Wagging my tail in excitment!

Tomorrow, we are headed to spend a week at Grandma's house! Yep... you guessed it! I'll get to see my beloved Toby and buddy Jacob! Fun, fun! Oh, I'll also get to smother all my mom's family with kisses.

So excited!!!
Sophie

So, I DO have abig nose...

My mom and dad have been telling me since the day they adopted me that I have a pretty big nose. I never really believe them because to me, it's just normal.... until I saw the latest picture taken of me. Yowza! What a BIG freakin' nose I have!! That's okay, I'm still adorable and everyone loves me. Girls with big noses have big personalities. That's what my mom tells me to make me feel better.

*Kisses*,
Soph

Fun, fun, fun!

Wow, I had a blast at Grandma's for two weeks! Not only did I get to play outside a TON, I also got to give Toby kisses every single day. While he didn't give me any back, he did start to wag his tail instead of growl towards the end. Do you think he might like me?! ;)

My mom was not very happy with me about the other fun activities I did while away. I went "hunting" and brought her back a few little birdies that didn't quite make a fall from a tree. She thought it was gross... I thought it was pretty cool and didn't understand why she freaked out. I also found the best toy to run laps around the house with... my mom seemed to think it was annoying, but I loved it!

Anyway, we had a great time. We had our cousin Elvis come visit for the weekend right when we came back, too. Now, it's just Otto and I, though. Lots of love and petting from our daddy. He sure missed us!

Kisses,
Soph

Wishin' and hopin' and prayin'.......

So, the big news here is that we are going to go stay at our grandma's house for 2 whole weeks! I can't stop thinking about Toby (black lab/great dane mix) ... can't wait to see that super handsome guy. I wonder if he'll play with me! I wonder if he'll growl when I smother him with kisses or whether he'll (sigh) kiss me back. So excited!!

I'm a BIG girl!

Okay, in case anyone has failed to notice, I have become an extremely LARGE dog. I passed up my brother Otto such a long time ago. My mom and dad guess that I weigh about 85 lbs. I was 43 lbs. when they got me back in October... about 7 months ago. Hee, hee! Keep on feeding me, suckers !

Woof,
Soph

* Going to go steal a chewie from my brother

I'm a German Shedder for sure.

Wow... I am shedding a ton! My mom hates it because everytime she pets me, she gets covered in dog hair! I can't help it... it must be the German Shedder in me. She has been brushing me each and every day and I get a treat afterwards for complying. You should see the piles of my undercoat fluff she gets with that "rake." Yowza!

I love all this snow!! Yippee!

We have gotten 5 inches of the wonderful white stuff today and it just keeps coming down. I love to run and pounce in the snow... and even eat it. My brother Otto has a much lighter coat of fur than I do and he wants to go inside after a short time. Not me! I have a nice, thick coat and could spend all day outside. I do look forward to my naps on my dog bed when we go back inside, though. I dream of chasing my brother down the hill and then rolling in snow as he knocks me down. Ah, I love to play in the snow!

~plop, snore, kick paws as I dream~

Life is good!

Just wanted to write a quick entry to let everyone know that I am doing fine... in fact, my mom and dad say that my brother was more upset by "the collar incident" than I was. I quickly bounced back to my happy, lovey dog personality... always on the look-out for someone to pet me. My mom and dad are doing a good job following the "no collars in the house" rule and Otto and I have not been playing very rough at all. We've been taking it easy so as not to scare them. Life is good... we made it through a rough situation, but we are okay!

~~kisses to all, anyone within a few feet, that is~~

Very Serious Diary Entry- (Written by our mom) LONG!

We had a very big scare last Friday night with our two dogs. Before I write anymore, just know that they are both fine. Otto and Sophie were in the living room and were playing with each other…. wrestling around having a good time. My husband and I were getting ready to eat dinner when all of a sudden, we heard very loud growls and cries. We couldn’t believe what we saw next! Otto had Sophie by the neck and it looked as though he were attacking her to kill her. They were flipping around and making all sorts of horrible noises. It looked like a scary dog fight you might see on TV.

My husband started screaming at Otto to stop and to let go. Whatever he said, Otto just would NOT get off Sophie! He started hitting Otto really hard trying to get him to stop. I stood back crying and screaming at Otto. As stupid as it may sound, I tried next and got into the middle of the fight. I put Otto between my legs and held onto his head. I tried prying his jaw open to make him let go of our other dog.

The dogs settled down a bit because I had contained Otto. At this point, my husband got a better look at the situation as we were all squeezed in the downstairs hallway. The dogs were connected somehow by Sophie’s collar and could not break away from each other. Otto’s mouth was bleeding because he had bitten his tongue and Sophie was choking. She could barely breath because her collar was pulled so tight… she was gasping for each and every breath.

We figured that we could cut off the collar to free them both. But, time was so precious as Sophie might not make it in time. The collar was very thick nylon and regular scissors would not cut it.

My husband flew outside to his shop and got a pair of heavy-duty pliers so that we could get the collar off more quickly. It seemed like a million years as I waited for my husband to come back in the house to help get the collar off. It took the strength of two people. He used the pliers to pull back the collar and I undid the buckle. Once dogs were both free, it was a miracle!

As it turns out, Otto had never had Sophie by the neck trying to hurt her. His lower jaw was wrapped in her collar. He had been biting at her collar when they were playing and it had gotten twisted and stuck in his mouth, held in his lower canines. Because it was twisted, it was pulled super tight against Sophie’s neck. Afterwards, both dogs were quite in shock about everything that had happened. Sophie was happy to be breathing normally again and she got back to normal fairly quickly.

Otto, on the other hand, has had a harder time dealing with everything. The whole time, we were soooo mean to him thinking that he was hurting Sophie and he was just stuck on her collar the whole time. He is not an aggressive dog at all. But, from what we were seeing, it did look as though he were trying to kill her by the neck (My husband later told me that he was not going to let him kill Sophie and that he might have to shoot him to get him off of her). It just didn’t make sense to us what we saw because our dogs get along so well. Our poor guy got yelled at for about 5 minutes straight and beaten as we were trying to save Sophie. His body is a little sore and he is quite sad about how he was treated. He was slower in getting back to normal… but is now cuddling and wanting to get petted just like his regular self. Otto had a small scratch on his eye and he had bitten his tongue. The dogs both expressed their EWW! anal glands during the whole fiasco so our house reeked. We had to steam clean our carpets because of the smell.

The very next day, we purchased different collars for our dogs… collars w/out a metal buckle. They are the kind with a heavy-duty plastic buckle that snap on and off. We know these collars are not as secure, but in the rare case that one of our dogs’ collars needs to come off in an emergency, we will be able to get it off quickly and easily. Our dogs have not been wearing their collars in the house anymore, just when they are outside so that they have their tags on. Otto has not tried to bite Sophie’s collar at all yet (and we doubt he will), but IF he does, we will definitely teach him that it is not okay to do.

We are enjoying spoiling our dogs rotten because we are so happy to have them alive and well. We love our dogs SO much. They are our babies and this whole incident scared us tremendously. Our dogs are fine now… playing well together, cuddling with each other, giving kisses, and wagging tails. As I am writing this entry, they are laying side-by-side looking out the front window, laying on the same dog bed.

Thanks for reading this long story. Just remember… freak accidents do happen! Hug and kiss your dogs today!

Who doesn't love the Soph?

We had a wonderful weekend with our company this weekend... our buddies Toby and Jacob came to visit. There were four dogs and three extra people at our house this weekend... I was loving all the attention I got b/c I'm the new girl.

There's only one problem, though... Toby. Man, I love him. He's a black lab/great dane mix and is so handsome! I try to kiss him nonstop to tell him how much I love him and he shows his teeth at me and growls! Oh, woe is me! Who doesn't love the Soph? I was pretty persistent and by the end of the weekend, Toby was wagging his tail (and also showing his teeth a bit) while I was kissing him. I also had fun with Jacob, a border collie/ lab mix. I am not normally a tugger. But, when he got a hold of my dirty rotten kitty toy, I knew I had to get it back! We enjoyed a good game of tug o' war.

I am off to go take a nice, long nap. We had a pretty tiring weekend.

~~ plop & snore ~~