Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Too Cold Even for a Wire-Coated Dude

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! It sure is cold today! The weather guy said it was about 22F but it felt like 10F, and for once he was right! Poor Dad, when we got home this morning from our 7:30 AM play group in the park, his face was all red, numb and painful. Mom tried to give him kisses to get the blood flowing again! I would have tried, but even in my wiry coat, I was pretty cold and my nose especially was frozen so it would have probably stuck to his face! Ha!


Hurrah, Mom found the camera cable...so I can show you the photos I took recently. In this cold weather, my favorite place to get warm and toasty is Mom's lap. Mom calls me her living electric blanket, so there is a lot of mutual warming that goes on! Here is a photo Dad took of us snoozing together on the couch! Mom loves the picture becos I am hiding her big nose! Haha! I think I look huge in this picture, but it's only because my Mommy is so small! In fact, when she sits in Dad's SUV she doesn't even activate the airbag unless I am sitting on her lap!

Last night I had my second obedience training class. The lady trainer is really strict, she doesn't let us dogs play together - last night she even put hoops on the floor to drive home the point that we need to respect eachother's space. What a lot of hoo-ha! Anyway, the lesson was all about the "come" command but I was so distracted by the other dogs I couldn't really concentrate. The trainer kept telling Dad that my breed was bred to be distracted by everything, so I was excelling in what I was supposed to excel! But boy, when Dad told me to go "Down" and I did, the lady's eyes almost fell out of her head in surprise! I sure showed her! Terrier or no terrier, I can do as well as the other breeds, the difference is I have to be in the mood!

I forgot to tell you that on Sunday Mom and Dad took me to the dogrun - it saves them walking me around in the ice and snow I guess. It was okay -- but I missed my regular friends, the stranger dogs in the dogrun weren't much fun! Can you spot me in the picture on the right?



I had an email from Cheryl who has been working tirelessly for the Missouri Puppy Mill rescues featured in my earlier post. Happily she related that, "I went to visit my Mill babies today. You would not believe, they are the same dogs, I left there one week ago. The one with the really red infected leg, now has a nice clean amputation. He can walk and run around now. He is feeling so much better. He is actually frisky, playful and acts like a Terrier...Little Smirk with the missing lip was barking and trying to get me to play. They are all getting every possible thing they need done. They are alert, strong and happy now. Tears of JOY today instead of the despair and Heartbreak I felt when I dropped them off." Kudos to both Cheryl and Dr Frost the amazing Vet. Next week the dogs are off to new foster homes in Colorado. We wish them happy, settled and long lives!

Still on the topic of Puppy Mills, I told you a while ago that in my very own State of Pennsylvania, there are thousands of puppy mills run primarily by the Amish community in Lancaster County. "This picturesque patch of what is commonly referred to as Pennsylvania Dutch Country has a dirty secret: puppy mills—and lots of them.
“Many people believe that Lancaster County has the highest concentration of puppy mills in the country. It's estimated that there are hundreds of operations,” says Bill Smith, founder of Main Line Animal Rescue in Wayne, Pennsylvania.
Now, that dirty secret is being exposed in a very public way—by a billboard on the busy Pennsylvania turnpike."

Now people coming to Lancaster to buy puppies will at least be forewarned! Brilliant idea!
You can see a video of what goes on in those mills, by clicking here (Warning: it's pretty disturbing!) It makes me sick and angry - I want to get on the next bus to Lancaster County and go bite a few Amish dog farmers where it hurts!

AGC