We are counting down to 2011. We are trying to keep Blog Mom and Daddy awake. Alpha Mom is going out so she'll have to depend on her dinner companions to give her a nudge with their noses from time to time.
Eat, snort and be merry, everybuddy!
Franklin has things a bit turned around. He's still new at this.
Our New Year's resolution is simple. We resolve not to change a thing. We are Pei. We see no real room for improvement.
Our hopes and wishes for the New Year are not much different than for Christmas. We hope for a healthy and happy year for all our friends, better lives for all creatures, and more than ever, we want Hero to get all better very soon and in plenty of time to welcome his new human sister into the world.
We still haven't posted anything about our Christmas Day and we have some other holiday seasonal type things we haven't posted yet. I do hope we get to them before Valentine's Day. But for now, I will say that our Christmas day was stellar and involved pressies, bacon and eggs in the morning and turkey at night. 'Nuff said?
Now all you pawty animals have a safe and sane New Year's. Don't drink and chase cars. Get home safely if you're going out. Don't burn anything down if you're staying home amd most of all, have a most Happy New Year.
The Shar Pei are snuggled all safe in our beds while visions of noms dance in our heads. We wish you all the best Christmas ever. Mostly we want good health for all our furiends and family and furever homes for all the homeless, be they doggies, kitties, humans or other.
We interrupt our holiday non-programming to talk about how Hero is much in need of the Power of the Paw right now. He's having a horrific bout of complications due to Familial Shar Pei Fever. Hero will always be a very special Pei friend to us, and we know he's special to lots of you, too. Especially Twix, but just about everydoggy loves Hero, we think. Right now all we want from Santa Paws is good news from Maylasia and to read that he's healing and feeling good.
Oh, and we don't care if the medicine makes him lose his wrinkles and shrinks his muzzle as long as it heals him and brings his appetite back. It's Hero's heart that makes him special, not the way he looks. Please join us in keeping good thoughts and prayers and wishes heading his way.
We have sooo much to catch up on, but we first have to say how much we've missed you. We haven't even gotten to read much the last few days. That's been torture. Blog Mom is still spending most of the time she's not at work taking Daddy to human vets and for tests, but he's not doing too badly right now. We're keeping our paws crossed that he'll be a lot better soon. Blog Mom has to see her own vets early in the New Year, but is feeling OK now. Oh, and Franklin has a bump on his nose and he's got to go to the Vet for that, too. It never stops, does it?
We've had Chanukah and two birthdays in between all this, and of course, getting ready for Christmas, too. Here are some pictures from Alpha Mom's Second Annual Latkepalooza party. It was back on December 4th, for Dog's sake. That's how behind we are.
First, of course, pressies! I got a fish that says "Gefilte" on it.
When you squeeze it says, "Oy veh!" I just love it.
Franklin got a dreidel stuffie. It plays The Dreidel Song in a kind of awful high pitched voice when you squeeze it.
These are the latkes. Alpha Mom's friends come over and make them. And she also gets all kind of things from a wonderful kosher deli. Very nice nommables for all of us.
Franklin and I both attended, of course, but there was some concern about his social skills. He tends to get over-excited at times
Well, we didn't have to worry. He behaved just fine for the most part and stayed 95% calm.
As it turns out, he enjoys being a host almost as much as I enjoy the role of hostess.
Although I really think I still throw more of myself into the job than he does.
We have to talk to you. We have been away from Blogville too much lately, but it might not get that much better before the holidays are over. We know we're not the only ones in this fix, but we'd still like to list our excuses reason for being absent so much. We wouldn't feel so badly about not posting new posts, but we've been so behind in visiting, too. That's where we start to feel like putting our tails right between our legs, because we just love every one of you. You know that, right?
Being a rather ecumenical family our holiday season is long this year. In fact, we hope our next post will be about Alpha Mom's Second Annual Latkepolooza, which we enjoyed immensely. But that's the thing. Chanukah started on the first of the month, just a few days after Thanksgiving and then there are two Gotcha Days coming right up (Blog Mom's and Daddy's) and of course the whole month is Christmas when you count all the getting ready for it. So that's the main thing.
Daddy has a higher than average number of medical things going on this month, too. Blog Mom goes with him. He hasn't been feeling great the last few weeks and that keeps Blog Mom just a lot busier than when he's OK.
Now Blog Mom has a Mysterious Ailment. Hopefully a little antibiotic will take care of it, but she's all swollen up around her eyes and the whole area. Actually, she's starting to look a bit like a Shar Pei, but you know - it's not nearly as cute on her as it is on us. Anyway, she's not feeling so great and has not been able to keep up helping me visit everyone as well as we'd like.
We just don't want anyone's feeling to be hurt and we certainly don't want you to forget us, or think that we forgot you. That's really all we want to say. We hope everybuddy's holiday season is coming along just great so far.
I'm late, I'm late, for a very important imaginary shopping date with Frankie. I have thought and thought about what to get my people for the holidays (we have more than one).
First up, everyone gets cars. The cars they have now are kind of old. They have us instead of new cars and having us is much better, but it would be quite nice to have nice new rides. I think that Daddy would like something a little sporty. Blog Mom just likes smallish sedans that are good on gas. Alpha Mom could use a small, ecologically correct SUV. Maybe a hybrid. It would be good for hauling around saddles and Shar Pei.
Speaking of saddles, I think it would be nice for Alpha Mom to have a new one or two. Maybe one western, because she enjoys that for trail riding and such like, and one for when Sarge does dressage.
And she might as well have some new boots while we're at it. But not leather. Alpha Mom is a vegetabletarian and she doesn't wear leather, either. Franklin and I are not vegetabletarians and we do wear leather upon occasion, in case you were wondering. Different strokes for different species is what I always say.
Daddy would love a home theater with a big screen and great sound system. Blog Mom says he couldn't have one even if they could afford because they've got no place big enough for it, but we'd work that out once it was here, I'm sure.
Blog Mom could use a new kitchen. If she had a kitchen like this I just know she'd start baking home made doggy treats. (Kidding. No, she wouldn't. )
Also the floors. She would like new wood floors all over the house. We'd also need some kind of very strong elves to move everything out of the way in order to put in the floors.
I guess that's a pretty extravagent gift list and they'd be soo happy if they could have all those things, but they wouldn't trade us for any of them, so I guess they've got the most important stuff already.
Pee Ess: We will try to visit as much as possible this evening and in the morning, but Blog Mom will be out for a lot of tomorrow and has things to do to get ready, too. She'll be in the city until all hours of the night tomorrow. We don't think we approve, but so far she's going anyway. So, if we miss you, we'll catch up as soon as we can.
First I want to thank Minna Krebs and Frankie Furter for starting this wonderful event. What with all the doings it's going to take a few days to catch up with everydoggy and kitty's stories but we look forward to it lots and lots. Now, onto ours.
It's my blog and I'm a dog so we'll do the doggies first, but there are also two kitties living here. In fact, they were here first, so we're including everyone in this post. Upon thinking it over, it's really only fair. But I'm first. 'Cause it's mainly my blog.
Me, Lola
I was surrendered, along with my last ever puppy and Puppy Daddy, to NYC Animal Care and Control in January of 2009 at about age 6. Or so they claim. Is that a fine how do you do, or what? Take the best years of my life and then it's all "Thanks, bye!" We were pulled right out of there by the wonderful Sean Casey Animal Rescue, located in Brooklyn, NY. Puppy had to be weaned and Puppy Daddy had to be neutered. Once that was accomplished they were adopted and then there was only me, Lola. I had to recover from birthing and nursing and then be spayed and then, of course, recover from that, so I wasn't available for adoption for a while.
Meanwhile, out in the wilds of Long Island, where the Dim Sum is not as good as in Brookyn, my future forever family was without a doggie for the first time in like forever. They'd been down to just one doggie and that was Alpha Mom's Shar Pei mix. He went to the Rainbow Bridge at age 15 in the Fall of '09. What was keeping them from finding a new doggie was that at the time there were three kitties and the oldest one was very, very sick. He'd had surgery for cancer, but the prognosis was that it wasn't all that successful and he had one paw on the Bridge. No one wanted to give him new challenges at that point in his life. But Blog Mom is just one of those Windows Shoppers, always poking around online and she was looking at Petfinder when she came across....no, not me. Violet. Violet was another Shar Pei who was at Sean Casey at the time. She was a beautiful leggy blonde of about two and a half. I won't lie. She was gorgeous. Blog Mom showed Alpha Mom and they both decided that they needed to go see how this amazing Pei would be with kitties. Here is a video of Violet and my good friend Mr. Casey. I do have to admit, it doesn't do her beauty justice.
Well, the Moms headed to Brooklyn the very next day and met Violet, who was everything her Petfinder listing claimed and more. BUT, Mr. Casey also told them about me, Lola. They met both of us and took us both for test walks. Blog Mom just could not make up her mind what to do. Luckily for me, Alpha Mom was more decisive. She thought that I, Lola, would be the right doggie for them. How right she was, too. Now, don't worry about Violet. She got adopted within mere days of that meeting and I moved out to Long Island, where they have big backyards but are short on sidewalks in some areas, seems to me. I met the rest of my new family, most especially Daddy, and settled right into my new home. My family thinks they are the luckiest people in the world to have found, me, Lola. It's worked out awfully well all around, don't you think?
My Little Brother, Franklin
Here's the part is about you, Franklin.
Life was good being the center of the universe at my new, most perfect forever home. No one could really get over what a perfect dog and wonderful companion I was - and am, I might add. Still, Blog Mom worried that I missed the companionship of other doggies. She'd see me talking to my through-the-fence neighbors and wonder if I missed having another Shar Pei in the house, since I'd always been part of a multi-Pei pack. From where I sit and stay it's a trade-off. Being the only doggie can get a little lonesome once in a while but there are lots of perks to the situation, too. Still, Blog Mom couldn't keep away from Petfinder, although she and Alpha Mom talked themselves out of every doggie they considered for a long time. They did call on one but were told absolutely no kitties for that one, no way, no how. Sadly, that guy is still up for adoption months later.
Last July, however, Blog Mom saw one Shar Pei listed at our local town shelter and for some reason she couldn't talk herself out of this one. Why, I couldn't tell you. He was a most unpreopossessing Pei in his photos and in pawson. He was too young. They were looking for a doggie who was around four years old, give or take and Franklin was under two and way too hyper. He was skinny and gangly and looked as if he'd been made up of spare parts from at least two different types of Shar Pei. He hadn't had treatment for his Entropion eye problems when he was a puppy and it had become so advanced that the surgery he got at the shelter made his eyes....well...just not good looking. He was so much not what they were looking for that of course we adopted him the day we met him.
He had been surrendered too, like me. His family said they were forced to move and couldn't take the dog with them. He, like me, had been at the shelter for several months and he was so very happy to have a forever home again. I had to teach him about dog beds and playing with other doggies. Only in the last week or so has he finally come to understand that if he gets up on the furniture, no one really minds. It took some time to undo his training in that area, but he finally gets it. He adores me, of course, and he loves the family and it really didn't take him long to settle right in and become a part of the pack. One thing that was interesting right away about Franklin is that he's a bit of a marker. Take him to the groomer, the vet, the pet supply place and he is very likely to lift his leg once. Then you tell him no and he usually gets that. But never once, even the first day, in this house. It's like he knew right away that this was his home.
Kitties!
They say that you don't choose your kitty. Your kitty choose you. That was certainly true in the case of Happy and Simone. They were both here before I arrived. Simone is the most senior pet in the household. Stevie, the sick kitty went to the bridge a few months after I arrived. Simone is the tortie in the photo and is about 12 or so. Simone started out life living with other relatives, including a doggy and another kitty. They had to move in here for a while, also long before I arrived on the scene. Simone, for reasons best known to herself, but possibly including the bulldog she lived with, decided that she preferred our family and when her family moved on she made an independent decision to stay here. Not up for negotiation, either.
Happy, the gray guy in the background was abandoned when tenants in the house next door moved away. He was sooo upset, I'm told. He wouldn't come in the house for the longest time. He was scared to death of the other animals. My humans fed him in the garage, but other neighborhood cats would come and eat his food and he was getting awfully skinny. Finally the family insisted that he move inside the house and he just had to get used to it. He certainly put the weight back on. That was several years ago. No one really knows how old Happy is either, but probably around seven or so. He's a very nice kitty, but a big scaredy cat and not too bright. We don't mention that in front of him, of course.
Now, I'm sure you realize that it's against the kitty code to be thankful. They'd get drummed out of....something...if they expressed gratitude, but I think they're both pretty happy to be part of our family. Except they'd both like to be rid of Franklin, but you have to take the good with the bad sometimes. Not that Franklin is bad, exactly, but he has not accepted that they're not going to play with him. Actually, Simone does kind of play with him in a claws out, hissing and yowling kind of way.
That concludes the condensed version of the story of all the four leggers currently residing at Chez Lola. We hope you enjoyed and now we are going to try to get out there and learn more about your homecoming stories.
We had a fairly quiet weekend, but it was rather nice except that I did go for a bath without Franklin and it was terrible. I did not like being left. I never did, but I like it even less now that there's another doggy in the pack. I tend to feel that I should not have to leave the house without him unless it happens to be for a walk with Alpha Mom which is OK. But there was some good news too. My leaves are back!
Exactly where I left them. Isn't it freaky?
Actually, my humans were expecting someone to come and take them away this weekend, but they never showed up. I swear I had nothing to do with it. Really. You believe me, right?
The weather was quite nice so we did some lounging around in the back taking in the sun.
Mr. Squirrel did WHAT? Are you serious? And what did Mrs. Squirrel say?
Well, I lounged. Franklin doesn't have much lounge in him when he's outside in cooler weather. He ran around and checked everything out in the yard and returned to tell me all the gossip. Then he'd be off again, in case anything new had happened in the last 30 seconds.
Our foster bass player and his nice young female friend let us take them for walkies today. Blog Mom warned them that we were not exactly perfect on the leash. There were no serious injuries. Oh, the nice young lady did take one little fall when I pulled just when Franklin kind of ran under her. She was OK, really. Oh and they made the mistake of taking Franklin out with just a regular collar. He backed out of it twice. He didn't run away or anything, though and they got it right back on him. We had a wonderful time. I'm sure they're looking forward to doing it again just as much as we are, don't you think?
You might have noticed we haven't posted so many pictures lately. It's only partly not because of Blog Mom's laziness.It's really that we have not been doing much different. Mostly that's because of Blog Mom's injured leg and foot, which is only now starting to get close to all better. It wouldn't be such a big deal, but if you're going to take the two of us anywhere you need to be in good form and it's something both the Moms prefer to do together.
We are hoping for a noseventure, but I think we really know where we're headed.
Lately, our big weekend excitement is when we go to the groomer and that's not really a good kind of excitement in my view. I have to admit that it is a bit better when Franklin comes. I do not like being left off somewhere with no pack members. Especially somewhere that I have to spend some time in a crate. It's too much like being surrendered to Animal Control. Yes, the groomer ladies are lovely people, so were the folks at Animal Control, as were the wonderful people at the rescue where I wound up. It's still not something I care to revisit, if you know what I mean.
Baily, the Golden Receptionist - on a break as you can see.
I am much better behaved at the groomer than Franklin is. It pains me to report that he tends to get over-excited and even a little defensive. Franklin has an unfortunate tendency to sound vicious from time to time. I can assure you that he's not - vicious, that is. However, it's not hard to understand how he could make that impression and exercising caution around a worried dog is always a good idea. Even so, after going a couple of times he's starting to think of the whole thing as a fun outing. He's somewhat easy to please when it comes to funsies.
Ready to go home. And there better be treats waiting.
I have heard some disturbing talk about my needing to go more often and Franklin needing to go less often. Something about having different types of coats. I wonder if that means I'm going to be on my own again or if he could come along just for moral support. I wonder if they'd buy that?
I got mail the other day. It was a free sample of Pet Botanics Healthy Omega Treats and I agreed to review it. Yeah, get free treats and then write a blog post about it. It's a tough job, but somedog's gotta do it, right?
This is the exact kind that I was sent. These are salmon layered with codfish and sweet potato. They have other varieties as well. They have all kinds of wonderful nutrution and none of that stuff that's not as good for us - like wheat and gluten. They are small pieces, perfect for hors d'ouerves. I really, really liked them. Lots of chewing in involved. They're dense and firmly packed. I liked that about them. My various humans were thrilled because it's not easy to get me to eat anything that involves vegetation of any sort. In fact, it's usually pretty much impossible. I can hold out for days if I'm not pleased with the menu. So, I guess this was a win/win kind of thing. I do recommend them, unless you have to stick with soft food or have other issues with chewing.
Blog Mom's been under the weather again and keeps falling asleep on me. I hope I can keep her awake long enough to do a real post tomorrow. I have a product review to do, pawple! But in the meantime, I just wanted to share this link:
In Queenland, Australia, Twinkie might have to put up a "Menacing Dog" sign on her property to warn all and sundry about the danger on the premises. Me too, of course, but Shar Pei are on all those lists. I know that chihuahuas can be fierce, but puhleese! Unless you are a human who is under 18 inches tall, man up and deal.
It's been a full day here. First there was the groomer, then we came home and as it turned out, there were costumes after all. Then lots and lots of trick or treaters. Oh, it's going to take a few days to rest up from this day.
That's me, Lola, being a fairy princess and/or butterfly. Not sure which.
The Devil Dog, Hound from Heck is sniffing my antennae!
Time for my best diva pose!
I really don't mind this. It gives them so much pleasure. Humans are easy to please.
Franklin actually seemed to enjoy the whole thing very much.
But when we went inside he just sort of collapsed.
I was ready for a nap myself, sans costume
Franklin would not take his off. I think he thought it was a pressie. He loves it!
I hope you all had a wonderful Howl-o-ween - or are still having one. The trick or treaters have wound down, we finally got Franklin's cape off and I think we're about done with the holiday here. Time to start thinking about dinner!
That's not us, of course. I think their names are Getty and Images
Happy Halloween to everydoggy and everykitty and everybuddy! I hope we'll have a new photo of US up soon, but first we're off to the groomer. I KNOW! What kind of way is that to spend a holiday morning? But that's what they tell us is going on. Then of course there'll be a lot of answering the door and giving treats to human puppies instead of to me and Franklin. This day is going to mess with my napping schedule something fierce, I tell you. Now I'm going to visit a few bloggy furiends and try to catch an early morning emergency nap so I'll be ready for all this.
I want to apologize for not getting around to many furiends yesterday and today so far. There were a lot of things here that required Blog Mom's immediate attention. We'll be working on getting everywhere just as soon as we can, but tonight looks a little iffy as things stand.
We very much wanted to dedicate a post to our furiend, Abbey, a sweet Golden. I think most of you know her and know that she's been told she's starting a journey. That's the way she put it and it's a good way to put it, but it's hard not to be sad. She is very, very sick but is having a peaceful time of it so far, with her Mom and her best doggy friend in real life, Due by her side as much as possible. We want to wish her every happy moment and a peaceful journey. And of course, we want to send good thoughts and healing ones to her Mom, too. It's very hard on her, but for right now she's just thinking of Abbey and her well being. We just want them both to know that we're thinking of them as they go through this process.
There are quiet weekends and there are quiet weekends. This one is going too far. Yesterday everyone was out a little more than absolutely necessary in my opinion. Today everyone's home except for Alpha Mom who is at a horse clinic. But nothing interesting is going on anyway. Daddy's back is hurting and he's just lying there looking pained. Blog Mom is just doing some cleaning as other projects have been halted until Daddy's back improves. Franklin and I are napping. I hope everyone knows that I'll be wide awake tonight at about - oh, 3 AM or so...
This is smile inducing stuff. It's the Halloween Dog Parade in Tompkins Square Park. Alpha Mom used to live right there, but a long time ago. I think it was about 87 years ago. Anyway, it was before they had this parade happening. In fact, as it's been explained to me city parks were mainly used for drug deals and homeless people back then. The photo above is a picture from a previous year. I couldn't find any from this year that were OK to post, but there's a great Flickr set with tons of photos. It's All Rights Reserved so I can't post it, but you can go see it Right Here.
Meantime, neither Franklin nor I have Halloween costumes. I don't mind so much for myself, but Franklin would look so natural in a vampire type cape.
I really didn't mean to raise concern for my immediate health, although your good thoughts and well wishes mean the world no matter what. I haven't been sickies in a while, but I do have to have my blood checked twice a year because of being on the medication. Now, this does worry the Moms a little, because if the day comes when my white cells or red cells or some cells or other aren't right then they'll want to take me off colchicine and that would be very bad indeed. Anyhoo, we got the results of the blood tests already and they were all good. So, no worries for another half year.
Now a few people asked about Shar Pei Fever which is really called Familial Shar Pei Fever, so I figure I should talk about it a little. Basically, it's a major occupational hazard of being a Shar Pei. It's congenital and I should never have been bred, but I was - before I moved here, of course. Responsible breeders are trying to breed it out, but an awful lot of breeders are not so very responsible.
Dr. Vidt, Shar Pei vet, does explain it very well. It's also called Swollen Hock Syndrome and it HURTS! When I've had an outbreak I get feverish, and have no appetite, I'm lethargic and I hold my back leg up because it hurts. Hero has this, too, and has a picture of how we both look when it flares up. Some Pei go to the Rainbow Bridge way, way early because of this. Obviously neither Hero or I have done that. The complications that could come later and result in kidney failure - well, none of us are guaranteed tomorrow. I pawsonally plan to be around until I'm 13 or 14 at least. Gotta think pawsitive.
I'm editing this post because I forgot to mention the most traumatic moment of the whole Vet experience. The doctor said I have cankles! I do not. I have a well turned ankle that I choose to decorate with attractive folds is all.
Well, that was my big excitement for the weekend. I went to the V.E.T.! Here's the thing - my Vet life is a little complicated. Since I displayed a touch of Shar Pei fever last year Alpha Mom found me an internist who knows all about that and she prescribes my colchicine. That Vet doesn't do routine things, though, and also, so far Franklin hasn't shown any signs of Shar Pei fever, so we need a regular vet; one that doesn't mind that I go to a specialist if I really get sick. Hoo boy. So, we went to PetSmart's vet for shots and things and I go to my special doctor for my medication. She's a lovely person and she thinks I'm wonderful. That doesn't mean I like going there, though.
I think I should drive. I'd take us to a park or something instead of....
I think they're too busy to see me. Perhaps another time...Let's book!
Look, it's nothing pawsonal. It's lovely to see you, but I really can't stay.
The fact is, as nice as the Vet might be, sometimes you get left there. I hate that. I have abandoment issues. I try to deal with them with a certain composed dignity, but I still have them and this whole thing makes me a little nervous. Of course, when the Vet came in and told her assistant that I was the "sweetest Shar Pei" she'd ever meet, that did go some way toward softening me up. (She hasn't met absolutely any of the Pei in the blogiverse, of course.I know I'm not the only sweetie.)
That's my Vet, in red. She's hardly more than a puppy, but she's smart.
Of course, after all that sweet talk and petting and ear scritching, they still stole some of my blood. AND, didn't give it back! They said they had to see if the colchicine was hurting me and they could tell by my blood. We won't get those results for a few days. We're not too worried because they said I'd have some symptoms if my blood count was bad and I don't. But what if it was? It would literally be a matter of "can't live with it, can't live without it", at least in the long run. I hope you had something better to do with your Saturday than this!
