A Golden(doodle) Birthday Pawty

Happy Monday, Everyone!

Running around greeting all my pup friends!

I want to tell you alllllllll about the loads of fun I had a little while back at a little thing I call a doggie birthday "paw"ty.

My two brothers, Chester and Dylan, greeting all their friends.

Boss keeps in contact with my foster mom, another rescue volunteer, who keeps in contact with many of her dog acquaintances and friends.  So, every year, one of her Goldendoodles, Kraelyn, has a birthday pawty with her siblings!  (Also: Kraelyn and Spencer the Goldendoodle are siblings! So, Happy Birthday to Spencer, too!)  The dogs invite all their doggie friends over to an indoor play area, where we have a crazy fun time.

Love me some lap time with the Big Boss :)

"Dylan, get off me!  I can't fight on my back!" I say

"The door to the outside...my favorite place!"...says everyone at the door to the potty area.

It's Hunter!  What a good little boy!

My daddy, Roy, was there too!  He's getting much better.

"WELCOME BACK FROM THE POTTY AREA, GEORGES!" says everyone chasing him

My "paw"fect parents, Nicole and Roy.

I'm actively looking for fun playmates :)

Bailie and Joy love to fetch super soggy tennis balls!

Annie kept staring at Boss, so she took her picture.

Hunter likes to play with my brothers- and get chased!

"Uhh, Chester, no time to look back- keep running!"

"Oh, really?! Don't you take that treat ball away from me!!!"

"Walk awayyy.....walk away." says little Annie in the back when she sees Georges and Chester pretending to be Lion King...

"GET HUNTER!!!" I say as he scuttles off to the other side of the room.

Alright, crew!  We've assembled.  Now we must team up on Hunter!!!

Bailie played a lot of fetch!

"It's okay, Hunter, you're in good hands!  We'll help you hang out with the right crowd!" says Chester, with a conforting hug.

Chester's had a pretty intense day!  Time for a break. Whew.

Oh no!!! He got away!!!

The young and restless youngin' bunch :)

See what I mean?  Even Hunter was with us at the time!  He loved the playtime- I'm not so sure he ever has seen 30 dogs in one room! :)

Have you ever been to a large puppy party? :)

Monday Mischief- Woof-Dah

Hello Again, Everyone!

Whew!  What a weekend it was!  I had soooo much fun!

Bathtime after dog park time- love the bath!

On Saturday, Bosses took me practically to Wisconsin to play with my brother, friends, and previous foster siblings at the dog park in town.  It was HUGE!  And there were soooo many Golden Retrievers; it was insane.  Lots of fetch going on inside the fence!  All the dogs were very friendly, and the people were very nice.  Good times!

We're tired. Just hanging out!

Then yesterday, as if I didn't have enough fun on Saturday, WILLIE came over to play!  We played pretty hard- hopefully he gets a nice restful day with his Bosses just lounging around.  I sure do wear a lot of other dogs out!

Boss, can't you just put that treat in my mouth already?

What did you do over the weekend? I'm pretty tired- I think I'll take a nap now. :-)

Hunter's really getting good at getting sticks from the yard!

Monday Mischief: Bosses Gave Up.

Hello Again, Everyone!

My weekend was awesome.  Bosses decided the post-holiday season is going to be spent relaxing, so we've all just been super lazy and just hanging out at home.  Nothing terribly exciting.

Hunter gives pretty toothy kisses....

Hunter has been causing quite the ruckus, though.  He's pretty vocal- he'll bark at just about anything.  During the daytime, no big deal.  However...he's been barking from 4am-7am in his crate, and Bosses aren't too thrilled about their loss of sleep!  They also don't have too much room in their bed for animals, so that's why we don't sleep in their room (floor isn't an option for us, because the bed looks way too appealing!).

"What? No.....we weren't playing on the couch at all........"

Bosses tried many different methods of getting him to enjoy his crate more- soft music/talk radio in the background, quiet room, sleeping in a crate next to mine, in the room next to ours, tasty T-R-E-A-T in crate upon getting in, and nothing has worked.  So, finally, Bosses caved, and at 4:30am, opened the crate door up.  Want to know what Hunter did?

The favorite spot- Boss' bed! Everything about it!

.....raced up the stairs straight to their bed, jumped up, and fell asleep.  The little guy knows what he wants!  So now, Bosses have a furry bed heater.  I'm pretty jealous, because I don't get to sleep in their room, but hey- I don't make a fuss.  Life's not fair, you know.  Mom promised me that someday, when they can get a bigger bed, that I'll get to sleep in their room.  I'll hold them to it!

Do you have a furry bed heater at night?

Monday Mischief: Post-Holiday Recap

Hi There!

All this Christmas-ing has worn us out!

So, my apologies for not writing much this past week.  The holidays turned out to be a super busy week, with tons of visitors from out of town.  The good news, however, is that they all came over to visit!  We had people come to visit for 7 days in a row.  Wow!

Isn't Hunter cute?

Hunter and I have been pretty good at holding down the fort (I guess I have to give the kitties some credit, too....I guess).  Not only do we hold down the fort, but we also entertain those who are in the fort!  What a combo.

Flannel sheets and napping go together like....Hunter and I do!....

Hunter, Thor, Allie, and I got some pretty sweet loot for Christmas, too!  Hunter got a football (of which I popped and shredded in 20 minutes...oops), we both got a large Nerf squeaky toy (of which Hunter stores in his mouth), I got a lump of coal dog toy (is this a passive aggressive warning?), and the entire family was treated with a Kurgo backseat car seat protector!  Oh, and Thor/Allie got this cool battery-operated "Twitch" cat toy so they're entertained.  It was wonderful!

Checking out the loot...

"Mom, can I open these yet?  I'm dying to see what's inside!!!"

What did you get for Christmas?  Better yet, what have you been up to while I've been entertaining the flocks of living things around here?

Hunter likes to nap with me.

"Are you done with that camera, yet, Boss?"

Chow!

Monday Mischief: Even MORE Mischief!

Hey, you guys!

Boy, do I have good news for you!  It's a heart-warming puppy story!

Bosses brought me home a foster brother last Friday.  His name is Hunter, and he is ADORABLE.  He is a year old, just like me, and is just a small fry (relatively speaking).  He is technically a mix of 55% Golden, 35% Cocker Spaniel, and 10% toy poodle, but was bred as a "Miniature Golden Retriever".  He's only about 40 pounds- isn't he adorable?

Anywho, my little friend was surrendered to the rescue because he had a biting incident involving a small child (about 4 years old).  We're guessing he didn't plan on biting the little child, but rather wanted the food in her hand, missed, and got her face.  Since I've been romping around with him, he hasn't been one ounce mean!  He is just a doll.

So, for the unforeseen future, Hunter and I will be causing mischief together.  Watch out, world!  We run fast! ;-)

Meet my friend (on the left), Hunter! :)

Monday Mischief: Drumroll Please....

We have a winner!

Congrats to my furry friend, Spencer the Goldendoodle, and his family!  He has won the pack of chews from BestBullySticks.com.

It was complete coincidence, but Spencer and I actually have a lot in common.  Not only are we both from Minne"snow"ta, we were fostered by the SAME rescue!  Pretty cool!  He is biological siblings with one of my foster sisters.

(Sidenote: it's been so warm here- there's no SNOW left.  What the?!)

Best wishes to our friend, Spencer, and hope he has as fun as I did with his new loot!

A big thank you to you for reading, subscribing, and entering.  Where would I be without you? (Answer: a very bored pooch with less friends!!!)

Until tomorrow, keep causing mischief! :)

Mom says I have an awkwardly adorable doggie smile.

Curbing "Some" Mischief

Happy Monday!

So, as you know, I've been known to cause quiiiite the mischief around here when Bosses leave for work.  I really miss them, so I panic, and think they're never coming back.....

....and then they come back.  And while I'm really happy that they're back, I also look around me at the rubble.  Oh yeah, I made that rubble.  Oh. No.

So now, I've been a member of "Project Sadie" for a few weeks.  For now, it's been a success- whew!  I'm finally being a rather good puppy (or did Bosses finally realize possible disastrous materials and remove them from my worksite)!  Mom has been lining my KONG with a spoonful of peanut butter everyday, which has been working well as a positive reinforcement.  Mom leaving is okay now, since I get good things when she goes!

The kitty overlord, Thor, making sure the "Staff" (or I call them "Bosses") are making the food correctly.

A few days ago, Mom saw a brilliant idea from her volunteer friend at RAGOM- now, most of it is common knowledge.  Her volunteer friend froze the KONG toys for her dogs, filled with a lovely little concoction! (You're probably saying "yeah, yeah, yeah, what else is new?" I'm Mom/Dad's first dog together, so this is all news to us!")  She mixes apples, peanut butter, plain yogurt, and water.  We did a little spin off this one, mixing plain yogurt, apples, peanut butter, and blueberries.  I'll show you what she did- I had to ask Mom to make these, since I don't have opposable thumbs. :)

If only we had more KONG toys.....

First, Mom washed all the fruits- gotta make sure that they're all clean.  You never know what's on those things!  After everything was squeaky clean, Mom cored the apple, then chopped it into little pieces so it would blend better.  The picture shows the skin, but she took the skin off shortly afterwards.

Mmmmm, apples!  After this picture, Mom took the skin off the apple and chopped it.

She put all the chopped apple aside in a little bowl (about 1 medium apple's worth), and put about 1/2 a little carton's worth of blueberries aside in a bowl.  Mmmmm, fresh fruit is so good!

After the fruit prep was done, she poured in a little bit of plain yogurt into the blender.  We're still in the experimentation process, so we started by adding a personal-sized container's worth of yogurt in there.  It seems like a reasonable amount.

Mom put the apples in first, and blended the apples and yogurt together.  The whirring of the machine makes me curious!

When the mixture was smooth, Mom then added the blueberries.  It was so cool watching the color change as soon as the blueberries started making their way to the bottom! :)

When the blueberries were mixed in, Mom also added in about a tablespoon's worth of peanut butter. YUM!  It has a slightly watery consistency, but it'll work for our purpose.  When it was thoroughly mixed, Mom set out the KONGs in...wait for it....

IKEA Kid cups!!!  Yes.  These things work perfectly for storing KONGs in the freezer!  The bottom little hole in the KONG practically seals on the bottom of the cup, and nothing spills.  Mom put mine in the freezer last night, and I'll get my first one to try when she leaves for work in a little bit.  How cool is that?!  A huge thank you to our volunteer friend for showing us this!  (Note: the ones that fit perfectly are a size large.  The one with the paper towel around the outside is a size medium, and still sealed.)

Size medium KONG with a paper towel around the edge.

Size large KONG- perfect fit!

 So, there you have it!  A brilliant realization!  The IKEA kids cups cost Mom and Dad about $1.99 or so.  Do you have anything that keeps you/your pet busy while the Bosses are at work?  Do you stuff your KONG with something different?

Until next time, we're working on getting more KONGs!  Mom says they're a bit spendy to buy 5 or 6 at a time, so maybe Santa will be kind to me this year.

Chow!