I am going to be a big sister...

Well, my time here as an only "child" is soon coming to an end. My human brother is off to college and only visits once in a while. I miss him alot and so do my Mom & Dad, so they decided we needed another dog. This Friday Satchel will be joining our family! He is a Shih Tzu/Maltese and a pretty cute little guy! When he visited last week we got along really well. But he was only here for a while...I don't know if I like the idea of having another dog around here full time. We will see...

Happy Birthday to me!!!!

I am growing up...

I must be growing up because my Mom put me in school. She calls it puppy class. My Dad calls it people class and the dog goes along. I don't really listen to my Mom too much, but I listen to Dad. There are some HUGE dogs in the class. But that doesn't scare me - I am a Princess, you know. Now I just have to get all of them to realize that! I was trying to win the teacher over by demanding her attention and whining. No luck! She's a tough one! She just taught Mom how to stop my whining and attention getting attitude. I think that my life with Mom, as I have known it, is over!

Not much else happening in my life since winter has finally set in here and the temps are FREEZING and the snow is falling. I visited my friend Rascall last week. I had not seen him in forever, so we had lots and lots of fun. Mom said that he will be staying with us in another month or two while his family is on vacation and I am looking sooooo forward to that.

Well, enough of this diary - Mom thinks we have to practice all that stupid stuff they were working on in class last nite...boy, is this going to be a pain!

My First Snowfall

It's Snowing!!! Mom had me outside in my first ever snowfall. You would not believe all this white fluffy cold stuff that keeps falling from the sky. And it is all over our yard! I got to run and jump and play in the snow until I was almost frozen. If it wasn't so cold, I would still be out there jumping around! When I would run big balls of snow would fly into the air and I would jump and try to catch them...the more I ran, the more they flew! I got tiny little snowballs all over my legs and belly that I got to play with when I came into the house. Mom wanted to wipe me off so I was dry and warm, but Dad said no. He knew how much fun I would have with those tiny balls of snow dropped all over the floor. You know, snow doesn't taste like anything but water. Hmmm, wonder if you can order it to come down in flavors. Well, I have to go lay by the fire and warm up a bit...check out the pictures of me in the snow.

"The" haircut

Well, I had my first haircut. My Mom decided after some encouragement from a few other doggie Moms, especially my pal Benson's Mom, that she could do it. I HATE the razor, so she decided that wasn't a good idea yet and used a scissors. My Dad kept me busy and kept me still a bit...did I say that I HATE the razor??? Mom just started cutting away. A snip snip here and a snip snip there. Did I say that I HATE that razor??? I didn't mind the scissors one bit! They tell me I look beautiful, but they would tell me that no matter what I looked like. I think Mom is a bit worried about it not looking so good and what others will think. My haircut changed my color a little bit so people are just surprised when they see me because the black is almost all gone. I guess I will be patient with Mom and let her snip away...as long as she doesn't come near me with that razor...and the more practice she gets, the better it will be!

I sure am a slacker!!

Wow, I can't believe I have slacked off so much that I haven't written in my diary in a month! I guess that life has just been so busy for me and my family that I haven't had time to get my paws on this keyboard. Since school started, it has just been me and my dad here at home every day. We don't tell mom or the boy, but there are some days that we both nap all afternoon! They would hate it if they heard that! But we have fun together too. A few weeks ago, we had some company for 5 days. It was my buddy Rascall. I think I talked about him in the past. He is about 6 months older than me and his family had a wedding out of town. The first day I spent showing him around and laying down the rules of the house...I like to refer to them as "how to get along in the house of Abby and live to tell about it" rules. Rascal needed some training, but he saw it my way in the end. Once he started seeing who was in control, we got along great! I was very sad when his family came and took him home. I heard my Mom tell Dad that Rascal was sad too. Neither one of us ate for a day after that. But we are better now and check in with each other once a week or so.

You will be happy to know that I am lengthening my walking route. I love to walk now and Mom gets me to go a pretty long ways, considering my short little legs. I also get better every day with the stupid grooming stuff that Mom insists on doing all the time. She is constantly picking and prodding and poking at me!!!! But I guess it is paying off because my vet said tonite that I am such a well behaved puppy in his office! HA...got them fooled. One thing that makes me sad is that, since school started, the neighborhood girls are not visiting me as much. They did come for a short time this past weekend, but my family was all watching a movie together and they didn't really want to have the girls here for very long so they could finish the movie. The girls promised to stop again.

Well, I can't think of much else exciting going on right now. The life of a puppy in this house is a pretty good one.

My first sporting event

I went to my first sporting event and had a great time! My brother runs Cross Country and my Mom took me with her to watch. Dad was gone and could not go with us, which he was sad about. My brother ran one of his top best times and I think it was all because I was there to cheer him on. You would not believe all the kids there to give me attention. They were all over the place! And because I am soooo cute, they passed me around and hugged me and played with me. Even adults that my Mom didn't know stopped to talk to me. There was one thing I did not like. There were kids running by me...first there were a whole bunch of girls and then a whole bunch of boys, one of them was my brother. I love to run but not one of them stopped to have me run with them! I couldn't understand it. Especially my brother because he knows I love running. Mom tried to explain to me what Cross Country is all about and why they were running by, but that made no difference to me...I was mad at them for not stopping! I still had a great time and was really tired out when I got home. Oh, yeah, one thing I forgot to mention. Just a tip to any of you dogs out there going for rides...did you know that going to the bank drive thru is the most awesome thing because they give you treats with the money?

I am trying to broaden my horizons...

I have had some great new experiences this week! I went with my Mom to her work. She works in an elementary school and since no kids are back to school yet, I got to go with her while she tried to get some work done. I ran around the office and sniffed everything out. As people she works with came in and out during the day, they all made a big deal out of me because they had not met me yet. They played with me alot and showered me with attention. I loved it! What I loved the most was the attention of a 7 year old girl. She came with her Mom, who works with my Mom, and she played with me all afternoon. I came home that nite and crashed.

I went for the longest walk I have ever been on. I went around a block without having to be carried by Mom. It was so exciting to smell new things and see new places. It took my Mom & I a while...Dad was beginning to get worried about us. But I am still a little afraid of cars driving by, so everytime a car came, I had to sit down for a while. Mom & I are working on that.

Last nite, I went with my Mom to visit my little Morkie cousin. He is going to be staying with us for a week in September and our Moms think we need to become better friends. Well, last nite did it...we were by a bonfire in my cousin's back yard and we chased and rolled and wrestled and had a great time with each other. I started getting tired and crawled up in my Mom's lap and fell asleep, but my cousin wasn't too happy about that. He whined and poked his nose at me until I woke up & played again. By the time we finally left for home, he & I were best of friends. I can't wait until September!

Not happy today...

I had to visit my vet today and I am feeling a bit down. He is a really, really nice man, but he gave me a shot! It hurts when someone picks me up and they touch my shot area. So I am just laying down and Mom & Dad are showering me with TLC. I hope I will feel better tomorrow!

Sure glad it's Friday!

You would not believe how hard I worked today! This morning I had to help my Mom water flowers. We do this almost every morning, but this morning she decided to add some exercise into it and made me run all the way across a HUGE open lot next to our house. I think I surprised her when I beat her! She refused to carry me back home, so I had to run and beat her again. This afternoon, my best girlfriends from down the street were doing free car washes. My mom pulled our car out of the garage and I had great fun watching them wash. When they were spraying the hose, I would jump into the stream of water and get my face all wet. Then they would spray the hose on the driveway and I would chase the streams of water out into the street. My friends laughed & laughed. Tonite I had to sit through another grooming. My Mom is changing things up a bit...she moved my grooming spot and I am pretty happy about that. I can see myself in the mirror & I am really cute! I decided that I would be really good for a couple of nites with the new changes, but tonite I gave her sort of a rough time. I am going to do that for a while, just to see how long she keeps this up. Maybe if I am naughty, she will stop! I am so happy it is Friday! These long hectic days just really tire a girl out!