Catching Up...

Haven't posted very often lately, have I? Here's what's been going on: Mom's been busy. I've been sicky. Me being sicky makes Mom even busier.

I've had tummy problems since early August -- mainly diarrhea poos. Been to the vet lots. Lots of tests and stuff. This week the vet sent me to a different vet that did an ultrasound on my tummy. And my vet sent some of my bloods to a vet far away to see if my pancreas is o.k. My vet thinks I have "inflammatory bowel disease." We're still waiting on the pancreas test to come back, but they gave me some meds to help the diarrheas and we changed my kibble, too.

I had the pukes late last week, but now I'm better. (I actually pukied in my princess tent!) And the meds are helping the poos. I loooove my new kibble, so that makes Mom all happy. And I actually started playing with my toys some again. That made Mom even happier 'cause I haven't played much over the last week. Mom says she misses the sound of my squeakies.

So that's why I haven't posted much lately. I had lots of stuff that I was supposed to tell you about a week ago, but since I got extra sicky, I sorta forgot. I'm gonna catch you up now...

Mom took me to a big park 2 weeks ago. I was SO excited that I just took off. You can tell how excited I was if you look at my back legs -- neither of those paws is on the ground!

Then I spun around so fast I wrapped myself all up in my leash. And just look at those ears flying!

Had a blast at the park, and then Mom had another surprise for me...a trip to a doggie store!

Yes, I was wearing my leash in that pic...it just doesn't look like it. Anyway, you can guess what aisle I headed straight to. I had to check out the TOYS.

I tried to dive right into one of the toy bins, but Mom wouldn't let me. She DID, however, get me the little piggy toy that I was after in that bin! She's such a sucker for my "cute puppy" face!

So that was my trip to the park and the doggie store.

Another day, Mom took me over to visit her friend who has a BIG dog and also a kitty. I love kitties. I really love kitties. This kitty's name is Jingles. I just sat and looked at him.

The big dog who lives there scared me a bit, and so Mom's friend said that I could sit up on the bar in the kitchen to stay away from the big dog. And guess what...Jingles was on the bar!

So I sat and stared at Jingles on the bar for a long, long time. Jingles didn't even really mind me being up there with him. That was so much fun!

I've got a couple of other things to tell you about, but I think I'll do those in other posts 'cause this one is already so long!

Fetch!

Mom and I enjoyed a nice evening at home tonight. When she got home from work, we played fetch. Then we took a nap. Then we played fetch. And then we played fetch some more. Ate supper. More fetch. Mom did some work stuff on the 'puter, but I even made her stop at one point to play fetch again.

I got a squeaky chicken at the doggie store last night. So I've been pretty excited about that. And of course I'm super excited about being home with Mom tonight, too. That's why I'm obsessed with fetch...even more so than usual!

Oh, and this is what Mom had to look at while she was doing the work stuff on our 'puter:

I was just resting up from all that fetch. Had to take a nap to get ready for the next round.

Toy Radar

My toy radar has been going crazy lately. Mom went shopping yesterday and brought home bags of stuff. She put it all up on the table where I couldn't go through it. You know we have a rule that says if Mom goes shopping, she has to get me a toy, right? Well, she didn't come through on her end of that deal. No toy for me yesterday.

But the toy radar told me that there was a new toy in our house. And I was sure it was up on that table. So tonight I just sat by the table and barked at it. And barked at it. And barked at it.

You know what? I WAS RIGHT! The toy radar has not failed me yet. When Mom thought I was in the other room, she started messing around on top of the table. She didn't know that I was UNDER the table, spying on her! And that's when I heard the squeaky and Mom knew she was busted! How dare she try to hide a squeaky toy from me!

Anyway, here's my new toy. I don't know what it's supposed to be, so I just call him Spike.

Mom kept taking pictures of me, so I decided to pose for her. I thought maybe she'd stop taking pictures if I did. It didn't work.

Here's one of a multitude of pictures of me playing with Spike.

I played a LOT tonight. I was a crazy doggie for a while.

I played so much tonight that I wore myself out.

I had to nap for a while. And of course I kept Spike nearby...

I love my toy radar! What a useful thing for a toyaholic to have...

My Big Bloggie Award

Wow. What an honor. A few of my friends recently gave me a bloggie award. When you get the award, you write a blog post with 10 things about yourself, and then you pass the award on to 10 of your friends.

So thanks to Brutus, Henry, Mookie, and Maximus for passing this award to me!

Here are the 10 things about me...

1. I love squeaky toys.

He he he. I guess I shouldn't really use that as one of the 10 things since it's just a "given" if you know me already! I'll start over...

1. I like to take toys outside with me when I go out to potty. I squeak them like crazy in the stairwell and it gets Mom all embarrassed 'cause she doesn't know what the neighbors think about all of those squeaks. And when we get outside, I refuse to carry my own toy for our walk. So Mom's left to carry MY toy while we walk. He he he! This works the best when I insist on taking my large rubber chicken outside. That embarrasses Mom the most.

2. I've got allergies. Baaad allergies. They make me super, duper itchy. My foster mom put me on some medicine that makes me not as itchy, though. And my new Mom makes sure I get the medicine, too. First time ever that I've not been itchy all day long! Yeah for that medicine and the yummy chicky stuff my Mom thinks she's "hiding" the pills in.

3. I've lived with my new Mom for over 2 months now. Life is GOOD. She tells me that this is my forever and ever home, and I sure like to repeat that as often as I can. I've lived in several other homes in my life. You can read my story on the website of the rescue group that rescued me TWICE. (And by NO fault of my own, I must say...) Mom says that I deserve to be spoiled now, and I have to agree.

4. I'm a Jersey girl. I lived in New Jersey up until my new Mom adopted me. Since she lives in Illinois, I was transplanted. I'm still trying to figure out what the deal is with all of these empty fields in Illinois.

5. I am in charge of protecting the bath mat when Mom takes a shower. I position myself directly on top of the mat so that it's super safe while Mom's in the tub. I usually take some toys or a rawhide in there with me, too. That gives me something to do. And Mom thinks it's hysterical to hear me squeaking my toys while she's taking a shower.

6. It's my job to remind Mom to empty the garbage can in the bathroom. I do this by knocking it over as often as possible when it's starting to get full. I like to dig in the dirty tissues, and I drag 'em around a bit.

7. I already told you that I have allergies...but I didn't tell you that sometimes that means I have extra goopies in my eyes. You know what I like to do when that happens? I wipe my eyes on Mom's pant legs. She doesn't appreciate it, but her pants are the perfect wiping spot. I head-butt her legs and then just start wiping away. (Sometimes I'll use the ottoman in the living room or a door frame. I really prefer Mom's legs, though.)

8. I go nuts when I see someone with plastic grocery sacks. Did you know that those sacks sometimes have squeaky toys in them? Any time Mom brings home some sacks, I have to root through them until I'm sure that there aren't any toys hidden in there. I'm VERY determined, too. I have to see what's in each and every sack. This morning one of our neighbors had a plastic sack and I embarrassed Mom by trying to dig in the neighbor's plastic sack... Oopsie...

9. I nap when Mom's at work during the day. Wish I could go to work with her, and she wishes I could, too. But nooooo. So I nap at home. I'll start out on my brown doggie bed and then I move to the couch. By the time Mom gets home from work, I'm usually napping on the very back of the couch. It's closest to the door Mom comes in, so that's why I'm up there. Need to be listening and on the look-out for Mom.

10. You know that PetSmart commercial where the dachshund gets the new loofah doggie toy and they have to scan the entire doggie at the checkout lane? I sort of did that once. I was living with my foster family and destroyed one of my favorite toys. So my foster mom took me to the store and let me pick out a new toy. I refused to let her have it to scan at the checkout, though. I didn't want to give it up! So she had to pick me up so the cashier could scan the toy.

Ta dah! There's the 10 things about me.

Now who should I pass this along to? Most of my friends have already gotten the award, I think. BUT I haven't seen it on Smokey and Ody's blog, so they definitely need to have the award passed to them.

I'll think about some others...

Lady Bug

Mom reached another important step in her training today. I think she's finally learned that she can't bring home shopping bags unless there's a doggie toy in 'em. Ahhh...success!!!

She brought home some groceries today. While she was putting stuff in the freezer, I started rooting through the rest of the bags. Sure enough...I found a squeaky lady bug!

Here I am playing with my new toy...


Oh. Guess you can't see it very well, huh? He he he.

The bed attacked me a few minutes later, though, and the toy escaped. So here's what the lady bug looks like.


That pic also gives you a good look at the work I've been doing tearing the foam off the bottom of my bed. Yes, I'm ornery.

Anyway, back to the lady bug... It's a requirement that all new toys need to be rolled on. So, of course I had to do that for a while.


And here's a great pic of me telling Mom to back off from my new squeaky toy!


Mom's made some definite progress in her training, don't you think?

No Toys for Me

Mom went out this afternoon and came back home with bags and bags of stuff. I started nosing through it all. I had to see if there were any squeaky toys in there for me. But would you believe that she did NOT buy me anything?! What's wrong with her?! She's supposed to buy me new toys each time that she comes back home with bags of stuff like that. It's the rule!