Well, this was a day of mixed emotions!  I received my first Christmas present EVER today… and since I’m a dog and can’t read a calendar, I went ahead and opened it (even though my master tells me Christmas is still a week away… and something about I should have been good this year if I was going to receive gifts). 

I have been doing my research on this Christmas thing.  While Thomas is at work I catch the continuous running of A Christmas Story on tv.  Did you know you can actually go tour the house where they filmed this movie in Cleveland?!  That would be a cool trip.  I wish I could go but I’m told they don’t allow pets, which is a bummer considering they let hounds run through the kitchen during the movie.  I guess these hounds ruined it for everyone… since they ate the family’s turkey they now have a no pet policy.  Anyway… like I was saying, watch the movie and then go tour the house.  It’s your regular Ohio museum/gift shop tourist trap!

So here I am, all excited and nervous to see what’s in my first Christmas present…

And here’s my reaction to what’s inside the box when I open it…

And this leads us to why I brought up the movie A Christmas Story in the first place.  Do you see that look of confusion on my face that says “Why… why would someone get me this?!”  Well, this reminded me of a scene from the movie when Ralphie is opening Christmas gifts…

Yes, that look right there… that look says it all.  (And just so people don’t think I’m stealing photos and such from other websites I would like to give credit to Flickstounge.com for having so many good photos from the movie available).

Since Ralphie had to try his pink bunny suit on, you guessed it… here’s me in my new blue (UK Wildcats blue as Rebecca would point out) rain jacket.

So for those of you out there that are doing some last minute Christmas shopping for me, I still need an umbrella to go with my new rain gear.  I would like to go ahead and publicly thank Rebecca and Jill, a couple of Thomas’ coworkers, for the Christmas gift.  You shouldn’t have!  Don’t worry, even if I don’t like it, Thomas absolutely loves it and he’s probably praying for rain all the time now so he can make me wear this thing!  For those of you that need some gift ideas for me… Beggin’ Strips are just fine by me!

Rub my belly, leave me some comments!!!

With an election year coming up it became clear that I had to make a decision - do I run or do I sit, stay?!  Well… I am not one to use my website and blog to preach my political views but I feel that it’s necessary to set the record straight.  I owe it to my best friend, mankind, to help guide this country in the right direction.  A lot of great dogs have gone before me… Checkers, Barney, countless others. 

I am formally announcing my candidacy for the dictatorship of America.  Please understand that I have yet to pick a running mate… although I’ve been told to choose a lab (Max or Murphy perhaps?!) to attract a wider following than my German heritage… yes, Dachshunds are of German descent.  So is the Arnold… and he married a Kennedy and is now Governor of California.  Let me also just say I am saddened by the great loss of trees out in California.

I’m told that all of the great politicians were good at shaking hands (still working on that) and kissing babies (got that one nailed).  Here are some pictures from my recent visit with Rob, Tricia, Andrew, and Aggie.  Andrew is the little tike in the pictures.  Aggie was not present during the photo session.

 Here i am greeting one of my supporters, Andrew.  I call him my biggest little fan.

 I think I won over this future voter.  Man this political campaigning stuff is hard work!

Rub my belly, leave me some comments!!!

Master had a birthday and his good friend Jessica came to celebrate (even though deep down we know she was really just looking for a reason to come see yours truly!!!)

In my recent post about Labor Day I commented that I finally didn’t blink or flinch when they took my picture (rather the human blinked instead) and now I have to post this picture below where I was distracted by Jessica’s perfume!

I simply couldn’t hold the pose any longer, I just had to lean up and lick her ear.  Apparently female humans really like that because she squeeled when I did it… or shreeked… either way it evoked a big reaction.  Oh, and sorry about how blurry this one turned out.  Thomas would have you believe he was rushing to put down the camera to pry me off of Jessica but I think he was distracted.  I worry about that boy.

Here’s a picture of all three of us, just before Jessica decided to use my stairs to get off the couch.

Good job getting about half of me into the picture Thomas!  Sorry for the really awful glare from the sunlight in the top of the picture… if Thomas had held the camera down a little lower (and therefore gotten me in the picture) the light reflecting off his balding head wouldn’t have been nearly as bad!  But anyway, this picture turned out ok.  At least we’re all looking the right direction and no one blinked!  It’s the small victories in life that make me happiest. 

Rub my belly, leave me some comments!!!

So on September 1st, my master tosses me in the truck and tells me we’re going to visit the family in Columbus.  Totally caught me off guard.  I was expecting a nice relaxing day around the house, possibly even a trip to the woods…

for you regular readers you have probably come to know that as Winton Woods.  For those of you that are new… when I say “the woods” I mean Winton Woods… ok, back to the story…

Instead of a nice relaxing day around the house I had to ride shotgun for nearly 2 hours (hey, master drives fast what can I say) to Columbus, Ohio.  Upon arrival I had to take Aunt Emily and Niece Nutters out for a brief walk.  Em and Nutt had been in the car for nearly a couple hours as well but they were driving down from the Cleveland area.  Anyway, Nutters and I both accomplished the goal of the walk, which was to pee and poop.  Emily apparently didn’t get the memo that this was the purpose of the walk.  She is the only one that did not go while we were walking. 

To the people at 8379 Olenbrook… sorry.  After a two hour car ride you simply can’t hold it any longer… wait, let me rephrase, we had stopped at a rest area on the highway so it was actually after an hour I couldn’t hold it any longer.

Needless to say the day was exhausting!  I had to travel to and from Columbus and I had to walk my family, too!

Well, I guess it wasn’t ALL work… I did get to be held for a little while.  And notice the nice stuffed version of me in the background!  Oh, and this picture is funny because normally I am the one to blink, but instead we caught Master T’s mother off guard. 

Rub my belly, leave me some comments!!!

Day 1 of the 40 days/40 nights…

Maybe it’s just because I’m only 8 months old, but this seems like an awful lot of rain to get all at once.  Keep in mind that means I have basically never seen rain before since apparently Cincinnati does not get any of that in the summer! 

It’s been raining allllllll day.  My master tried to force me to go outside before he left for work.  I got to about the second step and came to a screeching halt because it felt like I was getting spit on… or slobbered on by Harry.  I nearly sent my master end over end down the stairs as he wasn’t expecting me to stop. 

That part I liked :-D 

But I turned and looked up, and that ARFhole had some black Mary Poppins contraption covering him and keeping him dry!  Guess what the jerk did first thing as soon as he came home tonight… tried to take me out into the pouring rain AGAIN!  What is it with this guy?! 

Well, I decided there was yet another good thing about not being fixed.  And that is - if we do need to take two of each animal, I get to go in the boat… and I had better get to pick which chick I take with me, too!!! (That reminds me… Carmen, we need to talk sometime!)

Rub my belly, leave me some comments!!!

The wonders of technology make me wag my tail shamelessly and involuntarily shake my hind leg!  Not only can you call me between 8am-5pm EST Monday through Friday (remember: the phone number is 513-522-2223), but now you can also subscribe to this blog and have the latest spoken word by yours truly delivered right to your email in box! 

 Or, if you use Yahoo!, MSN, or various other websites as your homepage you can have the most recent blog articles delivered to your homepage to read along side the news, weather, sports, etc.!

Simply click on the Subscribe to My Site button in the top right corner and sign up.  Don’t stick your tail between your legs, you don’t have to worry about spam or unsolicited junk.  The system is automated with the server and I don’t know who is subscribing, nor do I get a list of email addresses, etc. 

So rub my belly, leave me some comments, and subscribe to my RSS Feed!!!

Vote or Die!  It’s not just a promotion for Puff Daddy or MTV’s Rock the Vote campaign.  No, it’s time to stuff the litter box… err… ballot box.  WISN Channel 12 (an ABC affiliate in Milwaukee, Wisconsin) is having a photo contest for the Dog Days of Summer. 

I need each of you to visit the contest website and vote for me as many times as you can.  I am not aware of any prizes associated with this contest, but it’s time we represent the ‘natti and overwhelm them with our votes!

One last thing, thanks again to everyone that’s called me so far!  If I had thumbs to pick up the receiver I would return your calls!  Keep ‘em coming!

Rub my belly, leave me some comments!!!

I realize that this website isn’t the most interactive technological marvel on the planet.  And I know some of you would prefer to speak to me in real time rather than reading the blog over and over again (although I do appreciate that!)… so I am now accepting phone calls between the hours of 8:00am and 5:00pm EST Monday through Friday. 

I’m sure you understand that I might now be able to pick up the phone everytime someone calls, in fact I’ll promise you that I am screening the calls due to telemarketers.  Let’s face it, they are just people who were too scared to deliver their junk to the door in envelopes, hence they are not worthy of my time.  I can at least respect the post office for sending someone to my door. 

So feel free to give me a call during the day between 8-5 and I promise to at least listen to your messages.  My number is (513) 522-2223.  So go ahead.  Sit.  Speak.

Rub my belly, leave me some comments!

By popular demand I have uploaded some new photos of yours truly.  Special thanks goes out to Ariane for emailing those so I can share them with the world.  You will find the new photos under the heading Lounging Around as I didn’t want to have two pages of photos and both of them with the heading Photos. 

 I was hoping I wouldn’t have to do this, I was hoping you humans wouldn’t be so lazy that you would just voluntarily submit comments and praise as you like to call it.  But I have found that humans respond best to negative reinforcement.  You don’t do something unless you’re threatened that something bad will happen otherwise.  SO… I need to ask you one last time for some comments and nice remarks on my pages and my blog posts.  It’s that wonderful praise that keeps me going and makes me want to write more and add more photos!

That being said…

Rub my belly, leave me some comments!

It seems like ever since I started this website I have been receiving more attention, treats, and petting.  Those things are nice, and I thank you all that have sent emails and visited my website, but WOOF sometimes the attention can get to you.

I had an incident happen to me lastnight when I was in the bathtub.  Now I can sympathize with the plight of Nick Lachey for having racy photos published of me.  Like Nick, Miss New Jersey, and Paris my rights have been violated but I feel it’s best to get out ahead of the media circus and deprive those people trying to profit from my body from having the benefit of doing so.  Therefore, I am taking the initiative to go ahead and publish the photos so that the world can see them and the person responsible for taking the photos cannot profit from it.

Here they are, I understand this is the cost associated with my fame and I’m comfortable enough with my body to share these with the world:

Rub my belly… leave me some comments!