Backyard Destruction

Say it with me..."awwwwwwww!!! Isn't she the cutest??"

Do you see this sweet, innocent-looking puppy dog? Doesn't she just melt your heart? Don't you just want one just like her?

Well, believe it or not, she has us all fooled! Sage may be sweet, she may even be really cute, but she definitely has a need for destruction. Please browse through the following pictures and maybe feel better about your own dog...and also feel a little very sorry for my poor dad's backyard...

The wire over the holes is supposed to discourage digging...

...and discourage biting leaves off small trees and bushes...

Remember her, well, she doesn't look so innocent anymore, does she??

R.I.P. Gopher

 Note: This post may contain some material that might be offensive to people holding strong feelings of closeness toward a particular animal species...namely gophers. If you happen to fall into this category, proceed with caution.

 If you are frequent visitor to our blog, you may remember a post titled, "R.I.P. Nutria" from last February. I must start by saying that Sage is not a cold blooded killer. This is only her second rodent mortality in her not quite two years of life. We are working on it...

 Anyways, here's how it happened. It was a VERY foggy morning and I could tell Sage was ready for an adventure. And, because I too was ready for an adventure, I came armed with my camera...which is a necessity for any great adventure.

It started off as a normal walk on the ranch. There was nothing out of the ordinary. The normal obstacles were present and stoically avoided. There were cattle guards that needed to be bypassed, sticker burrs that were plucked from tender paws, barbed wire that challenged unwelcomed visitors, and scary longhorn cows that protected the path.

 Sage and I were on a mission. A mission to make it to the end of the road (and then turn around and walk back). It was all very exciting.

Well, actually, the walk wasn't all that exciting at all! It was muggy outside and the air was so thick you couldn't see farther than 30 yards. I was worried that my camera lens would fog up and almost didn't bring it along. Not much was going on. However, things quickly took an exciting turn...

 Thinking I would get another neat picture like this one, I snapped a few before I realized that Sage's head was missing! Before I knew it, she was trotting over proudly with something in her mouth. "Sage, what do you have...?" As she dropped it at my feet, I couldn't stop shaking my head. So, being the caring and compassionate person that I am, I took the lens cap off the camera and got down to ground level to document the moment!

 The poor gopher was not amused and additionally, he wasn't completely dead. I will spare you the details, but Sage "played" with him a bit longer before the end came for him, which was probably not soon enough.

I was somewhat traumatized by the whole ordeal, but Sage seemed to get over it pretty quickly. Sage spent the rest of the morning checking out other gopher mounds while I tried to capture her on camera.

 I will try not to make too many excused for Sage, but I would like to say (for the record) that she is a very playful, adventurous dog that isn't too picky when choosing her playmates. This causes a problem sometimes when she chooses playmates that are too fragile to withstand the level of intensity she attains. Rodents seem to fall into this category, unfortunately for them. Especially because Sage is pretty fun to play with!

While these R.I.P. posts are quite entertaining, I hope Sage and I don't accumulate too many of them. Or at least I hope we stick to rodents...

The Daily Adventures of Sage and Erin: The Book

Well, we have almost hit the 1 year anniversary of The Daily Adventures of Sage and Erin blog. I started writing posts last January as an English project for one of my classes. The semester came and went but the Sage blog has continued...Thank you so much for reading and following us on our adventures (special thanks to JackDaddy and Khyra And Sometimes Her Mom for your continued comments and support for our blog).

For Christmas, my sweet fiancé printed my blog and created a neat book so that we would remember my blogging year and my crazy dog adventures. A couple of days ago, it arrived on the doorstep. It is hardback, 90 pages long, and complete with a table of contents. It was neat for me to flip through the pages last night and remember the stories I've written.

I found myself laughing out loud at the Water Dog post as it took me back to that day at the park. I got a little teary eyed as I read Happy Birthday Sage all about our first year together. In one post I wrote, "I hope that it doesn't take a birthday, holiday, or special event to let the people we love know how important they are to us; that they've stolen our heart and we'll never be the same again. Because in the end, that's what matters. So thank you Sage, for reminding me of what's really important in life." 

This is not just a blog to me. It's a place where I can come to look deep inside and try to put into words this journey called life. When I chose to write about Sage for my English project, I thought it would be filled with some good pictures and some funny stories (although I often find myself laughing out loud when recounting these stories). However, this blog has become so much more than that.

This blog is a story. It's not highly edited nor completely professional. It's raw and real. It tells of a girl who thought she was ready for a dog, but was completely and pleasantly surprised when she realized what she had gotten herself into.

You see, I didn't realize that having a dog was all that difficult. And for some, it isn't. There are so many dog owners that leave their pets in the backyard and rarely interact with them except for the occasional, required trip to the vet. For those people, their dog is just another thing you're supposed to have when you grow up. Well, this wasn't the case for me. After I met Sage, everything changed.

This blog is all about that change. To see how this all started, I invite you to start at the beginning.

Meet Sage.


 

It's Procrastinating Time Again!

So the majority of the people reading this blog will say, once they see this post pop up in their email, "TYPICAL Erin!" The reason is, well, it's finals time once again in Aggieland! But this time around, it's different. Why, you ask? Well, because this is the LAST round of finals of my college career! After Tuesday (assuming I pass all my finals) I will be a college grad! (Please excuse all the "!")

So, because I am procrastinating, I will take my time in recounting our Thanksgiving weekend. Actually, for me, it was quite uneventful. I spent some time with family, ate some turkey, and worked on my 20 page paper that was due the week after. But Sage, she had a FANTASTIC weekend. She woke up early, retrieved some ducks, played with her Frisbee, did some fishing, played with her tennis ball, chased some ducks, explored the beach, and then repeated this cycle for 3 days! 

I didn't get to accompany John and my cousin on the morning hunting trips, but all John could do was rave about how well Sage did in the duck blind. As she has gotten a little older, she is MUCH more well behaved and patient waiting for the birds to come. She pays attention well (except for the last morning of the trip). John said she was so tired on the last day that she was sleeping ON HER BACK, with all 4 paws in the air while waiting for some ducks to come!

Sage also had fun fishing. She has never really expressed any interest in watching people fish, but Thanksgiving was different...I think it's because there were lots and lots of fish being reeled in!

Since Thanksgiving, Sage has been staying in Houston as I prepare for finals. It's been real quiet around here and I'm not sure I like it! I hear no barking as people walk by the house, I hear no snoring while Sage sleeps soundly in her bed, and feel no wet slobbery tennis balls in my lap as I try to read a textbook! I can't wait for finals to be over so I can be done with college, but mostly I want to be reunited with my little Sage. Life is pretty uneventful without her close by and it's not nearly as fun coming home without being greeted at the door by an overly excited Sage with a teddy bear, tennis ball and stuffed duck held tightly in her mouth.

A Weekend at the Beach

Well, friends...I'm excited to share with you this new post because I have lots and lots of photos to show you! I recently purchased the 5d Mark II digital camera by Canon and LOVE would be an understatement as to how I feel about my newest investment. I have to be honest though, I did not feel this way when I handed over the cash. Now, Mark Dos (as my fiancé lovingly calls him) has really grown on me. It definitely helps to have a model as beautiful and radiant (for you, Dad) as my Sagey. The picture (above) was my first...

This weekend I had lots of opportunities to practice with Mark. The fiancé and I loaded up the dogs and we headed to the coast for a weekend away. We all had a wonderful time! The weather was perfect, the fish were plenty, and the dogs just played and played and played.

 I laughed out loud when I reviewed this photo after taking it. Sage lets it all go when she's playing...it's serious business.

Did I mention the weather...?

Note: Sage is not furious (although she might look as though she is in this photo). She just plays hard. But please, don't get in her way.

Besides getting some quality play time at the beach, Sage had her first hunt of the season. Unfortunately, the ducks knew we were coming and stayed away from our little pond.

Sage was a good little helper setting up the decoys. Actually come to think of it, she wasn't at all! At one point, she was spooked when the decoy got wrapped around her leg and followed her while she tried to escape. Scary!

Even though there were no ducks, Sage had a great time! However, I blame her for our lack of birds because she insisted on wearing her "peace sign" collar while hunting....

The weekend was perfect, and we were sad to leave.

I'll end this post with my favorite pic of the weekend. Until next time...

Erin & Sage

Thursday in Pictures

So I decided, instead of a formal post with lots of words, to give you a post with mostly pictures! I apologize in advance for some of the pictures being a little blurry...they were all taken on my iphone. I typically take great pride in my Sage photography, but my camera has been having some problems. 

As usual, Sage and I have been spending a lot of quality time at the park. We've also enjoyed some really pretty sunsets this semester!

It always makes me laugh when Sage sits in front of my roommate's door. Her name also starts with an "S." 

Leave it to Sage to find a wet place to cool off while on our walk.

The best thing about spending time at the park is how exhausted Sage is afterward. We both sleep like babies!

My High Maintenance Dog

One time I thought it would be interesting to see how much money I had spent on Sage since I got her.  So I went through my Bank of America bills and started crunching numbers.  I quickly realized that having a dog was expensive...and I immediately put the old bills away.  Almost from the moment I brought Sage home, she has been higher maintenance than the normal family dog.

The funny thing is, I started writing this post last spring but never posted it, thinking I'd just jinx myself, but now it's time to revisit this topic. Yesterday, Sage and I had another expensive trip to the vet. You know, one thing about the vet is that they are so good at getting you to purchase all kinds of special "remedies" to alleviate all kinds of secondary ailments. I came home with some ear cleaner, joint supplements, and fish oil tablets. But anyways, the point is, my dog is high maintenance.

Since the day of her arrival into my life Sage has suffered from puppy dermatitis, seasonal allergies, food allergies, a luxating patella, one hot spot, multiple bouts of dry skin, a benign tumor that showed up and went away within a couple of weeks, and most recently, an ear infection. Now it's perfectly normal for dogs to have different kinds of problems throughout their lifetime, however, Sage is still under the age of 2. I'm thinking we're going to have quite the journey ahead of us.

But let's be honest, we love our pets and would do anything for them...even if they are high maintenance!