2012: The Year in Review

Let's get this party started!

Tomorrow this blog turns two years old....I can hardly believe it. I'm no longer sure of what my original intentions where with starting it but it has for all intensive purposes taken on a life of its own. This blog has brought me closer to dog lovers (especially GSP ones) and hunters and photographers from all over the world. It has also blessed me with a cathartic platform to expose the shenanigans we experience daily in our lives. I can only imagine that the reason Cleo and Luna's following has grown so much is because so many of you awesome readers have experienced or can relate to some of their ridiculous antics. So like last year I'd like to do a quick recap of 2012 and share how far the blog and facebook page has come over the last 12 months.

Nobelles Dances in the Moonlight - Call name Luna

The biggest single event to effect our daily lives in 2012 was the addition of our sweet Luna Lu. She entered this world on February, 15th 2012 and officially joined our family around Easter. She has lovingly completed our pack while managing to continuously raise the bar of destruction in our home. She's eaten my underwear, expensive high heels, managed to get stuck under the deck, destroyed my favorite jade plant, ran off with at least three welcome mats and chewed off every corner of my dining room rug. She has also proved to be an impressive hunter. At 6 months of age she passed her NAVHDA NA test with a perfect score and by 10 months old has hunted pheasants, chuckars, quail, woodcock and gone goose hunting.  Getting a second GSP was the best thing we ever did for us and for Cleo.

Look!!! The Elusive Easter Pointer brought us a puppy!! Best Easter EVER!

I made a few changes to the blog this year and added additional pages on us, our dogs, and super cool links. The links page has a plethora of cool info and links to like minded individuals blogs, cool forums, facebook groups, hunting dog photography sites (not just mine), rescues and a responsible GSP breeders listing. If you have never checked it out you should take a second and look through it.

In 2012 this blog has been visited more than 25,000 times. We had visits from all over the world including the following places (in no specific order): The Unites States, Canada, UK, Russia, Germany, France, South Africa, Ukraine, Thailand, Philippines, Turkey, Romania, Pakistan, Norway, Australia, Singapore, Bulgaria, and Chile. People find us all kinds of ways but the following sites send quite a bit of traffic our way: Google, Bing, Yahoo, Upland Journal, Gun Dog Forum, Hunting PA, Birdhunter, Versatile Dogs, Pinterest, and of course Facebook. In the last year our facebook page called Adventures of a German Shorthaired Pointer has grown from less than 100 followers to over 330. The facebook page has been a blast and I love the immediate interaction it gives me with all you awesome readers. Especially when I get all liquored up and dress the dog in snorkel gear. Good times people.

Poor choices?? I think not!

Out of the 42 blog posts written this year some of the posts that got the most traffic are:

My new logo!
Raising the Bar of Badness
Life with German Shorthaired Pointers: Part 1 (Part 2 coming in 2013)
The Anatomy of Digging a Damn Good Hole in Daddy's Yard
The GSP Puppy Chronicles: Kicking Mischief up a Notch
Surviving Sandy
Rise and Shine and a Little Hunting Banter
Sweet Potato Dog Treats
Dog Cave!
NAVHDA Natural Ability and Utility Test Results
The Puppy Chronicles: 12 Weeks Old and Looking for Trouble

Don't party to hard tonight Cleo....just saying.

It's amazing in hindsight how fast a year flies by. Every New Years Eve leaves me looking forward to and wondering what the next 365 days will bring. 2012 was a good year for us and I'm hoping 2013 brings us good things too. Life is too short to hope for anything less. Tomorrow Jim and I will take Cleo hunting....which is our New Year's Day tradition. I mean what celebrates a New Year better than loud shot gun blasts when hungover!?!  I hope everyone stays safe tonight and enjoys themselves. Jim, Cleo, Luna and myself thank you for following our adventures and wish each of you a healthy and prosperous new year.

Rise and Shine and a little Hunting Banter

Both Cleo and Luna sleep in bed with Jim and I. This was something I adamantly fought when we first brought Cleo home but then I quickly became the biggest offender. Things only got worst once baby Luna joined our pack. Although both dogs excel at hogging covers and taking up as much space as possible they are quite different when it comes to waking up in the morning.

Mommy's little love bug

How Cleo wakes you up: If she wakes up before Jim or I she gradually starts to army crawl up the bed. When she finally reaches you she touches you with her paws and curls them back to her like she's trying to hold you. If your smart you hold out and pretend you don't notice this and eventually she worms her way up and rests her spotted dog face on your neck and nuzzles in. It's rather heavenly actually. In fact, she did this very thing to me this morning. We embraced and I sung to the Folgers coffee theme song, "The best part of waking up is Cleo in the morning." As my sister in law Becker says...why talk when you can sing?

How Luna wakes you up: Instead of quietly stirring she kicks around like a toddler having a tantrum and sighs heavily over and over again. It's almost like she's annoyed your not awake yet.  After about 30 fidgety blows she stretches, flaps her ears and yawns so loud that she might as well be howling. Then she storms across the bed like Godzilla taking Tokyo, kicks you in the lip with her dog talons drawing blood and then immediately drops a dog saliva soaked stuffed fox on your face. Well good morning Luna. After standing triumphantly with one paw jammed into your chest she flops down unapologetically and begins to speak Klingon to Cleo and chews on her ears. Within minutes a canine brazilian jiu-jitsu match breaks out on top of you and your expeditiously forced to retreat to the safety of the bathroom to save yourself from being trampled to death. Fun stuff. All before morning coffee. (Which is hilarious as I hate coffee but couldn't say "All before my morning earl grey tea" as it makes me sound like a flippin pansy).

Someone looks awfully innocent when sleeping huh? Till she jabs you in your sleeping face.

Anyway the past week has been quiet in our house as we basically tried to recuperate from four days of liver injuring Thanksgiving festivities. Luna did destroy by favorite Victoria's Secret cheetah bra and somehow found and ate a Frisbee I didn't even know we owned. We also managed to hunt almost everyday over the holiday and we had our first experience with goose hunting!  

6 dog Thanksgiving morning hunt. This pic includes Cleo and Luna, one of their older sisters Grace, a middle sister Maggie, their father Max and Blackthorn's Bonnie! From left to right: Cleo (3), Bonnie (16 months), Luna (9 months), Max (8), Maggie (2) and Grace (4).

Cleo rocking the intensity while on point

Little Luna Lu with a very nice retrieve

The goose hunting was a blast. Bob Gelder invited us to his spot in New Jersey and we spent half a day camped out in his blind with Cleo, Luna, Bonnie and Bob's friend Marty. At first the dogs were a little confused at the goose calling and having to sit in the blind but they quickly caught on that after all the shooting you get to retrieve gigantic birds. Epic win!

Cleo in the decoy field

My view from the blind

Cleared for Landing!

At first Cleo wasn't sure what to make of the Geese but by the end of the day she was lugging them back to the blind. Baby Luna on the other hand (who is not forced fetched) didn't quite build up the confidence to pick them up and bring them back. She did however run excited laps around them barking. It was in all honesty very funny and cute. By dusk it is was quitting time and after having spent three hours pheasant hunting in the morning and 4 hours goose hunting in the afternoon 9 month old Luna climbed into my lap in the blind and leaned into me as if saying I think I need a nap mom. We left excited knowing we found another new addiction.

Cleo lugging the goose in

Luna and Bonnie wishing Bob would give the goose back

Bonnie G with an awesome retrieve

I think the next thing on Jim's list is some duck hunting. Anyway check us out and follow our shenanigans on facebook at: Adventures of a German Shorthaired Pointer.

On the Hunt for Everything

If your a regular reader of this blog your aware that Luna, our 9 month old GSP is quite the hunter both in and out of the field. She manages to find, dig up and kill about 5 moles a week. She now undergoes mouth checks at the door as she has learned to stuff them whole in her mouth and like a drug mule sneak them into the house where she deposits them in fun places like the sofa.

What's that Jim? Oh just a dead mole carcass smushed in the rug. Sweet.  

Between Cleo and Luna very little shocks us anymore. I'm used to seeing them foam at the mouth from trying to eat frogs, I've seen them rip groundhogs out of holes and throw them through the air and its commonplace to find them perched on the back of the sofa like mountain goats so they can get a better view of the bird feeder.  But Lu shocked both of us this past week when she killed and then brought Jim a snake. Which is rather fitting since he absolutely hates snakes more than any other creature in the world. One time I saw Jim jump five feet in the air and scream like a school girl when we encountered a 6 foot black snake in a training field. I'm laughing like hell just thinking about it now. But thank god the snake she killed was a harmless garter snake. 

The falls hottest fashion. Screw scarves....we've got serpents. 

And since were on the topic of Luna(tic) raising the bar she managed to lock me out of the house this weekend. In her excitement of watching me chase the neighbors German Shepard out of the yard she pulled the lever on the back sliding door down and into locked position. Then they just calmly sat there and stared at me while I tried to figure how to get back in. Flippin Jerks.

They look so peaceful. Sheep's in wolves clothing people. Sheep's in wolves clothing. 

We did however manage to get them out on the things that they are supposed to be hunting....birds! Bob G invited us to NJ to hunt at his gun club yesterday. We ran Cleo and Luna with their father Maximus and Bob's other GSP Bonnie. It was a blast watching the dogs hunt and back each other.

 Cleo and Luna's dad Maximus on point

Bonnie backing Max on point

Maximus backing his daughter Cleo

Little Lu did great! 

Bonnie on point!

We have a few hunts planned over the Thanksgiving weekend so be sure to check back and see how we fair and follow our shenanigans on facebook: Adventures of a German Shorthaired Pointer. 

Surviving Sandy

A very large tree snapped in half

So Hurricane Sandy has come and gone. She has left in her wake an enormous amount of destruction not unlike our little Luna Lu. In fact, I now realize that her ill behavior over last several months has been nothing short of character building and training for dealing with this storm. Our neighborhood took an absolute ass kicking and their have been rumors that it may be 2 or 3 weeks till we have electricity again. Without power we are left with no running water, flush able toilets, means to shower or heat the house. It's starting to look like I should have bought more wine. With all that said it could have been much worse for us. Aside from a loss of much missed amenities we got through with practically zero damage to our home and property.

Look in the back and you see some of the wires down in our neighborhood...which the electric company has yet to even come look at

The hurricane had little effect on the dogs. It sure as hell didn't stop Hurricane Luna(cifer) from eating another one of my hats. I only had this one for approximately 30 hours. It was in fact a replacement hat to one she ate a couple of months back. That's 3 hats destroyed in 2 weeks. She is for all intensive purposes excelling at being a jerk. Her and Cleo also managed to knock over my end table during a wrestling match decimating my $400 Tiffany lamp. Pretty sure the dogs caused more damage in the house than Sandy did outside.

Thunderdome Sandy....two dogs enter...one dog leaves.

So for the most part the dogs slept through the hurricane. They had no issues going to the bathroom in all the craziness and in fact I'm pretty sure Luna appreciated the never ending rain as is gave her lots of mud to dig in. I however, learned a few really important life lessons from this storm. For your benefit I have listed them below.



#1. It's perfectly acceptable to start drinking bourbon rather early in the day even if its in the middle of week as hurricanes and nor'easters mess up the space time continuum.

#2. Taking pictures of your hunting dogs in snorkel gear and then facilitating their virality on the web results in threats from your boyfriend to turn you into PETA.

#3. I am so much better at gin rummy than Jim.

#4. My dogs are ridiculously brave as they fearlessly crapped in the middle of the storm in 80 mph winds. Pretty sure as soon as the doo left their butts it was sent spiraling to the next county or at least my immediate neighbors property. Were not in Pennsyltuckey anymore folks.

#5. After a bottle of wine, Jim in his rain gear looks eerily like a cross between hook man and Captain Stubing.

#6. Marathons of the Walking Dead and Revolution shouldn't be played on a continuous loop before impending natural disasters as it only fuels my already overactive imagination and forces me to constantly remind Jim that if the power is not back on within five days we can legally steal the neighbors sheep and cows as it will be every man for himself. He adamantly disagrees with my cow stealing sentiment but he still has no problem using the "end of days" defense as his reasoning for buying 2 shotguns and not a generator the day before the storm. And for that I remind you Jimbo, you CANNOT play both sides of the fence!

Tree down at Casa Momma's

So here we are going on five days without power. It gets cold at night with no heat but lucky for us Cleo and Luna are the worlds best snugglers. They seem to know things are a little wacky but have somehow made it their prerogative to keep destroying my stuff and such keeping us sane. I'll leave you with a couple of pics from Halloween. Cleo was a Queen Bee and Luna was a Frog. I didn't get any good pics of Luna in her frog getup as she hated it and just kept running to the camera. I thought if I let Cleo out with her she would encourage her to range out. Instead, she shot out the door like she was fired from a cannon and began depantsing her. Flippin hilarious. Anyway...check us out and show us some love on facebook at: Adventures of a German Shorthaired Pointer.

Queen Sassafras Face

Ohhh....I smell an ass kicking

I'll be taking those Frog Face

Success!!!

Batten down the hatches...GSP Style.

Cleo at Mill Pond Daycare last year during a rain storm

So here we are in Bucks County, Pennsylvania patiently waiting for "The Almighty Frankenstorm" to bare down upon us in the next 24 hours. The national news has done a great job of hyping this thing up beyond belief. But who knows....hell may actually be coming for us or it could end up being absolutely nothing. This time last year we got hit by a pretty intense storm leaving us with no electric for five long days. We have well water which means when theres no electric theres no water, no showers and no working toilets. You get creative real quick. Just incase, I stocked up on some items while Jim was at work yesterday. He called me on his way home and this was our phone conversation:

Me: Hey Baby, I just bought some extra cases of water and batteries at B.J.'s incase this storm is as bad as they say.
Jim: I just bought two shotguns.
Me: Uh huh.....Ok. Well you do realize its not the Zombie Apocalyse right?? It's just gonna be some rain.

I think it's high time to cut back on how much Jim gets to watch the Walking Dead. We did make sure to get the essentials tho: Bourbon, a case of wine, copious amounts of Bailey's Irish Cream, Crown Royal, marrow bones, plush dog toys, pig ears and I made homemade jerky and pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. Were all set!!

Getting all National Geographic....

I'm pretty sure most people in this area are super concerned about flooding and downed wires. I'm seriously most worried about how am I going to get Cleo and Luna to $hit outside during a hurricane.  Regardless, I'm sure this will be a learning experience. The whole scenario makes me think of the story called The Man on the Roof. It's rewritten below for those who are unfamiliar with it:

"A fellow was stuck on his rooftop in a flood. He was praying to God for help.

Soon a man in a rowboat came by and the fellow shouted to the man on the roof, "Jump in, I can save you."

The stranded fellow shouted back, "No, it's OK, I'm praying to God and he is going to save me."

So the rowboat went on.

Then a motorboat came by. "The fellow in the motorboat shouted, "Jump in, I can save you."

To this the stranded man said, "No thanks, I'm praying to God and he is going to save me. I have faith."

So the motorboat went on.

Then a helicopter came by and the pilot shouted down, "Grab this rope and I will lift you to safety."

To this the stranded man again replied, "No thanks, I'm praying to God and he is going to save me. I have faith."

So the helicopter reluctantly flew away.

Soon the water rose above the rooftop and the man drowned. He went to Heaven. He finally got his chance to discuss this whole situation with God, at which point he exclaimed, "I had faith in you but you didn't save me, you let me drown. I don't understand why!"

To this God replied, "I sent you a rowboat and a motorboat and a helicopter, what more did you expect?"

Hmmmmmm......I Smell birdies!

Any hoo....my whole point is maybe what god has done for us is send two insane GSP's. It wouldn't be the first time this week they saved us. Seriously. Get a load of this. Thursday night Jim and I head to bed late...around midnight. At 2:30am Cleo gets up, which is not the norm, and she begins to pace  around the bed, scratch at the bedroom door and whine. Jim and I each do a fantastic job of pretending we are both asleep in hopes that other has to deal with the situation. I totally win by the way because he caves first and commands Cleo to get back in bed. She listens....sort of. She climbs into bed but just sits and incessantly paws at him. He finally, in fit of pure pissedoffness (I totally just created a new word there) gets up, gets dressed and opens the bedroom door to take them outside. But guess what!?! The wood insert had backed up and filled the house with smoke so thick you couldn't even breath.  I have no idea why the smoke alarms didn't go off but hell have no fury Cleo wasn't going to let us sleep through it. We did however let the dogs go outside while we tried to air the house out and sticking with typical form they trotted off to the dark edges of the yard to hunt rabbits knowing their work had been done. So my point is if this storm is as bad as they say....we might just be canoeing to higher ground (drunk) following the dogs lead. When in doubt...god has sent spotted messengers. These GSP's are so damn smart. Check back to see how we fair. :)

Like us and Follow us on facebook: Adventures of a German Shorthaired Pointer.

Hell Puppy Update!

The Internet says that German Shorthaired Pointers are descended from the German Bird Dog which comes from the Spanish Pointer mixed in with some other breeds along the way. I can't be certain but I'm pretty sure GSP's are in fact a potent combination of lightening, the common house robber, a sly fox, a velociraptor, a woodchuck, tornado's and a vacuum cleaner. These cosmic forces clearly banded together and created my dogs.  I'm actually going to start referring to our pack as the Apocalypse pack because lets face it, their lawless, they can over take people like a swarm of locusts, and they often plague me with their flippin antics. Which brings me to hell puppy and Cleo's most recent escapades.

Well, what's that in your mouth Luna?? The cat food plate from off the counter? Shocking.

Well it was bound to happen. Luna Lu has been out of her crate full time now for about 6 weeks. Or should I say WAS. It took about a month but she finally started pushing my buttons when left alone. Cleo showed her how to flail herself around and jump up onto the counter to steal the cat food. Cleo is a professional at this so I know at least Luna Lu has learned proper form. She also began destroying and shredding any toilet paper she could get her paws on.

What the hell is this!?!? Let's just fight in the middle of our mess and maybe...just maybe Mom won't notice. Clearly a well learned Cleo diversion tactic.

And this time Luna drug Jimbo's brand new shoes into the action. The more chewed up one is conveniently stuffed under the couch so you have to search for it like an Easter egg because that's not annoying.

But the straw that broke the camel's back and brought out the fire and brimstone was coming home to find 3 corners of my oriental rug in my dining room uncharacteristically flipped up. Why were the corners flipped up you might ask? Because Lu(na)cifer chewed the tips of them off. Jerk. So Luna got herself a one way ticket back to her crate when left alone. I actually think it's been harder on Cleo. Whenever I put Luna in her crate Cleo gives me this hateful stare like I just burned her velveteen rabbit in the yard. Whatever. Your snuggle pal wouldn't be incarcerated if she didn't eat my things!!!

Although it could have been WAY worse my carpet looks all stupid and flea bitten.  

On a lighter note Luna's mole hunting has been in full gear. I've never seen a dog so motivated to dig up moles and kill them. She averages at least one a day.  She has also gotten really good at stuffing them whole into her mouth. Imagine my surprise when she nonchalantly spit one out on the couch cushion the other day.

WTF Luna!!! Really?

Where do we find those moles? Halfway to China of course.

I totally can't wait for Jim to get the riding mower tire caught in that hole. That may make the best blog post ever. Be sure to check us out and like us on facebook: Adventures of a German Shorthaired Pointer.

Raising the Bar of Badness

Luna is 7 months old now. I can hardly believe it! What is almost as amazing as her age milestone is the unparalleled path of destruction she has managed to leave in her wake. Just when I think she is about to even keel on the havoc she kicks the devastation up a notch. Take her stunt this Saturday when she yet again raised the bar.

Allow me to set the stage. It was a beautiful, quintessential fall morning. A tad bit crisp but lovely nonetheless. I had been sitting outside barefoot, drinking hot tea on the deck, listening to my favorite Simon and Garfunkel Pandora channel watching the pointer sisters roll each other through bushes and hunt moles. Minus the tag team dog wrestling it was a pretty relaxing start to the day. The phone rang so I stepped inside for 5 minutes. FIVE FRIGGIN MINUTES people and returned to find the following, which isn't all that bad considering and its a rather typical offense for Ms. Luna Lu.

This was the replacement mat to the last one she destroyed and ran away with. I'm about to power drill the next one to the deck. I'm not loosing this battle. Ohhhh no.

The day I came out and the old mat was finally no more.

As an aside it would have been bitchin if I said MARCO and the mat said POLO.

Things are always so much cooler in my head. 

I'd also like to point out she pooped on the front welcome mat one time in a rainstorm. Cause I guess she thought crapping on the front porch was a suitable alternative to fertilizing the lawn. I have no idea what her issue is other than she must be spawned from Satan. But I digress. Anyway, after gathering up my mat remnants and disposing of them in the trash I gave her the stink eye and went inside to use the bathroom and wash my hands. FIVE FRIGGIN MINUTES later I come back and can't find her. Meanwhile Cleo is sound asleep in a sunbeam.

So I start to call her. No response. I run around the house and don't see her. I call her again and nothing. I go out to the wood pile and then I hear it. High pitched dog squealing which if your anything like me it strikes fear into my heart. I ran back to the house in a panic. I run up on the deck just to hear it again. It's coming from below my feet. Oh yea....imagine that. Some jerk puppy has managed to climb 20 feet under the deck to the farthest spot from the opening and is now stuck. And I don't mean like she'll come out when she's ready....like she's stuck stuck. Like she needs assistance.

Bet I'd be a kick ass spelunker....just sayin

Forty minutes and two panicked phone calls later I'm flash light in hand crawling under the deck to retrieve Luna(tic). Luckily for me and you for picture sake, my sister in-law Rebecca just happened to be driving by the exit for my town and came over for what I thought was support in case I got stuck during the rescue. But in reality it turned into well deserved heckling and picturing taking. Thankfully I find the humor in and actually respect being kicked while down. I would have done the same for her. It took three tries but on the final entry I managed to ignore the thoughts of all the snakes that I've seen retreat under the deck, all the cobwebs that were in my face and hair and the fact that it was such a tight squeeze at times I had no idea if I could get back out. Good thing I'm not overly claustrophobic. But I eventually reached her, unhooked her, slid her on her side and slowly shimmied out while dragging her 50 pound frame out by her front legs.

The best way to achieve an authentic 80's hair style?? Crawl under a deck.

I'd like to point out that halfway back she could have easily army crawled with me but actually preferred being drug. Why? Cause she's a jerk. Upon exiting the deck she dove onto and knocked my sister in-law down and the proceeded to zoom around the yard in victory laps. Thirty seconds after being freed it was like nothing ever happened to her and I stumbled into the house to find some advil (that's a lie...it was totally wine). Moral of the story?? Buy a house cat, or a guinea pig or get a gold fish named Sally Swims Alot since these creatures don't care a friggin thing about killing moles under the deck.

Follow us on facebook for more shenanigans: Adventures of a German Shorthaired Pointer.