Sedentary Sunday

Hi all. We have not been posting like we should, but you haven't missed much. We really haven't been doing much besides hanging around.  Franklin keeps the backyard safe, which is a full  time job for him. I'm trying to get ahead of the curve with my napping. Doing pretty well there. Sarge is still doing well and  Alpha Mom says he farted quite a bit today. She was worried because she felt he wasn't doing that enough. But everything seems to be in working order right now.

Blog Mom is still having trouble staying awake long enough to attend to our blogging duties. She says this is because the nest - never really empty - is more full of people who need feeding more of the time and by the time she works, shops and cooks she doesn't have much left in her. I think I'm going to have to change her name to Not Blogging Mom. But we do check on everyone as much as we can and we wanted to check in and say that we still love EVERYBODY in Blogville.  We miss you when we're not able to get out here. We are hoping that nothing at all comes up tonight so we can at least catch up with you all. Here's me, having a nap interrupted:

Power of the Paw Working Well! Thank you so much.

Thank you all so much for your good wishes. They must be working wonders because Sarge was able to go back home to his barn. He's not speaking to Alpha Mom right now. She says he feels he made it perfectly clear that he wanted to go home last night and she did not take him there, so she's getting the cold shoulder right now. She says that's OK and that he'll get over it. I can see his point, although I don't do cold shoulder myself. I prefer to inflict guilt by looking sad and soulful.

We are a little worried that this is the beginning of something. Sarge isn't a young horse. As far as Alpha Mom knows this is the first time he's colicked and we hope it was just an isolated incident rather than the beginning of  trend. Anyhoo, thank you again so much for all your caring and concern. It really helps and we appreciate it more than you know.

Power of the Paw and Hoof Needed for a Horse -Updated

~ Morning Update - Thank you so much for your good wishes. There is cautious optimism here this morning. Sarge made it though the night and was even feeling a little better. We are still crossing everything we've got. 

No time for a real post. Alpha Mom just got word that Sarge is in the hospital with colic. She's on her way there now. It'll probably be a very late night and we probably won't have more information until maybe tomorrow night. We'd just appreciate if you could send Sarge some good vibes because he sure could use them right now.

Please get well, Sarge, from the whole family.

Peeps on Parade and Pip, too.

I know we're late. In some timezones the weekend is all over already. But we figured we could just get a short Peeps post in before it was too late. Thank you to Sarge for this interesting idea.

 Now the Moms will not show up in photographs. They are either vampires or ghosts or maybe in the Witness Protection Program. Daddy doesn't mind, though. Perhaps it's because no on told him Blog Mom is posting him to the blog. Hee hee.

That's Daddy on the left. Franklin's the one on the right. I think the one who got cut off  might be my human brother. There are like a zillion pictures of him on the web. Here's one we...er.....borrowed.

That was when he was out on the road all the time, which he is not now. Which, believe it or not, is one of the reasons we haven't been online as much, lately. It's a long story, but the short version is he changed his life around some and now the house is more full of peeps more often, keeping my Blogging assistant much busier than she used to be. I like having more people around, but it's a bit annoying not to have my blogging assistant at my disposal. Still, things like that never stay the same for too long around here. We just have to go with the flow, is what I'm told.

Daddy's the one who's home with us the most. He's retired and not always well. But he loves us HUGELY and spends tons of time seeing to it that we have everything he thinks we want or need. He worries about us a lot, too. We're not sure why because we're fine, thank you, but he means well. Music has always been his great love. Classic rock is his favorite. He also likes sports quite well and he builds model cars as a hobby now that he's home all day.

Daddy and Blog Mom are married. Blog Mom works during the day as a bookkeeper at a not for profit organization. She loves her job. She isn't as crazy about domestic chores. Daddy does as many of those as he can if he's feeling well. Sadly, he doesn't cook. Franklin lives downstairs with them all the time and sleeps with them at night. I live downstairs with them during the day and early evening if Alpha Mom is not home.

Alpha Mom works in the same place as Blog Mom. Alpha Mom has worked there much longer. She's an attorney there. On weekends there's Sarge, of course. He's our equine brother who does not live here at home. He's a draft cross. Alpha Mom has loved all animal, but especially horses and doggies all her life. She is a vegetabletarian, too. I live with Alpha Mom when she's home, which is not as much as Blog Mom, and I sleep with Alpha Mom at night.

We still have our foster bass player.  In fact he's been here for four years, so Blog Mom is getting less optimistic about finding him a forever home. Here's a photo:

He's not only a fine bass player, he's quiet, housebroken and knows most basic commands. Franklin and I want to keep him. So far so good.

We want to say Happy Blogaversary to Mr. Pip. Looks like we didn't quite make he deadline to join in the Superhero fun. Blog Mom actually got her dates mixed up about that. But that doesn't mean we're not enjoying all the super creative superheroes who have shown up there because we are. And most of all, we just are so glad that we've had this chance to get to know Pip.

Book Review: A Famous Dog's Life

We were so very honored to be asked to review A Famous Dog's Life by Sue Chipperton and Rennie Dyball, with a forward by Reese Witherspoon. The famous dog in question is Gidget, a canine actress best known for playing the Taco Bell Chihuahua in the famously successful advertising campaign.

Gidget's biographer, Sue Chipperton, was her trainer and companion throughout Gidget's life. Ms. Chipperton's story is pretty interesting, too, as you can imagine. She's trained a LOT of four leggers and also some no leggers. The path that led her to discover Gidget began in her native England, then took her to Florida, where she trained dolphins (she started as a fish gutter) at Ocean World and finally California and Studio Animal Services. The rest, as they say, is history:

Along with Gidget's personal and professional story there are lots of behind the scenes looks at life in the world of animal actors.  You won't find much in the way of smut or scandal, though. No drug or alcohol abuse or debauchery of any sort really. (Maybe human performers would do better if the American Humane Association was looking out for them, too.) If you're looking for that sort of tell-all, Hollywood exposé sort of thing, I'm afraid you'll be disappointed. However, if you are at all an animal lover - and we know you are - this very well written book belongs on your reading list.

More information, including ordering links available at AFamousDogsLife.com. Go. Fetch.. You won't be sorry.

Barking Up the Wrong Tree

I hope no one ever takes this pup to Madame Tussauds.



He'd be so very frustrated.

In Doggy Fails closer to home, it seems Franklin needs a girlfriend:

Shouldn't someone tell him he's been neutered? Come to think of it, I think I mentioned it to him when he tried this with me once. Once. Never again.

Big Kitty!

There are kitties who are substantial in size, like Happy:

And there are kitties who are quite big for a....well, for a kitty, in fact:

And then there are kitties who are just too big for woofs:



Maybe Franklin would like a kitty like that. He's still trying to get the normal sized ones we have to play and they absolutely will not. (In fact, Simone has moved upstairs, but that's a story for another day.) This Very Huge Kitty appears to take doggies in stride.

Happy Easter!

I hope that everydoggy is having a wonderful holiday. Ours is kind of quiet, I must woof. Blog Mom and Daddy are going out to dinner at Daddy's brother's house and we don't seem to be going along. However, we did have a kicking Passover pawty upstairs at Alpha Mom's this week, so I guess I can't complain. Too much.

We will try to visit more when THEY get home. I plan to catch up on my napping this afternoon. I have heard talk of a VET visit this week and I need to try to thwart that plan. It's going to take all my wits to do that. The thing about VET visits is that you can't get out of them by pretending to be sick. That makes it very ruff.

Celebrate Life! Big Birthday Bash!

Well, we just got back after a big Passover do and a lot of stuff and found this invitation in our e-mail.




Everydoggy and everykitty and everyone else are welcome, I believe. And also snacks, speeches and beer as I understand it. You know the place, right? It's at Ronnii's place where Mama Tea will be helping to hostess. I think. Mayzie has all the details. And I want to thank Mayzie for sending this along in the mail. I'm just so glad we didn't miss it. Also, JD and Max are holding a special commentathing to raise money for the Crossed Paws Organization. JD and Max are incredibly kind and giving, just like Mama Tea. They are always there, helping out when there's a doggy in need. Oh, and I think their Mom helps, too.

Well, it looks like a busy weekend. We have to get commenting and also find some snacks for the party.

Difficult Day in Blogville

Good-bye for now, Richie. We'll see you on the other side, though.

We had been absent for most of the week. Things have just been awfully busy, or so they claim. I, Lola, have been able to keep up with my own responsibilities just fine, but the humans keep falling behind. Anyhoo, we finally logged on this evening and learned that our friend Richie has crossed the Rainbow Bridge. There is a beautiful and inspiring post on his site, urging us not to feel sad, but it's hard to help it. Still, thanks to his very special Mom and Dad, Richie had someone to love and care for him when he needed that so much. It would be wonderful if everydoggy had that. We will try not to be sad and just be happy that the last part of his life  was such a happy time with everything a doggy could ask for.

We had barely absorbed that news when we learned the Twinkie is hospitalized with what could be a serious illness. We are crossing our paws extra hard for Twinkie to make a fast and complete recovery.

Dear Twinkie, please get well soon!

We haven't caught up with all the doings in Blogville for the last week, but we do hope that there is no more bad or sad news. We are especially hoping that those tornados didn't affect anyone in Blogville. We will be keeping our paws crossed on that, too.

Thank you all from my Big Sis

Hey all! Franklin here. Lola wants me to say thanks to all her friends for their Happy Gotcha Day wishes and special posts and everything like that. She'll be along as soon as she can to woof all this herself but as you can see she's still kind of exhausted from the festivities. Yeah, she's older more mature than she used to be. Gets tired. I don't get tired, speaking just for myself.  This Gotcha Day stuff is new to me. They tell me I get my first one in July. All I know is that for this one Lola got cake and Franklin got cake, so that's a win/win, am I right?

Also everyone here is in has their tails in a bunch because Alpha Mom's e-mail was hacked. I don't know if she has anyone in Blogville in her address book, because Lola usually handles her own e-mail and she....well, now it's more like we have our own account. But if you happen to get an e-mail from our Alpha Mom saying that she's stranded at Heathrow Airport and to please send her money - don't. She's right here in the living and will be scratching my chest as soon as I finish this post. Which, I guess I have, so have a great night and Lola will be back to posting pretty soon.

Thank You, Dog Foster Mom!

We are so honored. And by "we" I mostly mean, me, Lola. After all, it's mainly my blog, am I right? Oh, yes - what we're honored about is that Dog Foster Mom has designated us a Featured Blog for April! I am stunned, really. And also we're in very good company so you need to go there and visit all the Featured Blogs if you haven't already. We also got this totally cool badge which is going in my sidebar, too, of course.

Isn't that totally pawsome? And, as I may have mentioned, my Gotcha Day is coming up (tomorrow) so what a perfect time to receive such an honor.  Thank you again, Dog Foster Mom. You are the best!

Hey, We're Still Here!

Oh, hi! It's great to see you!

Forty-eight hours and counting and things are still working. We shouldn't count our packets before they're sent, though. Let's just say we're happy to be here now. It's the weekend, too. Good thing because we need to tighten up the ship around here.

Do you see that pile of toys behind me, Lola? Those toys used to be in a basket as recently as yesterday. Somehow, all of a sudden that basket somehow became chewed up. Now, I know I, Lola, didn't do it. Who do you supposed the culprit might be?

Find the Pei, indoor version

Things are not quite right in the kitchen, either. Look what I saw on the counter:

In case you see this, Mango, I had NOTHING to do with this. Even Franklin is innocent this time.

Cautious Optimism

The 87th 4th different cable guy just left. We were out most of the weekend and yesterday. Alpha Mom told them that they absolutely had to send someone higher up on the cable repair food chain or else we were going to be forced to switch to Verizon, which could still happen. We'll see. This one got right up on the roof, which none of the others had done, and claimed that he saw the whole problem which was different from 3 different things the others had seen. It seems like they need to work their way around. The first one just changed the inside splitter. The second one changed the modem. The third changed an outside splitter, but this is the first one who didn't stay at ground level. Everything's working now, but everything was always working each time the others left. So we'll just see.

We really, really need our internet to be working now because I'm expecting a couple of new doggy-related books to review. No one told us that we'd be getting that kind of perk from blogging, but we're loving it. AND my Gotcha Day is coming up. And we need to catch up with all our friends. Oh, and Alpha Mom also needs her phone, which doesn't work when the cable is out. So this is their absolute last chance.

Fabulous Feline Friday with Schooner

It's been a long time since we've posted any pictures of our friend, Schooner. He's been very busy growing.

He's quite handsome for someone who is not a dog, isn't he?

Sunday Pupdates

First of all, paws down to our internet connection which started giving trouble again before we could even catch up. Right now it mostly works from 7 am to 7 pm, approximately. That is not when there are humans available to help with  blogging and visiting, unfortunately. Someone's coming tomorrow.  If that doesn't work out we might have to switch to Verizon, which we don't really want to do, or so I'm told. But we might. So there's that.

Next, the good news. My meds came from Canada! Just as promised and at a pawfectly reasonable price. Not only am I being helped by this, as well as lots of other Shar Pei, but also our friend CoCo is now going to get her meds from Canada, too. She was sick a while back. And then she got better. But she needs very expensive medications to keep her well and healthy. Much more expensive than mine, even at the new prices. So, when we told her Mom about the Canada option she looked into it and can get CoCo's medications at a much more manageable price, leaving more green papers for the humans to have things like groceries and such. I mean, they've got to keep up their strength to take proper care of us, right? In case anydoggy's interested, we got ours from Pharmacy Rx World. There are lots of others, but now that we got our stuff, just as promised, we thought we should share that link.

What with all these connection problems we haven't posted much about our day to day doings lately. Well, there haven't been so many of those anyway once we thought about it. It was a pretty quiet winter from our point of view. Now it's almost Spring, so maybe things will get more exciting. One thing we did do over the winter was watch Franklin's nose get crusty. I thought you might enjoy some photos of old crusty so there they are:

Franklin with original nose

Together with the red eyes, he's turning out to be a real looker

It seems to be something called nasodigital hyperkeratosis and does not appear to have a cure. I must say it doesn't seem to bother him or interfere with his self esteem any, though. 


My second Gotcha Day is in  just a couple of weeks. I'm making gift lists for the humans and I hope they're planning something nice. I also hope that our connection is more reliable then than it is now.


Once again, we apologize for our spotty visiting lately. Sometimes we lose our connection right in the middle of our rounds, or sometime before we even get started, but I have been assured that we will get this fixed eventually, for sure.

Oh My Dogness. I forgot my own Blogaversary!

We were just lazing around the living room here, trying to catch up with some of our friends when the date came up. March 13th is the date and I just wondered why it rang a bell. We checked and yep, it's been one year today since our first post here. I had certainly thought to do something more special for a Blogaversary Post. You know - special photos, a bit of a retrospective. We should be reflecting on how many wonderful friends we've made from all over the world and how much we've been enriched by this whole Blogville community. We should be thanking everydoggy for their friendliness, unfailing kindness and understanding when we aren't as reliable as we'd like to be.

Franklin, wake up! Do you realize what day this is?

We should be doing something, anyway. But the fact is that Blog Mom's 'flu hung on all week and she's been a bit foggy and not exactly on the old ball if you know what I mean. So, I guess we're lucky just to get a post about it in under the wire. But at the very least, we do want to thank each and every one of you for making this year so very special to us.

Now if any of you boy doggies want to say Happy Blogaversary, there could be no better way than to drop by and see me at the Kissing Booth at the fund raiser for Richie and Ronnie. Just click on the Kissing Booth tab and look around for me. I won't take it amiss if you should want to plant one on some of the other lady doggies, too. It's all for a good cause. And don't worry, girls. There are plenty of boy doggies there, too.

Pucker up!

In other news, we are waiting on the meds from Canada. I guess it's too soon to say how well that went until they get here, but so far so good, I think.

Where We've Been - This Time

We kind of disappeared again. This time it's because Blog Mom has barely been out of bed since the weekend. She's got the 'flu. I don't know what she would have done without Franklin and me, Lola, this time. Even the kitties had to help out in order to make sure there was at least one fourlegger in bed with her the whole time.

She's finally getting better and as soon as we can, we're going to start reading a bit to see what's been going on, but she's still not good for much. If she's better tomorrow then she's going back to work and you know what that means. She'll be crawling home, tail down, just ready to curl up and go to sleep. In other woofs, this week is pretty much shot to heck.

One very important - and sad - thing happened since we've been away. Molly Bloom, Dog of Doom - who was rescued by and shared her life with my Auntie Donna and her partner, Lisa - passed over to the bridge. I never had the pleasure of meeting Molly B. being that we live on opposite sides of the country, but Alpha Mom did and thought the world of her. They knew it was coming but Aunt Donna and Lisa miss her very much as you can well imagine. Our hearts go out to all of them. This is a picture that we borrowed from Aunt Lisa's blog. That's mainly a classical music blog so we're not sure we should link to it without permission. We just wanted you to get to see Molly B's lovely face.

We'll be back around as soon as we can.

Oh, Canada! (We hope!)

We got some distressing news today.  We should have known about it sooner, but somehow we missed the news. The FDA has banned the generic (and inexpensive) colchicine pills in the U.S. and now just one company seems to have exclusive rights to produce it. I might have that a little wrong, but it's something like that.

Since, due to blatant discrimination, I'm not covered under either of my Moms' prescription drug plans, this makes the medication which prevents flare-ups of  Shar Pei Fever very, very hard to afford. This change caused the price to go from an average of 10 cents a pill to five dollars a pill. That's a difference of a lot of green papers when you take it every day. This is causing a lot of problems for the Shar Pei community in the United States, as you can well imagine. You see, colchicine is mostly a human drug and it's mostly used for gout, but it's also the only thing that seems to control Shar Pei Fever, which I've got. Luckily, so far, Franklin doesn't seem to have it, but he's young yet. And of course he's simply frantic with worry for me. There is quite a lot of assistance available for humans who need it but now can't afford the only approved type, but not for doggies. More blatant discrimination.

Lola and Franklin contemplate this unfortunate development.

But it looks like Canada might just come to our rescue! It seems as though we can get this from Canada at prices similar to what we were paying before, or at least not much more. We are going to give it a shot tomorrow and cross our paws that the inexpensive kind continues to be available in Canada.

Are You A Friend of Chet?

Hi everybuddy! We have started reconnecting with our furiends, but we do want to say we haven't gotten a chance to visit everydoggy yet. We'll get there if we stay connected. So far, pretty good.

One good thing did come out of the Winter of our Disconnect. Blog Mom had to go get some books to read  since we couldn't read blogs much. One of our favorite types of books are mysteries. Franklin and I prefer them if there's a dog involved. Well, Blog Mom came across a mystery series she'd never read at all and it happens to be narrated by one of the greatest dog detectives in the history of - well, of dog detectives. His name is Chet. You never see a whole picture of Chet,  probably so he won't be mobbed by fans, I figure. Blog Mom says he's a Fictional Dog. I'm not really familiar with that breed, but I figure it must be one of those new hybrids. It's pretty clear from his description that he's got some GSD and probably some Border Collie in him and probably one or two other things. Maybe a little Sibe or some sort of terrier. He has stated that he enjoys digging quite well. Chet is a brilliant detective and a witty narrator and the plots are quite satisfying. We were chuckling and chortling and enjoying the first book so much that Alpha Mom ran out and got her own copy right away. She was not sorry.

What we love best about the books, though, is that Chet's essential canineness shines through at all times. He doesn't come across as just a human with fur and a great sense of smell. No, Chet is all dog. He thinks like a dog, has senses like a dog, marks everywhere, lives in the now and naps like a dog. His partner and human is Bernie Little, and together they are the Little Detective agency. Oh, I could go on and on, but if you haven't read these books you really need to get hold of one. You can thank us later. Might as well start with Dog On It, which is the first and go from there. Below  is the most recent one. We don't have it yet. Blog Mom says she's trying to stretch things out a bit because we'll be a little sad when we run out, which will be soon.

 The only bad thing is that there are only three of  the books so far. They're written by a Mr. Spencer Quinn. You'd think it was amazing that someone who'd written only three books could write them so well - even the very first one, but here's the thing of that - Mr. Spencer Quinn is also Mr. Peter Abrahams who was already a highly trained author. Not so surprising, really. After all, I wasn't always Lola and I learned a lot when I was...whoever I used to be. Don't really recall all that much about it now. Franklin, as we know, was Brooklyn when he got here. A lot of you were called something else at one time, too. I suppose there's no reason why this might not happen among humans, too.

Chet has a blog of his own which is called Chet The Dog, although he's sometimes forced to share it with someone called Admin and also on Sundays there's Ingrid. We haven't quite got all that straight yet, but all we really want is a place to keep tabs on Chet while Spence (I think that Spence is Mr. Quinn's call name.) is working on more books for us to read. One nice feature is that you can upload a photo of yourself and that's all you have to do to become a Friend of Chet. We kind of messed ours up the first time, so it was up there twice. I'm not sure if that's been fixed yet. Lots of nice dogs and also some humans can be found there. They are also quite generous with excerpts of the books while they're in progress, but so far we're not reading them, preferring to read the whole book at once. We might change our tune by the time number four gets written, though. Blog Mom says we'll be jonesing by then, whatever that means. It's worth a look, really.

Oooh, oooh, Best In Group!

It's past bedtime, but we just had to say congratulations to Miss Jayne Hathaway, a Pei and Best in the Non-Sporting Group at Westminster. You go, girl!

She's quite pretty, no? Seemed to be enjoying herself, too, which is always good to see.

Happy Valentine's Day

A big Thank You to all of you who have been so understanding during our very protracted internets troubles. Grrrr. That's somewhat better now, although the various visits from the cable guys did not solve the problem. It just seems a lot better at the moment, now that a lot of the snow and freezing up is gone. We'll see how all that goes, I suppose. Mainly we want to wish all our friends in Blogville the best Valentine's Day EVER, although being that it falls on Monday this year "best EVER" might be overreaching a bit. We've noticed that Monday is not the most popular day of the week in some quarters. Can't let it get you down though. Hug somedoggy you love and have a great day and also some special treats.

From our den to yours, a most Happy Valentine's Day

Pee S. That photo is not us. We are not nearly that wrinkly. It's just a Valentine's picture.

HUGE Day in Blogville

I am so happy we're able to get online this evening. It was no good yesterday, last night or early this morning, but it's working now and good thing, too, because Hero had his baby human sister!!!! Um...technically it was Cheche who gave birth, but we know that Hero's moral support carried the day, we think. If you haven't gone to visit Hero yet today, you'll want to. There are baby pictures!!!!! And big licks to Alpha Mom for noticing this before Blog Mom and I even got online.
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You Are NOT Going to Believe This

With this week going the way it has, I don't know which way is up...or down.

 

 Monday: Cable guy came to see me. He was very nice and I sniffed that he had a labradawg at home. I helped him out a great deal, I think. He said it was the splitter and switched it and the internets were working but Blog Mom had to run out to work. By the time she got home it wasn't working anymore. Alpha Mom was on hold for 87 hours an entire hour trying to get through to the repair line Monday night - without success I might add.

Tuesday: BlogMom got through to the repair line from work. Made an appointment for Wednesday morning.

Wednesday: Different cable guy came. He asked if I was safe! Can you imagine?? I mean, how do I know HE was "safe"? I take that leap of faith is how. Seems he could do the same. I was somewhat offended but I tried to be gracious anyway.  We decided he might not want to be introduced to Franklin at all. That was OK. Franklin is loving the snow so much we can hardly get him to come inside. Anyhoo, this non-dog loving cable guy said we needed a new modem and  no, there was no way this problem could be something outside (because the tee vee is working, I guess). So, he gave us a nice new modem and this time it worked until into the evening when the snow started in earnest.

Thursday:  There was the aftermath of our weekly snowstorm to deal with. Blog Mom hurt her back trying to shovel. The internets were out a lot of the time. The humans are really starting to get cranky about all the snow. Have you noticed that with your humans?

As of now, as long as it's above freezing, or there's a strong sun the modem works. Once it gets really cold out there, it goes on strike. As I mentioned before, most of the time it's working is not when Blog Mom can be online, due to work, shopping, and all the errands humans seem to have to do.  We have to call the cable company again, of course, and try to get them to see the light. Alpha Mom's landline phone is also out when the modem is, so the whole thing is just not good.

What we're trying to do it get on as often as possible and read as many blogs as we can, just to keep up. We figure for now, if we don't comment too much, we can read more, but we do like to post updates now and then so you know why we aren't here.

Oh, and while we're doing pupdates, Franklin most likely has hyperkeratosis on his nose. It's common with lots of breeds and not a threat to anything but his good looks, but it might mean he had distemper before we got him. His original family never got his eyes done and didn't get him snipped. Maybe they didn't get him his shots either. He seems very healthy now, though.

I'm going to post this before we lose connectivity. We'll get this straightened out but it might take another few days or a week, we guess. Miss you all tons and tons.

Downtime Update

I know this is getting tiresome, but I don't want my furiends to think I've run off or anything. The internets is still giving problems. We've pretty much figured out that it's an outside problem. It's only working for a few hours most days and only when the sun's out for the most pawt. This is not the best time for my blogging assistant who is either at work or doing boring stuff at those times. We have to get the cable people here to fix it, but the snow is complicating that. Of course, the snow is most likely causing the problems anyway. Anyhoo, we just hope we don't have to wait until Spring to resume our normal blogging/visiting schedule. We love you all and we miss you.

In and Out, On and Off

This is just a note to say that we're still having problems and we will be on and off until we get some help from cable, looks like. You don't need to comment here. I just wanted to let you all know. We were kind of in the middle of visiting everybuddy when the modem dropped out again and stayed out all day. Don't know if it'll be working again long enough to do much, so if we're gone again, that's where we went.

Is This Thing On?

We're back. Did you know we were gone?  We couldn't get on the internet for 87 2 whole days! We need to visit EVERYBUDDY, but we wanted to put down what's been doing around here before we forget or before the modem goes poof again.

Not a brand new picture, but we just want you to know it's us. 

THE VET: I, Lola, went back to the VET on Thursday. I really, really didn't want to go. I just had a hunch and I was right. They took my temperature! And for nothing. I did not have a fever. Then they took about 87 a few vials of my BLOOD. They took a good look at it, I suppose, and reported that I have wonderful blood. Not a thing wrong with it at all. I was charming to everyone there, despite the indignities they visited upon me. I gave out lickies and wagged and did everything they asked. Then I went home and sulked  and refused to eat for a couple of days.

The long and short of it all is that I'm fine and there seem to be no after effects of my outbreak of Swollen Hock Syndrome. The VET said it was still a teeny bit swollen, but I am feeling much better.

FRANKLIN: Franklin is fine, but he gave us a bit of a scare this week. Blog Mom had come in the door after being gone for like 5 whole minutes. When humans are coming or going Franklin likes to get in touch with his inner Cracker Dog. He sometimes tries to prevent departures by throwing himself in front of the door and making horrific noises. No one really pays him any mind. All arrivals are greeted with his Happy Dance. This time, after executing a decent brisé he started to scream. There's really no other word for it. Then he kind of limped over to Daddy for comfort and told him all about it. Unfortunately he left out a lot of detail. After telling Daddy his troubles he went to his Special Place, which is under the chair in the living room. Once he recovered no one was able to figure out which paw or leg was the problem. It all happened too fast. Whatever it was, the limp went away quickly and and there's been no recurrence, leaving everyone to wonder if his patella had luxated or if he's got some other problem or if he just messed up his landing. Time and the VET will tell, but he's just his normal self now.

All of that reminds me. I had intended to do a little post in honor of his living here for exactly six months last Friday. Not a Gotcha Day, but I do think the first six months is a milestone. Alas, that never happened because of ----->

OUR NOT SO GOOD FRIDAY:  After work on Friday Alpha Mom went out to dinner to celebrate a human friend's Gotcha Day. Blog Mom was at home, finding that our cable modem wasn't working. She could not figure out why. None of the usual remedies worked. The teevee was working, so cable wasn't out. She gave up after a while and figured that if it wasn't working in the morning (it wasn't!) she'd just have to spend about 87 hours on the phone with the cable company and then she started to read a book and fell asleep until she got a call from Alpha Mom. Alpha Mom was in a car accident! She didn't get hurt, but that's surprising, looking at her car. The back is more smushed in than a Pug's face. The other person skidded on some ice and crashed into the back of her car. Everyone was in  a tizzy, let me tell you.

Of course, Saturday morning was devoted to getting things straightened out. An appointment had to be made with the insurance adjuster, Alpha Mom's errands had to be combined with Blog Mom's, weekend plans had to be changed - all that sort of thing. Sometime during all that the modem started working again, so that, at least, was good.

All of that brings us to now, more or less. We have to try to see what's been going on in Blogville while we were totally MIA.  We did see that Hero is starting to feel like his old self, which was wonderful to see, but we know there are probably AT LEAST 87 other things that we've missed. We hope that everybuddy's doing OK and having a great weekend.

Thanks from me, Lola

I want to thank everyone who came by, sent their well wishes and even sent new furiends to visit. It really lifts a girl's spirits to have so many supportive friends. I'm feeling quite well on the Rimadyl now. The only bad thing is that I do still need it to feel well and will probably have to do a second round of it and then go back to the Vet. But now I can go up and downstairs again, and get up on the furniture and even run around a bit, so I'm not complaining.

I was feeling like this. 

But now I feel more like this. Better, right? 

 Our spirits were really lifted today when we learned that Hero is on the mend and healing at last. There could be no better news. Our tails are wagging right off our butts and not just the doggies. The humans are that happy, too. Hero may be a boy dog, but I still think of him as one of my BFF's. Keep on feeling better and better, dear friend. You're going to need all your strength for dealing with your baby sister when she arrives.

 I guess I should say thanks to Franklin for stepping up here on the blog and also for allowing me to get rest and not bothering me too much when I was feeling especially bad. There'll be a little something extra in his doggy dish tonight. I'm also considering add him to my by-line on post and comments. What do you think? Is he ready? He'll have been with us for six months in a few days. It's beginning to seem quite permanent.

Lola Update

Hi all. It's Franklin again. We don't have lots of news but I promised to keep you posted so I will. Lola is holding her own just fine. She's got some Rimadyl now and that's making her a lot more comfortable, but once a dose starts wearing off she gets real limpy again. She's going to see her Specialist Vet tomorrow and she's still eating well. I wasn't even here last time she had an attack but I'm told that she lost her appetite that time. So it's go to be good that she's hungry and all this time, right?

I'm afraid we're not going to be able to do a lot of visiting tonight. I would be glad to make the rounds for my Sis any other time, but we were ALL up really, really late last night. It was a pretty uncomfortable night for Lola so none of us slept, pretty much. Tonight is looking to be more peaceful and I think we're all going to just go to bed real early.

Live long and prosper,

Franklin

Lola Has Got Sickies

Hello Friends. Franklin here. I have to tell you that my big Sis, Lola, is under the weather and feeling kind of bad.  We think it's another case of FSF or Swollen Hock Syndrome. That's what Hero has, too, but  he's suffering from complications, too. Lola's isn't nearly as bad so far. We sure do hope it won't get there, either. Her leg is hurting and she's keeping it off the floor as much as possible and doing a lot of licking the air. She does that when she's not feeling so good. This all just started today and her appetite was just fine, so that's good so far. She'll have to go to her special VET as soon as she can get an appointment. In the meantime we're all doing our best to keep her as comfortable as we possible.

Now, we're not asking for any heavy duty Power of the Paw - yet. We don't think things will get that serious and we want you to keep those vibes mainly headed to Hero, but we did want to keep you informed, 'cause we'd want to know if  any of you was sickies. We'll keep you posted, of course.