Review: Pumpkin Patch Treats

I'm on Baby Patches' Tester Team. She's the Chief Kit at Nip and Bones. When you're on the Tester Team you get cool free stuff and you also get to write a review on your blog. That's a "win-win" in my opinion!

So not too long ago, Baby Patches sent me some cookies to try out.


They're Max & Ruffy's Pumpkin Patch treats. Perfect for this time of the year! I gave the cookie a good sniff. They really smelled pumpkin-y!


And of course I chowed down. (Sorry...I was chewing with my mouth open...)

The cookies smelled so good that my Mom actually tried a little bit. She wasn't sure what came over her.

Anyway, I liked the pumpkin treats, but I'm not really a fan of fruits and veggies. I remember how much my former foster sister Sydney LOVES fruits and veggies, though, so I thought maybe she'd like to try these Pumpkin Patch treats, too.

I mailed the cookies out to my former foster family in New Jersey! Here are the girls checking out the package. That's Dixie, Sydney, and Shawnee!

Since I knew Sydney would like these the most, I sent the package to her.


I put a note in the package to tell her that she could share with the other girls, of course. Sydney could smell the pumpkin through the box. Look at her giving it a good sniff! (That's Shawnee's legs nearby. She must have been reading my note to Sydney.)


Sydney got so excited that she actually started LICKING THE BOX!


Here's her silly nomming face! She was really excited about the cookies.

My former foster Mom took a video of the girls eating the cookies, and you can see how excited Sydney gets about them. Now, one very important thing to keep in mind when you watch this video... Sydney is always a lady when taking treats. She's very careful to take them with her lips and to NOT use her teeth. But after a couple of these Pumpkin Patch treats, just watch what she does to her Mom's fingers! She got a little too excited, I think!

The girls loved the Pumpkin Patch treats...especially Syndey. Fifteen minutes after that video was taken, Sydney was still looking for any cookie crumbs that might have been missed on the deck. I think she'd definitely give the Pumpkin Patch treats four paws up!

Thanks to my former foster family for helping me to write this treat review, and thanks to Baby Patches for the yummy cookies that I got to share!

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!

The Story of Me

Minna Krebs is asking everyone to post "The Story of Me" to help celebrate her Gotcha Day. This is very, very timely for me because my own Gotcha Day is on Friday. That's right...Friday, November 26 will be the 1-year anniversary of when I was adopted by Mom!

Things are pretty good for me now, and I'm being spoiled absolutely rotten. Got my Mom trained pretty good, too. Life is good...but things haven't always been so good for me.

You see, two years ago I was dumped. Yep. A bad woman just dumped me out of the car and left me all alone on the streets. I was picked up by some people and I eventually ended up at Companion Critters, a rescue group in New Jersey. I was a lucky pup 'cause I didn't actually end up at a shelter.

So Companion Critters found me a new home and I went to live with those people. But then, after almost a year with them, they took me back to my foster home. I didn't do anything wrong...but I was returned. I was just turning 9 years old...and I have bad allergies...so lots of people considered me "unadoptable" at that point.

If you want to read about the rest of my story up until them, check it out over on the Companion Critters website. (It's a good read...especially since you know my happy ending! Oh, and it involves the cops getting that bad woman, too!)

Anyway, you may remember me talking about my sister Lexi-Lou. Well, she had a blog and a Twitter account. In September of last year, Lexi and Mom found out about me over on Shawnee's blog. (Lots of you know Shawnee -- she's a German Shepherd who has great hiking adventures!) Anyway, Mom fell for my cute little face. Over the next couple of months, Mom started talking to Shawnee's Mom, and they eventually decided that Mom and Lexi-Lou were going to adopt me and be my forever and ever family. Lexi and I were both Shih Tzus, and we were both almost the exact same age! Mom didn't think I was old...I was just the same age as Lexi-Lou. And my allergies weren't a problem at all.

But things were a little tricky. You see, Shawnee lives in New Jersey and my soon-to-be-new family lives in Illinois. Do you know what Shawnee and her Mom did, though? On Thanksgiving Day last year, they loaded up the car and drove me all of the way to Illinois so that I could have my forever and ever family. That was half-way across the country!

When I met my new family, I fit right in. Everyone thought I'd have to take some time to adjust, but I proved them wrong. I was playing with toys right away. I even helped unpack the toys that Shawnee let me keep from her house!

So that's my story. Pretty cool, huh? Mom spoils me rotten now, especially with all of the toys. But I really love toys, and Mom says she's just making up for the bad stuff I went through. I get scared sometimes that I'm going to be dumped again...or that I'm going to have to go to yet another new family. But Mom says that's not happening. She says that I'm stuck with her forever and ever.

My story isn't really complete, though, until I say one more thing...and that's a big THANK YOU to Shawnee and her mom. It's because of their love and dedication to their fosters that I was able to find my forever and ever and ever family. Thanks so much, Shawnee!

Anipal Photo Hunt #11: Trick or Treat!

The theme for this week's Anipal Photo Hunt is "Trick or Treat!" Unfortunately, I have plenty of material for this theme. I've got a few costumes. Yes, I said "a few."

Last year at my foster home I was dressed as a piggy for Halloween. It was appropriate since I make piggy noises all the time. And my foster sis Shawnee was dressed as the Big Bad Wolf, too, so that made the costume cooler. Here's a pic of us that I stole from Shawnee's blog:

Shawnee sent my piggy costume to my new home after I got adopted. So I could have been a piggy for Halloween. But Mom decided that maybe I needed something different.

I call this outfit "The Grapes of Wrath."

So I got a grape outfit, too. BUT that's not what I'm wearing for trick or treating tomorrow. See, my buddy Boris sent me a special costume in the mail and Mom decided that it's the winner for this year. So, this year for Halloween...I'm dressing as a princess! This costume is perfect with my princess tent! And it really is adorable, don't you think?

Yes, I rolled in it. Tried to pluck the hat like I pluck my squeaky toys, too. Mom said that wasn't allowed. Hrmph.

Happy Halloween!

Here are some other Trick or Treating animals:

A Birthday Performance

My former foster sisters put together a lovely presentation just for me on my birthday, and I HAD to share it with everyone! Shawnee posted it on her blog. I'm gonna include it below, too.

Sydney, Shawnee, and Dixie all ventriloquist-sang Happy Birthday to me!

Isn't that awesome? I spent my 8th and 9th birthdays at their house, so it was very, very sweet of them to remember me on my 10th birthday! Thanks, former foster sisters!!!

Questions Game

My former foster sis Shawnee asked me some questions in a blog game. I'm supposed to answer the questions and then pick 5 new questions and 5 new friends to answer them. So here are Shawnee's questions for me...

Wot be you fave toy or stuffie?

My favorite toy is whichever one I'm in the mood for at the time! Right now, though, my purple piggy, my brown bear, and my fox are the ones I'm using the most. (Mom wishes I liked quieter toys...)

Wot is the one thing you would most like to change about the werld?

Hmmm...I really wish Mom didn't have to work. I'd rather have her here with me all of the time. But I suppose that's not changing something about the world.

You know what? I think what I'd like to change is how all humans feel about doggies. If all humans loved doggies the way my Mom loves me, then I wouldn't have had to go through so much bad stuff in my life. I wouldn't have had so many different homes...and I wouldn't have been dumped out on the street like that. So, yeah...if I could change something in the world, I'd totally make humans LOVE dogs...and kitties, too, of course.

If'n you could has one super powah, wot would it be?

Definitely human mind control. Can you imagine how many toys and cookies I'd get?!

Wot is you most skeered of?

That dog park that Mom just took me to!!!

Wot does you see in the pikshur below?

That's an easy one! There's a large pile of squeaky toys...some smaller toys around the pile...and some COOKIES near the small toys!

o.k. So those are my answers to Shawnee's questions! Now I'm supposed to think up 5 new questions and ask 5 friends to answer them. But you know what? I think most of my friends have already answered questions. So, I'm gonna go play with some toys instead of thinking up any questions. Now, where's that cricket toy at? Hmmm...

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.