorado River Toads (also very posionous and dangerous to the fur-kids) but have been fortunate with only 4 rattlesnakes in the 3 years we have been here.

It was a nice quiet 4th, a pool party with friends, Jeff was on call servicing AC and had to leave but we did bring hime home BBQ chicken and desserts! :o(

The next few weeks have 2 obedience graduations, and August 3 is the first day of school (already, EEK!) Talk to you again soon!

Peace and Love,

Momma Teece

I'm a huge slacker!

So it's been 3 months since I updated - yikes I feel like I let you all down, so I am going to try again. I have been busy - 2 obedience classes have passed, school is out for the summer and it's very warm here in Arizona!

This is just a short note to let you know, we now have 6 labs and 1 german shorthaired pointer. All the puppies have gone to their forever homes. Champ turned 1 on May 15th and he is as adolescent as he can be - picture a teenage boy with all the hormones on high and the energy of a 2 year old! Max was 12 on the 21st of June, every day with him is a gift! Ruger is a teenage boy as well, but such a little dude yet, that he doesn't seem half as obnoxious!

So as it's late here - I leave you sleeping pictures!

Ruger - totally relaxed and comfy!

Ellie - crashed on the cool tile floor!

Max - ever watchful and still so handsome!

Cassie and Sammie - sisters together forever!

Latte and Champ - under my feet as I finished the dishes!

Well, that's all for now - I will really try to keep updated now, the computer has been de-bugged and everything is back in order!

Talk to you soon!

Peace and love,

Momma Teece

Copper's new home

The handsome Copper has found a new home! Copper was not meant to be a pack member, he thrives on one on one love and attention. We have been looking for a new home for Copper for a couple of months and have found one where he will be the best buddy for the whole family. Copper is joining a family of 6 - dad, mom and 4 kids to run and play and throw balls for him alone! I am so excited to have found a perfect match for this lovely boy. My sister in labs, Joan over at Lab Tails was the breeder we got him from and he has been a joy to have around. I wanted to give him the chance to be the best he could be and he couldn't do that with 10 other dogs. It was a sad to see him go, but I know this was meant to be. The whole family is tall and lean like Copper and the kids are all redheads!

While we will all miss Copper, we know this is the best we can do to give him an opportunity to be a hunter and runner and playmate to this wonderful new family! Butt rubs to the big guy!

Vaya con dios, amigo!

Peace and love,

Momma Teece

Howdy from Arizona!

Hi All,

It has been the warmest couple of weeks, 2 Mondays in a row with record highs of 91! In February and March - I change to shorts every night as soon as I get home! WHEW! The furkids have their pool back and boy are they loving it! Addie and Sig where very interested and had no problems getting in and getting wet. It helped that Copper is a water baby extraordinaire - he gets in while the pool is filling!

They all had a grand time and can now cool off during the day with these 80's being the normal high lately.

Hoping every one back East and Midwest has dug out! I am planting the garden this weekend, have to get the lettuce and peas and spinach in as they don't do well in hot weather. The beans, tomatoes, peppers, cukes, pumpkin and melons are outside to get used to the weather and will go in tomorrow or Sunday. Then we have to convince DJ (darling Jeffery) to get the fence up to keep the dratted rabbits out!

Ruger has 2 weeks to graduation for obedience, Champ is in week 4 and doing much better this time around. Ellie is going back to the Rally ring the 21st of this month, we are hoping to finish her Rally Advanced title and we will give Champ his first shot in the conformation ring! Wish us luck and if you are in Tucson, we will be at Rillito Park both days of the Canada Del Oro show! We will be taking the babies, Sig and Addie to the CDO fun match in Sahuarita the 28th of March and we are hoping to get to Phoenix in April for the Kachina Kennel Club match! Spring is always busy with shows, Arizona is too hot in the summer and we may be very warm in 2 weeks at the park!

Take care of each other!

Peace and love,

Momma Teece

Well Hello Everyone!

Sorry to have taken so long to get back to this blog! It's been a crazy couple of weeks and between sleep deprivation and 4,356 things to do, I haven't been as diligent as I intended. My sister in labs, Joan over at http://blogspot.labtails.com/ tagged me with an Honest Scrap award:
I can't for the life of me get the darn think to link here, but as I understand it I am to list 10 honest scraps about the blog and I. I may to go over the 10 so I can hit all the Sundancer gang and then kids and spouse and me. Let's see:

1. Max and Ruger have the nasty habit of being coprophagiacs -the delightful habit of occasionally eating poop - not their own but the other dogs. We scoop daily and if its a weekend twice a day! ICK!

2. Cassie and Champ - the two gorgeous blonds that were chosen to be show dogs, have the knack of sitting or laying in the most unattractive positions. Cassie rocked back on her haunches with her tail between her legs in front of her and Champ with his belly up and curled to the side like the letter C. Silly dogs!

3. Sammie and Addie are obsessed with the cat - they watch her through the door of my daughter Tabitha's room and should she deign to come visit us common folks in the rest of the house, they follow her verywhere! Granted, Leila loves to tease them and will lay there and wave her plume of a tail and say "can't get me 'cause the gate is in the way!"

4. Copper loves the laser light, he will chase it up, down and around in circles until he is so dizzy!

5. Latte has a fetching problem - or not? She says, "You throw it, I fetch it - what problem?"

6. Ellie is so stinking smart she gets into trouble - she also has opposable thumbs, how else could she open those baby locks on the pantry to get into the dog treats?

7. Sig is a sweet, mellow boy whose favorite chew toy is Momma Cassie's ears - she puts up with it and never swats him for it!

8. My 2 pearls, one black and one white - are Justin and Tabitha.

9. Darling Jeffery and I were married in the middle of jury duty - on our lunch hour. The bailiff and the judges scretary were our witnesses - then I went back to jury duty and Jeff went back to school!

10. I believe in human kind - I wear my rose colored glasses every day!

**************************************************************************

So the past 2 weeks were absolutely insane: the weekend of the 7th was the AKC hunt test at Buckeye Recreation center with the Copper State Hunting Retriever Club. (http://copperstate.homestead.com/). We left home at 4:45 AM and got home at 10:45 Pm that evening. It was great fun - Jeff and Latte got their first leg toward a Junior Hunter title, Tabitha got to do a demo with one of Ms. T's dogs, Tio and is now looking forward to training her own dog Sammie for the fall test. I helped marshall, direct traffic and rebird for the next dog's test.

Here's Tabicat and Ms. T's Tio (http://mstslabs.homestead.com/) showing the water retrieve.

And Jeff and the Latte girl going for the second bird on the land retrieves:

Then the 9th was supposed to be the first day of class for the obedience class I teach with Cactus Canine Center (http://www.cactuscanine.citymax.com/index.html) and it was so incredibly cold and windy (we had snow in the valley late that night and next morning!) that we registered people and sent them home until the next week. Tuesday was registration for our club's other class, but that was at least inside so we didn't freeze our butts off as bad! Then the usual work, school, bowling, personal dog training - oh yeah and all that household stuff - cleaning and laundry and food! This week we had class for real on Monday and Tuesday to help out the first week, then all the rest as well. Thank goodness it's Friday and I can take a breath!

This week is a short week as it is Rodeo weekend in the Old Pueblo and all the schools are out on Thursday and Friday. Tabitha will probably be having a friend over for the weekend and I am going to try to tackle the tax return. O, Horrors!

Maybe we can talk sense into our government and get them to send the 300 and some odd billion dollars directly to Joe Taxpayer. Just think what the economy would do then - sure a lot of us would pay off our homes and credit cards, but wouldn't that get the banks out of their mess? HMMM? And I would certainly but a new car - so would most of the folks I know - gee, that would help the auto makers and their mess. And everyone I know would go out and buy something totally frivolous like a flat screen TV or an RV or make home improvements - Let's talk about stimulating the economy Mr. President and members of the House and Senate -- a stinking $600.00 rebate doesn't help squat! Ok, off the soap box for now!

Our deepest sympathies to the families and friends of the folks on Continental Connection flight 3407. Being in the industry makes this all the harder to hear.

And last, but not least this week - a view of togetherness as I see it!

Max and Ellie March 2008, Ellie is 4 weeks pregnant and both of them qaulified in

Rally Novice, Max got his 2nd obedience title at 10 1/2 years young!

Tabicat and the Ruger taking a nap under the pool table - the Eukanuba dog show was on an they just weren't that interested! :o)

The beautiful Cassie and Sammie, very good friends and love being together!

Sig, Ruger and Addie had been playing hard and are catching up on sleep!

Champ (Chomper) and Ruger (Raptor) are taking a break to watch Mom work at the computer. In the kids animated movie Land before Time, the T Rex baby is called Chomper and next to the GSP babies Champ was huge, hence he was Chomper. Ruger, however could alway hold his own against the bigger Chomper, so he became the smarter thinking Raptor from Jurassic Park.

Funny how my mind works!

That's about it for this week! Thanks for checking in with us! Take care of each other!

Peace and love,

Momma Teece

Beautiful dogs and Silly Pups

Last week we had the joy of watching one of our very own babies for the weekend. This is Tia, from our Cassie and Admiral litter in August. Right behind her is Momma Cassie - boy, they are both so beautiful. As I watch the Eukanuba Dog Show I am amazed by all the varieties of dogs and how beautiful they all are - much like us people, all different but all wonderful in own way.

Now and then I notice how silly we all are as well. This is our GSP (German Shorthair Pointer) Ruger and I sharing a share. Notice the silly boy has all four feet in the air and his head hanging over the arm of the chair. He is the most lovable, goofiest boy ever!

And here is the darling Addie - 5 months old and wanting to step away from the crowd to sleep in peace.

My "Bubbie" Max, was so worn our chasing the ball and keeping up with the babies - he just zoned out in the kennel and grumbled at anyone who came near. I feel for you Maxie, I am getting those old bones myself. Everyday with my old man is a gift, the average age for a Labrador is 10-14 so I treasure every moment.

This is the scene in my kitchen when the lab bomb went off! :o) The only one missing is Ruger, but then I said it was a lab bomb!!! LOL

This is our handsome Copper Top boy from our sister-in-lab Joan at http://labtails.blogspot.com/, we have the Copper Top from her Elsie and Ridge litter of 2007 and she has Tuc from our Max and Ellie litter of May 2008. She's one of the few who truly understands the lab obsession!

This is the gorgeous Cassie girl again with a much more attractive picture of the Ruger boy. We will be taking more pictures of Ruger in the future. As a purebred rescue he qualifies for the AKC PAL (Purebred Alternative Listing) registration and will be able to compete in all AKC performance venues from obedience to hunt tests. Ruger is a very smart cookie and we can't wait to show him off to the world. I had heard that GSP's had a bit of an attitude and might be difficult to train - imagine my delight to find a charming, willing little dude to work with!

This week has been busy and next week is worse, with the homework load of a 10 year old in a very academically minded school, work, labs and preparing for the obedience class I teach in (gulp) 10 days I haven't had time to get any other projects done. Oh well - live is full and I'll keep in touch!

Let's hear is for the ARIZONA CARDINALS - 60 years of waiting and we are here - it doesn't matter if we win or lose - we are HERE! If you break out the brews for the bowl - stay home or call a cab - no one can replace YOU!

Till next time,

Peace and Love

Momma Teece