Monday, April 26, 2010

Updating the Toy Inventory

It's been a couple of months since I did my toy inventory, so it was pretty out of date. Mom and I decided that it was time to do a new inventory. I was a little tired, so I napped during the first part. Mom could handle some of this without me.

Bedroom
We've got a ton of toys in the bedroom now. Mom even put a toy box in there to try to contain them. (I don't ever leave the toys in the box, though.) So here's the first picture of toys from the bedroom. There are 9 toys in the first picture.


And here's the second picture... 14 toys


And the third picture (told you there were more toys in there!)... 5 toys


Did you notice that reindeer in there, pretending to be a squirrel? Well, Mom found him under the bed after she took those other pictures, so she decided to make him a squirrel for now. Crazy woman.

And here's the fourth picture of toys from the bedroom...


OK, so those aren't toys. They are, however, a wonderful example of just how well-trained I've got my Mom. I've got a rawhide...a filled rawhide stick...and a bully stick...all at the SAME TIME. I can just take my pick of what I want to chew on. Aaahhhh...it's the good life.

So that's a total of 28 toys in the bedroom now.

Office
Here are the toys in the office:


That's easy to count...3!

Bathroom
I've started to accumulate more toys in there. I take 'em in to play with while Mom's in the shower. (It's my job to hold down the bath mat when she's in the tub.)


Two frogs and two ducks...4 toys in the bathroom!

Hallway
Looks like we ended up with more toys in the hallway than last time, too. There are 8 of them there now.


Dining Room
This is sorta between the hallway and the living room, so toys wind up here all the time.


7 toys in the dining room.

Living room
This is the point in the new inventory when I decided to get up from my nap and supervise the process. We had to take several pictures to get all of the toys in the living room inventoried.

Picture 1: 17 toys


Picture 2: 9 toys


Picture 3: 9 toys


Picture 4: 11 toys, 1 cute doggie


Picture 5: 11 toys


That's a total of 57 toys in the living room!

Fire Hydrant
Technically, the fire hydrant is in the living room, but Mom and I decided to tally these separately. Before we could inventory the toys, though, we had to get them out of the hydrant. I helped.


"Get out here, toys, so we can count you!"


And these are the toys that were hiding in the fire hydrant... 15 of 'em.


So that's all of the toys. While Mom tallied 'em up, I inspected the pile in the living room.


She sure took a long time to add them. I was forced to nap again.


"Are you done YET?!"


The Final Count
In January when I did my first inventory, I had 68 toys. That wasn't nearly enough. If Mom added all of our numbers right this time, though, I've now got...122 toys. Woo hoo!!! I had no idea that I had that many now. That means I've gotten 54 NEW toys just since January.

Am I getting spoiled by my new Mom?! Nooooo... He he he.

After all of that inventory work, I think I need to take another nap.


The Pond

Mom and I haven't been for a walk around the pond lately 'cause we both have bad allergies. But Mom said that the pollen wasn't as bad today since it rained this weekend, so off we went!

It was sunny when Mom came home from work, but then this happened...


And this...


We didn't get rained on, but the clouds sure looked cool. And guess what? It's sunny again now!

Anyway, the walk around the pond was pretty cool. Mom let me sniff lots of stuff, and I really love doing that.

I sniffed this tree...


And I sniffed these benches... (If you listen to the video, you can hear the crazy geese at the pond!)



I'm a very good sniffer, don't you think?

Took Mom a while to get a picture of me walking that wasn't just a picture of my booty. She had to sneak in front of me when I stopped to sniff.


And take a look at these dandelions. They're actually taller than me!


It was a good walk, but pretty uneventful. We saw the neighbor kids on our walk around the pond, though. Mom was super proud of me, too, 'cause I was really good with them. I didn't bark at them at all!

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Strutting with the Mutts

On Saturday, Mom and I went to the Mutt Strut for the Champaign County Humane Society. I ended up raising $220. Cool, huh? That money went to help the doggies and kitties at the local shelter.

My friend Molly and her Mom went to the Mutt Strut with us. We got there super duper early. We were both excited. (Can you tell our moms both like pink stuff?)


There were storms all day yesterday, but we were lucky 'cause it didn't rain on our Mutt Strut...it just looked like it was gonna.


While we were waiting for things to start, Mom looked at some tables of stuff. Here's what I did...




Then, a guy in a white robe stood up in front of everyone and read some things then prayed. Mom said it was called the "Blessing of the Dogs." Pretty cool. It's good to be blessed. If you look by the tree in this picture, you can see the guy who said the blessing.


And then you know what happened? We strutted! Here's the very start of our walk. (See those other Shih Tzus?!)


We were all very safe, too, 'cause we had our own security while we walked!


Here's Molly during the strut. She was a sniffin' and peein' fool.


I stayed right between my Mom and Molly's Mom. Right between 'em. And a little behind 'em. Mom said I was a super good girl 'cause I was so well behaved. I didn't let on to the fact that I was just a little freaked out by all the other doggies, so that's why I was right by Mom's side. I'll let her think I was good, and not just being scared.


After we all strutted around the park, they had all sorts of games for us to play. We could play the "shell game" with some cups. They put a cookie under a cup and we had to guess which one it was under.


Yeah...it looks like I played, but I didn't. I was still a little freaked by all of the people and doggies, so I just stared at the cups and refused to eat the cookie. Molly played the game, though. She also did the "bobbing for hot dogs" game and was the first little dog to dive right in and eat ALL of the hot dogs that were in the tub!


Molly went through an agility tunnel, too.


They had lots of water for us in case we were thirsty. No cups for the humans...just paper bowls for doggies!


They also had doggie paw print painting and some contests. Molly was in the tail wagging contest and she did a great job. Here's what I did.






I did a lot of sitting and watching. I just took everything in. Wasn't much on participating 'cause of all of the doggies and people. Yes, I was a little freaked out. Just a little.

So I showed you the walk and the games...how about some pictures of the other doggies?

I thought this doggie was my former foster sister Shawnee. She wasn't, though.


This Shih Tzu looked just like me, only he had a black nose. Maybe he's my friend Mattie's twin?


The dog in front here looked a lot like my friend Lou, mainly in his face.


I met this Maltese named Coco and I thought at first that she was my friend Ody.


And the black dog in this picture didn't remind me of anyone, but Mom and I both thought it was funny that he was playing with his leash. He kept attacking it.


Mom and I also saw lots of dogs in red vests. The vests said "Adopt me!" Mom told me that these were all doggies who were in the shelter and were looking for their forever homes. That made me a little sad 'cause there were a lot of dogs in those red vests. I hope they find families soon.


The grass was all wet at the park 'cause it had been raining earlier in the morning. So, all of us doggies got a little wet and a little muddy, too. Well...maybe a lot wet and a lot muddy... See my paws? They were white when we got to the park!


When we got home, Mom showed me the stuff that she picked up at the Mutt Strut. It was a LOT of loot. I kept taking the orange and black ball from her, but Mom says it was a people "stress ball" and not a doggie toy. So, the meanie Mom stole it and hid it from me. Boooo!


She did buy me a cool squeakie toy at one of those Mutt Strut tables, though, so I suppose I shouldn't complain too much.


So the Mutt Strut was pretty cool. There was a LOT going on, though, and it really wore me out. This is what I did yesterday.


And this is what I've done most of today...


And this...


Mom says maybe I'll be rested again in time to do the Mutt Strut next year.