Now that's more like it!!

Well mommy finally did it, she talked my uncle into allowing me a swim session at his pool!! And it was HEAVEN! I am a water dog at heart and there is nothing I love more than water than mommy of course, but I do love water.  I swam and swam and mommy kind of got a little freaked out as she kept trying to get me out of the water as I would swim to her when she called my name but as soon as I saw her reach for me I turned and swam away.  OK, so she probably thought I was going to drown as I kept swimming around but I love to swim that is all I want to do.  And well, she did have to get in with her jeans on to grab me as she was worried.  And well yeah, so once I figured out she was trying to show me the stairs so I would know where they were when I was ready to get out I was OK with her coming near me while I was swimming.

She loves taking pictures of me so she had fun too.  Although when we first go there I could not figure out how to get into the water and she kept giggling at me as I must have circled that pool ten times before she finally helped me in.  Once in I was in blissful heaven and loving every single minute of it.  Of course I could swim until I drowned so mommy knowing this did cut the session short after 30 minutes, but it was nice and fun.  Although my uncle said there was a lot of dog hair in the pool and that was the last time I could do it, I would gladly allow him to shave me down to skin if he would allow me to swim there all the time.  And knowing him he actually may do this before allowing me to get back in.  Oh it was fun, so much sweet fun!!!

I have the best mommy and uncle in the whole world!!!  Mommy also took me to the dog park yesterday as well.  Well, this was a separate day from the swimming.  But we went to the dog park and it was nice, I ran and played and did my usual thing which was to latch onto another dog and follow them or stalk them as mommy likes to call it and then try and dominate them once they stop in their tracks.  I love summer, and I do miss Jake man and hopefully mommy and I do make the trip up.  Which reminds me we are supposed to go up and meet some other friends for a trip to Amish country soon too!!!!!!  And I get to run and play on the farm! OH YES, I do love summer!!!!!

Sensitivity and getting point across

OK, where do I begin.  Well, this is my best friend Jake or Jake man as I like to call him.  Mommy helped take care of Jake for the neighbors (and friends) back in Maryland when we lived there.  He was a puppy and they both worked all day so mommy volunteered to take Jake out a couple times a day to help them out and she brought him over to play with me.  Well I fell in love and Jake loved me too.  If you read older posts you can see the love we have for one another.  Sadly they moved away and Jake man was no longer my next door neighbor friend.  He is now a long distance friend.

I am saddened by the fact he is no longer available for early evening romps and play sessions.  I lost a tooth because of him, and well mommy too I mean what was she thinking throwing up the ball directly between Jake and I??  Of course we both jumped up in the air at the same time to get the ball and our teeth crashed and I lost one because of that.  Good going mommy!  But you can not tell I am missing one when I smile.  Since they left mommy has taken me to meet other dogs and at the dog park I have tried to meet other dogs but it appears it is not as easy to make new friends like it was back home.

I do not know if it is because I am older and maybe all the young dogs just think I can not keep up with the pack or if they think I am not hip enough, who knows. But I am very friendly and I try my best to make friends.  I use the normal greetings a little sniff here and there and sometimes they sniff back and we seem to get along and we play well and socialize well but then they are so hard to read.  It is as if I get a friendly signal and then WHAM!  Kind of feels like I got smacked in the face with rejection and I always thought of myself as a nice enough dog to where maybe another dog may actually be a little kinder in getting their point across when rejecting me but hey, there is nothing like getting smacked up side the head or barked at to know my place.  Mommy says maybe in a few months we can take a weekend trip up to New York and see Jake man, mommy wants to see Jakes mommy and the new addition to the family.  I really do dream of Jake man...so miss him.

But well, I guess in life when you do make good friends you just learn how to truly value them as mommy says not everyone you meet will be as a good or nice a friend as you had before or had hoped the new one would be so always value the friends in your life.  Always try too to make new friends and if they do not turn out to be as nice as you had hoped then move on, sometimes new friends do not want to even be a friend and you need to learn that and if it is a social friendship such as meeting occasionally at the dog park and the occasional polite tail wag and sniff occurs then take it for what it is and maybe in time I will make a new friend who wants to hang with me and play with me and not slap me upside the head with a loud bark when all I am doing is trying to be a friend??  But in the meantime, I am not going to put forth any effort at the dog park and only go there to do the occasional play time with mommy and relish in the memory of the best friend I have ever had Jake Man, and hope mommy takes me to see him soon because I really miss him.  He was the love of my life, and yes dogs of the same sex can love one another, nothing wrong with that!!!

Yeah, yeah, yeah so we sleep together.

OK, so mommy caught us, no big deal!  What else does she think we are going to do while she is at work or out doing errands or having fun.  My sister and I sleep together.  Actually it is rather rare, but I mean at night we all sleep with mommy.  She, meaning my sis, has taken to sleeping with me during the day too.  She used to be a little confused by me when I first arrived.  

I can still feel the sting of her claw across my little puppy nose. I am still slightly hesitant around her, not fully able to relax.  You can see it in this photograph, I am alert still.  Mommy laughs at me as she says Mandy just wants to be friends now. She is 15 and I am 11.5 so it is OK now mommy says she mellowed out.  I find it hard to believe.  Mommy says people and animals change and it is only fair to give them a chance.  No one is perfect, Mandy did not understand at the time what she was doing "right mommy" and she loves me now and wont hurt me.  Sure, hmmf, not sure actually.  Mommy says she sees the change in Mandy as Mandy always comes up and rubs up against me now, in the beginning she came up and hissed or took a paw to me.  So yeah maybe she has changed.

I guess stranger things have happened.  I suppose I could relax around her.  Mommy is big on giving people second chances because as she says everyone has a story.  And we all at one time or another have been judged wrongly or labeled or what ever.  I guess my sister has had a change of heart towards me so I can give her a second chance but she better not hog the bed again tonight as that is my job!  Poor mommy has a very sore throat so I may ease up on hogging the bed as she is under the weather, that is the least I can do for her since I do not have thumbs and can not make her tea.  But I can give her tons of wet dog kisses!! Yeah just what she needs LOL!!!!

My new fence, and oasis

Well mommy finally had a fence put up for me.  The things, many, many things she does for me.  OK, lets not kid ourselves she does these things for herself too but I do reap the benefits.  Although the fence was truly the main reason she had it put up.  And I am glad she did.  The previous owner of the house created this rather peaceful oasis of sorts in the back yard.  She had a green thumb for sure. Ha, mommy sure doesn't.  But the saving grace here is the plants were already well established.  Mommy should not be able to kill these, God help her.  She does not have a green thumb, but her mom sure did.  She actually grew two trees one from a  lemon seed, and the other from an orange seed.  Mommy has yet to try it, huh, I have a great idea of mommy.  She has been trying to think of what she can plant in honor of her mother's memory and how fitting would it be if she actually planted an orange seed and it grew!!!!!  AWESOME IDEA!!! Now to try and figure out to get mommy to do this.  I can not speak so I am going to be left to come up with a rather interesting ploy or tactic to introduce the idea to her.  She has oranges from when she made orange chicken, I am so waiting for her to venture onto a new recipe already (not that it is not good, but she seems to stick with things when they are good and needs to explore a little more and broaden her horizons) maybe I will play with an orange on the floor, chew into it really hard and squirt out a seed and hopefully if I position the attempt just right, the seed will hit her in the face and get her attention.  Just a thought.  It has to hit her so she will notice it, come on already.  I was not going to do it to be mean, unlike when I hog the bed at night when she forgets to walk me, oh yeah I let her know when I am upset but this is just my attempt to get her to come up with the idea on her own.

Her mother loved her orange tree and lemon tree so this would be fitting for her to do.  But back to the fence.  Yes, I do love my fence now.  I can walk around and enjoy the yard and the way the yard was established I can see where it is a haven of sorts for mommy.  She likes to sit by the pond in the evenings and sip a glass of wine while listening to the water fall.  I sit out there with her and roam the fence, see this is where the fence is a blessing for mommy.  She can sit near the pond and sip her wine and not have to hold onto my leash and I can roam about freely.  She does worry though that I may jump into the pond.  OK, so I thought about it a time or two but wont do it.  Today we are just hanging in the house doing minor repairs and putting up curtain rods.  Mommy would hire a handyman but she is really burned out right now with trying to hire anyone because it seems she has hired every crack head in Ohio, at least according to her friend who says he never met anyone who had more bad luck with contractors than her.  And she has had many a bad luck.  But anyway, she will attempt most things herself then go from there if need be.

She enjoys doing things on her own, she gets a sense of accomplishment from it.  So this is really going to be a tough choice with how to get her to come up with the orange tree on her own, which again is why the seed needs to hit her in the face, I will try and miss her eye.  LOL, maybe, depends if she makes me mad this day or not.  I do love her, but I just want her all to myself.  Well, I can hear her down there trying to find the tape measure and screw driver so she can put up the curtain rods, better go help in any way I can.  

Belly dancing

Oh my goodness, what was mommy thinking!  Talk about a party getting out of hand, and talk about some fun!!  Mommy had some co-workers and new neighbors over for a party and it was a party.  Somehow mommy got in her head to advise all guests that everyone had to take a turn at belly dancing and she handed them her belly dancing hip scarf, a tambourine, and some finger symbols and three guests actually did it. Included one male, then the next thing I know after Julie's fiance was done belly dancing I ended up with the hip scarf tied around my hips and I went at it.  I showed them all how to really belly dance, giving it the proper hip shake and shimmy!!  When I was done, I received a standing ovation and I deserved it.  Mommy laughed so hard she doubled over.  Actually everyone laughed but I was proud as I knew they were all jealous as I am a great dancer.  The party was fun, it was our first party in the new house.  We really love our neighborhood as it has sidewalks.

No more dodging cars on walks and sharing the road with other walkers, now we share a sidewalk and have no worries.  I have not written in a while because since January mommy was very busy looking for a house and was always on the computer researching areas and homes and I just gave her her space.  But now that we are both settled and she is not on the computer as much I will have my luxury once again and keep up on current happenings and adventures and experiences because I always have them.  Well time for me to go get mommy and take her on a walk.  She was good today so she deserves a nice walk around the neighborhood...

Treadmill anyone????

Oh my goodness, leave it to mommy to find something fun and different for me to do and she will! Today she took me on a walk in the historic district and we came across this dog wash facility. Mommy knowing it has been a while since I was groomed properly walked in with me to inquire about their services. She quickly discovered they throw in a treadmill run or walk or both with the grooming session which includes a bath, a brush, a nail clip and hair clip around my paws and toes and a removal of excess fur.

Well, mommy was pleased and left me there and came back to watch me walking and running on the treadmill. She was so pleased with me and I was pleased too. The first time ever on a treadmill and I was so brave and took to it like a fish to water. Wow, so now mommy has a new place to take me for a fun session of grooming and exercise. This also confirmed for mommy it would be a good idea to buy a treadmill this way we can both get our exercise when the weather is bad outside and hell just for fun. I love the idea!!!

Mommy told one of her friends that she could see the determination and concentration on my face while I was on the treadmill and no joke, seriously I mean, never having done that before I seriously was trying to comprehend what was going on. But I did enjoy it and it was a blast!!!!

And then of course mommy finished my walk with me and then we came home where she gave me a treat and fed me my dinner and then we sat on the couch together and she rubbed my belly and ears and could not get enough of how soft I am and how wonderful I smell. That was an unexpected surprise for me and it all started with a walk down town. Leave it to mommy to find the most outlandish things for me to do and try!!! God bless her!

Whose a spoiled dog???

Why I am of course!!! As you can see I adore comfort, I like sleeping with a blanket and I enjoy wearing hats, sometimes they stay on my head and other times they just fall off, but today, I wore it for a long time on my walk with mommy and I kept it on until I was about to fall asleep and mommy took it off once I did. As you can see in my photo I was feeling sleepy and about to conk out and once I did, mommy took my picture. I had a grand day with her, we walked the historical village near our home and window shopped. Mommy stopped to speak to some friends and shop owners and then we sat at an outside cafe and mommy shared a small bite of her sandwich with me.

She brought her camera and began taking pictures again, she loves that camera. She is so happy here and does not miss our old home. Some people she misses and then some she has learned to not miss because they were not nice people. When you tell someone you miss them and they laugh, it reveals what kind of ass they are and always have been and as mommy said laughing, some asses are just never going to clean themselves up, LOL.....they were then, are now and will always be a mean asshole. So, she closed a chapter yesterday on her old life, my old life too. She reached out so many times and well, she no longer cares, it is just simple as that.

So, on with our new life and new blessings and new fortunes and the ever sweet revelation of how much sweeter life is now and how much happier she is and how she once again has found herself and is alive again, enjoying life and moving ahead and when she looks at me I see that look of contented bliss. I am hers, the best absolute thing to come out of the marriage, and I am hers, and she is mine and we are all so happy........as you can tell my life with mommy is pretty great. She lets me swim a lot!!!! Play a lot!!!!! Sleep a lot!!!!! And she gives me mass amounts of belly and ear and back rubs!!! What else could a dog ask for, and when they say it is a dogs life, I so have the dog's life!!!

Yaaawwwnnn!!!!

Ohhhh my goodness, I am so sleepy now, I just posted five, no make that six posts and I am wiped out. I just wanted to get it caught up as I have been so busy and today I had this awesome long play session at a friends house out in the country. We played on 8 acres of land, running in the snow, chasing each other and me of course trying to hump them.

It was all in fun. Mommy and her friend had tea and sat and talked for hours while the dogs all played. Her new friend Dave is a great guy, very funny and artistic to say the least. Very interesting guy. An actual artist and is currently working on a book. He threw some book ideas at her today and she is very eager for him to finish the one he is working on because it is unconventional and a work of art in and of itself. Will be interesting.

I behaved and did not jump into the river behind his property but I wanted to. But I played with Bailey and Molly and we ran around like crazy!!! It was great!!! I have made so many new friends since moving here and mommy was worried I would not be able to make them but all the dogs here are friendly and fun and we get along so well. Plus mommy is making tons of friends here as well too and that just means I make new friends too!! Yeaahhh mommy!!!!! Well as you can see I am so very tired and it really is passed my bed time, I must go. Oh by the way if you are just reading my blog, you wont know about my favorite habit of hogging the bed. But tonight I think I wont hog the bed, but share it with mommy because she gave me such a beautiful day today and I am so happy to be with her!!!!!

My feather friends out back

Mommy and I sat inside one day and watched the snow fall and watched the birds sitting on the berry tree and eating. We were so captivated by this and we decided to take pictures. Mommy is amazed at how when I am out back playing the birds don't fly away. It is as if I am part of their little community.

They do not feel threatened at all, I play and dance around in the snow and they eat and flutter about. I even run under the tree they are all sitting in and they just remain unaffected. Mommy was so amazed at this, she says we are all one big happy family. Now of course if my sister came out, she would be trying to eat all of them and I am pretty sure they would all fly away....They are cute though. Mommy has taken up bird watching and has taught me how to be very still when we are out studying them and about to take their pictures. I am a good boy and wonderful assistant photographer as you can see, I listen well, the birds did not fly away..

Frozen

Did you ever wonder what a frozen dog would look like after playing for many hours in the snow...here is a hint. Not saying this is what happened to me, I do like to however tell my friends that mommy left me outside during a game of Frisbee and when she came back this is how she found me. Frozen waiting on her to return.....I had so much fun this day, I would not keep still as you can see by the pictures capturing my ears in the air. I was running and jumping and playing and that night, sleeping so good like a little snug baby all warm and secure with a full belly. I was a happy dog that night. Plus too sleeping with mommy makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. She is a good cuddlier.

Playing in the snow

Now here I am doing what I love best, playing in the snow!!!! You can see how happy I am and how much I am having just playing in the back yard. We got tons of snow over a period of days and mommy let me out back and I just romped around and rolled in the snow and I will post pics in my next post of me making snow angles!!

As soon as mommy let me out, I immediately began making snow angles and mommy laughed watching me. I ran in circles and I even played Frisbee, word to mommy, playing Frisbee in the snow and cold is hard on my old sensitive teeth, but it was fun...

I even tried to bury my head in the snow a few times as I wondered what was under all that white stuff but found nothing really. Just more snow. But boy did I have fun. Mommy actually brought sis out for a bit to get fresh air, she is strictly indoor but she enjoyed the snow for a short bit then decided it was too cold so she went back in. Poor baby. She does not know what she is missing with the romping about in the snow. Last year where we lived we maybe got one day of a snow and it did not even make it to an inch, but this year, hog heaven!!!!! I love the snow and it loves me and I so adore playing in it!!

Leave it, take it....

Well here I am showing off a new trick that I learned at Acme Canine Training. It is called "leave it" Mommy offers me a treat and then says leave it, and I look away and then she says take it and I of course am allowed to have it. As you can see in my facial expression on the bottom, I am not too happy about having to leave it because I really want it. And by the way, that is not a human cookie, that is one of my doggie treats, peanut butter flavored and oh my God they are so gooooooooood!!! It was killing me to leave it, LOL. but when she said, Take IT, I was more than ready to devour it. As you can see my tongue was coming out for the lick.

That oh so precious lick of the coveted cookie. It only takes me a half a second to eat one, anyone watching me eat would think I was part vacuum cleaner. Even as a puppy I scarfed my food down so quick it would make your head spin. I really did love those cookie treats. They of course were my Christmas present, or one of many, I so enjoyed that present.

Christmas morning

Well, it was a fun Christmas morning, I am a little slow on getting up to date on my blog. Have been super busy with mommy. Christmas morning was great, I opened my presents and the excitement of it all left me exhausted to the point I fell asleep while playing with my presents. Plush and cute cuddle toys, my favorite. Mommy also bought me this handsome new leash that is only to be used for special occasions as mommy says, LOL, but it is for showing me off. I know that and she knows that. This was the first Christmas that mommy allowed me to just go crazy opening up my gifts unattended and it was fun, so much so as one of the presents were nothing more than treats.

Mommy must have forgotten which box had them because when I opened them and began devouring them she quickly jumped up and grabbed them from me before I could swallow the whole box, they were good and tasty though. She laughed as usual at me and said, "yeah that was a close call buddy huh" I was thinking to myself, mommy you have no idea had you been a little bit slower in getting up I would have had the best Christmas gift ever. An entire box of treats in one sitting!!!

We visited friends later that day, after my nap of course. Mommy makes sure I am well rested and spoiled as I am a senior citizen but she just loves spoiling me anyway and my sister. Who got this cute toy by the way. A cool mouse on wheels that when you pull back and then let it go it races across the hardwood floors for quite a distance. Mandy spent about an hour chasing it and having fun, she then had a nap as well. After visiting family and friends later that night, mommy and I took a long walk and looked at all the pretty Christmas lights. I have to say that people here really decorate the hell out of their homes compared to back home, I like it here. Did not think I would be I really do. And so does mommy, she did well in picking our new home.