This is my Black Labrador Retriever, Midnight .. having fun at the beach.

She just loves to play and swim in the water, even if it’s freezing cold! She also loves it when we throw balls or sticks for her to fetch … loves it so much that she’ll stand in the water and literally whine as she waits for us to find something to throw to her. Uhm … even if she’s got a darn stick right at her feet! LOL

I took this photo in March (the 7th to be exact). We always seem to go to the beach more often in the winter than the summer. If we lived in a warm climate that wouldn’t be so weird, but we live in Toronto which is normally fairly cold in the winter. However, every one in a while there’s a nice semi warm day .. often in February and sometimes in March and that’s when the bug to go to the beach gets us.

The day we went happened to be very warm for March. It was 19 Celsius (66 F) … more like April or May temperatures, so of course we had to get outside and enjoy the day. After spending some time at the beach we went and ate a late lunch at an outdoor patio … but in between we found a really strangely decorated house. If you’re curious take a look at the post on Odd Planet to see this very funny and odd house.

Enjoy!

Yep, my dog is a Ham! She rolls over onto her back at least twice a day and lets out a few high pitched barks and wookie growls hoping that we’ll come over and rub her chest, thighs and bum. LOL

This is a photo of her on her back enjoying a rub … just look at that face … she’s one happy girl!

BTW if you’re wondering what the white thing is in her mouth, it’s a toy bone (power chewer) that she’d chewed down to a nub … it was replaced with a new one shortly after the photo was taken.

We often take our dog to a special area in the Toronto beaches, called Cherry Beach, where dogs are allowed to roam off leash and play in the water.

Earlier this summer we took Midnight to the beach where she made several dog friends and as you can see from the photo above, had a great time swimming in the lake with her new friends.

I love that I was able to capture her and her pal swimming out into Lake Ontario beneath a fiery sky as the sun set. Lovely. What do you think of this picture?

Every evening my Labrador Retriever, Midnight – who is now approximately 19 months old, comes up to me where I’m sitting on the couch working on my laptop or watching TV (or both) and she just stares at me with big clear inquisitive eyes. She started doing this a few weeks ago, and she’d stare at me for hours if it didn’t bug me so much.

I haven’t figured out just what she wants or what she’s doing when she’s staring at me like this. Is it attention she wants? Another rawhide to chew on? I don’t know. If I move towards her to pet her she’ll back away. It’s so weird. Chris, my husband, thinks it’s just because she loves me so much. Maybe that’s all it is, but it’s strange being stared at so intently by my pup.

I can’t believe I haven’t taken any winter pictures yet! It’s just been too cold here in Toronto most of this month to get outside and take some pictures of falling snow, snow covered trees or plants, icicles or any of the things that make winter pretty.

So instead I’m posting photos that I took in November … of my dog! LOL Hey, it was lovely in the park with the tree’s leaves and field grasses changing to rich yellow, gold and red colors.

Luckily when our dog is off leash she only goes about 100 yards ahead of us and then she stops and looks back at us like “hey you guys are slow, hurry up and get up here!” or else she’ll run back towards us before running on ahead again.

In this photo she’s doing her look back at us, probably wondering why we can’t keep up to her!

I took this photo of my Labrador Retriever, Midnight, in November. It was one of the last times we took her to one of her favorite parks. We love the park too because there’s a huge “off leash” area where she can roam through the forest paths and as you can see there’s also a nice little pond where she can take a dip.

I love how you can see the water running off her coat and the droplets in the air around her as she gives herself a good shake!

She never misses going in the water – being a water loving dog!

By now the pond is frozen over and the park probably full of a couple of feet of snow. It will be the end of March or early April before she gets to go there again and at that time we’ll have our hands full keeping her out of the chilly mucky water!

Midnight, our dog, I mean …. not night time and darkness!

I took this photo in November after Midnight had a romp through the woods and a dip in a pond.  She just loves water.  I’m sure if we managed to find open water in the winter she’d try to take a swim even if it was freezing!

Happy New Year! May 2009 bring you happiness, health and if not wealth at least financial stability.

This is my 15 month old Labrador Retriever, Midnight, on a recent outing to the park. She always finds water to wade or swim in. That dog just loves her water! I think she’d spend all day swimming if we’d let her!

So this is an action shot of her running through a pond. She was just about to come up on shore when I snapped the shot. Right after that she shook the water off on ME! LOL

This is Midnight, my one year old Labrador Retriever puppy. Isn’t she a cutie?

We were outside in the backyard one day during the summer and my husband decided to pick up Midnight and put her on one of our high patio chairs. I don’t think she liked being up there all that much, she looks concerned doesn’t she?

My Labrador Retriever puppy is quite the ham. I was trying to take her photo last month and she kept coming up to investigate the camera. I guess she was trying to figure out what I was up to in this photo.