Friend-Filled Saturday

First my friend Mr. Dean brought over his dog Beau.  It was Beau's first time to visit our house.  He got really jealous when Jeff Buckley and I wanted to sit in Mr. Dean's lap, but we ALWAYS sit in Mr. Dean's lap!

Then a whole family of friends came over.  The girl petted everybody equally, but she loved me the most.  See?

She and her brother did fight over holding me, but he spent most of his time with Jeff:

Beau Beau was relieved to get Mr. Dean back!

And he taunted Jeff by chewing on Jeff's bone (haha!):

We had so much fun.  I hope they come back again soon!

Flower Power

Mommy went completely off the rails while Robin was here a few weeks ago.  We just humored her and waited for it to run its course.  After she dressed Robin up in my knight costume, we moved on to the fabric leis that Mr. Kelly gave us. 

I look pretty cute, if I say so myself:

Jeff, however, felt quite embarrassed:

He made me think of Esther Williams!

More flowers please!

**Wrinkles Nose**

Mommy came home smelling especially stinky yesterday.  Not pig stinky, or regular goat poo stinky, or even armpit stinky (although there was some of that).  It was a new, mucus-y smell. 

I think it had something to do with this.  Ewww, what is that?

Brave Sir Robin

We have a new dog friend staying with us.  Her name is Robin and she's awfully cute.  In fact, I'm super duper jealous! 

Mommy says she's a teeny tiny terrier harrier to the cat, because she barks at her a lot.  Annika just ignores her so we do too.  I don't know that she's actually brave, maybe just dumb, but that sounds mean so we'll stick with brave.  Maybe I'll let her borrow my knight costume!

She's kind of a strange dog, though.  She won't play with us, or with Mommy or Daddy.  Also, she likes to sit up on top of the couches and Daddy's chair like Annika.  Does she think she's a cat?

She does like to sun herself with Jeff Buckley, though.

Our Royal Status

I've heard the Queen of England refers to herself as "we", so I figured I should follow suit.  I mean, we should follow suit.  Pronouns are tricky!

Mommy was playing with one of her birthday tiaras today, trying to put it on all of us.  I am a princess, you know, but I don't really like things on my head that aren't ears.  I tried, though.  I tried!

After that I was DONE.  So Mommy took the feathery thing off my head and put it on Jeremy.  He didn't mind so much!

I guess tiaras are more his thing.

Cuddles

Everyone who's met me knows that I am a cuddler!  As soon as you sit down, I'm on your lap, cuddling.  At night, I do my best to cuddle between Mommy and Daddy.  When Daddy takes naps, I'm right there with him. 

The other morning, I was cuddling with Mommy on the couch, when this happened:

At first I got mad, and I thought I might pull Jeff's hair.  I started licking him and he just...leaned into it.  So we ended up cuddling for a long time.

Weird.

Dog TV

We LOVE to watch TV!  It's not like Mommy and Daddy's little black tv, it's real.  It's right outside our window "screen".  It features such shows as Squealie Squirrels, Squawkin' Jays, Bad Dogs Who Need to Leave Now, and My Enemy: the Mailman.  Some comedies, some dramas. 

Mommy caught us watching the other day:

Gotta go--my show's on!

Wild Dogs at the Park

Mommy started taking us to the waterhole to run around.  We love it.  I love running, can you believe it?  Jeff and I zoom along the trail and then Jeff bounds up and down and all around and is generally crazy.  Not me--I stick pretty close to Mommy. 

It's wonderful!  Come visit me and I'll take you there.

Musical Poodle

Toys are so 2015.  Right now I'm learning how to play the mandolin!  The mandolin is an instrument with wires that I can paw and noise comes out.  Mommy does something more complicated with it, but when that happens I just ignore her.  It's kind of embarrassing, really.  I'm hoping that Jeff B. will learn to sing along.

Squirrels and Stuff

Since Jeff Buckley came to our house, Mommy takes both of us running.  I don't know what Jeff does on his run, but I start out by racing across the street to check for squirrels.  If there are any, I chase them!  I've never eaten a squirrel, so I'm not sure it tastes good, but they are so fun to chase. 

I do have some squirrel toys at home that I also love to chase.  Mommy throws one, I bring it back, we tug, she throws it again, etc.  It's the best!  Sometimes I try to play with Daddy. 

It's not always successful.

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.