The Carolinas....

Mom, Pops and I travelled to the Carolinas to watch some b-ball and visit family and friends. What a great trip it was! I had a blast, I got to see my cousin Jasmine... I haven't seen her since January, right before she moved South. Here we are hanging out under her new deck after a great game of chase.

She has an AWESOME yard to play in, there are woods to play in and explore. All sorts of good things for us to sniff and its fenced in for us! It's pretty much awesome, they even built trails so Mom and Pops and the rest of my family can wander through the woods with us! It was so so cool!

Made me kinda want to live in North Carolina... then it got HOT and I haven't shed my winter coat. That changed my mind real quick... Maryland isn't so bad after all.... spring shouldn't hurry like it does in the South and us shelties like it that way. Maybe I would have liked it better if I had been furminated. Gotta tell Mom to work on that!

We also went kayaking while we were there! The weather was super warm and Mom even got a little sunburn- should've worn sunblock! Here we are out in the lake...

The weather was so warm and the water was so cool that I couldn't resist taking a dip. Ahhh.... the water feels SO GOOD! We didn't limit our fun to North Carolina... We went to South Carolina too! Talk about travelling sheltie! There I had a reunion with my buddy Cujo!!! I haven't seen him in FOREVER! We made up for lost time with a great game of tug with his March Madness brother....He'll be visiting our place in May! YAY!!!

I also met something really WIERD this weekend, something I've never seen before. But I was braved and sniffed it.. that something was a ball python!!

What an awesome trip!

I'm Baaaack!!!

Hey Ya'll !

Hope you had a great weekend trying to sniff out the Easter Bunny... I know I did and I swear I almost caught him. If I had caught him I would have asked if he had any kitty treats in those baskets he was carrying. But, I was unsuccessful in my hunt and had to settle for licking up the crumbs on the kitchen floor after Easter Dinner. Mom says I make a good mop :o)

I am heading out for my next big adventure, this time its to North Carolina! We have family down there and we are going to visit. I'm sure Mom will get lots of pictures of me and my cousin Jasmine the German Short Haired Pointer. She LOVES to be chased and well I love chasing, so we're like best friends. She's pretty much awesome.

No really looking forward to the warm weather, the forecast says it is going to be in the high 70s... a little warm for the sheltie that is in need of a spring meeting with the Furminator! I much prefer the 50s-60s we've been enjoying here in Maryland.

I'll report back with my "tails" of my big adventure!

Wow! It's been a while!

Sorry I haven't posted in a while... I've been terribly busy with sheltie business. I am a busy boy you know... I have to keep the cat off the counter and scan the parking lot for cat cat cats all after a full day of daycare!!!

That doesn't leave much time for blogging! But rest assured I am coming up with new content and will back in action real soon!

Woofs!

Storm Dog

RIP Darby

The world lost a great sheltie today, his name was Darby. As far as I'm concerned he was the BEST sheltie EVER and I hope that someday I will be half the sheltie he was. I'll remember all the times we had together, they were the best, I wouldn't trade a single minute of any of those memories... even the times you drooled on me when I was little and my first night at my new home when you peed on me cause I walked under you at the wrong moment.

Thanks for showing me what a great sheltie should be... I'll miss you good buddy!

Limp Diagnosis

So... remember that limp that I told ya'll about in my Mystery Solved post? Well, turns out I spoke too soon. It came back :o(

So it was off to vet's office again so that they could take another look at my leg. After a complete physical exam and a round of x-rays it was determined that I have a defect in my shoulder along with a little bit of arthritis in ankle. Arthritis at 3? What's up with that? So I was sent home with orders to take baby aspirin whenever my leg flares up and Mom was told to watch me to make sure it doesn't get any worse. They are also sending my x-rays up to Penn to have their orthopedists take a look to see if there is anything else of concern.

This afternoon Mom placed an order for Joint Care Supplements from Dr. Foster and Smith's catalog that hopefully will help make my joints happy again.

Sheltie Love is Spreading!

My popularity is spreading, no longer am I just known around daycare and the doggie park... people at the University of Maryland know me!! Here's an excerpt of a Gmail Chat session my Mommy had this morning...

Mommy's Friend: i met the grandmother of one of the people takes care of stormy!
Mommy: haha
no way
Mommy's Friend: yeah dogwood acres right?
Mommy: yea!
Mommy's Friend: yeah her granddaughter works there
i asked her if she knew stormy the sheltie
Mommy: that's great
random people know my dog
too funny
Mommy's Friend: its a small dog world

Who can resist me? No one! I turn on the sheltie cuteness and its impossible to resist me. I could even make the Grinch love me!

Christmas Rules for us dogs...

From my buddy Simba's blog...

1. Be especially patient with your humans during this time. They may appear to be more stressed-out than usual and they will appreciate long comforting dog leans.

2. They may come home with large bags of things they call gifts. Do not assume that all the gifts are yours.

3. Be tolerant if your humans put decorations on you. They seem to get some special kind of pleasure out of seeing how you look with fake antlers.

4. They may bring a large tree into the house and set it up in a prominent place and cover it with lights and decorations. Bizarre as this may seem to you, it is an important ritual for your humans, so there are some things you need to know:
a. Don't pee on the tree
b. Don't drink water in the container that holds the tree
c. Mind your tail when you are near the tree
d. If there are packages under the tree, even ones that smell interesting or that have your name on them, don't rip them open
e. Don't chew on the cord that runs from the funny-looking hole in the wall to the tree

5. Your humans may occasionally invite lots of strangers to come visit during this season. These parties can be lots of fun, but they also call for some discretion on your part:
a. Not all strangers appreciate kisses and leans
b. Don't eat off the buffet table
c. Beg for goodies subtly
d. Be pleasant, even if unknowing strangers sit on your sofa
e. Don't drink out of glasses that are left within your reach

6. Likewise, your humans may take you visiting. Here your manners will also be important:
a. Observe all the rules in #4 for trees that may be in other people's houses. (4a is particularly important)
b. Respect the territory of other animals that may live in the house
c. Tolerate children
d. Turn on your charm big time

7. A big man with a white beard and a very loud laugh may emerge from your fireplace in the middle of the night. DON'T BITE HIM!!

Happy Merry Christmas...

Why must the parentals dress me up in little hats? Oh well, Happy Howl-o-days everyone!

There was this family, and their cat cat cat lost its tail when it got slammed in a door. They were so distraught about it that they took the cat cat cat to Walmart because its the largest retailer in the world!

bark! bark!

There is much drama in my life...

Why?

Because a car CRASHED into the Chick-fil-A (read article HERE and HERE )where Pops and I go to breakfast on my way to daycare!!! Where am I going to get my tatoe rounds in morning now? Where is Mommy going to stop in the afternoons for waffle fries and a vanilla shake? All I can say is... WOW.

Here are some photos of the accident scene from the local news, WBAL...

In all seriousness, 3 people were injured in the crash (an older gentlemen, a state trooper and a 6 year old boy), the older gentlemen severely enough to have to be airlifted to Baltimore's Shock Trauma unit... I wish those injured a speedy recovery...

So I was a little bit of a bad boy...

Hey guys!! I'm back in action! Sorry that I haven't posted... we've been BUSY!! But its all good now, I'm back and I want to tell you ALL about my friend Bob. He's totally pawesome! He lives across the parking lot from us, and lives on the second floor like us. He sits out on his deck like this some evenings and we say hi to him on our way by to go check the mail. He's one of my best buddies! I LOVE it when Bob and his Mommy come out to play. Cause everytime Bob comes out we get the zoomies and that is the greatest!! And when we are leashed, Bob grabs my leash and leads me around! Normally I like to be in charge but that game is just so fun I can't help myself! Bob is one of the coolest dogs I know!

Bob and I are buddies, and if you know me, you know that when my buddies and I get together trouble is soon to follow... but I am ALWAYS the innocent one. I just go along to watch... I NEVER do anything wrong. (Note from Mom: If you believe this I have a bridge I'd like to sell you...) Anyway, Bob and I were out playing. Daddy was watching me, and Bob's Mommy was there too. Well there's this lady that feeds the stray cat cat cats in our complex. She sits out YUMMY cat food and well Bob is a lab and its well known that labs cannot resist the kitty food (Note from Mom: Neither can shelties!)

Well we were playing and all of the sudden Bob zooms to the kitty food and I am in hot pursuit. Only thing is Bob stopped at the kitty food and I went past it hot on the heels of a cat cat cat! I went full tilt into the wooded area behind our building and scared Daddy. He was not happy with me, especially when I emerged full of sticker bush stems and leaves... but I rid the area of those cat cat cats!! Bob and I weren't allowed to play anymore...

Hey Guys!

Sorry that I haven't posted in a while... Mom went off to Florida for a business trip for two whole weeks and I am hanging out with my grandpawrents. But you can bet I'll be back in action real soon! My Mommy and Pops are coming to pick me up tomorrow!

Tonic & I Meet Again...

So Mom took that silly little rodent of hers out again... he's an odd creature I've decided. He runs about in that blue ball of his and seems perfectly content. I would be terribly bored if I had to navigate this world in a plastic ball...

He also stays up ALL night and sleeps ALL day. You know how much fun I would miss if I slept all day like he does??? A TON of fun!


All this makes me happy that I am a sheltie, not a hamster!

Mystery Solved!!!

My mystery limp is no longer a mystery!!

I went to the vet yesterday and was told that I sprained my shoulder! Yup! great job huh? Now I have to take a pill a day for the next 30 days and be careful not to do whatever it was that I did to sprain it. I will be spending the next two weeks hanging out at the grandparents being spoiled, that will DEFINITELY help my shoulder feel better!

I also got my health certificate filled out, so that means the last of my therapy dog paperwork has been completed! All we need to do now is pick out an awesome picture of myself for my badge and send in the packet!

YAY!

The Case of the Mystery Limp

I've got a hitch in my gait...

Who knows why... it happens when I lie down for a while and then get back up. But not all the time. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't. It's been this way for 3 weeks... it comes, it goes. On Sunday my limp appeared while I was playing at the doggie park... first time that ever happened.

Mom took me home, and I was fine for the rest of the night. Her and Daddy did all kinds of "flexion tests" on my leg but I just fell asleep while they were moving it around. So clearly I wasn't in any pain then. They had me make turns, pivot using that leg and everything- no limp.

Monday morning I limped when Mom took me out on a walkies but was perfectly sound when Dad took me to daycare. Last night after daycare (no limping at all during the day) Mom stopped to talk to our neighbor and I laid down at her feet and when they finished talking and I got up to walk with her my limp was back! Argh!

Mom is confused. I'm only 3, I can't have arthritis yet can I? She is leaving for a work trip and wants to get me checked out (I also need my Therapy Dog paperwork completed) before she leaves so my Grandparents won't have to worry about my mysterious limp.

We won't even discuss the fact that Mommy is deserting me for two whole weeks because of work... that's a totally different pouting post.

I promised to post more of my pictures from my adventure out to the western part of the great state I call home. Here they are! Picture heavy post coming folks.. so be prepared.

Here I am getting my feets wet at Swallow Falls State Park...

And playing with a new friend...
The next day we visited Rocky Gap State Park... here I am on the trail to the Evitts Mountain homesite... this guy was a hermit and he made sure not to be bothered. To reach his place it was a 3 mile hike!

After such a long hike on what turned out to be a humid day, I crashed...

After a short dog nap... I made the trip up to the canyon overlook. Here I could survey the world...The last day we went to the Paw Paw Tunnel. This is was a great adventure, we went through this dark tunnel and Mommy and Daddy needed their flashlights. Mom said it was kinda spooky, but in a fun kind of way.

Here we are at the top of the tunnel entrance...

And here we are coming out the other side!

**By the end of the calendar year, I will send a gift to each of the first five dogs (or people!) to comment here. The catch? You gotta make the same offer on YOUR blog.** Leave a comment if you want to play along.

C'mon you know you wanna :o)

I'm a Therapy Dog Now!

Yup I am! I passed my TDI Evaluation with flying colors this morning. All Mom has to do is complete the paperwork and I'll be able to start visiting! The evaluator said I was awesome and in her comments said Mom and I were an "adorable, confident team"! Excitement! The resident who participated in our test was very nice and thought I was the most adorable thing ever. She wants me to come back for another visit :o) I think we will, especially since she is collecting stuffies to give to children when they have to go to the hospital. Mommy thinks that is a very nice thing to do and is going to donate some stuffies.

In other news this weekend... my newest little brother Tonic the hamster took his first spin around the condo in his ball. I was fascinated. Here we are hanging out together.

But then we got tired, so we decided to nap... he's a good napping buddy.

My Mommy wants me to give my Daddy a HUGE hint for Christmas...

She wants to own one of these... preferably one that looks like ME!

They are made of wool....and custom made from a photo, all you gotta do is go HERE. If Mommy gets one she'll have a mini wool me to go with her mini wooden me that she bought from Dog Bark Park!! If you want a custom wooden mini you Mommy HIGHLY recommends them!

I spent the last three days out on the trails in Western Maryland... I'll post more pics later, but I thought that you would enjoy this one of me climbing the stone stairs of the Paw Paw Tunnel... The name just screams super cool doggie place, and it is!!! Don't I look so cool?