Favorite Things

What a great idea for blogging, Meagan! Here are a few of my favorite things (in no special order):

Well, duh, obviously, my man and my lady.


Sitting up high, even if it's only on a stack of pillows (the higher, the better).

Sitting in my lady's lap while she reads, or my man's lap while he reads or watches television.

Relaxing on the chaise lounge on the back porch.

Playing keep away or tug o' war (especially with a sock or panties, but preferably panties).

Sitting with Meagan when she's here OR (and perhaps even better) taking a nap on her back when she takes a nap on my couch!

Sleeping on my pillow on my couch in my living room in my house ALL NIGHT LONG!

Licking the bottoms of shoes. Now, now, don't go yucking until you've tried it! I particularly relish the bottoms of my man's shoes when he gets in from work. Yum!

And then there, of course, lots of favorite things for which I have no pictures. These include: finding snakes, barking at turtles, flushing up turkeys from my yard (there were 23 of them: be impressed!), humping my bed, enjoying the last bit of ice cream (on the rare occasions that my lady and man eat ice cream), sharing my lady's and man's food, Wheat Thins, any kind of cookie, my food and water being kept just so (I do tend to be a bit OCD), snooping outside, and last, but certainly not least, my treats! Oh yeah, sitting in my window watching birds and squirrels and rabbits and chimpmunks.

What are some of your favorite things?

A Good Night's Sleep

I have a new favorite sleeping place. It's on one of the couches in the living room. It's on this one particular chenille pillow (the only chenille pillow).

Actually, it's always been a favorite napping spot of mine, usually while my lady reads in her favorite chair or while my lady and my man watch television. Most nights I'll just snuggle on my pillow until they're ready to go to bed. Then one of them will take me to my bed in my crate. Well, I get so tired of them disturbing my good night's sleep by getting me up like that. So the other night I snarled and snapped at my lady. She got frustrated and left me on the pillow! I loved it! Now it's my favorite over-night sleeping spot. Here I am wishing she'd get that blasted camera out of my face (disturbing the sleep again).

What could possibly be so important that she has to take my picture this early in the morning?

Ever had a really bad hair day? In reality, my hair will be fine once I've had a chance to shake it all out and get it back into place.

Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease get that camera out of my face and just Go. Away.

P.S. I found a snake. But did she get a picture of that? Noooooo. She didn't. Actually I found the snake yesterday (Sunday) right outside our garage door, in a separation between the driveway and sidewalk. I barked and snooped until my lady finally came to look and noticed that big ol' snake in there. Then she drug me away. So every time I went out I'd return to check on the snake. Today (Monday) my man came home and noticed that the snake was still there and that it was dead. He took it out and disposed of it. Wish I had a picture of me and that snake! That thing was four feet long. We don't know why he died but I gotta say lurking around under concrete like that can't be a good way to live. He should have found himself a chenille pillow on a big comfy couch.

Let's Play Chase

chase or tug o' war. Your choice! On laundry days (or if I get lucky and someone leaves a sock or a pair of panties laying around) I challenge my lady and/or man to a game of chase. This is me letting my lady know, "I got this sock!"

If the first offer doesn't get her, then I give her this look. It's a winner every time. She can't resist. If I let her get ahold of the sock, then we play tug o' war.

Surprised that I'm wanting to play these games? I've been feeling better lately. I'm even off of my medicine. Now I'm only taking glucosamine with condroitin (just like people do!). It's helping me enough so that I don't have to take the other stuff, which is bad for my liver and kidneys.

So, wanna play?

R U Kidding Me?

I know you all remember my recent experience about which I blogged, aka "The Big Splash." After that experience you can surely understand my amazement (bordering on disgust) upon observing these two quackers in the pool. They appear to even be enjoying themselves! Go figure! Then . . .

we have these two "quackers" more or less doing the same thing!! What is up with ducks and people? Don't they know how dangerous that big blue hole is?

The Big Splash

Yesterday was such an incredibly hot day, but I love, love, love to go outside in the sunshine even when it is so hot. So imagine my excitement when my man said, "I'm going out to check on the pool and I'm taking Tuffy with me." !!!!!!! My man and my lady worked for quite a while Sunday morning opening up that pool. I've been out there many times. It's one of my favorite places to explore and squirt around. Sometimes I find a lizard to chase; sometimes a frog will jump out from under the plantings; of course the chipmunks go out there and they're fast! quite a challenge. Anyway, they uncovered the pool and worked out there for a long time. Then they came in, cleaned up and the day continued as usual. I love Sundays! My people stay home with me all day long on Sundays. To get to go out to the pool was an extra treat. So, my man was checking on things at the pool and I was snooping around the edges (I love to walk on edges of thing: couch backs, porch edges, tops of stairs, pools). I just don't understand what happened! One instant I was walking along the edge of the pool enjoying all the smells, and the next instant: SPLASH!!!!

Brrrrrr! That water was cold! Well, I did what any doggy would do! I swam! I held my head above the water and dog-paddled for my life! I didn't swim long before my man pulled me out of the pool (by the leash around my neck - Ouch!! and Gag!!). After he made sure I was o.k. (of course I was o.k. I know how to swim!!), we went to the house. But when we got there, my man wouldn't let me go in because I was soaking wet. Then, things went from bad to worse: my lady heard us and opened the door for me to come in. When she saw me she exclaimed, "What happened to you?!" Then she got a towel and tried to dry me off. I growled at her because I hate getting dried off. Then we went to sit on the back porch (under the new fan :) ) and my people sipped on Pina Coladas until I got dry enough to be in the air-conditioned house.

And that's the story of the big splash. I don't think I'll be hanging around the pool any more. Even though I'm a good swimmer, I really didn't like it much.

Lazy, Hazy Days of Summer

My man got my lady a brand new ceiling fan on the back porch, so you know we had to go out and enjoy it. We thought we would test it to see how effective it is at cooling us off when it's 94 degrees outside. It worked pretty good, especially considering that the late-day sunshine was on the porch with us. It's been a great day for me: my lady has been home and inside all day long. Also, she didn't work on her puzzle, so I've spent most of the day sitting in her lap while she read. I love to sit in my people's laps. It's the most comfortable seat in the house! However, if you're going to sit out on the back porch, that chaise lounge is truly a good spot. I can't figure out one thing, though: where is my man?!? He hasn't been around here very much the last few days. He leaves early in the morning and doesn't come home to stay until after dark. He is working way too much. I miss him. I can't wait for Sunday, because that's the day both my people will stay home with me all day long. It's my favorite day of the week. That's all for today. Stay cool, ya'll!

The Beautiful Summer Day - Not!

Isn't this a beautiful view? This is the view from the front door of my home. If you look carefully, you can see that there's a pond in the distance. There are bird feeders closer to the house (not seen in this shot). There are rabbits and chipmunks and squirrels and ducks and all kinds of birds. Think of the fun to be had snooping and sniffing and chasing. But do I get to do any of that? No, because my lady NEVER LETS ME OUT OF THE HOUSE TO HAVE ANY FUN!!!!! When I do get to go out I'm almost always on the leash and am only allowed to go to certain areas. She's so afraid of ticks and fleas and poison ivy. Every now and then my people let me roam around this yard just for a few minutes. Oh, the joy! The smells! The goodies (turkey turd and such).

But usually, while my people sit on the front porch, while my lady drinks her coffee and enjoys the view, I stand inside the front door like this and enjoy what I can of it. That's how this beautiful summer day started out. Then, horror of horrors!, she scooped me up and we got in the car. Now, I'm telling you, when she does this I know something bad is about to happen. The only time I go anywhere is on Saturday when my man takes me to Bernie's, the groomer. This was aTuesday. So we got in the car, I shook and whimpered, and we ended up at the vet's office. As if that wasn't bad enough, MY LADY LEFT ME THERE!!!!! I only had to stay for an hour or so, but while I was there Dr. Carter let me roam around the office a little while he watched me, and then he did blood tests. Ever had blood tests? I get stuck in my front let and they draw out blood. Then they test it to see how I'm doing. As it turned out, I'm doint just fine, even though I take a medicine every day. My kidneys and liver are working just fine. Yeah! And then she picked me up and took me home. Other than the trip to the vet, it really was a beautiful summer day.

The Bad Haircut

Can you see it? Can you see that wild whisker that got missed when I recently went to the groomer?!? I absolutely don't know what all the fuss was about. Big deal. A long whisker. You would have thought the world was going to end. As Charlie Brown would say, "Good grief!" Here's how it happened:

As is my usual habit, I went to see my groomer on Saturday (her name is Bernie and she loves me most of all the dogs she grooms - she tells my lady and my man that every time I go to see her - that's how I know). Well, my lady had slept a little later than usual that morning, so I was late taking my pill. For any of you who might not know, I have a little arthritic condition that makes it very difficult for me to get going in the morning. Well, anyway, I was late taking my pill so when I got to Bernie's, I wasn't quite ready to go through the grooming. When she was shampooing me, I cried out a little because, well, to put it bluntly, it hurt! Well, maybe I need to try that more often because once I let out that yelp, Bernie was all about babying me and not hurting me and all. She said she couldn't bear the thoughts of hurting me more so she did a very abbreviated hair cut. I liked that idea because I absolutely hate having a haircut, especially around my face.

But guess what happend when I got home? My people noticed that unruly whisker and nothing would do but that they snip it off "for me." Yeah, right. I could care less, except that I don't like for anyone to mess with my face. Well, I gave 'em a time getting that whisker snipped. Nevertheless, they did get it whacked off.

The result of this story: my lady does not sleep late on any morning any more. Now that school's out, she even gets up early to give me my pill, then goes back to bed. My lady is a good and caring lady. I'm very lucky. Except she can't stand a stray and wild whisker. Good grief!

Just bloggin'

How have you been? I've been doing as well as usual. It's been such a long time since I blogged and tonight seemed to be a good time to catch up. Lots has been going on in my world lately. For example, remember the two Chinese Cresteds that came to visit a month or so ago? Well, they came back last week. It seems my lady's family had a big get together and they came for that. Of course, they didn't go to the big tado. They stayed at my house. It's a good news/bad news story, actually. Ever heard or read a good news/bad news story? I think they originated with some old comedian years and years ago on television or something. Anyway, it goes like this: The Chinese Cresteds came to visit. That was (for me) the bad news. But it was good news because their lady made them leave me alone. But that was bad news because that made me even more determined to make them go away. So I snarled at Carlie. Well, usually when I snarl at anyone, they get out of my face . . . quickly! She didn't! She had the gall and the nerve to snarl back at me. That was good news, though, because then I got all kinds of attention from my lady, petting and cooing and comforting (oh for Pete's sake, she gets carried away). But it was bad news because apparently Little Miss Prissy Carlie decided she'd get me back. Later she backed me into a corner and acted like she was going to eat me alive. Yikes!!! Ladies to the rescue. That was good news because then her lady kept a close rein on her and my lady held me for awhile. My heart was going 90 miles a minute! It was a very close call. I'm telling you that's just not how things are done around here! Obviously despite the fact that she's been here two times within one month she hasn't gotten it through her head that I'm the alpha everything in this house!!!! In fact on this side of the Mississippi! Then it was a bad thing because I felt like I had to hide for the remainder of their visit. But that was a good thing because everytime the people left the house the visiting dogs (and may I insert here what my man always says: "Tuffy, tell them we don't allow dogs in our house.") any way the visiting dogs got penned up in the kitchen and I had the rest of the house to myself. I love it when I get the house to myself. I always lay around on my couches and stuff. I get to eat and drink in the living room and everything. It was soo cool. Anyway, they only stayed about three days. It was a good thing when they left because I could relax, but it was a bad thing because my lady and my man always get real sad when the other lady leaves. And so that was Memorial Day weekend. Hope you had a good one. My lady's daddy served in the airforce in the Korean War. My man's brother served in the army in the Viet Nam War. I think my man's daddy also served in the military but I can't remember the specifics right now. Anyway, God bless our troops and thank God I am an American dog.