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??"

It's All About the Ears... And the Meatballs

Abby has a go at Barney

Today, Rita got some very special mail. Remember when we hosted Barney last summer? Boy, there was a lot of blog fodder there! Well, just like Barney is meant to spread joy (and a desire to kill the stinky purple beast) amongst Tripawds, "Monkey Me" Elmo is on a mission to spread joy (and sometimes meatballs) to Monkeydogs (aka: Monkeybutts, Monkeybunnies, or Monkeybutt Bunnies), the often beleaguered four-legged siblings of Tripawds.

Elmo began his tour, officially the World Tour of Monkey Me Elmo – It's All About the Ears!, last year in Sin City.  He didn't just start there cuz it's a hip and happenin' place for a party animal like Elmo, but because the leader of the Monkeydogs, Rocket - the MBBVP himself, lives there. MBBVP (the MonkeyButt Bunny Vampire Pirate) appears here in this video of Elmo kicking off his world tour.

[Let me just interject here... I know it might seem like Tripawds people have a little too much time on our hands, but when you are going through the loss of your pup's leg - especially if it is due to cancer - it helps to have a lot of silly folks around making you laugh!]

"For me??!"

Anyway, Elmo mysteriously disappeared for a while in the Windy City, only to later reappear in East Tennessee, sans one eyeball. I'm not sure what happened, but maybe he wanted to have some empathy for Tripawds. (Unlikely, since Monkeydogs are all about having no empathy and tolerating no special treatment of Tripawds!) Luckily, after some reconstructive surgery in E.T., he's back on the road, with his pirate scarf over his missing eye.


Even though Rita doesn't live with a Tripawd and therefore doesn't have to compete with one for treats and car rides (translation: pills and trips to the vet), she does sometimes seem to tire of hearing about how great, wonderful, pawesome, beautiful, amazing, etc. her angel Tripawd sister Abby was. So, she was pretty excited to get some mail that was all her very own today.

Even better than a stinky Monkey Me Elmo and his traveling companion, Curious George (or is it Bi-Curious George... They were alone in that box together for a long time...), the box came with MEATBALLS!

"Forget the dolls, give me the meatballs!"

Elmo & George chilling after their journey

"Seriously, I'm outta here. Can someone open this for me??"

"Please give me the meatball!"

"I NEED it! I need it NOW!"

 Yup, this Tour is All About the Ears for Monkeybutt Bunnies. 

"Yes, I'll wear the ears. Just give me another one of those."

"Um, a little help here!"

Stay tuned for more of Elmo's adventures in San Diego!

In other book-related news...
The print version of What the Dog Ate is progressing! I spent the last two days obsessing about fonts (for the text, the title page, even for the page numbers!), but I think the formatting is all set and ready to rock and roll. So, on to the next step - submitting to Amazon's CreateSpace print on demand service and making sure it looks okay. I'll keep you posted!

Also, thanks to everyone who voiced/typed/posted their opinion on which "author shot" I should use on the back cover of the book. The winner, by far, was the black and white of Rita and me together, so I sent it off today to the book cover designer!

Finally, I got interviewed on the Manga Maniac Cafe blog the other day. My favorite question was "What are three things Kona would never eat?" You can check the link if you want to know the answer! 

Thanks for reading!

A Very Busy Girl!

Bunny Rita's been a very busy girl the past few days. This might be a long one because I've been taking TONS of pictures of her.

I Love Lucy
First of all, Rita met Lucy, my nephew and his girlfriend's dog. I think that makes Lucy & Rita cousins once removed. Although these two are more like never-to-be-removed cousins. Rita is probably a month or 2 older than Lucy, and they played hard for three hours straight. Most of my pictures from them playing outside look like this:

A blur or puppies

Action shot!

They seemed to enjoy this...

Inside, they played a "Queen of the Bed" game that went on and on. 

Great-white-shark teeth!

A rare moment of rest

Rita definitely LOVED Lucy and looked very sad when they left. Then she crashed!

Bunny Meets Bernie
You might remember Bernie, aka Bernie bin Laden, from this video I posted of him back in January.Well, Bernie wanted to come down from his home in Orange County to meet Bunny Rita, so the roads were cleared, and the appropriate authorities were warned, and we signed Rita up for insurance (our first time having pup insurance, btw), and the two of them met at Fiesta Island on Monday, along with Linda, Bernie's older and wiser sister.

No, don't follow Bernie! That way lies nuthin' but trouble!

Linda es muy linda.

They were actually pretty tame, I think because Rita was still hung over from her play marathon with Lucy the night before.

A very dirty Rita

Afterwards we went to In-N-Out, which was obviously a huge hit.

"Nom, nom, nom"

"Are there any more Flying Dutchmen?"

Bernie decided to give Mike the kisses he's been missing since Rita is stingy with them.



Then Bernie decided his dad might be jealous, so gave him a bunch too. Below, John demonstrates the appropriate way to receive Bernie's kisses: lips and eyes all clamped tight shut. The only problem is that Bernie then kisses your nose, sealing off your access to oxygen, so that you are forced to open your mouth. But you really don't want to do that, so it's best to just hold your breath til you pass out.


Bernie also decided I needed my makeup washed off - but I have no pictures of that (which is probably a good thing).

Bunny Rita's Special Valentine
Rita also received not one, but TWO special Valentine's from her long distance boyfriend, Rocket. First of all, he sent her a Valentine's care package that included a Monkeydog helmet, a stuffed pink monkey, and some chocolates for Rita's mama. (Which Rita's mama did not share with Rita's daddy...)

If you missed it I explained about MonkeyButts (aka Monkeydogs) here, but basically they are quadpawds who stir up friendly trouble on Tripawds.com to keep the smiles coming on a site that can sometimes be filled with sad news. The Monkeybutts' leader, Rocket (a.k.a. the "MonkeyButt-Bunny Vampire Pirate") has a little crush on MBBunny Rita, so he sent her a helmet. She is ready for battle with those silly Tripawds!

The other special Valentine he sent her was this special video viewable here, which cracks me up every time I watch it. My Rita es muy bonita! Y Rocket es muy macho!


Hope you all had a good Valentine's Day, whether your Valentine is two-, three-, or four-legged (or web-footed or talon-ed or whatever. I don't judge.)!

Ah, the Ups & Downs...And Monkeybutts Explained

Downs
OK, so... it's been a bit of a stressful week. In my last post I mentioned we took Monday off from the beach because I was worried about Abby's leg and lack of stamina. Well, Monday night, after having a bad bout of tummy trouble, she was suddenly her old self - racing around, play bowing, jumping on me, etc. She seemed totally fine, so we met up with her buddy, Dakota, at the beach on Tuesday like usual. She was OK at first, but then started stumbling again. We turned back way early but she still was stumbling and breathing a little heavy and laid down several times, which is NOT normal. I was very upset the whole way home and imagining terrible things…

Ups
While I was waiting for Dr. V. to call back, she started furiously licking one toenail and then she jumped up to race around and chase a fly! So, I figured either she is the most stoic dog ever, or there's no spread of cancer to that leg (which is what I had imagined)… Dr. V. thinks it is just a combo of things all hitting at once: the heat sapping her energy, bit of a tummy issue (maybe ate/drank something funky at the bay) also sapping her energy, plus a problem with her toenail and/or a strained wrist. I think she may have slightly torn a toenail at the base, which if you think about it, would hurt like crazy on the uneven surface at the beach - not to mention the sand and salt water getting in there. So the last two days we have just done short walks in the neighborhood and she's done OK with that. Tomorrow we will attempt the beach again, but plan to take it a little easy.


Monkeybutts
It's been a rough couple of days, but as usual the folks at the Tripawds.com site help you through these things. One of things I love about the Tripawds community is that there are some darn funny people on there. (Gee, using humor to deal with adversity... who'da thunk it??) Well, one of the funniest folks on the site made Abby a special video for her 10 month ampuversary, which I've included below. But before you watch it, I have to explain about Monkeybutts...

Monkeybutts (Latin: canis monkeyanticus familiaris OR canis lupus jealousicus) are other dogs (or cats or ferrets, etc.) who live in the house with a tripawd and get up to all sorts of antics due to their jealousy over all the special attention tripawds get - like car rides! (trips to the vet) and treats! (pills hidden in food). The Monkeybutts try to stir up friendly trouble with the AMBF (the Anti MonkeyButt Forces) on the Tripawds site. Abby is a proud member of the AMBF! The Monkeybutts' leader is this little tyke pictured to the right: Rocket, aka "Monkeybutt-Bunny Vampire Pirate". He is the one who made the video for Abby - which is why (as you'll see) it is not the...er, love message you might be expecting.

Abby explained to Monkeybutt that she saw the hidden message in the video... Just like god backwards is dog, she figured out that NOT backwards is TON and that Monkeybutt-Bunny was really trying to say that he likes her a TON! (I may have left you all with the Barney song in your head a couple of posts back; now just try to get this ditty outta your head!)

One More Little "Up"
Today Abby and I went and got sandwiches and then hijacked Mike from work and took him to the park for a wee picnic lunch and a nice stroll/hop in the sun. It was very nice.

And One More Big "Down"
Hate to end on a sad note, but I wanted to mention to please send good vibes out to Chili Dawg's family. Chili Dawg was the tripawd golden that we sent Barney on to. Sweet Chili didn't make it. (You might not want to click this link unless you have tissues handy...) He had an appointment with heaven that he couldn't miss. He didn't even get to have much fun with Barney, and had to let his monkeybutt brother, Finchy the boxer, try to kill Barney. The Tripawds folks are all very sad about the loss of Chili, a great Tripawd Warrior.