Valentine's Mischief: Pets Over Partners?!

Petplan, which we use for Rita's insurance, surveyed 4800 pet parents with some questions about Valentine’s Day. Some of the results were kind of amusing, and maybe sound like your house or mine??

See Beautiful; Eat (?) Beautiful

Today we are participating in the {This Moment} See Beautiful blog hop hosted by Sugar the Golden Retriever every 2nd Friday of the month.

Last time, I posted "see and hear beautiful," so this time I thought I'd try both see and eat beautiful. 

See Beautiful
We have a hawk that hangs out in our neighbor's huge eucalyptus tree.

Wordless Wednesday: Boys, Boys, Boys

Rita here. I'm taking over cuz Momma's always too wordy. I'll tell you what's been going on with pictures. My post is kinda all about boys. And at the end, you get to see me naked on a faux sheep-skin rug.

First, of all... Remember this little guy? My cousin, Reggie?

Well, he's not so little anymore. He turned 1 recently and we had a FUN playdate!

Monday Mischief: What a Tease

Hi all - Rita here. After Momma wrote about my special Valentine guy last week, well I have to admit I was a little worried when Valentine's came and went with no special package or card arriving.

I checked in with my special guy, Rocket, just to be sure we were still okay - after all, he did send me photos agreeing he'd be mine! But still... I thought maybe he was being fickle. Or maybe he was being a tease. Not to worry - it was just that his Daddy forgot to put the package in the mail. Phew!

Anyway, my package arrived on Friday:

"Look, it says right here it's for me!"

"Oooo, it smells so good in here!"

I got to unwrap stuff!

Oh man, there's ALL kinds of stuff in here!

He sent me a lock of his hair!

Isn't he the cutest?

Look at all the good stuff he sent! There's a bunny box filled with yummy treats, bunny straws, a treat wrapped up in a monkey bag, (monkeys and bunnies are kind of a thing with us...) a bunny-head Pez, a stuffy, a card, AND 2 boxes of chocolates for my Momma and Daddy. How thoughtful is that? As you can see in the picture, I look a little guilty - cuz all I sent him was a card. But Rocket says that's okay - the girls are supposed to get the gifts on Valentine's. I like the way he thinks.

All I sent was a card...

Can I have this one right now?

These chocolates here say they are for Daddy. Good luck, Daddy.

This is my favorite part - a very special, smoochy card, and a monkey-ear wearing doggy:

The doggy says "some bunny loves me." Hee!

Oh, wait, this is my other favorite part - a bully stick! (Pizzle! What every girl wants for Valentine's!)

It smells so good!

Hope you all had as good a Valentine's Day (or belated one) as I did. Happy Monday Mischief!

Monday Mischief: Rita's Valentine

I saw on the news today that the National Retail Federation estimates that American's will spend $850 million on their pets this Valentine's Day. Just for fun, I looked up what the NRF estimated last year for pet spending and it was a mere $562M. Holy Woof, that's  BIG jump - more than a 50% increase (63% to be exact).

Since I spent zero on Rita last year for Valentine's Day, I guess I'll spend 63% more on her this year too. Yep, still zero.

But don't worry, Rita has her very own Valentine, Rocket, and he looks out for her on Valentine's Day. Last year he sent her this fine monkey hat:

And you can see how much she loved it!

A Very Busy Girl!

Bunny Rita's been a very busy girl the past few days. This might be a long one because I've been taking TONS of pictures of her.

I Love Lucy
First of all, Rita met Lucy, my nephew and his girlfriend's dog. I think that makes Lucy & Rita cousins once removed. Although these two are more like never-to-be-removed cousins. Rita is probably a month or 2 older than Lucy, and they played hard for three hours straight. Most of my pictures from them playing outside look like this:

A blur or puppies

Action shot!

They seemed to enjoy this...

Inside, they played a "Queen of the Bed" game that went on and on. 

Great-white-shark teeth!

A rare moment of rest

Rita definitely LOVED Lucy and looked very sad when they left. Then she crashed!

Bunny Meets Bernie
You might remember Bernie, aka Bernie bin Laden, from this video I posted of him back in January.Well, Bernie wanted to come down from his home in Orange County to meet Bunny Rita, so the roads were cleared, and the appropriate authorities were warned, and we signed Rita up for insurance (our first time having pup insurance, btw), and the two of them met at Fiesta Island on Monday, along with Linda, Bernie's older and wiser sister.

No, don't follow Bernie! That way lies nuthin' but trouble!

Linda es muy linda.

They were actually pretty tame, I think because Rita was still hung over from her play marathon with Lucy the night before.

A very dirty Rita

Afterwards we went to In-N-Out, which was obviously a huge hit.

"Nom, nom, nom"

"Are there any more Flying Dutchmen?"

Bernie decided to give Mike the kisses he's been missing since Rita is stingy with them.



Then Bernie decided his dad might be jealous, so gave him a bunch too. Below, John demonstrates the appropriate way to receive Bernie's kisses: lips and eyes all clamped tight shut. The only problem is that Bernie then kisses your nose, sealing off your access to oxygen, so that you are forced to open your mouth. But you really don't want to do that, so it's best to just hold your breath til you pass out.


Bernie also decided I needed my makeup washed off - but I have no pictures of that (which is probably a good thing).

Bunny Rita's Special Valentine
Rita also received not one, but TWO special Valentine's from her long distance boyfriend, Rocket. First of all, he sent her a Valentine's care package that included a Monkeydog helmet, a stuffed pink monkey, and some chocolates for Rita's mama. (Which Rita's mama did not share with Rita's daddy...)

If you missed it I explained about MonkeyButts (aka Monkeydogs) here, but basically they are quadpawds who stir up friendly trouble on Tripawds.com to keep the smiles coming on a site that can sometimes be filled with sad news. The Monkeybutts' leader, Rocket (a.k.a. the "MonkeyButt-Bunny Vampire Pirate") has a little crush on MBBunny Rita, so he sent her a helmet. She is ready for battle with those silly Tripawds!

The other special Valentine he sent her was this special video viewable here, which cracks me up every time I watch it. My Rita es muy bonita! Y Rocket es muy macho!


Hope you all had a good Valentine's Day, whether your Valentine is two-, three-, or four-legged (or web-footed or talon-ed or whatever. I don't judge.)!