Merry Christmas!

A Visit with Santa!

I got to visit with Santa! I was REALLY excited to meet him!

My girl went with me and mom to see him. She seemed enthusiastic about our visit, but yet once she caught sight of him, she didn't want to get near him. Weird.

Mom said it reminded her of my girl's visit with Santa two years ago (see below)...

Hopefully my girl will have a change of heart about him this year so mom can get a nice picture of them together too!

Bring on the Snow!

Yesterday when I got up, there was this amazing white stuff all over my yard! I couldn't believe it! At first I was a little leery of it—after all, I've never seen anything quite like this before!

Initially I didn't want to leave the top step to go down into the yard to potty, but with dad's encouragement I did. Ooh! It was so cold! And so intriguing!

Soon my little girl came out and joined me in the yard. Once I saw that she enjoyed the white stuff, I started to enjoy it too! We started running around in it, traipsing all over the yard. I ran laps around my favorite tree, kicking up lots of snow with every lap! I especially had fun running and sticking my nose in it!

After we had tread in all of the snow in our yard, my girl started to get cold and was ready to go back inside.

I can't wait to play in it again! Hope you get snow where you are!

Lessons Learned the Hard Way

For the last few weeks mom has been leaving me out of my crate when she's running short errands. I've been doing great about being a good girl and not destroying anything while unattended—well, at least I HAD been...

Lately my girl and I have taken to learning things the hard way. The other day my girl got a gift of fruit-flavored lip balm from a friend. She was SO excited! It was her very first tube of "lip stick" (you may recall she's only four years old). The scent absolutely delighted her! I watched her happily put it on her mouth a number of times and figured I might enjoy some on mine as well. Eventually I found it unattended—OOH! ...and the SMELL...! I couldn't resist! And the tube fit so perfectly in my mouth! Needless to say, my devastated girl learned the hard way not to leave fruit-flavored lip balm laying around. Meanwhile, for a few days I continued to learn that fruit-flavored lip balm doesn't digest. Gross.

Then one day while mom took my girl to school, I found TWO of her giant bubble wands just lying around! I LOVE bubbles! Especially when my girl blows them for me to catch and pop! Well anyways, I knew that my girl wouldn't be home for a few hours and I really wanted to play with the bubbles. I had seen her blow bubbles a number of times and thought I'd try to blow some without her. I tried desperately to unscrew the wand from the tube of bubble juice, to no avail. I just couldn't quite get it out! However, I did succeed in chewing up the tube and getting bubble juice all over the carpet. Once my first attempt failed, I thought I'd try again on the other tube. Alas, failure again. My girl was not happy with me when she found out what I'd been up to. She was upset to learn that leaving bubble stuff where I can get it isn't such a great idea. Meanwhile I learned that I can't blow bubbles without her. Mom said she was just waiting for me to start barking or farting bubbles...

Believe it or not, I managed to find my tail in the hot seat again a few days later. My girl has a stuffed animal that she absolutely adores named "Downstairs Dog" (she also has "Car Dog" and "Bed Dog" so no one gets lost, although "Bed Dog" is no longer the alpha dog of the group). She likes to cuddle with "Downstairs Dog" when she's especially tired and takes him to bed every night, tugging on his fur and sucking her thumb (mom likes to tease my girl and tell her that "Downstairs Dog" looks like he has mange for all of the bald patches she's made on him by tugging his fur). "Downstairs Dog" is OFF LIMITS to me, although a few times I have gotten a hold of him and gleefully scampered around the room playing "Keep Away" while my squealing girl would frantically chase me!

Well, one afternoon I found him sitting in the chair waiting for my girl to return from an outing to snuggle and take in their favorite TV programs. He seemed bored, so I thought I'd entertain him for a while. Then all of a sudden... WHOOPS!! ...Well, imagine my poor little girl's horror when she discovered that I had plucked an eyeball off of him. She cried a lot. Mom suggested we change his name to "Ol' One Eye". That made my girl cheer up somewhat and she finally forgave me. Needless to say, she is learning the hard way not to leave beloved items where I can get a hold of them...

So mom has taken to crating me again. I'm not crazy about this at all. Hopefully she will trust me again soon! She tried to take some pictures of me to include in this post since you haven't seen any recent pics of me lately, but I wasn't feeling very cooperative (I had my eye on the cat who was coming into the room I was in).

Looking forward to hearing about your escapades! Hope you're managing to stay out of trouble where you are!

Super Soaker Sunday

"The most affectionate creature in the world is a wet dog."

—Ambrose Bierce

Crunch, Thump, ...RUN!

I turned nine months old yesterday! Hard to believe how much I've grown in such a short time. I've had a lot of interesting experiences since I came to live with my new family in late March, many of which have been chronicled here. My latest experience has been what mom calls "Fall"...

I've noticed that my yard looks a little different these days—all of the beautiful green leaves on the tree in my front yard changed color and fell to the ground. I love the way these colored leaves smell, and I love munching on them and trying to sneak them into the house after potty breaks, but I do NOT like walking on them!

When I go outside for potty breaks, I try to avoid walking on them as much as possible and seek out a place just off of the sidewalk and as leaf-free as possible to do my business. I don't mind a few leaves here and there, but crunchy piles of them bug me. It just doesn't seem right that so much noise should be coming from my feet!

In fact, when I go for walks, I am adamant about not walking on the iron water meter covers that litter my route. When I was a young pup, I made the mistake of walking on one once and it made a jiggling sound as it shifted slightly under my weight... scared me to death! Now I am sure to make a wide arc around them and quicken my step as we pass. Sometimes mom walks on them and I get the willies when they thump. Imagine how difficult it is to avoid them when they're covered in leaves! UGH...! But I digress...

Thankfully mom got out the rake and lawn mower and pulverized the leaves. Now it's not so noisy when I play in the yard. I have discovered that in a few spots, the mulched up leaves are a little thicker and when I get the zoomies and brake really fast or do hard cornering that I can get them to kick up and spray in the air. Trust me, it's really cool! Mom just shakes her head and smiles. So now that there are no more leaves to smuggle in, I am back to trying to sneak in large chunks of mulch from the flower beds to munch on. : D

Hope you're enjoying fall where you are! I'm lovin' it!

I'm Still Around!

I can't believe it's been a month since my last post! A lot has happened in the last few weeks!

I had an eye infection for awhile. My vet thinks I may have gotten it from dog school. So I had to take eye drops and some other medicine for a few days. I was NOT crazy about the eye drops. One night when mom tried to squeeze them in, she squirted about a dozen drops everywhere on my face except my eye ball. That was funny!

In other news, we're having some work done to our house, which probably has a lot to do with why I haven't blogged in a while. Anyways, we have a covered porch and the ceiling needed some major repair work done. While the contractor was here, mom and dad decided to have the porch screened in. The contractor even let mom help—she got to use power tools and everything! Mom had a blast. The screening starts this week!

Oh! And guess what? Mom has been letting me sleep outside of kennel at night! I have tried to sleep with her on the bed, but just can't seem to get comfortable. Laying on the floor close to her is much better. I love it!!

And finally, I got to go back across the mountain to see cousin Hendrix this weekend! I haven't seen him in MONTHS! We were SO excited to see each other! We had a blast playing our favorite games and wrestling, despite getting put into "Time Out" a few times for our shenanigans (tee hee hee!)... My aunt and uncle couldn't believe how big I'd gotten! I think I was about 45 pounds the last time they saw me and now I'm 60! My coat is much longer now too. Mom says I am truly a "magnificent creature".

I hope you are having a great fall! The changing leaves are so pretty! I love trying to sneak them in to munch on when we come in from potty breaks! Mom calls it "contraband". More to come later!

Fond Friday

Thoughtful Thursday

Always On My Mind

The other day mom left me home with dad as she and my girl went to spend a few days visiting grandparents. They even went to visit my girl's great-grandmothers eight hours away!

One day during their visit, the four generations of ladies went to the mall to shop. As I understand it, grandma and great-grandma were perusing the ladies department while mom and my girl shopped the adjoining girls' section at one of the stores.

Mom found a super cute shirt with a picture of a golden retriever puppy on it and showed it to my girl. A wonderful dialogue began about how cute the puppy on the shirt was and how much it looked like me when I came to live with my family!

Then, much to mom's surprise, my girl burst into uncontrollable sobs and exclamations about how much she missed me! She was carrying on so much that the grandmothers heard her from the other department and quickly came to see what the problem was!

Mom couldn't help but giggle about it all and (of course!) bought the shirt! So nice to know that even though I might be out of sight, I'm not out of mind! Needless to say, I had plenty of kisses for both of them when they returned home!

Another Achievement!

It's true! Tonight Macy received her Intermediate Education Certificate of Achievement! This puts us one step closer to earning her Canine Good Citizenship award, which we'll need as we continue toward my goal of doing pet therapy next year.

I desperately tried to get a good picture of her with her certificate, but she was very distracted by her "accomplishment prize" (a new bone).

Macy! Say cheese! Macy? Yoohoo!!

Ugh... I thought for sure this was going to be my "money shot." It looked great in the view finder! Oh well, please celebrate this accomplishment with us nonetheless!

Happy Campers

My girl thinks my kennel is pretty neat—probably because she can fit in it so easily. She was playing in my kennel this morning and trying to coax me to join her by telling me we were going to play "camp out".

Here she is sitting on the fuzzy mat from my very first kennel!

"Come on in, Macy! Let's go camping!"

What can I say? I'm a sucker for a sweet girl!

Aww!! Puppy lovin's! I LOVE those! xoxo

In other news, my family is finally throwing tennis balls again since I got spayed! HOORAY! I could play catch with those all day long!

Oh! I almost forgot! ...I turned six months old the other day! I'm 50 pounds now and growing up fast!

I've Joined the Club—I've Been SPAYED!

I am quickly approaching my 6 month birthday (August 12!) and mom decided that it was time for me to get spayed. So she took me to this neat clinic near where we live called Humane Alliance.

They have significantly helped reduced pet euthanasia in this area by specializing in low-cost spaying and neutering. They also have a training program where they mentor agencies and vets on how to do high-quality, high-volume, reduced-cost spay and neuter programs.

USAToday.com wrote an article about Humane Alliance and there's a neat video on YouTube about a similar clinic that is really interesting to watch. Hope you'll take a minute to check them out!

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety Jig!

Sorry I haven't posted lately, but my family has been away for the past couple of weeks on a business trip for daddy/beach vacation for mom and my girl. While they were away, I got to stay with my favorite pup in the whole wide world—cousin HENDRIX!

I had SO MUCH fun staying at his house! We played some hard fought battles of tug-of-war with his stuffies. One by one they made their way up to the "awaiting surgery" shelf as we popped their seams, plucked their appendages, and spilled stuffing and squeakers onto the floor. Finally there were only tennis balls left to play with, so my uncle got us this really cool knotted rope from the store. We used it to play tug-of-war—it was awesome fun! Plus, playing with Hendrix helped me lose my last two baby teeth!*

*(On a side note, mom found it interesting that the photo my aunt forwarded to mom of my lost teeth were arranged like two little horns, but my aunt assured her that I have been a good girl! ...err, for the most part!)

While I was staying with cousin Hendrix, we got to try something new—WATERMELON! We LOVED it! We waited patiently while each other got to try it. I can't wait for more! YUM!

My aunt and uncle have been teaching us pups how to catch frisbees in mid-air! Hendrix is better at it than I am, but after watching him a few times and mimicking his technique, I am starting to get the hang of it! A little more practice and I'll have it down pat! My aunt and uncle have continued working with me on catching balls in mid-bounce as well. I am getting good! I don't know that I'll ever get bored with these new games!

Bringing the ball back for a bounce

My family missed me REALLY bad while they were gone—my girl even cried a couple of times. They called my aunt frequently to get updates on what I was up to and my aunt took pictures of me smiling to send to mom's email.

Cheese, mom!

Sometimes my aunt would put her phone on "speaker mode" so that I could hear mom talking to me. How strange to hear a familiar voice in such a little box? Puzzling... I tried licking the phone a few times when I heard mom's voice, but it's just not the same as licking her!

My mom and my girl are coming to get me this weekend. I am going to miss Hendrix so much! He is my best friend in the whole world! Thankfully mom and my aunt are already making plans as to when I'll get to see him again!

Best friends

Hope you are having a great summer! Hopefully now that my family's back in town mom will get more serious about taking pictures and blogging about my antics!

Macy

xoxo

Whatcha been up to? I've been...

Hi friends! It's been a while since I last posted and a lot has gone on since you last visited!

For one thing, I have been spending some more time playing in the sprinkler and paddling pool with my girl on days when it's not too hot (it's been pretty hot). Other times I just stay inside and play with my family and pester my cat. Mom has been working with me to try to catch tennis balls in midair—I'm getting better at this! I LOVE tennis balls! I always stop what I'm doing when dad switches over to the Tennis Channel on TV—I am intrigued by those delightful yellow fuzzy balls going back and forth... Mom is just waiting for me to jump at the TV screen to try and fetch one! Did you ever do that?

For the 4th of July I got to go across the mountains to spend a few days with my cousin Hendrix. We have THE BEST time—especially now that I am bigger and can run faster! When we're not chasing each other in his yard, we're wrestling virtually non-stop (this drives my aunt crazy)! Another favorite game of ours is "Keep Away"—Hendrix tries to stand up extra tall to try to keep the prized toy away from me, but sometimes I actually get it! I LOVE THIS GAME!

I got carsick on the way to and from his house. These mountains are just so MOUNTAINY, with their hard curves and rapid changes in elevation. UGH! My tummy pulls this way and then that way... I can't take it! I knew I was probably going to lose it after my girl announced, "HEY, MOM! MACY'S LEAKING!" Mom did her best to mop up my drool, but alas it was to no avail. Breakfast was revisited. Mom has since bought this stuff that my trainer recommended that is supposed to help with carsickness. I think she intends to put it to the test soon!

Last weekend I lost FOUR TEETH! Then yesterday I was wrestling with mom and her arm got all bloody—I lost another tooth while we were playing! My first canine! Mom tried to see how may baby teeth I have left, but I like to wiggle an awful lot and it's hard for her to get a good look. I think I heard her say there might be three left? Mom is thinking about changing my name to "Gums" (not funny). Dad thinks it's weird that mom is collecting my baby teeth. Who asked him anyways?

I started Intermediate Puppy classes today! I was so excited to see my trainer again! He has the BEST treats! He has a pup named Macy too! Mom has pretty much taken this last week or so off from working with me diligently and it took me a while to get back in learning mode. Sometimes it's just more fun to screw off and be a misfit. Do what you're good at!

Hope you are having a great summer! Our blogger friends have been on our minds! Hopefully mom will quit being so lazy and get the camera out and snap off some new pictures. I am sure you'd be interested to see how much I've grown (my girl says I'm bigger)!

Gummy nibbles,

Macy

xoxo

Wordless Wednesday

Hot Diggity Dog! The Puppy Tooth Fairy Came!

Hooray for me! The Puppy Tooth Fairy came and left me this neat hot dog toy in exchange for my little tooth! My little girl likes to play with it too and pretends she's eating it! She cracks me up...

Happy Father's Day!

This is Macy's daddy, Logan. Thank you for our little girl, Logan! Hope you have a happy father's day!

Ferocious Vacuum Friday

Ugh. Mom vacuumed today. The noise scares me, so I thought I'd seek refuge in the stuffed chair with my girl. She reassured me that I'd be okay. I wasn't too thrilled, but mom deemed it a Kodak moment nonetheless.

GASP! Look What Mom Found!

It's one of my incisors!

Mom and I were rolling around on the floor wrestling when she peered over and happened to notice my itty bitty tooth next to the leg of the couch! The luck! It's only about the size of a grain of rice! I'm keeping my paws crossed that the Puppy Tooth Fairy will visit tonight! Wish me luck!

Wet Wednesday

My little girl and I got to play outside in our yard today. There was something in my yard that I had never seen before. It was spraying water and made my girl squeal with delight! I decided I'd better get a closer look...

Hey! This is getting me wet!

(Mom cleverly disguised my girl in PhotoShop for this shot!)

...Ahh! This is nice!

I tried to bite it but just couldn't seem to grab hold of anything!

This is so much fun!

After a bit, I noticed that my girl had abandoned me in the sprinkler for an outdoor bathtub. I decided to get a closer look. I wasn't too sure what to think of it at first, but my girl coaxed me into the water (she TRICKED me! She let me believe for a brief moment I could play with her mermaid doll!).

Mom tried to get a picture of both of us smiling, but I was too interested in watching the moving water (and looking for that mermaid doll!) to pay attention. (Here's another shot of my girl in her PhotoShop disguise! ...tee hee hee! Mom thinks she's pretty funny! I'd have to agree...)

I had fun digging at the water and splashing my girl. I even stuck my nose under water a few times to try to catch shadows and reflections!

Outdoor bathtubs and sprinklers are cool! I can't wait to do this again! Maybe next time I'll have my own mermaid doll!