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Mommy left us!

This morning was very exciting!!! The alarm went off super early, Mommy leapt out of bed and made coffee, and then packed up the month's supply of food she bagged last night.

That means only one thing....VACATION!!! But wait...why didn't she bring a suitcase of Mommy stuff? Clothes, shampoo, hair dryer, high heels, makeup? Something was wrong with this picture, but I was so excited about "going" that I barely noticed.

She put Gretta in her snoozer harness and me in my seatbelt, and away we went!

3 hours later we were at Parker's, Jack's, and Bebe's lakehouse! Strangely, they were not there. Puzzling...but I'm not complaining! That means more laptime for me!

Then Mommy rubbed my ears, told me to be a good boy, and went away. And there I was, at the lakehouse with Parker's Gramma.

Apparently Mommy is going to some place called Bulgaria for almost a month (however long that is). She got a big opportunity to play chamber music there and couldn't say no. So she flies out on Wednesday...and I'm kicking back at the lakehouse, enjoying long snoozes on the deck and walkies!

I guess this means I'll be taking a mini-vacation from moderating duties. Seeing as I lack opposable thumbs and any sort of accuracy at the computer keyboard and my typist is overseas, I don't think we'll be getting a lot done. Behave yourselves, dogsters, and I'll see you guys in August!

Shredding Gladiator: First Encounter

So Mommy and Dyson Airmuscle DC-28 made their first assault on the land of white carpet. It was coated in a fine layer of my best work...the soft, fluffy down of a longhaired dachshund, combined with the sticky shorter cocker hairs of a very heavily-coated spaniel.

Round one goes to.......

DYSON

It now sits, gloating at me with a full tummy of dog hair and other small particles. I mean, REALLY. How hard is it to be a good sport?

Oh well, I'm shedding like a monster again so we'll see how he handles Round 2. Dachshunds are well-known for tenacity and determination, and I will not lose to a giant purple sucking machine. I already declared the carpet in the name of Dachshund (sorry Gretts) and I will not allow this....this.....THING to annex what is rightfully mine.

You'll see...I'm at least going to give Mr. Dyson a run for Mommy's money.

Shedding Gladiator: Part 1

Whoa pups...it's been AGES since I last updated my diary! A lot has happened in that time period, but it's been a year of mostly positive events. We moved...AGAIN. Honestly, I don't know WHAT Mommy was thinking moving to this new apartment. Sure, it's closer to work and we're not in danger of getting shot in the middle of a gang fight, but this new place has WHITE carpet. WHITE. As you can easily see, Gretta and I are furry black shedding MACHINES. So this new place...so not challenging for us. Even when Mommy vacuums several times a week, we very quickly change the carpet color from white to charcoal. BOR-ring.

Anyway, part of this year of good things includes our recent selection to test-drive the new Dyson vacuum cleaner. Well, I guess "good" depends on perspective. Mommy seems overly excited by this prospect, while Gretta and I remain apprehensive. You see, one of my most important jobs at this apartment is to make sure it's ALL covered in Rondo-y goodness. I mean, it can't really be home without long tufts of dachshund hair forming a thin layer on EVERYTHING, right? Combine that with Gretta's amazingly sticky cocker spaniel hairs and we're a formidable shedding team.


I don't mind the vacuum so much, but it frightens poor Grettakins. I love my sister, so I realized the least I could do for her was to double my shedding and encourage her to shed even more. That way, Mommy's vacuums would clog and die on her. We watched a whole parade of sweepers come and go over the years, some named Eureka, one named Bissell, a couple named Hoover, something called the Dirt Devil (which I think was totally in cahoots with the two of us because it didn't do squat on all our wonderful contributions to the household) one with the WEIRDEST name of GE that lasted all of 2 weeks... What can I say, the Rondo/Gretta team concedes defeat to NO machine!

But now we have what Mommy calls an honest-to-god challenger, one that will put all the other sweepers to shame. A purple monster sitting in the kitchen, daring to stand up to ME, the mighty shedding king. Gretta ran under the bed to cower, that silly cocker believes EVERYTHING Mommy tells her. But I...the mighty dachshund...I, the great Rondolio....I know that anything that's purple is nothing to fear. I mean, I did help decimate the Great Grape Ape just last week, and I tore the head off of a Barney doll when I was a mere pup. Fear a purple sucking machine? Not I!!!

But Mommy really is convinced that this is her solution. I've never seen her so excited to clean the house. And apparently seeing all her dogster friends have such success with the beast has really fostered her dogmatic belief that her woes over this white carpet are over.

Tell me friends, should I worry? Or is this just another weak challenger in the long line of cleaning machines Mommy has adopted? Stay tuned, as Mr. Dyson Airmuscle makes his debut performance on our carpet later this morning...