Monday Mischief: Rita's Top Ten of 2012

The mischief today is that I, Rita, am taking over the blog so I can list my Top Ten for 2012. (This recapping the year seems to be a big thing with you humans, so I wanted to get in on the fun.)

10. I made a best friend! (Dakota was my sister Angel Abby's best friend too. Momma is so glad that we are friends!)

Dakota has taught me how to be an excellent boxer! I punch Momma all the time!

Monday Mischief: The Ghost of Christmas Past

We really miss our beautiful Abby, but I miss her in a special way on Mondays because she was one heck of a mischief-maker. You could always count on her for counter-surfing, underwear-thieving, and sock-sucking. (The sock-sucking was kinda sweet... every time we'd come home we'd find her with one of our socks next to her. She liked to carry them around when we were gone. Luckily she never ate one, but she did enjoy nibbling them a bit.)

Thankfully, I don't have photos of her chewing our underwear, but here's an example of her mischief, as she cruises through the living room, flaunting her disregard for the "No Sticks in the House" Rule.

"It's not a stick. It's a big cigar."

Monday Mischief: Slobber-fest

Today, for Monday Mischief, I wanted to do a belated shout-out and offer some camaraderie to Jen at My Brown Newfies, who recently did a hysterical post on National Slobber Appreciation Day. As you probably guessed from her blog name, she has two Newfies who are master craftsmen in drool production.

Of course, I immediately thought of my "nephew", Leo the mastiff and shared the link with my sister-in-law. (She was very happy to learn the tip that Mr. Clean Magic Erasers are great for cleaning dried drool off walls.)

I don't actually have a picture of Leo drooling (sorry, I know you'd love to see that) but I do have one of him sleeping.

I think he's dreaming that he's a Lipizzaner Stallion.

Monday Mischief: Rita Loves Lucy

Or does she?

We went away this past weekend with Rita to visit my mom. My brother and his family were there as well, with my brother's mastiff, Leo, and my nephew's Lab-mix, Lucy.

Big boy, Leo, licking the ice-ring that formed in the birdbath

Lucy enjoying (?) a bit of ice from the birdbath

Monday Mischief: Pixie Sticks Her Nose Where She Shouldn't

Today, we have a guest mischief-maker that we're featuring - the delightful Pixie. (Rita's just been such an angel, we had to go hunting for mischief.) Doesn't she look sweet?

Pixie at the beach

Monday Mischief: Underwear Everywhere

Around here, we can't resist an underwear snatching pooch. (If you don't already know what the dog ate, well, he ate some panties that didn't belong to his momma. This is no spoiler, since it's revealed in the opening line of the book: The vet handed Maggie Baxter a plastic specimen bag containing a pair of size-tiny lavender thong panties extracted from her dog; but they were not hers.)

So, of course we fell in love with Ecco, the underwear thief, when we first met him a few months ago. Ecco is the "nawty dawg" with a big heart. His mom contacted me about spreading the word for Ecco's 2012 "Underwear Everywhere" Drive.

The flyer is a bit hard to read on my blog (I couldn't post it full size or it wouldn't fit), but below the image I've typed up the text.

"Please help Ecco, the naughty dog with a big heart, collect NEW socks, hats, gloves and underwear for the 300 plus homeless served by the Union Mission Ministries. Every year, Ecco tries to redeem himself by donating more underwear than he has destroyed over the past year. It's never too late to turn your negatives into positives! Thank you for helping Ecco with his goal of collecting over 1000 pairs of socks and undies! Please send all items to p.o. box below. If you are local (Hampton Roads), we will be happy to provide pick up! Donations can also be made via our web site, www.nawtydawgbigheart.com under the "BIG HEART" tab. Please write "Mission" in the comments to ensure the proper allocation of your gift."

P.O. Box 1007, Smithfield, VA 23430-1007

Rita is, amazingly, the first dog we've had that doesn't steal our undies. It never occurred to me to take a photo of Bailey or Abby scampering around with our undies (probably a good thing), but luckily we have the adorable photo of undie-thief Ecco to enjoy for Monday Mischief.

Is your dog an undie thief?

Happy Monday Mischief!

Monday Mischief: Playing Dentist

Usually on the weekends, we like to take Rita to Fiesta Island and we go for a long walk with her while she plays with the other dogs and romps in and out of the bay. But, since Mike's double knee surgery, it's too crazy down there for him. (I've seen lots of people - and I've been one of the people - bowled over by charging dogs not watching where they're running.) So, to protect his knees, we've been going to the much calmer Kate Sessions Park, which has a lovely view of the bay.

Technically it's not an off-leash park, but it's got a huge lawn, so there are usually some dogs playing off leash in one corner. Every time we've been there, Rita has found a buddy to play with, like this cute Golden mix pup. She invited him to play "dentist":

"I'm opening as wide as I can. How do they look?"

Monday Mischief: Frosty Mayhem

If you saw my post on Friday, you know we are having a Frosty Paws giveaway (enter and win some Frosty Paws for your pup!). You also remember I put all the stuffed Frosty dogs in the guest bedroom for their safety and comfort. I shut the door behind me, and figured they'd be in there resting and getting ready for their voyages to their new homes.

Well, later that night I was soaking in the tub with a book, and the hubs hears Rita in the back of the house romping around a little too happily. He goes to investigate and finds this:

Look how they're all trying to shield their eyes. Oh, the humanity!

Monday Mischief: No Ordinary Rabbit

We are getting ready to have some work done in our backyard, so the other day I was gathering up all the small little animal sculptures that inhabit our yard that I wanted to keep out of harm's way.

Well, moving them all into a pile brought a certain one of them to Rita's attention: the evil bunny.

"What is this thing??"

This little stone bunny has been in our yard the entire time she has lived with us. In fact, she walks past it on her way out the back door several times a day. But she only noticed it once I moved it.

Monday Mischief: The Coyote in the "Window"

Sometimes on Sunday mornings, we like to watch CBS Sunday Morning while we sip our coffees and read the paper. And sometimes the segments are boring (which is why we read the paper while we watch). But there's one segment we always enjoy (and even stop reading the paper to watch): the "Moment in Nature" at the end.

As soon as good ol' Charles Osgood said yesterday morning that they were going to "leave us" with some coyotes in Wyoming's Grand Teton National Park, I knew Rita would come over to watch, so I grabbed my iPad to record it.

Monday Mischief: Not So Much

Poor Rita! Her Pop had meniscus surgery on both knees on Thursday, so she has not been getting her usual amount of attention. She's been a very good girl through it all, although not shy about letting us know how bored she is. (A lotta heavy sighing going on around here!)

We gave her a bone to try to keep her entertained this afternoon. You can see how put-out she is. (Those are the hubby's knees strapped up to his super-duper ice machine in the foreground.)

"Most boring weekend, evar!"

Monday Mischief: Quiet Mischief??

Have you ever had to keep a puppy quiet? It's not easy! Even though Rita is maturing a bit and now at the ripe old age of about 14 months, she's still very active. Yes, she's way more mellow than crazy Abby was - but she's still far from a couch potato. She wants to run and play like every other normal puppy does!

Even before we found out that she has panosteitis and that we need to keep her quiet for 2-3 weeks, we were already trying to do that since she'd been limping on and off. On the days when we were avoiding walks and vigorous play, we tried doing some training and some very gentle inside play, but it wasn't enough to tire her out. So I got the idea to order a Tug-A-Jug. I have a friend that uses one with her dog and he loves it, and I hoped Rita would too.

Basically, as you can see, it's big plastic jug that you fill with little treats or kibble and then the rope toy that's knotted down inside acts as a barrier to getting the treats out without some effort.

On Amazon, the marketing blurb calls it "the ultimate interactive toy!" and says it has "multi-sensory appeal," stimulating your dog's "sense of sight, smell, hearing, touch and taste." What other toy hits all five senses - except maybe a live gopher! (That part's not in the marketing blurb - I added that bit myself.)

Monday Mischief: Being Nosy

Is this mischief (being NOSY), or is she just trying to be helpful? 

The other day I potted some plants and, of course, Rita had to come stick her nose into what I was doing. She's always got to be RIGHT THERE next to me, checking out whatever I'm doing.

"What are you doing, Momma?"

Monday Mischief: UnbreakOBall & Monkeybutts

It's Monday Mischief time again, so this week we've got a video of Rita being mischievous with another little something that we won. Yes, we won something again! We've been so lucky lately! Remember a while back I posted about the UnbreakOBall contest and encouraged folks to enter? And remember I included the link to my entry for Abby versus Barney, which Liz from the Indestructible Dog Gear blog turned into: "The Tale of Abby & Barney: A Love Story"? Well, Abby was named the "Indestructible Dog of the Month" for July (whoohoo!) so Rita received an UnbreakOBall in Abby's memory.

"More mail for me??"

Pancake Catching Fail

Hi all - Rita here. Today it's time for Monday Mischief. Momma thinks I am a good girl, so she doesn't really think I get up to much mischief. (She's soooo wrong!)

Momma made this video of me yesterday -- it's supposed to be a game of catch with Momma using pieces of a leftover pancake from their breakfast to get me to learn to catch. (You can't really hear the sound very good - but it's mostly just Momma saying "Are you ready?" and then laughing at me. Nice, Momma. Real nice.)

Puddle-Plopping Pleases Puppy

It's Monday Mischief time and this morning Rita's mischievous idea was to plop down in a puddle on our muggy morning walk. Swell. The girl can sniff out a puddle at 50 paces. She finds puddles that I don't even notice and suddenly plops down or pounces with her front legs into them. And the muddier the better! Unfortunately I didn't have my camera, but fortunately, she dried off before we got home.

Awww. Every hike needs a stream!

Monday Mischief: Counter Surfing

Winner!
We recently won a sample pack of Honest Kitchen food and treats, thanks to the folks at Fido Friendly magazine and Honest Kitchen. I won it by correctly answering a trivia question about Honest Kitchen on Fido Friendly's Facebook page. I just happened to know the answer off the top of my head, because I'd been thinking of switching Rita to Honest Kitchen and had been on their site a few days before. But then I got lazy and didn't order any food.

Well, now that we won the sample, and Rita has discovered how delicious it is, we'll definitely be making the switch. Rita really loves the treats too; here she is counter-surfing for one of the Pecks treats:


I recently discovered there's a regular Monday blog hop called "Monday Mischief" co-hosted by Snoopy's DogBlog, Alfie’s Blog, Luna Dogs Life and My Brown Newfies.

Rita is not actually all that mischievous...