Welcome to the Family

Yep, you read that right. I just acknowledged that Vinny is officially part of our family. He has to be I guess because now he has a Puppia harness that matches mine AND a St. Francis tag to protect him, just like mine. (PS if you follow that link, you'll find our friend Sue at My Doggie's Closet on Ebay - that is where Mom gets our harnesses and St. Francis tags which she has also bought as gifts for other canine friends! AND you'll see a pic of Yours Truly and my little brother. Disclaimer: this is not a paid promotion! We just happened upon Sue when Mom was looking for my first harness back in the day, and she was so great about making sure it was the right size! PLUS, she has lots of other doggie goodies!)

ANNNYYYWAAAAYYY, I guess that means Vinny's here to stay for good, so I have decided to embrace it (maybe temporarily? We'll see...).

Vinny in blue, me in green. Who's better looking? YOU BETTER SAY ME.

Since I'm embracing him, I will say Vinny looks pretty good in blue.

I decided since he's staying, that he & I should band together and slowly drive Mom insane. Boy has it been FUN! We've been marking on every spot that would stand still in the house! And that is a lot of spots!

But then Mom got wise that it wasn't just me doing the marking. She caught Vinny in the act. (He is still a rookie after all, he has a few things to learn about not getting caught.) Little did she know, months ago I had showed Vinny how much fun it is to pee indoors, and since I'm his big brother, he followed along and has done an amazing job! I'm so proud I could almost cry.

I didn't think this completely through though because something called a "belly band" exists. Mom had tried it on me before but got lazy - imagine that! And Vinny had to wear one til he was neutered and he peed right through those suckers like a champ! But after his neuter he didn't pee inside anymore. Until I decided to get him on my side. :)

But look at this:

DRAT!

We were caught completely off guard with the belly bands. We didn't think Mom would actually go through with it!

I immediately sank in to a deep depression.

And Vinny didn't fare much better. He only lifted his head for the camera.

Well they made us stop marking. But we figured out how to wiggle out of them pretty quick - Vinny was a pro and actually gave me some pointers. Who knew younger brothers were good for anything? And as predicted, Mom got lazy again, and wouldn't you know it? We started marking inside again immediately! Serves her right for trying to outsmart pugs! She keeps threatening us with something called "Craigslist" but we know she's all talk about that too.

Update: just thought you all might want to see my former foster-sister Pippa - in the middle of a fawn pug sandwich, with her brothers Otis and Stuey. And today is her mom Stacey's birthday - so Happy Birthday Stacey!

That's all for now! Happy peeing-indoors, Friends! Winter is here and that's the best time to leave your mark. :)

Later!

"So This is Christmas & What Have You Done?": 2011

FINALLY, I have whined enough to get Mom to do a Christmas post! Seriously, this is the laziest lady you would ever have the misfortune of meeting. Yeah, yeah, she feeds me and my brother, but that's about the extent of it. Sometimes she gives us water and lets us go outside to see the light of day but those are only rare treats.

We went to see Grandma & Grandpa in the Ozarks as usual for Christmas and it was Vinny's first time there. He seemed to like it okay. But since Christmas fell on Sunday this year - we were there from Thursday through Monday and we were ALL (especially MOM!) ready to get back home.

Here goes:

Vinny

Snoozing on Mom's lap

This is my Great-uncle Bobby - he had never met me before so I had to make myself comfortable of course. Great-Uncle Bobby is kind of a miracle and my Mom loves him a whole lot (he's SUPER funny apparently). He has had a liver transplant and TWO! kidney transplants in the last 20 years or so. He wasn't feeling good this day either and went to the hospital again the day after Christmas and just got out yesterday. We all pray that he will be okay for a long time.

See? Great-uncle Bobby liked me. It's clear. :) When Mom was 12 years old, Great-uncle Bobby had his liver transplant at the hospital in St. Louis (where we live now! But is 3 hours away from where Mom & Great-uncle Bobby lived). And my Grandma (his sister) basically lived in the hospital with him for almost a year as he had setbacks and recoveries, so my Mom remembers that year very clearly since Grandpa isn't a great cook.

OK, back to the pictures:

Vinny in Grandpa's chair. Look how much Grandpa doesn't like him compared to how much he likes me!!!

Me and my BFF Trey

Begging for Trey's food

Begging for Grandma's food

Vinny begging for Grandpa's food

Mom's cropper isn't working for some reason so she hates this picture because of all of the mess but we have to have a picture in front of the tree every year so there ya go. (She also hates Jay Leno but that is another story entirely.)

Oh yeah. And Jack was there. Mom loves when he sits like this (which is a lot). But look how fat he is! He's so fat! Ha ha ha ha, Fatty Magoo! (Any "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" fans out there?) Fatty Boombalatty! Fatty McFatterstein! Oh, sorry, Mom - you say he runs like 2 miles a day with Uncle Michael and apparently is just a big ol' beagle according to the vet? And I lay around like a slug every day? Whatever.

Grandpa, Jack, me & my day-glow eyes & Uncle Michael

Man I'm handsome

One of Vinny's strange bark-at-the-carpet fits

I try to pretend like I don't know him when he does this

He's just weird!

Jack must have been really tired from those 2-miles-a-day runs because he pretty much spent the whole four days right here. Including when Grandma had to sleep on the sofa one night because Grandpa snores and they had run out of beds what with us all being there. Grandma said she tried to move him but he's...wait for it...TOO FAT.

Ah. All to myself. Me and Grandpa.

I was okay with Vinny coming on Grandpa's lap then because we were engrossed in this awesome tv show that Grandpa introduced us to on the Hunting Channel called "Arkansas Outlaws."

And then there was Jack.

Hanging with Uncle Michael and The Jerk.

Uncle Michael and my brother and my cousin

We hope you all had a great holiday! Kitty & Coco sent us those super-sweet bow ties! I really liked mine b/c it wasn't a sweater or a hat, and it didn't bother me a bit. And Mom said I looked handsome. She said Vinny looked stupid. Or at least that's what I heard.

Later, friends!