WATCHING SCOTTIES GROW......

When September 1st rolls around,

a lot of people start planning for the holidays,
our Mom starts dreaming of puppies.

She starts feeding Lilly and Carrleigh
extra protein to help their bodies
get stronger in anticipation of
easy deliveries and strong puppies.

She knows we are all free
of VonWildebrands,
but she will make vet appointments
so that she can make sure
everyone is at their optimum health.

She checks us all out extra carefully,
to make sure there are no lumps and bumps
that shouldn't be there.
About 2 weeks before the puppies are due,
she will clean out her closet
and put the puppy box in it.

There is a special heated mat
that goes beneath the box,
that will help the puppies
to stay warm until their
thermostats start working
on their own.

When it gets close to time for
the puppies to come,
she stays at home with us.
She doesn't even go to church.
She shaves the girl's bellies
so that the puppies will
have easy access to their dindin.

Once the puppies come,
she doesn't leave them alone
until they are about 2 weeks old.Last year, when one of the puppies
was born, Mom couldn't get it to
empty it's mouth.
Our Dad helped her and then the puppy
started breathing on it's own.
She's not prepared to
loose a puppy,
but she is realistic
and knows that might happen sometime.
But it will break her heart.....

Each puppy is weighed
at the time it is born,
and then it is weighed
every evening for the
first three weeks.
After that,
then they are weighed weekly.
A Scottie puppy
weighs about 8 ounces when it is born
and will almost double it's weight
the first week of it's life.

At three days old,
the puppies go to the vet
to have their
dewclaws removed.

Every day each puppy is imprinted
by rubbing between it's little toes,
turning it on it's back
holding it upside down for 5 seconds
and
holding it right side up
against your heart.
Dad is always happy to
help with this!!When they are born,
their ears aren't up straight,
but as the weeks go,
they start to straighten up
and by the time they
are ready to go
to their forever homes,
their ears are standing straight.
And their tails
look like upside down carrots.
And they have to have them
trimmed for the rest of
their life to keep this pleasing shape.

They get advice
from their Dad.

And fight
with their littermates.

They learn the
most efficient way
to escape from their box.

And how to love
their brothers and sisters.

But most of allthey introduce us to the

nicest people
while we are doing the interviews
to place them in
their forever homes.

You can have your TV and your nightclubs
You can have your drive-in picture shows
I'll sit here with my little pup near, we'll listen to the radio
Bidin' my time and watching Scotties grow.

XOXO
Lilly, Piper, Carrleigh and Java

THE NAME GAME

Shirley!

Shirley, Shirley bo Birley
Bonana fanna fo Firley
Fee fy mo Mirley, Shirley!

Lincoln!
Lincoln, Lincoln bo Bincoln Bonana fanna fo Fincoln
Fee fy mo Mincoln, Lincoln!

Come on everybody!
I say now let's play a game
I betcha I can make a rhyme out of anybody's name
The first letter of the name, I treat it like it wasn't there
But a B or an F or an M will appear
And then I say bo add a B then I say the name and Bonana fanna and a fo
And then I say the name again with an F very plain
and a fee fy and a mo
And then I say the name again with an M this time
and there isn't any name that I can't rhyme

The dogs over at Portuguese Water Dog Blog have posted the story behind all of their names. If you haven't seen the blog, you should give it a read. Our names don't have such wonderful stories, but we thought you might like to know them and their origins.

Java was the hardest dog to name. Can you believe that Mom and Dad called him "new puppy" for 2 weeks? In fact that's what his folder still has on the tab. Mom and Dad rescued Java from a pet store - he was 4 months old and weighed 40 pounds. Due to an illness in the family, he had been returned by his original owners. Mom fell in love with him as soon as she saw him (she went there looking for a Scottish Terrier! Mom would never purchase a dog from a pet store unless she was rescuing it) Anyway, Mom and Dad went through a lot of names trying to find just the perfect one for Java. He was so stubborn that Mom wanted to call him "Jackson" as in Stonewall Jackson. He had such a beautiful color to his coat in the sunlight, she thought Merlot would be a good name for him. They tossed around the name Merlin. But when Java went to the vet for his 2 week checkup, they asked his name. Mom and Dad looked at each other and both said "Java Bean" at the same time - not even a name then had discussed, so he became Spencer's Java Bean. And we think it's the perfect name for a Chocolate Lab.

Baby Lilly with her Mother, Laurie Darlin'

Mom did a lot of research on Scottish names before getting Lilly. She knew she was searching for the perfect little black Scottie girl so she went through a ton of Scottish names before she decided on Spencer's Bonny Greer, which loosely translated means Spencer's beautiful watchdog. When she found Lilly, the breeder had nicknamed her Lilly (she was 4 weeks old) and Mom and Dad decided they liked the name so her official name is Spencer's Lilly Greer, which means Spencer's Flower Watcher.

Baby Piper

Mom and Dad knew they would be getting Piper when the breeder contacted them as soon as Piper was born. Mom kind of wanted to name him Sawney Bowie (Sonny Boy) but the family vetoed that. It means "golden haired defender of mankind". She looked at other Scottish names and liked the name Rauri Mack, but finally settled in on Bag Piper, so hence, Rocky Creek's Bag Piper.




Carrleigh was already named when we got her and had already had a litter of puppies. Due to that, AKC would not let us change her 'legal' name, so we just kept it. She is Impish Carrleigh Kilbride.

We enjoy hearing about your names and hope that more of you will enlighten us.

XOXO
Lilly, Piper, Carrleigh and Java

OOPS I ATE IT!!

After reading the escapades of Sammie's eating prowess, we told her that we would like to take the challenge. We can in no way match her skills.

Okay... here are the rules to this award: "When accepting this award, you must blog about the food you have stolen when your humans were not watching. If you have never stolen any food, you must have been a really good pup! You can accept this yummy tray of cookies as your reward! Next, add the logo of this award to your blog (optional), then nominate at least 5 other furry blogs and let them know by leaving a message on their blogs."



The first "illegal" item that Java ate was a pair of Mom's designer, prescription sunglasses. Mom was sitting on the couch and Java was on the floor at her feet. He ran up the steps and then came back really quickly. And started crunching something. Mom didn't think too much about it until she figured out that Java didn't really have any crunchy toys. When she looked down, she saw a pair of very expensive sunglasses, in shards, at her feet.

Java has always liked "meatloaf". In fact, one of his most famous eating sprees involved it - our brothers favorite CD at the time - Bat Out of Hell. He will never live this one down.



Lilly loves Java's food and is always trying to eat his food instead of hers - Mom puts up a baby gate to keep her out when Java is eating. In Lilly's younger days, she loved the taste of Mom's ankles or her boots. We got Lilly in the winter time and she chewed on Mom's ankles so much that Mom dreaded seeing warm weather come that year because she was afraid of what Lilly would do to her bare ankles. Lilly destroyed a pair of Uggs the first winter we had her.

Piper loves the insoles of Mom's houseshoes better than anything. He doesn't really want to eat them as much as he wants to own them. If Mom's feet aren't in her shoes, she has to protect them otherwise.

Piper and Carrleigh have both developed a taste for smokeless chewing tobacco. That has already been chewed!! Several of the people who worked on our farm this summer left treats for them. Mom was always trying to spot them first. They also love molded hay and it's a pain because it always falls off the hay bales and is strewn on our road during the winter time.

Carrleigh likes food!! Anyone's food and will go at great lengths to acquire it. She got in major trouble with Lilly when she would jump in with Lilly's puppies and try to eat their food. You could hardly believe that when you look at this picture of sweet Aunt Carrleigh with the last one of Lilly's babies.



And of course there are our favorite legal foods that we get occasionally - bacon, cheese, popcorn, pizza, apples, watermelon.......................

Have a great day and enjoy your food. Please take this award and try it if you like.

XOXO
Lilly, Piper, Carrleigh and Java

IT'S TRUE COLOURS THURSDAY - SKYE BLUE

Good Morning,

And welcome to True Colours Thursday. Our color for today is SKYE BLUE and our host is Miss Blue. If you wish to participate, go over to her blog and let her know you are in - it's that easy. Next weeks colour is RAINBOW.

Our Mom loves looking
through palm trees at a blue sky.
This is a scene from Haiti.

Our "kids" bathroom
is decorated with yellow duckies.
Last year when our sissy, Kat,
and her BFF, Erin,
were visiting,
they found this cute skye blue bandanna
and now it's hanging in that bathroom.

Mom is always taking photographs
of old barns.
This barn is somewhere in either
Western Virginia
or Tennessee.
It has a beautiful blue sky overhead.

Mom rescued this wonderful star
quilt off of a driveway in California
when they lived there.
It has a lot of beautiful skye blue squares.

And we leave you with the
gorgeous sky over the
Blue Ridge Mountains
of Virginia.

XOXO
Lilly, Piper, Carrleigh and Java

IT'S WHEELY WEDNESDAY - A TRIBUTE, AN AWARD and A VISIT

Good Morning,

And welcome to Wheely Wednesday. First, we want to start out with a tribute to our Dad. You may remember that he was our first Wheely Wednesday driver.

Today, we are sad
because he had to go
back to school.
Notice our tribute background.

Here he goes,
lunch in hand
with his brief case
and his laptop.
Today is the first day
that the kids come back.
We hope everything goes smooth.

On a lighter note,
we received a PAWSOME AWARD
from
Martine, Candy and Captain Crunch
over at
I Need a Sugar Fix.
We are grateful to them and as instructed,
we will pick 5 awesome blogs
to pass it on to.

We are sending it on to
Rachel at A Doggie Life -
she always gives us an introspective
look at life.

Fern and Bambi at
Animal Lover, Quilt Lover.
Fern is a talented seamstress and gardener,
who loves her animals.

Jazzi at
Jazzi's World.
She's a wee Scottie lass.

Maggie and Mitch,
our first ever bloggie buddies.

and
Sally and Paddy,
We are so glad to hear
that Paddy is getting better.

Looking out on the skyline
of Rocky Creek Farm,
it's a bird,
its' a plane,
NO,
It's GINGER JASPER
coming to visit

We know while he is in the US,
he'd like to meet some of his American Friends.
Please invite him to visit
if you can.
He's sneaking around while
his folks are away.

Have a fantastic day,
XOXO
Lilly, Piper, Carrleigh and Java

AVOCADOS, GAMES AND SUPRISES!!

Yesterday we received several queries on
our post about avocados.
Many wanted the info that Sharda Barker
had emailed to Mom and others wanted
the recipe for the Avocado Won Tons.

Sharda's was partly informational
and partly an advertisement to purchase
her latest book.

But the scary part that she stated was that the
Animal Poison Control Center
has listed that persin,
an element in avocados, is known
to be toxic to pets.

They note that it can cause tissue damage
to the heart and lungs as well as
severe stomach problems, vomiting
and pancreatitis.

Different types of avocados
can cause different reactions.

IOHO, it's just best to forgo them.

But for the yummy
Avocado Won Tons that Mom
made for our human company.
She is happy to share the recipe with you.
Just email her at
rockycreekscotties at yahoo dot com
and she will get it on it's way to you.

Sir Woodstock
challenged us to a little game.
There are 10 questions to answer
and then we need to tag some others
to join in.

1. Who is the hottest Movie Star?
(No, Mom, it's not Patrick Swayze)
We would say it would have to be somedog like Toto or Rin Tin Tin.

2. Apart from your house and car, what is the most important item you have ever acquired?
We would think it would be that Mom and Dad searched for us and found us at our breeders - guess that would be home, not house, right?

3. What is your most treasured memory?
For us Scotties, it was to meet our big brother (and role model), Java

4. What was the best gift you ever received as a child?
Our first set of dog tags - they made us jingle just like Java.

5. What was the biggest mistake you have ever made?
That would be trying to bite Dad's heels.

6. Four words to describe yourself.
Outgoing, loyal, energetic and hungry.

7. What was your highlight or lowlight of 2008?
Carrleigh and Piper have to agree that it was moving to Rocky Creek Farm. Lilly and Java have to agree that it was having Carrleigh and Piper intrude on their little haven on Rocky Creek Farm.

8. Favorite Film?
Our new favorite is Coraline.

9. Tell me one thing I don't know about you.
Lilly - I am the alpha dog in our house.
Piper - Sometimes I chase my tail, but never catch it.
Carrleigh - I would like to be the Alpha female.
Java - I ring the doorbell when I want to come in the house.

10. If you were a comic strip or cartoon character, who would you be?
All of we Scotties would want to be Duncan.
Java would probably like to be Duncan too.

We don't have any specific folks to tag - please answer these questions and post on your blog if you like.

All of you know our friend, Khyra.
She and her Mom emailed our Mom for
our address and she sent Mom
this unique Scottie pin.
And she sent us some of her floffiness.
We searched the envelope
because we thought she might be in there too.
We enjoyed getting to sniff her!

If you look really close,
you can see what we found
among our dying tomato plants today.
It is a birds nest
with 4 blue eggs
that are spotted with brown.
What do you think we will grow?

XOXO
Lilly, Piper, Carrleigh and Java

GUESS WHO CAME TO DINNER

On Saturday we were all aflutter,
as we prepared to welcome
The Scottish Terrier Club of Western Virginia
to
Rocky Creek Farm.

We had helium filled balloons
that Dad put on our mailbox
to show them the way.

We had to bark at the balloons
to show them who the boss is in our house.

Piper charmed everyone
with his beautiful smile
and his ability to talk.


But we got a surprise!!
Look who came to dinner!!
We expected Scotties,
but instead

We thought it was Sweetie!!

And Woodrow!!
(once we took a second glance,
we knew this couldn't be the Woodster!)


And when it was over and
the bullies and the Scottie folks had gone home,
our friends Rich and Vicki
came for dinner.
And Mom made
Avocado Won Tons.

And we didn't even get to taste them.
Just that day, Mom had an email
from Shadra Barker
telling about the evils of avocados
and not to feed them to your dog.

XOXO
Lilly, Piper, Carrleigh and Java

ROCKY HORROR SCOTTIE SHOW

Mom and Dad are hosting the Scottish Terrier Club of Western Virginia at our house tomorrow. No only do we have to act pretty and look pretty, Mom says we have to smell pretty too - hence the visit to the dreaded "house of torture".

It all starts out on our grooming table,
where she uses all of these fancy tools
to get out all of our knots and tangles.
You smooth coated dogs don't know how lucky you are.
She even cleaned our ears!

Occasionally she feels sorry for us
and we get to have a treat from our jar.

(scary music should be playing here)

Because she catches us
one by one
and then we get the dreaded bath!!

Java is laughing because he knows he's safe.
She never bathes him - he goes to the groomer.
What are we - chopped liver?
We have to get groomed at home-
but we guess that beats a dog-o-matic any day.

Guess what's in store for today?
Can you hear her sharpening her clippers?

XOXO
Lilly, Piper, Carrleigh and Java

IT'S TRUE COLOR THURSDAY - LITE PINK

Good Morning,

And welcome to True Colours Thursday. Everyone is invited by Blue to participate. All you have to do is go by her blog and let her know and you are in. Today's colour is LITE PINK and next week's colour is SKYE BLUE.

You would think that this post would be about the delicate lite pink colour on the inside of our ears, or Carrleighs pink tartan harness or even our lovely pink tongues.

BUT NOOO!! Since Mom is doing the pawing and owns the camera she had other ideas about the beauty of lite pink. And she even chose something that is really "SUNSET CORAL" - we didn't argue too much with her because it does look kind of pink.

Check out this lovely Continental Package

And the distinctive porthole in the hardtop.

What lovely lines grace this beauty

The 1956 Thunderbird


Quit your dreaming Mom -
it will never be yours.
(and besides we live on a dirt road -
how would you ever keep it clean?)

XOXO
Lilly, Piper, Carrleigh and Java