Pei Days

Sedentary Sunday

2011-06-12T18:20:00.000-04:00

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.

2011-06-02T20:48:00.000-04:00

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

2011-06-01T22:03:00.001-04:00

~ 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.

2011-05-30T22:12:00.000-04:00

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

2011-05-18T22:09:00.000-04:00

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

2011-05-06T22:58:00.000-04:00

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!

2011-04-26T22:32:00.001-04:00

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!

2011-04-24T12:38:00.000-04:00

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!

2011-04-22T20:21:00.000-04:00

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

2011-04-18T21:44:00.000-04:00

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

2011-04-05T21:26:00.001-04:00

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!

2011-04-03T18:11:00.000-04:00

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!

2011-04-01T21:34:00.000-04:00

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

2011-03-30T20:27:00.000-04:00

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

2011-03-24T23:12:00.000-04:00

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

2011-03-20T09:34:00.000-04:00

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!

2011-03-13T21:19:00.001-04:00

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

2011-03-09T13:45:00.001-05:00

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!)

2011-03-01T22:28:00.002-05:00

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?

2011-02-15T14:18:00.001-05:00

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!

2011-02-14T23:31:00.000-05:00

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

2011-02-14T00:48:00.000-05:00

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

2011-02-02T18:29:00.000-05:00

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

2011-01-29T15:13:00.002-05:00

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

2011-01-23T09:23:00.000-05:00

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

2011-01-17T19:20:00.000-05:00

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?

2011-01-16T08:07:00.001-05:00

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

2011-01-07T19:57:00.000-05:00

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

2011-01-05T20:11:00.000-05:00

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

2011-01-04T23:15:00.000-05:00

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.

Ready to Pawty!

2010-12-31T20:42:00.000-05:00

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.

'Twas the Day Before Christmas

2010-12-24T16:18:00.000-05:00

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.

Power of the Paw for Hero

2010-12-23T06:04:00.000-05:00

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're Back - Sort of

2010-12-19T21:15:00.002-05:00

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 both helped with the clean-up, of course.

Dear Friends

2010-12-07T16:59:00.000-05:00

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.

Black Friday Shopping List per Frankie

2010-11-26T17:59:00.000-05:00

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.

The Story of Us or Why We're Thankful Every Day

2010-11-24T10:33:00.001-05:00

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.

Weekend Report

2010-11-21T21:19:00.003-05:00

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?

Franklin and I, Lola, Go to Get Groomed

2010-11-14T16:54:00.000-05:00

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?

Wordless Wednesday - 11/10/10

2010-11-10T07:53:00.000-05:00

Product Review: Pet Botanics Healthy Omega Treats

2010-11-07T17:36:00.000-05:00

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.

This seems pretty interesting.

It's OK, Franklin. I've got this.

Perhaps the Chihuahua Ate Your Baby

2010-11-06T23:56:00.000-04:00

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:

Chihuahua, pomeranian on Queensland's top 100 dangerous dogs list

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.

Our Real Howl-o-ween

2010-10-31T17:20:00.000-04:00

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!

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T07:11:00.000-04:00


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.

Not Really Wordless Wednesday

2010-10-27T06:16:00.000-04:00

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.

Abbey

2010-10-24T19:22:00.001-04:00

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.

Naps Have Been the High Point

2010-10-24T15:59:00.000-04:00

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...

Halloween Dog Parade

2010-10-23T20:17:00.000-04:00

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'm Fine and Thank You All

2010-10-18T19:56:00.001-04:00

While you're up, get me a Bud?

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.

The Vet!

2010-10-17T10:34:00.000-04:00

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!

New Friends

2010-10-14T19:24:00.001-04:00

I've been meaning to post about this for a while. Now seems like as good a time as any to think about a happy thing, along with keeping the sad things in mind. If you know what I mean. I few weeks ago, Blog Mom was on Facebook. ( She still won't let me have an account.) She was reading the Sean Casey Animal Rescue page, which is my alma mater, as you may know. Well, there was another blogging doggy from Sean Casey so of course, I had to go visit her blog. She's a very cool black Boxer mix - with a little Shar Pei! Her name is Lucca and her blog is called Lucca and the Incredible Case of Awesomeness. She doesn't blog every day. Well, neither do I, lately. But if you have time go by and say hi to her. She doesn't bite. (That's a doggy related joke.)

Now, today, we got our 100th follower. I guess that's a milestone of sorts. He's a Bichon Frise and his name is Chester and I bet some of you have met him already. His blog, Pooch Tales, is quite new and he's going about making new furiends. It turns out I have a number of things in common with Chester as well. He has a younger sibling and has had to make adjustments. He's also a rescue as are lots and lots of us. And he's a serous cheesehound. If you haven't had the pleasure as yet, by all means go meet him, too.

Thinking of Wilf

2010-10-13T21:42:00.001-04:00

It's hard to think about anything else tonight. This blog was only a month or so old when one of our new blogging friends posted about a dog named Digby being very, very sick and asking that everdoggy go over and leave some words of support. Well, we didn't know Digby or his older brother Wilf, but it seemed like an easy enough thing to do. It was impossible not to fall in love with Digby as soon as we saw his photo. He hung on and fought hard for a while and there were even times of hope, but in the end he succumbed to illness. Hearts broke all across the world when that happened. We all felt for Angus and the font most of all. And now, just a few short months later, Wilf is in his final days - hours - according to his Vet. Life certainly doesn't make any claims about being fair, but it just seems so extra wrong for Wilf to be taken from his family when they've just said good-bye to his little brother. Our thoughts are with them all tonight.

Our First Fight

2010-10-09T23:37:00.001-04:00

I have to tell you, it's been a difficult evening around here. I've had to yell at Franklin from time to time. His reaction is usually perfectly satisfactory, in that he either stops doing whatever it is I don't want him to do, or if, for instance, a chewy is in dispute, he might run and hide under the chair with it. Either way, I'm the undisputed boss of him and it's all good. Tonight he yelled right back. What's more, there seems to be an idea that I bear some responsibililty for the incident in question. That's an unaccustomed and unwelcome feeling, let me tell you. Now in general, I love Franklin. Having a little brother is overall a wonderful thing. But he does cramp my preferred dining style, which I believe is at the root of the whole thing.

I've mentioned that I'm a picky eater. Also a moody eater. And, some of the time I prefer to dine at a fashionably late hour. I usually eat with Blog Mom and Daddy. Alpha Mom is not often home at dinner time and doesn't cook at home much either. BF (before Franklin) Blog Mom or Daddy would put down whatever they hoped I'd decide to eat and then I would eat, or I'd tell them to leave it there and I'd get back to it when the mood struck me. I'd have dinner any time between 6 and 11 PM, strictly according to my own appetite and mood. Since the acquisition of a little brother, it's a whole different story. Dinner is served and if it's not eaten it's picked up, because otherwise Franklin will, of course, eat it. I have to admit I'd do the same in his place if I was in an eating sort of mood. If I've refused to eat all evening, I do get another shot when Alpha Mom and I head upstairs at night. Most usually I eat then, but not always. For the last couple of days I have not been in an eating mood at all. So, I suppose by dinner time tonight I was a little hungrier than usual.

Saturday is hamburger night. I get some burger. Franklin does not because it hasn't agreed with him. He gets dog food. Usually, when I do dine at the same time as Franklin, either he finishes his food first or at about the same time as me, Lola. Tonight I went at dinner with a little extra gusto or something because I was finished way before Franklin, and I guess that hunger strike I had been on came back to haunt me, because I was still hungry. And Franklin was still eating. So I decided I wanted his food. And he wouldn't let me have it! So, I got a little sharp with him. And he got quite sharp right back. That had never happened before. Not only that, Blog Mom told me I should stop. She said, "No, Lola.". I'm not used to that kind of language from her, either. The whole ugly episode has left us a bit on edge, I think. Oh, I did stop when Blog Mom told me to, and eventually I did get some more food. She waited a while. Said she didn't want me to think that bad behavior was being rewarded. Bad behavior? Moi?

The rest of the evening passed pretty peacefully, but I think the whole thing was just a bit traumatic for all of us. I hope that we can all put it completely behind us now. Tomorrow we're getting baths at the groomer and I have found I much prefer to have Franklin along. It's always nice to be with pack and partial pack is better than none.

Wordless Wednesday - Franklin Edition

2010-10-06T08:57:00.002-04:00

Awards Round-Up

2010-10-04T23:08:00.000-04:00

We are very late with acknowledging some awards we've gotten. So late, in fact, that we're not sure we've got them all. As always, it's Blog Mom's fault. We did want to get this week started off right and try to get caught up with that.

We were given the Versatile Blogger award by Sam and also by George a shamefully long time ago.

Thank you so much, Sam and George. I may or may not be versatile, but timely is clearly not among my attrtibutes.(Not my fault.)

A teeny more recently - this one is only inexcusably late on this, rather than unconscionably so - I received these lovely awards from Hero (you have to see the artistic way he did that post if you haven't). Zelle also passed these to me, and was the first so far to include Franklin. He wants to send a big wet snuffle and snuggle to Zelle for that. I also received these from K-9 Katastrophe. I want to thank each of you for including us. It makes me feel warm and even fuzzier all over, even if I'm just awfully late in posting them.

And if that wasn't enough, those wonderful folks at K-9 Katastrophe gave us the Doggie Bloggie Award, too! That works out especially well what with this being a Doggie Blog and all. Thank you, Ruthie!

Of course, there are rules to all awards and I guess I tend to break those. No longer able to pick out just five or 10 or even 15 blogs to award, I want to share these with everyone that we follow or visit with, here or on their blogs. That's because they're all great blogs, I am grateful for everydog's friendship and I think our furiends have some of the best Doggie Blogs anywhere - even in the cases where the furiend in question is a kitty.

Then comes the part where I'm supposed to list a given number of things about me, Lola. I love that part, but I can't do it tonight. It's late and it's almost time for lights and good night and I wanted to get this up and thank the givers before another dog year passes us by. I think you all know just about everything there is to know about me anyway and if anything really interesting happens I come skittering over as fast as I can to post about it.

I want to apologize because I wasn't able to visit a whole lot of blogs in the last couple of days. Blog Mom kept going places instead of being here to work the computer for me. I know I've missed some important things and will be trying hard to catch up in the next couple of day

For George

2010-09-29T22:43:00.000-04:00

As many of you have probably read, our furiend George, of Welsh Terrier fame, was just entered in an informal sort of dog show by his well meaning, but perhaps a little misguided, Dad. It seems that dog shows have not, so far, been the best venue for George to shine. George did not win. Or place. He came in last. This is incomprehensible to Franklin and me both. George is a Terrier of so many talents. Not only does he have a super terrific blog, he's just a wonderful travel writer. He's a Morris dancer. We only learned what a Morris dancer was from George, so there you go! He's an educator, too. That's just scratching the surface, I'm sure, but on top of this multitude of abilities, George remains a regular dude and will accompany his Dad to the pub for a pint any time at all. Plus, he's very good looking, don't you think?

Well, we know that George is Best of Breed in our hearts so we are presenting him with our own blue ribbon for first place. We hope he'll accept it in the spirit in which it's given.

George, you're the best!

Sunday Book Review : You Had Me At Woof

2010-09-26T11:48:00.005-04:00

You Had Me At Woof

How Dogs Taught Me the Secrets of Happiness

by Julie Klam

This is the first Sunday Book Review in a series of...well, of one. Yes, this is pretty much the whole series. We were sent a copy of this delightful book with an invitation to review it. It's the only one I, Lola, have ever received. Blog Mom says that back in the day, when the family had a used book and record store they'd get them sometimes, and her Mom would do some reviews for the local paper. That was way before my time. Maybe before yours, too. Since that time she has not heard a thing from any publishers until now.

We are very happy to be able to give two tails up to the one and only book we're reviewing. We laughed and we cried. What put it over the top for us is that we laughed much more than we cried. Julie Klam takes us through the important stages of her adult life from single with no dog to single with one dog all the way to married with one child and too many dogs to fit easily into New York City apartment life.

Before she meets the man of her dreams the author meets the dog of her dreams - quite literally. She dreamed her Boston Terrier, Otto, before she found him. Her relationship with Otto has a profound and positive influence on all the rest of her life. It's that relationship that sets her free from worries that she can't be giving enough for marriage and motherhood and eventually leads her into involvement with breed rescue and fostering. All from the comfort of what is described as a small NYC apartment.

Any dog lover will no doubt enjoy this fun, fast read. People who aren't such dog lovers would benefit from it greatly, but it's probably too much to hope that a lot of them will read it. It comes to bookstores on October 28th and can be pre-ordered on Amazon and other booksellers on the web. You'll want one for yourself and it's a title to keep in mind if there are dog people on your holiday gift list because they'll enjoy it very much and will think what a clever and thoughtful gift giver you are.

One More Sad Good-Bye

2010-09-25T20:38:00.001-04:00

Well, we logged on, thinking about posting something light and silly and catching up with everyone, but the first thing we saw on our blogroll was HEARTBREAK, posted at The Poupounette. We went there, knowing what we were going to find. Yuu-Chan has gone to the bridge. We are so sad right now, there are no words. He was so young and so loved by his human and four legged family. His blog family was rooting for him through this illness, but our pawsitive vibes didn't help this time. The only thing we can think right now is that his life, short though it was, was good and full of love and the best care he could have.

RIP Yuu-Chan. We hope you're running free and living in beautiful sunshine every day. Our hearts go out to his family and particularly his #1.

Wordless Wednesday -9/22/10

2010-09-22T07:59:00.000-04:00

Adopt-a-Less-Adoptable Pet Week

2010-09-21T22:44:00.001-04:00

If not for our friends we wouldn't know anything these days. First Twinkie tells us about National Dog Week and now Mayzie tells us it's also Adopt-a-Less-Adoptable Pet Week. I wasn't sure that I could really address that issue. I'm a purebred and a member of a breed that was the rarest in the whole world for a bit. I mean, you can't get any more adoptable than that, can you? Well, not so fast, according to some folks. My personal hero, Sean Casey, Animal Rescuer told my Moms that Shar Pei were not quick to be adopted. It seems we have a reputation. "Bad rap" is what Mr. Casey said. Also, it's been rather rudely pointed out that I was well into middle age at the time of my adoption. Not a senior, though. I just want that on the record. I did not yet have my AARP (Association for the Advancement of Retired Pets) card at that point. I don't think it helps with Pei adoption that some rescue agencies and shelters recommend their Peis only to experienced Pei owners. All well and good, but how does one become an experienced Pei owner to begin with if only experienced owners should have us?

Franklin - Cute at times, demonic at times, goofy all the time.

When the Moms got Franklin there was much happiness in the shelter that he was going to be adopted by a family that included no children and a Pei. The fact is that he came from a family with children and his previous owner marked down on his surrender forms that he's good with kids, but no kids for him because he's a Pei. No matter. He's got me, Lola, and that's enough to make him happy. Oh, and the humans, too, but mostly me. But he was kind of lucky that just the right family came along for him. Between the pretty much not so necessary "no kids" caveat and his eyes he might not have been first choice for just everyone. We're still trying to get a photo that really shows what a funny looking guy he is. This one doesn't capture the demonic look, but it does give you something of an idea of the state his eyes are in, after drastic entropion surgery. He can see, but not all that well. Mostly you wouldn't notice, but it really shows when he's trying to chase a ball, which he loves to do. What he can't do is follow where it's going, even if it's a straight line. He ran right over the one that Daddy threw the other day and had no idea. It's OK, though. We doggies don't really absolutely need to see all that well or even at all if we have someone to take good care of us.

Differently abled animals can make the best pets in the world. The aforementioned Twinkie has only three good legs. Gentle Ben, another blog furiend is doing just fine on three legs and some dogs make do quite well with fewer than that. Adoptapet.com's blog has an post up titled Blind Dogs, Deaf Dogs, Wonderful Dogs!. and the article referenced mentions that some people who have adopted blind or deaf dogs can't imagine having any other sort of pet. I'd bet the same goes for kitties, too. Now you all know all this already and I do, too, but we should probably do what we can to get the word out to those who think that Pitties or Peis are mean dogs or that dogs or kitties who lack a limb or so, or vision or hearing can't be happy pets.

Everyone have a truly great National Dog Week, too. Extra treats! Extra cheese!

Twinkie's National Dog Week Show Us Your Tongue Contest

2010-09-19T22:18:00.000-04:00

Twinkie is having a giveaway contest to celebrate National Dog Week. She asked for suggestions for what kind of contest but didn't get a lot, and finally came up with "Show Us Your Tongue" as a theme for the competition. Sounds easy, right? Not for us so much. We keep our tongues firmly in our cheeks most of the time. Oh, mine comes out to apply generous licks to my humans, or any humans who stand still long enough for that matter. But it's hard to take a picture while you're being licked. The rest of the time all you get is a glimpse of my tongue. There are like three existant photos that include a decent image of my tongue. This is probably the best of them. It's an action shot, as you can see.

I don't know if it's a breed thing, but it might be. We're not even sure we've really seen Franklin's tongue. He seems to have been taught not to lick by his former humans. I'm working on unteaching him. Now I get an occasional kiss from him and once in a while he'll lay a quick one on one of the humans, but not often. That's a shame, because we Pei are very good at kisses. We approach it very seriously. As for our mostly hidden tongues, I think it might be that our mouths have plenty of room for our tongues so even if we're panting the most you'll usually see of it is just the tip. So, even though I can't really compete with some of the world class doggy tongues out there, this is my modest submisison - the best I can do.

Saturday Thises and Thatses

2010-09-18T11:09:00.001-04:00

Look what came in my Pei Mail yesterday:

This is Master. He's a Collie Pei. I don't think he's a designer dog. More likely a love child. But if they all came out like this I'd have to endorse this hybrid. Is he gorgeous or what? It's probably just as well that he's way down in Dallas, because we just don't have room for another doggy bed in this place, or the green papers to support another one in the style to which we've become accustomed and Blog Mom can't stop looking at his photo. He's Pet of the Week in yesterday's Dallas Voice and available for adoption at .the Dallas Animal Services Adoption Center. If you're anywhere near Dallas and are lacking for a Shar Pei and/or a Collie, you really can't go wrong here. I'm sure he'll herd your sheep, rescue Timmy from the well and....

Oh, this is a bit humiliatling. After wittily listing a couple of things that Collies do I can't really come up with anything that we Shar Pei do. We are champions at being housebroken. You won't find a breed in the world that can beat us for that. I'm not sure that qualifies as an activity, though. We are wonderful companions. It's hard to explain why we're so good at that, because being good companions is really a major schtick for the whole canine population. All's I can say is that having one of us around is kind of like having an attentive, but not overly demanding, human around most of the time. That is not exactly an activity on the order of well rescuing or sheep herding either, though. We have a strong prey drive (except for Franklin) but it doesn't really come to anything. We don't track anything much or run vermin to ground. We certainly don't retrieve. We will encourage YOU to retrieve. Does that count for anything? We must do something.... I know! We grunt! We are not the only grunting breed, but I think we can hold our own with any of them. In fact, I think that for those big doggy shows they have they should open up a new category. The Grunting Group. Right now we're in Non-Sporting Group which only serves to highlight what could be construed by the unenglightened as our lack of function. Anyhoo, someone's going to get a great dog with Master, but I recommend changing the name. Calling your dog Master has just got to set up the wrong dynamic for the whole relationship.

And having nothing to do with any of the above, I was leaving a comment on Corbin's blog the other day and this was my squiggly word.

Doggem! I'm telling you - there some kind of secret code thing going on here. Any code breaking dogs around?

Write A Post, Help a Dog

2010-09-16T05:55:00.001-04:00

It's a movement, fellow doggies! Pedigree is making it so easy to help our fellow dogs in shelters. For every one of us who becomes a fan of or likes The Pedigree Adoption Drive on Facebook, then Pedigree will donate a bowl of food to a shelter. AND, for every blog post we write about it, they'll donate a twenty pound bag of their Healthy Longevity food. What's not to like about that? Nothing is what. Donations of food help shelters take care of more of us and help to give us more time to find our perfect forever home. This page on Pedigree's site will tell you lots of different things we can do. The blogging drive kicks off today, Thursday, September 16th and goes through Sunday, so time is shortish to get your post in.

I know I don't have to tell you about all the dogs who wind up in shelters ( like yours truly and Franklin and so many of our friends, too.) or how adopting one of us transforms lives, but there are some points that should be driven home during this event:

Each year, more than 4 million dogs end up in shelters and breed rescue organizations. Pedigree created The PEDIGREE Adoption Drive to help shine a spotlight on the plight of these homeless dogs
This year the PEDIGREE Adoption Drive is raising awareness for homeless dogs by donating a bowl of food to shelter dogs for everyone who becomes a “Fan” or “Likes” The PEDIGREE Adoption Drive on Facebook. So far more than 1 million bowls have been donated.
Special for BlogPaws West: For each blog that posts about the PEDIGREE® Adoption Drive through September 19th, PEDIGREE® will donate a bag of their new Healthy Longevity Food for Dogs to shelters nationwide. It’s simple: Write a post, help a dog.

Now, I learned about this from three different blogger friends. It was posted on Cooking With Dogs, Bocci's Beefs and Life With Dogs, so thank you to all of them. You can leave a link to your post at Life With Dogs'Special Edition Blog Hop starting this morning to make sure your post gets counted.

Wordless Wednesday - Kitty Style

2010-09-15T06:33:00.000-04:00

Fashion Statements and Birthday Boys

2010-09-12T20:10:00.004-04:00

DRESS TO EXPRESS

I assume we all know that it's Fashion Week in NYC. No, I didn't attend any of the shows. All my invitations must have been lost in the mail, plus we were busy with other things. Anyway, the more interesting New York Fashion Week was in August. That was Pet Fashion Week. Uh...we didn't go to that either, but it looks like a lot more fun than the human version, doesn't it? Still, those NY celebrepets have nothing on our own fashionistas, like Lorenza, for instance. But then she's got her own pawsonal designer and seamstress right at home. Ha! Beat that, Paris Hilton's chihuahua!

We Pei are better off keeping it simple, however. A Pei in a dress just wouldn't look the same as a doxie or a yorkie. My wardrobe generally consists of a collar and sometimes a bandana. Harness and leash come into the equation if we're going out, of course. The same formula works just as well for Franklin. With this very limited palette with which to work, we needed to give careful thought to our Fall 2010 looks. What did we want to say with our collars this year? Well, we decided that what I wanted to say was that I'm a girl. There's sometimes a little confusion on that front. I think it's the very short ears. So, we decided to think pink.

No one's going to ask "What's HIS name now?", am I right?

See the little bitty bones? It's those little details that are so impawtent.

Now Franklin has a different issue to deal with. There's the little problem of his looking a tad demonic. You don't see it in the photos that Blog Mom has taken so much. She likes to take photos that flatter him and she sees him as totally adorable. You know how Moms are. But when viewed straight on his face can be just a little startling and the red rims around his eyes aren't getting any less red after two months. This together with the fact that we're bred to look a little stern so some people are afraid of us to begin with means that we had to give some thought to Franklin's image when planning his wardrobe. So...Woofstock for Franklin. It really does reflect his attitude much better than his rather deep bark does.

Peace, love and Puperoni, dudes!

Also, it serves to remind one that it's much more likely that a red eyed individual is peacefully stoned than possessed by a demon.

Stay away from the brown cheese, pawple!

BIRTHDAY BOYS

I mostly gave up doing posts for furiends' special days because it was just impawsible to keep up with all the birthdays and Gotcha Days. But this past week has been remarkable for the number of important days our furiends are celebrating. It started with Hero's birthday on the 6th. He turned 4. Oh, to be 4 again! What a wonderful age! And then there's Pip's very special day on September 11th. And then it turns out that today is Bolo's birthday and also Buddy's! All's I can say is that September has given us some great doggies and I'm so glad to know all of them and if you haven't said Happy Birthday to them, well, it's never too late.

Adoptapalooza

2010-09-12T04:05:00.000-04:00

If you're in NYC today you will probably be at Adoptapalooza, no? I know I would. It is simply going to be THE event of the year is all. I won't be able to attend, (maybe next year, if Blog Mom has two functioning legs, we can do it.) but my alma mater will be there fur sure. It's at Washington Square Park in the Village. All doggies are invited. You don't have to be up for adoption to go. AND, you can bring your humans, too. There is something for everydog there including a fashion show, massages, training demos - just all kinds of things to do and experience. What's not to like? And of course, there will be masses of adorable, adoptable pets there. That's the main point, isn't it?

Remembering September 11th, 2001

2010-09-11T05:47:00.001-04:00

From the World Trade Center's Heroic Dog Yearbook. They came from all over the country to help, both humans and dogs. We always want to be where we're needed. That's something worth remembering along with the horror of the day.

The Great Rearrangement Continues

2010-09-06T23:09:00.001-04:00

Hi. Remember me, Lola? The forecast here is for continued slow blogging until either the end of time or until Blog Mom runs out of projects she can do, or make Daddy do, in the house whichever comes first. See that photo above? I don't even look like that anymore. I have my new fall collar and not a single decent photo of it yet. It's pink with silver bones on it, by the way. Maybe you'll get to see it sometime, if we get our priorities straight.

Of course some of these home improvements do show the right attitude. See that bed that Franklin's on? That's my ratty old bed that had been retired but was recalled to duty when Franklin moved in. That's history. Blog Mom came home from one of her expeditions with a new one, but we don't have a picture of it, do we? Actually, we're not sure we like it all that much. It's a little too fluffy for our taste. We prefer something in a flatter bed, but we're starting to use it. And at least she was thinking of the dogs while she was out that time. She claims it all has a lot to do with us. She says that the house was never properly set up to accomodate a Pei centered family and now that there are two of us, it's more Pei centered than ever. Whatever.

Blog Mom has really got the bit in her teeth now. It all started, as far as I can tell, with her deciding that she just had to do something about where the cats eat, which was largely on the kitchen table. Because of the Pei, of course. It's actually the only dining table they currently have as the dining room has been pressed into service for other things, so it was pretty inconvenient to have the cats on the kitchen table entirely aside from the impression that makes on any normal people who might sneak into the house. Anyhoo, there's an old hutch in the kitchen and she thought of clearing it off and giving it to the cats for their dining area. One thing leads to another. When you empty a space you have to put the things that were there other places. And if you're going to move the microwave you might as well get a new one, etc, etc. Long, long story short - the kitchen had to be totally reorganized. And while we were at it, wasn't it about time we got a new kitchen table? Apparently it was.

Simone got it right away. It took Happy a little longer to remember where to look for his food and he still has to be put there sometimes. They both seem very pleased by the change, I have to admit. Happy sleeps there a lot during the day and both of them seem to enjoy having a dining/napping space that is exclusively theirs. But they did stay away the day the new table came. That was just too much change and commotion for them and they hid out in the bedroom until they were overcome with hunger. By then the table was in place and they could see it wasn't really dangerous at all.

Blog Mom almost satisfied with the kitchen for now, except for a few finishing touches she has in mind. It needs a new floor as does the front hall, but that's going to have to wait until there's a budget for it, and DIY is pretty much out of the question. It's for the best, believe me. However, this aggression did not stop at the kitchen door. She's begun the living room and one idea leads to another. Somehow we've gone to making a place for the kitties to eat to researching the pros and cons of gel burning fireplaces. After the living room she's already got a to-do list for the hall bathroom. And she's thinking up things she wants to do next Spring, too! We did get some new area rugs for the living room. There was a going out of business sale right on the way to the supermarket it seems. I like the rugs and am doing my best to infuse them with a nice, homey essence of Pei.

I have to admit that despite the fact that some humans were not giving us undivided attention and there was all this upheaval going on, Franklin and I had a very nice, relaxing Labor Day weekend. The weather was beautiful and there were plenty of people around to let us in and out and out and in and see to our every need and most of our wants, too. We napped in the sun and played in the shade had treats and Franklin barked at the neighbors some and all in all, from a doggy point of view it was pretty nice even though Alpha Mom went to the Hampton Classic and didn't take us. She says she's taking us next year for sure. I hope you all had a great one.

Good-bye For Now, Dear Molly

2010-09-03T18:07:00.003-04:00

Oh, it was such a sad shock to log on this afternoon and learn about the passing of our dear friend Molly. Of course, her Mom did give us a gentle warning that it might be her time, but it's easy to just sort of skip over that part of things when you're not right there to see how sick she must have been. We didn't know her for all that long but I know most of us will always miss her. She was so brave and she lived her life to the fullest possible even though she wasn't well. She had what we all need - love and care from her wonderful family . That's the most important thing that any of us could ever ask for. You go to the Bridge when it's your time and we don't any of us really know if that's going to be in years and years or tomorrow. So, good-bye for now, Molly. We'll see you when it's our time to get on that bridge, but we'll always remember you with love in the meantime.

Just A Quick Note About the Auction

2010-09-02T20:56:00.000-04:00

I just want to let the doggies who bought my items know that J.D., Max and their Mom have sent your info and we'll be sending them out very soon. Of course my not too bright mom didn't think about going and getting the packaging ahead of time, so we have to do that first, but if we don't really have a bad hurricane we should be all over it on the weekend.

Well, No Time Left for a Real Post, But How About a Dance?

2010-09-01T21:43:00.002-04:00

It looks like my post about the awards is going to have to wait another day or even two. There are a number of ~~excuses~~ reasons that Blog Mom is having such a hard time getting up to date here. One of them is that she hasn't been able to do much of anything since really injuring her leg earlier this summer. Now it's gotten to the point where she can function a little better. The ankle is not normal sized yet and the calf is still weak and she needs a cane to balance, but that's a big improvement from where she was, believe it or not. Sooo...she's had lots of catching up to do and she's on a tear in the house. She just went through the kitchen and the living room is next on her list for a fall cleaning and minor face lift. She says it's past time that we have to "beat back the crazy". More about that if there's anything interesting to report there.

What's important is that it's a happy day in the dogiverse, because Miss Molly's Mom is reporting much improvement on that front and Mona's Mommy posted a happy update on Shelby. It's enough to make a doggy want to dance. As it happens, my wonderful Aunt Donna sent us a link to a video of a very talented Merengue dancing dog, so we though we'd share that one with you. It sure did get all four of my feet tapping.

Now I have about an hour before bed, so I'm going to use that time to try to catch up with some of my furiends.

So Many Thanks In Order, Part I

2010-08-31T21:00:00.001-04:00

I haven't blogged much and for the first time in a while I really have gotten behind in reading blogs. For that, I'm getting awards and a cool pressie. Maybe I should just shut up all the time. Nah! That's not going to happen. But there are so many thanks in order I thought I better do them it two evenings. Awards tomorrow, I hope, pressie and other business tonight.

I want to say a BIG thank you to J.D., Max and their Mom for all the work they've done and are still doing on the auction for Shelby. I feel awful about not getting online to bid on something, but a lot of the things we put up sold, so I'm happy about that and even happier that the auction really did raise a considerable contribution to Shelby's care.

Now I have to tell you about the big surprise I got yesterday. I got mail! I generally get much better mail than my humans do and this was no exception.

I've got mail!

Someone bring my reading glasses!

It was from my Rhodesian Ridgeback furiend, Boomer Miller! Boomer sent me mail! How exciting is that? Very, very exciting! So, what's in the envelope? I need to know.

This is pawfect!

Boomer, how did you know? It's just what I needed!

To be honest, I like having a little brother. I kind of love Franklin. Maybe even a lot. But there are moments now and then when I remember what it was like being the sole canine center of my universe and sometimes I miss it. It kind of lifts my spirits to have this and say, "Nyah, nyah!" at those moments. OK, I can be a bit of a bitch at times. Comes with the territory. Not that it's entirely true. I will always be top dog here as long as I'm on this side of the Bridge. I got that in writing just to be sure. But they probably love Franklin just as much. Just sort of differently, due to the fact that he's young and kind of goofy. But I don't have to tell him that, do I?

Oh, I feel right on top of my game again!

Thank you again so very much, Boomer. You are a thoughtful and kind Ridgeback and I'll be furever grateful.

I can't close this post out without expressing Get Well wishes for dear little Molly. She's sickies again, and fighting like a teeny tiger again, too. We are sending all the pawsitive vibes that we can, Molly. I hope you can feel them.

Thursday and I'm So Behind

2010-08-26T20:25:00.001-04:00

I'm a little behind here.

I need to apologize to all my wonderful furiends. I haven't visited anyone at all today. I mean, I've read a few blogs where I could but I haven't so much as left a word. You know I love you all, right? And I'll catch up as soon as I can, but maybe not for another day. Our usual morning session on the web got cut short and tonight's not looking good either. That kind of thing happens from time to time and I'd be catching up with everyone instead of posting this Blog Mom culpa, but there are major events that have passed by while I was kept from my blogging duties.

This morning I did just get a chance to read that it's National Dog Day, which I didn't know was a thing at all. Thank you, Mayzie. If not for furiends I wouldn't know anything at all, I think. Of course, the day's about over now, but I sure hope everydog had a great one. Mine was so-so. To tell the truth I'm a little off my feed, which is making the Moms and Daddy just a tad nervous and that's part of the reason that I've had trouble getting online. They're too busy watching me and worrying to keep up with everything they need to be doing. Like helping me blog, for instance.

There was another very impawtent event that I did not post about at the proper time, which was yesterday. It was Alpha Mom's birthday! She turned 385 in standard dog years yesterday, August 25th. We didn't forget her birthday. In fact, Franklin and I got her a netbook and she really likes it. ...Oh, OK, I'll tell the truth. We didn't buy it all by ourselves. The kitties chipped in, too, but only a little. But I think that it's only right to say a formal Happy Birthday to one of the best Moms in the whole world here on my blog. So, better late than never.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ALPHA MOM!

with love from me, Lola

Wordless Wednesday - Two Tails Up

2010-08-24T23:14:00.000-04:00

We're Driving Everyone Crazy

2010-08-23T21:03:00.000-04:00

Finally it's not so hot out. But it's raining. It rained yesterday and today and it's supposed to rain for the next couple of days, too. This is great news for what grass we have left, but we are not water dogs - at all - and we can't go out and do this:

Please pardon our blur.

Sorry for the horrible photo quality. Blog Mom's camera is not adequate for capturing our supersonic Pei play. Now that Franklin and I are all bonded and on the same page we have gotten used to being able to do zoomies and play Pei tag in the yard when it gets cool enough after dinner. Faced with two days of (very much needed) rain, we're getting a little antsy. I think that everyone should be able to understand that. Yet, you'd think that zoomies in the living room was disturbing the peace or something, the way everyone seems kind of testy about it. Thing is, we don't really care that much. They'll get over it.

International Homeless Animal Day

2010-08-21T12:49:00.002-04:00

Before taking off for the wedding of the century, I made sure to leave a post about International Homeless Animal Day. I confess that I didn't know about it. It was Bocci who made us here at Chez Lola aware of this important day. All of us four leggers, except Simone, here at my house were once without a permanent address, so this occasion resonates with us as it does with so many of our furiends. Probably most of the people who stop by here are already doing what they can to help.

Some are doing huge things, like fostering doggies or transporting them or volunteering at shelters or with rescue organizations. Even if you can't do those things, there are lots of little ways to help every day. When we buy things for our pets, we can check and see if what we need can be had from a place that supports rescue, for instance. There are quite a few of them. Franklin just got his back to school collar and leash from Rescue Pet Supply, for instance. They donate 10% of the purchase price of items that you purchase to one of their affiliate rescue organizations, which they list on their site Or you could do lots of different kinds of shopping at The Animal Rescue Site. I bet humans could get a LOT of holiday shopping done there, as well as other types of things.

Miss Brooklyn 2009 and in front of my Alma Mater

Of course, if you happen to be in or near Brooklyn, you can't do better than to buy your stuff from the Fort Hamilton Dog House, which is physically connected to and supports the Sean Casey Animal Rescue which is my alma mater, as I've mentioned many times before. I believe they're offering free local delivery on their site, too, but you really should stop by. It's a wonderful fun place to visit if you like animals at all and if you don't, what are you doing here?

Wordlessish Wednesday

2010-08-18T06:30:00.000-04:00

Action shot!

Bachelorette Parties Are Ruff

2010-08-14T20:57:00.001-04:00

Thank you Mayzie and Puddles. You sure are the hostesses with the mostesses. I just hope that Ruby and Penny and Frankie are all recovered in time for the big day.

Mom! The room is spinning around. Make it stop!

Before I ~~pass out~~ go to sleep I just want to remind everydog about the Auction for Shelby that JD and Max are so kindly hosting. Bidding is already open on a lot of items. I'm still deciding myself, but hurry over and start browsing as soon as you can.

Speak, Franklin!

2010-08-10T22:32:00.001-04:00

Hi everyone! My big sister Lola says that it was one month ago today, August 10th that my unfortunate incarceration ended and I joined the family. She also says I should write this post (almost) all by myself to thank you all for your very nice and kind welcome to me and also for being so supportive through my name changes. I do thank you really a lot. You are all so nice and friendly and I'm real happy to meet you all. I did want to say that, but I really didn't know what else to write about. My Big Sis said that I should talk about my Gotcha Day from my point of view, so I will. I pretty much always do what she tells me. More or less.

I'm going to let you write on my blog. Please don't embarrass me.

It was a dark and stormy day when the lady came to meet me. I'd been on the inside for over three months for the crime of having a family that was moving and couldn't keep me. OK, I know that other dogs have it a lot worse than I ever did. I don't want to be a whiner, but it still wasn't a very cool experience, you know? I do have to admit that the warden and the matrons were pretty chill peeps. They looked out for us and everything and we got time in the exercise yard every day. Also my family couldn't provide some important medical care that I needed and I did get that while I was on the inside. I was going out of my mind, spending so much time in that little cell, though. And that's why I could have blown the whole deal.

A month ago today I was just hanging out in my cell when one of the matrons came and told me I had company. It was the first visitor I'd had and I didn't have any idea that this was like an important interview or anything. I was just excited to be out of the cell and to meet a new person because I really like people a lot. Matron brought me into this room where this lady was waiting and I went all crack dog. I ran around the room - stopping to say hi to the lady every so often - like I had a firecracker up my butt. And I lifted my leg and marked everything that wasn't moving about every 5 seconds. I'm sooo embarrassed thinking about it now. After a few minutes of this the lady left and I went back to my cell and I figured that was that. But it wasn't.

An hour or so later the same matron put a leash on me and took me outside in the pouring rain. This was getting to be a pretty strange day. Now I'm a Shar Pei and I don't usually like to go out in the rain at all, but I didn't even care. That's how desperate a dog can get for a change of pace when he's incarcerated. We were out in front of the jailhouse and that same lady got out of a car, but she wasn't alone this time. There was another lady and a beautiful lady Shar Pei with her. I was so excited to meet this Shar Pei. I don't know if she was all that thrilled. I mean, it was raining a lot. We spent some time getting to know each other. Well, really I was mostly telling her how pleased I was to meet her and she was mostly trying to stay as dry as she could, but it was still a big thrill for me. After a while I got taken back inside again and I was planning on a nap and maybe dreaming of that lady Pei, but I didn't go back to my cell. Instead, one of the ladies came inside and spent some time with the warden and then she took me outside and we got into the car. The car with the beautiful Pei. Wowser! I did not see that coming.

I finally figured out that this was something important. This could mean I was getting what I wanted most in the world - a new pack with a pawsome big sister. It seemed too good to be true, but I didn't want to make any more mistakes. I sat real nice in the back seat of the car and just looked out the window, all casual, like this happened all the time. We got to a house and went inside and I made a point of not even looking like I was thinking of lifting a leg. And I never have. Not once. I understand "house". That room in the jail just wasn't part of a house to me. I haven't had a really bad day since. I have two Moms, a Dad a human brother and a bass player. What more could a dog want?

I love our big back yard, but I love my Big Sis more than anything.

My wonderful big sister Lola started teaching me things right away. The very first life lesson she taught me was never, ever try to mount your sister, even if you're not blood relatives. Hoo boy, I never made that mistake again. She also taught me how to play and also that we play when she says we do and it's not such a great idea to try to insist when she's not feeling like it. She feels like it a lot more now than when I first got there. I guess 'cause I learned how to do it right.

Big Sis introduced me to our pawsome neighbor, Sambuca

She's still working on me and she can be pretty strict about some things, but I don't mind that. She's so much ~~older~~ wiser and more experienced than I am that I don't mind at all that she's the boss of me. Actually, everyone's the boss of me, almost. That's not so bad, though. Everyone's kind and they love me so it just makes me feel safe and taken care of.

Another thing that Lola taught me is about dog beds. I didn't know that dogs could have beds or that we needed them. Turns out they're pretty great. I have more to talk about, but it's time for me to be in my bed right now. Maybe if I didn't embarrass her too much, Lola will let me do this again some time.

Night night everybuddy.

Happy Barkday, Sugar

2010-08-10T05:39:00.000-04:00

Sugar is nine years young today. She looks much younger, doesn't she? And she is having a blog pawty to celebrate. She says that all you have to do to attend the pawty is the following:

If you wish to celebrate and pawty on my Barkday, simply do a blog post on Tuesday, August 10th (my Barkday). About WHAT? Well, on how you would Pawty on my Barkday ... adventures will be doing and of course the delish treats will be eating
On my post on August 10th "My 9th Barkday,"
Feel free to use any photos in my blog to use in your post.

Easy Peasy, right? Well, I love a pawty. I'm assuming a lot of Golden Retrievers will be there, so it should be very social and fun. Goldens might be the most social doggies I've ever ment. I think starting with a good game of Pin the Tail on the Kitty is a great way to break the ice.

Then it would be pretty cool to work up an appetite (as if we needed to do that) with a good old fashioned squirrel treeing competition.

And then it would be time for a little something. I would love to try Sugar's Mom's Cheesy Bone Treats, maybe along with a little chopped liver. There's nothing like chopped liver for a pawty, I always woof. And maybe a nice cheese platter. Then, of course, the big moment and a ginormous cheesecake and we bark Happy Barkday to Sugar. Sounds like a great time to me, but I'm certainly open to other ideas and look forward to reading what others have thought up. Whatever goes on, I hope that Sugar has the best birthday ever.

Weather permitting, I will chase a squirrel in Sugar's honor today. I would love to toast her with a bit of chopped liver as well, but that one's not up to me. Failing that we'll think of her when as we munch on a tea time lamb and rice buscuit - not party fare, but more likely to be available

Happy World Cat Day to all our Kitty Furiends

2010-08-08T14:17:00.000-04:00

Actually, I just found out about World Cat Day from Tama-Chan. I knew it was something I could not let pass, so first I went to wish Happy a Happy World Cat Day.

But I AM celebrating!

Happy was totally busy working on becoming one with his basket. He's doing rather well at it. having managed to become rectangular. He said to put a little something special in his supper dish and he'd see us around 6 PM or so. So, down the hall to alert Simone.


ZZZZZZZ

She was going to miss the whole day if I let her sleep, so I took my life in my paws and called to her to wake up.

Honey, every day is World Cat Day - if you're me.

She was most grateful to me for waking her up and wishing her a happy holiday. She didn't say so, but I could tell. She didn't take a swipe at me for one thing.

This being a special day for kitties it seemed like a good time to post a couple of the numerous pictures we have of Schooner. I think Blog Mom is trying to experience having a Maine Coon in the family vicariously. She saves all the photos of Schooner she can get. I don't mind. I think he's a pretty pawsome kitty, too.

Winning over an adopted sibling

His Mom says he's doing great, making friends and infuencing people and other kitties all over the place. This one was from a while ago. He's grown since this one was taken.

I am SOOOO big.

He's going to be a very big kitty when he grows up. He'll keep growing for the longest time and eventually he'll probably have a mane like a lion. His kitty daddy does.

Cuteness - I haz it.

For now, though, he's still just a kid and a pretty adorable one. Go ahead - You know you want to say, "SQUEE!".

I need to post about going to PetSmart and I am considering....considering, mind you....letting Franklin contribute to a post on his one month Gotcha anniversary, which I believe is Tuesday. We are going to have to work to get that together, but in the meantime here's one of us doing what we usually do:

I know Franklin has a tendency to look a teensy bit demonic, with those unfortunate eye. He's not, though. Not a sign of being a demon so far at all. He's just a little annoying at the absolute worst.

Good News from CoCo!

2010-08-04T21:24:00.000-04:00

I"m sure the Power of the Paw is helping. CoCo went home yesterday, still kind of shaky on her pins, but she's been improving since she got home. Her Mom said that when they got to the VET, CoCo just started heading toward the visiting room, but her folks told her no, she was going home and she was one happy Dane once she understood that. They said she really hadn't slept well at the hospital, but she had an excellent night's sleep last night. Except when she woke up about 4:30 AM and asked to go out, and she pooped. No one minded getting up at that hour because she hadn't been able to poop in the hospital so there was great celebrating about that success. She has a lot of weight to gain back. She's all thin and her collar is hanging off, but the meds and home cooking will fix that.

I want to thank you for all your good thoughts for CoCo. I know what she's got is treatable and manageable, but it's always good to have those vibes out there for you.

While I'm at it, I just want to make sure that everydog knows about Shelby's Auction Page that JD and Max are running for her. I would guess that everyone does know, but did you know you could follow it and know whenever new stuff is posted? Go ahead. What are you waiting for?

Can I Get Some Power of the Paw for a Friend?

2010-08-02T20:29:00.001-04:00

CoCo, a very sweet Great Dane of my aquaintance is very sick in the hospital right now. Some of you met her in my post about the Doggy Expo we were both at in June. Her Mom works with both my Moms and both she and CoCo's Daddy are torn up about this.

CoCo and her Mom, feeling great just last month

I should tell you that the VET says it's all going to be OK. What happened was, she stopped eating and then over the weekend she got weak and her legs couldn't support her and the long and short of it is that she was diagnosed with Addison's Disease. The VET says that now that they know what's wrong she can be treated and will have to have maintenance meds once a month, but she'll be all right. But she's not there yet, and that's where the Power of the Paw comes in. She has to get her strength back. CoCo is not a blogging dog, but if you could all just think some pawsitive vibes for her to get better fast so she can be back home with her family - well, it couldn't possibly hurt, right?

Quiet Times for me, Lola and Franklin, too

2010-08-01T18:51:00.002-04:00

"So what's Lola been up to lately?", you may (or may not) wonder. Not much. Between Blog Mom's injury which wasn't supposed to heal for weeks and weeks (and she just managed to set it back a week or so) and the heat, after the big excitement of Franklin's arrival I've been doing a lot of nothing much. There was a VET visit for shots and some horrid, painful ear cleaning. Alpha Mom finally made him stop. Now I have medication, but I got a shot for it, too and it made my meaty mouth shrink up a bit. It'll come back, I'm pretty sure. Franklin didn't need shots, but he got checked out, and his ears were assaulted as well. It should come as no surprise that I was very good and he wasn't.

We often see eye to eye on things

But when we don't, he knows looks up to whom in this team

We're still working on him and getting to know all about him. I pretty much have him under my paw, but the humans feel he needs further training from where they sit so that he'll mature into a the really good dog he almost is. He's not going to be as good as me, Lola, I'm fairly certain. But good enough. It's too bad they can't learn from me. He's not only my little brother. He's now pretty much available to me as a minion, should I ever require one. He might still be growing, which is a teensy bit alarming. He seems a little taller. He's filling out and his collar had to be loosened by one hole. He still looks like he was built out of spare Pei parts, though.

Yesterday was the first day that we got some relief from the heat and could enjoy the backyard a little instead of just doing what we had to and going right in.

Where's my min...I mean my little brother?

Franklin here, reporting for whatever you should want, Big Sis!

That's been life around here. Franklin's going to get microchipped on Thursday night. He's going to PetSmart for that, so I really, really hope I get to go, too. And I sure hope the temperatures stay down for a while for everybuddy who's been sweltering all summer.

For Puddles on her Birthday

2010-07-28T03:42:00.004-04:00

I wasn't sure how to roast a weiner, to tell the truth. I didn't know if I could come up with those witty one-liners that the roasters on teevee use, but I found I could come up with some very bad verse. So that's what I did. You're going to have to work out meter for yourselves. They didn't teach iambic pimiento or any of that in obedience class. All I know is that it rhymes in places, ergo it's a poem. A poem for Puddles:

Reflections on a Roasted Weiner
by me, Lola

She's the lemon in our sweet tea
The Tabasco in our soup
She's always up to something
Even while she goes to poop

She went to intervention
Told them, "Talk to the paw!"
Albert's home just hoping
She's in no trouble with the law

Now Puddles, she is a Preacher
So she's been heard to say
Puddles has a brand new scam
For each and every day

Still, we pray she'll be all right
And come to no bad end
'Cause Puddles Duddles Rainwater
Is our much loved, dear, furiend

Happy, happy birthday, dear Puddles! Stay! just the way you are.

Good Golly Miss Molly!

2010-07-26T21:52:00.001-04:00

We just want to post that we're so happy for the good news about Miss Molly-Pops. She sure is a strong, fiesty girl. I won't be uncrossing my paws until she's home with her Mom and feeling herself completely, but that doesn't mean I'm not full of joy at the improvement.

Can't wait to hear that you're home where you belong, Molly. Mr. Pip will be pretty happy, too.

100th Post and Very Belated Award Post

2010-07-25T10:22:00.004-04:00

Well, this milestone kind of snuck up on me, I'll tell you. Here it is, my 100th post and I had nothing. Nothing special planned at all. Due to my blogging assistant's injury - which is finally healing - we don't even have new photos. I had to use one from a month or so ago so you'd remember who I am. Another thing that almost got by me was that Road Dog Tales gave me a Versatile Blogger award a while ago and I am terribly late acknowledging that here.

Thank you so very much for thinking of me and I'm sorry for the tardiness. As many of you know, the rules that accompany the Versatile Blogger award include listing 7 things about oneself. I thought let's put that together with my 100th post, mix well, bend the rules and post a list of things I've learned about being a blogging dog. So that's what I'm doing here, right now.

Big Welcome Licks: The pet blogiverse is incredibly welcoming to newcomers. In my first post I cited two early inspirations. One was Hero and the other was Wimsey. Both came right over to say, "Hi" and Hero has become a very special blogging furiend ever since. Soon after that, yet another VIP (Very Impawtent Pei) Bolo posted about my blog and sent more new furiends over and pretty soon we were right in the middle of the pack! It was just a warm, wonderful beginning!
Does Good and Promotes Animal Rescue: Some blogging pets are from rescue and some are from breeders.It doesn't matter where we came from. We're all for saving our fellow animals from homelessness, abuse, BSL and other horrors. Many blog posts raise awareness of particular situations.There are often contests or other promotions to benefit our less fortunate brothers in fur - or scales, or feathers for that matter. And sometimes we can come together in a concerted effort to make a difference to one furiend in pawticular, as in the case of Shelby. Lots of furiends are trying to help Mona's Mommy and the Pittie Pack help her. It's not all fun and games, pawple. We can be rather serious when it's necessary.
Pet/Human Project: Blogging turns out to be a project we do together with our humans, just like training. Those are always good. If they're going to help us blog they have to pay close attention to everything we're doing, thinking, feeling. Not that they didn't before, but blogging doesn't hurt, does it? And who's to say that knowing something will make a great blog post doesn't tip the balance when they're deciding if they should take us along or leave us home? Plus, I've developed my skills as a model. Where I used to be annoyed by the flashy beast, now I pose for it. I figured out that whatever it is, it's all about me, Lola! Well, now I guess it's about Franklin, too. And sometimes the kitties. But it's still a good, not bad, thing.
Good Training: For the humans, that is. From advice about problems we may be having to news about the newest product out there that we might enjoy, our humans have access to a huge number of knowledgeable and informed pet pawple. That can only help them take care of us even better than ever.
Few Aggression Issues: You have to figure with all these pet bloggers from all over the country and the world, there must quite a few humans who would have different views on a lot of things. And yet, we pretty much all get along and learn about each other as individuals, which makes all the difference. We're thinking that if everyone in charge of the country and the world was required to bring a pet everywhere and if everyone at super impawtent meetings sat down and talked about their pets before getting into issues there might be a better chance at reaching understandings. What do you think?
Oh, the Places We Go!: The only real way to learn about far away places is from pets who live there, don't you agree? From the steeples of Raleigh, NC to the jungles of Maylasia, we learn about the world. We get to join our furiends on their walks in India, Mexico and Chicago and travel to Airstream festivals, which we never even knew about before, and out west where the buffalo roam (and our cuzzin coyotes, too). We go to Collie-rado and Central Park and all over our NYC. We have time traveled in Canada. Almost every morning we get to visit a village in rural France and we got mail (and pressies) from Singapore! And there is so much more than we can put down here. Our horizons have been way broadened by our furiends all over this country and the world.
Support System: It's a fact that bad things happen sometimes. We get hurt and we get sick and someday each of us will cross the Rainbow Bridge, which is such a sad time for our humans. There is nothing like having furiends and human friends who really, really care. You know when we send or receive healing vibes we're not just being polite. We really care about each other and we really feel it one of us is sick or hurt. Whatever the outcome, we'll be here to provide as much support and encouragement as we can during those times and celebrate when things turn out just fine. To that end, we want to dedicate this 100th post to one of our newer furiends, Miss Molly-Pops, who is very sick and in the hospital right now. She and her Mom are never far from our thoughts while they go through this ordeal.

We want to thank you all for coming to visit and teaching me, Lola, all about what it is to be a blogging dog and why that's such a wonderful thing to be.

My Little Brother's Absolutely Final (we think) New Name

2010-07-22T08:05:00.001-04:00

I have a couple of apologies to make. Of course none of this is my doing, but it's the innocent who suffer, is it not? Firstly, we were hardly online last night so I know I missed some of my furiends' posts. I will try to catch up today. That couldn't really be helped and does happen sometimes, but I still feel badly about it.

The second thing is where I'm more than just a little embarrassed. After all the encouraging comments you left about my little brother's new name (Brookstr) they changed it again. They said it just wasn't sticking to him. I'm not sure what that means, but you have to remember that even though there are four four-leggers here my humans didn't name any of them, until my brother. They are way out of practice in coming up with names for anyone at all. (That was my attempt to be the loyal dog that I am and to make excuses for them.) Blog Mom saw something on the TeeVee last night and had an "inspiration". And everyone liked it. Even my little brother is showing early signs that he'll answer to it. So, without further ado, my little brother will henceforth be named Franklin. (You better be sure this time, Mom. I'm telling all my furiends - again.)

So, what was the inspiration, you might ask? Was it something on the History Channel about Benjamin Franklin who was so impawtent he's on some of our best green papers? No. Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was elected president about 100 times? No. My human brother was home and was catching up on episodes of True Blood that he'd missed, and there's a new vampire this season named Franklin. Now Blog Mom says that it's not that she's naming my little brother after a vampire who is kind of crazy even for the undead. It's just that the name sounded right. However, she does see a resemblance.

Not a vampire

Vampire

I don't really see it myself, except that in the show Franklin's eyes are kind of red rimmed a lot and my poor brother basically had his lower eyelids removed in a very drastic surgery for his Entropion and will probably always look like he's very, very hung over.

All of this was almost a moot point as we thought we lost him last night. Someone - I'm not naming any names (Daddy) wasn't careful when opening the front door and he shot right out. These humans are not used to having a doggy who does that. Not since they had labradogs, they said, and that was many years ago. So all hell broke loose. Everyone was running around looking for him. It was very dark and no one could see him. They were all yelling at each other to get flashlight and a leash. No one thought of putting me on a leash and letting me find him, which I would have, right away. Anyhoo, all of a sudden they saw him down the block, under a street light just ambling around. He didn't try to run away when they got to him. He seemed quite pleased that everyone had come out to join him on his evening ramble. All of this only took a few minutes but everyone got some more gray hair because of it. Now they have to learn how to train him not to do that, and they have to train Daddy to always be extra careful in the meantime.

Thank You to Sue, On Behalf of My Little Brother

2010-07-19T21:56:00.001-04:00

We have bark a big thank you to Sue at Dogs-N-More and also the Portuguese Water Dog Blog for devoting a whole post to welcoming Brooklyn. That was so very nice of her and we can't thank her enough. That is why we love the pet blogiverse. It's the friendliest place ever

Say "Thank you to the nice lady, little brother.

. Brooklyn will probably be the dog formerly known as Brooklyn shortly. It turns out the whole family agrees with me, that while Brooklyn is a pretty good name in general, it doesn't suit the kid. He's not at all cool. Or tough. Or anything you might associate with a name like "Brooklyn". In fact, he's kind of nerdy, in a very nice way. We agreed it might be best to keep part of his original name, so we're strongly leaning toward "Brookstr", leaving off the "e" to be all Web 2.0 about it, like Flickr and Tumblr and whatnot. We have to get used to it ourselves, after calling him Brooklyn for a week.

Sending Huge Vibes to Mango and Other Items

2010-07-18T19:57:00.000-04:00

A lot of others have posted about this by now but one more never hurts. We have our paws crossed and are sending good thoughts and much love to the Relentlessly Huge Mango, who had a seizure last night. Woofs can't express how we hope and pray that Mango is just fine and that this turns out to be an isolated incident, which is possible.

Feel better and stay well, huge furiend

Mona and her Mommy have a PayPal button on their blog now, by popular demand. Now you can send green papers to help with Shelby at the click of a button, almost. Even if it's just a little, I know that would help. And continued good vibes for her healing are much appreciated by her Guardian Angels, too. Also, spreading the word that the PayPal account is up and running couldn't hurt either.

Lastly, Blog Mom is hoping to return to work tomorrow. She's been home since Tuesday because of the injury she sustained when adopting Brooklyn. If you didn't read that part, she stepped backward into a hole in the dog run at the shelter and strained her Achilles tendon and tore a calf muscle. The Vet told her to stay home all last week. He said total recovery would take 6 to 8 weeks, but was a little vague about how much better she needed to be to go back to work, so she's going to give it a try. She figures she's only a little better, but most of the improvement came in the last couple of days so maybe she's on her way. Sooo....we don't know how well we're going to be able to keep up with everybody this week. She's way behind at the office and expects to be pretty tired after dragging the foot around all day. We'll try to keep up. But we figure we're sure to miss some posts.

Have a great week, everybody.

Brooklyn - One Week In

2010-07-17T17:26:00.001-04:00

Me and my shadow

It has been one week since my new little brother, Brooklyn, joined the family. I've been working with him and we're making good progress. He's responding well to my instruction. What helps a lot is that we're both Shar Pei. While we're not the same person, we do speak the same language. When I "Woof!" he knows exactly what I'm telling him most of the time.

What is up with the nose, dude?

Nothing demonstrates the importance of clear communication better than the trouble the kitties have had with him. I thought Simone had made herself clear to him, but she hasn't been able to in any permanent way. He just doesn't get that they really, really, really don't want to play with him. That's because he doesn't speak kitty. Still and all, you'd think he'd pick up on "Yowl!", "Hisssss!", or at least a claws out swipe. Every cloud has a silver lining, though. I really think that Simone and Happy are starting to bond a little at last.

You keep a look out. I have your back. Way, way back.

The moose is definitely Brooklyn's go-to stuffie for now.

Don't be alarmed by the choke collar. That wasn't for training. From the human point of view he hardly needs any basic training. It was on there for a couple of days so that he could be walked safely. Due to Blog Mom's injuring her leg and her already damaged foot we haven't been able to go out and get Brooklyn a proper starter wardrobe. He's still wearing his collar from the shelter, which was a little big for him and not safe for walking on the street. Any extras of mine would be too big too, not to mention too girly. He's already filled that collar out so the chain is off. Once we get all Moms functional we'll all go out and get him his own leash and a properly sized collar and harness.

As I mentioned in a previous post, he needed to take Dog Bed 101 and we were already making good progress. I think we can agree that he's passed that course with flying colors.

Synchronized Sleeping

I had to teach him not to bug me too much. That course is still in progress but he's doing much better. It doesn't hurt that now that he's gotten used to not having to spend his time in a crate he isn't as hysterical to be active every minute. We Pei can do zoomies with the best of them, but we are not generally hyper doggies and can even enjoy vegging out at a pretty young age. He's getting there.

The best thing of all is something we didn't catch on the flashy beast. We have achieved successful play! Somehow or other Daddy helped explain what to do to Brooklyn. Daddy's still not sure how, but it looked to me like he was demonstrating a little. So, on Thursday we had an abbreviated but successful play session during my lively period. My liveliest periods of the day are when I come out of my antihistamine induced languor. It's been a ruff summer, pawple. Yesterday we had a more extended play session which was a little rambunctious for the living room, perhaps, but it's way too hot to play outside as far as I'm concerned.

The biggest adjustment for me is dinner time. I've gotten used to taking a leisurely approach to dining. When dinner is served I decide if it meets with my approval. If it does, I still might only eat half of it and come back later for a bit here and there as the evening goes on. It keeps the humans on their toes and they're pathetically grateful on the rare occasion when I decide to just eat dinner right up. You can't really do that in a two doggy household. Luckily, I'm experienced in living in a pack that includes other dogs, and I've been a mother as well. So, I'm learning all over again to eat with an eye to the competition. That's not to say that it's not going to be a huge problem for someone when they serve me something I'm bored with. I'm also used to being a picky eater and Brooklyn certainly seems to have the potential to be the same.

Brooklyn! Don't be so eager. Make them beg you to eat it.

As far as Brooklyn's temperament and general personality are concerned - he's very sweet. He's a bit of a big baby and the name "Brooklyn" is just ridiculous for him. If you're named Brooklyn you should be either kind of tough or very cool in a hipster kind of way. Brooklyn is neither. We considered changing it, but he seems to know it and family policy is not to mess with adopted pets' heads too much. He's not a fearful dog, but he scares a lot easier than I do. He's clingy, too. His biggest problem is who to follow when we don't all stay in the same room. He naps with one eye open so he knows if anyone tries to get away. No one really minds, though, because he's clingy in a sweet, cute way, according to the humans. He doesn't lick, though. No licky kissies, which is kind of a shame because it's an area where we Pei excel. Maybe he was trained not to. Some humans don't like doggy kisses, which I think is totally ridiculous and my humans all agree.

One worrying thing is that he has no prey instinct whatever, as far as I can see. Do you know what I saw when I looked out the upstairs window this morning? Two squirrels on the ground within ten feet of our back door and a variety of birds all kind of hopping around and my little brother, just drifting around as though there was nothing happening that required his attention. It looked like a forest scene out of Snow White if you overlook the parched, brown grass.What is up with that? When I go out and run after a squirrel Brooklyn runs after ME! We'll have to work on this when the weather is cooler. If he's going to be here, he's going to help me double-team those tree rats.

Blog the Change for Animals

2010-07-15T15:07:00.002-04:00

I only just recently learned about Blog the Change for Animals days and found out that today was one such day late yesterday. No time to do a really proper post about such an impawtent subject, but I'm going to do the best I can on the spur of the moment. The rules say you can post in support of your favorite shelter, a foster or a friend. It's all up to the individual.

To start with it seems like a pawfect time to post about Shelby and the efforts that are being made to save her by Mona's Mom and friends. Lots of people have told the story of Shelby, the pretty little pittie who was probably used as bait. Here is my post about it. At the request of many of us, Mona's Mommy is going to put up a PayPal account for anyone who wants to donate to Shelby's care. Shelby's not out of the woods yet and is going to need a lot more medical care no matter what, but the loving care she's gotten so far does seem to have some nice results.

Mona's Mommy and Sandra went into this planning to take on the whole financial burden by themselves. They are angels of mercy is what they are. We are all grateful. As a great writer once wrote, "No dog is an island, entire of itself...any dog's death diminishes me, because I am involved in caninekind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee." I think it's for this very reason that Mona's Mommy is asking for the Power of Paw. She never really asked for money. Some have just wanted to give. But she has asked for good wishes, prayers, any kind of pawsitive vibes that could be sent along. Maybe if someone who doesn't know the story already sees this today they'll stop by and lend moral or other support.

Next time I'll blog all about my alma mater - Sean Casey Animal Rescue and also about the very recent adoption of my brand new brother from the Islip Town Animal Shelter. It will be a pleasure, really. But it seemed like this was the moment to bark about Shelby.

Assessing Brooklyn

2010-07-14T18:43:00.005-04:00

I've been doing some serious reflection and soul searching on the subject of my new little brother. I was a little startled at first, you understand. The biggest thing I was planning to cope with last Saturday was a bath and it turned out that major life changes were in store. Plus the bath. But the fact is that I was rescued. Yes, I also rescued my humans. I rescued them from a life without me, Lola, which was simply not nearly as good as life with me. Be that as it may, I was the one living in a crate waiting for a furever home and I have been so very happy in the one I found. It would be wrong, wrong, wrong to be unwilling to Pei that forward and Brooklyn represents an opportunity to give someone else a bit of what I've got. Not to mention that giving him a home might get another doggy a little more time to find his or her forever home at the shelter. That doesn't mean it's all peace, love and understanding every minute. And it doesn't mean I'm not going to call him Dorkface Boy from time to time, because sometimes that's what he is.

When you can take the pebble from my paw, Young Grasshopper, you will be allowed on the couch.

Of course there's rather a lot of distance between deciding that I should welcome the chance to make a pawsonal sacrifice and actually enjoying my little brother.We're just starting that journey. I hope it doesn't turn out to take forever. In all honesty I have to admit that he's going to be a pretty good dog if he learns a few things and gets a little more life experience. I just don't know how long that's going to take.

From the human perspective he's quite a find, like most Pei. He doesn't chew anything he's not supposed to. He doesn't think he's allowed on the furniture so he doesn't get up on it even though I do. We don't actually have that rule, but we're not telling him quite yet. He's totally housebroken. Blog Mom was a little worried about that but charged ahead anyway. What's the matter with her? What happened was that on Saturday, while Alpha Mom and I were both getting groomed (same time, different shops) she ~~sneaked~~ went down to the shelter. It seems she'd been looking at the Petfinder site again and when there was a Shar Pei at the local municipal shelter she couldn't stop herself. She got there, asked for him and he was brought out into this room they have for that kind of meeting. She wasn't worried when he went all crackadaisical, running all over, because she knew he was living in a crate and not everydog can handle that situation with the kind of poise that I did during my time in shelter. She was a tad concerned with the fact that he lifted his leg and marked in the room - indoors, pawple - every 15 seconds. Obviously, this didn't stop her and she went ahead and ~~dragged~~ invited Alpha Mom and me down to meet Brooklyn that same day. In fact, turns out our stop at Petco was to get him something to wear around the house in case this behavior continued at home. Not needed. Once in my our home he did not lift that leg once inside. He sits, and he even stays if you tell him just right. Not for long, but then I'm not one for the long stay myself unless I didn't want to get up anyway. He's barkier than I am, and they have mixed feelings about that. More of a guard dog, but also more of a nuisance. I don't much care either way.

That's the human angle. From the canine perspective he's a bit of a dunce. First off I had to demonstrate the purpose of a dog bed. We dragged out my old one for him to use for now. He seemed to think it was a giant stuffy. He did pick that lesson up fairly quickly, I must admit.

Is this right, Big Sis?

He doesn't know anything about chasing squirrels or birds. Birds just walk around the yard , not even bothering to fly, when he's out there without me - and if he's out there it's without me if I have anything to say about it. I saw a squirrel just hanging out on a tree trunk not more than 3 feet from the ground with Brooklyn just standing there a couple of yards away. I think the squirrel was taunting him.

What I found out last night was that despite his constant and noisy demands that I play with him, he doesn't actually know how to do that either. He gets into play stance - you know, front down, haunches up and make all kinds of "C'mon, play with me. Let's go! Please, please, please!" noises,but he's all talk, no action. That was most clearly demonstrated in what will live forever as one of his most embarrassing moments if I have anything to do with it. I was feeling expansive and lively after dinner so when he started I rolled over and made the appropriate noises indicating my willingness to do a little bitey face. He just stood there looking confused. But wait! It gets better. Being confused didn't stop him from starting the whole routine over again when I got up so I got in play position myself, only with haunches down and said, "OK, bring it. You want to romp? We'll romp right here in the living room." Do you know what he did? He looked like a deer in headlights and very slowly lowered his back end onto the ground and then pretended that he just wanted to take a little rest anyway.

I think that was even funnier than the other day when I was interrupted from my morning nap by the sound of a terrifed "Yelp!!". Simone was chasing Brooklyn down the hallway and he was running as if for his life. Simone may be getting older but she's still got it. Happy's way of coping is different. He just sought higher ground until Simone schooled Brooklyn in the ways of the feline.

It didn't take long and Hapless is already back in his basket. Simone doesn't mess around. I don't want you to think that Brooklyn is a total wuss, though. He did take down a moose.

So, that's where we're at right now. It's a mitzvah to take him in and I'm OK with that. He's good raw material but needs a lot of molding and educating. And right now he's a pain in my tail.

Wordless(ish) Wednesday

2010-07-14T07:19:00.001-04:00

Must. Not.Let.Her.Sleep.

Pressies from Zelle

2010-07-12T21:56:00.001-04:00

I got some lovely gifts today from the very lovely Zelle. She didn't have to, but she did. Besides being great pressies, I believe I'm the first one in my family to get mail from Singapore. Normally we'd have a photo of my opening the box and savoring each item. Things aren't normal here right now, however, what with a brand new little brother sticking his nose in everything. However, all is not lost. My box was pretty much just like Hero's and his is properly displayed in his post. I also don't have a photo of the doggy biscuits. Because they're in my tummy. Oh my Dog, they were delicious! I have e-mailed Zelle to find out what they were. I'm not normally a fan of the biscuit, but I loved those. I hope they're something that can be gotten here in the U.S. and that they're not something I'd have to count on one of the Moms to make from scratch. Of course, the handmade star was the star of the package and I have photos of that.

I feel pretty! Oh so pretty!

I had to go show this off a little. Walkies are a problem because we don't have too many humans who can walk right now. Blog Mom is off to the Vet again tomorrow. After her mishap with the hole in the ground at the dog run all her lower leg and ankle are blown up to twice their size. Daddy always has big trouble with his feets these days. Luckily Alpha Mom is not broken. Yet. And our foster bass player was at home, so we had four good legs and I got to go show off out in the world just a bit.

Of course I didn't want Brooklyn to feel left out. He might be driving me a little crazy and maybe he is a bit of a dorkface, but he's still got feelings. I let him wear the pawty hat for a while. After all he just came out of confinement himself.

Brooklyn always seems to be in a pawty mood, so a pawty hat is most appropriate for him.

Thank you so much, Zelle. This was so extra nice and thoughtful of you. And every time I wear my star, I'll think of you. Your Mom is so creative and talented, too.

The Biggest News Ever for Me, Lola

2010-07-11T14:33:00.002-04:00

Yesterday was the most amazing, surprising day ever since the day I moved in here. I'm still in a bit of a tizzy over it, although you can't always tell that with me. I guess I'll just tell you about it from the beginning. The day started out normally enough. I went for my bath. Alpha Mom picked me up and brought me home. Blog Mom was out, but came home shortly after. I sniffed right away that she'd been with another dog. Well, of course that happens once in a while, but I studied the smells on her pants very carefully. (This is foreshadowing.) Quite soon after she came home all three of us ladies got into the car to go out again. I couldn't imagine where we were going. It was pouring rain. I hate that. It was no weather for a noseventure, but here we were, heading out someplace.

Our first stop was a Petco store. I love shopping so that was fun. For some reason there was no flashy beast to capture me adorably standing up and putting my paws on the counter while we were checking out. I wanted to pawticipate in the whole shopping experience. After that it was time to head home, right? Not so much.

Our next stop was a building that I'd never been to before. Or rather the parking lot of the building. There was a lot of barking coming out it and some very interesting smells in the air. Blog Mom went in alone and then came back out and then we all just sat in the car for a little while. This is just not making a lot of sense to me. Finally a lady came out the door, with a doggy on a leash. Normally I'm delighted to meet new furiends, but I don't care for hanging out in parking lots in the pouring rain and this is what it seemed was expected of us. The doggy sniffed me like mad and was all, "Hey, you're a Shar Pei! I'm a Shar Pe! How cool is that? My name's Brooklyn, what's yours? Let's be best friends right now! We'll sniff each other and then we'll sniff some more and it'll be great!Please, please please." And I was all, "Some other time young dude. It's freaking raining cats and, er..cats out here. "

Next up in this whacked out scenario was to walk over to a fenced in spot, with an awning, thank Dog. There was also lots and lots of mud in there. Once in there, it was leashes off . I was interested in two things: Staying under the awning and climbing up on a bench that was there to get away from the mud. Young Brooklyn, despite clearly being a Pei, seemed oblivious to the rain and mud and just want to advance the friendship that we had not established. He sniffed me. I pretty much ignored him. We both had to jump up on the Moms from time to time to check in and cover them with mud. Served them right, seems to me. About this time, Blog Mom stepped backwards and into a sizable hole that was there. With her bad foot, of course. She yelped like she'd been bitten and, oh it was bad for a little while there. It's still bad today but not AS bad.

Ok, finally time to go home for really truly. We got our soaked, muddy selves back into the car, but hey, wait just a freakin' minute. Three of us had arrived and by my count there were four of us in the car now. What was up with that? Could it be?

Hi I'm Brookyn! I'm very glad to meet....EVERYONE!

Yes, it could. It seems I've got myself a little brother, like it or not. He's about a year and a half old and we got him from the town animal shelter. He was given up, according to his owners, because they had to move to a place where they couldn't have dogs. I'm sure they didn't mean to screw up like that, but he hadn't been neutered - the shelter did that. He needed entropion surgery, which you have to figure could happen if you get a Shar Pei puppy, and the shelter had to do that, too. He should have been treated for it as a puppy, but it didn't seem he was. In fact his eyes haven't finished healing from that yet. We're taking him to the vet next week to follow up on them.

You can kind of see here that they look funny, but you can't see how red they are all around the rims and I think there might be a couple of stitches still in.

So how did this happen? I gather it was Blog Mom's idea, but she was supported in this by the others. They give reasons - wanting another doggy to help me stay young and active and wanting to give back to the Shar Pei community, seeing as I turned out to be so nearly perfect that they didn't feel they'd paid enough dues or something. The people at the shelter were pretty happy that Brooklyn was going to a home with another Shar Pei. I do have to say that. But I know the real reason. Shar Pei are like potato chips. It's really hard to stop at just one. Of course, no one asked me, Lola. Oh, I suppose that meeting in the rain was supposed to be where they asked, but I don't think they explained the question very well. I'm still considering what I think of it all. I don't dislike him. He's kind of sweet, it's sort of interesting having him here and he's submissive to me, Lola. Oh, and he loves, loves, loves me. Those are some of the positives.

Checking him out, trying to decide what I think.

He always wants to play. If I play with him a little, he just wants to keep it up way longer than I feel like it. He loves, loves, love me and he follows me everywhere. EVERYWHERE. That can get old fast. I have a lot of work to do if I'm going to get him trained to suit my lifestyle. Those are a couple of the negatives.

C'mon! Play with me! I wanna play. I love you! Please, please play with me!

He barks when he's trying to get me to play. You see what I have to put up with? Life was very peaceful. However, it seems the family has made a commitment to Brooklyn already, so sending him packing is not going to be an option.

When I say he's always up my butt, I'm just telling it like it is.

As you can see from this lovely shot, he's a different type of Shar Pei from me, Lola. He's more like the traditional Pei. He keeps all his wrinkles on this head. None on his body at all. And he's teeny bit taller than I am but he's a lot lighter. He has long thin legs. He looks skinny compared to me, but you can feel my ribs and not his. He'll probably fill out a little more by the time he's two, but not all that much. He does have a nice meat mouth, though. It's his best feature.

The kitties, of course, are none too pleased. He's not too bad about them. He doesn't mistake them for prey or anything, but I think he mistakes them for puppies and tries - you guessed it - to play with them. They don't want to play with him and they never, ever will. I tried to explain that but he doesn't get it yet.

Other general impressions are that he's as much a goody two paws as I am when it comes to house manners. He's also just as picky an eater. I like that. On the other paw, he does slobber rather a lot. I only rarely slobber. He seems to foam up at the drop of a leash. He's not doing it as much today as yesterday, though. So maybe it's the excitement and stress of moving into a new pack.

A decision was made by the human contingent that I would continue to sleep upstairs with Alpha Mom as always and Brooklyn would sleep downstairs. Blog Mom fully expected to have a fairly sleepless night with a young doggy in a brand new situation, whereas everyone was sure that, being given a break from Brooklyn, I would happily fall into bed and sleep deeply until morning. Well, you know the old saying, "Man plans, Dog laughs.". Turns out that Brooklyn totally gets lights out and spent a quiet night. I, on the other hand, could not seem to sleep. Which meant that Alpha Mom didn't get much sleep either.

I guess you can stay as long as you understand who's top dog. And I see that you do.

So that my furiends, is my big news. Life here is never going to be quite the same again. I'm leaning toward being OK with it, but I expect it'll be a bit of a rocky road while we adjust to our new situation. I do think that Brooklyn has some potential and if there must be little brother, he's probably as good a choice as any. I'm just not sure whether I wanted one or not. I suppose I'll be posting about our progress in establishing our new family configuration quite a bit for while. And I hope to get some advice from experienced older siblings like Ranger, Mango, Asa And you can bet I will be turning to Twinkie's Advice Column quite a bit in the coming weeks, I think.

Sofa Tortitude

2010-07-10T20:24:00.000-04:00

Well, Simone just had a hissy fit when Happy was featured in a post and she was not, so tonight is for her. Here she is, having tortitude on the back of the sofa.

OK, happy now, Simone? But hey, watch this space. The next post will have real news. Big news. I hope we'll have it up tomorrow. There's quite a lot going on here so it's hard to be sure. But it's big, I tell you.

Grey Pei Hits The Stage

2010-07-09T06:47:00.001-04:00

What do you get when you cross a Greyhound with a Shar Pei? Acting! This beauty is playing Sandy in a Sioux City production of Annie, after which she'll be available for adoption. I bet she won't have any trouble finding a furever home. The question is, will she be content to be a stay-at-home dog after this, or will she long to try her luck among the bright lights of Broadway. My advice would be "Stay!". It's ruff out there. But with a smile like that she's going to get offers, I bet. Do you think she's wearing eye liner or is that just natural beauty?

While I'm here, I want to apologize for spotty visiting and very light commenting the last day or so. My assistant is having a lot of trouble with her sinuses and pain and up half the night and all that and while I've been reading as many blogs as I can without much help from her, she keeps whining instead of typing the comments I've been dictating to her. If we can get her fixed up, we should be back in decent form over the weekend. She better hurry. Simone says it's her turn to have her picture up. I don't know where Simone got the idea that this is in any way a group blog, but I'm a little afraid to set her straight.

Power of the Paw and Maybe the Purse Needed for Pittie

2010-07-07T06:26:00.000-04:00

Hi everybuddy. I expect that most of you know that Mona's Mommy and her friend are trying to save a poor little pittie girl who was probably used as BAIT! They were pretty sure that a shelter would see her as a lost cause and euthanize her so they're taking this on themselves. They named her Shelby and it's no sure thing that she's going to make it, but they're trying their best to get her the medical care she needs and give her a chance.

They didn't ask for any help, but some pawple asked them about sending some donations and we are certainly going to send something as soon as we can. And what I thought was if all of us sent something - even a very little - it would add up to quite a bit. And if we all blog about it, maybe word will get around and their expenses will be mostly covered or at least considerably defrayed. Mona's Mommy will send her address to you if you e-mail her about it. She can be reached through the address on Mona's profile. It's a wonderful thing they're doing and I just thought that a lot of us would probably like to help them do it.

Dining With Kitties

2010-07-06T21:51:00.000-04:00

One thing that kind of drives Blog Mom crazy is that the kitties' dishes have to live on the kitchen table most of the time. That's because if they put them on anything lower the dog eats the cat food. Oh, wait a minute! The dog would be me, Lola. All right. I guess I do that. Why is it that cat food tastes so much better than dog food? I even like it better than most human food, except cheese, of course. I even like the dry cat food. Won't touch the dry dog food. Anyway, my humans insist that unlike the goose vs gander situation, what's good for the kitty is not good for the doggy. Too much protein or something. So it goes up on the table. But I digress. Blog Mom thought of putting the dishes on trays or something so they wouldn't be right on the table and could more easily be whisked away. She had a sort of basket tray thingy handy when she thought of it so she used that. A little later she found that Happy seemed to approve. But not in the way she had in mind.

She'd forgotten that Happy loves baskets and his favorite baskets are ones that are too small for him. So now the dishes still live on the kitchen table and Happy's been spending his days like this:

But the basket has turned out to be useful for one kitty's dining comfort:

Score this one Happy 1, Blog Mom 0.