A New Foster Brother!

Just when I thought we were done with these foster boys (sometimes I can be a little bratty when it comes to female dogs in my house, so we like to have boys around more... mom calls me a "bossy cow" but I don't get it...) and sent Porter to go live with our Aunties K. & E..... we get another one!

Me Foster Dog #21: Rusty!  He is a 9 year old purebred liver roan German shorthaired pointer (duh) and has advanced Lyme disease which will require vigorous treatment.  :(

I met Rusty last summer, right after he was rescued.  According to the photo below, we got along famously.

Me (on the left) and big ol' Rustypants (on the right).

I hope we can get him feeling better soon.  :)

Hello Again!

Wow... I haven't updated my blog in almost *7 years!  So much has happened and I am so much older (and so much more mature).

The biggest event was that my family moved to a new house!  It is so much bigger than our last one and it has a nicer yard.  As you can probably guess, I helped out a lot.  Mom could not have done it without me.

This is me, hard at work sorting laundry.  Laundry is REALLY hard work!

It look a little time, but me and my big brother Gatsby are totally BFFs now.  Mom has been really impressed with how intelligent we are; we're always learning a lot and teaching each other new things!  We make a great team; sometimes Mom says we remind her of a famous couple from American history named Bonnie & Clyde.  I don't know what that means.

Gats, are you SURE Mom isn't watching?

The best part of our new house is that both Mom and I got new beds!  Check it out:

This is great!  I wonder where Mom is going to sleep??

Seriously... where is Mom going to sleep?  I'm starting to get a little worried about her...

Gatsby and I really love this bed.  It's called a "pillow top!"  It's like one big giant pillow!

Over all, we LOVE our new house.  I will tell you all about the exciting things that have happened in the past few years, later.  

My mom is going jogging tonight after work with my Auntie R.  Which means my dinner is going to be LATE.  Can you believe that?  Jogging isn't that important!  I do it all the time, sheesh.

You-will-give-me-dinners!  And-give-me-his-dinners-too!

* My mom says that it's only been almost one year.  What do humans know, huh?  We all know they have to wear watches because they don't know how to tell time.

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!!