Senorita Rita Needs a Margarita!

Okay, I rolled these pics out last year too, but they're so perfect (I still can't believe the faces she made for these pics!) that you should just expect these to be an annual event. Oh, and they're not exactly the same anyway - I played with them on PicMonkey.com!

Enjoy:

Mirth Watch Thursday: Bilingual Dogs, er, Chiens

Remember when The Onion "reported" that Kim Jong Un was the Sexiest Man Alive of 2012, and People's Daily Online in China thought it was a real story? Well, something similar has happened only this time it involves dogs, the hub's homeland, and New York magazine.

A Canadian radio show called "This is That" (sort of a Daily Show-type fake news program for radio) aired a bit that was supposed to be an interview with a faux Montreal City Councilor, Benoit LaDouce, who said the "smoked meat city" needs a law requiring dogs using public parks to understand commands in both French and English. (The hubs has long contended that all dogs speak French, so this shouldn't be a problem.)

"Oh yeah... and I even know some sign language! Mon dieu."

Wordless Wednesday: Rita Must Be a Good Dog...

...cuz it says so right on the box we got today! Yep, Rita won something again! This time from Good Dog Takeouts treats from Jeffie's month long birthday party over at Talking Dogs Blog.

It's no wonder Rita thinks every package that comes to the door is for her - more than half the time, they are!

"Oh, for me?? Give me a hand, Momma!"

Monday Mischief: I Met My New Cousin!

Rita here! I met my new cousin, Reggie, this weekend. Momma said I did really good! She took about a thousand pictures, so I will let the pics tell the story:

We met through some bars, but he looked like he wanted to kiss me, and I looked like I wasn't going to eat him, so they let us meet for reals.

Mirth Watch Thursday: Opposable Thumbs

Last night the hubs asked me what I thought Rita would do if she had opposable thumbs.** I said we'd probably need to put a lock on both the fridge and pantry doors.

What If My Dog Had Opposable Thumbs?
I decided to Google "what if dogs had opposable thumbs" just to see what would come up, and it turns out there's actually a "What if cats and dogs had opposable thumbs?" Day. It's March 3rd. Unfortunately we forgot to celebrate it this year. It's in its 22nd year! According to the man who started the "holiday," people "aren't supposed to actually do anything on March 3." (Which is good, since I forgot to send out cards and get gifts!) "It's all about contemplation of canine and feline evolution." Since we missed the official "celebration," we'll contemplate it now.

Here are the top 3 things I think Rita would do if she had opposable thumbs:
1. Open the fridge and help herself to the contents of the cheese drawer.

2. Go online and order all the treats she can stuff herself with. (And she'd be able to open the front door when they were delivered.)

"If you loved me, you'd give me your credit card number."

3. Take the car and head down to the beach whenever she felt like it.

Okay, I wanted to put a picture here of Rita in the driver's seat of my car, but she ALWAYS sits in the back, and no amount of treats could convince her to keep her fuzzy butt in the front. She kept leaping into the back. And nobody wants a backseat driver. (She's so funny. We had to fight with Bailey and Abby to keep them OUT of the front!)

What If a Cat Had Opposable Thumbs?
If a cat had opposable thumbs, he'd probably just lie there and do the Roman Emperor "thumbs up/thumbs down" thing whenever you displeased him. "Why did you bring me so few cat treats? Thumbs down!"

And now... here is Jimmy, a cat who can actually do that:

As you can see, no, Jimmy does not want to do it again. And I love how he gives her the "thumbs down" when she says it's time to get up.

What would your pet do if he/she had thumbs? 

** There's a little back story here... One day loooong ago, Mike and I were talking and I said it was a good thing the dog (our beagle, Bailey, at the time) didn't have opposable thumbs. The next day, I heard him talking to Bailey, and he said something to her about not having "disposable thumbs." Yeah, he gets a lotta teasing about that. (In his defense, English is not his first language - although you'd never know it to talk to him since he has no accent - but he still gets a lotta teasing about that.)

Wordless Wednesday: Jealousy

Today's word is jealousy, cuz I bet you are gonna be jealous that I got to get my hands on this little fluffball yesterday! Meet my new nephew, Reggie!

Reggie with his favorite aunt! (Sure my other sis will have somethin' to say about that.)

Monday Mischief: Photo Mischief

I'm not super techy when it comes to messing with photos. I've never "shopped" a photo, as it were. (Why do they call it PhotoShop? It has nothing to do with shopping. Outta be PhotoTweak. Just my opinion...)
But recently I have played with made mischief with a few photos - and I think I might be addicted now. The photos I want to share also relate to two giveaways you can enter, so read on!

What the Dog Ate Giveaway
Thanks so much to Taryn over at A Tail of Two Cardis who wrote a lovely post about my novel, and is hosting a giveaway for a copy right now. All you have to do to enter is visit her post here before Thursday, April 25th and leave a comment about a funny thing that your dog (or another pet or even you) ate. It's open to folks beyond just the US, so hop on over there.

Now, when you do, you'll see that Taryn decided to "revise" the cover of What the Dog Ate, substituting one of her handsome pups for my usual cover model:

Too cute, right??

This of course made me wonder: "Why didn't I ever think of that?!?" So, here you go - Rita as cover girl:

She makes a cute cover girl, IMHO!

If you are wondering what the dog ate, that's a little spot of melted cheese on her nose.

Celebrate Jeffie's Birthday! 
Meanwhile, Jeffie over at the Talking Dogs blog is celebrating his 7th birthday, and stretching out the celebrating over the entire month of April. (You know how to pawrty, Jeffie!) Part of the celebration involves a giveaway for a $25 Amazon gift card if you submit a party pic of your pup by April 27. Check out this post here re: entering. The winner will be chosen in a random drawing, so go on over and join the fun. 

I can't resist taking fun pics of Rita, so we had to enter. I was able to doctor up the pictures I sent with some captions using the free website PicMonkey. (Thanks to Taryn -again- this time for the heads up about PicMonkey!) There's a paid subscription version, but you can do some fun things even with the free version.

So, here are some outtakes of the pics I took of Rita, and at the end you'll see the final captioned shots I sent in for Jeffie's pawrty.

One outtake - she's drinking a "The Vixen" beer

Another outtake - the party "aftermath"

One more outtake - I put some cheese on the lid!

 And here are the 2 I submitted:

I had to put a treat in the lampshade to get her in there, of course!

Now go out there and have some fun with your photos! And enter some fun giveaways!

Happy Monday Mischief!