The Cone Zone

I had to go to the vet last week because of a bump on my leg. She worries about bumps and lumps so first she hauled my housemate Aldo to the vet to get poked and prodded. Then the next day, Aldo left the house without even getting breakfast and came back later that night as a big cone head. I thought it was pretty funny to grab Aldo’s cone and drag him around the house. That game didn’t get to last so long, since she apparently didn’t think it was all that funny. Then the next thing I knew, I’d joined the Cone Zone too. My bump was a Mast Cell tumor. It’s gone now, but the Cone is still stuck on my head and Aldo’s too. I don’t know how many more days I will be tormented with this plastic salad bowl on my head, but I’ll keep ramming her in the shins with mine until she takes it off for good.

Mailbox

Some dogs bark at the mail carrier and I admit, if I’m in the house and I hear the mailbox outside slam shut, I sometimes bark too. Today, we saw a mailbox just like ours, but it was upside down sideways. And how amazing it was! Who would have thought that the mail carrier would come up with such a creative idea, all for the convenience of dogs and their people. And here I thought they only walked up and down the street slamming mailbox doors!

Life At My New Home

Hi Everyone, it's me, Grace. I thought I'd take a break from relaxing and let you know how it's going since I came to live with my new family.



One of my favorite things to do is go on long walks on these things called Nature Trails. There are so many great smells on those things.


I've also been doing a lot of cuddling. My family tells me they are letting me "settle in".



But they still make me follow rules and don't let me forget all of the good manners I learned from being a BAD RAP foster dog. Here I am doing "down" while my mom cooks dinner. I love food.....

Well, that's it for now!
Grace

My Gym

A little while ago, for my adopt-a-day, my mom bought me a back yard and a gym. There is a house that came with my great back yard and gym, and its nice for naps and dinner, but its not nearly as good as my yard and gym.

The yard has nice green grass and its flat, which is really good for chasing tennis balls and squirrels. It is also great for playing with my flirt pole, which is one of my favorite things to do. Here is a video of me playing flirt pole with my foster sister, Winnie.

My gym is everything a dog would ever want. I have my treadmill and a spring pole set up. The spring pole is so great because I can tug and tug and it never gets tired, unlike my mom.

After we got the gym set up the very nice people at Grand Carpet Mill sent a brand new belt for my mill and a new harness. My new harness fits really well and my mom says we can start learning about weight pulling with it. The new belt is way better than the old one that was all worn out and had a hole in it. With my new gear in my new gym I can run and run and tug and tug until I am finally tired.

I am such a lucky dog! I have a great place to work out even when its raining outside so I don't annoy my mom and Lulu by bouncing too much.

I think its making me look buff and handsome too. What do you think?

Hugs,

Uba

Happy Birthday to Me!

My people think that I turned about 6 today. All I care about is being able to wear these cool things on my head!!

Angus, Mindy Lou, and Scooby didn't seem as thrilled about them as I was, but they were good sports for me!

I got myself a birthday stick, and I liked it!

Happy St Patrick's Day !!

Don't forget to wear something green today.

- Jonny " Leprechaun " Justice

New Things

The other day, I went to a park where there were lots of big dogs and crazy things with wheels on them. I heard someone say they were draft carts. Hmmmm, what's a draft cart ? Well, it didn't take long to find out.

First, I got to put on this really cool harness, and drag a big block of wood around some grass. It's cool to drag stuff. I liked it, well, until we went to the parking lot. It was kinda scary at first, that big wood block was making weird noises behind me. Then I got a cookie and forgot all about the wood block. Cookies make everything better.


Next, they said I could try a real cart, so I jumped at the chance.




It was fun, scary, and really cool all at the same time. I can't wait to do it again.

Big Thanks to the Bernese Mountain Dog Club of Northern California for letting me try draft carting, and special thanks to Jim for taking time to give us awesome lessons. We had great fun.

You big dogs sure make it look easy.

-Jonny

Making Art

I have been working really hard recently developing a new talent. We got some art with pictures of my friends Jonny, Grace and Hector, so I was inspired to try making art too. My first few attempts got me in trouble. Apparently its not OK to make art out of the cats' litter box. Recently I think I have fine tuned my skills and selected more appropriate media.

This one I call "The New Floor". It is mud on soft wood.

I call this one "I Love My Mom". I created it using teeth on a found object.

If I keep working maybe my art will be on display at the next Tuff Love exhibit!

hugs,

Uba

A Happy New Year from Zippy!

Today my foster mom was watching TV when she heard that Vick was being considered as an MVP for the NFL. Boy, did this make my momma's blood boil but she took a deep breath as she looked at me and smiled. I'm not sure what that all means but I know that I am happy now, much more than I ever thought I could be. I have these kids who run circles around me but I give them a run for their money too. You should see the oldest one when she feeds me, she's 11. Sometimes I get so excited I run out of my crate and bounce up and down while she is trying to feed me. A few times I've accidentally bumped the bowl and boom, there goes all my food on the floor just how I like to eat it :). Want to hear something funny? The 2 year-old has started to take a very persistent stand in wanting to help feed me too and boy is he determined. Yep, food goes flying everywhere whenever he is involved too. Cracks me up because he reminds me of me! The 11 year old likes to pick me up when I have selective hearing especially during these cold, foggy days. Some days I make her go outside and down the stairs with me, I mean if I have to be miserable out in the cold I shouldn't have to be alone right? It's funny because sometimes I catch my foster mom secretly smiling when the oldest girl gets frustrated with me, the kid tries to use her firm voice but I do have a hard time taking her serious until about the 4th or 5th time. Mom laughs because she says that she enjoys watching this interaction, she says that how I act is how the kid acts, except of course I don't talk back but I can be pretty good with my selective hearing. Although when mom talks in her firm voice I know she means business so I don't even try it with her. I mean I like to have my fun but a dog has to draw the line at times. All in all life is pretty good and I am looking forward to 2011, this has got to be my year people :).

I got a yard!!

Hello everybody! My family and I had to do something called move from the condo we were renting because of something else called foreclosure.  But guess what? I now have a yard and I love it!! This yard is nothing like the scary one I was chained too, at that mean guys place.  No this one is lots of fun and my mom tells me I can be the "King of my jungle". Whatever that means.

Thats me waiting for one of those pesky squirrels to throw another walnut at our shack.  At first the loud thunk would scare me, but now I am braver and like to try and find the walnuts.

Oh and that's Doja my sister, she has a stinky butt. Hee-Hee! Shh, but don't tell her I said that. 

Oops, sorry Doja!  I guess even when your a King of the jungle, you sister will ALWAYS be the bossy, queen. Jeez!

OK, gotta run.

~Love Frodo~

I am Thankful

I got a new foster sister for the holidays! Her name is Winnie and she is super cool. We have a whole lot of fun playing together.

How lucky am I to have such a pretty friend?

hugs,

Uba

Wowee!!

I just found out about this awesome piece that an artist named Christine Head did of me. I feel so special and loved! My foster dad says that it captures my sparkly eyes and slight smirk perfectly. I am wiggly but I was a little bit embarrassed to be known for my snoring (even if it is true). :P But I guess if no one else minds it why should I? :) Thank you, Christine! I love it!

You can check out this sketch and a bunch of Christine's other work here--including a cool piece of one of my best buddies, Jonny:
http://www.mysketches.com/index.html

And the Winner is......

BIG THANKS to all the imaginative folks that commented. It really was great fun.

In all honesty, this was hard ! There were way too many great comments, so I had to ask for help from other blog writers. The consensus of the authors was that this comment, as it was said to me, "shows a total lack of good judgement in the name of fun." Winner !

I can't list them all but here are a few of our favorites :

" It's so embarrassing when he picks me up by the handle."

"Timmy's in trouble!! " ( think Lassie )

" RUN.....I HEAR BANJOS!! " ( poor taste..but funny )

"You know...This is only happening because you're holding that dog treat..."

" Next on "Pitwatch!" Johnny saves Pamela from a giant catfish "

" I need a word with my stylist.... "


Thanks again for playing along. You guys are the best !



- the guy who types stuff for the dog.

Caption This........

What could Jonny be thinking?

As we close out the season of warm weather fun, I thought all you folks in internet-land might like to have one last a bit of summer fun with Jonny.

Have fun, be creative, but mostly, try and think like Jonny.
Next week , we will fill in the bubble with the best caption.

Thanks for reading our blog -
- the guy who types stuff for the dog.

Football

I learned how to play a new game this week. Its called football, and it is FUN.

Click on the picture to see me playing my new favorite game!

I'm supposed to be learning something when I play this game, but I don't really know what that is. All I know is I want to play this game a lot, even if I have to let go of the ball sometimes.

hugs,

Uba