Wordless Wednesday: Thankful!

I'm thankful for this little cutie:

A puppy in the poppies

Monday Mischief: Does the Gardener Taste Like Chicken?

Rita hates our gardener. Probably most dogs do. I mean, how often do strangers just wander into your yard, armed with sharp objects and loud machines?

I try to keep her calm, by closing her up in our bedroom and drawing the blinds. Unfortunately, we have these vertical blinds where all she has to do is shove them aside to see the intruders. Our usually fairly calm girl turns into the Tasmanian Devil: (sorry about the picture quality, but it was dark and I was just using my phone. And she was a moving target!)

"Hey you!"

FitDog Friday: Counting Paws & Steps

The hubs and I recently added pedometer apps to our smartphones. We thought I'd easily hit the suggested goal of 10,000 steps/day (since I walk Rita every morning for 45-60 min, plus run errands, etc.), and we figured the hubs would have a hard time since he's often stuck in endless meetings and works 10-12 hour days.

The Unit enjoys a good walk

Mirth Watch Thursday: We Are the Furred

My mother-in-law told us about this video that she saw on TV in Canada. (Maybe in between footage of Toronto's mayor Rob Ford's latest exploits?) It's sort of a "We Are the World"-style video (hence the post title), as you'll see:

Being Wordless With the Word of the Year

Did you hear what the Oxford Dictionary said the word of the year is for 2013? 

Yep, "selfie." Just be thankful it wasn't "twerk."

Monday Mischief: Mischief-less In 7 Letters or Less

Today, while out on our long Sunday walk, a car with a vanity plate went by, so I asked the hubs to ponder what the 3 of us would distill our essences down to in 7 characters or less. With some collaboration, here's what we came up with for the 3 of us:

Mirth Watch Thursday: How Rude Is That Puppy in the Window?

Just a quick mirth watch post today (what?! She's not going to be wordy?) because it's NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month. To officially participate, you sign up online and keep track of your word-count progress, and to "win" you need to come up with 50,000 words (most of them formed into actual sentences!) by month end.

Hang in there for more cuteness like this!

BTW, 50,000 words does not a novel make. In general, your average 300-page novel is about 90-100K words. So, really it should be called NaHaANoWriMo - National Half-a-Novel Writing Month, but that's unwieldy and sounds like some ancient Hawaiian word.

Wordless Wednesday: Tiny Hats and Fond Memories

Y'all know Flea, right? If not, go subscribe to her Jones Natural Chews blog now, cuz she's funny and she gives away yummy treats and fun things. (Like the leash Rita won!)

Anyway, you should also be friends with her on Facebook, cuz she's funny and she gives you ideas for things to post about on your blog! Like the other day when she posted this picture of this fine, tiny hat, and said she was going to put it on her duck Jimmy the next day.

Monday Mischief: Rita - Confused About Vet's Day...

There was some confusion at our house this morning.

Follow-up Friday: More Cancer Stuff and Some Not-Cancer Stuff

It's Follow-Up Friday - the blog hop where we follow up on former posts, answer questions, share funny comments and wrap up the week! 

Dogs of Blogville Calendar
Remember waaay back in August when I asked you to vote to get Rita in the Dogs of Blogville Calendar? Well, they arrived, and they're gorgeous! Big thanks to Jodi of Heart Like a Dog and Julie of Daily Dog Blog for putting these together!

Give Cancer the Paw: 8 Ways We Try to Prevent Cancer

Welcome to the inaugural hop for Give Cancer the Paw. Thank you for joining Rita and me and our lovely co-hosts, Peggy and her pups Kelly & Ike from Peggy's Pet Place. We wanted to start today because November is National Pet Cancer Awareness Month. We want this hop to be about spreading awareness, support and hope!

Unfortunately, there are a lot of things I could write about when it comes to cancer in our pets so I had a hard time deciding, but I thought I'd start with sharing an important topic: things we do to try to keep Rita from getting cancer.

Monday Mischief: Ever Loved an Obedience School Dropout?

So... Have you ever loved an obedience school dropout? We have. Two of them, in fact. Both our angels, Bailey and Abby, were obedience school dropouts. Although that was the Momma's fault, not theirs. (Bailey's class was unorganized and we got bored, and Abby's class just wasn't a style that meshed with the Momma.)

But no more! We now have our first graduate from Obedience 1! Here she is practicing her down/stay. And she didn't even need to be coaxed into this position with treats!

She looks thrilled, yes? (She's actually just pooped!)