This just in: Apparently Chewy.com boxes really are chewy. (According to Mr. M)

Also just in: Kitty P is getting fat. Kitty S is also putting on some pounds, but she is longer so she doesn't look as pudgy as Kitty S.

The rain has stopped, but the ground is still moist, so the puppies haven't been able to play in the yard much. We have been having to play more in the house, which is a little tricky. It gets crowded really quickly when all five puppies are playing and rowdy. So we end up having to play with them one or two at a time, which is good individual time. They really enjoy their one on one time. 
In other news, the puppies are really growing up. Their Aunt P informed us jokingly that they really aren't puppies anymore. They are big dogs now. They may still grow some, or at least bulk up, but they will always still be our puppies. It is really hard to believe that little Miss M is already a year old. Looking at them now, it's hard to imagine how small they all were when we first brought them home.

 Today was a very interesting day. We woke up in the middle of the night with high winds and torrential rains. We went right back to sleep but woke up to storms again around 5. Dad went outside and discovered that while it was really windy, it wasn't raining much. So we decided to take the puppies out for a potty break before it started raining again. When we got back inside, we went back to bed, but then we started hearing funny noises. We heard a transformer blow behind our house. Our lights were still on at that point. Soon afterwards though, we started hearing the transformer closest to us make noises too. It sounded like it was revving up. The clock in our bedroom flashed a few times, and the little fan stopped a couple of times before the lights went all the way out, shortly before 6. With the two of us and all five dogs in the bedroom, it started heating up pretty quickly. Mr. M, who gets hot quickly, started panting, so we put the puppies in their crates, where they would be cooler.
We tried going back to sleep, but at that point, we were already wide awake. In the days before getting the puppies, we used to camp regularly. Because of our camping habit, we are fairly well equipped for bad weather. We got out our propane stove, and set it up on the porch. We would have used it in the house, but it needs to be used in a well ventilated area. We got out a cast iron griddle and a tea kettle and went to work. Then we ate our bacon and eggs and drank our coffee by candlelight. The puppies were a little disappointed that they didn't get to share.
The lights were off for about 5 hours before they came back on again. It stormed off and on pretty much all day. There were branches down all over the neighborhood. The people two houses down from us had their fence blow over completely, which the puppies noticed of course.
Later in the day we decided that we needed to do something for Miss M since today was her birthday. We had planned on going to Buddy Bites for a birthday cookie, but the weather was just too bad to go anywhere. So instead we went to Petsmart and got a container of Pup-kin Spice Latte treats. The puppies loved them. We got Miss M a little pumpkin costume as a birthday outfit. All in all, it was a successful birthday.

Okay, seriously? Again with the flooding? Why do we always have to have rains of biblical proportions? Can't we just have a little bit of rain like normal people?

It started raining Saturday afternoon and really hasn't stopped since then. Every time we take the puppies out, they just stop and look out, and then they look at us like, "can't you turn it off?" Normally if we open the door, we have to watch out because they all fly out. This weekend, I'm pretty sure we could leave all of our doors wide open, and nobody would even get up off of their blankets and pillows. If you look closely in the picture below, you can see Miss M looking out at me while I was taking pictures of the backyard. Notice that the door is open, but she is quite content to just sit and look at me. She eventually ventured out onto the porch, but that was as far as she went.

The Weather Channel keeps telling us that the rain should start coming to an end  later this evening. I'll believe it when I see it. I will say though, that it has actually been pretty cozy with the bad weather. It is a little cooler (65 outside) because of the rain. I was able to bake some bread yesterday, and we made brownies today. I also had a little bit of time to work on puppy sweaters. So even though it is a pain in the neck when it's time for potty breaks, it's not bad otherwise. Plus, the puppies have been super cuddly this weekend- which is nice.

Okay, seriously? Can't we just have a happy medium when it comes to weather? It has been dry for a little while now. Our plants were suffering a little, but it sure is easy taking the puppies outside when it's dry. Today, the sky decided to just open up. On her way home from work, Mom had to drive 30 most of the way instead of the speed limit of 65. The puppies don't totally understand not being able to play in the yard, but being the positive puppies they are, they have been making the best of the bad weather. Miss M decided to work on her chew toy in her comfortable spot on the bed next to Dad while he was reading.

Mr. M and Miss S have decided that everything is okay as long as we still have Blue Bell.

Mr. C had decided to just hang around the kitchen. His theory is that if the weather is bad, Mom might cook more. So if he is patient, something is sure to make its way into his mouth. 

Miss B has been trying hard to practice being good and looking cute. The looking cute part is easy. It's the being good part that's hard. She was looking at a calendar with Mom the other day and realized that it really isn't that long until Christmas. At the beginning of the year she had made a New Year's resolution to be good so that she wouldn't end up on Santa's naughty list. She totally forgot about her resolution. There have been months and months of being a rascal since then. Being a rascal is fun, but now that it is September, it's time to really buckle up so that she can get on Santa's good list. She has been trying her hardest to not get the others stirred up and to not try to steal their toys. It's just so hard to be good when you have so much energy.

Today the puppies graduated from the Advanced Level of puppy school. They had a good time showing off on relay work in the store, met people, got to finally visit with some kids and even got to eat puppy cake. The day started off dark and stormy. We took the puppies out early for a potty break and were glad we did because shortly after we came back in, the sky opened up. The lightening was so close, that not even a second passed between the lightning strikes and the thunder several times. The puppies don't really care about storms. They just stayed asleep. We had put them in their crates when they came back in because their feet were muddy, but Dad let them come back into our room after the storms started getting bad. They were super happy. Miss M came running in, jumped up on the bed and then realized the others weren't all there yet. So she jumped back down, ran and got her ball and then jumped back up on the bed with her ball. She happily chewed on it until Mr. M took it from her.
We weren't sure if we were even going to be able to go to puppy school with all of the storms in the area, and we kept a close watch on the radar all morning. We decided to take a test run before loading the puppies into the car to make sure the conditions weren't too bad- the car needed gas anyway. It was raining lightly, but the roads weren't flooded, so we decided to try. We got the harnesses on and the puppies into the car. On the way, we stopped by Buddy Bites to pick up a graduation cake. The puppies knew right away that it was for them. Notice the puppy nose checking out the cake in the picture below.

Of course, you can't have a graduation without pictures...

This time, Mr. C was very cooperative. He didn't want a repeat of last time. He wanted to make sure his graduation pictures were professional.

Our puppies really love puppy school. We love it because it gives us a productive outing every week in a climate controlled area- important when it is raining or over 100 outside. Grandpa made an excellent point though when we were at their house, that the puppies still hadn't learned how to use a vacuum and clean up after themselves in puppy school. We decided that we might need to send the puppies to grad school in hopes of learning how to use the vacuum cleaner instead of just chasing it around the living room.

Who says you need a swimming pool to learn how to swim? The last couple of days, our puppies have been practicing their water skills in the backyard. Miss M realized that she could poop in the pouring rain. Mr. C realized he could still chase squirrels through the water. Mr. M decided he could still hunt sticks in the water.

I'm not sure why, but Miss B has always like peeing in water. She's been peeing in the water at the beach since the first time we took her there when she and Mr. C were little- before we even thought about getting more puppies. So for her, this was just a smaller, quieter beach to pee in. She is also starting to realize that when she stands close to us under the umbrella, she doesn't get wet.

Miss M wasn't really sure about all of the water at first. She loves playing in the water hose, but this isn't quite the same thing. Everything must smell different because her nose was going 100 mph smelling the air.

Mr. C was very interested in the water and in whether or not he could drink it.

We were amazed at how glassy the water was. The ground is so saturated from the rain we've gotten over the past few weeks, that it just sat there and didn't soak in right away. We had water flowing through the yard like a river at one point. Then it just stayed. We were really glad we didn't have to go anywhere during the worst of it. Needless to say, our rubber boots have been getting a lot of use.

So, for anyone who follows our blog but doesn't live on the coast, the only downside to being near the water is having to worry about hurricanes. I (Mom) am slightly obsessed with hurricane season. I love the excitement of tracking the storms, and even an evacuation can be quite thrilling, to be honest. But... now that we have puppies, tropical weather is super boring while it's going on because we can't take them anywhere fun (namely the beach). They have to stay indoors and do other things to get their energy out. 
Right now, T.S. Bill is doing its thing down in Matagorda, and we are getting rain bands from it. We haven't had much in the way of wind, but we have had enough rain that our yard is once again a lake. We have been letting the puppies take turns so that we can play fetch or tugging games with them one on one. That way they use more energy than they would if they were all out, but it is still a little boring being cooped up in the house.
When we first started watching the tropical disturbance in the Gulf, before it became a storm, we decided to go ahead and run to the store to fill a water bottle and just see what the mood was like. Wal-Mart was a madhouse. It was late Monday morning, but the water shelves were already empty. We saw people scrambling to get chips and snack foods and stock up on batteries. We even saw an accident that had just happened when we were on the way home. It was crazy out there! Okay, maybe that was a little dramatic, but people were a little frantic.
We had our little point and shot digital camera with us, so we decided to take some super exciting pictures at Wal-Mart of the empty shelves. I tried to see if we could find anyone to take a picture of for the people of Wal-Mart page, but it seems that most people were more dignified than usual. Maybe the kinds of people that end up on that page don't bother preparing for tropical storms?
Here are the super exciting Wal-Mart pictures. My guess is that these shelves were completely empty later in the day, but we didn't really want to go out later on.

Mr. M wanted to track the tropical storm on the hurricane tracking chart, but Mr. C pointed out that it was so close to the coast before becoming a tropical storm, it wouldn't be much fun to track. So we gave up on that.

We don't have any cool pictures yet from during the puppies' first tropical storm, so here are a few pictures from when they were little.

Now, if you will excuse me, I have some puppies to hug.

With hurricane season fast approaching, we decided that we needed to be a little more prepared. Lakewood Yacht Club was having a preparedness seminar this morning, so we decided to go. Back before we had puppies to consider, hurricane season wasn't that big of a deal. If we had to evacuate, which we had already done during Hurricane Ike, we just packed some things in a car and left. We didn't have to worry about where we were going and whether or not the destination would allow dogs. Now that we have animals, an evacuation would be a more complicated process. The problem with a hurricane is that you don't have any idea how long you are going to be away. If the hurricane just goes by, you may be able to return home in a day or two. If the hurricane hits your area, it could be weeks before you are even allowed back into the area. After Hurricane Ike, we couldn't even get back in to check on things for almost three weeks. Cats would be okay in your house with plenty of food and water for a day or two, but three weeks? No way! The puppies couldn't even make it comfortably for a day. So, this hurricane season, we need to be a little more prepared. We need to have a plan.

We had a lot of fun. Mom has enjoyed hurricane season since she was a kid. Her aunt, who lived a few blocks from the beach in Galveston, had a magnetic hurricane tracking chart, and it was the coolest thing ever. So, when Mom moved to Galveston to go to college, she searched high and low until she found a cool magnetic hurricane tracking chart too. So, in our house, we have the most eclectic dining room ever. We have a wall of weapons- Dad's martial arts weapons- on one side, and a hurricane tracking chart and a barometer on the other side- Mom's.
When we got home from the hurricane preparedness seminar, we took the puppies outside and tried to tell them about bad weather and hurricanes. Miss M just laughed.

The puppies didn't really understand what a hurricane was. We tried to tell them it was like a really big storm. With all of our recent rain storms, they have a little bit of an idea of what rain is. We pointed out the storm clouds that were starting to roll in again.

We went back inside to continue our hurricane discussion. The sky kept getting darker and darker until all of a sudden, the lights went out. A few minutes after that, the rains and lightening started. We had to postpone our hurricane discussion until we could see again. The lights stayed off for almost two hours- just long enough for the house to start getting a little warm inside.

Finally, the power came back on and we were able to teach the puppies about tracking hurricanes.

Miss M wanted to know what all the writing said at the bottom of the chart. They haven't learned to read yet in puppy school, although I'm pretty sure they know what o-u-t and b-a-t-h spell.

Mr. M pointed out that hurricane categories no longer include specific storm surge along with wind speeds. He also wanted to know why the pesky laser pointer wouldn't leave the tracking chart alone.

Overall, I think it was a good lesson on hurricanes. Miss B agreed that she should think about which toys she would want to take in an evacuation. Miss S was concerned that we not leave the dog food behind. 
On a different note, this is why our tomatoes are struggling. Notice how the tomato cage isn't straight anymore. It doesn't help that the puppies have discovered that they like tomatoes.

Our weather seems to be continuing the lather, rinse, repeat pattern. Yesterday, we had thunderstorms in the morning. This was one of Miss M's first thunderstorms. At first, she was a little spooked by the loud rumbling , so Mom played fetch with her in the kitchen, which then turned into a group fetch and a game of keep-away with Mr. M. Once she got into the game, Miss M forgot all about the thunderstorm. Miss B and Mr. C were never scared of storms as puppies, but I read online when we first got them, that if a dog seems scared of storms, you should play with them and make it more like a game so that they don't mind storms at all. I'm not sure if Miss M would have been scared of storms, but she did really enjoy playing fetch in the house. Miss M and Mr. C then took a nap with us on the bed for a little individual time about mid-morning during one of the heavier storms. It was so dark outside, it made the room really cozy, and we all slept soundly, despite the thunder.

Everyone was sleeping soundly until the cats decided that they needed to make noise in the hall looking for the puppies or us? Sometimes they just make noise inexplicably. Cats...

Today, the weather was really pleasant. Not too hot. Nice and partly cloudy. Tomorrow we are supposed to have heavy thunderstorms again. So today, we decided that we should go for a walk on the beach to take advantage of the small, good weather window. The puppies were all super excited to be going somewhere, and were so glad to be at the beach. We must have been there right after high tide because there was a lot of stuff on the beach for the puppies to smell and check out. As we were walking along, I spotted a Portuguese Man-of-War laying on the sand. I was glad the tentacles were all bunched up beside it because the puppies walked right by it not too far away. I don't think they would have appreciated it very much if they had stepped on one of the tentacles. 
They are doing really well with "Drop it" and "leave it." Leave it even worked on some very tempting dead fish. Mr. M and Miss M both dropped various things they had picked up. So apparently they actually are learning at puppy school.
Miss S is very nervous about the group splitting up when we go out in public. There are garbage bins at intervals along the beach, but they are a short distance away from the surf. So any time the puppies decide to take a potty break, we scoop it and then walk it up to one of the bins. Whenever duty calls, one of us takes the poop to a bin, while the other waits near the water with the puppies. Miss S goes nuts when we split up. She sits still, but she whines and cries and makes funny noises until the other one of us is back. She does it with Mom and Dad, not just one or the other, which is kind of nice. She doesn't like part of the group to split off when we are out in public. She doesn't care at home, but it's different in public.
When we got home, both of the cats were waiting for us near the door. As soon as we were in the house, the cats just ran around the room loose while all of the dogs were out and moving around. The dogs didn't even pay attention to the cats at all. We are really impressed at how well the cats and dogs have been getting along and are glad that we took the introductions as slow as we did.