The Life of a Diva

Let me just tell you...It. Is. Exhausting. Believe me, I would love to be home waiting for this whole "treat extravaganza" that is supposedly going on at my house.


But the fabulous Ruby Blue picked me up in her private jet & we went to see my *love* Marvin for his blogiversary. Oh my...we drank way too much champagne on the flight over and devoured Jeannie's roast chicken & potatoes. My future MIL is a great cook. I may just move to Scotland.

See...we were all there. 'cept Sherman & Penny who had to stay home. Ahaaaahaaaahaaa!


And THEN! As soon as I got home I had to rush to Hawaii for a photo shoot. Diva Dogs Monthly was on my case for a beach shot. I made the cover. I guess it was worth it.

I am so glad to be home. All I want to do is sleep. It's been a whirlwind couple of days...see yinz puppers after a good 24 hour nap!

Stinkin' up the house!

Excuse me...I hope you don't think it was *I*, Sherman Bubbadoodlefinklestein, that would be stinkin up the house.

No, Mom got this cool machine for Christmas...TWO YEARS AGO...and she's been afraid to try to make us treats because it would stink up the house too much.

Well, the good news for us is...she's busting out the stinky machine and making us some deeeelicious dehydrated liverables, chicken heartables, gizzardables...

plus she's gonna try some salmonables & chicken tenderables! So you all are going to have to stay tuned for the results this weekend. I think the house will smell much better than it does now (I'm not into flowery stink).

Till then, I will rest as to conserve my taste-testing energy.

And I have to do the middle name tag too. I will shorten my middle name, Bubbadoodlefinklestein to Bubba (which sounds tuffer anyway) so this post isn't a bazillion lines long.

Big-boned

Utterly starving ALL THE TIME!

Black

Bashful (not really, I'm just running out of Bs)

Attached to my Mommy (don't make fun, Sweetest Sweet Pea in the Whole Sweet Pea Patch)

My weekend - by Lola

Penny got to post about her weekend (show-off!), so I wanted to say a little something about mine.

Friday night I ate a bee (we think) and my right jowl swelled up to the size of a ping pong ball. Mom gave me a big meatball and the swelling went away (it was laced with Benedryl). Saturday, she woke up and my left jowl was swollen. Yay! More meatballs for me!! Saturday afternoon my eye swelled...'nother meatball!! And Saturday night, my chin swelled...yep, 'nother meatball. She was all ready to take me on an adventure to the ER vet on Sunday, but I was fine. No more swelling for Lola. Da Diva is back!!



Mom did take this picture of my swollen jowls. Dad says he can't tell the difference b/c I'm pretty jowly to begin with, but take my word for it...I'm swelled (and doped up on Benedryl!).





Sunday, since I was all better, I got to graduate from Rally class. I was pretty excited (BAD) at the beginning but I settled down by the end & we did OK. I'm no Penny (no darlin'...you are not. Yet.), but I'll get there.



Here I am practicing my Sit Stays with distractions...my Pixburgh boyfriend Apache was there & I REALLY wanted to play with him!!! But I was good. See??

And here I am with my Grad-ee-a-shun pressie. Cookies!!!

Apache...I'll share my cookies!!!

Oh & I have to do the middle name tag. Here it is:

Special

Pretty

Rambuncious

Ornery

Unbeliveably adorable

Total Diva

Now I tag Eddie & Peaches (and Bella too) and Sitka.

My Saturday - by Penny

On Saturday, Mom goes & helps her friend Bob teach obedience classes at the WPHS. Bob asked Mom if she wanted to bring one of us to demo & since I'm the most well behaved, I got to go!!!

I was very excited. But what she didn't tell me was that there would be PUPPIES there!!! I love PUPPIES!!

We ran & ran & ran & I had so much fun playing I didn't want to stop.

Afterward, I had to sit in this big jail while Mom helped the puppies learn new stuff.

Sometimes I got to come out of jail & show the puppies how good dogs heel on leash, stay until released and how to pay attention.

When I got home, I was very tired!! All I wanted to do was lay on my landing in the sun...but a certain white dog thought I should play with her too.

Hey Penny! Don't you want to play with your most favoritest puppy???

Maybe later little white Dog...teaching is hard work!

The Kapp Pack has tagged us to share our middle names and what the letters of them would mean. Since this is MY post I'll go first...

Wiggly (duh)

Intellegent

Girly

Gorgeous

Lola's bestest friend in the whole wide world (next to Tadpole)

Energetic

Sweet

I'm going to tag Jazz & Dixie and Chance. Sherman & Lola will do theirs later this week & will tag other.

Stew

The Brat Pack asked on The Bones Zone for some "stew" type recipes to add to their diet, so I thought I'd share ours. As many of you know, I don't like following recipes...usually I just take what I have & run with it!

My local meat supplier has started carrying "chicken chunks" for dogs. This is basically the meat that is left over from trimming chicken breasts. They actually called it "chicken waste" when I ordered a case of it, but that's gross so I'll continue to call it "chunks".

So that is my base. Some sort of meat. Usually boneless...chicken, ground turkey, ground beef, even ground buffalo when I was fortunate to have 10 lbs of it. (I have used chicken legs but I boil them first, strip the meat and add it to the veggies later). To that I add veggies...sweet potato, carrots, kale, spinach, peppers, zucchini, squash...pretty much anything but onions. I'll also toss in an apple or blueberries if I have them. Skins on please. And 1 -2 cloves of garlic. Put meat & veggies in a pot & cover with water.

See how pretty (the meat always sinks to the bottom)!


Note...the Dog's giant vat of dinner vs. my teeny weeny dinner cooking. I obvioulsy have my priorities straight.

I cook it for about 45 mintues to an hour till it gets mushy.

Scoop out about a cup of cooking liquid, reserve and then rinse & strain mix.

Add strained meat & veggies to reserved cooking liquid and mash with potato masher. Voila! Chicken stew.

I don't add any grains to this because it's usually mixed in with the Dog's dry food, which contain plenty of grains. But you can also add brown rice, oats, quinoa, or some other healthy grain to the stew while cooking if you wanted to feed it alone.

We're ready for dinner!!!

For more information on supplementing a kibble based diet, please visit Mary Straus' very informative site.

Presents from my LOVE Dot-Spot

Finally!

I got this great present from my true love, Dot Spot over the weekend & Mom wouldn't let me open until she fixed her stupid camera. But Today is the Day!!

Even the bag looks just like her!



And I got a special letter from my special girl.

Dot is very smart ...she knows that you need to suck up to the Mom a little bit. Mom got this great book that she's going to read to me, a book mark & an Alert sticker so if our house is in trouble, the good guys know to look for us!

Ummmm...is that jerky I see behind the book? I don't think that's for Mom! Why isn't it in my belly????

And she got these little cutters to make our salmon cookies pretty! Mine, of course, will be the GIANT heart.

And check out all of these stuffies!!! Mom said she knew which one I would like best before she even gave them out.

And she was right!!!

Thank you Brat Pack for all of our presents!! We're stylin' now!

And the best gift of all! Dot & her Mom made me this video for my Gotcha Day. It made Mom's eyes leak and I got lots of hugs. You guys are these bestest!!!

Rock On Doggies!

Suki wanted us to get in touch with our inner rock star and find our Rocking equivalent.

This is what we came up with!

Lola - Mine is easy. My BFF Tadpole doesn't call me Lola Sprout Beyonce for nuthin!

(Sprout because I'm little...Beyonce because I'm a Diva)

Marvin, can you handle this?...Stanley, can you handle this?...Tadpole, can you handle this???

I don't think they can handle this...WOOOOOO!

Isn't Lola too bootylicious for ya babe???

Penny - Well I would definitely be Shakira...I got the hip shakin' (nubbin wigglin') down pat!

And...I could talk to my boyFriend Pippa in SPANISH!!!

Sherm - Dad picked out mine...am I that transparent??? Yes, yes, yes, I do love Meatloaf.

Dot-Spot...expect your own private rendition of Paradise by the Dashboard Light in your mailbox soon.

White Boxers

Sparky the Puggle tagged me to tell you all about my breed, the Boxer. In particular, I will be highlighting specifics about Boxers like me...no no, not Diva Boxers. White Boxers. There aren't too many of us in the blogging world that I know of...just me & Ellie. So sit back & I'll tell you all about us.





You can take some time & read up on the History of the Boxer...but in a nut shell, we originated in Germany & we used to bait Bulls (and eat their pizzles). You may also want to read a little about the Boxer Breed Standard (AKC) and if you did, you would notice one important thing...I don't fit!! That's right. As perfect as I am, I'm discriminated against by my color (how rude!!).

White Boxers are just like other Boxers, however some breeders feel that white Boxers are inferior to standard colored Boxers and have more health problems that standard colored boxers. These breeders typically cull (kill) the white puppies at birth! This practice isn't as common as it once was, but it still happens. So if you want to buy a Boxer puppies, in addition to the other qualities you should look for in a breeder, you should make sure they are White Boxer Friendly!!


Here are some quick facts on White Boxers:

1. White boxers are not rare (but we are special!).
2. Approximately 25 percent of all boxers born are white (I had 3 other white brothers & sisters).
3. White boxers are not albinos (but we're very cute!).
4. White boxers can sunburn easy (yes we can! I get very pink if I'm in the sun too long. Please apply baby sunscreen to us white dogs if we are going to be outside for a long time).


5. White boxers can be deaf and sometimes blind (About 13% of us are deaf).
6. Some people have argued that whites are sicker and have more cancer but this has never been proven (I'm as healthy as a horse!).
7. White boxers can be registered BUT the white boxer does not meet the American Boxer Club's standard. The members code of ethics states that it is a infraction to register with the American Kennel Club a boxer of any color not allowed by the Standard (I have Limited registration which I could compete in events like Agility or Rally if my Mom would get off her fat butt and train me more).
8. White boxers should be spayed/neutered (Yes they should...although I would make some cute Diva babies!).
9. White boxers have the same temperment and personality as colored boxers (so I am just as fun as Cairo, Peanut, Cubby, Bella, Charlie & my other Boxer buddies!).
10. Check boxers are whites that have spots of fawn or brindle on them (Hey! I'm a Checked Diva!).

So that's it. White Boxers rule!

Happy (Belated) Gotcha Day Shermie!!

Sorry I didn't post anything yesterday. I was at a wedding out of town & didn't get to a computer. Thank you to everyone who sent Sherman Happy Gotcha/Burpday wishes!! We're going to put off his celebration for a couple of weeks so I can have a whole day off work to celebrate with him.

But here's a little story of how Sherman became the Original Dog of Jackman Avenue.

Six years ago today, our lives changed forever. I had been bugging Scott about getting a cat. I also was looking at puppies...for about 6 months, I would go on Petfinder.org & look at all the available dogs & cats in the area. Some I would send to him & he'd entertain the thought for a few minutes & then dismiss it. One day, he forwarded a picture of a RottiLabX named Zena. "Why don't you call & see if she's still there...maybe we can go look at her on Saturday". She was still there & I was beyond excited at the possibility of finally getting a pet.

So Saturday we drove the hour to the Butler Co Humane Society and spotted Zena right away. She was the crazed dog jumping about 6 feet in the air...growling & snarling at me everytime I approached the cage. I was very intimidated & scared of her so we walked around the kennels for 15-20 minutes & decided to spend some time with a LabX, Moose and a LabSharpei, Cookie. Moose walked into the meet & greet room, peed on the wall and started running around the room. Scott looked at me and mouthed "NO!". Cookie came in next & was sweet and gentle, but very aloof. She basically ignored us...Scott found this endearing, but I wanted to see a couple other dogs first.

There were two other dogs we wanted to see, both in the same pen. One was a yellow lab mix and the other was medium sized black dog. Apparently they had been found together, along the side of the road in a ditch and were both a year old. When we initally walked by their cage, the Lab (who was bigger) kept trying to pushing the black dog out of the way...but the black dog demanded to be seen & his tail was wagging like CRAZY! I wanted to see the Yellow Lab first, but Scott liked the black one. We never even got to meet the Lab…Sherman walked into the room, right up to Scott and rolled right onto the floor at his feet to have his belly rubbed. It was all over.

Sherman was a great first dog...for the most part, he was housebroken. He wasn't destructive. He was pretty easy to walk on leash. He just sort of came into our home & fit right in. He's my best buddy.

Happy Gotcha Day to Sherman!

Thank you for changing our lives forever! We're very glad you decided to stay.

Will work for food

Hey Doggies & GG...as you may know...Sherman has this Big Day coming up and we've been pretty excited about it because it means PAWTY TIME at our house (aka lotsa treats!!).



So we were all psyched when Mom cooked up this yummy flank steak for us.



It was even better when she made it into little Dog sized pieces for us to feast on.

But the bad news came...that was Dad's dinner & THIS is what we were left with!!

Umm...hello??? And exactly WHO is that gonna feed???? And Mom had the nerve to cut this little tidbit into even smaller "training" sized pieces. Training??? Mom...I thought I had you perfectly trained.

Apparently, Mom has not been impressed when she calls my name & I've been searching the yard for Tadpole or Marvin or super studly Stanley or the new hottie on the block, Rowan and I ignore her. Hey Mom! Soooooorry! I'm busy. And popular. You've got to HOLD UP!

But I'm getting better. A girl's gotta learn to separate her Boyz from her Treatz!

Unless of course...the Boyz wanna come callin' WITH Treats!

Presents from Peanut

I got presents today from the handsomest brindle Boxer boy in the whole wide world! My boyfriend, Peanut!!

Isn't he a stud muffin???



I whipped up this little video to say Thank You!




Oh and Liza...Mom says she's going to find a support group for you & her. Windows Movie Maker Anonymous!