Wordless Wednesday

Play bows,

Zim

Big Decision

Woo, everypup and everycat. It's me - Dave. I've got a big decision ahead of me today. It's going to be a nice, cool day out - Ammy said it's not even going to hit 80℉. (That's about 27℃ for our international friends.) Mom said we're all going to hang out on the deck together for a while and drink coffee. (Actually, I think she and Dad are the only ones who get the coffee...) So the big question is this...

...should I nap on the upper deck?

...or the lower deck?

Decisions, decisions! Do you pups and kit-cats have tough choices like this ahead of you today?

Luv,

Dave

I'm In The Pink!

Hi everypuppy and everykitty! It's me - Ammy! I'm in the pink! No... I mean that literally, not figuratively! Well... maybe I mean it both ways... but anyway - I wanted to show you something very exciting!

As you may recall, my mom made me a very lovely new collar out of some pink camo twill. I really, really like it and I really, really like pink and so I always thought that maybe if I had a pink quilt in my carrier then maybe my brothers wouldn't go in there and play jokes on me and stuff. SO! Guess what Mom made me? My very own pink camo quilt!

Here I am, testing it out!

It's poufy! I like poufy!

Let me check the comfy factor...

Oooh, yes. Very comfy!

And it smells Downey-fresh!

Then I did the ultimate test - to see if I could hide in it. You know, in case Mom is after me with a brush or comb or something evil like that.

Can you see me up there? No? How about now:

I didn't think you could! I think this new quilt is going to work out just great!

I'm just going to practice hiding a little more. I'll let you know what my brothers think of it once we try it in the carrier!

Love,

Ammy

Serene Scenery Sunday - Sunflower Edition

Ha roo, pups and cool cats! It's me - Zim - here with Serene Scenery Sunday. At first, I was going to give you a little garden tour...

Me, checking on the Smoke Tree's progress

...but for some reason, I kept hearing that "NononoZimmienonono!" thing from Mom - and that just wasn't serene at all! Instead, I decided to share some sunflower pix we took this past week on a couple of our walks. Sunflowers are our state flower and always seem to make bipeds smile. Let's get going!

Here's a nice single-flower shot:

Check out the center of this flower:

And if you look closely (or click to make it larger), you can see a grasshopper right under the main flower, above the new bud! Cool!

There are Sunflowers all over the place by our water tower:

Our city should use that in its advertising, don't you think?

Here's a shot taken low, looking up at some Sunnies:

No... no one knocked Mom over. Ha roo roo roo!

Check out these next two:

Don't they make you smile? Give you some inner serenity?!? Me, too.

Here's a cool weed! I... err... I mean "wildflower":

Just thought I'd throw that in, in case anyone was getting tired of Sunflowers. Oh, you aren't? OK... check these babies out:

Don't they look cool against the stormy sky? Here's my fav:

You can see the Flint Hills back there, a cool storm line and the Sunflowers!

I hope you liked my serene scenery! I got everything covered - you know, cool flowers, a bug, the Flint Hills, a storm line... yep. I think Ammy was proud of me for getting that one worked in here!

"Oh, yeah, Zimmie! Way to go! I love a good storm photo!

Hey... check out the Crape Myrtle!"

I'm not sure why, but Mom didn't seem keen on Ammy showing you around our garden, either. I think she needs to work a bit harder on that whole "finding serenity" thing. (Mom... not Ammy!)

Play bows,

Zim

Football Action Series

Woo, everypuppy and everycat! It's me - Dave. As many of you know, I just love a good game of Fetch with my mom. She's been having fun using the sports setting on the new camera and gave it a go the other day. I thought I'd share some really cool action shots she took!

Here I am, with my cool Squeaky Football:

I'm bringing home a long one. I love to run really fast right to my mom with the toy! Check out my moves!

Here I come! Here I come!

Here I come, Mom!

Are ya gettin' this on the camera?

Here I ... whoa! Somebody stop me!

My brakes aren't working...

...can't stop! Mom?!?!

Mom?!!?

Mom?!?!

Oddly, we went in after that nice sky shot she took. She looked kinda funny laying in the grass, shooting up like that. Must be a new artsy thing she's trying out!

Have a great weekend!

Luv,

Dave

Never Forget

We will never forget the attacks on our nation eight years ago today.

The Twin Towers in New York City...

The Pentagon in Northern Virginia...

And the terrorists' plans for Flight 93 thwarted by some brave passengers over a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania...

We will never forget what these terrorists have done to our nation, nor will we forget what the members of our Armed Forces have done for our nation.

(Please click here to visit the Heroes site.)

May God bless you all - and may God bless the United States of America.

The Army of Four

Potential Problem

Woo, everypup and everycat. It's me, Dave. We have a potential problem here at Ao4 Headquarters. It would seem that Mom's got her priorities out of order or is warehousing stuff wrong or SOMEthing. Seriously. Check this out:

What is that doing in here?

Frozen broccoli where my Happy Hearts Cookies should be? What is this world coming to? There are only supposed to be bags of frozen Happy Hearts Cookies in the bottom drawer of the magic cold box! Nothing else. Woo. I hope we get this straightened out soon!

Luv,

Dave

Wordless Wednesday

Tail wags,

Stormy

Line Up!

Tail wags, pups and kit-cats! It's me, Stormy. We just love reading the comments you leave on our blog posts! We appreciate the time and thought you put into letting us know you stopped by, read the post and checked out our cool pix!

Before I get to a great observation some friends made, let me say that we are aware some of our photos from our FlickR account seem to have disappeared. We have no idea why, but we will work to remedy that over the next few days!

Last week on my birthday post, our pals in the Thundering Herd left a very interesting comment about the photo of the four of us walking together! They said, "Need to work on the red team mixing with the black and white team - we keep that organized!"

We were out of synch, weren't we? We were having a little criss-cross leash action fun - you know, make the walk a little more fun for the bipeds. Ha roo roo roo! I, as Supreme Commander of the Ao4, usually do keep things more organized on our walks. I had Mom shoot this picture of us this morning, just for you:

Very good, troops!

All nice and color-coded. Reds on the left, black and whites on the right! My Drill SGT and I on the flanks, so we can keep everyone in formation. We're also lined up by age - Zim, the youngest, on the left, through Ammy, then Dave, then me - the ... err ... most experienced. And we're boy-girl, boy-girl.

Hope you puppers enjoyed our more "orderly" photo!

Tail wags,

Storms

Katydid!

Hi everypuppy and everycat! It's me, Ammy! Here with today's .... OOOH, LOOK! A Katydid!

Katydid!

Or...

...maybe she didn't.

Hee hee hee!

OK... while I keep an eye on the Katydid...

...my very sweet friend Storm Glory or maybe her handsome brother Jackal ... or maybe their very nice mom... asked me, "Hey! What is the rest of the string in a bar joke? I've never heard it. :)" (I mentioned it in my post the other day!) Are you ready? Here goes!

A piece of string walks into a bar, hops up onto a barstool and orders a beer. The bartender narrows his eyes at him and says, "Hey! We don't serve string in here! Beat it, you!" Feeling a bit dejected, the string goes outside, thinks things over, and decides he really wants a beer, so he's going to try again!

The string walks back into the bar, hops up onto a barstool and orders a beer. The bartender says, "Hey! I told you - we don't serve string in here! Now get lost!" The string walks back outside, wanting a beer now more than ever.

Another guy comes out of the bar and says, "I saw what happened in there. That's really crummy. I wish I could help you out."

The string thanks him, and thinks about his offer. "Well, there is something you can do! Would you... if you're serious?"

"Oh, sure I am. What can I do?"

"Would you sort of separate my ends for me? You know, fray me out a bit? Rustle me up?"

"Sure, pal." So the guy does.

Then the string says, "One more thing. Would you tie me in a knot?"

The guy accommodates him, the string thanks him, and they part company.

The string, full of confidence now, walks back into the bar, hops up onto a barstool and orders a beer. Once again, the bartender narrows his eyes at him and says, "Hey......... aren't you that piece of string that was in here a little while ago?"

He looks right back at him and says, "No.... I'm a frayed knot!"

Hee hee hee! Get it? A frayed knot/Afraid not? OK... it's better if I tell it to you in real life!

Storm and Jackal, I hope you and everyone else enjoyed my joke! Oh! Or did maybe the very beautiful goat who lives with you - Jasmine - used your Blogger ID and asked!?! We had goats back on the farm where I was born and they were always.... kidding around with me! Hee hee hee!

Love,

Ammy

No Katydids were harmed in the writing and photographing of this blog post. The Katydid in the photograph was moved safely to the lawn, where she made her getaway.

Serene Scenery Sunday

Ha roo, pups and kit-cats! It's Zim here today. Nothing makes me feel more serene than running into one of my friends when I'm out on my walks.

Hey, Kit-Cat!

Hey, Zim!

Isn't life great?

Play bows,

Zim

Six Little Things That Make Me Happy

Hi everypuppy and everykitty! It's me, Ammy! My very tall, dark (and light) and handsome friend Mr. Darcy tagged me in a very fun game - the Six Little Things That Make Me Happy tag. Thank you, Mr. Darcy! You're a very sweet puppy and I just love reading your blog and getting to know you and just really appreciate being tagged! That made me happy right there!

Isn't Mr. Darcy wonderful!??!

Here's my list, in no particular order!

1. Walking with the whole pack - or running - makes me happy! Especially if there's snow involved. This is a shot from Stormy's birthday:

Left to right, Zim, Davy, me and Storm

Unfortunately, there was no snow involved that day. Wouldn't that have made it lots better!!?? Of course, Mom and Daddy would have been kind of chilly since they were wearing shorts and tee shirts. :)

2. Telling jokes and making others laugh makes me very happy!

Stop me if you've heard this one! A piece of string walks into a bar...

3. Treats make me happy! This includes everything from cookies to ice cubes!

Ooooh! Ice cube!

4. Predicting the weather makes me happy! Especially if there is snow involved. Mom has learned to depend on my forecasts and I'm happy to be able to provide that service for her! Here is a picture of me (on the left) and Zim on the deck; it's one of my favorite forecast places!

Any chance of snow, Ammy?

No, Zim... sorry. Sunny day today, with the high around 80.

5. Playing with my toys or my pack-mates or anyone else that's game makes me happy! Here's an old photo of me with a toy; it's one of Mom's favs and makes her happy, so here it is:

This category also includes playing in the back yard. (Since today is the start of college football season, you may want to go back and check out this post!)

That reminds me, our very handsome friend Max of South Africa asked Davy about the leash and disappearing leash in the photos of him from yesterday! Usually we're off-lead in the fenced-in back yard, but sometimes... especially until Mom can make sure any uninvited guests leave... we wear the leash for part of our play sessions! It just trails behind us, so Mom has sort of a safety-catch on us! We don't mind one bit; we just love running and playing!

6. Knowing everyone else is happy makes me happy! I stress if anyone is out of sorts, so I do my best to keep everyone happy, keep them out of trouble (this usually means my brothers, oddly enough!), and to run interference in case someone (umm... again, usually my brothers) pushes the envelope a bit too far. I love to use the Calming Signals to help maintain order and peacefulness in the pack! Here I am, refereeing my brothers:

Me, Zim and Davy

If they play too rough, I intervene before Mom, Dad, or Stormy have to step in. It's better for all parties involved that way, and helps keep everyone - you guessed it! - happy!

That's my list of six! I could keep going for a long, long time here and mention things like reading our friends' blogs and how meeting my boyfriend Brice made me over the MOON happy and that meeting new bipeds (especially biped puppies who giggle!) makes me happy... but Mr. Darcy said, "Six!" so I better stop now!

I'm supposed to tag six friends, but some puppies and kitties like to be tagged and some would rather not be ... so to keep everyone happy, if you'd like to play, please consider yourselves tagged! Otherwise, I didn't tag you. OK?

Thanks again to Mr. Darcy! This was very fun!

Love,

Ammy

Photo Finish Friday

Woo, everypuppy and everycat. It's me - Dave! For this week's Photo Finish Friday, I wanted to share some pictures with you that Mom took of me and my favorite new toy. It's a squeaky tennis ball and I just am having a blast learning how to play with it!

See... you can run after it and bring it back:

...but it's kind of little and tries to get away from you!

Whoa!

See that? It's tricky! But you have to stick with it...

Gotcha!

...then give it to your Mom so she can throw it again!

It's a great game with a great toy! I've never played Squeaky Tennis Ball before, but I sure enjoyed it!

Isn't it great? And you know what else? Not only can you do the fun "bringing it back" thing, but it also squeaks!

Woo? Did you say something?

What a cool new toy! I love my Squeaky Tennis Ball!

Luv,

Dave