Doggie Play Time!

Today, Amy and David brought me over to a doggie play time at the Coopers' house. I met Brenda and Eirik briefly when they came over to our house in September for Amy's birthday so I was excited to see them again. They even got me a squeaky toy for Christmas but I forgot it at their house :o( Brenda and Eirik have a Weimaraner, Casey, and there were two other dogs there too, Captain and Raven, Boston Terriers. We played in the backyard and had a great time! Here are a couple of pictures of Captain, Casey and I playing. Casey, as you can see is a stick gatherer.

This is Raven. She's Captain's little sister. She's still a little puppy but she was lots of fun to play with.

After running around for a while, we all got pretty tired. Captain and I eventually had to take a breather.

As we were running around, Raven and I found a tub near the tool shed that was full of water left over from storms. I don't think we were supposed to be drinking out of there, but we were super thirsty.

Eventually I think the people got the hint and Anne, Captain and Raven's owner, turned on some water for us.

After playing we all went inside and I wasn't so behaved around the dogs. I had to be put in my crate :o( I need to work on playing nicely with others when I'm inside.

The LA Kid

Tonight David's friend, Steve, aka the "LA kid", came over. He's also a big fan of my blog, he even actually commented! I met him over the summer when I was a really little puppy but I don't remember much from that visit, just that he came over really late, like really really late...maybe he was still on LA time. I'm not really sure what LA is, but I'm told it's far away from here. I was really excited to see Steve so getting a picture when him and me was a little difficult. This is the best that we got.

Karoke Revolution

So David came home on Sunday with a new video game...Karoke Revolution and he and Amy haven't stopped playing it since. It's different from all of David's other video games he just sits with the little controller and stares at the television. For this game, they actually sing. Oh, it's horrible! I don't think they realize that they couldn't carry a tune to save their lives! Unfortunately I don't think they're going to stop playing it any time soon. Please help me!

But on a brighter note, I met another new person last night! David's aunt from Long Island came over to visit. She was really nice. Her son, Brandon, came and stayed with us for a night back in August when I was much littler.

Bath Time!

Bath Time!

I just got a bath. I will refer you to the IM conversation that Amy and David had before and after the bath.

before the bath
Amy: okay well puppy and i are going on a walk
Amy: then i think i might give him a bath
Amy: he's whining
Amy: surprise surprise
David: what puppy
David: what did you do
David: the blog has been updated!
Amy: i was talking on the phone
Amy: and while i was on the phone, a certain puppy we both know jumped onto the couch with his pillow and was sitting quite contently knowing that i was attached to the phone and couldn't shoo him off
Amy: but little does he know that he's about to get a bath
David: haha!
David: good!
David: he smells!

after the bath
Amy: this so called dog is going crazy
David: shoot it!
Amy: he was actually pretty good during the bath
Amy: except for the one time he tried to jump out and i had to use all of my strength to keep him in the bathtub
Amy: and as I was trying to control him, i let go of the shower head and it started spraying water all over the bathroom
Amy: now he's very suspicious of me
David: haha
Amy: oh my god!
Amy: he ran downstairs and has been sitting on the green couch!
Amy: in front of this stupid computer!
Amy: now it's all wet and smells of wet dog!
David: wet dog!
David: gross!
David: get rid of him!
David: sell him!
David: quick quick!

This is a picture of me wet. It was taken after I had been running around the house like mad so I'm partially dry but not quite.

And this is a picture of the couch after I sat on it wet. As you can see, Amy totally exagerrated (David and I have found that she tends to do that when it comes to the cleanliness of the house).

See and I bet you all thought I've been joking when I say that David wants to sell me.

Merry Christmas

I hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas! Maybe you're one of the lucky ones who got one of my Christmas cards from Amy and David ;o) I hope everyone had a wonderful day and had a great time opening presents. I sure did! This is me opening my present from Amy and David.

It's toy sheep to herd! I also got Greenies from our next door neighbors! I haven't had one since I got sick eating one when I was only a few weeks old and I had to go to the emergency vet :o( But thus far I've been doing fine and my new bag of Greenies came with a nifty bandana too!

The rest of the weekend has been pretty good. I got a new box of pigs ears! We gave away some of them to all of my canine friends for the holidays. Today I got to play with Kibbles. I haven't played with her in a while so that was fun. It would've been even better if Rusty had been out, maybe next time. On Christmas morning I went with Amy to her parents' house. I didn't get to play with Koko too much cause he kept on barking but I did get to open his presents for him since I love tearing paper apart and he could care less.

New Friend!

Tonight, I met a new person and boy do I looooove meeting new people! I get too excited sometimes, well, maybe I get too excited and hyper everytime I meet a new person. Tonight, David's friend, Michelle, came and visited me. She's an avid Mango Daily reader and used to watch me all the time on my webcam. Apparently David and Amy went up and visited her and her boyfriend, Kenneth, in Boston over the summer during their pre-Mango days. I did all of my tricks for her, like "paw" and "sit" and "down" and I showed off my frisbee skills. This is Michelle giving me a treat. I hope she'll visit again, maybe the next time she sees me I won't be so crazy...then again, maybe not.

David gave her one of the presents from the top of the dining room table. Apparently, the presents are actually supposed to go underneath that tree in our living room but Amy's scared that I'll try and tear them apart and boy is she right! If I could get my paws on those presents, every single one of them would be completely shredded in less than half an hour. This is me wondering why I can't eat any of those presents. Why Amy? Why can't you let me chew on them?

Border Collie Sighting

So, we just got back from the vet where my stitches were removed. Before we went in to see the vet, the nice receptionist told us that there was another border collie in one of the other examination rooms. It was a 3 month old border collie and boy was it crazy! She was let loose and started to run wild! I was a little taken aback at first, I mean, it was running underneath me and trying to bite my paws! I might be a little hyper but this thing was on overdrive. After a few minutes I warmed up and started playing but then we had to go back to our examination rooms. I guess he was there for his 12 week shots, I remember going through that. When his owner asked Amy and David when the biting and nipping stops, they just laughed out loud in her face, "Hahaha, never!" Apparently that puppy has already developed a fondness for socks, which is good, socks are really good; David is wearing one today with a hole in it and guess who put that hole there? Yup, me! On the car ride home, Amy and David were lamenting about how soft the puppy was and how cute and pudgy. Yeah, but I bet that puppy isn't potty trained and doesn't play frisbee or know how to wait or sit or any of that stuff. But Amy reassured me that I'm the border collie that they love :o) But David said that he wants to sell me. I need to reassess my relationship with David, or chew on more of his socks.

Kuranda Bed!

My Kuranda Bed came in the mail today! David didn't want me to open it until Christmas, but Amy and I gave him our sweetest puppy dog eyes and he broke down and we opened it and dumped all of the pieces out onto the floor.

And I kept on running away with the pieces so Amy gave me a Busy Bone to keep me occupied while David put together the bed.

So while David was putting together the bed,

I was chewing on my Busy Bone.

While David was testing out my Kuranda Bed,

I kept on chewing on my Busy Bone.

Finally, when I finished my Busy Bone, they got me up on the bed. It took a while but I finally got comfortable.

I love my Kuranda Bed and I love Christmas!

Frisbee Hiatus

So yesterday after our morning walk, I played frisbee in the park with Amy. Things were going pretty well, except for when Amy threw one of my frisbees in a neighbor's backyard (again!). We had been playing for about 20 minutes when I went to retrieve one and I stepped on something and yelped. It hurt so much! I started limping around. By the time we got back home I wasn't limping so much and in a few hours I was back to normal. Well today we went back out to play frisbee again (Amy even bought me another one, bringing the total up to 4!) but I was scared to get hurt again so I didn't want to play. I'm not sure when I'll return to my frisbee training, hopefully soon. David said if I don't play frisbee, he doesn't want me anymore. I hope that's not true :o(

Me vs. the Box

So if there's one thing that I've learned during my 6.5 months, it's that David loves packages...a lot and boy does he get a whole lot of them. Every day when Amy and I go to pick him up from the metro the first thing he asks is if he's got any packages or not. Well, last night he got two packages! Now, another thing that I've learned during my lifetime is that I love cardboard boxes! More specifically, I love to tear them apart! So when David dropped one of the boxes that his packages came in on the floor, I saw it as my big opportunity to show that box what I'm capable of doing. This is when I first started working.

Then about 10 minutes later I had done all I could do. This is me surveying my handiwork.

Some might call this destruction, but I think it's constructive box deconstruction.

Now if you want to see destruction, check this out. I've taken this ornament off that stupid tree 3 times and this last time I managed to break the little reindeer in half! There will be no more JOY in our household, thanks to me! Amy didn't seem too amused, but there's still plenty of ornaments left on the tree....I'll try and get those later.

Redesigned!

How does everyone like the redesign of my blog?! Looks pretty neat huh? David worked on it last night. I think it's pretty smooth. We originally got an idea for my blog from this site. This dog, Wwolf, lives in Australia and I think he's a border collie too. But I think our site is a little cooler. If you click through the site, you'll see Wwolf and the story about his new bed. Rumor has it that I might be getting one too for Christmas. I can't wait!

When I was little

So last night David found this video that he took of me when I was just 9 weeks old:

Amy kept on looking at the video and looking at me, asking me where her little baby puppy has gone. As far as I can tell, I'm still here, I'm just a little bigger. The first time Amy and David saw me, I was only 6 weeks old and living in Culpeper with my mom, grandmother and brothers and sisters. I was the only white headed pup of the litter, but that's okay, cause mom told me that dad has a white head too, in fact, he also has the little diamond on the back of his head. The only difference is that he's red and white and I'm black and white. Before Amy and David came, all of the people that came wanting to adopt us pups only looked at my brothers and sisters so I never got to leave our little pen. Finally, when Amy and David arrived, I got to break free! They put me down on the cool cement in the garage and it felt so good I decided to wiggle around on it.

Then I thought I'd try some laps around the outside of the pen.

My time outside was short-lived because it didn't take them too too long to decide that they wanted me but they said they'd come back in a week to pick me up so back in the pen I went.

Picture Time!

So last night, Amy and David decided to take some pictures with me. Although I love both Amy and David, I have to admit that I am a bit more attached to Amy. See how nicely I pose for a picture :o) I don't even really like being picked up (sometimes she wishes that I were a lap dog).

This was our attempt at getting a picture of me with David in front of that ridiculous tree in the middle of our house. As you can see, it turned out to be quite an ordeal.

If he would've just sat still and let me chew on his hand this process could have been much easier.

But no, he kept on trying to get me to sit nicely.

Finally, after about 20 minutes, I started tiring out so this is the picture that resulted.

I'm Back!

I'm home once again! David brought me home from that place, the vet, last night. When I got home I went straight to my crate, I missed it so much, it's much more comfortable than those at the vet. It didn't take long for me to bring some mayhem back to the house. The vet said I'm not supposed to be active for 2 days....haha, yeah right. She obviously failed to recognize that I'm a border collie and am completely uncapable of sitting still for more than ten seconds.

So, when I got home, I jumped and sat on the couches in the living room until David yelled at me to get off. Then I ran around the living room with a sock that I stole from the hall closet and when I got bored of that, I dragged the pillow out from my crate and pranced around with it in my mouth. Later in the evening, while Amy was on the phone, I managed to do quite a bit of work on the bottom of the television stand.

I finally got put back in my crate when, while David and Amy were watching a movie, I started chewing on one of the legs on the blue chair in the basement.

Groggy

I'm writing to you today remotely from what appears to be some kind of jail cell. It's kind of like my crate except I'm not at home and there are other dogs around in crates too. I feel a little groggy, like I'm waking up from some kind of deep sleep. All I remember is Amy and I going to the needle building. A few months ago when I was a littler puppy, I would come every few weeks and someone in a white jacket would prick me with sharp things and look at my teeth and ears and listen to my heart. Usually Amy would stay with me and we'd leave together but today, she never came in! She just left! Now I'm here and I don't know what happened. I feel as though some part of me is missing. Amy and David kept on saying something about getting snipped, snipped. I wonder if this is what they were talking about :o(

Tree in the Living Room

David brought home a great big box tonight. Of course as soon as I saw it, I ran over and started chewing on a corner. Mmmmmm...cardboard. I love cardboard. I could chew on cardboard all day long. Well, I guess not ALL day long cause usually after the 3 seconds it takes me to chew it up into teeny tiny pieces, I get bored and look for furniture to chew on, or socks, socks are good too. Mmmmm...socks. Wait, what was I going to tell you all about? Oh yeah, the big box. So, after I started chewing on the corner of the box, Amy and David got mad and put me in my crate, so I can't really tell you what happened the next hour or so but, when they let me back out, there was this tree sitting in the middle of the living room and, AND it was glowing! I tried to ignore it at first but who's ever heard of a tree inside a house? So as I was passing by to retrieve one of my tennis balls I couldn't resist and I started chewing on one of the branches. It didn't taste as good as cardboard, but it wasn't too bad. Then David and Amy saw me again (they always ruin my fun) and sprayed bitter apple on it. There's these little shiny balls hanging from the tree, those are my next target, I bet those taste good.

The Thanksgiving Holiday

Today I am stuck at home alone again :o( For four whole days Amy and David were home and I got played with and pampered but now I'm stuck in my crate/exercise pen again. Where to begin? Well, on Thanksgiving Day I went back up to Waldorf with David to his parents' house. Tavish wasn't there this time but Spirit was; I didn't even attempt to play with him. I did my best to ignore him. He kept on barking and snarling at me all day when I would go near him. He also kept on calling me "that damned whipper snapper." Finally when we were leaving he came up to me and I know he was about to get one last snarl in, so I sucker punched him. Pow! Right in the nose. This is Curmudgeon Spririt himself.

What else happened this past weekend? Oh, David punched some holes in the ceiling and wall in the basement to run some speaker wires or something. Amy didn't seem too thrilled with the holes, although they gave me a new idea...I should try and eat the wall! I'll have to start on that soon.

We played frisbee a bunch too in the park behind our house. We didn't nearly play enough yesterday but Amy dragged me back inside, I guess she was getting cold or something.

Destruction Update

This weekend I successfully broke triangular shaped pieces off of the vinyl tile flooring in Amy's bathroom. I will endeavor over the next few days and months to rip up the rest of the tile when Amy and David aren't looking. I also left a few more of my teeth marks on the bottom of the bookcase in the living room. Amy's black pair of socks with the puppies on them are now well ventilated after I chewed a hole through the heel. Last week I started a new project, chewing on the black chair in the basement. I've got the right edge of the chair gnawed down pretty well. Progress is also being made on my new set of Nylabone keys, I plan on getting those down to the tips by the new year. Oh and I almost forgot, I managed to eat about 1/3rd of my hard plastic frisbee that I got at puppy graduation from PetSmart.

Mean Tavish

Today we went up to David's parents' house for David's mom's birthday. His grandparents came down from Long Island for the celebration and brought their Westie Tavish. David and Amy were all excited for me to meet Tavish cause they thought we'd have a lot of fun together but boy were they wrong. From the second I stepped foot inside the house Tavish was out to get me. He did not like me one bit. David's grandfather said it was probably because I'm a little hyper and jumpy (hey, I'm only a 5.5 month old puppy, what do you expect?!) which made Tavish a little nervous so he kept on growling and snapping at me. All I wanted to do was play :o( It kind of sucked. There I was in a house with two other dogs (Spirit, David's parents' dog was there too of course) and I couldn't play with either one of them. Here's a picture of Tavish. Sure he looks cute and little and sweet, but looks can be deceiving.