Monday, February 20, 2012

I'm Almost 10

Mabel Lou here.

Momma is done with the wedding and I'm SURE she will be posting about all the crafty stuff she and my aunties made over on her Bead Blog once she climbs out from under the mountain of tax paperwork. There's been a lot going on at the creek too and not all of it good... Momma is most upset every time we go there lately but I'll have to let her tell you about it later.

In the meantime...

It's my Birthday week!!!

 I'm gonna be 10 this Thursday and we've already been celebrating! We went out to breakie yesterday and Momma stayed a long time so I got LOTS of excellent foodables!

And since Momma is so busy, I thought it would be fun to watch my beautiful rotten-greyhund-larbralucious self "un-age." Hope you enjoy the show!


 Me on my porch last week

Waking up from a nappie in 2011

Pumping Iron in 2010 (Working out is so important!)

I had to put this stupid pic in from 2009 because it's one of the few of me and my mom! 

But this is a better shot - me July 4, 2009

Another silly one of me and Mom... she's the lump on the right! 2008

Gettin some lovin from my Auntie Alyson in 2007

Creekhiking - 2006

Creek sitting - 2005

Lovin up my Granny - 2004

Trying to help my BFF and mentor Sarah Jean find the ball in 2003.

Me and my cousin Huggy Christmas 2002!

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Tagged!

Mabel Lou here... I've been kinda quiet lately as Mom is busy with her niece's wedding and her stupid annual tax project and she's been hoggin' the 'puter! But when Bart and Ruby tagged me in a post, I HAD to answer.


I can be  "a tad" dominate.

1.  Describe yourself in 7 words:

Smart, Alpha, Suspicious, Demanding, Sassy, Sweet, Cuddler.

Who wouldn't wanna cuddle with this???


2.  What keeps you up at night?

Racoons, Possums and whatever else dares to wander in our backyard! Just this week, Mom slept as the racoons swam in our pool and took the lid off my food! The nerve! I woke her up so we could protect the foodables and get those rascals over the fence!

     See the Possum????

3.  Who would you like to be?
Are you kiddin' me?  Let's see, 
  • I sleep in a queen sized bed with my mom (heated mattress pad in the winter and a nice breezy fan in the summer!);  
  • I'm fed "Mabel Lou Stew" often with my favorite duck twice a day; 
  • Snackies (beef jerky!) for looking cute or when I guilt my Mom for leaving me; 
  • Cookies (duck and chicken jerky) before bed; 
  • My mom works from home most of the time and calls me her "Snoopervisor" - which means I'm in charge; 
  • I have a nice softie bed to lay on in every room of the house. Two in some! You should see how I get my mom to chase the sunlight with my beds when she's working in the shop! 
  • We go to breakfast where I have my own favorite waitress who brings me all kinds of amazing foodables. Yesterday's take: pancake batter French toast w/ eggs over easy, scrambled eggs, pancakes and a side of bacon!
  • AND... trips to the creek EVERY day where we run into our friends all the time! 
So... who would I want to be??? ME! Wouldn't everyone???
  LOVE my creek!

4.  What are you wearing right now?

My bubble collar. Mom bought two and let me pick the one I wanted... ;-)

My Bubble Collar

5.  What scares you?

When the school sets off fireworks on the 4th of July. They used to not bother me but now they do. Our big vicious wind storms that blow our patio furniture around freak me out too. I curl up in our hallway where there are no door or windows during those!

I also hate really deep water! Don't like getting my tummy wet unless I want it wet!

 Unhappy me... Those fireworks are LOUD!


The first Creekhiker logo came about when Mom snapped this pic of me avoiding a deep hole!

6.   What's the best and worst things about blogging?

The best is realizing how many cool pups there are out there. The worst is the time suck. I would rather be at the creek!

Mooom??? Please turn off that 'puter! You can read blogs after dark, k???

7.   What's the last website you visited?  

One Pic Pony by Velvet Sacks. She is Mom's first blog friend and we like looking at her picture site too!
Ms. Velvet takes some nice dog pictures ya'll!

8.  What's one thing that you'd change about yourself?

I would give myself normal dog hips so I could sit without hurting myself. But... without my greyhound heiny, would I run as fast??? Probably not... OK. I would like to be able to sit normally and still run like a fast greyhound... best of both worlds!
My greyhound hips make me find inventive ways of sitting.

9.  Slankets?  Yes or no...

Absolutely NO...

 ...but stealing Mom's blanket is a okay!

10.  Tell us something about the person who tagged you.

Bart is so sweet and so funny... and let's not forget interesting! Ruby and I didn't like each other at first...but we worked it out and we're good friends now! She's my least irritating girlfriend! They are both lots of fun and don't mind me making fun of them when they wear stupid pawty hats!!!

Bart and Ruby - hat lovers!

I'm supposed to tag some more pups and their people but I hate doing that... so, if you'd like to play along, please post your link in the comments!

Thursday, February 09, 2012

Wednesday, February 08, 2012

RIP Bear

 Sunset in the creek - 01-12 -12

My heart is heavy as I think of my extended California family who lost a beloved pup last night.  Bear was 12 and had spent his entire life with one family including his birth mom Foxy.

Bear was terrified of thunder and literally was scared to death (I always thought of that phrase as an exaggeration until now...) as a violent storm passed their home.

He was such a sweet boy and I loved petting and scritching him when we went to visit! I'm going to miss him so.

This is a video the bestie shot of him on one of our visits last year:

Monday, February 06, 2012

Who's Dead Dog Is This???

So in my week of Bad Bart tales, it was this particular adventure that pushed me over the edge to the point that I agreed to train him to a shock collar.

It had been an uneventful walk! I had looked deep into Bart's eyes when we began and implored him to take it easy on me that night! We had a lovely evening stroll and ran into our friend Chloe the doberman and her dad down by the river. The three dogs romped and, as usual, Bart disappeared. He's still not certain of his place in the extended pack and if there is too much rough housing, he prefers to go hide do Bart stuff in the tall shrubs.

We all decided to take the long way out together and since we pass by the tall shrubs, I knew we would find Bart. We called; he didn't appear; we kept walking and calling. Finally, I heard him behind us. He ran down the hill past the two leggers and ran up to both girls. He turned to face them and ... SNARLED at them both. Since both girls are way more alpha than Bart, this was like asking for a beat down! He leaped high in the air and over some shrub and started frantically digging. All of us were terribly confused and we all went to see what had Bart in such a tizzy. There was a dead rabbit in the hole he was digging!


Chloe's dad thought Bart killed the rabbit and that was what the whole snarling thing was about... but I saw nothing in his mouth. Either way,  I knew I didn't want to deal with dogs fighting over a dead rabbit and that Bart was acting territorial enough that we could have an issue. I pointed Mabel down the trail expecting to get her in the car and hike back in for Barticus.

Around the bend, we met Mark, a most resourceful young man in his twenties. He's exactly the kind of person you want to meet when you have trouble in the wild! I reminded him of Bart and his antics (Mark favors hats...another fear trigger for Bart). As Mark headed down the trail toward Bart, the rest of us kept moving toward the cars.

And then it was Mabel's turn to get all bratified! She took off into the fenced enclosure. Now it was getting dark and I didn't have either dog. I honked the car horn, knowing that would scare the crap out of Mabel. She always wants to go home with Mom! She appeared at the fence next to the car... crying. Even though she knows where the opening in the fence line is... about 40 yards back west of the parking lot, she will not leave me because the car horn has sounded and surely the car is leaving without her! (This is the one area where my dog seems to lack logic!)

So I hike the fence line coaxing the crying girl along to the opening. It was around this time that I realized Mark had been "shooing" Bart in our direction. Bart ran to a large shrub near the parking lot (I took this set of photos with my phone in the exact spot a full week before this incident!) and continued eating his catch. I was debating how to get him in the car without that dead rabbit while I  leashed up Mabel.


Working my way back to the car in the near darkness carefully as there is no trail by the fence, I suddenly hear another voice asking the most ominous question, "Who's dead dog is this?"

I realized it was coming from the bush where Bart had been eating his rabbit. My first thought was that Bart had choked! But as we got closer, I saw the man was hiking two gorgeous, friendly, off leash mastiffs! Bart was simply terrified and knew he was outnumbered and outgunned! So he played DEAD!

I about keeled over in laughter! I told the man that I was certain Bart was faking and that he should move away from Bart's bush and the rabbit he was laying on! And sure enough, when the man and mastiffs entered the parking lot, the little faker sat up and started eating more rabbit!


With Mabel in the car, I decided to call the BFF to see is she could figure out how to get Bart away from the half eaten rabbit but realized my phone was dead. Again, Mark came to my rescue and loaned me his.  While I was on his phone, Mark decided to try and scare Bart. It worked! Bart ran and got under my car! I opened the door and he jumped in! Whew!

And then, I figured out I had dropped my keys! Mark to the rescue again. He had some powerful magnets in his car and found my keys in under five minutes and then he even took care of the rabbit!

Thank goodness Mark was hiking that night... between all the growling-playing dead-getting lost- missing keys... I was a mess!

Sunday, February 05, 2012

How 'bout some Football?

Since today is all about sport, I thought this blog should interrupt our "Bad Bart" series with a little football...Mabel Lou style.

Our heroine grabs the ball:
And passes it off to...


herself!


The opposing team seems rather distracted...

So our heroine stops for some refreshments!


With the opposition still otherwise preoccupied...

Our heroine tackles the ball with enthusiasm...


and struts her victory dance!


Hope you all have a fun day!!!

Saturday, February 04, 2012

'Meating' Out a Punishment

The other week, when Bart was doing his level best to try my patience, Mabel Lou found it necessary to point out the inequities in my parenting skills and punish me justly.

It had been a trying night... in my mind, it was either the night of the biker or the jogger incident. We had also run into a leash walker (yes, my favorite curse word!). One of the folks that is mortified of meeting off leash dogs so they leash up and hike in the vast open area where all the off leash dogs go! They aren't social and they aren't pleasant.... as opposed to someone with a problem furchild that they can't let off leash but are happy to socialize and are friendly upon approach.

We had finally made it back to the car when I ran into what I thought was the same leash walker from  the levee. I grabbed Mabel and secured her in the car and waited for Bart to reappear. (He loves to disappear just before we get to the car  so he can dash in and harass the dogs that live near the parking lot... we call them the holocaust prisoners. They are fed but never exercised or even played with except by passersby. They actually LIKE Bart and his antics and whine at me on days I hike without him!)

As I hiked back in to get Bart and make sure there was no issue with Ms. Leashwalker, I found it was actually a different woman with a very nice dog. She had only leashed up when she became aware of US. I petted her dog and started chatting when I saw Bart. Mr. Bigshot was scared of the dog I was petting!
 Mabel Lou does love a good tussle. She and Atilla go at it while Chloe and Bart watch.

I went and leashed him and gave the two the chance to meet properly. Bart loved the new dog! We unleashed them and let them play in the parking lot. They were so cute dashing about. Soon Atilla joined us and the three dogs played... all the while Mabel Lou was whining in the back of the car!

I said my goodbyes and drove Bart home giving little thought to the new dog. At home, I fed the girl and headed to the computer to return some customer emails. BUMP..... CRUNCH.

That's strange... 

CRUNCH, CRUNCH POP...

I wonder what that is...

Pop pop POP.

What the???

I headed into the living room only to find that my good dog who only dug in the garbage ONCE as a puppy, had opened the cabinet, turned over the trashcan, rummaged a bit until she found a turkey package at the bottom of the can and had eaten the bloody paper bit and was working on the Styrofoam!!! What the heck??

I phoned my hiking buddy to kvetch. She was the one to figure it out... I had to be punished for failing to allow Mabel a/k/a "Queen Bitch of Everything" to meet and play with the new pup! I've learned my lesson. I won't do it again!

Wednesday, February 01, 2012

The Great Eyeball Fakeout

I know everyone (save for Bart's mom) thinks their dog is smart. But there is something about "the oooh" a/k/a my Mabel Lou. My hiking buddy tells me she wants to flip Mabel over and check her for a zipper i.e. she thinks Mabel is a human in a dog suit!
Recently, we ran into the hiking buddy and her Rhodesian Ridgies Hank and Sue at a fork on the trail. The HB was very excited... she had a ball for me - an "eye" ball. She picked it up for me because I love to make glass eye beads and she thought I would get a kick out of it.

Mabel Lou spied the exchange and got excited. I distracted her and Bart and pocketed the ball in my cape for closer examination later. Before I walked 10 feet, Mabel had set up camp in front of me, demanding the contents of my left pocket... that's where the ball was. Realizing I wasn't going to walk very far, I tossed it to her.

Suddenly Atilla and my pool man joined us and the pack moved toward the river. All four dogs were very interested in that eye ball in Mabel's mouth. Realizing she was outnumbered, Mabel Lou attempted evasive action. But she's older and not as fast as she once was. So she opted for the next best thing - a fake out!

She dug a hole, sucked that ball deeper into her jowls and "buried" it.  Hank and Sue fell for it. But Bart and Tilla weren't so sure... so she repeated the motion further downstream. And both boys fell for it! With all four hiking buddies digging for balls that weren't there, Mabel went off on a ridge where she could play with her ball alone and bury it in secret.

I know she's mine... but I do think she's rather clever!