Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Doggie Palooza

It's true, this time of year my life in a non-stop whirlwind of fun and parties. This time it was the Doggy Palooza at the Superstition Springs Mall in Mesa. This is the first time I attended this event. Unfortunately this event took place on the same day as many other events. Next year if they all end up on the same day my human will likely pick a different event. She wants to try them all I think.

A friend of my humans went with us to join in the festivities and to help with the costume changes for Preston and myself. This time Preston wore a witches' hat and a "boo" bandana because he didn't fit in to his pilots' jacket anymore. I adorned my stylish leather jacket, silk scarf and goggles once again. Much to all of our surprise Preston and I won "Best Pair" in the costume contest. My human was given a gift card to the mall and both Preston and I each got a huge back of goodies.

We haven't even finished all the goodies we got from the last party, now we have even more. Well I have more. My human gave Prestons half to the AZG for the rest of their dogs. Normally I'd want to snicker at his loss but I know this means I'll be forced to share my goodies with him.

We both got lots of love and attention from the adults and the kids. In fact one little girl was quite smitten with Preston and even gave him a hug and a kiss. Ya he's gonna be a heartbreaker when he grows up.

After the costume contest we did a quick change in to our service dog attire and escorted the humans to Ruby Tuesdays. My human had to stand on Prestons leash the whole time to keep him lying down under the table. He's learning still so we excuse his lack of manners. After the humans ate we all headed home so we doggies could finally get some real rest.

Monday, October 27, 2008
Puppies Everywhere!

It started off innocent enough. The AZG folks showed up with a few puppies in tow. Naturally I was excited and refused to wait outside until called in. I had to check them out. Once my initial excitement subsided I relaxed a bit and started listening to my human again – true for awhile I had totally forgotten she was there.

Then more humans showed up and yet more puppies came in. One human even brought Harmony who is about a year old and more up to my speed. Then more and more; it was like a flood of wiggly puppies and humans with yummy smelling treats. I thought I was in heaven and best of all, this was all taking place in my house!! I mean my humans house. Ya...

Once the menagerie assembled, Preston was freed from the confines of the kennel and we all went out back. My human was given Atlantis, which I have been told is the puppy that will be living with us in a few months. Atlantis is a stubborn puppy and that's likely why my human likes her so much.

This little Atlantis, whom my human also referrers to as "Honey", refused to walk on the leash around the yard with my human. So being rather stubborn herself, my human dragged that puppy around the yard until Atlantis gave in and walked a bit. I think my human enjoyed that a little too much and apparently it brought back lots of memories of her dragging me around when I was young.

Then the puppies were let off the leashes and the playing, running and exploring started. I loved it. The humans were so nice and there were so many tiny puppies I could mother.

Now once the puppies started nipping at my face and became a bit of a nuisance I decided to run and play with Harmony instead and we ran around the yard at top speed zigzagging around humans and leaping over puppies.

Once the puppies had relieved themselves and were at least somewhat tired they were rounded up and we all went back in to the house. The humans worked on puppy handling, nail clipping, ear cleaning and teeth brushing. I relaxed under the table hoping no one was going to stick their fingers in my mouth or ears, and thankfully no one did.

Finally puppy class was over and they all left. Preston and I collapsed on the cool tile floor for a much needed nap.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Howl-O-Ween @ Petsmart

Ahh yes it is that time of year once again. The spooky decorations come out, the fridge is stocked with candy and I am forced to dress up in some silly little outfit. This year I wasn't entirely alone in my suffering. Preston has been living with my human and I and he has been christened in to the Halloween madness that takes place in my household each year.

Actually Annie is also dragged in to this by her human as well but I swear she kind of likes it. She's a strange doggie.

On the bright side, and yes there is almost always a plus to every adventure I embark on, I did get lots of goodies. Ok so maybe I should say we, and technically I think Prestons cuteness helped us score more goodies than usual. We got milk bones, salami sticks, beefy vitamin nuggets, food samples, pupcorn puffs and even doggie ice cream! I would have gladly eaten it all at once but my human says I need to save some for later and share with Preston. *huff*

Preston, Annie nor I played many games this year. I guess we are too old and skilled and Preston was too young and a little over whelmed at times. Still I did get a squeaky pumpkin toy for playing a fetching game.

The usual gang was at the party: Myself, Annie, Ryika, Zack and Grim. Plus many other dogs and their humans. So many of the dogs had great costumes too! To top it all off, I got to be on TV!!!. Actually we all did. Channel 15 (ABC) was at the party too and we got a short 2 minute segment on the news later that night.

Thrusday, October 09, 2008
Lexington

I'm always thrilled when my human brings a handsome canine stud home and this one was no exception. Lexington, an AZG dog, was indeed a handsome male and I will admit I went a little crazy at first. Maybe too crazy. Ok so he ran away from me as I was bouncing around him with glee. Actually it took me a moment to realize he had run off. I did find him very shortly later hiding by my humans feet under the kitchen table.

I did manage to calm down enough to entice him to play with me. We had a great time running around the back yard and wrestling around the house; at least until he realized my human had wondered off. Then we ran to find her. I knew she was fine but he felt the need to check on her all the time. He was a little clingy actually.

I tried everything I could think of to drag him away from my human. I did the traditional "play bow", I grabbed at his ears and nibbled on his neck, I even brought a few toys in a tossed them in his general direction. I'll admit that lat one wasn't the best of ideas as it usually lead to my human making me take the toys back outside. Finally I gave in and stopped trying to lure him away from my human. Rather we played in the location she was in. This was a fairly good compromise, though with my human ever present I couldn't get away with my usual flirtatious shenanigans.