Let's pause now for a commercial .....

You know how your peepol shop after Christmas for those things they really wanted but didn't get? Did you get stuff for Christmas that you didn't want? Or were you like me and didn't get anything for Christmas? (I did at least get a cookie ... thank you Hershey.) Peepol buy clothes. I personally dislike clothes but I do wear a collar.

If you have been wanting a new collar, please allow me to recommend one. The Keep Safe Breakaway Collar is the collar I wear. It has a patented safety buckle that prevents me from getting strangled in an accident ..... like when Hershey and I wrestle. If I was to get the collar caught on something, the collar would come apart at the special buckle and come off my neck and I would not get hurt. When I go on a walk, Mom fastens the leash to the two D rings on the collar and then the collar will not come apart. I like the black one because it matches my fur. This picture shows the two rings for the leash.

On the collar, I wear a tag made by Boomerang Tags. Mine is the Adjustable Collar Tag. It slips on the collar so that there is nothing hanging off to jingle and make noise or catch on anything. It has my name on it and my address and Mom and Dad's phone number. I don't wear my rabies tag but Mom keeps it in a special place to show someone if she needs to.

The reason why Mom bought me this collar and tag is because she knew a dog that was killed once when a collar like this would have saved him. It was sad. My big sister Holly used to get her collar caught on a quilt all the time. One time she chewed her own collar off to escape. Mom was busy raising kids at the time and didn't know what to do but when I came along Mom searched on the internet and found this collar. I have had the one I wear for over three years.

Here you can see the whole thing. So, if you didn't get what you want for Christmas, go shopping and order yourself one. Use your Mom's charge card. It's in her purse.

A unique car ride .......

I live in Augusta, Georgia and tonight my Mom and Dad took me on a car ride downtown to see the statue of James Brown. He is from Augusta and as you probably know, he died on Christmas Day. There is a statue of him on Broad Street, one of the main streets downtown, not far from a street named after him. There were perhaps 40 people of every race around the statue, taking pictures and leaving flowers and candles. Someone had draped an American flag around the statue. Everyone was very polite and quiet and somber. There is a public funeral tomorrow at the Civic Center which was recently re-named the James Brown Arena.

Here I am on my car ride. I love care rides!


See there were a lot of people around the statue.


People have left a lot of things at the base of the statue. This lady was writing on the flag.

The statue.


This is the Imperial Theatre, an old theatre down the street.

They had posted this as a tribute.

These picture was taken at the Civic Center.

Look what I found Isabella ...

Isabella, I found some beautiful engagement collars. I think pink would be nice for Valentine's Day, don't you?

My Christmas present and Hershey's imaginary MONSTERS .....

I thought I would show you my Christmas present. While the rest of you got lots of squeaky toys and chew bones and Mammoth bones and engagement collar/toilet paper ...... Fufu really made out .... this is all I got. Hershey brought me a cookie with my name on it. He got one for him too. They are dipped in carob ... not real chocolate.

It was yummy and I ate mine real fast and then tried to get Hershey's away from him because he was taking waaaaayyyyy too long to eat it. My Mom did not get me anything ............she didn't even buy a present for me to give Hershey! ... a consequence of the last minute funeral and company she had. She feels bad and promised to make it up to us ... I think. I don't care. I have plenty of toys and as long as I have her, that's all that matters.

Hershey is still here but his Mom and Dad have left and so he is super duper NERVOUS! We have to bark at everything!!!! I am really tired of barking and have tried to get him to calm down and relax. I keep telling him I have everything under control and we are safe here with my Mom but he is sure he hears monsters. Gheesh! I sure like having him here though. He is great company. I wish he didn't live in Virginia!

"Hershey, look ... see there NO monsters! .... REALLY!"

My trip to Florida ....

Last week when I was in Florida for my Granddaddy's funeral, I took these pictures for you. This is me on the porch of my other Grandaddy's house. They call it a lanai. It is a screened in porch and I think if I lived there, I might get to like it a lot. I did not want to be out there by myself and my Mom was a little nervous letting me stay out there by myself. She thinks I might tear a hole in the screen if I really wanted to get out in the yard. If I can chew a hole in a plastic kennel, this screen would not stop me I don't think.

One night Mom took me for a walk down the street. I met a new girl puppy named Samantha. She was wiggley.

I saw this sign and took a picture of it for Zach. He lives at the North Pole. I wonder if his house is near my Grandaddy's house? I don't think so because I did not see any Mammoth bones or caribou or snow on my walk.

They do not have snow in Florida. This is the only kind of snow they have in Flordia.


They do have a lot of birds in Florida. These birds are always at my Grandady's house at the little pond in his back yard. I wonder if they are having a meeting or what?

This bird also lives in my Grandaddy's back yard. He isn't real though.

I like going to my Grandaddy's house. I like him a lot. I am working hard to take care of my Mom and my Dad right now. They are both pretty sad. Losing family is hard. I hope you are all patient with me until my Mom and Dad get back on thier feet again.

What is wrong with this picture?

Hey dog friends. Is it just me or do any of you see anything wrong with this picture? I saw this product advertized in a circular that came to my house today and I just had to show you all. It cracked me up.

1. What cat would need a small door at the bottom of the gate? All the cats I know would just just OVER the gate.

2. Why does the cat get to go through the gate anyway when the beautiful dog doesn't???? It's not fair.

Gingerbread dachshunds for Christmas ......

We're back home from Florida and Hershey is here visiting me! One day we made cookies. They were gingerbread dachshunds.

We watched as they rolled out the dough and baked them.

We watched them cool.

Here they are.

Yum.

I've been tagged ....

I have been tagged by Hana.

Things I would love to get for Christmas:

1. A visit from Hershey
2. More slow sniffy walks
3. A toy with a squeaker in it
4. somebody to play with during the day, maybe a dog school like Indy goes to

Things I do not want to get for Christmas:
1. CRATES!!
2. Ground screws!!
3. any more funerals!! (read below)

I tag Hershey, Meeeshka, Isabella, Gunter and Pippin.

The Rules: The player of this game starts with "3 things he/ she would love to get for Christmas" and also has to list "3 things he/ she definitely does not want to get for Christmas". Then he/she tags 5 friends and list their names. The ones who get tagged need to write on their blogs about their Christmas wishes, as well as state this rule clearly, then tag 5 more victims. And the one who tags need to leave a comment that says "you've been Christmas tagged!" in their comments and tell them to read your blog.

PS - I will be gone for a few days while my Mom and Dad go to another funeral. My Grandaddy passed away suddenly yesterday. This is my other Grandaddy ... not the one that goes with my Grammy that died just 3 months ago. The good news is I get to go with them this time.

Pop

1927 - 2006

Crate saga .... story number 37 .....

My Mom wishes she had something else to blog about. Chocolate, doorbells, stinky balls, balloons ....... something ... anything but another crate story.

All of you have told me how much you love your crates. Several of you told my Mom she had not tried one thing long enough. Dr Cindy called to check on the situation the other day and she also encouraged my Mom to keep trying. Because Dr Cindy and Mom were afraid I would break a tooth on the metal crate, Dr Cindy loaned me a plastic one to try. It smelled very doggie because it was one of her dog's crates. I was very interested in it. Mom and I played games in it with treats. Mom gave me a blanket and chew toys and a bone and a Kong with peanut butter. I chewed on it a little the first day, but just a little bit. Today I chewed some more and now I have a small escape hole started. Tomorrow, I should be able to get it big enough to get my head stuck in and hurt myself so Mom and Dr Cindy have decided not to try it tomorow.

Back to square one ..... tinkling on the blankets and tearing up the kitchen.

Oh, and did I mention that I can walk the crate across the kitchen about 2 feet? See the rubber mat under the crate? ....Yeah, it didn't stop me.

Did I also mention that I laid down in the crate while Mom and Dad ate dinner? Mom can't figure me out either.

The Amazing Scary thing .....

Mom got home from the grocery store
drove up in the car and opened the door.
She heard that distinctive whosh whosh sound
paired with dogs barking in the background.

She looked up in the sky
and saw it way up high .
It floated over the the street
and landed .. how sweet !

Mom let me out to see the thing
but it did not give me a zing.
It was that special time of the day
the time to get my dinner out of the way.

The amazing scary thing was a hot air balloon! Mom let me outside to see it ... my neighbor dogs were barking their heads off! But I didn't seem to care because Mom was home and it was dinner time. But it floated right over my street, right over my driveway, and went just a little way down the street and landed. It was really cold and it was almost dusk, maybe that had something to do with why it landed on my street. Wierd.

Thanks dog friends for all your suggestions and "recipes." Dachshies, I am 3 and I am not home alone all that long.... just 8 to 3, four days a week. Indy, I am going to email you at that link ... I'd love to hear advice from a professional. Pippen, I think 5:30 is pushing it too ....to get up in the morning. Isabella, they have ants at my Grandaddys house too.

Mom got some of that Kong peanut butter in the whipped creme can and she put some in my Kong and froze it. Today she let me have it as long as I went in my kennel. I really wanted to take the Kong out of my kennel but I wasn't allowed to. Mom is trying to make it a special toy for the kennel ... and besides it's VERY MESSY! Today, I spent some time in the kennel when Mom was home. Maybe I will get to like it better.

Thanks friends.

Thank you friends.......

Thank you dog friends for all your advice. Meeshka, I think you are right .... My Mom probably has tried a lot of things really quick and not been consistent long enough. She says she will re-think that. (Can I still get in HULA?)

Yes, I am fixed. I was fixed when I was 5 or 6 months old and I NEVER mark my territory (unlike another doglet I know.) It's embarrasing but I tinkle like a girl, so no that is not it. And Mom does lure me into the crate. In fact one night she fixed everything the night before and put it in the crate. In the morning, I couldn't wait to get to it .. I just wanted to get the treat OUT of the crate though and take it under the dining room table. She also does the boring greeting thing when she gets home. She lets me out of the crate and lets me out in my yard and goes back inside. I, on the other hand, am over the moon excited to see her and so it is prety hard for her to remain uninterested in me. She gave up on the metal crate because she was afraid I was hurting my teeth. But thank you for your advice. My Mom is kinda a wimp and so am I so maybe she needs to re-think it all.



I know this is not a Kong, but the Kong peepol won't let you copy their pictures. This is King Kong. I have a large black Kong. That is the size the Kong people recommend for me. It seems kind of big for me but Mom figured the hole was bigger so she got it. I managed to chew a red one up, so Mom got me the black one for extreme chewers. I want to know what your peepol "stuff" your with?? My Mom puts one of those little cookies that Kong makes, the kind that sticks out the hole. I chew off the top of the cookie and then I don't care about the broken off part on the inside of the Kong because (I guess) I can't get it. Sometimes she puts a table spoon of peanut butter inside the opening and I like it but it doesn't thrill me. She never FILLS IT with anything. Do you big dogs have such long tongues that you can get to the bottom of those things???? What do you put in it? Do you think mine is too big for me?

My favorite treat is a hollow bone filled with lamb and rice jerky treats. I lick and lick and lick the jerky treats on each end. Mom fixes me one every day when she goes to work. But it still doesn't keep me occupied all day.

On another note, I have gotten so many cards, I can't count them all. I am going to send them to Hershey because we are sharing. Hershey, just wiat till you see them all !! I got a really special present from Hana today and I have a crush on her now. Can I have a crush on two girls ...... Ivy and Hana? Thank you Hana. I love it!!!!!

Tomorrow I will tell you about the amazing scary thing that came to my neighbor hood today! I took pictures!

WARNING - DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME

It is with great embarrassment (on my part and my Mother's) that I share with you the picture of my horrible incident with the feathers. Who knew a blanket could make this much of a mess. What was my Mom thinking!?!?!?!

Today was a much better day. Mom left me in the kitchen with only a blanket, my bone, and a rope toy that I was encouraged to chew on (she smeared my favorite treat on it.) She worried a little that I might decide to chew on the kitchen furniture, but I didn't. I didn't tinkle on the blanket either. Yea!

I am emailing Meeshka the picture hoping to get into HULA-hoop. Hershey got in. If this picture doesn't get me in ... well, I don't know what will.

Thank you to all my dog friends that encouraged my Mom. Thank you especially to Hana for suggesting a play date. That is one Mom had not thought of. I don't think Mom would ever get rid of me. Christmas is coming and my Mom will have two weeks to spend with me. Company will be here and Hershey will even be here. I will just go nuts in January when they all go.

How much is that doggie in the window ...

I am in the dog house tonight! In fact I have gone to bed early with my Dad and I am not keeping my Mom company tonight.

I got a spanking this afternoon from my Mom and she has given me the cold shoulder all night. I did not blog last night because I was so embarrassed .... and today ... well it wasn't much better. Like I said ... I got a spanking today, even though my Mom told me she shouldn't have spanked me. She said she is pretty sure I didn't know what I was getting a spanking for.

I know many of you have been following my prison saga. First let me say that my Mom has tried piddle pads (I don't pee on them and I tear them up.) but not litter. She tried spraying apple bitter on the cage ... more about that in a minute. She has tried putting me in the kennel .... I mean prison for short pleasant stays when she is home and she fed me dinner in it tonight. She has done everything she knows to do and read web sites and talked to Dr Cindy.

Dr Cindy looked at my teeth and said they were fine. She said I did have a place where I bit my mouth ... it was swollen. She does not want to put me on medicine because she says we still have to train me. Mom asked if she was doing everything right ..... training me .... and Dr Cindy says yes. (Mom wonders though if she wasn't just being nice though.) So, Sunday night Dr Cindy said to Mom to put me in the metal prison kennel on Monday but to give me a blanket.

So Mom sprayed apple bitter on the cage and gave me my favorite blanket yesterday. Do you know that if you chew a hole in your favorite soft fluffy blanket that feathers get all over you and all over the kitchen and in the air and everywhere and you have to lay in them until Mom gets home? How was I suppose to know it would do that? Plus, if you chew on your kennel and it tastes like Apple Bitter, you have to get a lot of huge drinks when your Mom gets home to get the awful taste out of your mouth. Yesterday was a no good horrible bad day. I don't know who felt worse .... me .. or Mom.

So today Mom put away the metal kennel prison and put my soft sided kennel, which I will sleep in and go lay in sometimes on my own ... ride in the car in on trips ... the one I like ... she put it in the kitchen but did not zip me up in it. The door was velcroed up so I could go in and out. She put nice blankets in it and left me lots of toys. She turned on the TV to Animal Planet. I had water and a bone with my favorite recipe. The only thing I did not have was a manicure and a massage. Then she went to work.

When she came home, I had chewed up a place on the kennel and tinkled on every blanket. I had even pulled the cover off the kennel, the one she made to make it dark and private, and tinkled on that. I got a spanking, I think because Mom is so frustrated. She knew she shouldn't be spanking me but she was so mad and so frustrated she did. She even called Hershey's Mom and said she might have to get rid of me ... snif snif.

She said that because she is frustrated (but so and I) and she has a lot of stuff to do for Christmas and parties to go to and things to make and a stressful job and groceries to get and she even had to vote today. She said to Hershey's Mom that maybe she doesn't have time for me and maybe I need a home where the people are home all time time like at Isabella's house. She also said maybe I need a brother or a sister. She may look for one. But she thinks if she does not have time for one dog, how is she going to have time for two dogs.

Wonderful story ....

Go listen to this msn video. It is about a dog that saved her peepol's lives.

http://video.msn.com/v/us/v.htm?g=B02745CF-33A1-4C38-97F6-18D05A7F6E69&t=s3&f=06/64&p=top_topnews&fg&GT1=8816

Does any dog have any advice?

Ok, my mother is really worried now and she does not know what to do. She will ask Dr Cindy tomorrow. But maybe you dogs have some advice.

My Mom bought a black metal cage (bed) for me to go in when they go to work or places like that. I don't know where they go, they just go and sometimes they use the word work. She bought it for me because I was tinkling on my blankets, that she nicely left in in the kitchen where she penned me up when she went to work. I do not get soft blankets in the black kennel. I get a hard bone with my special recipe and a soft toy or a kong ... whatever she is in the mood for I guess.

I have been really good and have not tinkled in the kennel (there's no soft blankets in there to tinkle on Mom - duh!) but she has noticed small wet spots around the edges of the pan and on one corner of the towel or blanket she sets the cage on is wet (so it won't scratch the floor.) At first she thought maybe I was lifting my leg to pee out the corner but it does not smell like pee, Today she got a good look at the kennel and has determined I am CHEWING on the bars of the kennel, mostly in that one corner. The wet spots are my slobber.

So tonight she held me down and looked at my teeth and she saw little black specs on my teeth and what looks like a sore on my lip by my nose. My front teeth look worn down too.

Now my Mom is all worried and I think I have almost convinced her to take me with her wherever she goes.... just like the little teeny 8 week baby Maltese she saw at church today in a special bag. I could not fit in a little bag but I could sit in her lap and she could carry me I am sure. Maybe she could buy me a doggie stroller!! Or a front pack!!!!

Ugh! What is my Mom going to do. They call it seperation anxiety. Maybe Hershey will let me come live with him. His Mom is about to be home all the time taking care of a baby. I could keep Hershey company.

The bad prison kennel (bed)

Dear Hershey ....

Hey Hershey!

Look at all the cool Christmas Cards we have gotten already. Today we got cards from Joey and Tanner, Tin Tin in Australia, and Mackie & Ollie. Wow (or Woo) this is FUN!! I am getting way more Christmas Cards than Mom.

I want to share the cards with you since they are coming to my house. I can't wait unitil you come for Christmas to show them to you so I am sending them to you in the mail.

Have fun in Virginia and tell Nixon I said Hi. Oh, and don't let the wind or the neighbors distract you from doing what your gotta do.

Your very best friend,

Copper