London Calling

We're less than a week from out trip to London. The purpose of our trip is to visit Becky's Northwest College (now University) friend Gordon, pictured here with Willow. He came to our wedding all the way from London so we are going to his.

We leave Friday and Return the following Sunday. We will also be seeing our Friend Kavita, an adorable and always smiling Briton of Indian ancestory. 3 nights in Edinburg are on the agenda as well. Also of coincidence is the London Balboa Festival that will be taking place the last 2 nights we are there.

In our absence we will be entrusting our babies to a dancer friend named Kim. She loves dogs, so hopefully the week will not jade her. Becky will be providing detailed, and I mean detailed, instructions. She is a teacher and marathon runner in training, so hopefully Willow's middle-of-the-night alarm will not effect her to much. We have warned her about runny-poopy butts, so hopefully she will be able deal with that as well.

(side note: Willow just made me take her out in the rain to go potty. What a long way she has come)

By the way, if you haven't tried it out you should download Google's photo software, Picassa, link at top right. It's abolutely free. We've been using it to make albums of the girls and the rest of our lives. It's pretty cool stuff.

Why Willow Barks...

Willow is a barker. Jewel Barks when her ball is stuck, but Willow barks. She barks when she is being demanding, if we have ignored her chicken clucks. She barks when she see's other dogs. At night, out of the blue she goes to the patio and barks. Sometimes, she works her self into a state where she can't stop barking. Most distressingly is in the middle of the night, when she hears someone enter the building (we are talking after midnight when we are sound asleep), she starts barking loudly and runs out of the bedroom to the front door.

Turns out they were bred this way. From Wikipedia....
"The Shih Tzu was bred to sit around the palace of the Emperor of China and bark when people or animals approached. It is believed that this ornamental breed was created by breeding the Bei-jing gou (Pekingese) with a Tibetan dog breed, the Lhasa Apso. Recent DNA analysis confirms that this is one of the oldest breeds of dog. The Shih Tzu is also known as the Chinese Lion Dog or the Chrysanthemum Dog"