Free Toy for Me

We got a box in the mail today! It was addressed to Mom, but I claim full ownership of all boxes that come in the mail.

And you want to know the best part about this box? Just look at the sticker!!!

That's right...it was from DogToys.com! That usually means that there just HAS to be something good in there. And they sure didn't disappoint this time, either. They mailed us a Mini Me!

It's a white and tan, very furry, squeaky doggie! Look closely...can you tell which is the real Buttons and which is the toy Buttons?

How about now?

The new toy looks SO much like me! Mom and I just couldn't believe it. And of course because it's so furry, I decided to pluck away.

The only problem with plucking a very furry, long-haired toy like this is that there's a whole lot of fur to deal with. All night long, Mom kept grabbing my head, prying my mouth open, and pulling fur out of it. How rude. She said she didn't want me to swallow the fur I plucked off of the toy. Whatever.

So here's the coolest part about my new toy...it was free! That's right, it was a free doggie toy. I got some free cookies, too! Here's me posing with my loot.

Why did I get a free toy and cookies in the mail? No, it's not a prize that I won. You see, Mom went to DogToys.com last week and decided to make a donation to a doggie charity that they're helping to support. Because Mom made a donation, they sent ME cool stuff. DogToys.com rocks!

If you wanna get a free toy and cookies, too, just go to their website and make a donation!

And now it's time to nap with my new Mini Buttons pillow...

It's a Sci-Fi Pawty!

Today my buddy Boris organized a Twitter party to benefit animals in a shelter that he and his family help out. Cool, huh? And the pawty raised over $1,000. Isn't that awesome?!

The pawty had a sci-fi theme, so that was a lot of fun. I won a set of doggie toys and a gift certificate to DogToys.com. Yeah! Those are dream prizes for me! Here's what my new doggie toys will look like when they come...

They fit right with the sci-fi theme, don't they? Bigfoot...a Jackalope...and a Sea Monster! I can't wait until they get here!!! AND I get to order MORE toys from DogToys.com when I get my gift certificate!

Boris had a costume contest for the pawty, too, so we all made pictures to enter ourselves in the contest. The costumes had to be sci-fi, fantasy, or horror costumes. I entered three different pictures. This first one is one that Boris actually made for me. I'm a total toy nut, as I'm sure you know, so isn't Toy Story perfect for me? (I added the squeakies just for fun.)

And I thought maybe I should enter something for "horror" just because it's SO very not "me." So here's what I put together for that...


No stuffies were harmed in the making of that picture. The stuffie had already been de-stuffed...

And then I thought that since I'm such a furry doggie, maybe I should make myself an Ewok picture, too! Ta dah!

And you know what? I won 2nd place in the costume contest for my Ewok outfit! Yeah! The prize for 2nd place is being donated by Frugal Dougal (who plans the monthly Twitter parties for us), and he's going to pick out a special prize just for me!

I got a lot of stuff coming in the mail. I'm going to have to stalk the mailman now...

Mom Figured It Out!

I gotta tell you...my Mom is super smart! I haven't been feeling very well lately, but I hid it really well. Don't wanna cause trouble in my new home, you know. I didn't think Mom had any idea. I was trying to act like my normal self, and doing a very good job of it, too. For some reason, though, Mom thought something was wrong.

So you know what she did? She put a tupperware lid under me when I went potty yesterday. How RUDE! She told me she did that so that she could get some of my pee-pee to take to the vet. The vet did something with it, then. I have no idea what, but I think maybe they sniffed it. Anyway, the vet called Mom and said that I have something called a UTI. Mom told me that means I've got bacteria buggies in my pee-pee. That's why I didn't feel well.

So now I've gotta take some pills. The pills will get rid of those buggies, and then I'll feel all better.

I still can't figure out how Mom knew!

I'm just taking it easy tonight. Napping with my bunny...

And I've been working on a rawhide chewy.

Thanks to my new Mom for figuring out that I was sicky and getting me pills to make me all better!

Walking around the Pond

It was a beautiful day today, so when Mom got home from work, we headed for a walk around the pond by our house. Here's a picture of the pond. You can almost see where we live in this picture...almost... Its waaaay over there, behind that building.

Here's a good "action shot" of me. I was hurrying to catch up with Mom after I stopped to sniff that orange thing.

Walking and sniffing...

Mom tried to trick me to get me to pose for her. Yeah, like that's gonna happen. I was too excited about sniffing everything. No time to pose!

I had to check out the "Dog Station." That's a very important stop.

Sniffing some more... (I did a LOT of sniffing.)

The best part about this next picture is what you can't see. I'm actually sniffing a dead fish! It was just sitting on the grass. Mom thought I was sniffing goose poop and she tugged on my leash to get me away from it. She had NO idea that I had my face in a dead fishy! She figured it out once I moved, of course, and then she was totally grossed out. That was hysterical.

Here I am walking away from the dead fishy and hoping to find another one. I didn't find any more fishies, but I did run into a huge pile of doggy poop soon after the fishy. Mom didn't seem to want me to sniff that, either.

I finally did stop to pose for Mom, but I waited until the very end, of course, and I stopped in some mud instead of in the nice grassy spots. That concrete is the parking lot by our house, so this was the very last chance Mom had to take my picture!

I loved going for that walk tonight! Now I'm just gonna dream of that dead fishy until I get to go back to the pond to sniff it again...

Visiting Friends

Mom and I went on a car ride yesterday to visit with our friends Ronda and Molly!

Before we could leave home, though, Mom made sure to put all my new seat belt stuff on me. This is the first time I've ever warn my new harness. I didn't mind it too much, even though I don't look too thrilled in the pictures...

Mom says the important thing is that I'm now safe when we go for rides. I won't turn into a doggie projectile and fly out of our car if we get in a wreck. Seat belts sound like a good plan to me!

Now, back to the important stuff...my visit with Molly! Here's Molly...

Molly was pretty excited to see Mom and I when we got to their house. I said "hi" but then I zeroed in on something very, very important...Molly's TOY BOX!

She was nice and let me play with all her toys. And I did play with ALL of them! She's even got a tree trunk of squirrels toy, just like I have!

I played and played and played with Molly's toys...but then something else caught my eye. I saw PIGLET! I became a little obsessed with Molly's kitty Piglet. I stared and stared and stared at her. I tried to sneaky close to her and actually managed to get near her. But then she bolted upstairs. I just wanted to sniff her.

So I sat at the bottom of the stairs and watched for any signs of Piglet. Molly didn't seem to care at all about Piglet. I was surprised by that. How could she not try to sneaky up to sniff Piglet???

Mom and Ronda finally went upstairs so I got to go, too, and I searched for Piglet up there. Found her!

I stared and stared some more. But then Mom made me go back downstairs with her, so I spent some time downstairs looking for Piglet (who stayed upstairs) or anything that smelled like Piglet. Had a bit of a problem in my snooping, though. I sort of got myself a little stuck in the corner between the couch and the love seat.

Mom had to get me out of there 'cause I was really super stuck. I tried to squeeze back there again later, but Mom wouldn't let me. She figured I'd get stuck again.

Piglet actually came back downstairs after a while, so I started staring and staring at her again.

I don't ever ignore toys, so Mom was surprised that I was so obsessed with Piglet. She's afraid that she's going to have to get a kitty for me. I agree!

Oh -- and one last thing. I had NOTHING to do with this:

That toy destruction was ALL Molly. I had nothing to do with it...and Mom and Ronda can vouch for me. (I'm not messin' with you, either!)

Rubber Ducky, You're the One

Mom told me last night that I was a stinky doggie. I replied, "why thank you very much!" I'm a dog. I really don't care how I smell! Well, actually, I take that back. I'd rather stink than smell like vanilla dog shampoo. Most importantly, though...I don't like baths!

Mom thought she'd try to make bath time a little better for me this time. Just take a look at what she did:

That's right...she bought rubber ducky doggie toys and put them in the bath water! There's a momma ducky and four baby duckies. She thought she would trick me into getting into the tub by putting toys in there. That was NOT going to happen. I investigated the new toys from afar...outside of the bath water.

I tried to make a break for it when Mom cornered me to put me in the tub. Duckies or not, a bath is still a bath.

"Oh, you poor duckies! We're stuck in this bath tub together!"

Mom washed me all over and I plotted my escape from the bath tub...while trying to act like I wasn't actually plotting my escape... (Hmm...that water looks a little dirty. Was all of that dirt really in my furs?!)

Tried to make a break for it with a baby ducky, but I couldn't make it over the side of the tub. Having the duck in my mouth did make it harder for Mom to wash my face, though, so that was a tiny bit of revenge...

Then I tried to rescue the momma duck, too, but she was just too big...and the bath tub was too deep.

"Sorry, duckies, but it looks like you're on your own!"

Mom finally rescued me from the tub and she got the duckies out of there, too. She put 'em on the bath mat. I knew they couldn't get away from there, though, so while Mom was trying to dry me off, I moved all of the duckies over to the door, one by one.

I also rescued 'em from the bathroom, then, just as soon as Mom opened that door. Well, I had to do it one at a time, so it took me several trips to get all the duckies out to our living room. The ducks are much more fun to play with in the living room!

Here's hoping that we don't have to do that ever again. Just say "NO" to baths!

Surprise in the Mail

The mail man brought me a surprise package today!

Guess who it was from...my former foster sis Shawnee! She sent me a brand new monkey toy, and it made super-loud monkey sounds. Here's the card she included.

She saw all about how my other monkey toy fell apart so she sent me a new one! Shawnee is so sweet, isn't she? She even taped some of her furs in the card, so it was almost like she was here with me! I sniffed those furs for a while. Even napped on top of the card once tonight.

The monkey is really fun to play with. It's got lots of furs on it, and it's very fun to pluck at.

I played a LOT with that monkey tonight! I even used him as a pillow while I napped for a bit.

There was a sort of downside to the surprise package from Shawnee. You know what else she sent me? A piggy costume! UGH! It was the piggy Halloween costume that Shawnee's groomer gave me when I was living with my foster family. You see, I make lots of piggy noises all of the time, so they thought it was sort of appropriate to dress me like a piggy for Halloween.

I thought I'd seen the last of that silly costume when I came to live with my new Mom. I guess not!

I actually think Shawnee and my Mom conspired against me or something. Why else would Shawnee suddenly send that piggy costume out of the blue? My Mom got SO excited about getting it in the mail, too. Seemed sort of fishy to me.

Mom made me wear it tonight while she took pictures. It was humiliating. I refused to cooperate, too, since I was playing with my new monkey.

By the way, have you ever seen a piggy pluck the fur off a monkey?

I even rolled on (well...maybe "near" instead of "on") my new monkey while wearing the piggy costume.

Silly piggy costume. Honestly, what on earth is my Mom thinking? WHY is she making me wear this outfit?!

I suppose I should be honest with you, though. You see, I think the piggy costume was one of the things that made my new Mom fall in love with me. She knew all about me, of course, and she even sent me some toys at my foster home. But I'm pretty sure the pictures that Shawnee posted of me in my piggy costume must have sealed the deal because it wasn't too long after that that I found out I was going to get a forever and ever family.

So maybe the piggy costume isn't so bad after all... Oink, oink, oink.