MACINTOSH MONTHLY

Well Mr Macintosh certainly had a great Christmas. He had lots of walks (some even off lead I might add), lots of food, tons of snow, toys galore, friends to play with and people to pet him. He even had a cosy cabin to snuggle up in. He was certainly spoilt. 

Here's a photo round up of some of his Christmas events...

We went to visit a ghost town, from the old gold mining days. Whilst there we got to have a little ride on a mini train. Macintosh came with us, which he was equally excited and scared about. His ears were flicking around constantly with every clunk of the rails and his nose was going crazy trying to capture every smell around him.

As you can see there were more than a few naps! He loved staying in the cabin in Lake Tahoe because after playing in the snow he could just come inside to the warmth and chill out. So there we go, Macintosh's Christmas in a nutshell. 
H

(You'll see more of Lake Tahoe and what Macintosh (and us) did there later in the week as the posts get written!)

MACINTOSH MONDAY

Macintosh has been mostly well behaved for the last two weeks. I've not had to photo document anything where he's been too badly behaved. Although he did attempt to climb into a friend's dishwasher last week but I was too occupied trying to get him out of it to bother taking a photo. If it had been our dishwasher I'm sure it would have been a different story! So instead of a story, here is a round up of his past two weeks. Photo style!

As you can see, being cute has been his theme. As always!
H

MACINTOSH MONDAY

On Friday and Saturday Macintosh had his girlfriend Penny over to stay whilst her owners moved house. Obviously this was a source of great excitement for them both!

Now I don't have any other pictures to show you. I think we were too busy enjoying spending time with them. But I do have the funniest story to share....about Penny. See we have a little routine at nighttime where Macintosh goes outside for his last toilet break whilst we are busy getting ready for bed. Usually he pops outside, does his business, he trots back in and goes straight to his bed. 

Well on the night Penny was here that didn't happen! The two of them would go outside and distract each other completely to the point where Andrew had to go outside. Once they'd finally done their business Macintosh trots in through his doggy door as usual and starts to walk to his bed. Penny suddenly sees that Mac is inside and decides she needs to follow him, so she starts running. Now because Andrew came outside it looks as if the back door is open, except that he shut the screen door behind him. So Penny goes running at the 'open' door hoping to follow Mac only to hit the screen door super hard. She goes flying backwards, looks up at Andrew bemused and shaking herself off goes in through the doggy door. 

Obviously Andrew and I are in stitches, once we've checked she isn't hurt! Apparently though according to her owners this isn't the first time its happened! Seriously funny!
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MACINTOSH MONDAY

So I have been particularly bad at keeping up with Macintosh Monday the last few weeks. I'm sorry about that. I wanted to do a huge blog post with all the information about what he had been doing but guess what.... our computer is not showing any of our photos from the last two weeks. We updated the photo storage system and something clearly hasn't worked right! 

So here's the one photo I can show you. Its Macintosh fast asleep in what is fast becoming and normal position for him! 

Anyway I'll task Andrew with sorting it out once he gets home from work and see if he can get it fixed. Then I'll finally be able to show you what we've been up to!

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MACINTOSH MONDAY

For any of you following us on Instagram you may have noticed that this past week we had a lovely house guest staying. Her name was Penny.

She is super cute and she was a fantastic house guest. She entertained Macintosh brilliantly. They played lots of games of chase and tried to take the toys off each other. It took a while for them to eventually learn to sleep near each other because initially one of them would adjust their sleeping position and the other would take that as an invitation to play. But eventually they got it and so once they'd played together and exhausted themselves they would sleep peacefully. 

Walking two dogs at the same time was certainly interesting at first. I had to walk them on my own the first time so I was aware how entangled you could get. When it was Andrew's time to walk them obviously I came along, just to photograph him struggle!

Shortly before this photo was taken Andrew had gotten himself entirely tangled up with the dogs almost running circles round him. I was laughing too hard to take the photo and then by the time I had got my phone out and ready he had untangled himself. Apparently he thought it would have been too embarrassing! 

But the issue with two leads and two dogs going different ways obviously got Andrew's brain working and before long he had solved the problem by creating a two in one dog lead...

The dogs had a whale of a time together so much so that they were really upset to be separated as you can see from the photo below. Macintosh really was distraught. But don't worry Mac saw Penny on Sunday and he was super excited! He was bounding up the path to her front door. Plus they are going to hang out again this week too, so its all good!

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MACINTOSH MONDAY

We have missed a Macintosh Monday and we are aware of that fact. We are very sorry to those of you that are fans. Our only excuse is that it has been insanely hectic trying to sort out the house and moving in so we haven't had time to write about Mac.

However Mr Macintosh has been far from neglected, in fact I'd say he's being treated a bit like a king! My parents are walking him lots, he's got their comfy sofas to sleep on, my brothers cat to terrorise, a huge garden to run around in and so much love and affection. Not to mention that my parents-in-law are also there to come over and take him for walks too! Seriously he is one spoilt dog!

Obviously we are missing him though. My dad is putting updates on his walking experiences on Facebook which are always quite amusing and my mum is sending pictures and videos of him too. It's keeping the sadness of being separated at bay...just.

Here are a few of my favourite pictures so far.

                                      

                                  

                              

                         

                                     

This one is my favourite. It's Macintosh giving us kisses. I miss those snuffly kisses. Soon puppy soon!

H

BLEAK HOUSE

Welcome to Bleak House!

On Wednesday and Thursday this week our entire house with all its contents was packed up either into a shipping container bound for America or into storage. We spent the entire time half watching the dog to ensure he didn't escape through either of the open doors and half ensuring the correct items were sent to America. I mean it would be pretty frustrating if we ended up with all our useless storage stuff in California rather than the useful bits!

Here are a couple of photos of the packing process. Note the dog sleeping peacefully through it all without a care in the world!

It was a bit chaotic but when the final truck left on Thursday afternoon we realised just how empty our house is! Andrew and I are living in the house for the next few days, until we march out, so we are essentially camping in the house. We are using the smallest amount of stuff ever, which was all borrowed from my parents. 

Here are a couple of photos of our very bleak house...

Yup it really is that bleak. Thank goodness its only for a while. Oh and yes we are moving to a hot and sunny place. I shouldn't really complain should I?!

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MACINTOSH MONDAY

This past week has been an emotional one for me as I have finished teaching in the UK...for the meantime. I think Macintosh knew this was a tough week because all week he has been extra snuggly. When he's in a snuggly mood Macintosh typically finds the smallest space he can and curls up in it. He usually props his head up onto something, invariably me! In this mood he is simply adorable and he definitely keeps you warm. 

So here are a few pictures of snuggly Macintosh that I have taken this week to send to Andrew and remind him how fabulous Mac can be but also what he's coming home to! :)

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MACINTOSH MONDAY

Macintosh never does anything by halves. If he wants to chew something, he demolishes it. If he eats something, he devours it in seconds. If he wants to play tug, he goes full pelt and growls. You get the idea.

When it comes to sleeping Mac also does this rather extremely. He doesn't just snooze lightly, he completely zonks out complete with snoring and leg twitching as he runs in his dreams. When he was a little puppy he would suddenly come over all sleepy and just drop down wherever he was and sleep. As an adult dog he still seems to find himself totally conked out in the oddest of positions or places and he's always totally fast asleep and very little will wake him. He will snore, woof a little and just generally enjoy his dream but never seems bothered that his body is in the weirdest of positions. 

As I was looking back over the Christmas photos I found lots of him fast asleep in odd positions and as I looked back over the photos of the past year and a half I found even more! So here are the top 5 photos that demonstrate just a few of the odd sleeping positions/places of Macintosh! 

It literally looks like he's been tipped sideways or dead!

He does love sleeping on his back. Its almost like sunbathing! 

I love the chin rest and the curled paw. Very cute!

Not sure how resting your head on a hard brick thats close to a very hot fire helps. But clearly his chicken legs is a comfortable way to go!

Yes we are aware that we have an odd dog!! Currently he's asleep beside me, its a fairly normal sleeping position but LOTS of snoring! 

H