New Friends

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

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

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

Awards Round-Up

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

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

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.