Ho hum

I don't have anything exciting to bark about right now, but I see it's been a while since I said anything. So here I am! Maybe I should tell you how my holidays were, since that's at least some noteworthy news.

Mommy, me, grandma and grandpa, and Nikki had a nice Christmas. . . all quiet and with lots of yummy presents from Santa Paws. Mommy says they were from Santa Paws of the Pacific NW, whatever that means. I just know it's all been good. :)

A bit after Christmas, though, Nikki and I got "abandoned" for a couple of days 'cuz the humans all wanted to go somewhere without us. Without us!!! It wasn't so bad to start with. . . we knew the people at the vet, and they were nice. . . but I missed my mommy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Grandma and grandpa finally came to get us after what seemed like forever -- really, do you know what 3 days is in dog years? We really were starting not to feel so good, but at least we were HOME. :)

Apparently, our getting all upset is not good for our tummies, though. Mommy took me back home after a couple of days, but we had a bad night. . . all I remember much beyond getting up to go to my box every couple of hours was when I had to throw up and then was too tired to get back up and go to bed. (I don't know why, but I always have to go to my crate to throw up in it. Mommy says that's okay if I feel better there, since it cleans up better than carpet.) But mommy came over when she noticed I wasn't getting back up and picked me up, kept me warm, and snuggled with me until I went back to sleep. We met grandma halfway to Nikki's house and all 3 of us went to the vet. At least we were fine other than just having been really stressed out, so we didn't have to deal with more than just one set of shots. This funny stuff they call Pepto Bismol is nasty, though -- it's not fair that the humans can hold my mouth open and shoot pretty much whatever yucky stuff they want to in there. (I guess it's supposed to be a good thing if our people are putting it in us, but I sure didn't feel like it was.) Grandma took really good care of us all week, and mommy said hi to me from inside the phone every night. (How's she do that? Why doesn't she just come out?)

But we're all better now. :) We got lots of yummy stuff like beef and rice. . . and then also some canned food once we started getting better. And then I started wanting to get sick again in the morning once I was back on my boring old dry pellets, so I got canned food again for a while since at least that agreed with me! Every now and then, mommy will still let me have a little bit of canned stuff 'cuz I like it and she's nice. Thanks, mommy!!!

Oh, mommy says I get some canned food sometimes because the variety seems to keep my system working better so I don't get sick again and so she knows that I really am eating something at least every couple of days. Whatever, mommy.

Anyways, mommy and my grandparents said there's probably no more leaving us at the vet, and even the vet said it probably wasn't good for us. The humans said they'll figure out exactly what to do when they all want to go somewhere again, although they have some leads. Oh, and Mommy says WE GET TO HAVE NIKKI STAY WITH US in a week or so when grandma and grandpa go somewhere for a meeting for a few days. I'm sooooo happy!

Thanksgiving

So. . . mommy left me with grandma, grandpa, and my sister Nikki the first part of the week. Apparently she and that funny lady who's been living with us for a little while were going somewhere fun without me. I dunno. . . getting to play with my sister 24/7 sounds pretty darn fun to me. I missed mommy for a whole about 5 minutes when she left, then it was play time!!

But then grandma and grandpa took us to that weird place we go about once a year to get poked and prodded on Wednesday morning and left us there! HEY!!!!! It wasn't too bad, but there were a lot of doggies there always wanting to be noisy. . . and Nikki and I missed our humans and our house. :(

BUT THEN. . . some people came down with our leashes!!!!!! And we got to go upstairs again!!!!!! MOMMY, MOMMY, MOMMY!!!!!!!! We were so excited to be in her car again and had to climb all over her and tell her how happy we were to go home. Then she told us we had to go in our crates. . . well, okay, if that means we get to go home. We just want to go home! It was a looooonnnnngggg two days. We still had each other, but nothing beats getting to curl up in bed with the humans.

We got home, and even mommy wanted to sleep for a while. Soooo nice. :) Every time she moved or made noise, though, we just HAD to tell her how happy we were to be home. (I think she started getting tired of being licked all over and trampled, though.)

Still no sign of grandma and grandpa, although they seemed to be stuck in the phone at one point this afternoon. How do they fit in there? Mommy says they'll probably be back tomorrow. I'm just happy to see mommy, although Nikki says she wants her parents back, too.

Mommy says she's making a turkey tomorrow for when grandma and grandpa come back so we sort of have a Thanksgiving together sometime this week. Yay, we like turkey!

new roomie

So. . . mommy left me withgrandma, grandpa, and Nikki for a WHOLE WEEK not too long ago. I missed her lots, but it wasn't so bad since I got to play with my sister all the time instead. Grandma has a lot to learn about how to cuddle up with me on the couch, 'cuz she wasn't doing it quite right. I told her so.

Then mommy came back, but she brought some other human I'd never seen before. Mommy says she's from Russia and she's living at our house for a couple of months while she's working sort of where mommy goes all day most days while I sleep.

(What's a "Russia"?!?!?!)

I'm finally starting to get used to this extra human hanging around so I don't initially always freak out when I notice she's there. She feeds me pupperoni sometimes for no real reason (mommy says it's something about making friends), so she's okay in my book. She apparently has a kitty back where she comes from, so I think she likes us small furry kids.

Now I just need to teach her to give me lots of yummy food all the time. Mommy's kinda slow to figure out when I want some of what she's eating, but there's always another human? I have this bad feeling that she's not any easier to train than mommy is, though. :(

picnic

So. . . mommy had this picnic with similarly afflicted grad students, and she decided to pack me up too! I really wish she'd have let me at the food in the car, but that's a doggie seatbelt for you. Anyhow, they had better stuff once we got there (read "meat") and mommy let me sample bits of it.

Too many weird people for my taste, though. I promise that I wanted to be good, but sometimes a pup just has to have her space -- especially when in a new place to begin with. A good rule is about 2-3'. . . much closer than that, and I'm likely to growl and otherwise tell people to back off.

Of note, though, we did find another min pin running around in the park. I wasn't in the best of moods by then to feel like playing, but she seemed nice. Better than that other bigger doggie who always wanted to bark at me at least as much as I wanted to bark back.

And then we went home. . . ah, I like home. My bed is there. :)

Is it hot?

Mommy's been telling me a lot lately that I'm one lucky doggie 'cuz it's hot outside and I don't have to be out there. Even to pee, thanks to my little boxes in the house at least vaguely like short versions of those weird chairs in the bathroom. You know, I tried jumping up on one of those once when the lid was up. . . good thing I noticed so I didn't fall in?

All I know is that she's not really wanting to go for walks and stuff lately. I guess mother knows best, but. . . can we go somewhere soon, please? Well, at least she brought home a bunny for me to play with the other day. Too bad it's not alive like those ones outside, but at least it squeaks when I bite it. I like to bite it!!!! She tried to go to bed last night without it in our bedroom, but I convinced her to let me go get it first. :) I like my bunny. . . .

It's been looking all cloudy today from what I can see out of my crate, so I'm hoping maybe it's raining or something so mommy will finally think it's nice enough outside to go for a walk again. I even wanted to take a shower with mommy this morning, so I'm all pretty to make all those other dogs who live around us jealous. :)

A Survey!

About You...
* what type of animal are you? god, er, umm. . . dog :)
* what breed? min pin
* what color fur/feathers? red
* what color eyes? brown
* when is your birthday? 11/30/05
* how old are you? 1
* how much do you weigh? 9-10 lbs, I think
* do you have any siblings? not who live with me. . . but one of my real sisters lives with my grandparents and we see each other fairly regularly (yay!)
* do you have to wear silly clothes? sometimes when it's cold
* do you enjoy wearing said silly clothes? if I'm cold!
* what's your favorite toy? rubber squeaky ball or crinkly newspaper toy
* do you work or go to work with your mommy/daddy? no, but I try to be very helpful around the house

This/That
* Petco/Petsmart: we only have a Petco within as far from my house as I've ever gone
* tug of war/fetch: can I do some of both within the same game?
* ocean/lake: what are those?
* car ride/walk: well, I like walks. . . but I also know that car rides bring me great things, like often to my sister :)
* dog park/playing alone with your family: mommy!
* your own doggy bed/mommy or daddy's bed: usually mommy's, although I also like big piles of blankets for short periods of time if available
* tv on/off when your mommy or daddy leave you alone: off, although mommy's been leaving me a classical music radio station lately. . . sounds funny, but okay I guess
* pig ears/hooves: ears! I have a hard time figuring out I'm supposed to chew on them, though, and have to run around and hide mine repeatedly for a day or two first
* biscuits/bones: bones are yummy, although I only get them at my grandparents 'cuz I don't think mommy really likes the kinds of meat they come in. . . biscuits are fun to hide and then just never actually eat, as I really don't like crunchy treats that much anyhow

My New Bed!

So, you know those plastic crate thingies that are open on top? Mommy says they're supposed to hold file folders or something. . . not sure what that means. . . is that like how I help her fold clothes?

Anyhow, mommy finally figured out the other day that I wanted to sleep in the one she used to have sitting on the floor in our closet with some of my extra blankies in it. She finally put it out in the room where I can actually get to it! She's a little slow sometimes, but she means well. :) Although I usually love to snuggle next to mommy when I'm sleeping, I kinda liked the plastic thingy this morning for a while. . . nice little cubbyhole, a couple of furry blankets to snuggle with. . . I was happy.

Then mommy woke up and didn't know where I was. She still looked half-asleep when she figured out I was in there. . . but I decided that she must be missing me, so I hopped back into bed like a good little bed-warmer. The things we *don't* do for our people!

July 4th

So. . . I still really don't know what this was about, but mommy and I sat in the car for a long time last night. There were lots of people around for me to watch and even more *weird* smells to sniff! Mommy put the windows down just enough for me to get my nose out, and that was fun. She wasn't always happy with my crawling all over her to get to the best spot in the window, I don't think, but. . . oh well. :)

After it got dark-ish (kinda hard to tell since I couldn't see all that well + there were still lights on in the place we were parked), all these funny booming/popping sounds sort of like the rest I've been hearing off in the distance for a couple of days started. (Dunno what that's all about, but whatever. Nobody's messing with my house or my mommy, so I don't really care.) I was pretty tired by this point from all that sniffing, but I think there must have been something neat to watch outside. So maybe the sky was funny colors sometimes? I was just tired and curled up on my blanket in the back seat most of the time that all was going on.

And then we went home. . . yay! I was so tired that about all I could do first was plop down on the floor and lay over on my side. Then mommy kept looking at me funny 'cuz I normally at least will hop on the comfy couch to sleep, and she picked me up and petted me for a while. I love my mommy. :) However, what I really loved was when she opened up the bedroom so I could lay down on our bed and take a nap before she finally decided it was bedtime, too.

Can we do that again tonight, mommy? I had a lot of fun sitting in the car and sniffing. . . .

Seat Belts

Mommy got me a new doggie seatbelt the other day. . . I kinda like it 'cuz I don't have to ride in my crate anymore in the car, but I'd really like to be able to get in the front seat and help her drive. She's pretty helpless. :)

I had one earlier, but I figured out that all I needed to do was squeeze myself out of it. Mommy didn't really like that for some reason. . . ? I haven't yet figured out a way out of this one, but it also doesn't annoy me quite so much since it lets me move around more. If I can just figure out how to undo that clip that mommy unhooks to replace with my leash when we get where we're going, I'd be all set -- except that even mommy sometimes makes funny faces when she's trying to do that. And she can do *everything*, so I don't know what chance I ever have.

Well, I guess I'll just have to settle for sitting in the back seat and whining for a bit until I get distracted with something out the window or just plain get too tired to care.

Quiet Day with Mommy + a Car Ride

I'm not really sure what's going on, but my mommy was at home and mostly just laying around all day today. I was sort of concerned about whether she was OK most of the day and so needed to cuddle up by her all day. . . but then she found some energy and took me for a car ride around town! :)

I do wish she'd let me sit in her lap when we're driving around, though. She put this new thingy on me, and I'm confined to the back seat because it hooks to the seat somehow. The view's kinda nice back there, though -- I can see out the front, the back, and the side windows.

I'm still a whiny little girl in the car, even with all that to look at. I just wish I could figure out better how to tell which times I get to go see my sister when we get in the car! I mean, I like car rides as much as the next doggie, but I'd reallllly love to go see my sister. . . .

Now, I've been wondering if mommy is ever going to go to bed again. I've curled up in the laundry basket, on the couch pillows, and on the rocking chair. . . but she doesn't seem to get the idea. Oh well, I guess it's time to go tear something up until she notices me again!