We spent the weekend with Andy's parents in Temple, TX. It's a 45 minutes drive or so for us, so it's easy to get up there and hang out a bit, plus his folks live about 2 minutes away from this nice lake that people go to swim in and bring boats/jetskis/whatever. We also get to bring dogs there, so long as we keep them out of the designated swimming areas. So, we left Sidney at home napping because in his world, water is something you drink and it is otherwise to be avoided at all costs. But now that Belle has had the benefit of her little wading pool (see previous blogs), she is perfectly comfortable in the water; in fact she's a great swimmer. Hooray for little webbed Catahoula feet! Sid's a husky/wolf hybrid, and his feet are webbed too, for getting around in the snow supposedly, but Belle puts him to shame. She's got such webbing between her toes that you almost can't separate her middle ones.

Anyhow, while the subject of webbed doggy toes is fascinating, I thought I'd share a few of the cute pictures we took of both critters this past weekend:

Here's Belle playing in the water with her ball... particularly impressive as she's in about 3.5 feet of water there, so she's not standing on her hind legs. She's treading. And doing a damn fine job of it.

This one was just really cute... look out, it's Jaws!

This is what happens when she gets tired - she swims as fast as she can for mom or dad and then climbs onto our shoulder and hangs out for a bit. Notice she stills wants her ball... she would just prefer dad stick it in her mouth for her at this point.

Later on we head back to the in-laws' and Belle gets to be comfy on the couch.

... which she shares with Sidney.

This weekend we had a little issue with a very frightening cat. Andy's mom and dad have four of them, and Belle is VERY slowly learning that cats don't appreciate the puppy crouch-and-play stance, nor do they like being barked at and chased under furniture. This lesson is generally enforced with claws... you'd think she'd learn faster. There was a new cat in the house this week though, and it terrified Belle beyond reason. She growled and barked and wouldn't go near it until I sat down with her, held the kitty in my lap, and petted it to prove it was a nice kitty. After about 10 minutes or so, she calmed down enough to come give it a sniff, and then the kitty was allowed to stay in the house. Here's a picture of the world's scariest cat:

I know - hide your eyes. It's intimidating.