Donut Head

Koda loves his new yellow toy we bought him last weekend.



Roxie's learning a lot from Koda, such as how to properly hold round things in your paws.



Sometimes Koda runs around the house with his new toy in his mouth like this. After several attempts to explain the danger of such endeavors, we've finally given up and have resorted to calling him donut-head. I'm surprised he hasn't run into a wall yet.

Attempt #1


Attempt #42

It's no small feat getting two energetic dogs to sit still and look at the camera for a photo.

I just posted an update over on my wedding-related blog. I worked this weekend on trying to come up with centerpiece ideas, and although they're not perfect, I think I've finally narrowed it down to a kind of vintage theme. Progress!

We've had our new puppy Roxie for 2 weeks now, and we're finally settling in to more of a routine. She is a lot of work, but it's also very rewarding having this furry little creature bouncing around our apartment. She's very clumsy and curious. She tests our boundaries. She's scared to walk by people on a sidewalk, but not afraid to bat Koda in the face with her paw while balancing on her hind legs. She crossed the big bridge last week, and for no good reason, decided she didn't want to walk across the bridge this week. She makes grown men use silly voices. Koda's taught her an amazing number of good things without even knowing it. For example, when she doesn't want to cross the bridge, he walks first and shows her it's okay.

Whereas he wouldn't even look her direction when we first brought her to our apartment, they're now great wrestling buddies! I imagine this will be even more fun once she's bigger and a better match for Koda. Right now, he's 73 pounds, meaning he's got about 60 pounds on Roxie.

Celebrating as Koda turns 3 today. This crazy dog is seriously one of the greatest loves I've ever known. Having him in our lives showed me a part of my heart I didn't really know existed.

He tries my patience, makes me laugh, and gives me extra love when he can sense when I've had a bad day. When I study, he sits at my feet and keeps me company. He's mischievious and gentle. He loves nearly every dog and every person he's ever met.

Somehow he can close doors, open the refrigerator, twirl, bow, and do this cute trick where he hides his face and pretends he's shy when laying down, but can't seem to understand how to walk toward us when we say come, or that he should drop the tennis ball after fetching it.

Love this guy.


1. Koda turns 3 today! 2. Koda as an 8-week old 3. Koda kisses
4. Koda sitting on the patio at pet-friendly Wahoo's Fish Tacos 5. Snowstorm, Christmas 2007 . 6. Koda's first walk in Old Town Fort Collins
7. Koda and Nicki 8. Koda running free at Chatfield State Park 9. Koda smiling on a walk in Uptown

I'm back! We've been immersed with moving fun these past few weeks. It's crazy how much longer moving takes when there are just two of you lugging boxes out of the old place and into the new place. There was certainly a moment or two when attempting to move things like the king-sized bed mattress with no handles where that "crazy" felt downright nutty and almost impossible, and maybe even a bit lonely. I like the city, but I haven't really made any friends here. Luckily I've got a really sweet fiance and dog- but my dog, unfortunately, has no opposable thumbs.

Took a walk this morning on the trail next to the river in our new neighborhood. It's kind of exciting that we have this new place to explore. Next on our long list of things to do: buy groceries, figure out why our cell phones won't get reception in our apartment, figure out a storage solution for 12 cardboard boxes full of art books and supplies, and get some friends with opposable thumbs.

Koda- it's nacho cheese.

Koda ate almost an entire container of Qdoba queso tonight. We were in the other room, and while my subconscious was hearing some sort of eating or drinking of that wasn't dog food or water, I ignored it.

When I finally decided to check it out, I discovered that he had taken the queso container from our tall coffee table and somehow managed to place it on the ground, without spilling any of it. He had the round, cardboard container cradled between his two paws on the ground, furiously enjoying every last little bit of queso.

He's now passed out beside the bed, dreaming of nacho chips.

Brandon's been in Santa Clara this week for business, so Koda and I have been boring each other to death keeping each other company. I've been kind of boring in that all I've been doing is reading and practicing building web pages. He's been sort of boring in his chewing of rawhides and trying to get me to play catch with him for the 27th time since Monday.

Speaking of my quirky fuzzy roommate, he's got this sort of random habit of hopping into the bathtub every so often. At first, we couldn't figure out what he was doing, because he hates bath time- and if you've ever had a pet, you'll realize that just like us humans, they have their favorite spaces. Pets (and I suppose, some humans) are very routine-oriented, so to see Koda suddenly going to a new spot- especially a place he normally despises- caught my attention. Since he's done it a few times, we have decided that we think he occasionally hops in the tub as a subtle way of getting our attention. It's not that he goes in there to lay down in a cool spot. When we finally discover him, he's always standing up in the middle of the bathtub, like he's just waiting to be noticed. It happens a lot when we've been been on our respective computers for too long. There are a dozen other ways he gets us to look up from what we're doing: by squeaking his noisy tennis ball toy, placing a stuffed octopus on our lap, running crazy figure-8 formations from the bedroom through the living room over and over. Instead of going the obvious route, Koda somehow silently hoists himself into the bathtub- normally a really noisy task when all 70 pounds hops in there on bath day. The only way I ever realize he's in there is when the squeaking toys are silenced for a period of time, and in the quiet I hear the subtle shuffling of his paws on the floor of the tub. It was quiet tonight, and I heard that familiar shuffling sound. When I went in to investigate, Koda was hangin' in the tub, standing up, looking at me with his big brown eyes.

Remember when you were little and you'd pretend to run away, but instead would go around the corner of the house and hide behind the lilac bush hoping that someone would notice? I wonder if the bathtub is Koda's lilac bush.

koda: dreaming of the countryside

Over at Hundred Acre Hood , we were discussing the latest blog entry, which was a little bit country and a little bit city. This lead to a discussion of sorts about Green Acres and penthouse views.

I mentioned that our view from the bottom floor in our uptown Denver apartment is brick wall. I wasn't kidding! Here's a picture of Koda enjoying "the view."



P.S. I'm inspired by the daily posting over there. It's fun to have some hot-off-the-press creativity to look forward to every day.

Even though it's not a creative stretch to take photos of a cute dog, he's a great subject as I try to learn more about the various settings on my new camera. As you can see by the blurred paw, Koda appears to be shooing me away in the last picture, as if to say, "Enough, woman!" I snapped a few more quick shots, then let him bask on the couch in peace.

We went hiking up near Lyons, Colorado today. I haven't been up to the mountains since moving to Denver in May 2006. We have a fabulous view of the Rockies from Denver, but it's tragic that I don't get up to the mountains more often! I need to change this.

Koda LOVED the hike.



I tested my balance as I walked over a stream. This photo makes it look like I could possibly be 10 feet up, but it was only about 2 feet.

I love the look on our faces in this photo- such genuine expressions which are rarely captured snapshots. I think this was when Brandon had turned around and was taking photos over his shoulder, one right after another, as we acted like twins. Sometimes the random photos are the best. I'll occasionally take a photo walk with Brandon where we'll take what we like to call "hip shots," where we hold the camera down by our side and snap away. It all started one afternoon in a coffee shop. The sun was hitting the wall just perfectly, and I wanted to capture a photo of the moment but didn't want to be obvious about it. The result was neat, so we occasionally go for the crooked, imperfectly-framed hip shots and the results are sometimes crap, but sometimes end up being unlike anything I could plan or try to capture.

Sometimes we like to make Brandon cover his eyes and we take turns saying the same word, phrase or funny sound, then we make him guess which one of us spoke first. Sometimes we fool him. (Denver peeps really know how to party)

This is the cutest picture ever!

Do you want to know what a neat sister I have? She took time on a day off last week when Brandon and I were at work, picked up her dog-nephew Koda from our apartment and took him for a long run. When I refer to me and Koda venturing out in the city, I usually call it jogging, but Becki is definitely a runner! One who climbs up the sides of really tall, flat rocks with teeny rock ledges sticking out and jogs while hiking fourteeners no less.

From the looks of this photo, Koda was on a huge runner's high. They say that dogs don't smile. I think that's a smiling dog.

What I don't understand is, well, several things:

1. Did you take this photo of yourself?
2. If so, how did you manage to sport the same face as Koda while taking a photo of you two?
3. Finally, how did you get Koda to shake and stick his tounge out while shaking his and AND snapping a perfectly centered photo of you two?

My sister has skills. You know, like nunchuck skills, bowhunting skills, computer hacking skills... Guys only want girlfriends who have great skills.