Dog Treats: Bacon Bits with Parsley and Carrots

Rikki and her freshly-baked dog treat!

I started working for a small hotel, doing breakfast thingy. Instead of throwing the rest of the bacon (I try to avoid throwing food as much as possible), I've decided to bring them home and create something delicious for Rikki. Thus, the Bacon Bits with Parsley and Carrots Dog Treats.

Bacon Bits with Parsley and Carrots Dog Treats

New House, New Garden View

Moving is not easy! Yet slowly but surely...

Let me show you our new garden view...

Yep, Rikki's pool is an important part of the garden view :-)

There you go, green all over!

Will tell you more once all the boxes have been unpacked :-)

Rikki and her dogs

Too cute not to share :-)

Posing for the photographer with her baby doggie

Here comes Rikki's big doggie

A white baby doggie joins this time

There they are, all Rikki's doggies :-)

Look Who Turned 4

Yey, Rikki is now 4-years-old!

A day my girls cannot forget. Because it is also the same day every year that Nickolodeon Germany has declared a playtime date. What's that? It means there's no television program running between 1 to 5 p.m. If you turn to the Nickolodeon Channel, you'll find the words 'Go and Play Outside' on the TV screen.

Anyway, back to the birthday girl... here she is with her special cake made of chicken broth and spices from our garden.

Happy 4th Birthday, dear Rikki!

Patiently waiting to blow the candle :-)

Rikki in Callantsoog, The Netherlands

Summer break in The Netherlands!

The family stayed in a camping site near Callantsoog in North Holland.

Enjoying the good weather in Callantsoog Beach

Yum, the water is salty and foamy, too!

More later!

The 6th Weinheimer Tiermesse (Animal Fair)

The 6th Weinheimer Tiermesse (Animal Fair) was held in the same venue last year.

I urged my husband to go because I wanted our dog, Rikki, to get her favorite dried treats which we got there for a pretty reasonable price last year. Plus, we wanted to check out whatever they offer.

But unlike last year, there's an entrance fee of One Euro per person this time around :-( Anyway, you could win something if you'd join their quiz game (which we didn't as we didn't plan on staying for a long time).

What did we buy this time? Of course, Rikki's dried treats consisting of beef and pork ears, plus some fish and bones, too!

The dried treats corner was manned by a blind man

Happy 3rd Birthday, Rikki!

Rikki is 3-year-old today!

I guess she knows there's something special going on because I have been busy in the kitchen since yesterday :-)

First I harvested more than enough spinach from our backyard garden. Then I made a dough for her doggie treats, and then another dough for her birthday cake. Meanwhile, MC made a birthday crown for her.

And today is the day!

Rikki is 3!

Sweet 3 :-D

Happy birthday, dear Rikki! You are the sunshine in our life...

P.S. Recipe for spinach doggie birthday cake to follow.

Rikki at Camping Continental in Lago Mergozzo, Italy

Camping Continental in Lake Mergozzo, Italy

We just got back from an Easter camping trip that brought us to campsites in Switzerland and Italy.

I have loads of laundry so I would post more stories and photos later!

Our First Caravan Trip: Campingplatz Kleinenzhof in Schwarzwald (Black Forest)

To try-out all the functions of our new caravan, we've decided to drive to Campingplatz Kleinenzhof in Schwarzwald (Black Forest) one weekend.

The main function of the drive to the camping area is to check if everything is working properly-- the toilet and shower, the electric switches and plugs, the gas cyclinder, the lights, the ref, the burner oven and the tap. We also wanted to make sure that the grill oven we bought would be grilling and the awning would have all the parts to be installed properly. What else? We wanted to know if we could have missed something that we would surely need during long trips.

We were lucky that we chose a sunny weekend, although it was real cold at night. That's an excuse to check if the heater is working!

Most important, I wanted to know how my husband would handle driving a caravan. I want to be assured that everything would be safe.

That's the reason why we ended up at Camping Kleinenzhof in Schwarzwald (Black Forest), and I supposed, it was a lucky choice, too.

Camping Kleinenzhof is a clear choice because they accept dogs (a number one in our checklist); and because they have an indoor pool (a number one in our girls' checklist), plus an outdoor pool for spring/summer use, too. Also, because they are open all-year round. Other camping areas in Germany are still closed at this time of the year.

Here are some photos of Camping Kleinenzhof.

Dog Therapy: Our bestfriends can heal us, too!

Every time I see images and videos of heartwarming stories about people being saved, helped or assisted by their therapy dogs, it always makes me feel good.

And because we have a very friendly three-year-old Golden Retriever, Rikki, we had always played around with the idea of turning our dog into a therapy dog.

You see, it is already a sort of a therapy just having our dog around. It was the thought of having another dog that healed my family’s great sadness after having had to leave our very first dog in the Philippines when we moved back to Germany.

My two young daughters ‘suffered’ badly. They missed our first dog so much, one cried herself to sleep almost every night while hugging a look-alike stuffed dog.

My other daughter embraced her longing for the dog in silence. We would find her sleeping surrounded mostly by her assortment of doggie stuffed toys. She has collected more than a dozen of them and called them all the same ‘Candy.’ The name of the dog we had to leave behind.

Read more here.

DIY: From Old Jeans Into a Pet Bed

My husband told me Rikki needs a soft and comfortable bed which we could leave in our car's trunk when.

I already made one using an old bathrobe, but it was too thick for the trunk's space. Then came the idea of creating a pet bed from the ever reliable old jeans.

What did I use to make the bed as soft and comfortable, as per my husband's requirements? Check it out:

Rikki's jeans bed

A Saturday with IC and Rikki

IC is not really into hiking in the woods. She loves the outdoors but it would need time (and some treats) to convince her to go with us for long walks. But last Saturday, she was eager to go for a walk. In fact, she was the one who urged me to join her for a walk.

Well, why not? We geared up for the not so nice weather (it has been raining on and off for days) and took Rikki with us. It turned out, IC has a specific goal for her adventure into the woods. Let me show you....

After reaching the curve that would bring us into the woods, IC immediately disappeared.

Rikki just discovered that IC has disappeared from her view

DIY: From a Bathrobe into a Dog Bed

Rikki, our 2-year-old golden retriever needs a new bed. I have been searching the internet for DIY suggestions and I finally found something that I could work on: this.

I used an old bathrobe, and to make the bed more stable and softer, I added an old winter coat. I was done after 30 minutes!

Pet bed from an old bathrobe

Materials needed:
- an old bathrobe
- old winter clothes, socks, stockings or rags for stuffings
- a large enough needle
- thread
- a pair of scissors

Preparing to Turn Our Pet into a Therapy Dog

We have been playing with the idea of training Rikki as a therapy dog when we learned that her mother and older brother were both working therapy dogs. That was a few weeks after bringing her home in 2011.

Rikki, taking a break :-)

After which, we learned that her twin brother (I call him her twin brother because their mother had only two litters), was also adopted by a special child with special needs. Lennie (Rikki's twin)  is being trained as a therapy/companion dog, too.

We have not stopped contemplating about the idea. Actually, the whole family was keen on turning our pet into a therapy dog but when I talked to somebody knowledgeable, she recommended that we enjoy our time with Rikki first. So, we did!

The 5th Weinheimer Tiermesse (Animal Fair)

The 5th Weinheimer Tiermesse

Despite the dreary weather, for the love of our dog, Rikki, who needed a shampoo; we headed after breakfast last Sunday to visit the 5th Weinheimer Tiermesse (Animal Fair) which was held at the Gemeindehalle in Lützelsachsen this weekend.

Dogs everywhere :-)

This is our first time to visit this fair. After a wrong turn, we found the way, thanks to the many directional signs posted in the area.

Edward is Waiting for His First Love

Edward as a poster boy :-)

I am pretty sure once you meet Edward, this fur boy would be shy at first.

But once he'd get to know you, he would give you more than enough wet kisses to let you know how much he loves you.

Someone already showed interest to adopt Edward before.
Someone who even passed the form submission and visited and was supposed to come back. Unfortunately, that someone never did.
Edward is still waiting.
Edward's been waiting for more than a year and a half.
How would you feel if someone let you wait for that long?

Happy 2nd Birthday, Rikki!

The birthday dog

Mama, you know what, my friend said they don't celebrate the birthday of their dog. Why do we celebrate Rikki's birthday? That was IC during this morning's walk to school.

I told her we celebrate Rikki's birthday because it's fun. That simple.

Now IC wants to invite her friend's dog for Rikki's birthday party. Now, that would be chaos :-)

And now, she's two!

Not a puppy anymore.

That's Rikki on the day we have decided to bring her home.

Inside our car, going home.
A few weeks later, we had to sell the old car to buy a bigger one because Rikki  needed more space :)

Our Pet Displays Balance and Control

And I am proud to let you know that it is my nine-year-old IC who patiently taught Rikki this trick displaying balance and control.

Who would have thought IC and Rikki would both have the patience to actually make this trick a success?

I always tell the girls to make time to play, feed or practice some tricks with Rikki. Sometimes they have loads of excuses but when they do make time, we would see the result :-)

First with a slice of apple 

Then a piece of Turkish bread

Our Pet Trains as Rescue Dog

Who would have thought?

Our golden retriever, Rikki, passed the first hurdle to become a rescue dog! And I am grateful that a television crew was present during the try-outs, too.

First things first.

Here's the television program link.

I would have joined them, but the girls were sick the whole of last week and I was also not feeling well.

I had to prepare all the possible things they would need: a bottle of drinking water for my husband and for Rikki: enough treats, some of her favorite toys, and a bowl filled with water.

Before they left, I jokingly told Rikki to take some photos during the training :-)

What a pleasant surprise that when they got back home more than two hours later, my husband informed me that there's a camera crew during the training that night! Nope, he was not sure if their segment would air, but we could check it out the following day.

Of course, we spent the rest of the night asking them how they both survived the rescue training. We have so many questions, we could not even wait for the answers! Those answers we would also see later during the airing of the program.

Saturday Sledding

Snow, snow, snow, and more snow! Winter wants to stay.

The snow will remain, good thing the sun is shining, therefore, we enjoy!

Why not go sledding? We dragged the girls out to enjoy the snow, the fresh air, the cold, brrrr. And this time, we have a guest.

MC's classmate is staying with us for two nights because she and her mom are transfering to another house, it's the sad story of the couple splitting up. Anyway, we aim to have a good time, so off we go.

My husband and I decided that instead of driving to the mountains of Odenwald like we usually do, we'll hike to the nearest 'mountain' near our place.

Here they are dragging their sleds.

The girls had to carry or pull their sleds depending on the road condition. Of course, it's IC who complained first -- saying that we are walking too long, that she is hungry, that she cannot carry her sled anymore, etc. etc. (despite the fact that I was mostly pulling her while she was sitting comfortably on her sled all the way up!!!).

Our destination, at last!

Oh anyway, after 15 minutes of walking and pulling and dragging the sled (and complaining), we reached our destination. Remember that long, snowy hike last Saturday where we passed a group of people sledding? That's where we ended up at. We conquered the place!