Going Hiking

My former foster sister Shawnee goes on hiking adventures all the time. You probably know her -- she writes about her hiking trips on her blog, The Shenanigans of Shawnee the Shepherd.

Tonight Mom and I decided to go on a hiking trip of our own...just like Shawnee. Cool, huh?

We set out to do a .6 mile hike, but only ended up doing about .2 mile (more on that later). Yeah, so that's not nearly as impressive as Shawnee's hikes, but keep in mind that my Mom's out of shape and I've got short little legs. In fact, to show you just how short my legs are, I stole a picture from Shawnee's blog (from back before I was adopted). I'm standing right beside Shawnee -- see how much shorter my legs are?

The other two doggies are Shawnee's sisters, Dixie and Sydney. They're my former foster sisters, too. (Hi, girls!)

Anyway, back to my hike! Here's where Mom and I entered the park.

And when I realized where we were going, I took off on a run. Just look at my ears flying!

Lots of pee-mail to check at the park.

More pee-mail.

It's a very dog-friendly place. The trail even has two "dog stations" set up, complete with poo bags!

I told you there was lots of pee-mail to check, right?

Here's a scenic view of the pond at the park. The park was filled with geese tonight. Mom says they're Super Poopers, just like me.

If you look closely, you may notice that that front section of water isn't actually part of the pond. It's flooding from all of the snows melting.

We walked past a tree that was donated in memory of a local woman who loved trees and parks. I gave it a sniff, of course.

There are cool markers along the path, too, so that you can see just how far you've hiked. This one says .3, but we didn't start at the beginning, so that's not quite right for our trip.

And now we come to the reason why we only walked .2 mile instead of .6. You see, .6 mile is a trip all of the way around the pond in the park. But I decided that I was hungry. And cold. And tired of walking. So, I acted all pathetic and shaky and I refused to move until Mom agreed to turn around and walk towards home. (The "pathetic" trick works like a charm with her!)

So now here's a picture of me acting all excited to go back home for supper.

And I'm a little blur here because home's in sight.

"Come on, Mom! Open the door!"

So we set out to do a hike...but I guess we really didn't, did we? We actually just walked at the park near where we live (and I've probably blogged about the pond before anyway). And we didn't walk very far, either.

Oh, one more thing...

Shawnee always keeps track of the litter that people leave along the trails she hikes. She even carries all of the litter out of the parks in her very own back pack. How cool is she?! So, here's the litter that Mom and I found along our super-duper-mini hike (a.k.a. "walk"):

After I had my supper and warmed myself up, I spent some quality time rolling on my squeakies.

I suppose I should keep up the rolling and just leave the hiking to Shawnee. If you want to read about some really cool hikes, be sure you check out Shawnee's blog!

Anna's Spectacular Tongue-Tacular Contest

Anna is bringing back her Spectacular Tongue-Tacular Contest!

You know what you can win in this contest? TOYS and treats! Yes...I said TOYS!!! So I just had to enter...

Here's my tongue photo for the contest:

Yeah, it's a bath photo...but it does really highlight my tongue, don't you think?

Check out Anna's blog if you want to enter her tongue contest, too!

Not My Fault...

Mom was scratching my head and my ears and she leaned down close to me. So, I gave her a kiss on her nose. I can be stingy with my kisses, so Mom was all excited. And she deserved a little kiss for spoiling me so much, right?

But then I sneezed right in her face.

Oops.

It was clearly not my fault, though. I'm an innocent little doggie.

I blame my nose. It's obviously my nose's fault. Doesn't it even look guilty?!

(And yes, that's another new toy from my neighbor in the first picture. Woo hoo!)

Just Hanging Out

It was a quiet evening at home for Mom and I. Well, maybe I shouldn't say "quiet" because squeakies were involved. And I did play a lot with my little soccer ball and my round bed....

I said I played a lot, right? He he he...

I suppose not many nights at home are actually "quiet" around here. But that's the way it should be, right?

I Am Sleepy

I didn't want to get out of bed this morning. It's my choice, right? I was sleepy, so I just stayed all snuggled up in bed. (Well, I wasn't quite all snuggled up here when Mom rudely woke me up by taking pictures...)

Mom claims that I didn't get out of bed until lunch time. I just know that I needed my beauty sleep. Mom was up and banging around earlier, and it sorta annoyed me that she had to keep checking in on me. Seriously...I just wanted to snooze!

I snoozed on the couch this afternoon, too. I burrowed under my blankie for a nice nap.

Know what I did this evening? You guessed it...

A girl just needs her rest some days...

Ack! Groomer!

I thought I was safe. I thought I had won the War of the Groomer. I was super-duper shaggy and Mom hadn't made me go to the groomer in a long, long time. Imagine my horror, then, when she took me there this week. ACK!

I went from LOTS of shaggy fur to almost no fur. I feel practically naked now!

WHY did they cut off all of my shaggy furs?! Sure, I'm super cute now, but is that really necessary?

Even my belly is naked!

The worst part of the groomer trip, however, was what the silly groomer did to my poor, poor tail. My tail was really fluffy. I AM a Shih Tzu, you know. We have fluffy tails! And Mom and I loved my shaggy tail! But look at what it looks like now...


Yep...the groomer SHAVED part of my tail!!! She told Mom that I had some mats in it. I think she just got confused and thought I was a poodle or a lion. After all, that's the tail that I have now...a lion's tail or a poodle's tail.

Need proof? Just look at this comparison...


See? My tail isn't a Shih Tzu tail anymore! I'm a lion now! Or a poodle. (Lions are more ferocious, though, so I'm sure my squeakies think I'm a lion...)

I hope my tail grows back fast. Stupid groomer.

Snoozing and Snuggling with Stuffies

My toys seem to be growing in size. You know I got the giant doggie, right? Well check out the huge bunny that my neighbor gave me!

I was snuggling with my bunny and my doggie.

Been snuggling with my doggie by itself, too.

And I even burrowed under the doggie to nap. Blanket? I don't need a blanket when I've got a giant stuffie!

What giant stuffie will I get to snuggle with next?!

My Super Big Prize

A while back I won the grand prize in a contest on the Two Little Cavaliers blog. This was a huge prize, too. I got lots and lots of cool stuff. I'll tell you all about my prizes in another post, though, because today I've got to tell you about just one part of it...

Part of my big grand prize was a special package from Lainey's Pawtique and Bakery. They make lots of yummy cookies and other cool stuff for doggies.

On Monday, a giant box arrived in the mail. Just look at the size of the box! And it had paw prints stamped on the outside, too, so I knew that it was all mine.

In the box was my prize from Lainey's Pawtique! Lainey knows how much of a toy fanatic I am. And I think she also knows that I've had tummy problems lately. So, just take a look at what she sent me...

It's a stuffed doggie that's bigger than me! Yes, I went a little nuts.

Mom didn't get video of me dragging the dog around, but she did get proof of my plucking...

I've had a ton of fun with this guy. I like to pluck his ears and his tail a lot.

Mom and I even played fetch and tug with my new toy. It wasn't very easy for me to fetch, though, so Mom sort of threw it and then we both fetched. Here's me tugging on it.

Lainey also sent me some other goodies in the box. Mom played with those when I was attacking the stuffie. I got some yummy cookies, and valentines, and a smell-good ornament with my name painted on it!

Mom tried to get me to pose with all my prizes, but I was a little disgruntled because I just wanted to play. (And I look even more grouchy 'cause I need a hair cut...)

Here are some of the yummy cookies that I got.

Mom wouldn't let me eat many 'cause of my tummy issues, but she did let me have two cookies. They were so yummy that I followed Mom around until she hid the bag of cookies from me. Anyway, here's me eating a bone-shaped cookie (half is already in my mouth).

You know what Mom did? She actually ate two of MY cookies. Can you believe that?! I thought those were doggie treats for ME but Mom ate some of 'em. The nerve of her. She said they were yummy for her, too, so I'm going to have to watch to be sure she doesn't eat more.

Anyway, I went so crazy playing with that huge dog and then eating the cookies and playing some more, that I had to put myself in time out. I went into my princess tent for a while to chill out. (Mom spied on me through the tunnel, as usual.)

And then I ended up doing this for the rest of the evening:

It really wears you out, you know, playing with a doggie that's larger than you are!

Thanks so much to the Two Little Cavaliers for having the contest and for Lainey's Pawtique and Bakery for this super cool, perfect-for-Buttons prize!

Valentine's Day

I don't have much time to write tonight, but there's one thing that I have to tell you...

It was a goooood Valentine's Day for me. Here's proof:

I'll tell you more about that huge doggie (the stuffed one) later. I wore myself out playing with it tonight and I need to go to bed now.

Coldest Night of the Year

It's been super duper cold outside here lately. Last night, Mom was even cold inside. She had trouble sleeping 'cause of the cold, but she thought it was all in her mind since she was tired and SOMEONE kept her up a lot.

OK...yes, it's true. I'll admit it. I'm "someone." I was ansty and I kept Mom up last night. She even had to take me out to potty at 12:30 a.m. and again at 4:30 a.m. And then I was still awake and antsy after that. I even messed around in bed, burrowing myself under the blankets.

This morning when we got out of bed, Mom realized just why she was cold and why I was so antsy... Our thermostat said it was only 51 degrees in our house! Brrrrrrr! And the thermostat was set so it was supposed to be that cold, too!

How on earth did the heat get turned down so low? We have a theory. Meet the culprit:

That's right. It's a squeaky toy.

See, Mom and I play fetch in our hallway. This is me waiting for Mom to throw the toy:

Yeah, I run ahead and stand there and wait. Anyway, our thermostat is on the wall in the hallway.

Last night when we were playing fetch, Mom tossed the squeaky and it bonked the thermostat. She didn't think to check the thermostat, though, to be sure it was o.k. It was just a light-weight, plush squeaky, right?

Wrong answer. The squeaky turned the thermostat dial when it bonked it, and that's how the thermostat was set to be 51 degrees!

Mom will certainly check the thermostat from now on after any squeakies hit it. And I really hope she improves her squeaky-throwing aim anyway so that no more toys end up hitting the thermostat.

It's been much warmer in here since we got that fixed.

But I'm still going to take my own M&M blankie to bed tonight, just in case!