Tales (tails?) from the life of Axel, a naughty but lovable wire-haired three year old fox terrier living in Philadelphia, USA. Not an ordinary dog - Axel is very opinionated, especially on issues pertaining to animal welfare and human silliness.
Here I sit, on my favorite spot in the whole world, on top of the couch's arm, contemplating life and the year that has passed.
I had a jolly good year! I went to the ocean on holiday in Cape May, NJ; I visited Gracie in Maine. I spent an interesting 2.5 weeks with the Daschund/Beagle brood while Mom and Dad went to Africa. I made many friends in the dog park and ran and ran. I enjoyed the daily services of my dogwalker. I spent many afternoons at Daycare which I love. I went on many many walks with Mom and Dad. I destroyed many toys and removed many squeakers. I partook of many treats and chews. I swam in many fountains all through Summer despite being warned that I was not allowed to. I connected with many amazing dog bloggers and cyber dog friends. I launched a heartfelt campaign to stop Marc Andre Laporte from abusing any more of my Canadian brothers and sisters...
BOY, 2007 WAS A GOOD YEAR! (Well, except for the itchies over summer)
Here's to another happy, healthy year in 2008! Happy New Year Everyone!! (Hope there won't be any fireworks!)
Enjoy your holiday, hope you find yummy treats in your stocking and many gaily wrapped gifts under the tree. Hopefully your parents won't follow's Doug's lead and hide your gifts IN the tree:
Special holiday cheer to our wiry friends in Montreal. The signatures continue to rise on our petition...don't forget to sign!! We're at 8,374!
Who would believe by looking at that beautiful photo at right of smiling, happy Bingo and his Mom Helene, that Bingo survived the Laporte House of Horror? In two years, they have travelled a very hard road together, Helene helping Bingo overcome his traumatic past. When Mom and I look at Bingo and his Mom, we can't help smiling and feeling warm all over. To think of what Bingo survived shows just how resilient and special our breed is!
Bingo was very happy to see himself on my blog with his pal Honeybee that he wrote me an email: I diid see mee an honeebee!!!. Wee wur so happi to bee onyur paige dat we juzt leeped inde aire wit joy! Wood uue tell awl de peepol onyur blog how happi wee R? Woof …oops I forgawt…I don’t bark anymor.
Well Bingo, you just told everyone yourself. Well done buddy! Bingo sent other wonderful photos of himself which I'd like to share with you here at left. Mom says he reminds her of me!
By the way, unbelievably, the petition has now accumulated 6,548 signatures! Even the Russians have found us and the Christmas Island people - what do you think they call themselves? Christians? LOL! I liked the post today from Mary "Mare" Moore #6,539 from Canada - she wrote:
"I am simply appalled at what this man (and others like him) has done to those poor dogs. I'm even MORE appalled at the thought that the judge just might allow him to get some of his dogs back!!!! Only a LIFE-TIME BAN on owning ANY animal is what this guy needs! He doesn't deserve to own a lowly slug let alone anything higher up on the food chain!!!! There is absolutely NO excuse in the world to justify either what he did, nor being allowed to ever own another animal for eternity! "
We couldn't have said it any better Mare. We just hope Judge Sirois feels the same way.
I wonder if the good judge would appreciate an artistic interpretation of the Laporte legacy? Bingo's Mom Helene goes to Honeybee's Mom for art lessons and painted "a series of little dogs coming out of the darkness" to represent Bingo's journey. We think that the painting speaks volumes! I am sure Asta's Mommy who is a great artist, will agree that this is a pawsome picture!
Keep up the good fight! Tell your friends to sign the petition! Oooh, and before I forget - HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY DEAR CANADIAN PAL DEAN-O! WHO IS 7 TODAY! He and his fabulous Mommy Christine have been working flat out at promoting our petition! Wishing you many more happy and healthy years pal!
Mom has gotten me hooked on refreshing the No Dogs for Laporte petition website every 5 minutes! We have been doing jigs around the room all day because the numbers keep jumping upwards! First we aimed for 1,000, then 2,000 and then so many came in today, that Mom kept yelling, "Ax - we need to up the goal dude!! What do you think?" I give a wag for every 1,000, so to date, I told Mom to go with 4,000, but I might have to wake her in the middle of the night with 5 wags if the petition continues to rise. I will be on refresh duty tonight!
Boy the jigs and refreshing is getting tiring, I haven't even had time to eat my Dingo which you can see I left on my keyboard...helping other wires is more fun and gratifying than eating a million Dingoes. That much I can tell you!
So in between the refreshing and the jigging - we did still make time tonight to light our menorah. Tonight alas, is the last night of Hanukkah, so as you can see, we lit 8 candles and the chief candle in the middle known as the shamash. We didn't get to play dreidel again - but when we were doing our petition jigs, we made sure to jig in many circles so we became canine/human dreidels instead!
We also found time to snack as we need our sustenance to keep on fighting for the Blainville wires! Dad worked late tonight and came home with some KFC chicken - I LOVE chicken - eventhough Mom had coincidently barbequed chicken for his dinner already (and I got half of that too!). I won't tell you which chicken I prefer - the Colonel's or Mom's 'cos, I live with Mom!
I'm sad to see the end of Hanukkah - but who can be sad when one only has to run upstairs and hit refresh on the computer. In the time it's taken me to write this blog post - the number has jumped from 3,782 to 3,865 (and I'm a fast blogger!!). Pawsome! And also, I still have one more Hanukkah gift - the postman left a slip in our mailbox to pick up a parcel - I suspect it is the package from Ricky Pepper and his family that "got lost" for a while! Woohoo!
I'd like to introduce you to two very special friends, Bingo and Honeybee (that's Honeybee snuggling on top of Bingo in the photos, they love eachother very much). What makes them extra special is that they are survivors of Marc Andre Laporte's puppymill in Blainville. Forty other foxies who they lived with were not so lucky and did not survive the horror and neglect.
Yesterday these brave pups, met with a journalist from "Journal de Montreal" to tell their story in the hope that it will stop any of the ridiculous talk of Laporte getting his wires back! "Bing and Bee" as they are known, meet every week for "coffee" with their Moms Helene and Elizabeth G. It's a kind of therapy session for everyone. When the wires think of what they have suffered, they get very very sad. In fact they cannot bear to even think about going back to that life again. They are very grateful to all the humans campaigning against such a notion and appear on the blog today to beg you to sign the petition and write letters to Elizabeth Pierce on their behalf (119 16th Street, Roxboro, Québec Canada H8Y 1P1). And speaking of their friend and protector Elizabeth Pierce, here is a photo of her with Honeybee.
All the foster moms explained to the journalist how excruciatingly difficult it was caring for Bingo and Honeybee after they were rescued - they had so many scars from their life with Laporte, it took so much love, patience, medicine, training and effort to nurse them to health. One thing they pointed out to the journalist was that most of the rescued wires have/had conjunctivitis and some are blind because they had lived their little lives in the dark at Laporte's puppy mill. Can you imagine? I, Axel G, am afraid of the dark, I do not like to go for walks when its dark out, so I shudder to think of what those wires endured living 24/7 in the darkness.
Bingo's Mom told me that when she first acquired Bingo (after one foster family gave up on him), he could not be taken outside! He yelped non stop and at first she had to carry him and put a blindfold on him. One day she lost patience and yelled at him to be quiet, and believe it or not, he responded. After that breakthrough, he made giant leaps of socialization. "He is so happy now!" she tells me, "He likes old people and children the best. He has other dog friends. He still doesn’t understand toys and if a job is too difficult he easily gives up (eg. a Kong with a cookie that doesn’t come out, gets left there). "
Sometimes she says, he stresses and starts to “make circles”. And not surprisingly, he has nightmares! He sleeps in his Mom's room, in her bed, and when he starts crying and yelping she tells him it’s ok and he calms down.
"I think I have a harder time with his beginnings that Bingo does. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about the hell he lived in. "
Well, friends, there is no doubt about it, Bingo is one lucky chap to have found such a great home and Mom. Can you just imagine Bingo having to leave this loving home and return to Laporte?! No we can't either and we won't allow it to happen!
Our story has now hit South Florida thanks to the valiant efforts of my Florida pals Jake and Just Harry. Ellie Brecher, general assignment reporter, best known as the Pet Lady for The Miami Herald, blogged about our Laporte campaign after being notified by the Barkalot Boyz and their Mum J1. You can see it here: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/crazy_for_critters/ Well done chums - hopefully all the Montrealers vacationing in Miami will see it!
Mom and her friends continue the crusade against Marc-Andre Laporte - the convicted wire fox terrier abuser in Montreal, Canada who has the gaul to ask the court to return the very dogs he abused back to him on February 22, 2008. To all sane humans and dogs, this is clearly an INSANE proposal, so the petition, aptly called "No Dogs for Laporte" or "Fermez Laporte" continues. Signatures now stand at close to 1500! If you haven't signed yet or told all your friends to sign, please do now at: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/2/no-dogs-for-laporte
We also ask you to write a letter of protest and mail it to: Elizabeth Pierce 119 16th Street Roxboro, Québec Canada H8Y 1P1
We are hoping that both the petition and the letters will be presented to the Judge Sirois, and that as a result, Sirois will say, "No dogs for you Laporte, get your pathetic ass to jail!"
And now in other, more cheery news - I got a haircut Friday just in time for the holiday bash at Asta'splace in NYC. As you recall, I had a horrible haircut courtesy of Pet Stupid a few months ago - they destroyed my coat by shaving it. Color and texture went out the window. But thanks to new groomers, Pooches Choice, I have been restored in two sessions over 3 months, to my former glory. This is what I looked like before my session on Friday:
I do look cute as can be in my scruffy mode and you can see that the colors were starting to return on my shoulders and back. But look how dashing I looked after my appointment:
Mom and Dad did a jig when they saw me, they keep oohing and ahing about how handsome I am, and who am I to protest their praises?
Hanukkah continues, sans latkes - my mother is very lazy indeed. Today is the family party at our cousins and I am NOT invited because they have a new Yorkie pup and I guess they're nervous I might mistake it for a hairy, yappy latke? Harumpf! So I get to stay home - at least Mom gave me a juicy marrow bone to enjoy to assuage her guilt.
Thank you to Bigfoot Fletch and Maxie for the cute Hanukkah gift that arrived on Thursday. It's a blue Hippo with his name "Zaftig" embroidered down the side. Mom explained that "zaftig" means "FAT" in Yiddish. Amazing that they're making Yiddish/Jewish Hanukkah gifts in China! Mom went holiday shopping yesterday for today's party and was dismayed to see that practically everything she picked up to buy is made in China! We are trying to boycott due to their terrible record in animal rights and environmental issues - but holy cow, it's difficult!
Tonite is the magical 8-day festival of lights: Hanukkah! It celebrates the rededication of the Second Temple at the time of the Maccabee rebellion. The festival is observed by the kindling of lights on each night of the holiday: one on the first night, two on the second, and so on. Here in the USA it is also celebrated by the buying of copious amounts of gifts. But as Mom is not American and never experienced this as a child in South Africa - she doesn't "buy into that shit" to quote her direct. Sure, Dad got a gift (he basically pleaded with Mom to buy him a watch with a built in compass - Mom gave in thinking it would help Dad not get lost so much). So far, I have had one gift - a big furry rat toy from Dad (So far it is still in tact. I am giving myself 8 days to get the squeaker) and of course, the lovely gifts from Miss Amelia.
Hanukkah is Mom's favorite Jewish holiday and I like it too. I especially like latkes. So before we go on, I am going to don my apron and teach you all how to make latkes - pieces of potato fried in oil and topped with either sugar/cinnamon (South Africa) or sour cream and apple sauce (USA). FYI - in Israel, where Mom spent 6.5 years of her life before meeting Dad and Me, they also eat lots and lots of donuts, known as sufganiyot during the holiday.
So with apologies to Rachel Ray...
Step 1: Peel the potatoes
Step 2: Grate the potatoes - you can use a food processor but doing it on a tiny grater has better effect says Mom...watch those fingers/paws everyone..
Step 3: Grate onion (try do it with your eyes closed as Mom started to weep half way through...)
Step 4: Beat 2 eggs and mix with some flour and baking powder
Step 5: In true Chanukah spirit, drench a pan in oil and add latke mixture.
Step 6: When browned, remove latkes and place on paper towel to absorb all the oil.
Step 7: Transfer latkes to a pretty plate and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar - that's how Mom likes it. Dad prefers the sour cream/apple sauce but Mom forgot to buy any!
Here is a picture of me from 2005 enjoying my very first latke. Boy I was thin in those heedy days:
I am really looking forward to going to Asta's holiday party on Dec. 6. Me and the Barkalot Boys Jake and Harry, being of the Jewish persuasion, will be bringing our latkes, donuts, dreidls (spinning tops) and Hanukkah music along to share our holiday spirit!
Dreidls (pictured right) are a big part of Hanukkah, and playing the Dreidl game is so much fun, it's even better than poker. Dreidl is a spinning top in Yiddish. They are known as a sivivon in Hebrew. Players use pennies, nuts, raisins, or chocolate coins (gelt) as tokens or chips. When us canines play, we will use pennies, Pupperoni, Milkbones, Wellness Wellbars, Natural Balance mini-logs and other delectable treats. Here is how it works:
Every dreidl has 4 symbols on it as it's a 4-sided top. These are letters of the Hebrew alphabet:
These letters mean "A Great Miracle Happened There". In Israel the dreidel is a bit different in that their letters mean " A Miracle Happened HERE!" The player spins the dreidel. When the dreidel stops, the letter that is facing up decides the fate. NUN - nothing happens - next player spins the dreidel GIMEL - player takes all tokens in the pot HEY - player takes half of the pot SHIN - player must put one token into the pot
See, its very easy. The challenge dear friends will be spinning the damn thing using our paws! Maybe we can just toss it in the air instead? Or, we can do what George the Boxer does:
There are many wonderful songs associated with Hanukkah - I have two favorites, "Oh Hanukkah!" and "The Dreidl Song". The words of the first song capture the spirit of the holiday:
Chanuka, oh Chanuka
Chanuka, Oh Chanuka, come light the Menorah Let's have a party, we'll all dance the hora Gather round the table, we'll all have a treat Sivivon to play with, and latkes to eat. And while we are playing The candles are burning bright One for each night, they shed a sweet light To remind us of days long ago. One for each night, they shed a sweet light To remind us of days long ago.
To hear the tune, you can watch this movie I found on Youtube of little kids giving it a go - sing along, it's good practice for our party on Friday.
And while we play the Dreidl game we will sing The Dreidl Song:
I Have a Little Dreidel I have a little dreidel I made it out of clay And when it's dry and ready Then dreidel I shall play!
(Chorus)Oh dreidel, dreidel, dreidel I made it out of clay And when it's dry and ready Then dreidel I shall play!
It has a lovely body With legs so short and thin And when my dreidel's tired It drops and then I win!
(Chorus)
My dreidel's always playful It loves to dance and spin A happy game of dreidel Come play now, let's begin! (Chorus)
Here you can see some cute kindergarten kids at their holiday concert singing the song. Sing along everyone!
Thanks to everyone who has responded so enthusiastically to our "No Dogs for Laporte" campaign. We are thrilled to see over 500 signatures to our petition and many promises of letters being mailed to Canada. Please be sure to include the zip code on those letters (H8Y 1P1) - if you already sent one without it, don't fret, it will get there, it will just be delayed.
Every minute Mom hits the refresh button on the petition page, she whoops in delight and we do jigs around the living room. We are amazed at the countries represented - from Australia to Greece, Costa Rica to Poland, Malaysia to Italy, South Africa to Sweden and on it goes. It is good to see such evidence of love and concern the world over.
My astute Canadian Buddy Dean-O has been helping me a lot - today he sent me some links to videos of the coverage of the case in Montreal TV. Click here to see a report in English: http://montreal.ctv.ca/cfcf/video_popup?news_id=17190 Click here and here to see reports in French. We understand some French but those folks in Montreal have funny accents. But you don't need words to explain horror at Laporte's house and you sure as heck don't need words to see what constitutes a happy wire in a safe home on her Mommy's lap!
Please continue to tell all your friends about our campaign - to sign the petition and write lots of letters.
With all this activity going on, we've scarcely prepared for Hanukkah. We promise to do a special Hanukkah installment tomorrow, as the holiday begins at sunset tomorrow.
Calling all fox terrier and dog lovers! Wire survivors in Canada need our help!
See that photo at right? Believe it or not, that is a wire fox terrier like me! An abused, horribly neglected wire who was one of 97 fox terriers found at a Monreal puppy mill belonging to Marc-Andre Laporte. Laporte was found guilty of two counts of animal cruelty at the St. Jerome courthouse in Montreal this week. Click here to see more photos
Almost 40 foxies had to be euthanized. The surviving dogs were cared for by the SPCA and later, with the help of devoted fox terrier lovers, found wonderful foster homes where they have been living for the past 2 years, unable to be adopted until the case is finalized. Laporte is only facing six months of jail time and up to $4,000 in fines. I find that disgusting - he should be locked in a cage forever or put to sleep - he murdered 40 dogs and abused 57 others!!
But it gets worse friends. On Feb. 22, 2008 he will be sentenced. And at the same hearing, the judge is to decide if Laporte is to get any of his fox terriers back!
Yeah, you read that right...get his dogs BACK! Are they insane in Canada? Are they blind? What is wrong with these people!? To even consider removing ONE wire from the safety and care of their loving foster families back to Laporte is OUTRAGEOUS!
WE CANNOT ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN.
So friend, today we are launching a two-fold campaign to prevent Laporte from getting his dog/s back. We know we can count on you to take action and spread the word:
1: Please go to the online petition. Once all the signatures are entered, we will print it out and hand it over to our friend in Montreal who has been instrumental is saving and caring for the Blainville wires, for distribution to the media (unfortunately it is illegal in Canada to hand petitions to the court).
2: Please take a few minutes to write a letter to Judge Jean Sirois imploring him to prevent Laporte from ever taking possession of his former fox terriers or of owning any dog again. If you can, include a photo of yourself and your foxie/dog. All the letters received will be put in a file and also handed to the media.
Letters should be mailed to: Elizabeth Pierce 119 16th Street Roxboro, Québec Canada H8Y 1P1
Please disseminate this information on your blogs, to your fellow dog owners and friends. Thank you for your support in this important matter.
On Sunday morning, my best human pal Lynne (pictured with tampons in her ears in my last post) came by in her car, picked me up and took me on a long hike in the Wissihiken Creek. Man, it was a blast! I hiked and swam and had a terrierific time! Mom and Dad said they did too, when I got home they were just getting out of bed. It was NOON!
Mom made up for her lazy behaviour that afternoon, when she took to the kitchen in a cooking frenzy. When we were in Massachusetts, Mom observed Gracie's Mom making what is called a "Yankee Pot Roast". Mom and Dad enjoyed eating it, so Mom decided to try to make her own. I helped!
As you can see, the ingrediants are a big hunk of beef (Mom used rump after questioning unsuspecting housewives in the supermarket); carrots, parsnip, onion, potatoes, celery and beef broth and a packet of onion soup powder. First you cut everything up, then you sear the beef on the stove:
Then you throw it all in a crockpot/slow cooker (first picture) and let it cook for a LONG time. Too long for my patience...at the end, it comes out looking like the second photo:
Mom does not like to waste food. So she had many vegies left, so she thought, "I have a cunning plan, I'll make a vegetable soup!" Not that she knew how, so she winged it. She threw all the vegies in a big pot, added vegie stock and water, spices and let it boil away.
I didn't get any soup, but I have been enjoying the pot roast, it's very yummy. Luckily after eating it for 2 meals, Mom and Dad are sick of it already...I lucked out! Yummy.
Mom's creativity continued into the evening when she started work on a new arts and craft project - a room sign for her good friend's new baby girl in Atlanta. Her name is Hannah. I think it looks pretty cool - Mom should make me one - only I don't have my own room!! She loves doing this sort of thing - personally I think chewing a dingo or destuffing a toy is far more satisfying....
I want to send special love to my pals Ozzy and Romeo and their Mommy Jen who suffered a horrible tragedy on Thanksgiving day - the loss of their Dad and husband. We think of them every day and transmit warm, healing, loving wirey vibes to them up in NY. If anyone out there would like to express your sympathy to them you can visit their blog above or email Mom for their mailing address. They really need our wirey support at this time!
I've been telling you that I am a mature 2 year old boy now. I have stopped chewing things up and getting up to evil mischief. That is not to say I am not a typical Wire Fox Terrier - I am still full of fun and energy! But I have calmed down so much, that everyone has become very complacent around me, making the mistake of trusting me to behave at all times. Ha!
So the other day, Mom's friend Lynne came over - Lynne loves dogs but can't have her own right now, so she comes to the dog park and enjoys socializing with all of us. So after the park, she came home with us for dinner and while her and Mom were tucking into cottage pie (known as Shephards pie here), I investigated Lynne's purse and had a jolly good time. I especially enjoyed chomping and destroying this cylindrical plastic things...
When Mom and Lynne discovered what I'd been up to, they laughed real loud - and then Lynne started clowning around...
I'm glad they didn't mind what I'd done - evidently I did good as they both looked very happy!
In other news, Miss Amelia sent me the most awesome Hanukkah gift box. I was very naughty cos I totally ignored the big instruction on the box that read, "Do not open before Hanukkah". Sorry Miss Amelia - you know patience is NOT one of my virtues! I did wait a few seconds, but then I opened the box and did a jig. Mom would only let me have one toy at a time, so I chose the awesome duck with the rope neck and squawking voice. I have played with it non stop! Thanks Miss Amelia - and we all hope that your daddy is feeling better after his knee operation! AGC
PS Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I went to dad's parents last night and had a jolly good time. I spent most of the evening jumping up and trying to get turkey!
On Friday, we packed up Dad's truck and went on a very long drive to visit Gracie and her peeps in South Hadley, Mass. I was the navigator and made sure I had my map handy.
I was very alert the whole way to make sure that Dad did not get lost. I did not want to land up in Canada!
We pulled into Gracie's driveway around 8pm Friday. Gracie's Mom Di was a bit nervous to reunite us as Gracie can be an aggressive gal when she doesn't know you. Dad was fully confident that we would remember eachother, and disregarding Di's nerves, he opened his car door and literally threw me out. Gracie bounded towards me, Di nearly had a heart attack...but of course we recognized eachother, and boy were we happy to see eachother! Unfortunately it was pitch dark, so we have no photos of the heartwarming reunion.
However, for the next 2 days, all we (Gracie, her little bro Fenway and me) did was play and run and eat a few yummy bones that Mom packed! Gracie has an awesome, huge back yard the size of my park at home! She sure is a lucky gal!
We also played inside a lot! Fenway and I got along real well, Gracie is more mature now and didn't always want to join us in our wrestling!
Massachusetts sure is pretty - we drove around and saw lots of pretty trees and sites:
On Sunday we visited Di's brother Tim - he lives in the woods and has more land than I have spunk! We were supposed to go for a walk in the woods, but the day before a Coyote had grabbed a little dog and nearly killed it, so we didn't want to risk it until the hunters shot him. Poor Coyote. Tim and his lovely wife and kids have lots of animals - 6 dogs and many of these funny birds called chickens. I'd never seen a real chicken before, I just enjoyed eating the featherless product! I was a little scared of them to be honest.
I met one of Tim's bitches - she's a special hunting dog that flew to America all the way from the Czech Republic! The breed is called Cesky Fousek - they have wiry hair like me - Mom thought she was adorable. I was more interested in the Khoi fish in the pond and jumped in to take a swim with them. Dumb move on my part, I forgot it was 25F outside - I soon regretted it when I started to shiver!
I met more dogs at Tim's place - but I didn't really know them and we left Gracie and Fenway at home, so I didn't feel very sociable. Besides, I was freezing my nuts off. Oh yeah, I forgot, I don't have any...but you get the idea!
Between shivers though, I did marvel at the beauty and space around us. I could quite easily adapt to life in the country! All that space to run and play!
I have to admit, I was so nervous when I saw Mom and Dad packing up the truck on Sunday - I feared they might leave me and bugger off somewhere (again) - so I jumped into the truck way before they were even ready to depart. So I never said goodbye to Gracie or Fenway...sorry guys, I do love you, but home is with my humans. Home is in the city. Home is even my tiny back yard, just big enough to pee in. But it sure was GREAT to visit! Hope to do it again soon!
As you all know, because I keep telling you, I do not like to wear clothes or costumes. I like to go kaalgat as we say in South African language Afrikaans which means, basically, naked. I don't know why humans think we need winter coats when it turns cold out...what do you think our fur is for people??? Thousands of years ago before we were domesticated, do you think the cavemen would knit us coats? Oh please!
But no, humans think just because they need loads of layers to keep out the freezing temps, so do we. Well, listen up. We do not. At least I do not.
Unfortunately, I cannot speak - so when Mom triumphantly came home with a box and said it was for me, and produced a bright orange and silver dog coat - I thought, oh crikey, not a frigging coat again. I had been so happy to see her mail Gus my winter coat from last year - I thought that was it for me and coats. Mom had finally understood my body language...but no such luck.
I didn't even try to feign happiness when she called me over to put it on. I just stood there and let her. So here I am, in all my glory...in my new Landsend coat, or squall as they call it (it is waterproof on the outside and lined with flannel):
What do you think? The only positive thing I will say, is that it is less restrictive then my last coat which ran all the way to my pee-pee and I didn't like that cos it made me nervy to pee in it!
We didn't make it to Gracie this weekend, but we will be going this coming weekend. I can't wait. Hopefully I can leave the coat at home...but Mother keeps yakking to me how cold it is in Massachewsits and yadda yadda, you need your coat!!
Our dinner parties are not as glamorous (or delish-looking) as Asta's dinner parties, but they are much fun none the less and I like to take an active part not only in the eating but in the shmoozing. And to do that, you can't sit on the floor waiting for food to miraculously fall in front of your snoot! So about a week ago, when Dad's parents came for dinner, I took every opportunity to take Mom's seat when she was busy serving or adding finishing touches to dishes in the kitchen:
Mom served London Broil with gravy, asparagus (I like it but it makes my pee stink!), caesar salad, roast potatoes with herbs and an Entermann's cake for dessert. Mom says to make it clear this was a spur of the moment affair, nothing fancy. Boy Mom can be defensive. They were actually going to order in, but since Dad had been away working for 5 days on the road, Mom thought he'd appreciate a home cooked meal. And he did.
When everyone left I felt a little sad - so I sat on the front step and hung out. Note I am not tethered or fleeing. I have really mellowed. I only go crazy if a stranger walks past - I lunge and bark...and I don't discriminate between little strangers or big strangers. Mom says I'm silly and shouldn't be mean to little strangers who are likely to get a BIG fright. Too bad I say, it's my turf, STAY AWAY!
Thanks for everyone's nice messages for Ricky Pepper'sfamily - unfortunately the family have decided to find Teddy a new home to appease the horrid neighbor - so if you know of any Doxie-loving family with lots of patience for a special needs boy, please let us know.
AGC
PS Yay, Mom fixed the template. We removed the Google ads cos they were advertising unsavory foxie breeders. Thanks Pat for the heads up!
