Today was a crappy day.

This made it a whole lot better. Dachshunds are not only stubborn, they’re tough little buggers, too.

~Kelly

Dog survives a month in burned-out house

By Brian R. Ballou, Globe Staff

A Hyde Park woman cried tears of joy this week after finding her dog alive among the ashes of her burned-out and boarded-up house, where the dog had survived since a blaze totaled the residence on Feb. 23.

Terisa Acevedo initially thought that Lola, her year-old long-haired dachshund, escaped the blaze and was wandering through the neighborhood. In the days after the fire, the 24-year-old EMT and Northeastern University student posted fliers on telephone poles and walked the neighborhood hoping to find her dog. But as the days turned into weeks, Acevedo began to think that Lola perished in the fire.

But on Monday Acevedo returned to the house to shut off the alarm on a truck she was keeping parked there, and she heard a scratching noise at the boarded-up front door. She immediately knew it was Lola.

Acevedo yelled out her pet’s name and with the help of friends, tore the plywood off the entrance. Lola, apparently out of fear, retreated into the blackened interior of the house. But when Acevedo called out her name again, Lola ran into her arms.

“It was a miracle,” Acevedo said yesterday, hugging her dog at the Angell Memorial Animal Hospital in Jamaica Plain, where Lola is being nursed back to health.

On a very different note…

Everything going on in Japan is just so terrible, and so heartbreaking. Kelly and I know a number of people from Japan (like our property manager and the former organist at our church) or people who live or have lived in Japan (like Liz, Dan, and their kids). It just seems to get worse and worse too. But there is still cause for hope, I think. And there is much to be thankful for in our own lives.

I saw this photo today, and it almost made me cry. This poor man is lucky to have his dog back, especially since he may well have lost everything else.

Man's best friend — A survivor is reunited with his dog by a rescuer

– Geoff

My dad sent us this

Geoff here – Kelly and I both thought this was the coolest thing we had seen in a long, long time.

Cute animal photos

Geoff submitted some more photos to Boston.com and they were accepted to the multiple pet homes section. We obviously qualify under that section, so they took two of our pictures to add to the album. They are in the links below.

Dog Pile!

Kitties in a window!

Enjoy! Watch for a job update coming soon from Geoff.

~Kelly

We made it onto Boston.com again

This time they liked the photo of Rerun in the snow.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/specials/020111_readers_snowstorm_photos/#/item-15625

Enjoy,

~Kelly

More fun with random pictures!

That’s right, folks, more photos from my phone’s brain for you. Enjoy!

Seen at Costco. — Worst name and byline for a wine *ever*.

These next two are from that Bridal thing Geoff and I went to at Bloomingdale’s. Um, needless to say we didn’t register for them. The first one elicited a comment from Geoff along the lines of, “I guess that is what Elrond would serve his salads out of?”

So when, exactly, does one stop eating? — It's a leaf. It's a salad bowl. It's a leaf. It's a salad bowl.

Chicken! — A chicken shaped... cheese board?

Gratuitous adorable pictures of Thumbelina napping. On Scratch’s head. Heh.

Kitteh pillow the first. — I haz a fuzzy striped pillow.

mmm, fuzzy WARM striped pillow. — I'm so comfortable I'm sticking out my tongue.

And finally, pictures from a trip outside yesterday with the “puppehs.”

Wait! What was that? — Behold my puffed tail! For I am Defender of the Manor! MROW!

The Three Musketeers. — You shall not pass! Ooh! Shiny...

And that’s it, folks. Hope you enjoyed the photos.

~Kelly

Moar snow pictures!!!

So, as some of you may have heard, and others experienced firsthand, we have a lot of snow this winter. Like, a ludicrous amount.

Naturally, this requires that we take pictures.

As you may have noticed in our last round of snow photos, our dogs are rather big wimps when it comes to snow. Or rain. Or mist. Pretty much anything that falls from the sky makes them upset. Our youngest, and perhaps craziest animal, Scratch, however, has no such compunction. Scratch, originally a barn cat/foundling from Alabama, will literally wade through chest deep snow, burrow into snow banks, and wallow around in it until he gets cold. The fact that he’s wet doesn’t even seem to register.

And so I present to you, Scratch in the snow, both in front and in back of our home. There is chest deep-ish snow in in the back yard where we haven’t shoveled all winter and where I had to shove the door to even get it open wide enough to get out the door with him. You may notice the distinct lack of doggie footprints. Remember I said they were wimps? Yeah, that. Anyway, here’s Scratch in the backyard.

Chest deep snow! — Hmmm, the recycling bin is under here somewhere. I think.

And here are the photos from the front of the house.

Giant front snow pile. — Yes, that's right folks. The snow in the front is up to the front window.

The front yard. — There's shrubbery under there... somewhere...

Kitteh! In the snow! — Scratch inspects the front walk.

Shivering wimpy dog. — Rerun looking for the ideal snow-free place to pee.

We’ll be posting some photos to Boston.com. If they get added to the storm album we’ll link it up here.

~Kelly

What is it with my dogs and baked goods?

Geoff here – many people not in my immediate family may not be familiar with the infamous Thanksgiving holiday story about the family dog, Frank, eating an entire pumpkin pie. My dad had baked several pumpkin pies for the family to enjoy, and apparently one of them was just a little bit to close to the edge of the dining room table. So Frank, being the clever little food-obsessed beagle that he was, managed to sneak into the dining room (where he was usually not allowed to be) and get the pie off the table with no one noticing. The next time my dad went into the dining room, he found a completely empty aluminum pie dish, looking as if it had never been used, just sitting on the floor. There was no pie debris anywhere. Not a crumb. And one less pie on the table. And one very bloated looking beagle under the dining room table. Frank had made an entire pumpkin pie disappear.

Well, Rerun has picked up the torch and is running with it. Our upstairs neighbors had given us a gift of a loaf of pumpkin bread to thank us for watching their cat while they were out of town. The family recipe that Lindsey uses includes chocolate chips, something I would not think of as being appropriate for pumpkin bread but turns out to be absolutely delicious. So Kelly and were very much looking forward to enjoying the pumpkin bread. We set it down on a table in the dining room and headed out for the evening to do various things. When we returned, there were little pieces of aluminum foil on the floor all over the living room, and an almost entirely empty aluminum bread pan that was just sitting there. Rerun, looking suspiciously bloated, was nearby. Needless to say we were not pleased.

Snow!

Well, we had a white Christmas more or less. There was a little snow on the ground from Monday’s poorly forecast Rush Hour storm that snarled traffic and left Geoff in a traffic jam that meant it took him about an hour to get the 4 miles home from his interview.

Yesterday, however, was an entirely different story. This time they got the forecast pretty much dead on. They even got it right that the snowfall amounts would vary *wildly* not only from city to town but from block to block. What started out as light fluffy snow ended up as heavy wet stuff. Trees have come down and at one point about 60,000 people state wide were without power (that’s nothing compared to the ice storm from a few years back.)

Anyway, once we dug out from under our own Winter Wonderland, we took the dogs, dressed them (much to Rerun’s distress) and put them in the AWESOME red wagon my mom got us for my birthday last year. It was intended as a Brimfield accessory, but it has all terrain wheels, so we figured we might as well try it out in the snow.

Behold, photos! Of annoyed Chilly Dogs! And snowed in trucks!

View from the front door, BEFORE shoveling. — Do you see stairs? I don't.

A view looking down our street. — The quietest you will ever see our street.

The truck, still snow covered. — No, we haven't actually dug it out yet.

See the hidden kitty? — This is what happens when you don't have storm windows.

Our Little Red All Terrain Wagon — Geoff and the Little Red Wagon of Awesomeness

Impatient Chilly Dogs. — Waiting for Daddy while he's in the store.

Spoiled, who's spoiled? — We may be freezing, but we're riding in style.

And, a picture from the dog park that we took on our way home.

A snowperson presides over the park. — Braver dogs than ours play in the background.

We’re back inside now nice and safe and warm. The dogs are not traumatized from their wagon ride, and dinner is cooking in the oven. We hope that wherever you are that you’re nice and safe and warm.

~Kelly

Mystic, CT- Day 3, Mystic Seaport The Amistad

After we finished seeing the various sites and the dog demonstrations, we took some time to look over the Amistad. It had been closed when we were there on Friday so it was nice to have the chance to go on board today. The crew were wonderful and welcomed the dogs on board with us. The following are all Amistad photos.

There were small children playing with these, it made me nervous...

Geoff talks history with the real Captain of the Amistad.

Geoff here – I had such a long and animated discussion with the captain and one of the Mystic Seaport volunteers that I kept getting in the way of people who were walking on the ship. My bad. But it was still a lot of fun for me. I don’t get to geek out like that very often.

A *giant* pile of rope on the main deck.

A view of the Mystic Seaport flag on shore, from the Amistad.

Thumbelina found her sea legs and climbed up on the rope pile.

And that concludes our day at the Seaport and on the Amistad. There are a lot more photos that didn’t make the cut, especially dog photos. I’ll find a place to put them all online and I’ll post that link here later. Meanwhile, I hope you enjoyed our little vacation. (We did! ~Geoff)

~Kelly