Toys, Poop

Oh, how I long for the days when I was the Princess of Toys.  Every toy that came into our house was mine, all mine.  I could love it, adore it, give it the terrier shake, ignore it, sleep with it.  All of the choices were solely up to me.

Not now.

Not since this guy came to town:

He's a toy hoarder, plain and simple. 

Yesterday, Mommy brought us, yes US, a new toy.  It's a lovely fox.  No stuffing, two squeakers.  Long & skinny.  Pretty much perfect for playtimes, tugging, retrieving, even snuggling.  Instead, Jeff stole it and growled when I tried to play.  He finally let me get a bit, but after he'd slobbered it all up.

Poop.

Post-Vacation Nap

Mommy and Daddy went away again!  This time, instead of Auntie Nessa staying over, Mommy dropped me off at Snow's house.  I felt overjoyed to be there and immediately began to play with Snow, Henry and Roo.  Aunt Miranda told Mommy that Henry didn't want me to go home, but when Mommy came to pick me up I wagged and wagged.

And then I slept.

I woke up just enough to give Mommy the side eye.

When Octopuses Attack!

Our brand new octopus, which Mommy already restuffed and sewed up once, attacked us!  Jeff and I had to rip one of its legs off and then nose into the hole that created and destuff it.  It was a dangerous situation, but we prevailed.

You can see the stuffing on the floor and also on the bed.  It's kind of like stuffing vomit!  Jeremy didn't actually help us, but he's obviously very happy that we killed that octi.  Daddy only woke up when Mommy came in and started laughing.  Not sure how he slept through all the ruckus but Daddy does have amazing sleeping abilities.

You can see the actual octopus shell up by Mommy's pillow.  It's blue and purple.  Mommy's letting us play with it, which is okay, since it still has seven legs to bite!

Back Yard Fun

All sorts of interesting things happened in the back yard this week.  Mommy made some new raised beds AND some bees tried to make a hive in the compost tumbler.

First Mommy made towers of blocks, which Jeff and I had to inspect:

Everything seems in order!

When she built the first one, it turned out like this:

Then she built a second one, which is shorter but taller, and filled them with veggies (ucky patooie!). 

The bee lady came to see if she could capture the bees.  We had to watch from inside the house because Mommy was afraid Jeff might try to eat them, or just get in the way.  Hmmph.

She put them in a box and drove away.  I wonder where they ended up!  Did she mail them to somebody?  That would be a very buzzzzzy package to receive.

And the bonus to the week:

Squirrel jerky that Snow dug out of the compost and Jeff brought inside to snack on.  Yummy!

Toes

Human toes are weird, right?  No claws to dig or to provide traction when you're running fast.  Only those flimsy nails.  Mommy's nails change colors, which is totally strange.

My toes are great!  They have lovely toe pads, claws and floof.  The downside to the floof is that it collects seeds and stickers.  Boo!  Otherwise, the floof helps keep the pads nice and warm when it's cold or wet out.  Important. 

Here's a picture of my toes:

Hahaha!  That's Jeff's toe.  You know how you can tell?  I have curly floof but his is straight and his toe pads are rounder.  Otherwise, our toes are similar.

Kitty has great toes, too.  Her claws are magic!  They stick out when she wants to scratch somebody and then **poof** they're gone!  She also has some serious floof.  See?

They look so soft...but don't be lulled by that pretend softness because MAGIC CLAWS.

Thank you for reading my dissertation on toes.

Jeff and the Camera

Mommy was trying to hard to take pictures of our playtimes today.  Someone was being uncooperative!

Every time the camera biddly booped, Jeff would look up.

Every Single Time.

I can promise you we were playing like champs, and then Mommy took each of us for a run.

Dog Rodeo

When Jeff and I get going, we can make a big mess on the bed.  Mommy calls it a Dog Rodeo.  It's basic playtimes mixed with bouts of Blankie Monster.

Believe it or not, the bed was mostly made before we started...

Here's one blurry action shot:

Jeff likes to incorporate his ball:

I just like to play and then smile a lot afterward:

Well, that's a small smile, but I'm cute doing it, so who cares?

Newest Toy

Mommy brought us a new monkey toy last weekend.  It's yellow and it makes a glorious monkey noise!  Jeff likes to push its tummy to make the noise go, then step back and poke it again.  I think it kind of scares him.  Snow also likes this monkey, but she likes anything that is noisy!

Here are a few pictures of us enjoying the monkey:

Hmmph!  No action shots.  We will have to fix that!

Haircut

Mommy left me alone with Daddy this weekend and look what happened:

I got my spring haircut!

It's a relief, because my hair was so long and getting in my eyes, my mouth, and other places.  HOWEVER.  I hate the buzzy hair trimmer with a passion.  I don't even like it when people make buzzy noises. 

Jeff tried his very best to help me.  He stayed nearby while Daddy tortured me, then he came into the bathroom during my bath.  He may be a pesky little brother, but I guess he loves me.

Perching

Looking out the window is one of my favorite past times.  There are lots of people and animals to entertain me.  Sometimes I fall asleep, and that's pretty great too.

Here's my general posture, in case you want to emulate my style:

Practical, with a stylish curl of the tail!

Here's another of my head, turned to look outside:

I wish Mommy would pull up the blinds.  They obstruct the view!

Here's how it looks from above:

You can see that I am lying on both the couch and the platform of the kitty condo.  I'm thinking about patenting this style.  It's pretty advanced, so don't try it without proper spotting.

A Long Vacation

Mommy and Daddy flew away for weeks and weeks!  I was so sad.  Auntie Nessa took care of me and Jeremy, but then Bunny and Hunter came.  That was good, but the next thing I knew Jeremy and Hunter (and Kitty) were fighting.  Nooooo!

Auntie Edit came and took Jeremy away to her house.  I was jealous/relieved.  Jeff Buckley had already gone away to Mr. Kelly's house.  It was all so confusing.  Anyway, then Hunter left and Jeremy came back.

Are you lost yet? 

THEN Bunny went home and Mommy and Daddy came back!

I was so happy I thought my butt would break from all the wagging.  I'm not ashamed to say that I even whined a bit. 

A few minutes later Mommy and Daddy brought Jeff home and we played....and played... I didn't realize how much I would miss that little baby brat.

No photos because we were all too exhausted and slept the entire next day.  Cuddle heaven.  Here's a photo of some of the far away cousins that Mommy and Daddy played with because they missed me and for absolutely no other reasons:

Lizard Hunting

On Saturday, Mommy let us play outside for a long time.  Annika came out and showed us how to hunt lizards. 

I was skeptical.

Jeff, however, was intensely focused on learning all he could from Kitty.

Annika insisted that the lizard had crawled under the tarp, so we tried to surround it to root it out.

But I never saw it.  I think it got away.  Wait, is that it?

Nope.  Just a piece of bark. 

Backyard Race Day

Jeff took birthday monkey out in the yard today to get me to chase him.  It worked!  We had so much fun wrestling and racing that Mommy came out to take some photos.  Here's one:

Can you see my ears going flappity flap?

In this one you can see that we're actually chasing:

Then Mommy drove off to work.  A few hours later, she came home and loaded us in the car to go talk to the weird window again.  That part was boring but she drove with the windows open so we got lots of breeze.  It was so nice that we were quiet the whole way (no fighting!).  I am soooo happy today.

Cult of Lobsty

Since I was small, I have belonged to the Cult of Lobsty.  Lobsty is a constant in my life of worshipping toys.

This is actually the very first Lobsty, Lobsty I.  He was blue and I loved him.

Lobsty III is red, just like Lobsty II.  One of the reasons I worship him is because he has lots of braided legs, a stuffed body, and little felt bits, all of which are great to grab onto for a game of tug.  He has heft, but isn't awkward to carry, like Octy-puss. 

Jeff is a new convert:

I'm so happy!

Living Room

Mommy moved the living room furniture around yesterday, which was very confusing.  When she was done, though, I realized that Something Wonderful had happened.  Mommy was much more available for playtimes and snuggles.

Here's Jeff snuggling:

and here's me thinking about getting a toy to play with:

I like it!

Floofy Sleep

Some people need beauty sleep, but I need floofy sleep.  Since I'm a poodle, I have curlicue hair that gets old-lady-perm-frizzy in the rain.  Eek! 

Today I'm having a good hair day, though.  Mommy tucked me into my blankie for morning naptime.

She took a close up of my beautiful curly head (giving her side eye because, hello, I'm trying to get my Floofy Sleep!):

She also got my foot curls, which are the bestest.  They do get lots of plants caught in them but I just chew them up when I get home.

Hmm, looks like I might be due for a mani-pedi!

Toy-splosion

Whenever Mommy vacuums the living room, she picks up all our toys and puts them in the toy basket.  I get very nervous about this because what if they don't come back out?  However, she does it week after week.  And week after week, I pull them back out, sometimes choking myself to get at a particularly needed toy.

Since Jeff came along, the floor to toy ratio has gone way down.  I used to just get out a few toys and play with them all week long, but Jeff prefers to pull out every single toy.   Subsequently, our room ends up like this:

Clearly, Jeff and I are waiting for Mommy to throw some dang toys for us in this photo.  She decided that taking the picture was more important. 

Icky Mornings

On rainy, blah mornings we tend to snooze after morning playtimes.  I'm currently favoring the small couch with one blankie:

Jeremy's still a floor-dweller.  I think it hurts his legs to jump up on the couch, plus he doesn't see well and is afraid of jumping in the wrong place.  He looks pretty comfy, though:

Surrounded by toys!

Mommy threw the ball for Jeff Buckley, but he took it up on the couch with him rather than offering it for more chases.  He knows how to curl up all tiny and cute, I'll give him that:

I hope your day is snoozy-comfy too!

Yin and Yang

I'm curly, he's wiry.  I'm a girl, he's a boy.  I'm mature, he's a baby. I like to snooze, he likes to run around.

However, we both like the blue blankie.

About Last Night

So this happened last night:

Jeremy and Jeff, consorting with the enemy, aka Auntie Nessa.  But wait, it gets worse.  Much worse:

Much, much worse:

At first I was like:

Death Stare 2015, activate! 
And then I was all, whatevs:

Harumph!