Tales From A Doxie

Halo

2012-01-26T08:00:00.001-08:00

Sometimes Mom makes fun of me when I'm trying to show how her how wonderful I am and thus worthy of eating her dinner. She'll say things like, "Stop trying to shine your halo Maria," or she'll say, "Maria your halo is blinding!"

I keep trying to tell her that I am indeed an angel and thus should be given a seat at the table and access to the steak. I need it for my angel nourishment. But she doesn't believe me. Tragic.

Now, thanks to photographic proof obtained during a recent road trip, I think we can all put the angel issue to rest.

Note to Mom: I like my steak medium and I'd like my chair at the head of the table. Thanks!

Chilly Outside...Napping Inside

2012-01-24T19:30:00.000-08:00

All the puppies seem to agree that when it's this chilly outside the best thing to do is find a nice spot to sleep inside.

For the ladies...

2012-01-23T16:56:00.000-08:00

To all my lady fans out there this post is for you. Growl!

Here are some pictures of me sporting my "sexy dog on the town" gold chain and a close up of my "don't hassle the Hoff" chest furs.

Enjoy!

Bloopers

2012-01-11T20:01:00.001-08:00

Doing a little doggy photo session can sometimes be quite the undertaking. Especially when I'm on my own and they would rather be doing something else. This is when I have to become a master multi-tasker. I have to hold the camera, hold the treat, position my subjects, get their attention with said treat, and take the picture all before they get bored and go off to eat a worm.

There are times though where I manage to get their attention a little too well while using treats and I end up with the following bloopers:

Mystery Case

2012-01-10T07:34:00.001-08:00

Police were called out today to the scene of a violent duck attack. Those responsible for such a vicious crime have not yet been captured but two suspects have been identified.

The first one is described as male, short, red headed, fluffy tailed, said to be an evil genius and quite the ladies man. The second one is described as female, blond, strangely proportioned, and draws people in by pretending to be friendly but also a bit "slow."

If u see these two in your area you are to hide your stuffed animals and contact the authorities immediately.

Being Sexy Can Be So Much Work

2012-01-08T18:40:00.000-08:00

This weekend I was super busy. I was out on the town mingling with my admirers and saying hi to the ladies. I did a lot of hand shaking, a lot of giving kisses and a lot of treat taking. Then on Sunday I went hiking. You would think that in the middle of the woods I might find some peace, but even there I was tracked down by those that find me irresistible. I was stopped over and over again by people wanting to talk about my good looks, my luxurious hair, and just tell me how overall sexy I am (which is way obvious anyway). So now I am left exhausted, still super sexy, but exhausted. This Casanova is going to have to call it an early night just to try and muster up the energy to start a new week.

Sure my dashing good looks are a blessing, but sometimes they can also be a burden.

Christmas Superheroes

2012-01-02T15:57:00.000-08:00

The holiday season is now behind us, and Mom started taking apart our tree and decorations, but before she put everything in the boxes she had one last set of pictures to take...

Dottie the Christmas Superhero!

She fights on behalf of dog's who don't receive proper Christmas treats and gifts.
Don't be concerned with her unwilling appearance/look-of-despair...she likes wearing the tree skirt...kind of.

Alven the Doggy Christmas Wreath!

Here to protect all wreath's against post-holiday destruction.
Thanks to Grandma Lourdes who sent us this wreath from Orlando, FL (that explains the Disney theme)

Sweet and Fluffy Dreams

2011-12-28T17:16:00.000-08:00

For Christmas this year Aunt Natalia and Uncle Manny bought me a most excellent gift. A new dog bed! This one is truly special and has become my most favorite of all dog beds ever. Mom calls it the clam because it has a cover on top that makes it into a cave. I am fully covered on all sides by fluffy goodness. It is amazing.

Mom said that the bed was for all of us to share, but I don't think that's true. I'm sure that it is meant for me and only me. Dottie has gotten into it a couple of times which was very upsetting because not only is she using my bed without permission, but she also takes up A LOT of space!

Ugh...that is not going to work for me. I am going to have to come up with a way to keep intruders out. Maybe an idea will come to me in my sleep. I better go climb into the clam before I miss the dream. Goodnight!

Candy Canes

2011-12-27T20:30:00.000-08:00

For Christmas Aunt Natalia gave us candy canes. But not just any candy canes...GIANT CANDY CANES!!!!

They were amazing! And when Mom gave us our presents I did not waste any time and got straight to work. According to my mom I ate mine in the blink of an eye. It was more like in the chomp of a tooth, but who cares about the details. It was AWESOME!!!!! Mom though was not so thrilled and is not looking forward to the "after effects" that she needs to take care of. Oh well. That is not my department.

Thanks Aunt Natalia!

Happy Holidays!

2011-12-26T22:11:00.001-08:00

The pups celebrate in their Christmas outfits (...maybe against their will...)

Flashback

2011-07-11T19:45:00.000-07:00

(his first week home with us)

Memories

2011-07-05T19:41:00.000-07:00

Rosie with her backpack on a hike. Precious.

Sharing a tender moment

2011-06-28T22:35:00.000-07:00

So...we see you have a bit of bagel there...

2011-06-27T18:18:00.001-07:00

There's no getting anything over on these three. Their noses assure them that there is a bit of bagel floating around and no amount of urging to go play will dissuade them from getting at that bagel!

Is the weekend almost here?

2011-06-23T22:31:00.000-07:00

It's been a long week full of playing, running, grass eating, napping, more eating and more playing. We are all tuckered out! It's a good thing the weekend is almost here so we can finally relax.

A visit to Old Town Manassas

2011-06-22T22:12:00.000-07:00

I took a trip to Old Town Manassas. I heard a train came through.

I thought I'd take the train and go for a little adventure so I sat and I waited.

I waited for a long time, but the train never came...

I guess I'll have to wait for another day to have my adventure

Class is in session

2011-06-21T22:49:00.000-07:00

Good morning class. My name is Professor Mr. Flashy Pants, or Professor the Pants, whichever you prefer. I have brought my trusty globe with me today for our lesson plan. As you can see here on the globe is a country called Australia. This is where I have decided my dad and I are going to go to get away from all of the crazy people we are forced to live with. In this Australia we will finally be able to spend the rest of our days together taking naps, eating biscuits, and going for walks. It is going to be amazing. Oh, and it will also be re-named soon to "Flash and Dad land." We're just waiting for the papers to go through. Now the reason I'm showing you where this place is located is not so you can come and visit us (Mom!) it's so that you can see that it is completely surrounded by water. This makes it completely impenetrable since swimming is very dangerous and you will most surely die if you attempt it. Dad however is very smart and will find a way to get us there safely and we will live there forever having good times and not being bothered by anyone. Now, I will not tell you lies and say words of missing you, or that we will see each other again. This is not meant to be. However, I am willing to send back postcards of us having said good times so that you can see that we are well. Okay that was all I wanted to say. Class is dismissed.

Agility

2011-06-20T22:12:00.000-07:00

For the last month or two we have been spending our Sunday's at the park having awesome times! We are now taking agility classes and we are not too shabby if we do say so ourselves. Well...our parents are kind of embarrassing, but we're super good at it. Like there's any surprise there. Teehee...

Here I am relaxing before it's my turn inside the agility course

Here are Alven and Dad going inside the course when it's their turn

The take off was superb. Here you can see Alven just finishing his first
jump as they head for the table

Here they go getting ready for another jump. Alven
looks like he's definitely concentrating

Here he is coming out of the chute.

And here he is blowing Dad off instead of doing the tire. Haha!

Then it was my turn. Here I am doing the weaves super awesome!

Here I am coming down the teeter. Goodness I look good...

Here Mom is dragging me back to the tunnel after I decided I would
rather eat the grass. She is so bossy sometimes!

Here I am mid jump. Wow that was impressive.

Maria comes to agility too, and Mom has something even better than pictures. She has a video! But we are still waiting for permission from Aunt Natalia before we can show it on the blog...but here she is during her turn this past weekend. That's Aunt Natalia in the hat.

Rosie comes to agility too. She is supposed to be our cheerleader, but she just sits in the car and looks all grumpers. She has to work on her cheery part of cheerleader.

P.S. We don't have very good pictures of Flash doing his agility, but we'll make sure to take some next weekend and share them.

Hounds on the Town - Purcellville

2011-06-19T17:49:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we had an amazing time at our latest Hounds on the Town event. This time we got to go to Purcellville, VA. We aren't exactly sure where that is, but we do know that we had an amazing time. One of the old clients from our school has a house there that is right by a lake, and she lets our school take trips out there every year for hiking and swimming. She was a very nice lady and we very much appreciated being allowed to come and visit. Here are some pictures of our super awesome day!

Here is a picture so you can see how many other
doggies also came to have a good time

When we got there we made sure to set up our area
so we could have a place to rest

Oh! This is Heather! She is our new dog sitter. She comes every day and lets us out to the bathroom and plays with us for a while during the days our parents have to go away to make the dollars that pay for our treats. We love Heather!

At first I didn't want to go into the water. I preferred to just watch from a safe distance where drowning was not possible.

Then Mom took me swimming to "help me get over my fear." No pictures because she couldn't take the camera into the water. Here I am trying to wipe the wet off. Yuck!

Here is Rosie looking a bit worse for wear after taking a dunk herself. She's crazy though because she actually LIKES it! She's so weird...

We had a great time, and can't wait until July when they're planning
another visit to the lake. Good times!

You are beginning to annoy me...

2011-06-09T19:14:00.000-07:00

Dad, is it really necessary for you to be all up in my grill with that camera? And no, I don't see why it should matter that this was the shirt you were planning to wear today. Were you aware that this was the shirt I was planning to use as my personal blanket/hoodie? You can be so self absorbed sometimes.

What we have here is a failure to communicate...

2011-05-31T20:15:00.001-07:00

Mom has been trying to send the pictures she took of us during our holiday weekend all day and has been having no luck. It seems that her phone and her computer are having an argument and don't like each other very much right now. It also doesn't help that she can't find her picture transferring cable/wire/thingy-ma-jig. SO! We are going to have to wait until tomorrow to share our picnic pictures with you. We object! Boooooo! This is what I think about this whole "delay."

I see your sleepy time eyes and I raise you sleepy time smile!

2011-05-24T20:12:00.000-07:00

Sure my brother Flash can look pretty cute when he wants to, but I shall not be outdone! Here is MY version of sleepy time eyes. I think we can all agree on who the winners is...exactly!

Sleepy Time Eyes

2011-05-23T17:34:00.000-07:00

2011 Pet Fiesta

2011-05-22T16:55:00.001-07:00

Hi there!

I'm sure a lot of you have been worried that we died, but nope, Mom just got a new job and it's been keeping her real busy. At least that's what she says...Anyway! She has promised to try and be more responsible and actually update the blog. As such, we are starting things off with a bang. Here are pictures from the 2011 Pet Fiesta that we went to. Our school had a "Hounds on the Town," event and we all went and did obedience training and a lot of butt sniffing while enjoying a whole lot of doggy action.

Here we are in a class picture:

Here we are all sitting and "waiting patiently"

Now we're practicing our stair manners:

Practicing our "down and stay"

There were some strange looking dogs there,
but we try and be nice to everyone:

After class was done we got to do some mingling and take some pictures
of all the dogs that were there. We saw lots of dachshunds and even one
big dog pulling a cart!

We had tons and tons of fun. There were so many doggies there and so many chances to sneak treats off the floor. It was awesome! We can't wait until next year so we can go back.

"Zoom!" A story told through Dad's pictures

2011-04-10T19:25:00.000-07:00

Where You Go I'll Go

2011-04-04T19:17:00.001-07:00

Wherever you find Joe you'll find, not too far behind, his faithful shadow. He is the only one we have any trust in when it comes to being off leash. We can be in an open field, or an enclosed space, and Flash rarely needs to be kept on a leash. Flash is tied to Joe by an invisible, but very real, link that doesn't allow him to stay anymore than a few steps away from his soul mate. Even when we go for a walk and Joe ties his leash to his waist Flash still has to look up every few minutes just to check in, make sure they're on the same page and anticipate anything that Joe might be about to do. The only time he allows Joe out of his sight is when he takes a nap burrowed under some blankets. Other than that the Joe radar is on full force.

Grump-a-lump

2011-04-03T21:18:00.000-07:00

Back due to popular demand...(drum roll)...GRUMP-A-LUMP (also known as Rosie)!!!

"A fan favorite"

2011-03-28T18:20:00.001-07:00

Why hello there Aunt Sandra! Hope I'm not disturbing you or anything. I just wanted to stop by your desk and visit with you for a little bit. We haven't really had much of a chance to chit chat with one another lately with both of us being so busy and everything. That is really a shame, because, as you know, you are one of my most favorites. Another thing I noticed is that I haven't been on the blog in a while. Isn't that strange? I thought it was a bit peculiar and I know you would agree. After all I am what you would call, "a fan favorite." So...anyway...I thought I would just mention it in passing...you know...in case you weren't aware. Okay then. I'm sure you'll know the best way to resolve this. Good talk! Let's do this again soon. Okay, bye!

Back home

2011-03-22T19:52:00.001-07:00

Mom came back from her trip to that Cleveland place (wherever that is) and is back home with us. When she arrived from the airport she had to go through a very thorough screening process for security reasons. We don't like to discuss what exactly those reasons are, due to certain policies, but we can say that it involves searching for possible hidden snacks. Enough said.

Here we are giving Mom's pj's (yes, they're polka dot. Yes, it's embarrassing) a good sniffing in order to determine where she's been, who else was there, if she ate a cookie while wearing them, and finally, if she left a little bit of said cookie in her pocket. Sadly, we could not find any trace of a cookie, or even a biscuit, but we still had fun rooting around in her bag. So not a total loss.

Mom said she was glad to be home and that it had been weird to sleep in a room with no pups. We agreed that is must have been very hard for her. We're also glad she's back since she keeps us entertained.

Now that the pack is together again we have many exciting plans. For example, we are starting agility classes this weekend. Awesome!

Abandoned

2011-03-14T06:44:00.000-07:00

That's right folks, we have been abandoned. Mom started a new job two weeks ago and has left us forever. We were very upset because she failed to provide us with the adequate two weeks notice before she left her job with us as administrative assistant. She didn't even put up our birthday pictures before she left and then said that the two week training at her new job left her so tired after work she couldn't lift her arms enough to turn the computer on when she came home so she could post our pictures. Excuses! Excuses!

Now, it's gotten even worse and she's really leaving us today. This "new job" is sending her to Cleveland, Ohio and she will not be here with us. We told her that we didn't understand why she couldn't just commute home like she always does, but she said something about it being a little farther than she's willing to drive back and forth. Excuses! Excuses! She isn't coming back until Thursday so we really are being abandoned as you can see. At least we got her to agree to post our belated birthday pics before she goes. It's the least she can do really.

So here are our pictures! (two weeks late...)

For our birthday we got to go hiking at a new park

Hiking is one of our most favorite things to do so we were very excited

We also got birthday cookies which is great, because eating is our other most favorite thing to do.

Then it was time for presents when we got home!

Here is Alven taking a good look at that cookie

Aunt Natalia and Uncle Manny got us new towels. We were very excited because they made sure to get them in our favorite colors. Here is Dottie modeling her towel

It was also Rosie's birthday, so Mom made her a special gift...her own portrait! But, Rosie didn't seem overly impressed.

Overall, we had a great time and can't wait until next year so we can do it all over again. Though we've also decided that next year we would like a giant cake for each one of us. We have already started passing around a petition and will be sending it to our parents soon.

Technical Difficulties

2011-02-22T14:29:00.000-08:00

It seems that when Mom went to upload the birthday pictures onto the computer she couldn't actually remember where she left the camera. After much looking and pondering she thinks it is actually in Aunt Natalia's car. This means that we can't put the pictures up until she gets home from school late tonight. In the meantime here are some other pictures to tide everyone over. These were taken when we went to Manassas Battelfield park during one of the gorgeous days we had last week.

Flash on the porch of old time house

Alven using his camouflage techniques

"See ya slow pokes!"

Sunset becomes me

2011-02-20T20:41:00.001-08:00

The long weekend is almost over and so is the warm weather we've been having. The last few days have been so great we almost forgot what month it was. I even took the dogs for a walk wearing a t-shirt the other day (not even a sweater on!!). We have really enjoyed these last few sunny days and they could not have come at a better time. It was the pup's birthday/gotcha month! Very exciting. We had an awesome time this weekend celebrating and there are some great pictures to match. I'll be posting them up tomorrow, but in the meantime please enjoy a picture of the old guy strolling off into the sunset.

Tennis Pro

2011-02-16T15:43:00.000-08:00

While my sister Maria was busy practicing her tricks I was busy working on my tennis game. I take the sport very serious and like to go to the tennis courts as much as possible so that I can be ready when the tryouts come around for the U.S. Open. I think my skills have really improved this year and I'm pretty sure I could win first prize and get the shiny bowl they give out. Here is a picture of me at the courts putting in some training time.

A Trick Since I Can't Eat Chocolate

2011-02-14T20:10:00.001-08:00

Yesterday was Valentine's Day my mom told me. That is a day where people give out hugs and kisses all day long. It's also a day where you're supposed to give those you care about the most some chocolate. Chocolate in the shape of hearts is apparently the favorite. I didn't get any chocolate. Not in any kind of shape. Sure I like a cuddle as much as the next dog, but I'm pretty sure I'd prefer a chocolate. Mom keeps telling me I can't eat it and that it's bad for me, but I'm starting to get suspicious. How come she gets to decide that for me? How does she know it's bad for me if I've never had any? Very suspicious indeed.

Anyway, in order to make up for hoarding all the chocolate to herself she took me to the tennis courts so I could run around and have some fun. The other dogs came too, but that's not important. I have to admit that it was fun and I enjoyed myself. Took my mind of my chocolate shortage. While we were there my mom and I practiced one of my many tricks. My Aunt Sandra was nice enough to photograph the practice session and I'd like to share the pictures with you. I call this trick, "Jump On The Bench."

Here is the bench

Here is my mom at the bench. I'm off camera getting ready for the trick.

Here I am getting ready for the jump portion of the trick

The jump!

Perfect landing

Here I am at the end of the "Jump on the bench" trick looking victorious

Happy Birthday to Uncle Manny

2011-02-14T07:11:00.000-08:00

This past Sunday was our Uncle Manny's birthday. Very exciting. We aren't sure how old he is now, but we think he has to be somewhere in the fifteen, sixteen year range. Very old indeed. As a birthday gift the three of us got together and made him a very nice card with a fish on it, because he likes fish. Mom put his gift inside and then we all sealed the deal by licking it (Mom wants us to be clear and say that the word "we" does not include her and she did not actually lick it, but that's only because she is a party pooper). He seemed to be pleased with the card and that is good news. We wish him many more years of good health, having all his teeth and enjoying many more cards from us. Love you Uncle Manny!

Burrowing until the sun comes back to stay

2011-02-10T10:11:00.001-08:00

Flash was feeling pretty good about the nice warm weather we had earlier in the week. He was out there sniffing and roaming around the yard with the best of them. Then, the cold weather came again to pay us a visit. At that exact moment Flash disappeared from his yard duties and was found inside the house under multiple layers of blanket. He has informed everyone in the house that until the sun makes a more permanent appearance we will not be seeing him outside again. We are hoping that the weather gets nice and warm again so we can see our Mr. Flash back outside and so we can get our blanket back.

Fun at the park

2011-02-08T11:32:00.000-08:00

This past weekend we went for a great walk with Mom and Dad. We ended up at this nice little park and we were allowed to have some free time so we could explore it and have some fun.

There were so many great trees to smell and even one you could sit on:

Alven and I got to explore the kiddie agility course and at first we weren't sure what we thought about it. Here is Alven coming through one of the tunnels. If you look close you can see Mom is in the tube behind him.

After giving it some thought we decided we each wanted a turn down the slide, but Mom said that we had to take turns so she could make sure we didn't get hurt.

We had a lot of fun and can't wait to go back soon.

Back seat driver

2011-02-03T10:59:00.000-08:00

When we go on long, or short, car trips Alven has a problem staying in the doggy designated area, which would be the entire back seat. He needs to be part of the action up front and comment on our driving technique, our chosen route and pretty much just be a busy body.

On one of our trips to NYC we realized just the lengths he'll go to when it comes to getting his way. After several attempts at sneaking up front through the middle consul he realized he needed to change tactics and reevaluate his strategy. For a few minutes I thought he had finally gotten the message and decided to be a good boy and settle down for the rest of the ride. A definite underestimation of his determination. A second later I felt some hot breath on my right arm and I turned to find the following:

My first reaction was to laugh, but after that I had to give him credit for creative problem solving while at the same time feeling a little stunned at how determined this pup can be.

In case you're wondering, the reason he can wedge his head between the seat and the car is because we put cushions on the floor so that they have more space to stretch out and we don't have to worry about them falling off the backseat.

Fall memories

2011-02-01T08:17:00.001-08:00

I remember a few months ago when the only thing I had to worry about was if my mom was going to wrap that silly bandana around my neck when we went for a walk. Now, I realize those were the good 'ole days. These new days are very different. Before we even think about going for our walkies she has to put on five billion layers of clothes and then she needs to do the same thing to me. Okay, it might only be one layer of jacket but it sure feels like a lot. I am a free spirit. I need to be able to run free and unlayered. There are also giant mountains of snow all over the place and sometimes we have to walk on the street. Not that I'm complaining about the snow. No indeed. I am complaining that my mom doesn't let me play on it the whole walk. So in conclusion I guess what I'm saying is that the bandana, maybe, wasn't so bad when I look back on it. Not that I'll let my mom know that. No need to encourage her when it comes to putting stuff on me.

I am not amused

2011-01-27T20:20:00.000-08:00

Is it really necessary to disturb my nap time with your camera addiction?

That was not an invitation to keep taking pictures.

I think we're going to have to talk about the dangers of pushing my buttons.

Hey!

I said pushing my buttons, not kiss my button nose!

Okay this means war...

Another snow day

2011-01-26T18:44:00.001-08:00

We got another whopper of a snow day today. There were no walks to be had, and our advanced obedience class was canceled. Oh well, just more indoor snuggle time with the pups. However, snow or no snow, bathroom breaks can't be avoided. Here are some pictures of what the outside looked like when we let the pups out to do their business.

That's Alven walking next to the back fence. It was still snowing pretty hard, but he didn't seem to mind at all.

Someone who did mind very much was our Mr. Flash. Here he is looking very miserably at having to go out to pee in these kinds of conditions (and that I had to take a picture of him while he did so, hehe)

Here is what one of the trees in our yard looked like. The snow has made it droop in some spots all the way to the floor

Dottie was very interested in inspecting the tree and I had to stop her from eating the snow off the branches

Dottie and Alven, our two snow dogs, didn't let the weather keep them from having some fun

In this picture Joe is trying to clear a spot for Mr. Flash so he can be more comfortable next time we have to take him out. That little black lump inside the house is Mr. Flash on his doggy bed grumbling about getting his paws wet and cold.

The many faces of Maria

2011-01-25T22:05:00.001-08:00

This past Sunday Maria had an appointment with her personal groomer (her mom (oh and it might have been made against her will)). During the grooming session we decided to do a little beauty montage and explore different style options.

The nerd/evil genius/serial killer:

The punk rocker/chocolate & vanilla swirl/unicorn dog:

The Donal Trump/the comb over/old man 50's hair:

Birthday Bowls

2011-01-24T20:01:00.000-08:00

This past weekend was our mom and aunt Nati's birthday. They weren't too forthcoming on the actual number, but we're pretty sure they're almost as old as Flash...maybe even older. As part of the birthday celebrations they decided to head back to pottery painting and we got to go too. Dad couldn't make it, because the previous night they had gone out for dinner and something did not settle too well. That's what happens when you get greedy and don't let us come along to dinner. Flash stayed behind to take care of Dad, but the rest of us hit the road for some birthday fun.

Mom made us pups some new water bowls because she said that the ones we have now are not cute enough. Here we are posing with our new bowls. The reason we look a little confused is because she forgot to put anything tasty in them first. She is so silly. The bowls won't be ready to come home for a little while, but we are looking forward to using them at home.

From fun in the sun to frozen in a blizzard

2011-01-20T21:18:00.001-08:00

During our trip to New York City we enjoyed some very bipolar weather conditions. The first few days were great and pretty warm considering it is winter. I really enjoyed taking the pups for walks in my neighborhood park, because when I was younger it had always been my dream to have my own puppy that I could take for walks there. Now I'm older and had to drive eight hours from VA, but I got to take my doggies for a walk in my old neighborhood. Here we are enjoying the day:

Here I am embarrassing Dottie once again:

However, this all changed the last two days of our trip. We were in the city during one of the worst blizzards of all time. We had 18 inches of snow fall in one day with 40 mile/hour winds. It was crazy and we all felt like human ice cubes. The last time I remember being in a blizzard like that was when I was in Junior High, so definitely a while back. I was worried about Dottie, Rosie and Maria (Alven and Flash had come home earlier in the week with Joe and Manny) because none of them is that tall. When it came time to take them out to the bathroom we didn't know if they would be able to do their business in the snow because in some areas all you could see was the tip of their heads. Rosie and Maria are definitely anti snow when it comes to going to the bathroom and we had to pick them up and lug them to a patch that we had cleared out.

I wasn't sure if Dottie would be ok with the snow so I picked her up and lugged her over too. Let me tell you something, I do not have good upper body strength AT ALL. She might only weigh 27 pounds, but after four steps in all that snow it felt like I was carrying a hippo. There was more than one occasion where I found myself falling face first into a snow mountain and then couldn't get back up! And, to top it all off, I shouldn't have even bothered. Dottie LOVED the snow. She got to the cleared patch smelled around a bit and then proceeded to the snow mountain where all I could see was her head and went to the bathroom. Then she didn't want to come inside because she was having so much fun burying herself in the snow. I had to drag her back into the building before she turned into an ice sculpture. Here are some pics of the snow princess:

You can see her body in this picture, but as you can tell from the top of her jacket, that wasn't always the case

Here Aunt Nati is working hard to excavate the car for our trip back home the next day:

We cheer her on from the inside...with the heat on

Even with all the snow and the risk of frost bite we all had a great time. It was so much fun to see our families and share it all with our dogs. We are looking forward to our next trip up north, but probably not until Spring.

We're back for 2011

2011-01-18T18:53:00.000-08:00

After a long holiday break we are back for 2011! The break wasn't so much our choice as our personal typist's. After taking a week long holiday trip to NYC, we came back and Mom and Dad were in charge of all five of us pups since Aunt Nati and Uncle Manny went on vacation to Belize (we have as of yet to get any souvenirs! But that is a separate issue) . But now that things are back to normal we are all ready to resume our blogging, which is a good thing since we have so much to tell you. Let's start with first things first, Christmas gifts!

We got a lot of good gifts this year, including cookies, a giant stuffed candy cane toy, a plethora of stuffed animals, and some new treats. But our super duper most favorite of all present was a new dog bed! We all fell in love with Rosie and Maria's doggy bed and always tried to sneak into it, until Aunt Nati said that we could borrow it and keep it in our room. That was great, but it is a little on snug side when it comes to sharing as you might recall, so Mom and Dad went out and bought us our very own. Yay!

It's big enough for all three of us to share, though sometimes we still like to lie down right in the middle and spread out to make sure we get some alone time with the bed. We all need our privacy once in a while.

For Christmas eve we went over to Uncle Manny's place where he used to live before he met Anut Nati. His mom and sister still live there and they are super duper fun. They were hosting a "Pajama Party Christmas," so everyone dressed up in pj's and funny hair styles. It was a lot of fun, though also slightly embarrassing, but we're used to that when it comes to our parents.

The picture is kind of blurry because Dad took it without the flash on so you could see the nice lights on the tree. We had a lot of fun that night and it was a great beginning to a trip that ended with me being covered in 18 inches of snow, but more on that tomorrow. For now I leave you with my before and after Christmas picture:

Me at the start of the festivities:

Me at the end of the night:

In need of a little vacation

2010-12-22T19:42:00.001-08:00

Us pups work hard all year long bringing joy and cheer to all. This means that when the end of the year comes along we're ready for a break. As such our parents are stepping up and taking us on a holiday vacation. Thursday we're packing up and heading off to New York to spend Christmas with the extended pack. We're sure good times will be had by all. We haven't been allowed to get a sneak peek at our gifts, but we've trained our parents well so no worries there. We'll be out of town for a little while but we'll try and keep up with the blogging. Until then happy holiday's to all!!

Girls Day Out

2010-12-20T22:34:00.000-08:00

On Sunday my sister and I decided to spend a girl's day out. Of course that meant the party would not be complete without ALL the girls being present so we packed up Rosie, Maria and Dottie into the car and headed out to Front Royal to do some pottery painting. The owner of the store loves dogs and lets us reserve her party room so that we can bring our pups with us. We bring doggy bowls, water, blankets, treats and anything else we think the dogs might need while we get our craft on. On this particular occasion our mission was to work on some Christmas presents.

For the last three years Joe and I have spent Christmas with his parents. This year will be the first time that they will not be with us for the holiday's, though they have confessed that what has them really sad is that they aren't going to be with the pups. Another thing you should know is that Joe's mom loves decorating her tree. She loves ornaments and all things Christmas oriented which is why I thought a perfect gift idea would be some doggy-themed ornaments for her tree. I was going to paint little portraits of each dog, but when I saw the size of the biscuit I knew that was not going to be easy and with only a few hours to work on them I chose another route. I decided I would write each dog's name on the ornament and paint the background in their signature color. Believe it or not this took me all four hours to get done. There is a lot of color layering that needs to be done if you don't want it to come out streaky when it's done. Here they are after I was done with the 5 millionth layer for each one.

Hopefully they will look super cute when they're done, which will be early this week, and I will ship them to Florida. They are going to be a little late, but they have another gift already on the way so it won't be too bad.

And here are pictures of the girls resting while we paint some pottery:

Snow Days

2010-12-19T19:07:00.000-08:00

Last week we got our very first snow day! It was a lot of fun to see these Florida pups experience snow for the very first time.

Here are Dottie and Alven coming out and seeing the snow. At first they were a little cautious and didn't know what to make out of all this white stuff on the floor (the blue stuff is the pet safe salt that was starting to melt).

But after a little bit more sniffing around and checking it out these two made up their minds. This snow stuff is AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!

Even Rosie and Maria had fun running around out there. They are snow veterans, but it's always nice to give their new winter jackets a whirl.

As you may have noticed there are no Mr. Flash pictures. That is because he came out, looked around, felt the cold snow beneath his paws and high tailed it back inside in about two seconds flat. To make up for the tragic loss of no Flash pictures I give you Alven and the snow beard, Ta Da!

Oh, and here is a little video of Alven and Dottie playing in the snow.

Wordless Wednesday (but still giggly)

2010-12-14T20:21:00.001-08:00

A snow sprinkle

2010-12-13T19:51:00.000-08:00

Today we got our first taste of snow, or at least that's what our mom says. We didn't really notice that much when we came out this morning for our potty break. We did a little bit of sniffing around, but other than that it was business as usual. I guess we were too busy playing to notice anything different about the grass, though it did feel a little more chilly on my bum when I posed for the pictures. Mom says that pretty soon there will be no avoiding this snow thing. Until then we'll just keep doing what we do best.

Congratulations To Our Graduates

2010-12-12T17:55:00.000-08:00

Rosie and Flash successfully completed their doggy class this past Saturday. They were both taking a class called Mindful Mutts at the same school where Dottie and Alven are taking their obedience classes. Mindful mutts is for dogs with anxiety and confidence issues. We learned massages that will help calm them, ways to build their confidence, how to better introduce them to situations they might find stressful, and how to better communicate with them so that they can understand that we are in charge and they don't need to worry. Rosie took the class to help her with her fear of strangers and new places and Flash took the class to help him get over his fear of strange dogs and new places.

We got a lot out of the class and both pups have made a great improvement. Just being able to take them to a place that was controlled, and where they can be around other dogs, and other people and everyone is on the same page and wants to help them was really the best part of the class. We enjoyed meeting the other pups in the class and their parents. It was definitely the highlight of our Saturday's. Our instructor Kathy even thinks they are ready to take the next step and move on to the novice obedience class, which is a big step for these two. A couple of months ago the thought of putting them in a situation with ten other strange dogs and fifteen strangers was more than these two could probably handle, but now I think it is very doable. We are looking forward to enrolling them for the next novice class which starts in January. They already know all the basic commands and then some so we won't be focusing so much on them sitting and staying, but just being able to be relaxed and calm while in the middle of lots of people and other dogs.

They are really coming along and I have no doubt that some day soon these two are going to come out of their shells and be real social butterflies. In the meantime, Congratulations Rosie and Flash!!!!

(They each received a diploma, a Christmas toy and a giant biscuit. The dog biscuits were added using Photoshop since they did not make it out of the class alive)

Another head scratcher

2010-12-06T19:14:00.000-08:00

Here is another picture for the "What the...?" series.

Now, don't think that this is an "action shot." She wasn't half way through burrowing herself into the rest of the bed and blanket. Nope, this was actually how she decided she was going to take a nap. But really, who hasn't looked at a bed and said to themselves, "You know, I think I'll be much more comfortable if I hang half of my body off the side." Maybe it's good for the circulation. Who are we to judge? If she can sleep like that and still maintain sensation in the lower part of her body, then good for her.

After about fifteen minutes of this position she did change it up just a tad.

Perchance her leg got a little chilly, or since she was now resting her butt against the other cushion she didn't need it for balance. Either way it was strange, it was hilarious, it was 100% Dottie style.

A walk in the woods

2010-12-05T21:18:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we took a wonderful walk in a new section of Battlefield National Park. Just because it's starting to get chilly doesn't mean you can't have some fun outside. We did so much smelling and walking, and leaf chewing. It was totally awesome!

The girls wore their backpacks. In it they carry beans and water bottles. It helps them to get an even better exercise and not be so annoying, (hahaha!)

As for myself, my only job is looking sexy, and as you know I do that very well.

We had a great time and can't wait until we get to go back again.

Principles can really ruin a picture

2010-12-01T18:09:00.001-08:00

Oh girls! Hey, look at me! Look up for the picture, okay? Don't you want a cute picture for the blog? Wouldn't that be fun?

(Bringing out the big guns)

What is this? Why it's a tasty treat and it's all yours if you look up for a second. Come on, I know you want it.

Listen, I can talk to your mom about increasing food portions. A little give and take ladies; that's all I'm asking for.

I see you two are the only dogs I've ever met who can't be bought.

Made for one? We'll see about that.

2010-11-29T19:52:00.001-08:00

Um...I know the chilly winter nights are arriving, but we do have indoor heat. There is no reason to jam themselves into a doggy bed made for one. I'm not even sure either one is actually comfortable. They are too silly. For Christmas I'll get them one doggy blanket to share in their one doggy bed.

Full Of The Thankfulness

2010-11-28T21:25:00.000-08:00

We are back from our little holiday break, which was great. There was much mingling with family, sniffing of food, attempting to eat food, and giving lovey eyes at unsuspecting visitors. Mom said that this holiday was all about the thankfulness and we have a story to share that is just full of it.

On Friday, the day after thankfulness day, we were out with our mom and dad for our usual afternoon stroll. We were just ready to come back home when Dad decided he wanted to take Dottie for a final run around the block. Mom said it was a good idea and continued on with the boys. We were a block away from the house when Mom saw this big husky coming in our direction with no leash attached and no owner in sight. She immediately realized that this was a loose dog and she was currently holding on to two dog magnets. It must be our handsome faces, or something, because whenever Mom has come across loose dogs on the street they always take a direct route straight to us. All of a sudden Mom starts walking real fast. The kind of walking where you want to get somewhere real quick, but don't want to draw attention to yourself and the fact that you are doing that walk/running thing. Well she walk/runs herself to our yard, throws us in, then takes Flash's leash and runs off. All we see is her running back down the street and calling our Aunt Nati on the phone at the same time telling her to come out to the yard and let us in. As she runs back to where she saw the husky last she also sees Dad running back with Dottie. Guess who else saw them running? If you said the husky then you are correct. Now the husky runs across the street and right for Dottie and Dad. Not knowing if the stray dog has any dog issues Mom jumps in front of Dad and intercepts (she learned that move from me, Alven, and the way I try to intercept her when she drops food). This is all very James Bond/Wonder Woman-ish of Mom, but luckily the husky turns out to be a big giant marshmallow. She starts licking Mom's arms and being all silly. Mom loops the leash on her neck and the husky just starts walking next to her like they've known each other for years. This is when we see Mom and Dad start walking back to the house with the husky and Dottie. At first I was worried that I was getting a new sister because she looked like she eats more than her fair share of kibble and I was worried I'd have to share mine. Fortunately, they were only coming to drop Dottie off with Aunt Nati while they went to look for her owners and where she might have escaped from (but not until snapping a quick picture, of course).

After asking at a couple of houses, which directed them to other houses, which directed them to the right house, Mom and Dad found the husky's home. When her owner came to the door Mom asked if he recognized the dog. The man looks at the husky kind of confused like and then says, "DALLAS????" It seems that Miss Dallas must have dug herself out of the yard without her owner realizing it and met up with us a few blocks and a couple of street crossings later. Once her owner called her name she went up to him cool as can be and just waltzed back into the house. While she was a little dirty (and a little smelly) she didn't seem to think it had been anything but the bestest adventure ever. The man thanked Mom and Dad and they walked back to the house.

It was a day full of the thankfulness. Mom and Dad were thankful that they were able to help such a sweet girl. Her owner was thankful to get her back. Dallas was thankful for a great adventure we're sure. And we were thankful we weren't going to have to share our kibble with a new sister who could probably eat us under the table any day. A good time was had by all.

I prefer to stay warm

2010-11-23T21:23:00.001-08:00

Go outside in this cold weather versus stay inside in my doggy bed? It's not a difficult decision to make. My parents, on the other hand, don't seem to get it. They keep shoving me into sweaters and jackets in an attempt to keep me warm, but at the same time they drag me out into the chilly air. Doesn't make a lick of sense. What better way to stay warm than not to go out at all? I might not have a thumb, but even I can figure this one out. I keep trying to tell them exercise is over rated and not essential. Unfortunately, they are very stubborn. I have not given up and continue my protest. As soon as the sweater goes on I make a run for it and jump into my doggy bed. So far this has not worked, but I refuse to give up. If they like being outside so much maybe they should have moved us to Bermuda.

Work the sad look everyone!

2010-11-22T20:27:00.000-08:00

Last week Mom and Dad were cleaning up the yard and said that we were not allowed outside. Something about us creating a mess. Whatever! We were stuck inside behind the evil and teasing screen door. So close and yet so far. We all pulled out our sad puppy eyes in an attempt to get a chance to go play in the yard. It did not work. Humans can be so mean.

Technical difficulties

2010-11-17T22:13:00.003-08:00

Please enjoy this picture of Rosie brought to you by Mom's cell phone. It seems that after promising to keep up with our blogging she went ahead and "accidentally" spilled soy sauce all over her keyboard. There was much grumbling and muttering and angry looks. Mom was pretty upset too. Now the keyboard is a sticky mess, though it does smell kinda tasty. According to Mom she has to take the keys off and clean them up before we can use it again. Afraid to anger Flash and Rosie she promised to post from her phone. I guess it will have to do for now. The patience you need to have with humans sometimes. She acts like we didn't take her to training class. Oh well, we just need to harness our inner zen and carry on. Hopefully by tomorrow the keyboard will be back in working order. Perhaps we should volunteer to lick it clean...

Strange Encounters

2010-11-16T19:07:00.000-08:00

The other day Mom let me tag along on a shopping trip. We were going to the store to buy some more food for me and the rest of the pups so she said I could come and help carry the bag. She is so silly, because as we all know I don't do menial labor. Well on the way to get the food we passed this one store and I saw the craziest thing. Two pups inside a human store!

I could not believe my peepers. I thought dogs weren't allowed inside people stores. I tried making friends with them through the window, but they were not very friendly. They just sat there and stared right past me. So rude! I even tried again and mentioned how I liked her sparkly collars, but no dice. Obviously they were not very well socialized as puppies. Whatever! I didn't even really want to be their friend. Who wears five billion collars at the same time anyway?

Here I am giving them the cold shoulder back:

After that Mom and I left and headed to the doggy store to buy my food. I had a good time at the store and smelled lots of things and tried to eat stray kibbles from underneath the shelves. All in all a successful trip. On they way home we passed a building that had the scariest looking pet I have ever seen.

What is up with the strange animals in Virginia? Can you imagine the poop bag his owner must need? Back in Orlando we didn't have nearly as many crazy pets walking around. It was a weird day...

Trying to forgo your responsibilities I see...

2010-11-15T19:14:00.000-08:00

Dear Mom,

We would like to inform you that your sub-par work performance has not gone unnoticed. Rest assured we are well aware of your slacker ways. You continue to disregard your duties as official blog typist leaving us no choice but to present you with the official stink eye:

(Flash gives you the stink eye)

For a long time now we have asked you to resume your job of typing up our blog entries so that we may share with others our words of wisdom, but you have paid us no heed. Your explanations of having "too much work on your hands," or being "too busy" are just not good enough. What could be more important than typing up our stories and taking pictures of us all day long? Nothing! Nothing is more important! We are very disappointed and hope that this final written warning will serve as enough incentive to finally pay us the attention we deserve. If, however, we have to bring this matter up again we are afraid that we will be forced to take drastic measures. That's right. The Rosie grumpy jowl face:

(Rosie giving the "grumpy jowl face")

We're sorry it had to come to this, but you left us no choice. Especially since our only other option as typist would be Dad and he is kinda slow on the keyboard for someone with opposable thumbs (sorry Dad! Kiss, kiss). But let us put this behind us now and move on to a future full of regular blogging and many flattering pictures.

Sincerely,
Management
(a.ka. Alven, Dottie, Flash, Maria and Rosie)

Hounds On The Town - Corn Maze

2010-10-26T16:14:00.001-07:00

This past weekend was jammed packed with good times. Mom and Dad took us to our very first Hounds On The Town event that our doggy school was hosting. They have them once a month and anyone who's ever taken a class with them is welcome to come and spend a couple of hours practicing their skills out in the real world. There were about 15 other pups and their owners there to meet and mingle with. This month the group headed out to a corn maze. At first we didn't know what that was, but we knew we liked having adventures so we were all for it. Turns out a corn maze is like a giant puzzle made out of corn. Awesome! Well...it was awesome until they told us we weren't allowed to eat the corn. Bummer!

Since this was our very first Hounds on the Town event, Mom and Dad had their hands full keeping us "well behaved" (they are so dictatorial) in the middle of a giant edible maze and with so many new friends. This means that Mom didn't get a chance to snap a picture of all the dogs that went while trying to wrangle Dottie out of the corn. Our teacher did take a group picture at the beginning of the day though. As soon as it gets loaded up on their website we'll post a link on the blog. We had a great time, especially when the whole group got lost inside the maze and no one could figure out how to get out. This was fun for us because it gave us even more opportunities to eat corn off the floor and do lots of butt sniffing while the humans stood around trying to figure out where they were standing. Bless their sweet, simple-minded ways.

Here are some pictures that Mom did manage to take after the day was over and we stayed behind to do a little more exploring.

Here we are at the start of the maze (this is a reenactment). Dottie is grumbling about the whole no picking the corn rule.

This is us at the end of the maze (also a reenactment). Mom is excited to have made it out alive.

Here we are with Dad on the outside of the maze. Dad didn't want to risk going in again and getting lost (again), but we all know Dottie could eat her way out of there. Duh!

After, we headed back to the main farm area and we got the chance to pick out a couple of pumpkins.

We made a new friend which Mom and Dottie found hilarious. Poor thing. It's not her fault she's kinda ugly.

Mom let us explore some giant tires they had lying around.

We both fit in one of these bad boys. These things are F.U.N.

Fall stands for fun with these pups

2010-10-22T07:00:00.000-07:00

This is the first real fall season for my three crazy pups and they are having a blast. They might not know why the leaves are all of a sudden on the floor and not on the trees, but they do know they like it. Leaf on the floor means leaf in the mouth, which also means good times for them. They all love rooting around the yard scattering the piles of leaves and seeing what they can find under there. Maria and Rosie are doing a great job mentoring the other three on the finer points of leaf rolling and twig chewing.

The other day I took each one out to the yard for a little photo shoot in order to commemorate our first fall together.

And yes, Rosie is giving me her famous grump-a-lump face. Don't worry that's her normal every day look. She just wants to be sure that I understand that she resents the fact that I am manipulating her with a treat in order to pose for my picture (and that it works).

Hard at work

2010-10-21T09:46:00.000-07:00

Dottie and Rosie work hard to keep Mom and Aunt Naty company while they work at their desks. It's a big job, lots of responsibility, so much to do, but these two pups are dedicated career girls.

These Paws Were Meant For Walking

2010-10-20T10:14:00.001-07:00

One of our most favorite things to do is go walk the trails at Manassas National Battlefield Park which is just five minutes from the house. When Mom and Dad start filling up the backpack with water bottles and our very own portable doggy bowls we know it's time to hit the trails and go looking for some adventure. We just love being in the woods and smelling all those smells. So far we've seen squirrels, deer, chipmunks, birds, frogs, bunnies and one time we even saw a turtle in the middle of the path. So much fun! Sure we aren't allowed to chase any of them, but there are so many things to smell that we can't complain (well do still complain sometimes).

Here are some pictures of us putting our paws to good use:

Blast from the past

2010-10-18T14:29:00.001-07:00

One of my all time favorite pictures of Dottie. It was taken on her second day home with us.

Puppy Swirls

2010-10-12T10:06:00.001-07:00

Happy Friday Everyone!

2010-10-08T08:21:00.001-07:00

Yay, the weekend is here! Maria hopes everyone has a great time chasing squirrels and playing with their friends.

Parents can be so embarrassing!

2010-10-06T17:35:00.000-07:00

Now I would like to start off by saying that I love my mom. She takes me for walks, plays with me, gives me food (not as much as I want though) and is all around a good time. However, she can also be pretty embarrassing sometimes. Like when she makes kissey faces at me in public, or calls me her Wee Dot at the park in front of all my friends. Totally uncool. Well, the other day it got worse. Worse than I could ever possibly imagine.

Since it's been starting to get cold outside she makes me wear my sweater when we go out for our morning training sessions. She also puts on her sweater because she doesn't have fur like me. I'm not a big sweater fan, but I try not to complain because at least there's a walk involved to make up for it. Well don't you know that Mom found her old Minnie Mouse sweater the other day that she got on a trip to Orlando before she had moved there to live and then she decided to put it on. When she saw the two of us in matching sweaters she started laughing and then ran back into the house. At first I was hoping she also realized how uncool it would be to go out in public like that and maybe she had gone to change. No such luck. She actually came out looking even worse!!! She had put on her brand new "teddy bear" hat she and my aunt bought at the store because they thought it was hilarious. Now we went from being all matchy matchy to looking like a pair of raving lunatics. "Oh gosh Mom! Promise me we won't leave the privacy of our yard looking like this!!!" It was not looking good when she put on my leash (which is also pink!) and then I knew I was done for when she asked my dad to take a picture! "You actually want to have photographic evidence of this humiliation?!?!?!"

I'm afraid she did and here is the picture to prove it. Can you see I'm not looking at all pleased? In this picture I'm thinking, "She better give me all the treats in that pouch to make up for this..." The things I have to put up with sometimes with such a kooky mom.

The Master!

2010-10-05T19:39:00.000-07:00

Monday night was our fourth obedience class with Alven and Dottie. They are doing really great and are fan favorites (but of course). If you ever meet Alven you immediately realize that this wee pup has a big presence. He made himself known the first night by freaking out when we were introduced to the instructor's assistants, two of which are men (Alven has men issues). He barked and barked whenever they tried to come near his space, or walked by, or talked, or breathed, or existed. One of the main reasons we wanted to take the class was to get Alven out there meeting more men and feeling more confident around strangers. It's hard to get men to just stand around quietly for a while so Alven can feel comfortable and realize they are not evil monsters. These classes are a great way to get him socialized in a none threatening way. Well after the first day no one knew everyone's name, but they for sure knew Alven. The teacher gave us some great tips, and the men didn't take it personal and ignored Alven giving him space to meet them at his own time.

Fast forward to the fourth class and Alven doesn't bark at any of the men anymore. He actually doesn't even make a peep the whole time, even when the other dogs start a barking concert. Everyone in the class has noticed his improvement and always have encouraging words for him. This week was also our first class contest. It was a three part contest to see who could sit the fastest, lay down the fastest and stay the longest. We trained hard all week and showed up to class looking to take home the gold. Alven did the family proud coming in second in the sitting contest (though it was a very close call), he came in first in the down contest, and in the longest stay contest it was a fight to the finish between Dottie and Alven. The instructor, Kathy, actually had to come over and try and distract them to see who would break the stay first. Neither one fell for such sneaky maneuvers, though when Kathy came near Dottie her tail was wagging a mile a minute, but she kept that rump glued to the spot. Finally, it was Dottie who moved first when Kathy asked Joe and I to move towards the door to see who would keep the position. Alven was just glowing with pride and graciously accepted his prize, which was a free wine tasting for two at a local vineyard that is also dog friendly. Alven is still considering his options before he selects a lucky lady to take along.

We finished the class with some exercises outside under the supervision of one of the male assistants (Alven's nemesis during the first class). When it was Joe and Alven's turn he called them up by saying, "And now, The Master!" Well, Alven marched up to take his turn with a very definite swish of the tail, nailed the automatic sit in front of the store, gave the young man a regal glance and marched back to his spot cool as a cucumber. Everyone laughed, but I knew this was going to go straight to his already abnormally large head.

A Little Cha-Cha-Cha

2010-10-01T14:48:00.001-07:00

Rosie demonstrates the proper way to bring in the weekend with a little dance move. Look out for this little lady next season on Dancing With The Stars.

Could it be love, or a matter of being too tried to care?

2010-09-29T16:26:00.000-07:00

During our first couple of weeks here in VA I captured this picture of Flash and his cousin Maria enjoying a little snooze together. As many of our blog friends know Flash is not what you would call "friend oriented." Sure he likes his brother and sister just fine, but even that took months. It usually takes him a long time to warm up to dogs. After the initial meeting he will enforce a personal bubble boundary that is quite large in diameter. He'll be around the other dogs, but at a distance. As the weeks pass the bubble starts getting a little smaller, but I think it took a month before he would even let Alven, or Dottie sit next to him. Then it took another few weeks, or so, for him to let them share his doggy bed. The last big hurdle was for Flash to let Alven, or Dottie give him kisses on his face, or do any kind of face smelling (Flash is very anti anything in his face area).

All the humans were aware of Flash's strict personal bubble rules and were not expecting any kind of doggy bonding for a while when it came to Mr. Grumps. This is why I was so surprised when I came upon this scene during our second week here. Actually, it would be more accurate to say that I questioned my eye sight and my sanity when I first saw them lounging together. Could it be that Mr. Flash was actually coming out of his shell and making friends so quickly? Had Dottie and Alven opened the doors for him and he was now on his way to becoming a social butterfly?? Could there even be a little doggy romance in his future????

I carefully moved towards my camera and took a quick picture as evidence. After the photographic proof was obtained I ran over to Natalia and shoved the camera in her face explaining how Flash was actually making friends and how he and Maria could very possibly be soul mates (opposites do attract you know). Natalia looked at the picture and then at me with a kind smile on her face. She told me that she had actually been in the room and Flash had been snoozing on the corner of the couch as seen in the picture. Maria had been sleeping in the middle of the couch and then decided that she would be more comfortable stretched out and basically cornered Flash against the cushion. He had woken up startled to find himself sandwiched between the cushion and his cousin, but after looking around for a second decided to go back to sleep.

That scenario made much more sense to me, but I wasn't going to be disappointed. Sure, the friendly gesture might have not been his idea, but at least he didn't leap out of his fur in horror when he woke up to find his cousin so close. He could have very easily freaked out, or left, but instead he probably decided his cousin was very comfortable and a good source of body heat. A small step for other dogs, but a huge step for Mr. Grumpers.

What? Why are you laughing?

2010-09-27T20:19:00.000-07:00

Today I thought I was going for a casual trip to Petco to pick up some more training treats. It was supposed to be a quick and uneventful visit. Oh how naive I was. We hadn't taken five steps into the store when my Mom rushed over to an aisle that had all these weird and sparkly outfits. The next thing I know she grabs me and straps this strange puffy thing on me.

There was much giggling and picture taking and I was starting to get a little annoyed. I couldn't figure out what was so funny, and I was starting to get a strange suspicion that they were laughing AT me. Hmmm.....

Ooooh! A treat! Never mind, all is forgiven

Riding in style

2010-09-25T14:35:00.000-07:00

Now that our doggy pack has expanded to include Rosie and Maria we had to put in a request with management (aka Mom and Dad) to come up with a roomier transportation solution. There just isn't enough space for all five of us in the back seat of any of the cars, especially if Maria and Dottie persist in being all tall and leggy. This meant we had to take two cars anywhere all us pups wanted to go which is no good because we like to stay together. Well, after much deliberation and rearranging Mom and Dad came up with the perfect solution!

We present to you (cue the drum roll)
THE DOGGY WAGON!

Mom generously (she made us say that) contributed her car for our personal transportation needs. All she had to do was put down the back seat, put in some cushions to level the back area and fill in the gaps, and then finish it off with our favorite blankets. Now all five us can drive together to all of our adventures in comfort.

As you can see in this picture we all fit with room to spare

These are some action shots of us enjoying the doggy wagon

If Aunt Nati ever wants to come along for a ride then all we have to do is put up the little seat in the back and that still leaves plenty of room for all us pups. Aunt Nati and Mom take turns seating in the back with us, because they say it is fun to ride with all us doggies. Duh! We are a fun loving bunch. We are really enjoying the doggy wagon and hope to use it to go to lots more new places and have lots more adventures.

Doxie's in the big city

2010-09-24T09:50:00.000-07:00

So as we posted previously we recently took a trip to the "Big Apple." We never got a chance to see this giant piece of produce, but we did have a lot of fun in the city. We got to visit our grandma who lives in Queens where my mom and dad used to live (we didn't know they were royalty!) and that was a lot of fun. We also made some new friends which is always a good time.

We would have posted our pictures sooner, but Mom has been working on some freelance projects (whatever that means) and she couldn't get away. There are also supposed to be more fun pictures of when we went swimming in Prospect Park but our new friend Roland hasn't sent us the pictures yet so we can't share them (Mom says she knows where you live and you better send her the pictures Roland! She takes these things soooo serious, jeez). But we will at least put up the ones we do have.

Here I am getting my first view of the city. I had never seen such big buildings. Oh my goodness, can you imagine how many squeaky toys would fit in those. Wow!

I had also never seen so many cars. Dad said that we were on the Brooklyn/Queens Expressway, but I don't know about that because we weren't going express at all. It was more like a big parking lot.

It took us six hours to get to NYC and I was starting to get pretty tired, but I didn't want to lie down and maybe miss something exciting.

When we finally got to my grandma's house we did A LOT of resting and that was very nice. The next day I was recharged and ready for adventure! Grandma knew I was ready for a good time so she took us to some trails that are around her house and we had so much fun.

Here I am walking with my mom and Grandma Olga is walking with Alven. We did so much smelling and exploring. I wanted to walk on my own but Mom says she trusts me to stay by her side off leash about as much as she trusts Alven around a lizard. How rude!

At the end of the trail we had to take a little break so that Alven and Flash could rest. Gosh, they are so boring! I was ready to go, Go, GO!

Dad said that he would walk ahead with me and Flash. He took a picture of me waiting for the rest of the group to catch up. It's a good thing for them I'm so patient.

We also met up with our parents friends from high school Roland and Maria and their two pups Cori and Toby. Cori is the Corgi and Toby is the fluffy black one. We also met up with our Dad's sister, Joyi, because it was her birthday weekend (she's the one in black).

We had such a super great time making new friends. We did a lot of fun things but Roland has those pictures and when he finally sends them to our mom we will put them up.

I was also excited to meet Cori because if you will recall I am one third Corgi myself. Our parents wondered if maybe we would look a little bit alike.

Here is a side by side comparison. Oh, and the one ruining the picture in front is Toby. What a camera hog!

You can't really tell in this picture, but we both have white dots on our foreheads and a white line down to our nose, but that's about it. But really it's not Cori's fault that I'm cuter. Poor guy. I tried not to rub it in though because I was raised right. He was still a lot of fun and we hope to get a chance to see him again soon.

So that was a small glimpse into our NYC trip. Hopefully we can share the rest of the pictures some day before I turn eleven, but I won't hold my breath.

Road Dogs Hit The Big Apple

2010-09-11T10:49:00.001-07:00

This past Thursday we hit the road again and headed to our mom and dad's hometown, NYC. We heard a rumor that this place is also called The Big Apple but so far we haven't even caught a wiff of any kind of produce. We are holding out hope though that any minute now we'll get our paws on the apple. We are having a lot of fun meeting up again with Grandma Olga and making new friends. We won't be home again until Monday, just in time for our first day of school (Mom and Dad are sending Dottie and Alven to class to learn some manners. Finally!) When we get home we'll catch up on our blog reading and post pictures of our NYC adventure. Good times!

Diva gets a new name and a forever home

2010-09-08T20:49:00.000-07:00

Natalia's sweet foster, Diva, has found a forever home. Thursday she is going to live with a wonderful woman and her son and their great dog Dakota. Dakota is a big, goofy, collie who is 7 years old and in need of a friend. They fell in love with Diva when they saw her with us during a trail hike a couple of weeks ago. That same day they came out to an adoption show where Diva was being shown and filled out all the paperwork and even bought her a harness in anticipation of taking this cute little girl home. Well their dream and hers has come true and tomorrow they will become a family. We are all super proud of how far Diva has come and how much progress she has made. She is the sweetest, most adorable and lovable girl and we all agree that it was an honor to know her. Sheri (her new mom) promised to keep us updated and send lots of pictures. She also loved Naty's grooming abilities and will be bringing her by whenever Diva is in need of a trim. Oh, and she's also getting a new name. Thank goodness! She will now be Shelby which we think is perfect.

WE LOVE YOU SHELBY!!! We won't forget you and we hope you won't forget us. Love and kisses little girl.

The Orchard

2010-09-07T19:31:00.001-07:00

One of our other stops on our road trip was to an orchard. We had never been to an orchard before and were super duper excited. You could pick your own flowers, apples, and other kinds of fruit (though Mom didn't let us doggies do any actual floor picking. Unfair!) There were so many things to see and to smell that we almost didn't know where to start. Mom had to hold on to us tight when we first got there because we were ready to GO, GO, GO! She had to even remind Dottie to act like a normal dog and not one who just escaped from the loony bin. After that Dottie was able to calm down enough to not pull Mom's arm off which was appreciated.

Here Dottie is trying to get as close as possible to all the flowers. They smelled really good!

I even got to be a train conductor.
Conductor Alven; I like the sound of that!

Powered by doxie cuteness so it's 100% eco friendly.
(Can you see Mom's foot? She was hiding in the back. Hehe)

Here we are posing in front of a tractor.
I might not be an expert, but when I looked under the hood it seemed like something might be missing.

There was so much to explore and smell that even though we didn't get to actually eat any of the fruit, or chew on any of the flowers we still had a lot of fun. We hope that we get to go back soon.

Why are you pointing and laughing?

2010-09-02T20:36:00.001-07:00

Okay, I know today was supposed to be the post about the orchard, but I felt it was important to share the above picture.

Is he going for a Mother Teresa look, or Senator Palpatine look? It's hard to tell, but not hard to laugh. Flash did not care for the snickering though.

Unexpected Finds

2010-09-01T18:08:00.000-07:00

One of our first trips when we came to Virginia was a road trip with Aunt Natalia, Grandma Olga and Mom. It was a special trip because only the "big kids" got to go. Mom and Aunt Naty call Alven, Maria and me the big kids, because even though we are younger than Rosie, Flash and Diva we are bigger than them and also way cuter if I do say so myself. So off we went on our adventure ready for whatever came our way. About an hour into our road trip Alven started whining that he had to go to the bathroom. Aunt Naty, being the accommodating soul that she is, immediately pulled over in a nice little town. There was a big field there that was perfect for Alven's bathroom needs and we all got to stretch our legs. While we were walking around the field Mom and Aunt Naty noticed this great big antique store right across the street. It was this huge house full of stuff, but there were also several little out buildings around the property full of more things. It was an unexpected surprise and definitely worth exploring so off we went across the street and tried to see if we could find any good smells and Mom wanted to see if she could find any good deals.

Hey Grandma, I like that sign! I think we should get it and put it right above my bed since I too come from a long line of royalty.

Hey Mom look at all these cool things Maria and I found! Come tell Aunt Naty that we ARE allowed to chew on it.

Ooooh! Look at these giant water bowls. I could really use one of these back home.

Grandma, stop pulling me away! I need this green bench. Green is my signature color for goodness sakes!!!

We all had a great time as you can see, even if we weren't allowed into the actual building. So I guess the fact that Alven can't hold it turned out to be a good thing because we got to explore new places we would never have known about otherwise. And, this wasn't even the only new place we got to explore that day. Tomorrow I'll show you another of our road trip stops at an orchard.

Sleeping with no shame

2010-08-31T21:04:00.001-07:00

How can this possibly be comfortable? I have no idea, but it seems to work for her. This pup knows that when it comes to snoozing anything goes.

We're back and we're Virginians!

2010-08-29T17:50:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone!

It feels great to be back! So much has happened and thanks to our mom we are super behind in our blog posting. A week before "The Big Virginia Move of 2010" Mom was feeling a bit overwhelmed since she had to pack up our whole house all by herself. Dad was working up until the last day so it was up to her to pack up all our doggy beds all by herself. I guess we do have a lot of beds and blankets so it took her quite a while. Then the big day arrived and it seemed like it all happened so fast. It was a three car caravan that took two days (Alven kept having us pull over so he could pee. Jeez Louise Alven get a diaper!). It was sad to leave our Grandma Lourdes behind but we promised to send her lots of pictures and a letter every week. She is also coming to visit us soon so it will be nice to see her again. After two days on the road we finally made it to our new home in Virginia. We are now living with our Aunt Natalia, Uncle Manny, cousin Maria, cousin Rosie and foster cousin Diva (in this post from a few months ago Mom gave them each a little intro). It is a full house but we were all excited to see each other and get started on this new chapter in our lives.

We were hoping that as soon as we arrived Mom would be able to help us get back to posting, but it took a few days to get everything moved from the truck to the house and then organized and we didn't even have internet on the computers. Finally this past week Mom was able to get internet and she promised that we would start up the blog again so here we are. We might not have been posting but Mom was still taking pictures so we have lots to share in the coming days. So much has happened and we are going on so many new adventures that we just can't wait to share them all with you. For now we thought we would post a picture of what our new pack looks like.

From left to right: Mom, Dottie, Diva, Aunt Natalia in the back, cousin Rosie in the front but feeling a bit camera shy, Uncle Manny in the back and cousin Maria in front of him, Alven, Dad and Flash

We are all getting along, though it took Flash a few days to come to terms with the fact that he now has three more doggy friends to get along with. Alven is super excited to meet some new ladies and is already trying to put his charm to good use. Dottie is happy to have made new friends and is looking forward to lots of playing and good times.

Mom says the three of us are adjusting well even though we have regressed in a few areas. Flash is a little more anxious and is a super velcro pup who follows Dad everywhere. The first few days if Dad had to leave Flash would cry and it took work to reassure him all was well. Fortunately, in the last few days he has gotten better and is starting to feel more comfortable when Dad needs to leave his side. Alven has had an accident or two in the house, but really we blame Mom for that because she forgot that she would probably need to let us out more often when we first got here. Dottie was doing great with her heeling back in Orlando, but there are so many new sites and smells here that she gets so excited and just can't be bothered to walk at a pace slower than a gallop. Mom says at times it feels like being back at square one, but is sure that in a short time she can get Dottie back to where she was in Florida.

We are having a great time and real enjoy having our cousins so close. The best part of our move though has been having a fenced in yard to run and play in. We just love, love, love our yard and would spend all day out there if we could! Pictures and a blog post on the yard to follow soon.

Alven Goes To Work

2010-07-28T19:25:00.000-07:00

Today I came home for lunch and on my way back decided to take Alven with me. The girls at work have never met The Alvenator and it was a nice chance for them to meet him before we leave. They hear so many Alven stories that they were excited to finally get to see him in person. What I didn't count on was that Alven was going to decide to become my new supervisor.

Do you mind? I'm kinda busy right now. I have a conference call in five minutes and I still have to send these emails!

Mom, where that's file I asked for 15 mins ago? Goodness, do I have to do everything myself?

Why are the files out of order?

People stick to the filing system! We have it for a reason.

Listen, Mom I'm going to need to set up some kind of one-on-one meeting with you to review your recent work performance. I'll be honest; it's not looking good.

Franken-pup

2010-07-26T11:13:00.001-07:00

The old guy, aka Mr. Flash, came through his procedure on Friday just fine. We dropped him off in the morning and also asked if he could get a teeth cleaning while he was under. We figured why risk putting him under again in 2 months when he could just get a combo special now. He was not thrilled with that idea, but thankfully kept his comments to himself as he was escorted to the back.

At 4:30 pm we were back to pick up our vintage sausage. We came prepared with his favorite towel, a spot on Mom's lap for the car ride home, and promises of yummy treats to come. You know, all the necessities for groveling your way back into your pups good graces. Before they brought him out Dr. Thompson went through the results of the procedure with us. He had done great during and after the surgery. The lump was "self contained" and very easy to remove. It was mostly fatty stuff and she was able to get it all so no need for more lab testing. He should recover well and just needs to go back in 10 days to get the stiches out.

Unfortunately, Flash was not as fortunate during the teeth cleaning. He lost three more of his chompers. One in the back and two incisors. The incisors were the ones next to the big fangy ones (highly technical term) in the front. I wasn't surprised about the left one because he had really bad gum recession above that tooth, but it seems his mirror twin on the other side was fractured. I'm glad we had the cleaning done now so he doesn't have to deal with a painful tooth. She also said she would not classify what Flash has as just mere gingivitis (spelling? Typing this on cell phone. Miss you spell check!), but as perindontal disease. That is a bummer, but really no surprise at all. Even brushing his teeth every day it seems there is no getting ahead of the teeth isssues. Little by little I'm sure we'll keep saying farewell to his toofers. For now he looks kinda silly with his gap tooth smile, but he most be more comfortable.

Flash is doing well and recovering at home on his favorite pillow. He has also convinced his father that he should be carried on said pillow to new spots every few hours less he become bored. Goodness forbid that his highness should have to fluff his own blanket much less walk. So Joe spent the weekend carrying him around on his gold velvet pillow (I'm not exaggerating. His pillow is gold and it's velvet thanks to Grandma) wherever we happened to be hanging out. I know Dottie and Alven were thinking the same thing I was, "Pretty soon he'll need a separate pillow for the size of his head!" Oh well, he earned it after being such a good patient.

Do I hear Ringling Brothers Calling?

2010-07-21T20:31:00.001-07:00

Hmmm…perchance Dottie has a future in the circus.

I don’t think she’ll work for peanuts though. She would probably prefer hot dogs, or her new favorite summer treat, watermelon! Maybe we can get her to make a little video like the skateboarding bulldog and become overnight sensations and I will retire and become her touring manager!

Or maybe not so much...

Oh well. She would probably just become a huge diva and then get a ghost writer to write a tell-all book about how she had a damaged puppyhood because she never knew her real mother and I never gave her enough treats.

Packing

2010-07-20T18:59:00.000-07:00

Mom has already started packing up things for the Big VA Move Of 2010. We knew she was up to no good when she came home with tons of boxes that she said we were not allowed to chew. What up with that yo? She put them in the guest bedroom because that is going to become “packing central” she says. There is no longer a bed in there because Mom has given it away since she says we don’t need it anymore and can’t take it with us. Don’t need it anymore? We beg to differ! What are we supposed to relax on??? She put down some pillows and doggy blankets for us when we go in there to watch TV, or play, but with all the boxes in there now there isn’t as much room as before. Annoying! She said she wanted to start packing a little bit at a time so that she wouldn’t be rushing to get it all done the last week. She also said it will help us get used to things slowly disappearing into boxes instead of everything vanishing all of a sudden. Flash is forever the drama queen and doesn’t always take change well. He gets very clingy.

Well she started out by first packing up all her books (she has like one trillion. She really needs to get a new hobby that is not as heavy) and her and Dad’s winter sweaters and spare blankets. Then in went the DVD’s and half the towels. After that was done this weekend she started looking around for other things to pack that we won’t need any time soon. This made us very nervous and we started hiding our most favorite toys. Well we were right to be suspicious because won’t you believe she started going through all our doggy blankets. The horror! She put all of them in a giant blanket pile and started sorting through them and putting them into two other piles. One pile was for taking with us and one was for throwing away. Well this did not look good especially when she put one of Dottie’s favorite blankets from when she was a puppy into the throw away pile. Mom are you crazy! That is totally a keeper! She said it was too chewed up and holey and pointed out Dottie hadn’t even been allowed to have it since she started eating it. Well this might be so, but do you know how long it took Dottie to get it to the perfect hole-yness? You can’t throw away craftsmanship like that! No respect. Thankfully she didn’t pack up the remaining blankets just yet and allowed us to have them back. Close call!

This week she is tackling the rest of the office except for her computer, because she still needs that for blog posting. Don’t worry though. If she tries to pack it we’ll just get Dottie to sit on it. All our toys are still in witness protection as we can never be sure what will catch her eye next.

Not a fan

2010-07-19T08:19:00.001-07:00

Flash expresses his feelings on the start of the new work week.

Good news for Mr. Flash

2010-07-14T20:03:00.001-07:00

Joe got the call from the vet today with the results from the pathologist. The "other cells," are benign. Definitely a relief. All week I've been trying not to worry too much but it was never far from our minds. We have also decided to schedule an appointment to have the lump removed next week. The fact that it is mostly just fatty cells and some kind of benign cells is good news, but the lump is obviously starting to change and I don't want to risk it turning malignant at some point down the line. I'm not even really sure if that is how lumps, and cells work, but why take the chance when we can just take it out? The doctor assured us the procedure is non-invasive and relatively uncomplicated. Of course there is no guarantee that other lumps won't appear later, but for now I'll be glad to know this one will be history and not on Flash.

Today I came home from work and shared the good news with Mr. Flash himself. He did not seem especially excited, but was more preoccupied with smelling me. "Yea, yea. Enough with the idle chit chat Mom. Tell me, did you have chicken for lunch?"

Despite his indifference I decided something special was in order. How did we celebrate you ask? By going on a Flash and Mom, private, bonding, one-on-one walk. Complete with lizard hunting!

He had a good time and I was glad to see him perky and frisky. The old guy still knows how to bring his A game when confronted with his nemesis, the vile lizard!

Work Pictures

2010-07-12T11:36:00.001-07:00

Most people at work bring in pictures of their kids, or other little reminders of their family. They show off the pictures of their little ones at dance recitals, baseball games, or school plays. Proud doggy parents are no different. My three pups each have their own picture right on top of my computer in the place of honor. They keep me company during the day and remind me to come home as soon as possible. When the day starts dragging, or something bothers me I just have to look over and see these 3 furry faces. Then I remember to just let it all go, because the ones that really matter are waiting for me at home so we can go for our walk.

No kids yet for me, but I still brag about my pups at every milestone. Even if the milestone is just being able to say that my socks are finally safe from harm.

Good thoughts for Mr. Flash

2010-07-10T16:26:00.001-07:00

Today was Dottie's annual vet visit for her check up and shots. She was a real trooper and handled it very well. Kisses were freely handed out to all humans and dogs and many new best friends were made. One lady who Dottie was licking and playing with said, "I think she really likes me!" I smiled and nodded since I didn't want to burst her bubble and tell her Dottie is a social butterfly and treats everyone like that. She got her shots and passed her exam with flying colors.

We also took Flash along because we wanted him checked out before we move. Yes, the five us will be setting off on a new adventure next month and moving to VA. We are excited about it since we will also be moving in at first with my sister Natalia while we find our own place. Between us we have six pups so we are a doggy park onto ourselves. Before we left though we wanted Flash checked out one more time and get copies of his medical records for the next vet. During the initial exam she took a look at his teeth and noticed he will need a cleaning again soon (of course). Then it was time to check his heart and she said she heard a little heart murmur. From level 1 to 6 she says it's a 1 which I guess is good news at least. She says it's common as they grow older and valves begin to also age and degenerate. Flash is nine and a half now so it makes sense, but it still took us by surprise. Joe and I looked across at each other and I knew we both were worried for our Mr. Flash. Four months ago there was no heart murmur when he got a check up before his teeth cleaning. Age has a way of creeping up quickly on our little friends it seems.

The main reason why we took him in today was because Flash has had this little bump on his chest near his armpit since the day he came home with us. It isn't hard and moves around. Last year the vet took a sample and told us it was simply fatty tissue which is common as dogs start to age, but nothing to worry about. In the last year though we've noticed it's gotten a little larger so we wanted it checked again just to be sure. Today Dr. Thompson took another sample and again found fatty cells, but also some "other cells." She told us she wanted to take one more sample and send it to the pathologist to determine what they are. We agreed, of course, but also looked across at each other again with matching, "Oh no" looks. This was definitely scarier than the news of the heart murmur. It seemed like in the short visit he had already gotten 2 strikes.

With the exam over we got copies of all the dog's records and a promise to hear back when they got the results from the lab. On the ride home we were quiet and I knew we were both processing the news. We got Flash when he was seven, which was also just a guess, so we've always known he is old, but until today it never really hit home. I call him my old guy and Mr. Flash, but in my mind his real golden years were somewhere in the future. In the far, far future. Today it felt like they are here and coming on real fast. He is still plucky and so full of spunk that I just can't imagine him any other way. Now we can only hope and pray that those "other cells" are nothing bad, and monitor his little ticker regularly.

Oh my Mr. Flash, stay quirky and grumpy and precious, but don't get old too fast. There is still so much you have to do and bark at. Besides, who else is going to keep these young pups in check?

What kind of dog is that?

2010-07-07T15:03:00.001-07:00

This is a familiar question when we take Dottie out on the town. Understandably, people are curious when they encounter what they think is a very strange looking lab puppy. I have my little intro speech down to a science whenever someone stops us to inquire (which happens a lot). What takes me by surprise though are the occasions when someone stops to ask me about Alven.

This past weekend we took Mr. Flash and Alven to PetSmart when a man came up to me and posed the above question. For a second I was about to launch into my Dottie speech when I realized he was pointing to Alven and Dottie wasn't even there. I smiled at the man and said, "Alven is a dachshund." He looked down and then back at me and said, "And what else?" I shook my head and said, "And nothing else. He's just a standard long-haired dachshund." The man still looked unconvinced as he looked from Flash to Alven and then wandered away. I would have launched into the size, coat and color variations found in doxies, but Alven was already giving him the stink eye after receiving such an insult.

I have heard that people with wire-haired doxies get asked this question often, but I never thought Alven would look like anything other than the gorgeous doxie that he is. I wonder if it's the size thing and some people just associate doxies with mini's. In any case it's always a little amusing to see the reaction people have when I give them a simple answer instead of a long list of breeds.

Alven feels I should answer, "This is a rare breed called MOST HANDSOMEST EVER. Duh!"

Sometimes one cushion isn't enough

2010-07-06T17:49:00.001-07:00

The Name Game!

2010-07-03T20:05:00.000-07:00

My full name is Flash Bernard Yeung Esq. III.

However, when we first met at the shelter the only name on the card was Flash. At first my mom and dad didn’t know if they wanted to keep that name for me since they didn’t think it matched my “cute old man face.” But they thought that at seven years old it wouldn’t be fair to make me learn a new name, and The Flash was one of their favorite super hero’s anyway, so they kept it. Little did they know that Flash wasn’t even my name, but I wasn’t telling because I think it is way cool. Besides this was a new beginning for me so I wanted a new name too. They found out though when we got home and I wouldn’t pay one bit of attention when they called me or seemed to recognize the name at all. I was still transitioning from my old name so I kept forgetting. But by that point they already thought of me as Flash and on top of that they saw that I actually was really fast. Some might say that I could run like the wind if I really wanted to. Since Flash did turn out to be a new name Mom figured she could tag on some other ones too. She said that a long and serious pup like me deserved a long and serious name to match. So I kept Flash because I am fast and I am super (super cute that is). Bernard because it is dignified but at the same time my Mom thinks it’s funny. Yeung is my dad’s last name so when he adopted me I got the last name too. Esq. (which stands for Esquire) because I am serious and dignified and deserving of such a title. And the III (the third) because I obviously come from a long line of nobility, but my Mom says it’s because she finds it hilarious (whatever!).

My official name is Dottie Joyi Yeung

When my mom found my picture on PetFinder I was listed as being called Dolly, but when she went to see me at the rescue group they told her that none of us pups were actually named anything. It seems that PetFinder assigned us all a name at random, but I was actually being called dachshund/corgi mix puppy. What kind of stupid name is that right? Jeez! Well my Mom and Dad picked me up and took a look at me and said that they would need to come up with a name to match me better. Thank goodness! At this point I should also probably tell you that my mom loves polka dots. She thinks they are just super. She always used to tell her friends that when she turned 80 yrs old she was changing her name to Dottie and only ever wearing polka dots because when you’re old you can do things like that and people just think you’re eccentric and not a danger to society. So anyway, back to my story. My mom and dad picked me up and looked deep into my eyes to try and figure out what name would suit me best. That’s when my mom noticed that I had a big white dot on my forehead and immediately she thought of the name Dottie. She knew that if she did that she wouldn’t be able to call herself Dottie when she turned 80, because it would be my name forever in her mind, but she already loved me even more than she loved polka dots so she didn’t mind letting me have the name. It was agreed and home I went with an adoption paper that said Dottie Yeung. Later on when my mom and dad saw that I was a crazy pup, or as I like to call it, “creative and energetic,” they added on the Joyi. Joyi is my aunt from my dad’s side and he says that she is crazy just like me so that is where I get that name. She doesn’t know that though. Teehee! In a funny twist as I started growing my mom thought that my dot would grow with me too, but it actually started getting smaller! It used cover a big part of my forehead, but now you can’t even see it sometimes. That’s why when people meet me for the first time they don’t know how I got the name and sometimes think it’s because I have spots on my tongue. My mom always has to point to my forehead and people start squinting at me to see it. But my mom also likes to tell them that dots are cute and so am I so I don’t even need to have one anyway.

My whole name is Alven Alven Seymour Yeung

When I was first rescued by my good friend Skip from the first family who had me I was actually called Angel. Skip thought that was not such a great name for me and I have to agree. While I do have the face of an angel I don’t think it really captures my true essence. So Skip took me home and thought about what he was going to name me. He wanted to stay in the A’s and after much deliberation decided on Alvin. After two weeks Skip decided that with five other dogs he couldn’t give me all the attention I deserved so he called my dad and asked him if he would be interested in an awesome dachshund pup. My dad knew that Mom loves dachshunds and wouldn’t be able to turn away such a cute one like me, even if they had just gotten a new puppy a month before. He agreed and when Mom saw me she couldn’t say no either. I joined the family! Mom thought that a second name change in less than a month might be a bit much for a pup getting used to so many relocations and Alvin was a good name anyway. My dad agreed, but decided we should spell it different, because I was special and deserved a little twist of my own. So I went from Alvin to Alven. And no, that is no mistake and you don’t have double vision. The Alven Alven is for real. I figure with something so awesome, such as myself, one is good and two is better. My mom agrees a double helping of me is never a bad thing so Alven Alven it is. The Seymour is because it sounds smart, which I totally am, and because my mom thinks it’s funny, which I totally am also. So there you have it folks, Alven Alven Seymour joined the Yeung family. I am also thinking of adding to my name "Emperor Of All I Survey," but Mom and I are currently in the negotiation process. I'll let you know how it turns out though I'm feeling very optimistic.

Walk, Worm, Wet Weather

2010-07-01T19:05:00.001-07:00

I came home today to dark and threatening skies. The clouds were moving in and I could feel that pre-rain wind. I hurried to get ready and leash up the pups so we could go for our afternoon walk before the storm hit. It was still a ways away and I thought we could get in a good twenty minutes. After so much heat and humidity the wind felt wonderful. I could tell the pups enjoyed it as well and Flash was even walking with a little extra skip in his step. I had planned to stay close to the house in case the rain started coming down, but I got so distracted enjoying the breeze that I didn't notice I was wandering farther away from home. We had also been walking for a half hour so I was beginning to get lured into a fall sense of security. Maybe it won't rain after all and it'll just pass us by.

Suddenly I felt a big, fat raindrop fall right on my forehead. Oh snap! Right after two more hit me on the ear and my head. I turned around and started walking back at a brisk pace. Flash must have also felt some drops because he started trying to get home even faster than me (he's not a big fan of getting wet). We were still a good two blocks from the house when the skies opened up and let us have it. "Aaaahhhhhh!! Run for it everybody!!!" We were really booking it when I felt Alven's leash tense and my arm jerked back. I turned around just in time to see him pick up a dead worm and start chewing it. "Alven!!!! This is not the time for this!" Grrr.

I hesitated a fraction of a second. Do I pry the dead worm out of his mouth, or do I let it go and keep running? Alven has been having some "stomach issues" lately which are manifested in some "bathroom issues," if you know what I mean (one guess as to the cause). We were finally able to get him back on track by giving him some chicken and rice for dinner and I didn't want to have it ruined by him swallowing another darn worm. I put on the brakes and turned around to wrestle the worm out of his mouth. All the while the rain is coming down harder and I'm grumbling, "Who stops in the middle of a storm to eat a worm Alven? You need to get your priorities straight! Drop the worm Alven! Do you want to drown over a disgusting worm?!?!?!" Finally I'm victorious and I take the worm and chuck it as far as I can.

Just as I'm about to get up and start running again I hear a car pull up next to us on the street. I turn around and realize it's one of my neighbors in his SUV. He pulls down the window and says, "It's raining."

Now, let me paint you a picture. I'm in the middle of the street just having been crouched over my dog, held a dead worm in my hand, my hair is plastered to my face and my glasses, I'm all wet, my dogs are wet, I'm squinting to try and see past the rain and hair, and I'm feeling a tad perturbed. I wanted to say, "Oh is it? Well that's a relief. I thought I might have some kind of over active sweat gland problem. Thank goodness you came by to put my mind at ease." Other thoughts also popped into my head but this is a G rated blog so let us move on. After I swallowed my sarcasm I just looked at him and said "So it is," and then with all the dignity I could muster while looking like a drowned rat I turned around and walked away. I didn't want to add to the humiliation by running so I very calmly walked at a fast pace while Flash pulled me like a race horse, Dottie kept trying to stop and shake off the rain and Alven kept scanning for worms. Way to save face Sandra!

When I finally got home I rushed us all inside turned to Alven and said "You are in such trouble Mister. Your worm addiction is going to be the end of me!" He looked at me for a second and then ran off to roll on the rug and get that nice wet dog smell all over the living room. Good times...

P.S. If you're wondering what I looked like just picture Alven with glasses, but without the carpet rolling.

You can call me Mac Daddy Alven

2010-06-30T20:03:00.001-07:00

Is it just me or does Alven look like he thinks he's in a rap music video?

Or maybe he's expecting Flash to go get a big palm leaf to fan him with and Dottie to go get some grapes?

Part of me finds it hilarious and the other part finds it a little disturbing.

Summer Treats

2010-06-28T19:11:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite things is to give my pups fun treats that I think they will enjoy. The only down side is that it takes them about one second to gobble it down and then it's over. I decided that a good summer treat might be a fruit-sicle. I took a common red plastic cup, diced up some apple cubes and threw them in the cup. Then I added a little bit of water. Just enough to slightly cover the apples, but still leave chunks exposed. I then put the cups in the freezer and waited for the perfect opportunity. The chance presented itself this weekend when it was raining and we were stuck at home. While we waited for the rain to stop the pups started getting bored because they knew this was the time we usually go have fun outside. I busted out the treats and handed them out. Not only do they all love apples, but they also have to work to free them from the ice. It takes them each about five minutes or so to finish. So really it's a brain and tummy treat. I think they really enjoyed it.

The amount of apples I put in the cup corresponds to the amount each dog can have. Unfortunately for Flash since he's the smallest he has a smaller treat allowance. I can't have him losing his boyish figure. Also, since Flash suffers from food allergies I keep all their treats very simple. Just apple and water and even then he can't get too much apple. It's also important not to give them frozen treats if the dogs are hot, or after exercise or play. You don't want it to cause cramping which can lead to bad things. I also run the treats under hot water for a couple of seconds to start thawing them out so that the ice isn't as cold.

In the end they enjoyed their surprise and were able to wait out the rain with a bit more grace.

I Spy

2010-06-27T15:50:00.001-07:00

Alven and Dottie play I spy in the parking lot of Costco while we wait for Joe to come back out (we were in need of a giant sized bag of rice). The game went something like this:

"I spy a lady with human-sized bag of chips and five million rolls of toilet paper. She is my best friend! Oh, best friend! It's me! Dottie!!! Over here best friend!!

Dottie tries to get her attention by waving her paw and making her best crazy eyed look. When her friendship is not reciprocrated she whines at the tragic fickleness of one sided parking lot relationships.

"I spy a chubby guy with house-sized bag of flour, two crates of Dr. Pepper and seven trillion hamburger buns. Danger! Danger! Code red everyone! This is not a drill! Code RED!!!!

Alven begins his high alert barking at the mere glimpse of the man's handle bar mustache. Then feels smug when he startles the poor guy as he pushes his cart full of buns past our insane asylum on wheels.

Flash does not partake in the game since he's too busy directing his lazer vision at the entrance where Joe disappeared. He also resents my attempts at distraction and wonders why I couldn't have been the one to go.

As for me you ask? I spy three dogs who will not be invited back to the Costco parking lot for a long, long while.

Separation anxiety? Not so much...

2010-06-24T06:02:00.001-07:00

Dottie I'm leaving.

You won't see me for hours.

I'm going now...I'm serious...look, I'm out the door now...

Oh forget it.

Blanket Burrito

2010-06-22T18:23:00.000-07:00

Mom: Flash, you do realize it's summer right?

Flash: I do.

Mom: And you know that summer means hot weather right?

Flash: But of course

Mom: So...usually...during hot weather you don't tend to bundle up.

Flash: .........

Mom: I'm just saying. Blanket burrito's really aren't the way to go in hot weather. You know, in case you hadn't realized.

Flash: Well mother, in case you hadn't realized, judging is wrong!

Oh, yum! Hot dog our favorite!

2010-06-21T19:07:00.001-07:00