Walking on Water

The beginning of Fall means the end of pool season. WAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!! I want my pool back!!! My human dad closed the pool down yesterday. I was one unhappy pup, until I discovered that now I can walk on water!

It was so much fun! I loved racing across the surface and brought some toys with me, which I conveniently left in the middle of the pool cover where no one could reach them.

So Girl Twin came to the rescue, much to her dad's chagrin. "GET OFF THE POOL COVER!!!!!"

We both think it was fun while it lasted.

The Curious Case of the Unwonked Ears

My longtime followers know that I've had "ear issues" from the time I joined my Family at the tender age of 8 weeks old. My ears started to turn wonky (a.ka. "flyaway", a.k.a. "rosebud"). Remember this unfortunate picture (altho' I do look rather cute, if I may say so myself)?

This is not an uncommon occurence in Tollers, so my human followed the breeder's instructions for putting ear weights on the insides of my ear flaps to make the cartiledge grow the right way. I went through several sessions of ear weights, including a rather painful one when I got an infection. At that point, my human decided enough was enough, better to have a healthy wonky-eared dog than an unhealthy one with "proper" drop ears.

So, you all have known me (and loved me, thank you!) by this look:

Well, the strangest thing has happened. Over the past week, my ears started to drop on their own. Sometimes just one, sometimes both, and then they'd flip backward again. My human had read about another Toller owner who had massaged her dog's ears at the crease, so she started to do that. And lo and behold, now my ears are staying down on their own, more than they are flipping back:

Maybe I had an ear growth spurt, or maybe the Man Upstairs was trying to teach the Control Freak (oops, I mean, my human) a lesson about letting go, and things will fall into place--even ears!

What do you think of my new look?

Mmmmmmm....Doggy Cookies!

Did you all know there was a "Part Deux" to Golden Samantha's fabulous 100th Post Giveaway?

I got another package in the mail this week, and this one smelled deeeeeeeeee-lish!

An absolute plethora of assorted doggy cookies, courtesy HappyHearts (I've been cruising dictionary.com when I'm not blogging)!

In addition to the wonderful assortment Sammie sent (I got to choose my own flavors: salmon, cheese and sweet potato), Gerri tucked in some extras for me! She even customized the recipe so there was no peanut butter (it doesn't agree with my tummy). Can you see all the cool shapes? Hearts, bunnies, ducks (yay!), squirrels, fish, and the best...

...my very own personalized cookie!

I wish I could share all my nummies with you, my dear doggy blog pals. I'll just eat some for you, m'kay?

That's the strangest squirrel I've ever met...and it smells like cheese!

Here's a clip of me enjoying my Sedona cookie:

Thanks again, dear Sammie, and thanks HappyHearts!

Attacked at the Doggy Swim

I had a good & bad experience over the weekend to tell you about.

But first, I want to thank all of you who went over to my cousin Lucy's blog to say hello & welcome her to the blogging world! I knew you'd come through! My bloggy furiends are the best. And, I'd like to thank my homegirl Twix for the pawsome button she made me; check it out at the top of the sidebar!


OK, so here's what happened. Our town pool sponsors a Doggy Swim every September after the public pools have closed. I was excited when I saw the pools and the other doggies and was in a happy mood. As we made our way over to the far pool, a lady who was running the program warned us about this one dog; she said she was getting some "strange vibes" from her. Sure enough, the first doggy to approach me was that dog, and she ran up to me, took one sniff and then MAULED ME!!! My human and the other dog's human jumped in to separate us and luckily that dog hadn't broken any skin (good thing Tollers have thick double coats). Needless to say, that bitch (pun intended) and her family were booted out of there pronto. And the weirdest thing? My human realized she actually knew her owners through school! They were very apologetic and later told my human they'd been having "issues" with their dog for some time (then, why bring her to a doggy swim???!!!).

Well...once they left, I (and my Family!) calmed down and I got to enjoy the pool. I was the first one to jump in! There were all these Labs running around and none of them wanted to swim--go figure! One Lab even had a doggy life vest on...hmmmmm...methinks a lot of Lab breeders have bred out the swimming instinct in these water dogs.

One brave Lab (I left him in my wake--hee-hee!)

Here's a clip of me doin' my thing:

Tell me, have any of you been attacked for no reason by a strange dog? It's no fun! But at least we four-leggers get over it pretty quickly...I think my human is still a bit traumatized :-(

Please Welcome My Cousin Lucy!

My cousin Lucy has joined the ranks of doggy bloggers! I know she'd be thrilled if my furiends gave her a "bark out", so won't you please go visit her?

I also want to thank everyone who left concerned comments and/or tips about my strange behavior. I am happy to report that I am completely back to my old rambunctious self. I did give my human a good scare though, didn't I?! We gotta keep those two-leggers on their toes lest they take us for granted. She never did figure out what made me act so cuckoo...maybe Jupiter was aligning with Mars.

Not Quite Myself

Hi furiends,

Sorry I've been a little quiet this week...my human was busy with the kids' first days of school and yesterday and today have been a little strange for me.

Yesterday started off just like any other day, but around lunchtime I started acting a little "off"...skittish and velcro-y. My human doesn't recall any loud noises or me hurting myself on anything so she thought I might be sick. But I 've had no problem eating/drinking and have been peeing/pooping (sorry if TMI) like normal. She palpitated my entire body to see if there was any soreness but nothing. And when she gets the tennis ball out, I snap out of it and become my old retrieving-fool self outside. But when I get back inside, I get all clingy and anxious-looking again.

The weirdest thing is last night, when she let me out for my final pee of the night, I stayed out for a long time and wouldn't come back in when she called me. My human got very worried that I had somehow gotten out of our fenced back yard and started looking for me in the dark with a flashlight. She had just started searching for me when I decided to come out from wherever I was hiding. I've never done that before so it's worrisome.

I'm not lethargic, and this morning when the family came downstairs I was my usual excited self, but then I went back to the worried behavior. My human is debating whether to take me to the vet and hope whatever scared me passes.

Have any of you ever experienced this?

Return to Bear Mountain

Happy Labor Day, furiends!

We had family visiting over this long weekend and decided to give Bear Mountain another go, since the carousel wasn't open last time we went.

It was open this time and look what I found: me!

But did Little Boy or Girl Twin choose my wooden replica to ride on? Noooooooooooooo.

I was a little miffed that they chose the cougar and the fox, but I got over it quickly enough when I spotted these:

My human was so tempted to let me go swimming since she saw another doggy in the lake, but then she thought I might be a tad smelly on the car ride home (and didn't want to be busted by the park rangers).

Hope you all had a great long weekend, too!

C is for Cookie

Do you all know Ruby, the Red Dog who lives in SEDONA, Arizona?! It was destiny that we'd become furiends! Ruby gave me the "Oops, I Ate It" award:



Thanks, Ruby! A dog after my own heart! You all must know by now that I am a counter-surfer extraordinaire.


"When accepting this award, you must blog about the food you have stolen when your humans were not watching.
If you have never stolen any food, you must have been a really good pup! You can accept this yummy tray of cookies as your reward! Next add the logo of this award to your blog (optional), then nominate at least 5 other furry blogs and let them know by leaving a message on their blogs."



"If you have never stolen any food..." Sheesh! I only know ONE doggy who has never stolen any food (that'd be the fabulous Mr. Brutus the Frenchie). I think it's in the DNA of 99% of us...dogs are scavengers by nature, after all!


I could tell you about many a stolen tidbit that I have procured in my young life, but I will limit myself to my latest conquest: cookies.



Well, raw cookie dough, to be precise. I have become highly specialized in stealing a ball of dough from the tray as it awaits its turn in the oven. Notice I say "a" ball, since I only have time to snatch one before the gig is up. I've done it twice now and I think it's pretty pathetic that my human hasn't learned her lesson yet. She places the tray at the edge of the kitchen table, turns her back for a second and when she looks again, a single gap appears in her otherwise perfectly-aligned, perfectly spaced, perfectly-identically-sized rows of cookie dough balls (OCD, anyone?). Pretty much like the award picture. And I'm nowhere to be found! BWAH-HA-HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!
Just in case you were interested, the first time was chocolate chip and the second time was oatmeal raisin. And they were dee-lish.

I know that many of you out there have already received this award, so if you haven't and you'd like to confess your own food-related indiscretions, please feel free to take it!

"Live Action" - Pressies from Sammie

Here's that video clip of me opening my package; you'll see all the goodies Samantha put together to celebrate her 100th post! I felt very spoiled indeed!
My human is especially excited about the portable ground cloth; she says that will come in very handy. I, on the other hand, am all about the yummies!
Enjoy!

Pressies from Sammie!

Many of you know that a couple weeks ago, I won Golden Samantha's contest to celebrate her 100th post!  I was so thrilled when she told me I had won...I've never won anything before (besides the nice blog awards I've received).

Yesterday, a humongous package arrived in the mail for me, all the way from California.

Girl Twin was almost as excited as I was to open it!

I could smell something yummy inside!  I didn't make much of a dent with my teeth tho'...

Inside was a nice note from Sammie with her picture...isn't she gorgeous?  I hope I grow up to be half as glamorous as she!

Now, here's the part where you're supposed to see a video clip of me discovering the contents of the box.  But my human decided to upgrade to the "new and improved" editing function on Blogger and now she can't figure out how to add video clips anymore!  I told her to leave well enough alone but does she listen to moi?  Nooooooooooooooooo....

So maybe she'll do the next post in the original editor version so she can add the clip.

Anyhoo, here are some stills of me enjoying my pressies from Sammie.  Sammie, you are the best!  Thank you so much; you really made my day.

Don't know about the hat, tho'....maybe I have a little more growing to do!