Monday Mischief - Busted for Pooch Smooches

Back long ago when I first started this blog, we had a very kissy dog.

This girl right here, angel Abby:

"Turn the camera off so we can make out."

Wordless Wednesday: The Right End and the Wrong End

Recently, when Reggie came to stay with us for a couple of nights, the pups had one half of the couch, and I had the other.

I ended up next to the, er, wrong end of the Reg.

Monday Mischief: When No Mischief Is Mischief

When I posted last week about Rita meeting Sugar, I mentioned that I was hopeful she'd like Sugar, since there's a sweet, calm, older golden in our 'hood that Rita likes.

Well, we ran into her this weekend, just hanging out on a sunny sidewalk all by herself. (She's so mellow, her pawrents just let her hang out in front of her house. I'd worry too much to ever let a dog do that, but then... I worry about everything!)

Wordless Wednesday: Comfort and Joy

Thought I'd share with you the front of our Christmas card for this year:

Christmas Greetings from Pooch Smooches!

I was going to save this for (mostly) Wordless Wednesday, but I figured many of you (including me!) won't be online (much) tomorrow, so here's our early Wordless Wed. Christmas greeting! 

Have yourselfie a merry little Christmas!

From our familial unit to yours...

Wordless Wednesday: A Study in Contrasts

Today, I present a study in contrasts...these pics having been taken literally less than 1 minute apart:

Wordless Wednesday: A Pup in the Grass

I've posted before about how Rita loves to flop down in cool grass on a walk.

Well, a neighbor planted some crazy tall grass, and Rita was only too happy to disappear into it this weekend on our walk when it was still kinda hot here.

Rita??

Less-Wordy Wednesday: Origins of the Pooch Smooches Name

So... Did you notice the new banner, tagline, and (slightly different) layout?? Whaddya think?

When I finished making the new banner, I realized I should probably update my About Us page, since I didn't mention Bailey on it before. (What a terrible dog-mom I am!)

While I was adding Bailey to the About Us page, I got the idea to post a This Day in History photo today.

Bailey & her fave person, Daddy. Aug. 14, 2009

(Okay, I know I'm posting this on Aug. 13, but Wednesday - as in Wordless Wednesday - is Aug 14, so I'm sharing an Aug 14 shot. Sheeeesh. Technicalities.)

Celebrating the Print Version: Enter the Giveaway!

I briefly mentioned the other day that the paperback version of WHAT THE DOG ATE is now available! Hooray! I can hold my book in my hot little hands. (And now you can too! Links for purchasing are at the end of the post.) So, I'm doing two things to celebrate:

Donating proceeds

I've committed to donating 10% of the proceeds of all print sales for the rest of this year to Best Friends Animal Society. I had a hard time deciding who to choose, but decided on Best Friends because I admire what they do (I'd love to visit them some day!) and love their mission: "To bring about a time when there are no more homeless pets." I can't even imagine that - what would it be like if there were no dogs and cats to rescue?? Wouldn't it be wonderful? 

So, if you buy the book in print, know that part of the money will go to help animals in need. And we're not just talking dogs and cats here! No - you'll be helping chickens, ducks, goats, horses, parrots, pigs, pigeons (adopt a pigeon??), rabbits, sheep, and one burro and one mule. (Someday I would love to have a burro or a donkey! But that's probably not going to happen in my lifetime...). Burros... those are asses right? So, buy my book and save an ass!

A Giveaway

The other thing I'm doing to celebrate is giving away a goodie bag to one lucky winner!

Adios Barney... And a Funny Incident

Today we said goodbye to Barney. Before we could mail him on his way, I had to fix him up. Here he is after I tended to his wounds:

I thought he might appreciate the Tylenol PM--hopefully keep him knocked out for the long ride to his next stop (which has to remain a secret for now as per the official Kill Barney Tour rules... Yes, there are actual rules for this thing, and I am nothing if not a rule follower.)

I wanted to also take a picture of him with his mementos from the zoo that we added to his box of treasures. While I was preoccupied with the camera, you can just see a little fuzzy head sneak up into the picture and make one last attempt at him.

Abby certainly did try to live up to the name of the Kill Barney Tour. She definitely had the spirit of the thing, but, poor her, her mom wouldn't let her really kill him.

I also thought I'd tell you about a stupid/funny thing that I did yesterday.

Abby does so well on three legs that (unless I hear her hopping along) I sometimes forget that she is missing that leg. Sometimes I'll come around the corner and see her standing there and just go, "Oh man." You sort of forget, for like half a second. Well, yesterday when we got back from the beach, we went to the front yard to rinse the sand off her feet like we always do. I was on her "good side" hosing her feet off, and I did the back two and then the front - and then I hosed the space where her other leg ought to have been. Yeah. Felt a little stupid about that. I've heard of phantom limb pain, but never phantom limb washing. It's been almost 10 months, so you'd think I'd really get it by now! But I guess that is just a testament to our fuzzy little girl, who sure doesn't act like she is missing anything!

Gosh. Don't know what I'll blog about in the future, now that Barney's gone. Hopefully I'll think of something! Thanks for reading.

Abby: Bringing the Hurt on Barney

Abby finally got her chance to kill barney. It took us a week to get him fully lulled into a false sense of security. There was the spa day, the trip to the zoo, and then Abby and I took him to her favorite spot - Fiesta Island. I confess I was worried about taking him there, lest some OTHER dog grab him and run off and get the joy of killing him (tragedy!) but it was a fairly quiet day there and I mostly kept him hidden in my backpack (which he didn't seem to mind, but remember - he's a total moron.)

He played lifeguard

First, he enjoyed the view

Personally, I think Abby makes a cuter lifeguard, but Barney wanted to give it a go. (He said he wanted to pretend he was David Hasselhoff in Bay Watch. He made us call him "The Hoff" the rest of the day. Moron.)


Then the time finally came to sit Barney down and clue him in:

Admittedly, she was a little slow to get into it. But after a few more nibbles on him, she really started to develop a taste for him. She chewed:

His nose...

His side

The spots on his back

His hand

His hiney (she's actually chewing his tag off here...)

His tail

His stinky feet

 She got so into chewing him that I decided to video a bit more:

And then it was time to save Barney so that some other Tripawd could try to kill him.

"I'm not done with that!"

"Hey, where you going with that thing??"

 I documented his wounds.

Small hole in left butt cheek

Big hole in mouth, small hole in left big toe

I now have to sew him up good and get him looking presentable to go off to the next Tripawd home. Abby is very sad to see him go... but we ordered her her very own used Barney from Amazon yesterday. She can't wait for it to get here so she can kill it!

He's Heeeeere!

...which she immediately started to destroy

Last time I posted it was the day before Abby's 2nd birthday. Before we get to the Big News, here's a quick run down of her extended birthday celebrations in photos:

On her bday, she got a new toy...

The next day, she got ANOTHER new toy - this one from her Aunt Terry...

...and she did not want to give it up!

The *next* day, she got a new bone.

Have to be creative when chewing these!

 

THEN... she got a box full of goodies...

...including Barney!

Yes! The Kill Barney Tour has arrived in San Diego! A shout out to the Oaktown Pack for sending Barney our way, and especially to Codie Rae (who is a star tripawd and seen in a real live music video. She is kinda a Big Deal and is Abby's idol.) You may recall I blogged back in June about how we were Begging for Barney, [and if you don't recall, you may want to check that post out because it explains all this Barney stuff...) and now he's here!

Barney has been to see a lot of Tripawds and he's getting a bit...odiferous. Abby gave him a very thorough sniffing.

She sniffed him ALL over.

And then she started to eat him.

 Now, it is the KILL Barney Tour, but I have plans for him first... so I had to get him away from her:

 Then I had to put him up where she couldn't get him:

He travels with a box full of goodies - some memorabilia from all the places he's been, plus a diary that journals his travels. There is also a stamp pad to add your tripawd's paw print into the journal. Haven't done that yet.... Should be interesting. Anyway, the stuff he travels with is getting pretty stinky too, so here is Abby looking for Barney - in vain - amongst his accoutrement:

Here's the thing... I don't think we should just leap right in and kill him. I think we should lull him into a false sense of security. And THEN kill him. Remember that scene in Marathon Man when Dustin Hoffman THINKS he's being rescued by William Devane... but then William Devane just drives him right back to Laurence Olivier for more torture?? Well, think of me as William Devane, Abby as Sir Laurence, and Barney of course will be playing the Dustin Hoffman roll. Is it safe, Barney? Oh yes... he thinks it is!

Here he is having a recovery nap after the Oaktown Pack had their way with him.

Here he is unwinding with a nice massage

And the ultimate in relaxation: a nice long steam shower

He's resting comfortably in the other room right now. Next: we continue to lull him into relaxing and completely letting his guard down with a trip to the zoo. (Heehee. He thinks he's just here to unwind in San Diego; see the sites! Little does he suspect...)

Whaddya think, Barney, is it safe?

No Contest

Plotting evil in Ab's lung

Well... the follow up x-ray was not great. The Met formerly known as Lone has (a) gotten bigger and (b) found himself a little buddy, or a girlfriend, or a little sibling, or whatever the hell it is. So we won't be having a "Rename the Lone Met" contest. For now I'm just calling them Boris and Natasha (unless someone has a better suggestion), and even though Natasha was bigger than Boris in Rocky and Bullwinkle, I'm going to think of the bigger met as Boris, since in my opinion he was always the nastier piece of work.

Dr. V. said that it could be worse, and that Abby could still have a decent amount of time left, but it's still not good news. He said he was really not expecting to see another met. He was getting a little red-eyed as well as he told me all this. :( 

He said, overall, considering how crappy and aggressive this disease is, she's still doing good. She feels great still: has great energy and a good appetite (well, as good as it's ever been, which has never been great; she's just not a big eater). Also, her lungs and heart sound really good - no sign of strain on the heart or fluid in the lungs. Her blood work was also fine. He said there is no sign of mets anywhere else in her lungs and Natasha looks to be a chip off Boris (they are sort of nestled right up against each other). And he said that, as mets go, Boris has grown pretty slowly. We first saw Boris back in December, and now 7 months later he's about the size of a golf ball. (That sounds big to me, but Dr. V said that because of where it is, it can get really big before it starts to be a problem.)

Hopefully the new pills (the Artemix, which is the hollistic thing we just started her on last week) will make some difference. We have to give them to her every night and then in 2 months do another x-ray to see if they are helping at all. It could happen that they would make a difference... So all hope is going into that now.

He also said that if we wanted to try to be more aggressive, we could try another type of IV chemo, which would not cure her, but would maybe slow things down. I don't think we'll do that... I think instead we'll hope for the Artemix to do its thing, but I'll have to talk to her pop about that. 

In a bit of good news, the "Dog Days of Summer" contest is going well! Abby is already into triple digits with her votes! Not bad for being in the contest a mere 24 hours. You can vote more than once, so if you have a sec, click on the picture below and vote for her.

In the grand scheme of this fricking disease, I know we've actually been kind of lucky. Some folks don't get to have their doggies with them this long after diagnosis, or don't get to have them be so energetic. It's nice that she still feels fine and her body has no clue that she is sick. Hanging on to that, and hanging on to hope for the Artemix. Come on, Artemix! Do your thing, Artemix!

Dog Dazed

Well, not just the dog... but both the dog and I are completely dazed (and confused) that she didn't win anything in the Orvis Cover Dog Contest! [In case you are joining us here late, I blogged in Feb. about entering Abby in this Orvis contest, because she loves her Orvis bed. She actually finished on the podium - 3rd place out of almost 13,000 dogs - in the "Most Unique Voters" contest.] With all the votes from you guys, I knew we'd get her pic in front of the judges so she'd stand out amongst the 1000s of entries, and I thought we'd at least get an Honorable Mention. 

Newp.

We didn't even make the grade for the "Other Favorites." You can view the winners, HM's and Other Faves here. Geez, they couldn't squeeze a pic of an adorable tripawd in there?? Oh well, at least all your votes raised money for canine cancer research. And I suppose that is the important thing.

Nevertheless, we are undaunted. We are going to enter Abby in the local paper's "Dog Days of Summer" photo contest. I'd like to submit her entry by next week and I thought I'd ask your help first in selecting a photo. I tried to pick out some photos that say "summer" (or at least ones that say "hot dog"), so have a look and please comment regarding which you think I should enter:

Tripawd Lifeguard Girl

Just Another Fabulous Day at the Beach

Water Stop (this one doesn't even play the Tripawd card...)

Probably wouldn't really send this one, but I think it's cute

Nuthin' says summer like watermelon...

And more watermelon...

The "losing" shot from Orvis (might save this for the Humane Society calendar contest...)

Just included this one for your enjoyment

Once the pics are in, there will be a voting period from July 20 through the 29th and the top vote-getters will be published in the paper on July 31st and win movie passes. I'll remind you guys to vote next week. Don't really care about the movie passes since we never go to the movies, but it would be fun to see our lovely girl in print. We think she's so cute, we want to share her cuteness with everyone. So, let me know which pic you think I should pick??

Another Ampuversary & Begging for Barney

Today is Abby's 8 month ampuversary! Whoo-hoo! Normally, she gets a Flying Dutchman from In-N-Out to celebrate, but: (a) she just had one a couple of weeks ago to celebrate her daddy's return from his biz trip to Asia (commemorated in the photo here), and (b) yesterday she ate a bird. Yes, an entire bird. Luckily it was a small bird, but she ate it all - beak, feet, feathers, the whole shebang. (And it's the shebang that I'm worried about...) Not sure if she killed it or found it dead... She was rummaging around in one of our bushes and came out with it. We figured she'd have some tummy issues (to put it mildly) last night or today, but so far she seems fine. Anyway, we are kind of waiting to make sure her stomach is OK before loading her up with a Dutchman. In the meantime, she'll at least get a Frosty Paw.

Don't you want to kill him too?

I think Abby ate the bird because she is sharpening her skills in the hopes of participating in the Kill Barney Tour. (I heard once that birds are related to dinosaurs; I assume she heard the same thing.) I only just recently found out about the Tour on the Tripawds site, even though it has apparently been going on since January of 2010. Barney used to be one of Jerry's toys that he loved to hate. (Jerry is the original tri-pawwed pooch who's pack started the Tripawds site. In fact, you may have seen Jerry and not even realize it if you've ever seen the PBS Nature series episode on "Why We Love Cats & Dogs.") Anyway, since the tour began about 18 months ago, Barney has been to 22 different places. He's well-traveled, that Barney. You can even check out the Kill Barney Tour Map and see where all he's been. He's never been to San Diego, so I think it's about time he visits!

So, Abby and I entered our plea on the I Want Barney blog on the Tripawds site. You can read the specifics of what we said here if you are so inclined, but basically Abby offered to show him a good time, let him sink into a false sense of security... and then kill him. I, on the other hand, offered to sew him up so he can go on to the next tripawd who wants to rip apart that insipid little dinosaur. I think we have a shot, but there might be one or two other tripawds who have called dibs ahead of us. If we get Barney, I'll certainly be blogging about it here!

In doing a little research for this post, I found that there is an entire "Anti-Barney Humor" page on Wikipedia. I also learned there that the folks who are behind Barney can't come after you if you use his image in parody. They tried to go after the San Diego Chicken for his attacks of Barney (gotta love YouTube - you can view one such attack here) but lost. 

Finally, I posted a couple of videos of Abby on YouTube, including this one of her playing with her friend, Lola, at Fiesta Island. We went to F.I. today but I didn't bring my camera along. Too bad, because Enzo was there (the little cutie from my previous post) so Abby had a great time wrestling with him. Enzo and Lola are pretty much the only dogs Abby likes to wrestle with anymore, so she was happy to see him today. They are so cute together. Hopefully next time I'll have my video camera!

Thanks for reading everyone. These 8 months have flown by!