We Sure Owe a LOT of Apologies

We are so very sorry for disappearing the way we did. At first, I was so embarrassed I couldn't even look you in the eye.

But then I decided that I just had to face the music and own up to the fact that Blog Mom did a very bad thing. We never meant to just book like that. It just got harder to keep up for a variety of human-based reasons and then it got to be a long time and then it was just awkward. We missed milestones and celebrations and sadness and all the things that furiends are supposed to be around to share. We never did stop thinking about you all, though. Not ever.

Then today  we got a sign that it was time to come back. Blog Mom downloaded a Kindle book. About  a dog, of course. What else is really worth reading? Well, the author of this book has a blog, so of course we  had to check that out and what did we find? Well, we found a real dog blog, not one of those fancy pants  author blogs. A Daily Dose of Jack is fur real. And what else? The very first post mentioned Remington. Yes, THAT Remington! A little further down was one where Madi sent a pressie. And Wilf.  The pack was all there!

Wait a minute, Wilf? One thing that was a little scary coming back was wondering if any of our friends had....well....you know. We still haven't counted noses so we don't know, but we prepared for Wilf to have moved on. And he didn't. Hasn't. Is still here. Thank Dog!

We did learn that Hero has had another harrowing time with stomach bloat, but is on the road to recovery. We are, of course sending all the power of the paw that we can and we are sure that he'll be all better real soon. 

We don't know how often we'll be able to post and we know we can't keep up with commenting everywhere, but we are going to try to catch up with everyone for the next few days and as far as our own posts go we'll see how it goes, but we'll try to get one out of Blog Mom every so often.

Sedentary Sunday

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Please get well, Sarge, from the whole family.

Peeps on Parade and Pip, too.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Book Review: A Famous Dog's Life

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

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

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

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

Barking Up the Wrong Tree

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



He'd be so very frustrated.

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

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