Merry Christmas!

Christmas Snow in the Desert!

Just kidding, that's Gatsby's cheek!  hahaha!!

Wordless Wednesday

The Mystery of the Missing Tail

Where did my tail go?!

Me as my alter ego: The Tailless Wonder

It has been pouring rain all day, so instead of going for a nice long walk with Mom we hung out on the front lawn for about 15 minutes.  This is a BIG DEAL because just loitering around on the grass gives me plenty of opportunity to notice scary things and really freak myself out.  (See photo above.)

The things that scare me most are strangers, especially men, and loud or strange noises.  I don't know if new people are nice or not, so I assume the worst and think they are probably murderers or puppy-kickers.  Then before I know it my tail hits my belly, my back legs are quivering, and the whole world is a terrifying place to be.  All I want to do is run home, at top speed, where I know I will be safe from the murderous, dangerous puppy-kickers of the world!

Today Mom hooked 3 leashes together to make a long-line lead and attached it to a wide martingale collar.  Then she let me just wander around on the lawn, checking things out as I pleased.  Every once in a while she would call me over & give me a treat (without tugging or putting any pressure on the lead).  Sometimes I had to sit first or jump up like a seal to get the treat.  Usually I am too scared to have an appetite outside, so this is a BIG improvement in my level of confidence.  Between strangers walking around and someone doing maintenance on an apt. across the lawn, there were a lot of people and noise distractions.

Sometimes when a stranger walked by or there was a loud noise nearby, Mom would call me over & give me a treat.  Other times she wouldn't do anything, but if I looked at her she would toss me a treat.  I only tried to bolt a couple of times, but the long lead prevented me from actually running away (or running upstairs to our front door).  Mom didn't say anything or tug on the lead when this happened.  But if I came over to her or looked at her I would get a treat.  We were only out there for about 15 minutes and by the end I was not only taking treats & paying attention to Mom when scary stuff happened, but was even a little bit curious about some of the people I saw.  Maybe they were just neighbours and maintenance men and not horrible monsters after all!

Look Mom, I can touch my belly button with my tail!

Starting to feel slightly more relaxed (see tail for proof!).

Oh no!  A scary dude. ...wait... ...maybe he's not THAT scary after all.

TWO scary dudes!  Hmm... I think I'm a little bit curious about them...

Wait!  Everybody stop!  I heard a weird noise!!  ...okay, I guess nothing happened.  Nevermind!

Happy, relaxed tail!  (Partially because Mom said "Upstairs!" but my tail was like this quite a few times this morning.  Mom just didn't get any photos for proof, so you'll just have to take my word for it.)

Whew!  What a morning!  Just call me Lola The Conqueror!  So... can I have some more treats now?!?!

Playdate with Doc Holiday & Shisha!

Today was awesome!  Not only did Gatsby and I get to go to the park & run around like lunatics (or in Gatsby's case, pee about 112 times, chase birds, dig holes, and ignore Mom when she called him), but I made THREE new friends: Doc Holiday, Shisha, and their dad Mark.  I like Mark.  Mark had treats!


The photo on the left is proof of how good my recall has gotten!  I was halfway across the field, but ran back to Mom the instant I heard my name (Gatsby, you should be taking notes!).  Also, my tongue matches my collar.  I had no idea!!  Weird!!



Here is Doc, he's almost exactly the same age as me and can run really fast.  Doc loves tennis balls and mom says he is a "liver roan" which is crazy because, duh, he is a DOG not whatever that heck that means.

This is Shisha!  She was too dignified to run full speed with us whippersnappers, but she has a good nose and found the most interesting smells in the whole field!

Did I mention that we got to run??  Not just "running" but RUNNING full blast like our tails were on fire?!?!

ZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!

"Can't catch meeeeeee!"

If there were awards at the park today Gatsby would have gotten #1 FASTEST DOG and SUPER BIRDMAN, Shisha would get BEST NOSE and BEST RECALL, Doc would get BEST FETCHER and GOT TIRED FIRST (haha)... and me?  I would've won FRIENDLIEST SMILE, BEST KISSER, and SHINIEST DOG!

Oh yeah, and there was a creepy dude walking next to the fence but don't worry I scared him off and protected everybody!  Shisha helped, too.  The boys were no good.  They'd have just let us all get murdered or something because they were to busy chomping on tennis balls (Doc) and digging holes (Gatsby).  Men!!

Hobbies!

You can tell a lot about a person (or a dog) by what they think of as "fun."  Mom likes to read books, cook good smelling (and tasting) things, and watch old movies.  Gatsby likes to chase birds, stare at birds, whine when he can't get birds, and well... he's pretty much totally obsessed with birds.  But me?  I am a renaissance dog.  Most dogs like running and playing fetch, but I have a variety of interests as you can see.

Swimming

Gardening

Knitting

Yoga

Telling Really Funny Jokes

I even know Kung Fu!

Meet My Brother: Gatsby!

This is my new brother Gatsby.  He's a 6 year old German shorthaired pointer and we adopted him in October of 2011 from a lady named Marylin who runs a dog rescue called Utah's Perfect Pointers.  He was the tenth dog that Mom & I have fostered and I made the mistake of bragging about how clever I was to trick Mom into adopting me.  Gatsby has some unsavory traits (snoring, farting, tattling on me to Mom when I'm getting into the trash or helping myself to food on the stove, etc.), but he is one smart cookie.  So there you have it, he decided to weasel-worm his way into Mom's heart and she fell for it like a ton of bricks.  Which is okay by me; he's one of the bestest foster dogs we've had!  He knows the right way to play (jumping, chasing, & biting faces NOT body slamming or wrestling), doesn't eat my food, and lets me steal toys & bones from him; right out of his mouth!  Seriously, he's a pushover.  One time I took a flying leap and landed right on his head when he was fast asleep.  He just heaved a sigh and went to lay down by Mom (for protection, 'cause he's a total mama's boy). Even though I love to pick on him, having Gatsby around is a lot of fun.  He's really brave when we're out on walks, too.  There are a lot of super scary things that can happen when you're on walking around.  Loud noises, weird strangers... yikes!  But Gatsby doesn't flinch in the face of danger, which helps me feel safer.

Oh, and he's a pretty handsome dude, too!  

Hello World!

Hello everybody! I don't really know much about writing blogs, so I'm just going to jump in paw first. It's like swimming, right? (Oh, wait... I got started swimming because mom shoved me into a pool. Nevermind.)

Let me start off by telling you a little about myself. I met Mom when I was about 7 months old. My old family (or somebody) had dumped me out in the desert outside of Tucson. In July! Can you believe it? I was only 6 months old and there isn't any water out there. Or very much shade. I'm 92% black, for pete's sake! Some people have no sense. Long story short, someone found me alongside the road & brought me to the dog pound which is a pretty scary place. I was starving & dehydrated so it didn't take me long to catch kennel cough and then get really depressed. Soon I had pneumonia and even food didn't appeal to me (which is hard to believe, I know). Things were really looking grim when a nice lady (who is now my Auntie Signe!) picked me up and carried me out of there. Literally. Walking is hard work when you're that sick. But Auntie Signe took me to Mom's house so I could get better and then find my forever home. Suckers! Once I felt better, I decided that I wasn't going anywhere. I would make faces & not let people pet me at adoption events and even peed on the floor (repeatedly) to deter potential adopters. And guess what? It worked and Mom adopted me! Sometimes humans are slow, so we dogs have to remember to be patient with them. They usually come around.

Me and Mom, at the Arizona Animal Fair last spring. We're in the beer garden and I got to taste some beer. Can you tell???