Roman & Lucy Turn Seven

 

For those who do not know, Roman and Lucy are siblings whose birthday is April 18, 2007. This year they are seven (the official year of the adult dog) but still youngsters compared to Uncle Riley.

Roman celebrated at home with a party hat and birthday scarf. I'm not sure if he got any presents.

We happened to be dogsitting Lucy so Peter and Kendall left her a gift bag with specific instructions to open on April 18. She was very patient.

Until she wasn't. Lucy loves to see what is inside a bag.

It took her about five minutes to destroy her first toy.

Luckily her second toy was indestructible.

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Roman

 

I haven't done an update on Roman (Marina calls him Mo-man)

in a long time, so here he is at five years old.

We are watching him this week while Katherine and Josh are on vacation.

He just returned from the spa, so he looks quite clean and tidy. He also looks like a big teddy bear.

But don't let him fool you. He can be quite protective. Just ask Carolyn.

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Double the Trouble

To help out Katherine and Josh while they adjust to having Marina around, I brought Roman to our house for a couple of weeks. To give him a change of scenery, Peter and Kendall thought he'd like to sleepover with Lucy this weekend. These two have always been cute together, but now that they are a little older, they wrestle less and adventure more. Kendall sent me this photo of them looking out the window together while she was folding laundry in the upstairs bedroom.

I know which one is which from the back, but can you tell?

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Roman and Lucy are Three!

It's been a tradition for Roman and Lucy (brother and sister) to get together on their birthday (April 18) to celebrate.

Roman and Lucy - age 1

But this year, Stay at Home Orders in both Ohio and Indiana prevented them from having a party.

Lucy was sad that she could be with her brother, so she made a phone call to sing Happy Birthday. Below are two videos. The first one is Lucy singing Happy Birthday to Roman and the second one is Roman listening to her.

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The Puppies are Two!

Lucy

Roman

Could not be cuter than this!

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The Grand Pets

"Want to play?"

While Katherine and Josh have been enjoying the beautiful scenery in New Zealand, I have been enjoying spending time with two of my grand pets - Roman and Penny. This is what I imagine they are thinking.

"Mind if I clip my nails right here on the dining table?"

"That was stressful!" (just from the groomer)

"Thank you for taking the lint roller out of the basket so it doesn't stick to my butt."

"I think I'm going to call it a day."

"Roman can't get me up here!"

"My mom's going to kill me when she sees this picture."

"I like the sound it makes when you turn the pages."

"I learned this from Riley."

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They All Fall Down

Roman and Lucy had a great time playing with each other here last weekend. When Lucy tired of Roman and decided to curl up and chew on a toy, Roman would intentionally roll onto his back to get her to come after him.

She fell for it every time.

A little rolling around would eventually end up in this kind of situation. And they kept bumping the table where our Nativity set was displayed.

This is what it looked like when they were done.

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Puppy Update

I thought it was time for a puppy update. The photos of Lucy are from July when she stayed with us for a week, and the photos of Roman are from this past weekend. They are both pretty much fully grown. Their personalities are very different, and I love them both.

Lucy has an independent spirit. She is her own woman. She likes to be by her humans, but she is content sleeping on the bed or curled up nearby.

 She can leap tall buildings without the least bit of effort.

Lucy is a gentle, sweetheart who loves nothing more than chasing a tennis ball all day long. She is polite with Riley. She leaves him alone and gives him turns with the tennis ball, which says a lot about her.

Sometimes we have to take the tennis ball away from her. That doesn't stop her from finding something else to chase. And she puts the ball or toy right where you are standing, sitting, or in your hand so you don't have to make any effort to get it! She's brilliant.

Lucy can't be trusted outside without a leash (at least with me). She adores wide open spaces and she will run like the wind if she gets the chance.

Roman is best described as a bull in a china shop. He's not yet completely aware of his body, and he can knock you down if you aren't careful. He is hyper-aware of his surroundings, and when he hears a foreign noise, his eyes widen and his ears perk up before he dashes off to see what it is.

Roman likes to cuddle and he doesn't like it when Katherine is not in his line of sight. He knows Riley is king around our house, but that doesn't stop him from trying to dethrone him.

When Katherine is not there, Roman doesn't mind climbing up into my lap to take a nap -no prompting on my part. He looks like a huge wooly-bear caterpillar in this photo.

I think he learned this trick from Riley.

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When Roman Comes to Town

Photo: Liz Husk

There's never a dull moment when Roman comes to town! He has boundless energy, and he will knock you flat on your back if you aren't paying attention. His philosophy is - why take one step at a time when you can take five? He's also a big cuddle bear.

It's going to take Riley a few days to recover from this Roman weekend. 

Riley's toys may never recover.

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Roman Holiday

Roman enjoyed a vacation at our house for 10 days while Katherine & Josh were in Colombia.

He adopted me as his mother and always wanted to be as close to me as possible. Obviously, this did not go over well with Riley.

Roman entertained himself by rearranging the rugs in our kitchen.

And by making the door stopper in the bathroom go "boing."

By 8:30 each night, he was all worn out.

He was pretty happy when his family returned!

Riley was pretty happy when they packed him up in the car.

So long little buddy!

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Puppy Update

 It was a big week for the dogs.

 Roman got to go camping last weekend! According to Katherine, he was a very good boy. He protected his family and slept in the tent without his crate.

So handsome!

Lucy learned how to catch a flying frisbee in mid-air!

She's so pretty!

 Riley fell asleep with a ball on his head. 

He's so silly.

And Heidi made a Newfoundland friend.

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