The girls had a rough day! First we were awakened at around four-thirty by a big boom, followed by a long low rumble and lots of shimmying and shaking. The dogs were pretty freaked out and the rest of the morning they stuck close–every time I stopped, either Beans, Ginger, Weenie or Wishbone or all four ran into the back of my legs. When I went to put my check into our savings account, they waited right by the gate until I returned. Then the two little fuzzies sat in my lap while I worked on the computer. About the time they all got settled down we had a really strong aftershock. These southern Illinois dogs just aren’t used to earthquakes!

This evening it suddenly blew up a nasty storm, the sky turned black and the wind was so strong that the rain came down sideways…all the girls really hate storms, so now our chicken-littles are sticking to the back of my legs again. I hope it’s not going to be a six dog night…

My daughter, my niece Emma and my dog nephew are all spending the weekend. Last night we went out to dinner with the girls, while Stinky hung out with his cousins, Beans, Weenie, Wishbone and Ginger.

They’ve been playing hard all day. The snow has been melting away all week and the ground is quite muddy, needless to say, so are the dogs, the back steps, my floor. I’m kind of embarrassed to send Stinky home so cruddy, on the other hand, Stinky is no tiny dog. He weighs 65 pounds. To wash him, I have to drag him–yes drag, he hates baths, then remove everything from the shower stall–shampoos, sponges, soaps, shower chairs– everything I don’t want to be covered in mud and smelly dog fur, then strip down to my underclothes and get in with him.

Afterwards, I will will need a full shower, as well as the entire shower stall and much of the bathroom….that boy can really shake!

Check out the big sad eyes, this guy is a master snack Moocher!

It’s always a balancing act when you have more than one dog. Especially when they are all the same sex, as ours are. Beans fancies herself the Alpha female…she’s the biggest and the strongest. But not necessarily the smartest. Weenie, (who I believe may actually be a doggie genus) allows Beans to believe she’s the boss, all the while, using her Weenie-wiles to get her way. If Beans gets into her bed, Weenie will nonchalantly slip outside and begin to bark frantically. Beans, in fact, all of the dogs, will dash outside to see whats up. Weenie then casually strolls back inside and reclaims her bed. I’ve seen her do it dozens of times and it never fails, the other dogs fall for it every single time.

Since the other dogs are content to allow Beans her delusions of grandeur, things are mostly peaceful. But I worry sometimes that Wishbone is secretly harboring a succession plan. She’s a sneaky little girl..

Don’t get me wrong, I adore all our fur-babies, but there are days…
Like this morning for instance, I went downstairs and found that the girls had disemboweled a toy rabbit. I would never have believed there was enough stuffing in one toy to cover an entire room–correction–an entire room AND half of the back yard, but apparently, that is the case. I guess I should be grateful it was just a toy rabbit. I had nearly finished raking up the bunny stuffings and was looking forward to getting back to my blogging when Wishbone ran up behind me, grabbed the garbage bag right out of my hand, then proceeded to tear all over the yard, shaking the bag ferociously, flinging bits of fiberfill every which way.

When I finally finished the cleanup and returned to my office I found that Brownie had suffered a potty incident in my absence. The greatly distressed little pommie had a poop pancake firmly cemented to her butt…her nearly bald butt, the close clipping of which was supposed to prevent just such problems. In her attempts to remove the offending mass, she had smeared large areas of it across the hardwood floors, (thank God we have no carpeting!) She required a full bath to remove it all.

After blow-drying little Brownie, whose name had suddenly taken on a whole new meaning, I spent the next twenty minutes mopping the hallway and both bedrooms, then the bathroom just to be on the safe side. A short while later I heard Ginger barking her head off and I hurried downstairs fully expecting to find an escaped convict wielding an ax, judging from the decibel of her frantic barking. There was no escaped convict, but the mailman had apparently left a padded envelope on top of our mailbox, which then fell off the mailbox and onto the patio, into the slathering jaws of the pack. And once again our backyard looked like a tornado had made a pass through it.

It’s just a darn good thing they’re so cute…

All the dogs know my beloved green couch is off limits…I mean I barely let my husband sit on it! (and never with a drink) Yes, the dogs all know, but they don’t always care. Weenie tries to scrunch into the crack when I walk by and catch her on the couch. I know exactly what she’s thinking: “If I lie really still, she won’t notice me.” Like I’m not going to notice a little fat black sausage stuffed into the corner of my favorite piece of furniture. Ginger doesn’t even attempt to be inconspicuous, she just gives me that look that says, “Yeah. I’m on the couch, couches are for sitting on, get over it.”
Our exchange usually goes like this:
” Ginger! Get off the couch.”
Ginger eyes me nonchalantly, lays her head back down.
” Off!”
She yawns.
I pick her up and move her to the chair. She watches me intently, waiting for me to leave so she can get back on the green couch. Round and round we go. I wonder which one of us is more stubborn?

You can see that Weenie is watching me as I snap this picture, but she never moves a muscle…”Yeah, I think I can blend in..”

Last weekend cousin Stinky came for a visit. His real name is Corky, but early on he acquired the nickname because of his propensity for rolling in dead things (the riper the better). The girls all LOVE Stinky and pester him the whole visit. Luckily he’s very patient and doesn’t seem to mind–on the other hand, what guy wouldn’t like five ladies fussing over him? He’s definitely NOT a tiny dog, more a medium-sized dog, but he’s a very good boy and extremely well mannered! He doesn’t even smell too bad anymore!

Well we didn’t win the contest over at Tip Tail, but we had a really great time and got to meet lots of new people and pups! Thanks to Cynthia at Tip Tail for the contest and to everyone who came by! And please don’t be a stranger…we’ll be standing here by the door waiting for you to come back!

Brownie, Twinkie, Kizzy, Beans and Weenie, Wishbone and Ginger!

We need toys, cause Wishbone tore up all of our old ones! (see picture of naughty dog!)

And mom hid all of her nice chewy shoes and now all we have to play with are tennis balls and little green apples…(see picture of very sad dogs).

We need a new ball, and a Wee Wubba Tug and a Fling Thing…and a Tug Frisbee. And chew treats too! Jerky! Jerky! We like Jerky! Mom told us about a reader appreciation contest where we can win a thirty dollar gift certificate to buy great doggie stuff from doggone good.com. So please pick us!….(look again at picture of sad doggie faces) We need toys! Toys! Lots of toys!

Pick us! We’re good dogs!