Thank you all from my Big Sis

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

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

Speak, Franklin!

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.

Monday - The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

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

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

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

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

Easter Part II - My Gotcha Day

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

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

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

It works well for belly rubs.

It's so comfy this way and...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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