Christmas and a New Year!

To start things off on a sad note, this was the family's first Christmas without Dino and it was difficult for them. To cheer them up I acted like a big goof on Christmas morning - especially when they gave me a gift to unwrap!

I had a wonderful time with my new family. I am so glad they adopted me!

"Not The Mom"

He's the DAD!

I have frequently mentioned "Not The Mom" but now I'd like to expand a little bit on this person. First, I found out he's the DAD! Yep, that's what we who wear the fur coats in the family call him around here (I think the 2-legged children call him that too!). But even better than that... he will give us treats if we bother him enough so for me, he is THE KING!

When he is eating dinner I like to sit under the table right at his feet so he can sneak food to me. Speedy is much more obvious, as you can see by the picture attached! He just gets up there on his back legs and puts his head on the Dad's arm until he gets some food. One thing though, if the Dad gives something to Speedy, he always gives something to me too so I don't mind Speedy putting himself out there like that ~ we both benefit!

Also, if we team it up correctly, we can get the Dad to give us treats just by bothering him when he is watching TV or even sometimes if he is just walking through the kitchen! I look at him with my soulful eyes and he asks me if I've been a good girl today ~ well, DUH ~ OF COURSE I'm a good girl ~ and then I anxiously wiggle around and jump on him and voila` he gives me a treat from the cabinet! I LOVE training my humans!

Mealtime In My New Home

It's The Most Difficult Time Of The Day

Things seem to be going pretty smooth so far. I think mealtime is the most difficult. I haven't figured out the pecking order yet and I want to be the boss because let's face it, I was out on the street for awhile and I had to scrounge up my own food so I feel like I should be at the top of the food pyramid in this house.

Apparently the humans don't agree. At feeding time they separate the 3 of us who wear the fur in the family. The 2 boys are allowed to eat in the same room (the kitchen) but I am relegated to the laundry room. I heard the Mom say it was because I was jumping all over and barking when it was mealtime. That's what we did where I come from! The Mom got pretty mad because a couple of times I knocked my food bowl right out of her hand before we even got to the laundry room. That was a disaster because then my food was all over the floor and those boys came running and started to eat the kibbles that were MINE! That did NOT work well for me.

Apparently I'm going to have to rethink this dinnertime ritual of jumping up on the Mom when she is about to feed me. Maybe I can muster up enough composure to control myself but I dunno~ it's sooooo very tempting all the time. One thing I did notice though is that there is another person here, he's ~ uhhh ~ NOT THE MOM ~ but I don't know what to call him, ~ anyway, he likes to feed those of us who wear the fur in the family at the humans' dinner table. This makes the Mom mad but I will tell you this, NOT THE MOM really gets my attention for his behavior! I'll have to make a note of this and be certain to be nearby every time he eats!

Arriving In My New Home

Upon arriving at my new home I was really nervous. First, there were all these new people and then I find out I'm not the only royalty in their home. (By "royalty" I mean those of us who wear the fur in the family!) They had 2 others living with them! They were both male. The oldest one was called Dino, a 13 year old Wire Fox Terrier. He was very small and pretty cranky, if I do say so myself. My new Mom didn't seem to think Dino would like me very much. The funny thing was, he couldn't see very well so I somehow was able to avoid any confrontation with him. He was the easy one to win over! He even has to watch the television close-up, SEE:

For the record, he did NOT have the winning Lottery numbers that evening.

The younger guy is named Speedy (I know... I thought the same thing... SPEEDY ~ What a name!) He was the hard one to win over! He didn't like me AT ALL. My new Mom kept me close to her side and made sure he didn't bother me. At first, even though he was much smaller than me (he's a Shiba Inu, about 25 pounds) I was pretty afraid of him. He can get a nasty look on his face sometimes ~ if you don't believe me, see for yourself:

It was starting to get dark and I was still quite nervous. I followed my new Mom everywhere she went. The only thing was, they made me go outside to do my "business"... can you imagine that?!? Anyway, I took this opportunity to sniff every inch of the yard ~ TWICE ~ I didn't care how late it was or how dark it was. I made the ultimate find... I could crawl under the deck in the backyard and look for rabbits. How great was this place?

They called me... and called me... but they had no idea where I went. Then, they heard me crawling around under the deck. Uh oh... am I in trouble now? Well fine, I just won't come out! They weren't too happy about the fact that I remained stubborn even though they offered me gold treats. They tried everything. Finally, one of the teenagers crawled in after me. What a sight that was! She looked like she had been crawling in the trenches in an army war zone ~ these people are such fun!

It wasn't until I crawled out and saw the looks on my new family's faces that I realized I also got pretty dirty. Oh no... the dreaded bath ~ I can see it coming ~ Ugh! Bath time is NOT fun time:

Coming Home

On March 28, 2006 three people came to visit me in my foster home where I was known as "Buttercup". There was a Mom and 2 children. The minute I saw them I knew I'd let them adopt me! They loved me, I could already see that in their eyes. During their visit with me in my foster home, we spent some time together getting to know each other and before you know it we were all packed into this very tiny car (a Scion TC) and headed for my new home!

At least, I THOUGHT we were going home . . .
"We're going where?!?" "To pick up who?!?" How are we going to fit yet another child into this vehicle? Well, THIS should be interesting. . .

We stopped at a house and picked up another child! Let me gently remind you that a Toyota Scion TC traditionally seats 4-5 people (and THAT is if the people are of small stature!) I myself am a thin girl, only weighing 40 pounds, however I do stand 23" at the withers (for you non-dog people, I stand 4'4" tall when standing on my 2 back legs.) So now we have a Mom and 3 tween-children and ME... all in this little vehicle. Whew... I was uncomfortable, to say the least, and it was a lonnnnng drive home. These people better be worth it!