Merry Christmas!

 Freddy, Aunt Pat, Daddy and I want to wish all of our friends, relatives and readers a very Merry Christmas!  It's been very hectic around here, getting ready for the big day.  First was a stop at our fabulous groomer, to get ready for our formal portrait that you see above.  Note the snazzy bandannas, and the bows in my hair.

Then, of course, Aunt Pat does a lot of baking as gifts for our vet, Freddy's vet for his knee, our groomer, and some friends.  Freddy and I helped Aunt Pat this year.  We sniffed the cookies to ensure they met our standards, and sampled a couple that Aunt Pat dropped.  It didn't hurt that I surprised Aunt Pat by laying down behind her.  Just keeping her on her toes, you know.  We also cleaned the floor of anything that may have spilled.  One must have a clean kitchen, you know.  

 Plus, we helped Aunt Pat with her Christmas shopping, and we've been keeping her company while she made stuff for her craft shows.  She would sigh and tell us we were hogging the sofa, but we wanted to let her know she had our full support.  A good cuddle puts an artist in the right frame of mind to make wonderful creations.

Christmas Eve, we went to see Freddy's family.  Aussie, Chase and I were having a nice chat about what we thought Santa would bring.

I was trying to say hello to Crystal, a toy poodle they're fostering for Blue Moon Meadows rescue group, the same group that's trying to find a new home for  Aussie, aka Crispin.  She's a very nice little dog, but they have her crate elevated a little bit so she can have some privacy from the big dogs.  It's a penthouse crate. 

Stanley was enjoying his tennis ball, and Jade enjoyed a tummy rub, or should I say a very long tummy rub that Daddy gave her.

 Finally, Christmas morning!  Santa came!  Daddy and Aunt Pat brought their presents down a day or two early, and Freddy and I sniffed them.  I assured Freddy that Santa would come and leave us gifts, and I was right.

 Freddy had to sniff everything!  Santa brought us some treats, toys and a stuffed animal for each of us.   Freddy's family gave us two big stockings full of toys!

 I'm playing with my frog toy.

 Freddy, however, like a typical boy, had to get his snout into everything and try everything first!  He managed to get the squeakers out of both the toys from our stockings, chew the ear off his cat stuffed toy, and open up the tummy of my frog.  Boys!

 Daddy and Aunt Pat brought me some of my toys while I rested in the armchair.  I got to play with my toys, though, and Daddy and Aunt Pat gave me some extra tummy rubs to help me feel better.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Freddy and I would like to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving.  We have a lot to be thankful for.  We have good friends' family who love us; a nice home and good food.  We're very thankful that Aunt Pat made a big turkey, in a roasting pan that was a little too small. We're also very thankful that it was such a warm day, that Aunt Pat and Daddy could open the windows to let the smoke from the bird drippings falling  onto the electric heat element, out of the house.

 Daddy loves leftovers, so he ordered a 24 and a half pound turkey.  Freddy and I knew it would be a good bird.  The minute Aunt Pat walked through the door with it, Freddy stuffed his snout in the bag to sniff it, and I sniffed it from the other end.  It smelled so good!  Aunt Pat knew it was a little big, but she thought the pan would be big enough, and some aluminum foil placed beneath the roasting pan, would catch any drips.  It didn't.  That gave me, err, Freddy and me the chance to help clean up.  I've been helping Aunt Pat all week licking the floor, err, cleaning the floor when she was baking the pies.

 We're sorry if some of the photos are blurry, we were moving around a lot to make sure the kitchen stayed as clean as possible.

 Finally, the turkey finished cooking.  Actually, Aunt Pat was not at all happy at how long the bird took to cook.  Aunt Pat had read one of her late mother's cookbooks which said that a stuffed turkey of that weight would take anywhere from 7 to 9 hours to cook.  But then, the Buffalo News had a column that said to multiply the weight of the bird by 15, 15 minutes a pound at 325 degrees, unstuffed, which gave her about 6 and a quarter hours. Aunt Pat doesn't stuff her turkeys, because a few years ago somebody said it could make people sick if the turkey and dressing didn't cook long enough.  Being an anal-retentive ex-ICU nurse, Aunt Pat is all about not making people sick.   So, Aunt Pat and Daddy were expecting the bird to be finished, if she put it in the oven at 5:30am, by around 11:30 or 11:45am, instead of 1:30pm.  It wasn't.  She kept taking it out and putting it back in, checking the temperature, moving the leg to see if it would budge, but it didn't.  Aunt Pat was not happy, because she had timed the dressing, the potatoes and corn to be done by that time as well.  I have not heard foul  language like that from her mouth in a while.  Turkeys hatch, and they don't really know their mothers, let alone do that with them.  I took her for a walk around the block so she could cool off.  Daddy watched the bird to be sure nothing else happened.

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 Daddy tested some of the breast meat, and it looked done, so he carved the turkey.  Thankfully he dropped a couple of pieces so Freddy and I each had some.

 Even though the breast meat was mostly done, the dark meat, Daddy's favorite, wasn't quite finished.  He wasn't upset, though. So, after dinner, Aunt Pat put the rest of the dark meat back in the oven until it was cooked.  Freddy and I were pretty tired, so we made sure Aunt Pat had some quiet time on the sofa to relax.  Freddy and I even curled up in her lap for a while.

 Aunt Pat learned a lesson, though.  Always trust mom's old cookbooks, and get a roasting pan bigger than the bird.

Happy Halloween!

I bet you thought I'd say something silly, like Happy Howl-oween.  But, I didn't.  Or, I bet you thought I'd say something like "It was a dark and stormy night.  The wind howled."  Nope.  Not gonna do it.  Yes, it is Halloween, and we all hope you have a safe and happy one.  Please, don't give chocolate to your dog.  It's poison, and can cause some very nasty problems, even death.  We highly recommend Charlee Bears or Zukes Mini Naturals...in large quantities.  They're low in calories, and are very tasty.  Sometimes diet food can be pretty blech.  We won't be trick or treating.  We'll be upstairs sleeping, and barking at the doorbell, er, keeping Aunt Pat company.

 The past couple of days have been all business for us.  We weathered our "dark and stormy night" from Sandy just fine.  The power flickered a couple of times, but it stayed on.  It did go out a block away, and the last two mornings we've heard generators on our walks.  The storm was very loud.  Aunt Pat and Daddy had a hard time sleeping.  I was concerned about falling debris in the yard and insisted upon going out a couple of times to check on things.  Daddy put a leash, of all things, on me to make sure I didn't blow away.

 We didn't have any trees or shrubs uprooted, but there were a lot of leaves and sticks in the yard.  Freddy and I have been picking up the sticks.  Freddy likes to have Aunt Pat throw one before he picks it up, or have her chase him.

 Of course, I supervise and make sure he stays on task.  He'll lay down with the stick and bite it so Aunt Pat can put it in a trash bag or bundle it up with other sticks.

Sometimes I like to play a little too...only when I think nobody's watching.

What? Me? Scared?

 I'm not scared of a little wind and rain.  Hurricane Sandy can just bark her way back to Broadway and her pal Annie where she belongs.  Arf.  Just because I've been snuggling up to Aunt Pat more, and whimpering for attention, doesn't mean I'm scared.  I'm trying to divert Aunt Pat's mind from the storm.  I know she usually gets really bad migraines before something like this, and I want to keep her mind off of it.  

Plus, this is the first really bad storm that Freddy's experienced since he's come to live with us.  I'm snuggling up to him to be sure he's not afraid.  He may look calm, cool, and collected on the outside, but he could be a bundle of nerves on the inside.  He's been on and off of Aunt Pat's lap all weekend.  I'm just doing my part to keep the household running smoothly. 

 I've been under the weather the past few weeks.  Just having some tummy trouble.  I kept throwing up, and the humans couldn't figure out why.  They took me to the Vet, who thought it could be a food allergy, since Daddy and Aunt Pat changed my food to a wet formula.  I was having some trouble chewing the kibble I'd been eating.  I started vomiting shortly after the switch.  

Aunt Pat was kind enough to make some home cooking which I ate for a while, but then got a little tired of it.    So, Daddy and Aunt Pat switched me to a special veterinary formula.  Turns out, it wasn't the food, but I'd been secretly eating rabbit poop in the backyard.  My friend the bunny was back one night, and I wanted to help him or her avoid predators.  So, I figured I'd eat it's poop so the bad guys wouldn't get him...or her.  I can't get close enough to tell if it's a boy or a girl rabbit. I got tired of the vet formula, and Daddy and Aunt Pat switched me to a limited ingredient diet just in case I was allergic to something in the other food.  I threw up a couple of nights ago, but it wasn't anything major. It was probably something I ate...again.

Happy Anniversary!

One year ago on this date, Freddy moved in!  We're so happy he's here.  I really love having someone else to do my bidding, er, someone to relax with.  Freddy and I clicked right away when we met. He was very sweet and wanted to play.  It's been a great year as well.  Thanks to our Groomer, D, we got to meet Freddy's family.  They're lovely people, and we enjoy going over to their house for play dates.   

To celebrate this momentous occasion, Freddy had a spa day!  Yes, he went to see our Groomer, D.  He really needed a bath.  He was getting a bit stinky, or so Daddy thought.  And he was shedding a lot, too!  No matter how much Aunt Pat brushed him, Freddy would still have lots of hair coming off of him.  I'm happy to say that he was a real gentleman.  From what I hear he was schmoozing with the other dogs and being adorable for his groomer.  He got a very snazzy bandanna with rubber duckies on it, but you can't really see it too well.  

Freddy had such a good time, he was pooped out for the rest of the day.

Inspired

 Since the Olympics, I've been inspired to conquer one of my fears.  Well, not a fear, really, more something I dislike.  Water.  I still don't like getting rained on, and I don't like getting squirted with the hose, especially when Freddy plays with it.  But, I've become interested in swimming!

I started off slowly.  I sniffed around the pool and sniffed inside the pool before there was any water in it.  That wasn't an easy thing to do.  Freddy gets so excited when the pool comes out he's jumping in and out of it like a crazy dog.  I have to bark at him to get him to calm down and watch out.  He's almost trampled me a couple of times.  During the times Freddy's doing his hose biting activities, I check out the water in the puddles around the pool.  I didn't want to start too deeply, you know.   Besides, people pay a lot of money in spas for mud treatments, so I thought I'd pamper myself a little.  I'll have to recommend this to my Groomer, D. the next time I'm in to see her.  Daddy and Aunt Pat weren't too thrilled, but I cleaned myself up.

 

Then, I actually hopped into the pool when there was a little water in it.  Aunt Pat was so startled, she didn't get a picture of it.  I started to lap up the water, it tasted just fine.  I waited to go in until Aunt Pat had Freddy occupied with the hose.  He won't let Aunt Pat put more than a couple of inches of water in the pool, because he'd rather drink it straight from the hose instead of let the pool fill. 

So, in order to get a taste of what real swimming was like, I had to wait until our weekly visit with Freddy's family.  Freddy immediately jumped in the pool, which was filled nice and deep.  I wasn't scared.  After all, there were puppies to teach!  I had to make sure I wasn't scared, so they wouldn't be scared.  I jumped in once the humans were paying more attention to Freddy.  I didn't think I'd be noticed, but everyone told me what a good girl I was.  You can see Kyleigh standing on the back of the pool, rooting us on.  

It was fun. I was very happy that I actually swam.  I'd never go into the lake or real deep water, but the backyard pool was perfect!  Both Freddy and I got very wet.  I just wasn't too thrilled at how my coat looked.

Harper and Crispin, two more of the rescue puppies waiting for forever homes,  tried to convince me that I looked just fine.  But I felt a bit frizzy, you know, like how your hair gets on a really humid day.

The Olympics, Really?

For the past week or so, we've been getting glimpses of the Olympics on television, and I haven't been impressed.  Badminton and Ping Pong are considered Olympic sports, but not Baseball.  Really?  I think the Olympic organizers really dropped the ball on this one.  Although it's been nice to see the US athletes doing well, there's a big aspect missing from this event.  What is it you may ask?  Why dogs, of course!

 What's wrong with a few events for man's best friend?  After all, there were dogs in ancient Greece.  Dogs were actually very popular pets in ancient Greece.  I say we add some canine competition to the big show.  Not any special competitions for dogs elsewhere.  If the humans can get away with synchronized swimming, dogs can go something like synchronized napping.  Chase agreed with me that this could be a sport, and we started training last week. We've been working on some of our poses.  It's early, and I don't want to brag or anything, but I think we have a great chance at a gold medal.  

Of course, we'd have water sports as well.  Freddy's a natural.   He gets so excited when he sees the garden hose come out.  Aunt Pat can't water the garden if he's outside.   

He's figured out how to get the hose off the reel in the backyard, and will paw at the nozzle to get it to work. He's managed to squirt himself a couple of times, but most of the time, he has to wait for Daddy or Aunt Pat to let loose.  

Freddy's also a natural in the pool.  Michael Phelps and the rest of Team USA have some competition.  Look at that form! Stanley is training with Freddy, while Jade is coaching.  

 Freddy and his half-brother/nephew Stanley are also getting ready for the fetching competition.

Stanley's an expert at chasing down a tennis ball, where Freddy will stop and sniff the stick to see if it's worthy of him to return it.  Sometimes Freddy will stop and chew it, and not return it to Aunt Pat.  He needs a lot of work which I'm glad to provide.