It's My Zim-aversary!

Hey, pups! It's me - Zim! And today is my Zim-aversary! Ha rooooooo! Six years ago today, I came home to my fur-ever home! Ha rooooo!

Amber has blogged a little bit about my arrival into the pack, and so has Stormy. In fact, Stormy posted some pix of how messed up I was when I got here. I'd rather not go into all of that today. Today is a day to celebrate! Look, I already got a cool present:

Wowzers! A coffee cup! For me?

It's my very own Starbuck's coffee mug! I wonder what's in it! Is it this, perhaps??!!??

No! Even better!

Check this out, everypup! Instead of having cappuccino in it, which I love but am not allowed to have, it's got COOKIES in it! Here I am, sampling one:

Yum! Thanks, Mom and Dad!

Who wants to come over and celebrate with us?


Cookies for everypup!

Play bows,
Zim

Peanuts!

Hi everypuppy! It's me, Ammy! I was out in the yard playing with Mom and our Mr. Greenie toy...

when I stopped and remembered something.

Then I started giggling. Here I am, starting to giggle:

Hee hee hee!

I couldn't help myself. I was thinking about a new joke I heard. Mom and I went back up onto the deck, to see if I could regain my composure. I tried ripping Mr. Greenie up for a minute ...

...then I started to lose it again. Here I am, pinning my Zichick ears back and starting to giggle.

Hee hee hee! I can't help it! Hee hee hee!

Dave thinks I look like a Malamute in this picture. Considering how he feels about a certain someone, I take it as quite the compliment! :) Besides, I have very fond memories of my uncles, back on the farm.

I just could NOT contain myself; that joke was so funny! Are you ready? Here goes!

A guy goes into a bar, hops up onto the stool and orders a beer. There is a bowl of peanuts on the counter, and the bartender tells the guy to help himself while he pours the beer. The guy reaches down, takes a couple nuts, and starts munching. As he does, the nuts start talking to him! "Hey, you look really nice tonight! Is that a new shirt? Your hair looks great!" and other really nice things! The guy is amazed! The bartender sets his beer down, the guy keeps munching away, and the nuts keep it up, "That color tie really goes well with your jacket! Your shirt really brings out the color of your eyes! Have you lost weight?" and so forth! Finally, the bartender comes over to check on him. "Everything OK over here?" "Well, yes," says the guy. "But what's with the nuts?" "Oh, yeah," said the bartender. "they're complimentary."

Hee hee hee! "They're complimentary." Hee hee hee! Oh, this one just kills me!

Have a happy day, everypuppy!
Love,
Amber ("Complimentary." Hee hee hee...)

Watermelon Slushies!

Woo, everypuppy! It's me, Dave! Did you read our dear friend Sitka's blog the other day? She mentioned that in her Time Capsule, she'd put the blueprints for Sonic Drive-Ins, so they could build one in the future if they didn't have them! I started thinking about Sonic and what all they have there.

I perused the menu and saw that they have Watermelon Slushies! WATERMELON! I LOVE watermelon! It's been SO hot here ... and we in the Ao4 thought Watermelon Slushies would be a great way to cool down. We thought long and hard on them, sending Siberian Mind-Meld Messages to Mom and Dad. Before we knew it, Dad said that on his way home from golf, he'd stop by and grab some Slushies!!! Oh, PUP!

Here are some great pix of me and Stormy, enjoying our Slushies! (Amber and Zim got some, too, of course. We just didn't get any good photos of them.) I worked on Mom.

Excuse me, Mom. Is that a Watermelon Slushie? You KNOW I love watermelon! It's so hot ... and that Slushie looks so cool! Just a little taste for your Davy-doggie?

She gave me some on the lid! This was my first taste. I can't even beGIN to tell you how good it was! You have to get your bipeds to go to Sonic and get one! Or - here's a recipe!

In this next picture, I was holding the lid down with my footy-foot while I licked it off.

Mom was afraid I'd eat the plastic (honestly ... how does she come up with these things?), so she got a plate for me and put more Slushie on it!

Oh, YEAH! Thanks, Mom!

Here's how Stormy's experience went! She worked the ol' Siberian Mind Meld Message to the MAX!

Look into my eyes. Yes ... here I am ... right over the rim of your Slushie cup. You've had enough of yours ... haven't you?

Very good. Yes ... yes, that's it. A little lower ....

Jackpot!

She's really good, isn't she? And the SLUSHIES were incredibly good! Head to your local Sonic Drive-In, everypup - or make your own! But whatever you do, make sure you get to try a Watermelon Slushie!

Luv,
Dave

PS: Mental note to Mom and Dad ... the Farmer's Market is Wednesday and I'm SURE they'll have watermelons! (I sure hope this works again!)

Sunday Salute - Moseley & Bristol!

Our Sunday Salute this week goes to our friends Moseley and Bristol, the Bernina Boys! You may remember them from a Salute we did back in February, shortly after Bristol was adopted. We thought it was time for a P-update!

They're still working extremely hard at the Bernina Shoppe, helping their mom run the store, serve customers, and greet everyone who comes in! Here they are, hard at it!

Top row: Moseley. Bottom row: Bristol.

They ... uh ... must have just sold an Artista 730 or something and are utterly exhausted. We don't know about you pups, but we get tired just looking at them! They've excelled at all of their other tasks so much so that their mom gave them a new job! They are writing a blog for the store! Our mom (who frequently comes home smelling of Lab...) is helping them out. Stop by their blog and say hello!

In fact, speaking of handsome Yellow Labs ... we would like to thank our good friend Charlie the Big Dog for the Rockin' Dog Blogger award! It is so cool!

And we can't think of anypuppy more deserving to receive it from us than these new bloggers, Moseley and Bristol! They've jumped into blogging with all 8 feety-feet and are getting right down to business! Congrats, guys! And thank roo, Chucksie-Bux!

Bristol is developing a real interest in colors, quilts and artisitic expression. Mom put a top together for the store and brought it in to show everyone. If Bristol sniffs at something, he finds it interesting. If he lays on it, he really likes it.

Apparently, Mom's quilt top is a winner! Thanks for the ringing endorsement, Bristol! Ha rooo! (Dave, GDFTCB had his doubts about those fabrics at first, but only because they're way out of his and Mom's comfort zone!)

It's not all work for these two guys. They take time out to kick back ...

and relax. It's good to have someone you can lean on, isn't it? Ha roo roo roo! Aren't these guys adorable? Mom played around a little with another shot of Bristol with his chin on Moseley. How cute is this shot:

Yeah. It's that cute! We also like this one of Bristol showing Moseley how much he loves him!

Love ya, Mose! Right back at you, Bristol!

Moseley and Bristol, for all you do - helping run the Bernina Shoppe, greeting customers, offering opinions on quilts, and now writing the Bernina Boys' Blog! ... we salute you!

The Army of Four

Luca Brasi

Tail wags, pups! It's me - Stormy!

We saw a cool thing on our friend Sasha's blog the other day! She did a fun Slogan Generator. We went to the site and played around with the Movie Quote Generator; it came up with some great movie lines using "Army of Four"!

Our favorite was from The Godfather:

It's a Sicilian message. It means 'Luca Brasi sleeps with the Army of Four'.

Luca Brasi

Ha roo roo roo! Another favorite, also from The Godfather:

Keep your friends close, but your Army of Four closer.

Very sage advice! From A Few Good Men:

You can't handle the Army of Four!

Ha roo roo roo! Few bipeds can! And from that Kansas favorite, The Wizard of Oz:

Pay no attention to that man behind the Army of Four!

We thought these were all great and had tons of fun playing around with the Generator. We couldn't get the Generator graphic to upload onto our blog, but you can click the hyperlink up at the top there and have some fun with it yourself!

Tail wags,
Storms

Time Capsule!

Ha roo, pupper-oohs! Zim here! Is everypup staying cool? Here's something you can think about while you're laying on the air conditioning vent or lounging by the pool!

Our sweet and bee-roo-tiful Beagle babe friends Jazz and Dixie tagged us in a fun, new game! They and their mom went on a cool walk with Fei and her mom and they stopped to pose on a buried time capsule! They wondered what was in it and offered up their list of what they'd put in one! Then, the game! They said, "If you doggies/Girl Girl were going to make a time capsule to be opened some time in the future what would you put in there for the doggies/hamsters of the future? Name five important things that you would include and then pass it on to five other friends." Wowzers, how FUN! We've been thinking long and hard on this! That's me on the right, thinking.

All four of us kicked this around. Dave thought we should include watermelon seeds, so pups of the future could have watermelons. Then I said we should put COFFEE BEANS in there, so they could have cappuccinos! Then, when Amber realized this time capsule would be buried for 50 years, she thought we should round up every brush and comb in our house and bury those! (Not that she's trying to avoid getting brushed or anything ... ha roo roo roo!) Then Stormy told us we needed to knock it off and get serious.

Knock it off and get to work on our list, Siberpups!

I play bowed to her and said, "Yes, Stormy!" That's really all you can do in that situation. You know, if you've already learned the hard way. Like I have.

Without furthur ado, here's our list!

1. A limited slip collar and

2. a 6' leash. Those items are our ticket to all kinds of wonderful adventures and FUN!

3. Good neighbor bags. Like the collar and lead, without those, we don't go anywhere!

Me, Dad and Amber, with items 1-3. Too bad we can't put snow in the time capsule!

4. A brochure from our vet's, so people will know how to take care of pups in the future! They'd learn all about proper nutrition, medical treatments (to include how to treat for fleas & ticks, guard against heartworm and all KINDS of great stuff!), and training tips.

5. TOYS! We want puppies of the future to see all of our cool toys like Nylabones, Kongs, and our real dinosaur bones! We want pups of the future to have fun indoor activities, too! Here's Dave with the stash he has in the inner room of the Quilt Studio.

No wonder Amber can't find the ones she was looking for! Ha roo roo roo!

That's our list! We tag Marvin, the bee-roo-tiful Sitka, MayaMarie, Marley, and Steve & Kat.

THIS JUST IN! Remember Xia, the puppy Dave posted about a couple days ago? She's out of surgery! It went well and she'll be home tomorrow! Please keep her and her foster family in your thoughts and prayers! You can follow her progress on her dogster page! Thank roo so much to all the great bipeds at Harnessed to Hope Northern Breed Rescue AND to Xia's vets and her foster family!!! We wish her a speedy and uneventful recovery!

Play bows!
Zim

Amber's Garden P-update

Hi everypuppy! It's me - Amber! Mom wanted to take a few shots of some of the garden things the other day and asked me to come with her. Unusual, as Zim usually does the garden pictures with her! She said something about "somebunny" has already eaten enough of the plants, she didn't need Zim eating any more. Hmmm... I wonder who she meant?

Oh, yes. I remember now. Hee hee hee.

We took a quick picture by the mailbox...

...but I couldn't concentrate on looking at the camera. The bunny saw me and crossed the street TOWARD us! Those silly bunnies are getting mighty bold!

We decided to go out back, instead. We saw a picture on Guinness & Shiloh's blog of their Purple Basil, and it looks different than ours! Here's a close up of ours:

I think our leaf-edges are curlier or more jagged!

When I came in, Dad was getting out a new golf towel. (For those of you who may not remember, I decided golf makes me sick (and you can follow this hyperlink to read why!) - but Dad sure seems to enjoy himself! Anyroo.... look at this towel!

Oh, no! Their meeting in Pittsburgh is over, but now they're all over the country! I wonder if we're in danger!?! I wonder if Ivy knows about this?! She'll know what to do! Besides... she knows someone who knows someone who knows Super Ivy! Yikes, what does this all mean?!

Well, SGT Zim is howling at us that we need to line up for daily Banana Formation, so I need to go!

Alright, Ao4! Everypuppy fall in! Banana Formation!

Have a great day, everypuppy, and stay cool!

Love,
Amber

We Rock, Too!

Woooooo! Dave here. Did you read the post that Stormy made yesterday!?!? She and Ammy were presented with a Rockin' Girl Bloggers award! That's so COOL! And then - guess what!?!?! Stormy made a badge using Mom's photo program of a Rockin' Guy Blogger award - and gave it to me and Zimmie! She's not only really smart, she's nice, too!

Isn't it cool? I asked her if we could pass it along to other rockin' guy bloggers and she said Zim and I could choose 5 ... then they could choose 5! Wow, it'll be hard to limit it; we think ALL of our blogging pals have such GREAT blogs! How to choose? We put everypup's name in our EMPTY food dish and chose 5. We award the Rockin' Guy Blogger award to: Tubey, Echo, Joe Stains (and Tanner, too!), Indy, and Mitch the Airedale!

Please right click on the little graphic, save it to your computer, then upload it to your blog! How COOL! And remember - pass it on to 5 more Rockin' Guy Bloggers! Woooooo!

Here's a picture of us guys celebrating! Well, OK, not really celebrating, but we WERE having fun. We were out on the upper deck, checking out the neighborhood. We can see and smell for MILES up there! We love it in the tree tops!

Notice how Zim's tail is on top of my back? I've got such a fun kid brother!

Congrats to our fellow bloggers. As Storm said yesterday - you ALL rock!

Luv,
Dave

PS: Storm just handed me a very important bulletin. The wonderful bipeds at the Harnessed to Hope Northern Breed Rescue have taken in a very sweet, young Siberian named Xia. You can read all about her on Indy's blog or the HTHNBR Foster Dogs' blog. The short story is that she was tied to the door of the SPCA, she is only 7 or 8 months old, is sweet and gorgeous, and ... has a severely fractured leg! The good news is that she's going to see a specialist tomorrow and they're going to be able to save her leg, but she will need extensive care! If there is any way you can contribute to help cover Xia's medical bills, please try. You can use Pay Pal or send in a check; both sites will show you how! HTHNBR is a non-profit organization as recognized by the IRS pursuant to Section 501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue Code. Thank woooo for anything you can do to help! Good luck, Xia!

We Rock!

Ha roo, everypup! It's me - Storms! A big thank roo to our gal-pals Sitka and Sasha for nominating Amber and me as Rockin' Girl Bloggers! Ha roooooo!

This is totally cool, and it was quite thoughtful of Sitka and Sasha to give us the nod! We're supposed to nominate seven other rockin' girl bloggers - so here goes. This isn't easy, because all of our blogging buddies ROCK! We nominate Pippin & Tansy, Frankie & Maddie, China & Madie, Mati, Jazz & Dixie, Summer (of Team Husky), and Dakota!

To celebrate this momentous occasion, Mom took this picture of Amber and me, then played around with it a bit.

Me and Ammy

Not bad, is it? Don't I look proud? I had just heard about our Rockin' Girl Blogger award.

As a side note, Mom had to take about 152 pictures of us before she even came up with this one. We were ... a tad bit less than cooperative. Just because. In the vast majority of the pix, if Amber looked good, I didn't - and vice versa. It kept the cookies flowing, though, until Mom finally gave up. We scored about 15 cookies throughout the process, for those who might be wondering! Ha rooooo!

Here's a pretty one of Amber:

Doesn't she look lovely? I was looking at a bug on the front porch, so Mom cropped me out.

Here I am, posing nicely on the bed:

Amber wouldn't look at the camera, so she got cropped out. You can still see her hip and tail. The lighting is off, but Mom really liked my "look" here. That's my "take as many pictures as you like; Amber still won't look at you - keep the cookies coming, please" pose. It was quite enjoyable!

That's all for today. Many thanks to Sitka and Sasha. And to ALL the female bloggers out there - and the guys, too - you ROCK! In fact, we'd like to present this to our brothers, Zim and Dave.

HA ROOOOOOO!

Tail wags,
Stormy

Ask the Ao4 XIX - Catnip & Dognip!

Woo, everypup. It's me - Dave! Our good buddy Echo asked a great question the other day! He wrote, "I've got a question for you all to work on while you're inside keeping cool. I'd like to know exactly what 'catnip' is. And would there be 'dognip' as well? If so...do you have any in your garden? Hmmmm." What a great question! I went to our gardening expert, Zim, for some help with this one!

Contrary to what I thought when I first heard the word, "catnip" does not have anything to do with trying to take a small bite out of one of our feline foe. (Ha woo woo woo!) In fact, it's a plant that's a member of the mint family! According to Wikipedia, "Most of the species are herbaceous perennial plants, but some are annuals. They have sturdy stems with opposite heart-shaped, green to grayish-green leaves." Two out of three cats surveyed reported feeling a narcotic-like effect from it. Woo. The plants even contain a substance that is reported to be an effective mosquito repellent!

Zim and I couldn't find any information about the possibility of "dognip", but there were some snarky comments about "it's bound to be something stinky". That's not real helpful! Zim said he thought he had spotted some mint on our deck, growing near his beloved basil plants. (He's helping Mom grow Sweet Basil and a special Purple colored one this year!) We thought we'd check it out and see if it did anything for us!

Hey, Dave! Come check this out! Mom put some mint next to my basil plants!

Oh... yeah! Spearmint AND Chocolate Mint! Yum!

Really? Lemme try! Ooooh, this Chocolate Mint really DOES taste chocolaty!

Mmmm... the dried Basil leaves that fell off are tasty, too!

Echo, I hope that answers your question about "catnip"! And as per "dognip", technically there is no such plant, but Zim and I highly recommend Chocolate Mint. Or Sweet Basil! YUM! Wasn't it nice of our mom to put the crocks up on these stands so they'd be at snacking level?

Luv,
Dave

Sunday Salute - Cooper Simpson Eskew!

Our Sunday Salute goes out to our new, little friend Cooper Simpson Eskew - but you can just call him Slick!

Slick is an 11-week old Beagle/Basset mix from Washington, Georgia, and as his mama said, he is "as cute as a button, as long as a stick." Ha roo roo roo! Slick lives with dear, dear friends of our mom and dad who we call Aunt Sniggy & Uncle Mike, Alfie (an 11-year-old Chow/English Sheep/Corgi), and Eiffel (a 2 year old Schnauzer who owns Keeley, Sniggy & Mike's niece).

Zim interviewed Slick via email, with a little help. As Slick said, "I had to wait until Daddy and Alfie could help me read your Z-mail and Mama could help me on the computer. They say that my 'attention span' needs to be longer. That’s funny because every thing about me is really LLLLLOOOOONNNGGGGGG!!!" He said he has been potty-trained since the second day he came home (way to GO, Slick!) and has a lot of help from Alfie and Eiffel. Zim asked Slick what all he does with Alfie and Eiffel, and Slick told him, "Eiffel is my Nanny and Alfie is the Alpha Female (I don’t know what that means but if I had to guess I’d say the QUEEN and THE BOSS). I love her though as she’s teaching me boundaries….like “touch my food one more time and you’ll be on the moon, eel puppy!!!!!!”" Note to Slick: Obey the Alpha Queen! Really. He also likes to go outside and play with the other pups (and his uncle's pup and cousin's pup who come to visit!). He told us, "I wear them all out and then we sleep in the hot part of the day." Sounds like a good plan! He continued, "We play, eat, sleep, and go outside together. They've taught me my potty training and I go to the door when I have to go potty. ELEVEN WEEKS! NOT BAD!" (You can say that again!) "Our humans make funny happy noises when they watch us play ... I hope that is a good thing." Slick - it is DEFINITELY a good thing!

Cooper Simpson Eskew - Slick!

Zim's next question was, "Your real name is Cooper Simpson Eskew, right? Does anyone ever call you that? Or do you always go by 'Slick'?" Slick responded, "My Great Grand Mother refers to me as Cooper when she is telling people about me - that’s so they will know that she has a puppy named after her and she'll be 93 this month and that’s just fine with all of us!" That's really special! ('Cooper' is his great grand mother's last name!)

We really love Slick's mom and dad; they are great puppy-people and we wanted to know more about when they first met! Zim asked him, "How did you know your dad was 'the one'? I think it's so cool that you picked him out!" Slick told him, "When my Mama and Daddy came to look at me, I was first given to my mom and I licked her once in the face and she was a goner. THEN Mama gave me to DADDY and I put my head on his big ole shoulder and licked his neck and he said,'Hey big boy, you are precious!!!'" Good move, Slick! He said that he wanted to tell his dad, "Hey Dad, you are so big and yet so gentle, I love your voice and oh, you have a soothing laugh………… I choose you." We think he must have sent a puppy-sized mind-meld message, because his dad wouldn't let him go! Ha roooo! When they brought Slick home, his mom asked what his name would be. Slick told us, "Daddy said (very firmly) 'SLICK'………… she made him repeat it and he did………… She asked what he thought about Brother Slick also……. He asked me - ME - if I like that name and I knew that I was my Daddy’s pup." That is SO cool!

Brother Slick had told us initially about his froggie and his schmusie bear. Zim asked him, "Your froggie and your schmushie bear sound great. Do you have any other favorite toys?" He responded that he does love those toys! "I play with them every day and sleep with Schmushie Bear. My other favorite toys are: one of Dad’s old socks, and Alfie, Eiffel and Ms. B and Sweet Dawg when they are here." He also loves to play with all the bipeds in his life! He plays with his mom and dad, Keeley, and Keeley's special someone, a Second Lieutenant who just graduated from Augusta State University. (A big Army of Four HOOAH to James Lance!) He thinks Slick's combo is oh so cute. As Brother Slick put it, "with me much more Basset than Beagle, but just enough Beagle to be devilish." Ha roo roo roo!

Slick hasn't grown much in height since finding his fur-ever home, but as Aunt Sniggy told us, "he hasn’t grown much in height, but he’s about to need hinges for corners and other 'quick turns'." We can just picture this!

Brother Slick, you have landed in the perfect home. You know that you have a very special mission, as your bipeds just had to say good-bye to the sweet, special Shena (an incredible rescued Keeshond). We know they miss her terribly, but you and your antics are great medicine to heal their aching hearts. Give them special licks from all of us!

Cooper Simpson Eskew, for all you do - we salute you! Slick. :)

The Army of Four

New Catalogue

Hi everypuppy! It's me - Amber! I hope everypup is staying cool! We've been doing most of our exercise early in the morning to beat the heat, then we find fun things to do in the house. Are you finding things to do inside?

We got our new Drs. Foster and Smith catalogue the other day, and I spent some quiet time paging through it. Look at the cover, everypup!! Look at the adorable little Boston Terrier puppies!

Aren't they just so adorable!?!?

I was daydreaming about who they might look like the most. Maybe one of them is Ruby Bleu when she was a puppy!?! Or maybe Joe Stains and Tanner! Or how about Bruin? What do you think, everypuppy!!??

Stay cool!

Love,
Amber

Weather Woos

Woo, it's me - Dave. Our friends Butchy and Snickers left a comment yesterday and asked if it was really hot here. Yes! Yes, Butchy & Snickers - it's WAY too HOT! I hope you are cooler than we are!

I was looking at our thermometer yesterday evening, and Stormy took a picture of me with it. Woo.

In case you can't read it, the top number is 1942. That's the time. (Quarter of eight in the evening.) The middle number is 78.7 - that's the temp in the kitchen. Kind of warm right then, but the tile floor was cool and the AC was cranking real well. And the bottom number is 101.2. (That would be about 38.5 for those of you who use the "C" kind of temperature.) In the EVENING! In the shade! Too hot, woo guys. Way too hot!

Some of you have also asked if we're caught up in the flooding. We've had a lot of rain, way more than usual, but the flooding in our state is south of us. You're all very kind to ask!!!

It's supposed to be hot again today, so we're planning to do a lot of laying around, kicking back, and basic snoozing. In the air conditioning.

Stay cool, everypup!
Luv,
Dave