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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
The United States is often called a "nation of immigrants" and it's one of the things it's most known for, too. While there have been those who came here out of a sense of adventure and because they believed they'd find limitless opportunity and some didn't come of their own free will, a whole lot of our forebears have come here to escape something. They came to escape religious persecution, famine, poverty, class stratification and political oppression. We Shar Pei are no different and we belong in the last group. Of course, all Chinese Shar Pei know our breed history and our brush with extinction but perhaps not everyone does. In any case, it seems fitting on the weekend when the USA celebrates its national birthday that I post about being a grateful Shar Pei-American.
This video make an excellent musical soundtrack for my post. You don't have to turn it on. Just saying that if you want to, it adds dramatic value.
Give me your tired, your paws
Your wrinkled masses yearning to breath free
While I was born here, my American roots only go back as far as the 1970's at the earliest. What happened was that up until the middle of the last century Shar Pei were not known outside of China. We were, depending on who you believe, farm dogs, guard dogs, hunting dogs or fighting dogs. Probably we were all of those things over time and depending on our humans. We are one of the most ancient breeds and had plenty of time to get to everything on that list. Then in the 1960's the Cultural Revolution happened in China. That turned out badly for a lot of Chinese humans and all Chinese dogs. I guess at some point, someone wanting to score some points with Mao came up with the idea that they should wipe out all the dogs. Because things just weren't dismal enough. So they did. And because Shar Pei were only IN China, after being around since at least around 200 B.C.E. we were about to be no more. And we'd have just been history by not if not for our hero, Matgo Law.
Matgo Law was a young, Hong Kong businessman and dog breeder. The long term future of Hong Kong itself was very much up in the air at the time, as it was leased to Great Britain and the lease would be up in 1997. Mr. Law didn't want to see the end of the Shar Pei, so sent out an appeal to dog breeders in the US and Canada, too, I believe, to help him save the Shar Pei. And some did. The breeding stock was small and not always the best, but we were for a time the rarest dog in the world and people were paying a fortune for one of us. In fact, the pool of surviving Shar Pei was so small that it's very likely that Hero, Bolo, Lois Lane, and the few other blogging Shar Pei we've found, and I are all fairly close relatives, even though we may live in different countries. Actually, Hero's in Maylasia, but his grandpawrents came from Calfornia, if memory serves.
Of course there've been problems along the way. The limited breeding stock produced terribly short life spans and some dogs with unfortunate temperaments, Familial Shar Pei Fever and allergies among other problems. Some breeders had the bright idea that if some wrinkles were cute tons of them would be even better so they bred us to have too many for our own good for a while. I've heard that there have been times when Mr. Law has regretted that he did what he did because of all the problems associated with our breed. I hope that's not how he really feels now, though. We're still improving. We're living longer and healthier and while there are no doubt Shar Pei out there with temperament issues there are many more as friendly and calm and lovely as we blogging Pei are. And what immigrant group hasn't encountered huge challenges, I ask you? Most have. You just have to keep on going and overcome. I, for one, am grateful every day that I'm here to take care of my human family and I know that my family is at least as happy about it as I am.
Things have loosened up in China too, of course, and people can have dogs there again and even paint them if they so choose. It's still considered OK to eat dog in China, and although I read somewhere that there's an effort underway to make that illegal I think I'll wait to visit my ancestral home until that's settled law. Just in case.
I'll be finishing my July 4th celebration by playing Frankie's Name Game, wherin we tell the story of our names. I better get working on that one pretty soon, huh?
Tomorrow is Memorial Day here in the U.S. and that makes this Memorial Day weekend. Today is also May 30th which is when the holiday used to be before they made a bunch of holidays fall on Monday to make three day weekends. That was about a thousand years before my time, however.
In my opinion, the Memorial Day part of the weekend really starts on Sunday, mostly.. Saturday is more regular except for the Veterans of Foreign Wars selling poppies to raise funds at the entrances to most supermarkets and other big stores. Blog Mom likes to buy poppies from everyone she encounters, even though they're not real. She says our war veterans need all the fundraising they can get since we keep making more of them all the time. The main purpose of Memorial Day, though, is to honor those who died in the line of duty. 3 pm tomorrow is the National Moment of Remembrance, so a lot of ceremonies will take place then.
Whatever you're doing this weekend, I hope it's going real well for all of you.
No, it's not really the Easter bunny. Bet we had you fooled. It's me, Lola, an Easter Pei. Here's hoping your Easter Mammal of choice brings you baskets full of your most favorite treats.
This was my first Passover Seder, to tell the truth. It was just as much fun as it sounded like, but the day was not without drama. Alpha Mom spent all day running around to stores and cleaning the house and doing all those things you do before having lots of company. Finally it was time for her to get herself ready and she had just gotten out of the shower, and the guests were due to start arriving in a half hour and guess what? The power went out! There'd been torrential rains and flooding and lots of people didn't have power. There didn't seem to be any reason to think this was going to be fixed right away. I should mention here that we only have electric stoves in the house.
Everyone stayed calm while Alpha Mom called the power company. After the power company lady could only repeat, over and over, that most outages would be resolved within three hours, everyone gave up being calm and opted for meltdown instead. Just a couple of minutes before the very first guests got here the power came back on and even more miraculous, stayed on. It was wonderful but the Moms might just have lost a year or so off their lives in the meantime. It's a good thing I was there to help out with the festivities.
I had to see that everyone felt right at home and had everything they wanted.
As long as what they wanted was a Shar Pei.
Is this holiday great, or what? It comes with its own instruction manual for the part where traditions and rituals are observed. After that, dinner is served.
The chicken was especially delicious, but nothing prepared me for CHOPPED LIVER. It's a religious experience all by itself. I was only allowed a little taste at a time. There was concern with whether it would agree with my stomach. It seemed to and it certainly agreed with my mouth.
The internet seems to be working at the moment, so I thought I should try to get in a post before it goes off again. We have so much going on this week, too. There are three big events going on. Tomorrow evening Alpha Mom is having a big Passover seder and I will, of course, be helping out with hostess duties. I am quite a good hostess. Then on Sunday there's Easter and my Gotcha Day which I like to call my Lolaversary. Blog Mom is planning on brunch for Easter to be followed by Gotcha festivities. . Not everyone gets to do both holidays, of course, but Blog Mom says our family is rather ecumenical. I think that means I'm the only purebred in the bunch, That's just fine with me. There's chicken for Passover and brunch usually involves bacon in some way and holidays usually mean company, so I'm happy to keep an open mind. Here's what I'm wearing for Passover -
Alpha Mom ordered my Passover bandana from Designer Duds for Dogs and they do a great job. The first thing Alpha Mom wanted was backordered and Debbie called up personally to see what could be done instead. They consulted and collaborated and this is the result, which I think is quite nice. She sent a Hanukkah one, too, as an extra, so we'll be completely ready for that and I abolutely am going to have a careful look at the site before making my Christmas list. Plenty of time to worry about that, though.
