Dony, No Swiping!

Do any of you have young'uns in the house?  If you do, you may be familiar with Swiper the Fox from the T.V. show Dora the Explorer.  Swiper is notorious for sneakily absconding with various objects from the heroine, Dora.  Or rather, he tries to swipe them, only to hear "Swiper, no swiping!" from Dora, Boots the Monkey, and millions of preschool viewers around the country.

Well, lately I've been hearing the refrain "Dony, no swiping!" around here, and I'm getting a little sick of it.  My counter surfing escapades have been seriously curtailed (heh-heh!).  How am I supposed to survive the long hours between breakfast and dinner with no snacks?!

Here's what I mean.  Little Boy wanted to make oatmeal cookies.  Of course, I offered my assistance.

   

Did somebody say cookies????

Double-checking the recipe.

I'll just skooch these measuring spoons over to Little Boy.

Time to sample the batter...it's a tough job, but someone's gotta do it.

D'oh!!  Foiled again by Little Boy!

But even he can't stop the quickest tongue on the East Coast!

(That's a Dorito, in case anyone's wondering)

So there you have it...I've been reduced to scrounging for tiny morsels instead of my usual entire cookie/apple slice/bacon slice/fill-in-the-blank.  I feel like a junkyard dog.

BTW, I got a kick out of your comments on my Wordless Wed. pic...Cole got it right, I was under a lounge chair on the deck when Boy Twin took that picture from inside. 

A "Paw It Forward" Pressie!

Do you know the fair-haired lake-swimmer extraordinaire otherwise known as Mason Dixie? If you do, you know she's been incomunicado for a bit, and I bet you miss her as much as I do! Well, I heard from her recently and she's had a lot on her kibble dish lately, but hopefully she'll be back to blogging soon. In the meantime, I had told her I wanted to play Paw It Forward, and guess what arrived yesterday for me? Yep, a package from Ms. Dixie herself! It smelled divine. I couldn't wait for Girl Twin to open it. Look at these amazing doggie truffles!!! Girl Twin was taking her time opening the box, so I decided to help with her the ribbon (see the cute pawprints on it?). I started licking my chops in anticipation. Here's a clip of me savoring that first bite!

It was sooooooooooooooooooo yummy!!! Thank you so much, Mason Dixie, for these wonderful treats! I had to make sure my human hid them from Little Boy, since he'd finish them off. Put frosting and sprinkles on anything and that boy will eat it.
So, who wants to play Paw It Forward with me? Send me a pee-mail with your mailing address to tollertales@yahoo.com and the first three doggies get to play!
Have a great weekend, efurrybody!

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!

How to Beat the Dog Days of Summer

We're nearing the end of August and we finally have some real August weather here in the Big Apple area. Steamy, muggy, crank-up-the-AC kind of weather. I guess it beats the never-ending rain we had here in June. And I can always cool off in the pool.

But the best part of the arrival of hot & humid weather is that my human finally caved and let me have doggy ice cream! I've been tortured all summer hearing about my furiends indulging in the stuff, like Golden Samantha, Twix (who got the real hooman stuff, extra-lucky girl!) and many others. I begged my human to get me some, but to no avail. She's so cold-hearted...or so I thought!

The other day, Girl Twin and she were food shopping when Girl Twin's eagle-eyes spotted this in the freezer section:

"No sugar added! High quality protein! All good stuff for Sedona! Please, Mom, pleeeeeeeeeeeze, can we get it for her??!!" I guess my human felt guilty that the rest of the family got to cool down with frozen treats, so she finally relented (Girl Twin's got my back, I gotta remember to give her extra snuggles).

When they showed me the box, I wasn't quite sure what to make of it:

But when Girl Twin let me sniff a cup, I got the idea & couldn't wait to try it. I polished it off in record time (and no brain freeze!)

Here's a clip of my first taste:

BTW, my human was curious about how this stuff tastes, so she sampled it (she tried to get Girl Twin to try it instead, but no dice). She says it tastes like powdered kibble mixed with cream. I wonder how she knows what dog food tastes like...she better not be dipping into my kibble container!

To Market, To Market...

...to buy a fresh pig, home again, home again, jiggety-jig! So the nursery rhyme goes. Well, no pigs to be bought at the farmers' market we visited this morning, but it was still nice!

This was a different one than the last one I posted about here. This market is in Hastings-on-Hudson, NY, and you can see the beautiful Hudson River in some of the pics below. Not as many doggies out and about this time, and the bluegrass band was a little too loud for my taste.

I did meet another Portuguese Water Dog; this area seems to have a lot of 'em! She didn't know Bo, either...what's up with that?

The best part about going to the market on Saturday is that usually means a yummy dinner. My human loves to makes a couple side dishes from the great produce she buys, and serve it with something easy on the grill. Tonight was STEAK! I was one happy pup. I got to chew on some meaty bones...

...and I got to eat the steak scaps from the kiddies...one of the many perks of living with small bi-peds!

Getting Spayed Is A Piece of (Cup)Cake

I got spayed yesterday! Although my Family was sad to leave me at the Place Where I Get Poked, they hugged me and told me I'd be a happier and healthier doggy in the long run. The vet said I came through the surgery with flying colors. Today I got to go home, and my Family had a special doggy cupcake waiting for me; it was DELISH! I am a little tired, but I should be back to my bouncy self in a day or two.

So for those puppies whose future includes spaying or neutering: don't worry, be happy your human is a responsible pet owner!

And the best part? No Cone of Shame like poor Dug in the movie "Up"!

Treat Me Well

My Family does, I have to say. I get plenty of pats, kisses and squeezes (sometimes a little too hard from Little Boy), lots of games of fetch (including in the pool!), nice walks through our leafy neighborhood, playtime with my best friend across the street, Garth, a nice comfy crate bed, cool bandanas to wear (yes, I've succumed) and yummy kibble and treats.

I must confess: I am a Treat Addict. I usually get bits of cheese (cheddar, please), hot dog, leftover steak/chicken/etc, and store-bought yummies.

But I've been a little under the weather this weekend, so to cheer me up my human and Girl Twin made me doggy biscuits! They are SO much better than the store variety, let me tell you!

Here they are coming right out of the oven...can't you just smell that tempting aroma?!

It made such a big batch, we're going to share them with my neighborhood friends! We have a lot of interesting doggies around here...Garth is a PBGV, Jake is a Maltese, Samson is a Coton de Tulear, Lucy is a Labradoodle, Misty is a Bichon Frise, Dylan is a Poodle, and there's even a mean Landseer whose name I don't know, who everyone has told me to avoid like the plague as she picks fights with everyone. Luckily , I have yet to bump into her during my walks.

Wait a minute...that was a pretty long list of doggies to share my treats with. I hope there's enough left for me!!

Want your human to make you some too? Here's the recipe:

SEDONA'S BISCUITS

1 C. uncooked oatmeal

1/3 C. margarine

3 beef bouillon cubes, crushed

1 1/2 C. hot water

3/4 C. powdered milk

3/4 C. cornmeal

1 egg, beaten

3 C. whole wheat flour

Preheat oven to 325F.

Place oatmeal, margarine and bouillon powder in a large bowl. Add hot water, stir and let sit for 5 minutes. Add powdered milk, cornmeal and egg; stir well. Add flour, half a cup at a time, mixing well after each addition.

Knead 3 to 4 minutes, adding a little more flour if needed to make a stiff dough. Pat or roll dough to 1/2 inch thickness. Cut with cookie cutters.

Place on greased baking sheet and bake for 50 minutes.

Allow to cool completely; store in airtight container.

BONE APPETIT!

(Not) Forbidden Fruit

Ever since I saw my friend Twix chowing down on watermelon, I've been waiting for my turn to see if I like it.

Twix was right...it is DELISH!

It look a lot of good intense staring before my Family got the message that I wanted some, too.

But could they give me some then and there? Nooooooo...they had to go and make it a "teachable moment". Don't you HATE it when humans do that? Made me "sit" then "wait"...don't they know it's torture?!

Ahhhh, the first taste...

PURE BLISS!

This is the face of one happy puppy. Can you see my smile?

Have a great weekend, everyone!