Company for me, Lola!

What a day yesterday turned out to be. Really it was more last night. Most of the day was pretty regular. Morning nap, watched a ball game with Daddy, had an afternoon nap. Pleasant enough, but just a regular Tuesday. I had no idea we were having guests in the evening. Soon after Blog Mom came home some very special family friends arrived. They live in Massachusetts, so it's not an every day thing. And this time the company wasn't just humans. Not that I don't love the humans. They are totally pawsome, but so are the dogs.

This was the best we could do for a group shot with the three of us.That's Biko on the left. He's a hound mix, I think, and lots of fun to run around with. And on the right is  Natchitoches, who is a Border Collie/Australian Shepherd mix. As you can imagine, he's just so smart and self possessed. He was born to snoopervise things and he knows it.

Even so, he does have his playful moments. Please excuse our blur. Blog Mom's camera is no match for our speed.

Of course, the first thing we had to do was get reacquainted. I'd only met the boys once before and that was a year ago. I was so new here myself then that I didn't know if they were company or new arrivals. Now I can tell the difference.

As you might be able to tell from the photo above,  Natchitoches has a nubbin tail. No one knows why, but his mother had one, too.

Oh, Biko! You smell marvelous! What kind of cologne is that?

Eau de cheddar, perhaps?

.

Then the back yard turned into a mini dog park for a while

Let the good times roll, I say!

I introduced them to Sambuca. I felt like such the hostess dog doing that.

Biko is absolutely the only one of us who is any good at posing for photos.

Of course we had to run back and say "Hi!" to my Husky Pei neighbor who wanted to know what was going on.

I have to admit to being a bit pawstruck by  Natchitoches. He's so mature and worldly wise and such a gentledog, too. I can't help but sort of follow him around a lot of the time.

  Actually, I follow him everywhere he goes, if at all possible.

OK. If you're going inside, I think I'll go inside, too. Will you be my guru?

All good things must end, I suppose, which is too bad, really. They're gone now, back in Massachusetts, getting ready for their next cross country trip in their Mommy and Daddy's RV. They took one just this past winter, with their Mommy and Daddy and Grandma and their six kitty brothers and one kitty sister.  Oh, and there's also their Yorkie brother Norton, who didn't join us yesterday because there was some concern that in all the excitement I might mistake him for a squirrel. I do have a rather strong prey drive and there was a lot of excitement, so those concerns might, in fact, have been justified. But I digress. They all spent weeks in  one RV going all over the country and they all got home safe and in good condition. I told you they were special. I hope it's not a whole year before they come back. I miss them already, but at least they left abundant peemail behind for me to peruse here at home.

Cats! Simone, An Introduction

I think it must be Caturday on Monday. Mayzie has a hilarious and adorable post up about her bonding process with her other brudder, Ripley who is a pirate cat, I believe. Meantime, I've been working on a couple of posts about my sister and brother cats here. I have to admit I've given them short shrift in this space. There's a reason for that. They don't really like me. They might feel they have their reasons, but they're rooted in prejudice and stereotyping. I have certainly been nothing but pleasant to them. Pleasant and a little careful. Still, we're all family now, and they don't really ever hiss at me anymore, so I guess they are entitled to be featured on my blog from time to time. Tonight is all about Simone, who is the senior pet in the house, both in age and years on the job. She is, however, not the boss of me. Let's keep that straight.

Most of the four leggers (and a few of the two leggers, as well) who have lived in this house have been rescue animals of one sort or another. No one here can recall ever going to a store or a breeder and buying a pet. Even taking the step of going out to a rescue organization and formally adopting, as in my case, was an exception.  Blog Mom says that if she ever feels a cat shortage coming on she can just leave the door open for a while and a new cat will appear.  Simone, however, was a rescue cat only in her own mind. Most of her story took place before my time here. Some of it even took place before I was ever born. Simone is about 12 years old now.

Her first home was with another branch of the family and if things had worked out differently she'd have been my kitty cousin or something like that. She went to live with her first humans as a small kitten, at a time when they were in an apartment where it was impractical for them to have a dog. They adopted a second cat after her and the two of them got on just fine and all was well because they didn't know a thing about their other sister.

 The other sister was Rosie. Rosie was living with Blog Mom and Daddy, temporarily (3 years) until such time as it was once again possible for her to live with her own humans. That day finally came and boy was Simone suprised. And pissed off. The other kitty was more able to roll with the punches, but Simone got all stressed out. Part of the problem was that, being an English Bulldog, Rosie wasn't easily discouraged from things. So if Simone didn't want to get acquainted, Rosie wasn't going to take a hint. She was also almost impervious to pain, so the fact that Simone had all her claws didn't even slow her down. Not that she was real fast anyway. By the time Rosie went to live with Simone she was pretty old for a bulldog and it wasn't all that long before she went to the Rainbow Bridge. Rosie, I'm told, was very sweet and had not a mean bone in her whole body and everyone was very sad to lose her. Except for Simone, who was doing the happy dance, practically on poor Rosie's grave. It was in poor taste is what it was. It also indicated a certain lack of imagination because apparently what happened next was something Simone never thought of. What happened next was Roxie:

Yes, there was a new arrival at Simone's place and it was a bouncing baby bulldog. And when they said bouncing, they meant it. I supposed Simone would have given a few important teeth to have old Rosie back after a few  months of Roxie. The other kitty continued go with the flow while seeking and finding higher and higher ground. Simone lost a few small patches of fur due to stress. Finally, fate intervened in the guise of yet another housing dilemma for Simone's humans. This one brought the entire menagerie, humans included, to stay here at this house for a little while. (5 years). When that happened, Simone's  heretofore tolerant sister kitty finally found an animal so frightening and monstrous that she simply could not co-exist with him. Who was this beast, you ask?

It was Stevie Ray Cat, beloved by all my humans and a buddy of Daddy in pawticular. My human brother found Stevie as a tiny kitten, seeking refuge in our garage. Eventually Daddy coaxed him into moving into the house and he and Daddy hung out together for the rest of Stevie's life, which was about 14 years. Stevie was still here when I moved in. In fact, it was partly because of Stevie that I got chosen instead of the younger Shar Pei that the Moms met when they got me. Stevie had cancer and the vet said he only had a few more months and they wanted to be sure that the new dog would not be a trouble to him. I didn't disappoint. If he'd lived, I'm pretty sure we would have been friends. He didn't seem to mind dogs, or much of anything. They said he was always that way. If a dog or other cat got up in his face (which I never would, by the way) he'd just go all Zen and stare back, but in a peaceful, non-confrontational sort of way. He didn't run away and he didn't fight or get mad either. And it usually worked, but not with Simone's sis. It just got worse and worse and it got so Stevie couldn't even walk into his own kitchen to have dinner without being attacked by psycho cat. To make matters worse from angry kitty's point of view, Simone thought Stevie was great. They hit it off extremely well.

Well, Daddy and Blog Mom couldn't see Stevie being persecuted in his own home and eventually a decision was made to separate the animals. Simone saw her big chance and without much of a backwards glance, chose to consider herself a member of Stevie's family group rather than the one she'd arrived with. And that's the way it stayed. For years, Simone and Stevie hung out together and developed a routine. They'd play really early in the morning, running around like wildcats. That was all Simone's idea. Stevie had never been much for playing, even as a kitten, perhaps due to his traumatic start in life. But Simone brought out his inner kitten in the wee hours of the morning and then they napped and hung around thinking kitty thoughts for the rest of the day, very happily. Oh, and Simone's bare spots filled in very nicely.

Coming soon: Even Simone has to make adjustments.

Happy Birthday/Gotcha Day, Lois Lane

We just want to say have a very happy special day to our favorite Sharpeagle. And we hope she gets a cheeseburger AND a hot dog if it won't upset her tummy.

Wedding Dresses

We were just internet window shopping and thought, wouldn't Stella look spiffy in this?

Oh, I know it's none of my business, but who doesn't love window shopping for a wedding?

Stealthy Saturday

Bolo posted about how he is quite the talker for a Shar Pei. And even a singer! I'd love to hear him sing, wouldn't you?  Most of us Shar Pei are on the quiet side. They say we make good watch dogs, but I'm not sure they mean me, Lola, when they say that. I think of myself as more of a hostess dog. I won't bark when someone comes to the door, but I will go to answer it and welcome the new arrival in. And offer sniffs and snuffles and licks.

I don't bark in the yard, either. If I'm interested in what one of the neighbors is doing I just hang around the fence and look alert and appealing and generally speaking, eventually, someone pays attention. One my favorite neighbors is this guy.

He's a Husky/Shar Pei mix. Sambuca says he's her boyfriend, so he and I are just back fence neighbors. Actually, he lives next door to the people in back of us and that little opening in the fences is the only place we can get together. He's a very barky dog and his bark is quite loud. I don't mind this at all. I sniff and snuffle and he sniffs and barks and we get along just fine. Sometimes, if it's the kind of day when lots of dogs are out in their yards they'll hear us talking and they'll start barking, too and a huge racket ensues. The fun part is that their humans get all upset and start barking at their dogs to be quiet (which usually doesn't work so well) and  meanwhile, I'm all quiet and innocent and mostly they never even see me. And I kind of started the whole thing. Good times!

Parlez Vous Francais?

 There was some interest in comments when I mentioned that French was my first language, so I thought I'd expand on that a bit today. For the first two days here in my new home no one really noticed. Most of the verbal  interaction involved expressions of delight with me, affection for me and trying to get me to eat, which I wasn't doing until they got it right. I had no problem with that kind of communication. I could get along just fine in informal conversational English - and Spanish for that matter. And of course, tone of voice and body language tells a dog a lot, too. So, no problems thus far.

I arrived on Saturday evening. On the first Monday of my new life, the Moms decided that they should take me to work with them just this one time. They didn't have a crate set up,  Daddy wasn't feeling well enough to be company that day and they didn't really know if I suffered from separation anxiety or anything. The Moms work at the same place, but they have very different jobs. Alpha Mom's seems much more interesting. She runs around to different offices and talks with all sorts of people all day and never seems to stop moving. I think she's kind of Alpha at work, too. Blog Mom mostly just stays in her office working on the computer and all that's on the screen is mostly numbers most of the time. Really not interesting to watch. So guess who I got stuck with?  Right. Blog Mom and they closed the door to her stuffy little office to boot. Something about dogs being against the rules.

After a while things got too tedious to bear, so I got up and put my front paws on the arm of Blog Mom's chair and gave her a very appealing look, complete with cocked head. She got all melty, of course, but clearly intended to keep on doing whatever she was doing, so I became teensy bit more assertive. You know - just a little nudge, nudge with the paw. At that point Blog Mom said something I didn't follow, but she seemed to expect something of me. I had no idea what and, well, I was new and all. I might even have been on some kind of probation for all I knew.  So I gave her a sincere stare that was intended to say, "I'd really like to help you out, but I have no idea what you're saying.." We went through this back and forth a couple of times and then light dawned on Blog Mom and she started Googling. After a bit she turned and said, "Sientate!", which it turns out is ""Sit" in Spanish. Blog Mom had realized that a girl from New York City might speak any one of about a gazillion languages at home. So, of course, she tried Spanish first as it's almost as common as English in the area. But that wasn't it. So she though some more and she thought that she knew a number of people from Haiti who spoke French and that they all either lived in Brooklyn or had a lot of family in Brooklyn. So she said, "Assis!". And I sat right down. A little experimenting showed that I would also obey "ici" (here, as in "come here") and I was pretty good at "attend" (stay). I do not "au pied" (heel) in any language.

Blog Mom put a list of doggy command translations on the refrigerator and everyone has tried to learn them. They've done pretty well, but the other day Blog Mom slipped and said "Sit" and I sat! She was so surprised once she realized what happened there. I am picking up English commands without even being asked to. But not "heel". Never, ever heel.

Party Favor from Twix

Hey, we get a badge for going to Date Night! 

Thank you, Twix!!!!

A Bulldog Named Meatball

An English Bulldog named Meatball was THE  hot name in the news today. Not Adam Sandler's late bulldog. A different Meatball. A live Meatball. He won the annual Beautiful Bulldog contest held in Des Moines, Iowa. It looks like it was a pretty festive event. It must have been hard to pick just one out of all of those entrants, but Meatball is pretty fine fellow from the looks of him.



Congratulations to Meatball and all the bulldogs who got to pawticipate!

Toby's Pawsome Memory "Award"

Toby's Raiser did it! She has made a photo of Toby's Paw Print memory stepping stone available to all his followers to keep and/or to share. I think she's already shared it, but in case I have friends that don't know Toby please take it and pass it on and think of it as a tribute to all assistance dogs and their Raisers. They do such a hard job, especially the Raisers, in my opinion. Like people who foster animals, they put their heart and soul and also skills into making an animal the best it can be and then, just when it's all paying off, they send their friend off, whether it's to do an important job or to a forever home. They are really all heroes.

I'm going to put this on my scrapbook page, but it would go just as well in a sidebar if it was smallified some. If you're going to grab it, I'd suggest getting the one from Toby's site. It's very big and you can resize it to suit yourself. I'm saving the big one, but smalled it down for here.

Thank you for this, Toby's Raiser. I hope you get your new pup very soon!

Awardification -Catching Up

A while back I came by the  coveted Beautiful Blogger award via Toby, who awarded it to all his followers. I think it might have been his last one before going onto college. Very shortly thereafter, my young friend Booker passed it along to me as well. His came with a few rules - or, as we Pei like to think of them - suggestions. Well, what with one thing and another, pawticularly Daddy's recent hospitalization, it took a while to get to this one. It doesn't mean I don't value it. I do.

Under Booker's rules the recipient is now supposed to tell seven things about her or himself. Well, I have been writing about myself almost non-stop for the last month, so some of these might be redundant. Will be redundant. But we'll give it a shot.

1. I'm multi-lingual, conversationally, but I only understand commands in French. We're planning a post about this at some point.
2. I hate vegetables and kibble -  not necessarily in that order. My humans have adjusted to the kibble issue but are not happy about the veggies. They worry that I'll get stopped up and constantly plot to get veggies into my diet.
3. I like sidewalks. We don't have many in the residential areas around here and I'm so happy when we take walks in town where they're on every street. It's one thing I miss about the city. My humans worry that for a generally pretty smart dog I don't have a lot of traffic sense and they have to keep reminding me to keep to the side of the road when we're walking. I say that it's not a question of not having traffic sense. What we don't have is sidewalks. Cars on street, foot traffic on the sidewalk. You know where you are with a sidewalk. Of course there have been instances where that system has broken down and cars wind up on the sidewalk or in the window of a building, but no system is foolproof.
4. Cheese. This one is very redundant but no post about me, Lola, would be complete without a bit of cheese appreciation.
5. I almost caught a squirrel today. It got up the tree ahead of me but just barely. Daddy was a witness and is willing to sign a deposition.
6. As a Shar Pei, I belong to a previously persecuted minority that was almost rendered extinct and not so very long ago, either, historically speaking. All Shar Pei know this history, but some other dogs might not. We do plan to talk more about this in the future.
7. Blogging is one of the best things Blog Mom and I decided to do. Not only have we met the most pawsome other dogs, humans and some great cats, we've gotten even closer than before. A dog's typist has to pay close attention so as to properly represent said dog's words and thoughts.

As far as redistribution goes, many of my friends already have this award by now, so I'm going to follow Toby's lead on this one and say that I want all my followers and those I follow to have it. Also those who I visit or who visit here. You are all beautiful bloggers and I would name each of you if I had the time.

I Won a GABE Giveaway!

I can hardly believe it. What a difference a week makes. Last weekend mostly stunk (and not in a fragrant, dead thing way) and this one has been so utterly pawsome! Daddy came home, date night was everything a Pei could have hoped for and now this! Tales and Tails, home of our favorite greyhounds, has made me, Lola, the winner of their GABE giveaway. I really don't feel worthy because GABE came up just as I was new in the area and I didn't do a giveaway or even a real lot of GABE posts. Everyone was new to me at the time and I was just sniffing my way around. Next year, I must insist to Blog Mom that we do more.

The Moms and all the humans around here are going to love the prize, which is a super special harness. You see, although I am practically pawfect in every way, I don't heel. I pull. And I'm kind of short but I'm very strong. My humans see this as a problem, and this harness might help them solve it. That cuts two ways, I guess. I like to pull and they're too slow. On the other paw, I think there'd be more walks if there was less pulling. Now we all just have to fight over the color. I'm thinking the turquoise and silver. What do you think? Of course, the Moms are going to have to come up with a new collar to go with this. I don't want to be too matchy, matchy, but one must coordinate, right?

Date Night Was Pawsome

First, I'd like to thank Twix, who is still working like a dog to get all the photos up. What a hostess! Twix, please accept this cheese assortment as a token of my appreciation for all your hard hostessing work. I hardly ate any of it. It's mostly all intact. Really.

I took the liberty of making off with a copy of the photo of Bolo and me, Lola, and had it framed.

It will be hanging it on my new scrapbook page, along with the beautiful song Bolo and his Dad wrote for me, Lola. Thank you for being a pawsome, dashing date and a true gentledog, Bolo.

Date Night Tonight

It's never too early to start getting ready. Date night doesn't happen just every day, so after making sure all's well with Daddy (he's doing great) I figured I might as well primp a bit. I wish Mayzie was here. I'm kind of out of practice with this stuff.  First, of course, was the Saturday trip to the Groomer. Bath. I don't really think that was such a great idea. My own essence is much more appealing than the soapy scent I'm left with. But then I wasn't consulted about that part.

Next step- beauty sleep! Can't underestimate the importance of being a well rested Pei.

Time to get up. Rub that sleep out of the eyes and style those  ears.

A little pedicure to finish things off.

I think all that effort was worth it, don't you?

Now, have we made all our plans? Bolo, see you later at Twix's place. Can't wait!

He's Home!

I might be able to be back later, but for now I had to put my nurse's cap back on and see to Daddy. I sniffed him and snuffled him  and his overnight bag, and even the plastic bracelets that he wasn't wearing when he left here last Saturday, and checked out everything he'd been doing all week. Lots of weird smells there, but underneath them it's definitely Daddy.  I applied prodigious licks which he very much appreciated. Now I have to watch him because Blog Mom has to go back out and pick lots and lots of medicines the doctor ordered for him. I don't know if there's enough cheese in this town to get all those down.

Looks like Tomorrow!

If nothing else goes wrong, Daddy should be home sometime tomorrow afternoon. It's been way longer than we thought, but it might be almost over at last. Blog Mom says that now that he's somewhat back to himself he's been asking about me each day, so I'll be sure to leave my agenda free for when he comes home. He should be here in time for Date Night, too, which is good in case he needs to say anything like, "Young dog, I hope your intentions are honorable." Only kidding. He doesn't really talk like that.

In other news, my new ear drops finally arrived. I guess that's pretty thrilling for everyone, huh? I'm getting so I don't even mind it that much. First I had this stuff in tablet form. Huge tablets. Tablets that cheese couldn't hide even when they were broken up into many pieces. That whole thing didn't go so well. I think they were flavored so I was supposed to like them and eat them willingly. Not so much. The taste was kind of interesting but the texture was not good. It was like eating kibble. I hate kibble. So, I guess we all hope these drops will do the trick.

Oh, and one last thing. Blog Mom found this new pawprint wallpaper in the new Blogger Template Designer. She thought it might cheer me up. It kind of does. She did explain that not everyone would really notice it. It won't show up in older bowsers, whatever that means. And also something about visitors with smaller screen revolutions probably wouldn't notice either. Then she went onto say that it looks better in some new bowsers than others. And that's our tech report for tonight.

Waiting for Daddy

Blog Mom thinks it'll be another day or even two before Daddy can come home. Unless his insurance company insists. Insurance companies like to speed recovery along, she says. He's no longer in danger, but he's "experiencing some discomfort". The Moms tell me that's a  medical term meaning, "searing, agonzing pain." Waiting is hard. It just doesn't seem quite right, when we're all sitting around the living room but Daddy's not there. Or even in the house.

I thought, though, that this might be a good time to explain more clearly our living arrangements, as I am somewhat of a time share dog. I mention all these people, but I don't think I've ever clarified things. Alpha Mom and Blog Mom are sisters. Blog Mom, as you probably have gathered is married to Daddy. Our house is divided into two apartments, both of which are mine. Alpha Mom couldn't live without a dog, but if not for other people in the house she really wouldn't be home enough to have one and that would never do. She works until quite late and she has an active social life, too. Also there's the brother that is too big to live home. He has his own place - a very nice stall and a bit of paddock at a horse barn nearby. His name is Sgt. Pepper, but you can all him Sarge.Everyone does. She has to go see him on the weekend, too. I would have gotten to go by this time in the Spring if not for all these other things that have been happening. I'll go soon, though, and bring back pictures. I promise.

Daddy is home most of the time, normally, and Blog Mom works but she usually gets home at a reasonable hour - like in time for dinner, so I usually spend the day with Daddy, give Blog Mom some quality time when she gets home and then dine with them. And these days  my human adult brother is often around and also the rescue bass player who we are fostering, but he's on tour at the moment.  I sleep upstairs with Alpha  Mom and hang out with her as much as possible unless she's doing something too boring, like talking on the phone. Then I go downstairs to see what's doing. Everyone is always glad to see me, whichever floor I'm on.

I am quite strict about one thing. Evenings are for the whole family together. If Alpha Mom is ready to watch some TV or read in the evening we must go downstairs and do that in Blog Mom and Daddy's living room. Daddy is usually lying on the couch and Blog Mom has her chair with the laptop and sometimes a cat, Alpha Mom takes the loveseat and it all makes a sort of semi-circle around me, Lola, on my downstairs bed. It's a very warm, safe and cozy feeling. So, right now, the semi-circle is broken and that doesn't feel so good.

Thank You All

Things here are looking better, I guess. Blog Mom says that Daddy's vet says he's out of the woods. I just thought he was in the hospital, not the woods. Anyway, in this case being out of the woods is a good thing, they tell me. They're still going to keep him and do tests and things to him for a few days. I don't care for that, but it seems there's nothing to be done about it.

We're sorry there are not any new pictures. Or old ones. All Blog Mom has had time for are basic pupdates.  We both want to thank you all again for your good thoughts and well wishes. I'm sure they did the trick. Blog Mom said that Daddy's vet admitted that Daddy had him scared there for a while, but no one is scared now. So, that's good. Tomorrow should be the same as today. More hospital time than posting time for Blog Mom. I do wish they'd let me go there. I'm sure that a few face licks would set Daddy right up.

A Happy Song and a Sad

Well it took all day to get on the computer, and I'm not even on the right one, but that's a whole other story. When I logged on I saw this wonderful post at Bolo's blog. A song for me, Lola. If it's OK with him I'm going to copy it and put it on a keepsake page, which I just decided I need to have. That was such a gallant gesture. It just makes a bitch feel really special, you know what I mean?  Thank you so much Bolo. I needed that, because here comes the sad in the next paragraph.

My Daddy is in the hospital. He just had a regular vet appointment this morning. He has lots of those. Blog Mom thought he didn't seem totally well so she decided to drive him there and he lost something called consciousness while he was there and apparently no one could find it. The vet called an ambulance to take him to the hospital and that's where he'll be, probably for a couple of days while they do lots and lots of tests on him. So, if in the next few days I don't always get around to visit everyone, that's probably why. I'll try to keep you updated when I can. I'm going to try to catch up with as many friends as I can right now.

Missing Leaves Ad Campaign

Hero suggested doing this to try to be proactive in the search for the missing leaves. See post below for sad details. Leave it to Hero to be both sympathetic and practical.

Thanks, Hero. Maybe this will turn up some clues.

I've Been Robbed

Out here in the blogaverse it's been a lovely week, but I have to tell you here at home it could have been better. I don't like to whine (not entirely true) but the ear thing hasn't improved and I had to go back to the vet today. Now I have oral antibiotic and am getting new drops for the ears.

That's not great news, but that's not all. There was a big Spring clean-up in the back yard this week. The weather was great those days and I was not allowed out in back for the afternoon sun, but no matter. They were concerned because the gate had to be open during all this work. I understand. It really screwed with my schedule, but I'm over that. The thing that has really got me upset was that when I finally got the yard back, my leaves were gone! Stolen, I have to assume. I had this great pile, right in the southeast corner of the yard that I just liked to walk through. And what's there now? Nothing. some dirt, some grass - not a leaf in site.

Me, Lola, with my leaves in happier times.

That's what they looked like. I know they were mine because no one else was using them at all. If you should see them anywhere, please let me know. It'll take another six human months - that's three and a half standard dog years - to get another good pile together. That's quite a long time.

Date Night

Well, I guess most everyone knows about the Date Night that Twix is hostessing. Well, I'm not sure if I completely understand it myself, but I thought if my furiends were going then it must be a good thing. And I thought about who I'd like to go with and, well, Bolo came to mind. He's a looker, you have to admit. I just can't resist a guy with a magnificent nose and a meat mouth. But then, who can?  And besides his dashing good looks he seems to be a gentleman of sterling character. So, I asked him. And he seems to have accepted.

He did want to make the point that his heart belongs to Mom and his responsibilities at home are considerable. That's fine because I'm just the same way. I have to take care of Daddy when he's not well, which is quite a lot, unfortunately. On days when he has bad pain and a hard time getting out of bed, I have to run into his bedroom and launch myself onto the bed and lick his face all over. He always smiles, albeit weakly, and says, "Good morning, Lola."  And if not for me, Alpha Mom would probably sleep to close to 6 AM or even later. When Blog  Mom comes home I have to give her undivided attention for a half hour or more and some advice on preparing dinner. I don't know what they ever did without me. Neither do they.

But back to date night - We don't know what the plans are, but Bolo and I agree that our idea of a great date involves chasing squirrels and doing mad fast laps in the back yard. I hope that kind of thing is included in the agenda. Anyway, thank you for accepting the invitation, Bolo. It should be fun.

Award from Mayzie

Mayzie has gotten another award and is sharing it with me, Lola, among others. Thank you so much, Mayzie.

Mayzie says there are no rules for this award, so I want to share it with all the friends that are the stars of my day. If I follow your blog, or if you come here to visit, then this means you! I told Blog Mom that we must have a space for the nice and thoughtful things that people have shared with me, Lola. She said she'd try by the weekend.

There's other news as well. Booker Man and Mayzie are going to Date Night together. I had to do some quick catching up to figure out what Date Night is, and I'm still not sure if I have it figured out, but I did think that the way Booker asked Mayzie was sweet and I guess everyone was relieved and happy when she seemed so pleased to accept. Puppy love - ain't it grand?

Monday - The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

The Good - I want to thank everyone for their good wishes on my Gotcha Day, which couldn't really have been any better. And then this morning, Mayzie had this for me -

Is that a fabulous cake or what? I didn't even know she could bake! Lots of wags and nose licks coming in your direction, Mayzie!

Now I have to skip to The Ugly, which would be the nasty stuff in my ear. As Bolo will attest, we Shar Pei are subject to ear infections and the like. He's having problems, too. It was a bad night and I was forced to prevent Alpha Mom from sleeping much. As it happens my ears are up to date on cleaning and since this didn't really improve as the day went on, even with antihistimine, I'll be spending my evening at the Vet, instead of visiting with all of you as I'd planned. That's The Bad. We have a 7:30 appointment, but it's only about 5 minutes away. And, of course, you know that this means that the Moms will be chasing me around with that ointment to rub in my ears for days and days after this. I really do not like that. Ah, well. As long as they don't have to leave me there. I don't have a lot of issues in general, but I still get a little nervous when my humans leave me somewhere that is not home.

Anyway, I'll be around to visit as soon as I can, but if this runs late it might not be until tomorrow evening.

Easter Part II - My Gotcha Day

Around here, it's not only Easter. It's my first Gotcha Day. As I understand it, they won't come on the same day again for almost ever. See,  it seems that Easter is not always on the same date, but it is always on Sunday. Gotcha Day will always be on April 4th which won't be on Sunday again for years and years. I think it's kind of cool to have my first one on Easter, though, Easter being about renewal, rebirth and endings really being new beginnings. Now isn't that exactly what everydog's Gotcha Day is all about?

Mine started early. I just didn't get to post about what happened because there were all these other things going on this past week. What happened was the man in the brown truck brought a box to us. Now this is not unusual and normally I don't take a lot of interest because those boxes are not for me. This one was and I wanted to open it right away. Sadly, my humans failed to get any photos of me being adorably eager to open the box because they were too busy asking each other, "How does she know it's for her?" and saying, "But she never does this. How can she tell?". What I want to know is with those weak noses humans have, how can they ever figure anything out? But even they can smell some things. Like for instance that "new car smell" which  humans seem to like so much. Well, this box just reeked of new bed smell. And I love a brand new bed. It was supposed to be for today, but I just couldn't wait. Delayed gratification is not so much a canine thing.

So I had to try it out. It was nice and squooshy.

It works well for belly rubs.

It's so comfy this way and...

Wait just a minute, there...this really won't do

And it's just as comfy this way. It's just what I wanted.

But that wasn't all there was. After we were all recovered from Easter brunch there was my Gotcha celebration. With cake and more presents.

Except I don't really eat sweets and I don't do fire. 

 Oooh. Is that cheese cake? It is!  You got cheese cake!

It's not really sweets. It's cheesecake and it's delicious!

So, if you're keeping score, that's a new bed, a pawsome assortment of chewy things and a squeaky sheep. And bacon, sausage and cheesecake all in one day. I'm feeling pretty lucky and content and, oh, yes, sleepy, right now.

Happy Easter, Everybuddy!

No, it's not really the Easter bunny. Bet we had you  fooled. It's me, Lola, an Easter Pei.  Here's hoping your Easter Mammal of choice brings you baskets full of your most favorite treats.

Passover Pictures

This was my first Passover Seder, to tell the truth. It was just as much fun as it sounded like, but the day was not without drama. Alpha Mom spent all day running around to stores and cleaning the house and doing all those things you do before having lots of company. Finally it was time for her to get herself ready and she had just gotten out of the shower, and the guests were due to start arriving in a half hour and guess what? The power went out! There'd been torrential rains and flooding and lots of people didn't have power. There didn't seem to be any reason to think this was going to be fixed right away. I should mention here that we only have electric stoves in the house.

Everyone stayed calm while Alpha Mom called the power company. After the power company lady could only repeat, over and over, that most outages would be resolved within three hours, everyone gave up being calm and opted for meltdown instead. Just a couple of minutes before the very first guests got here the power came back on and even more miraculous, stayed on. It was wonderful but the Moms might just have lost a year or so off their lives in the meantime. It's a good thing I was there to help out with the festivities.

 I had to see that everyone felt right at home and had everything they wanted. 

 As long as what they wanted was a Shar Pei.

 Is this holiday great, or what? It comes with its own instruction manual for the part where traditions and rituals are observed. After that, dinner is served. 

The chicken was especially delicious, but nothing prepared me for CHOPPED LIVER. It's a religious experience all by itself. I was only allowed a little taste at  a time. There was concern with whether it would agree with my stomach. It seemed to and it certainly agreed with my mouth.

I helped with the clean-up, of course.

 Good night, Get home safe and come back soon.