A Furever Family

Dear Essex & Deacon,

Thanks for talking to me and keeping my spirits up. I refused to be discouraged and decided follow Deacon’s advice and give another family a try. My family lives on Florida’s west coast to just to the east of Ft. Myers and I adopted them about three weeks ago. I feel grrrrreat about living with them and they are happy with me. I don’t know if I will ever be able to e-bark or write you, but I want to thank both of you for keeping your paws crossed for me.

Woofs and licks

Number 1 cousin

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Dear Number # 1 cousin,

Thanks for the update. We are dancing and celebrating that you have found your furever home. The pictures you gave to us of your growing up brought us a lot of joy. We decided we just had to make a special collies blessing picture just for you. We included puppy pictures of both of us in lower two corners. If you can stay in touch that would be pawsome, but we understand if can’t. You have a family to take care of, while we only have Dog Dad.

Dog Speed.

Essex & Deacon

Surprise Note

Dear Essex & Deacon,

Bet you never thought you would hear from me again. Your number one cousin has returned to Holmhaven. I decided to follow in Deacon's path and try out several homes. I'm having fun playing with the other young pups and surfing cyber-paw space trying to find a good home. You know one with a fenced yard to play in.

In the meanwhile, I having fun playing with the other Collies and barking with the other collies. Oh, Buddy and Ebony wanted me to bark at you.

Woofs and licks,

Number 1 Cousin

Number 1 Cousin - He sure grew

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Dearest Number 1 Cousin,

We are really surprised you returned to Holmhaven. While we are happy to hear from you, we sure hope you find your furever family. No need to follow Deacon's path. This was Deacon's third home and he came here when he was five months. We will say you sure are a pawsome looking Collie in your picture.

Let us know when you find your furever family Cousin. Tell Buddy (Deacon's dad, Essex's brother) and Ebony (Deacon's grand-mutter, Essex's mom) that we send them plenty of woofs, sniffs and licks.

Dog Speed,

Essex & Deacon

2008 Review

We wish all our cyber-paw pals a barky New Year. We hope 2009, the Year of the Ox is much better than 2008. We look forward to a pawsome 2009. For us 2008 was a star-crossed year. We went through some of life’s rough spots, but there was some good things too. Now the Key West Collies recap 2008.
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18 January – We head on an emergency road trip north to Ohio.
20 January – We play in the snow for the first time.

Essex the Snow Queen

21 January – Grand Maw crosses the rainbow bridge.
22 March – Great (Great) Uncle Bobby Crosses Rainbow Bridge.

Great (Great) Uncle Bobby

23 March – The Dog Hero of Santiago, Chile: An unknown dog pulls another dog from a highway after it was struck in traffic. We first see the story in December.
29 April – Sun Halo over Key West.
10 June – One Year Blog Anniversary.
26 June – A huge tree limb crashes down during big storm by Grand Paw’s House.
15 July – Our 100th Post.
2 July – Gomer and Opie start drive for Gemi’s surgery, which is a success.

Gemi

8 August – The beginning of the # 1 Cousin saga.

No 1 Cousin

13 August –Cash, a German Shepherd, is reunited with her hooman Mom and son. Cash guarded the skeletal remains with her Dog Dad for about six weeks.
18 AUG – Tropical Storm Fay passes over Key West and the Collies.
7 September – Hurricane Ike evacuation.
9 September – We meets Deacon’s previous family.

Deacon at his previous home.

10 September – German Shepherd dials 911 and saves his dog dad.
26 SEP –Hooman rescues his dog from the jaws of a shark.
27 OCT – No 1 Cousin not coming to Key West.
12 NOV – Oorvie crafts a Collie Clock for us.
15 NOV - Grand Paw admitted to the hospital.
30 DEC – No 1 Cousin tells us he found furever home.
31 DEC – We find out Grand Paw is getting worse. He won’t be to his house to live any time soon.
While it has been a tough year on us, we faced it as a pack and weathered the storms. No matter what happens, we look forward to 2009.

Dog Speed and may the Great Dane watch over you always,

Essex & Deacon

No 1 Cousin Update

We just got an update from our No. 1 cousin.

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Dear Essex & Deacon,

I just wanted to let you know that I found my furever family. It is a grrrreat family, I really love everyone. I have to admit, I am a bit scared to go outside though. I wish that I could have met you two, but things are what they are. This family is a full time job, so I doubt you will hear from me again.

Woofs and licks,

No. 1 cousin


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We sure are glad that No. 1 Cousin found his furever home. He hadn't barked at us since a couple days before Collieween, so we were wondering. He is a super sweet dog and hearing he found a furever home is the bestest Essexmas present of all.

Dog Speed,

Essex & Deacon

Blue Monday

It is a Blue Monday for us. A month ago we all excited about # 1 cousin coming to Key West. Then we were sad that he would not be coming to Key West because his family had to move. Today we found out that he will not be living with Dog Dad's friend. It turns out the place the family is moving to will not allow dogs over 30 pounds. A full grown male collie is normally around 60-75 pounds.

We feel like we know our # 1 cousin. We were looking forward to getting letters from him, like Uncle Bobby used to send us. We sure hope he finds a good home as Holmhaven Collies are real sweet hearts. Don't worry pals we will be okay. We just had to get this off our chests before we resume normal posting tomorrow.

Dog Speed

Essex & Deacon

# 1 cousin latest puppy picture.

Nuts

All we can say is "Nuts!"

Dog Dad came in after work yesterday and said “I have something to tell you both about #1 Cousin.” Tails started to wag.

“His Dog Dad got a new job and will be moving next week. His pack will be living in the Tampa Bay area near Cousin Howie. I doubt you will get to ever meet him.” Tails drooped.

We barked back. “Say it isn’t so Dad. We want to meet our cousin. Don't let it happen.”

“Guys, I’m sorry. I know you were looking forward to teaching him the Collie way.”

Essex barked “What about fence patrol?”

Deacon chimed in “Who's going to show him the best way to get a belly rub?”

“We need to move on guys. It just wasn’t meant to be. His pack is moving and he will join them after the move. You know he will have a great furever family; he just won’t be living in Key West.”

So as you can tell we are blue. We wish could have at least met our cousin. "Nuts, Nuts, Nuts, Nuts. "

Essex & Deacon

No. 1 Cousin

Wow, Booker and Reilly are good at sniffing thing out. It was indeed cousin number 1 in our August post, that is coming down to Key West. Did our cousin have a little birdie relay that information to you? We sure didn't know which one.

His family to be decided to visit Holmhaven last weekend. As they come in the yard to visit, he strolls up to them and says to them. "Hi, your my family. I think we will have a lot of fun together. " He played with their son and just had a good time with the visit. He sure must be excited about coming to Key West and his furever home.

He is making us guess about what his name be though. We've heard Harley, Jazz, Ranger and Spartan mentioned most often. We have heard a couple other names too. We will hopefully, find out this weekend and find out his name for sure.

Dog Speed and Tosca in '08,

Essex & Deacon

#1 Cousin with his hooman family

#1 Cousin just looking adorable

A Sigh of Relief

We are breathing a sigh of relief as Gustav will not be paying us a visit, but we are now watching Hanna. So Dad is still on edge. We are keeping our paws crossed and praying that every pup is safe. To those of you on the gulf coast keep an eye on Gustav. To those on the east coast please watch Hanna. We are looking forward to Dad's brudder, Stevie-grrr-Wonder arriving tonight to visit us this weekend. Hope he likes rain and a little wind.

Now for our ray of sunshine. In two to three weeks our cousin will be coming down to live with another family in Key West that is friends with our Dad. It will be good to have a relative in Key West, even if he isn't living with us. Best of all, it has been narrowed down to three pupsters and we have photos of the three. The pups are driving us nuts with this slow elimination game. They are woofing at us, "Essex and Deacon, guess which one." We are barking back "Just tell us. Inquiring Collies want to know."

Cousin 1

Cousin 2

Cousin 3

Have a happy and safe weekend.

Essex & Deacon

A Date with Fay

Our friend Tyler learned a very important lesson Monday.

Tyler’s Mom was playing with him and getting things ready for Tropical Storm Fay early Monday. As his Mom is getting things in the car one of the outer storm bands approaches. Tyler waits for the door to open and zooms out the door to his Mom’s surprise. She starts after him and calls his name, only to have her voice silenced by the wind and rain. She can’t see Tyler because of the rain. Tyler decides in his youthful exuberance to keep going in search of adventure. His Mom looks and calls to no avail. Tyler has decided to brave the elements and go on a date with Fay.

His Mom is upset, but knows she can only pray for Tyler’s safety. Tyler merrily romps around outside going farther from home. This rain and wind isn’t so tough, bring it on Fay he barks. So Tropical Storm Fay starts to rain harder, the wind gets stronger; and Tyler is alone and lost. Fortunately Fay was a short storm for us in Key West, lasting around seven hours and the winds not that bad here.

A dazed, tired, hungry, muddy and extremly stinky Tyler wanders into familiar area. It looks like home but nothing smells the same. Suddenly he hears voices and sees people. Tyler runs to meet the hoomans. They rinse him off with a hose and feed him pizza. Tyler greedily devours the pizza, crust, cheese and spicy tomato sauce. A friend of the people knows PJ and calls his Mom thinking it is him. PJ is home says his Mom, but she thinks of Tyler. She asks if the miniature schnauzer has a red collar. Yes says the lady. PJ Mom says I know the owner and will take him for the short while. She doesn’t have Tyler's Moms phone number though.

PJ and Tyler play and sleep together. PJ Mom removes several tics that decided to tag along during the date with Fay. Tyler pays for eating that spicy pizza. The next day Tyler is rejoined with his Mom.

Tyler is one lucky pup and must have had a dog-angel by his side. He is lucky that Fay was not longer and stronger like most other tropical storms. We did notice a slightly different Tyler at the park today. He tends to watch his hooman closer and not stray so far away. By the Great Dane, we believe he has learned a valuable lesson that we hope he remembers for a long long time. A wise dog once told us, dates with tropical storms and herricanes can be a fatal attraction!

Our paw-pal Tyler at Angel Paws today.

PS - Our cousin is now walking. Only five more weeks until Dad's friend can go pick him up. We did find out he is not the light colored one in the lower right. That one is the girl.

Five more weeks and we can't wait.

Dog Speed,

Essex & Deacon

8-O-8-O-8

We could not resist this title. It is the eighth day of the eighth month of 2008.

Imagine this, it is 2 AM Tuesday morning Aunt and Nephew decide it is play time. Time to run around, play growl, bit legs and clash teeth. Imagine doing it in a really, really dark room. Add in that Dog Dad is sound asleep. Well, we did that last Tuesday. The next thing we heard was a loud, low growl. We are not sure if it was a giant Kodiak bear or Dog Dad. We immediately went silent and tippy pawed out of that room. We swear you could have heard a flee jump a nano-second after that growl.

Great Uncle Bobby’s Mom e-barked us and told us how proud she is of us and that Bobby’s Wheels were donated to Kansas State University. His Dog Mom remarked how Deacon could have been Bobby's twin. Looking at the two photographs of Bobby taken in May 2005, we agree. She even stated that Bobby and Mac would even fall asleep at times belly up just like us. We do love it when Bobby's parents e-bark, they are part of our extended family now.

Late Great (Great) Uncle Bobby

Doesn't he look like Deacon's Twin?

Bobby sleeping on the job.

Bobby's best pal Mac

We miss Uncle Bobby but we are looking forward to our cousin coming to Key West. This picture was taken yesterday. So he is 24 days old in the photo. As you can tell, he is doing well, though none of our cousins look like Collies yet. There are four boys and one girl in the litter. We can’t even figure which one is the girl in the photo. Well, one of the five is coming to Key West to live with Dad’s friend. They just aren’t telling us which one. By the Great Dane, we wish one of them would spill the water bowl.

Cousins, which of you are coming to Key West?

Essex & Deacon