"Blog on Fire" Award!

Ha roo, pups and cool cats!  It's me, Zim!  We received a VERY cool award from our friend Savannah the other day - it's the Blog on Fire award:

Thanks, kit-cat pal; we feel very honored!

Now, Savannah named 5 things about herself, so we'll follow suit and do just that.  In fact, this is a good time for me and Dave to answer some of the cool questions you all have asked about us in your comments!  Ready?!?  Let's go!

1.  The toy in yesterday's post!  Isn't it cool?  I don't really play with many toys, but I like this one!  It's made by the Kong company and is very durable!  It's a Jump'N Jack dental toy.  Our friends Steve and Kat sent it to us 4 years ago and it's still good as new!  Sometimes Mom puts some of my doggie toothpaste in it for me - that's YUMMY... and in that case, yes, it does taste like chicken, Benny and Lily.  Ha roo roo roo!

2.  About my snowshoes.  Sigh.  Many of you - to include my friends Pip, Smidgen, Hollie and Minnie over at Fraidy Cats - are fans of my fuzzy feety-feet.  I must say, I am, too.  And unlike someone I could name around here, I am not a fan of having my feety-feet touched.  But ... the other day, Mom cut Dad's hair, then Davy wanted his snowshoes trimmed, and then ...

My once-fluffy feety-feet

Sigh.  Let's just say that 2 out of 3 customers at Mom's House of Clippers were pleased.  We'll leave it right there.

Numbers 3, 4, and 5 are dedicated to our relatively new readers.

3.  Dave and I were adopted from the same shelter.  I was about a year and a half old, Dave was about four.  I was adopted 5 months before him.  Mom and Dad didn't exactly plan on either one of us joining the family, but God did.  (Apparently.)  Here is an early picture of me with my wonderful sisters:

That's Stormy on the left and Ammy on the right.  I'm the sort of scrawny guy who was still umbilical corded.  The girls were watching me, so I was OK.

... Well, sure, if you must know ... in the pic Mom snapped earlier when she left me in their care, the bed sheets were all neat and tidy and they aren't in this shot ... but I have NO IDEA what happened.  Really.  Let's move along ...

4.  Here is a picture of Dave, still at the shelter:

Mom was checking him out for a rescue group, then was going to foster him until they could get him into a more permanent foster home in Oklahoma.  (Click here for the full story.)  As we all know now, that wasn't God's plan.  Ha roo roo roo!

5.  And so ... we've been asked how we got our blog name of The Army of Four Digest.  You can probably figure that one out now that you've read numbers 3 and 4!!!  When I joined the family, Mom and Dad referred to Storm, Ammy and I as "an army of three".  When Dave joined up, we became "The Army of Four" ... and then when we started blogging WAY back in September of '06, it seemed natural to name our blog "The Army of Four Digest"!

We have kept the name because it's still who we are - and to honor Stormy and Amber.  (For our newer readers, we lost Ammy in January of 2011 to Lymphoma and Stormy lost a long battle with kidney disease 2 short months later.)    Without Stormy's leadership and training and Ammy's love and kindness, Dave and I wouldn't be the guys we are today!  (For the record, Mom and Dad wouldn't be the same, either!)

Here are some favorite pix of all of us:

Us in our body guard formation around Dad!
Left to right:  Amber, Storms, me and Dave

I don't need to mention that Dad is the tall one in back, do I?

Here's another one:

Ammy, Stormy and me in the front; Dave in the rear

And yes, our sisters were every bit as beautiful on the inside as they were on the outside.  Even more so.

OK!!!  Now ... we're supposed to pass this award along!  We're going to tag:

1.  Steve and Kat!  The cool toy they sent me got this party started today, so it seems the thing to do!

2.  Benny and Lily.  You two always crack us up - and your question yesterday about the toy (did it taste like chicken) almost made mom have coffee come out of her nose.  Way to go!

3.  Pip, Smidgen, Minnie, Hollie AND Wriggley over at Fraidy Cats, since they are so sweet to compliment me on my feety-feet. 

4.  Casey, from the Legacy Chronicles.  There's a chance Casey is the one who asked about our blog name, but we aren't sure.  Regardless, we LOVE all the work his mom does with Boxer rescue, so this is a VERY small way of saying thank you!

5.  If it wasn't Casey who asked about our blog name, it was our friends at Random Felines.  And what Casey's mom does for Boxers, the Random Felines' mom does for kit-cats!  Thank you, mom-o-kit-cats!

We could go on and on, tagging ALL of you - because we just love our readers like crazy!  So really - if you'd like the award, consider yourselves awarded!

Thanks again to Savannah for the very cool award!  And we hope you enjoyed our list of stuff!

Play bows,

Zim