Where's my mommy?

Where's my mommies? I miss my mommy. Mommy-O went away somewhere and didn't take me with her! (Biggie, I'm in Europe and will be home tomorrow!) And I miss Mama Clare and my very first Mommy Snow! Here is a picture of my pretty Mommy Snow. I can't blog any more now, I am going to go sit in my pen and mope.


(moping)
(more moping)
(bark at noise in the hall)
(still moping)

I also miss my sister Spirit, the Little Princess.
We're both around 70 pounds at 6 months. I'm 26" at the shoulder but my brothers are all around 80 pounds and Yetti is more than 2" taller than me! At this point I'm so lonely I wouldn't mind being sat on by my big brothers. :(

Thanksgiving, Part 1

Greetings from Virginia! I got to spend Thanksgiving weekend with my puppy transport team and lots of relatives and doggies at the house where I first met my mommy and daddy. I miss Tyler and Emily though!

On Wednesday we had a long day and I rode in the car for 4 hours. We got to the Andersons' and I was CRRRAZY! My mommy doesn't have any pictures because it was midnight and she was dog-tired from driving the whole way. I ran around with Buddy and Benji, the shi-tzu-poo boys. When I first met them I was around the same size. They chased me and barked at me a lot - it was really fun! Then I wouldn't settle down when everyone was trying to go to bed because I slept on the drive down and still wanted to play.


On Thanksgiving morning Mommy took me for a long walk to try to tire me out. We met a golden retriever named Lance who is 4 years old and about my size. We wrestled a lot. Lance tried to hump me! By the time it was noon it was 75 degrees out even though it looked like "fall" (whatever that is). Mommy said I needed to save my energy for the Armour kids but I still wanted to play. There were delicious smells coming from the kitchen and I went in the backyard and played with Buddy and Benji. I think Benji is THE SHI-tzu-poo! He is so cool I want to follow him around. It is Very Important that I know what he is doing AT ALL TIMES because if I bother him enough he chases me. hee hee hee.

Here you can see I finally got Buddy and Benji to chase me. Happy, happy day!!





Woohoo!!







Buddy is chasing me, it is SO much fun. Look how fast I can run!







Heeheehee, chase me!












Ok, now after you chase me I chase you, right?


Please, will you chase me?







I'm only 6 months old, and BOY does it feel good to stretch my legs!!







Buddy and Benji don't like it so much when I chase them. I think they sort of like it but they are a little scared because I make a big toothy smile.



Please, please, PLEASE chase me! I know you are a little grumpy, Benji, but really all I want to do is play with you! You can even jump on my head.







Finally, even I got a little tuckered out, and that was before the Armour kids got here.

Silly Running Puppy

Click on the picture below to see close-up of the dignified kuvasz.

My First Meme

Tagged by Finny's mom, Andrea, at Fretting the Small Stuff, here is our first attempt at a meme. We bent the rules a little since we have many answers in common, but also many answers that speak to how we are very different. Here goes...

8 things I am passionate about:
1. The Rule of Law (Mommy); Medicine, teaching and research (P-Daddy).
2. Upholding the Constitution and protecting our civil rights.
3. Various sports: Water polo, skiing, and golf.
4. Each other. All of us, in different ways. (Biggie excludes from this category large men in black who are riding bicycles while carrying umbrellas at night.)
5. Vermont
6. The right to love people of the same sex, and to declare that commitment and love publicly and safely. Arguably part of #2, but since our current administration thinks otherwise, it is listed as a separate topic.
7. Our environment
8. My Orvis stuffed chicken and my dumbchucks. (Biggie)

8 things I want to do before I die
1. Raise a child well.
2. Break 90, or at least 100. (P-Daddy the golf nerd)
3. See Antarctica before it melts. (Mommy)
4. See the Great Pyramids.
5. Get someone off of Death Row. (Mommy)
6. Be at my friends' J&M's wedding, and that it not be in Massachusetts or Canada.
7. Make peace with all the people I need to, and have my friends and family understand how much they mean to me, even when I'm being a grouch.
8. Ski moguls and enjoy them. Same with glade skiing.
9. Catch a pigeon or a quacker without Mommy grabbing me and yelling at me. (Biggie)
10. Write something original that isn't a blog entry, a chatty email or a legal brief.

8 things I say often
1. One more snooze...
2. I just told you...!!(P-Daddy has this selective hearing problem...)
3. Biggie-Biggie-Biggie (P-Daddy's chant for the puppy)
4. Dude! (and its variant, "Dude! Why? WHY?" when Biggie plays rough)
5. Ugh. (upon getting home, usually hours later than I'd hoped)
6. Woohoo!! (it doesn't take much to make me happy)
7. too much profanity
8. Can I watch? (P-Daddy)
9. Whaddya wanna do for dinner? (discussion usually revolves around which kind of food to order in)
10. Whatchoo doin'?? (Biggie)
11. They don't pay me enough for this!
12. I suck!
13. I need a drink!!

8 books I’ve read recently [or will admit to reading]
1. The History of Love
2. The Kite Runner
3. The Omnivore's Dilemma
4. Maynard & Jennica
5. The Time Traveler's Wife
6. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
7. Tales of the Otori (Across the Nightingale Floor, Grass For His Pillow, Brilliance of the Moon)
8. The Stand (recently reread)
9. Vanity Fair
10. Fast Food Nation
11. Forever on the Mountain: The Truth Behind One of Mountaineering's Most Controversial and Mysterious Disasters
12. Golf My Way, by Jack Nicklaus (Biggie tried to eat this)
(P-Daddy had several other books for this list that I just couldn't add here. I do have a Goodreads reputation to uphold...)

8 songs I could listen to over and over
1. Anything by Stevie Ray Vaughan (P-Daddy)
2. Amazing, George Michael
3. Any "old" Van Halen (P-Daddy)
4. Come To Me, J.C. Chasez (not sure why, because it also shocks me a little)
5. Anything by The Police except "Mother"
6. Makes Me Wonder, Maroon 5
7. Fly Me To the Moon, Frank
8. Diamonds From Sierra Leone, Kanye West
9. Mo' Money, Mo' Problems, Notorious B.I.G.
10. Broken Arrow, Robbie Robertson (NOT the Rod Stewart version, please!)
11. Welcome to the Jungle, Guns n Roses (P-Daddy)
12. Dog in Heat, Missy Elliott (Biggie)
13. Gettin' Biggie With It (Biggie) ummm... not quite, Biggie

8 things that attract me to my best friends
ONLY 8???
1. They've got my back, and I've got theirs. Always.
2. They take me seriously even when I am being ridiculous.
3. Willingness to laugh at my lame lame jokes.
4. They don't judge me.
5. They're able to make me laugh when I'm taking myself too seriously. (This happens after #2).
6. They get it.
7. We laugh together.
8. They are interesting and talented in their own unique ways.
9. They are good sniffing. (Biggie)
10. They chase me and wrestle with me. (Biggie)

We tag:
Boomer and his mom Carol
Ecogrrrl
Faith, a REAL writer (not that the rest of you aren't also real writers, but Faith's the real deal and meets #1-8 in the list above. Biggie, however, reserves judgment.)
Lavi
Michael-Mike (see note re: Faith, above)
Nanook & Pooka
Pacco
Skydoll
Torrie
Wimsey

and anyone else who wants to join.

Biggie: Earmuffs!

Biggie's mom here, blogging while Biggie sleeps conked out under the toilet in the cool tile bathroom...

We actually were in Las Vegas over Biggie's 6-month birthday at a work conference and also visiting human family. It was the first time we'd left Biggie in a kennel and the first time he'd been away from both of us for an overnight (try FOUR nights in a row). So we didn't really tell Biggie that we missed his birthday. Also, please don't tell Biggie about Tex's party:







And finally, while Biggie still has those earmuffs on, let me just add that I am in love with Tex:



It doesn't mean that I don't love Biggie in my own way, but these are truly beautiful pictures:

6-Month Birthday Pictures

Happy birthday to us, the Spring Surprises: Spirit (Likely the most svelte pup at approx. 70 lbs) and Apollo, Yetti, Tex and MOI! In honor of my 6-month birthday, Mommy and P-Daddy took some pictures of me, gave me some extra huggins and gave me dinner: a raw chicken leg quarter and some veggies, pumpkin and yogurt! And when I sat nicely, Mommy even gave me a treat! (it was a glucosamine pill) How exciting!! Here are some pictures to show you just how much I've grown (but I'm still a lazy puppy):
TWO MONTHS

SIX MONTHS - note that Biggie's tail is on roughly the same tile as the first picture.

TWO MONTHS

SIX MONTHS

Happy Birthday to the Red White and Blue Boys!

Sarge at 8 months





Biggie is in his ex-pen, busy working on a Booda bone stuffed in a Holy Roller, so Mama Clare, Biggie's breeder will be guest blogging. Biggie sends happy one-year birthday wishes to his big brothers, born on Veteran's Day 2006:

RED: Yanilan Salutes Freedom (Sarge)
WHITE: Yanilan Salutes America (Dani)
BLUE: Yanilan Salutes Our Troops (Chief)


Each one of these guys would fill up the whole pen by now.

We've been eagerly awaiting one-year birthday pictures, but this gives you an idea of what a 100-lb one-year-old - even a show-trained one - is capable of:

First, we started in the groom room trying to get his porcupine hair to lay down and brushing him as well as possible, considering that every day for him is a bad hair day. With a pocket full of treats and camera with low batteries, the challenge began. I had him on leash, hoping I could tie him in a spot, treat him and he would stay there for the picture. No WAY!!! He wouldn't get more than 2 inches from my pocket with treats, which isn't a good distance for taking pictures. Finally he pulled the yard bench over on a plant when I foolishly tossed a treat just out of his reach. The heavy metal bench was down also on the electric fence, which I learned in a hurry when I tried to pick it up before turning off the fence.

So, we'll stick with some of the older pictures, which are just as cute:


Red, White and Blue boys at 6 weeks

Mama Clare writes:

I feel pretty sentimental today, thinking back to a year ago. I was one nervous mama! My son came out from Dallas to help with the whelping when it was obvious Snowzi was getting close. At 12:15 AM, I'm sitting in the whelping box with Snowzi when I see these little feet coming out, and with just a little tug, out pops precious Blue Boy (Chief). Jim expertly did the clamps on his cord, and he got busy nursing. He was the biggest by just a few ounces, so wasn't long until brother Red Boy (Sarge) stuck his little feet out asking for a tug, and bloop, he was there!!! He was clamped and then he clamped onto MamaSnow for his first meal.


Snowzi decided 2 would be plenty and just quit. We spent a long night urging her to try for the others, with no response, so we were at the vet clinic at 7 in the morning, where Dr. Taylor gave Snowzi the shots to get her going again, and he took the 3rd boy's feet out about 8 AM. That was White Boy (Dani). These 3 big boys were sure loving to eat, as they still do, but Snowzi finally had to be taken away from them for a short time to have a c-section to get the last pup out, which was a little girl who never breathed, in spirt of heroic efforts by the vet tech to revive her.

The brotherhood and Spirit their "little" sister share many of the same likes and dislikes:

Bubbles, bubbles, bubbles!!! Must protect the home from deadly bubbles!!


Water - best enjoyed direct from the hose or some other spraying apparatus, guaranteed to make the most mess:


And a special taste for pencils, pens and paper (in addition to being guard dogs, kuvasz are prolific writers!), which led Sarge's mom to comment:

We started with bitter apple, he said yummy, give me more.
We went to Tabasco, same thing but even better
We went to chipotle, same
We went to Habanero, that caused a SLIGHT reaction, but he still came back for more.
If you find something they don't like to eat, let me know!!

In closing, here are some glamour shots of the beautiful Red, White and Blue boys, who salute our veterans and our troops today:

Little Red Boy (Sarge)


WHITE: Dani at 6 months


Little Boy Blue (Chief)

"He's not much of a guard dog"

BRINGING BIGGIE HOME - 8 WEEK OLD GUARD PUPPY

We interrupt the puppy's regularly scheduled blogging because what happened tonight has to be told before I forget!


BIGGIE AND HIS GIRLFRIEND ZOLA
----------------------------------------------------------------
When we are out and Biggie meets new people, our side of the conversation goes like this:

"He's a kuvasz and he's 5-and-a-half-months old."
"Yes, months. He'll probably be around 100 pounds when he's full grown."
"KOO-vass. They were bred as guard dogs in Hungary. No, not herding, just guarding."

While we talk, Biggie is usually sitting and leaning against their legs with a big goofy smile, angling for petting. Or he's playing with their children, play bowing and begging them to chase him. At this point, they often say (a bit doubtfully as they pet him), "He's not much of a guard dog."

Ahem. There is a difference between a "guard" dog and an aggressive dog, and Biggie clearly knows the difference. Given everything we've heard about kuvasz and their guarding instinct, we have worked very hard to socialize Biggie and teach him to be friendly. Living in an apartment in the city, there is just no way we can have him barking or being aggressive to our neighbors.

We live in what is typically called an "up-and-coming" neighborhood in NYC. What that means is that it's not quite there yet. We're not far from the seedy side of Times Square (there is a XXX DVD store on the far corner), and there are interesting characters roaming the streets after dark. Our first character encounter tonight was a thin, middle-aged man with an indeterminate accent who was either shabbily dressed for a regular dude, or pretty clean and well-dressed for one of NYC's high-functioning mentally ill. He starts half making conversation with me, and half talking to the night, all the while holding out a hand with a few dollars in it and waving it in Biggie's face.

I'm thinking, "This is a new and surprisingly specialized scam... he'll induce the puppy to grab and rip the "money" and then demand that I give him whole bills for the ones my puppy shreds..."

But then it gets more bizarre, as he follows us along on our walk, apparently content to wave his hand around, jump around on the sidewalk making silly puppy play noises while half carrying on a conversation with me. Meanwhile, as I make noncommittal but relaxed and friendly conversation, Biggie has decided to dance around on his leash, play bowing and doing half-spins in the air, playing with this guy. Eventually we part ways and we cross the street and continue on our walk.

Biggie sniffs around on the sidewalk, investigating trees, lampposts, the gutter, garbage. He's pretty much ignoring me and I let him nose around a tree. Suddenly, from across the street and behind a bunch of parked cars, I hear a man shout, "F--- YOU, B----!!!" and what sounds like an argument. Biggie immediately stops his sniffing, stands up straight between me and the sound, and stares in the direction of the shouting. It stops, and we continue our walk. Biggie does his business.

We then cross the street again to put his bag of business in the garbage, when the shouting starts again. From halfway down the block, I see a man walking and waving his arms wildly at nothing in particular, swearing at passerby who give him a wide berth. Biggie spots him immediately and goes into The Stance, and all he is doing is watching this crazy man.

Crazy Man is moving in our direction, and I shift Biggie's leash to my right hand and curl 3 fingers of my left hand around his collar, which happens to be just by my leg. He's now tall enough that I can reach his collar without bending or leaning down. In a low voice, I tell Biggie that everything is ok. Crazy Man stops at one of those doors in the sidewalk that provide street access to the basement. This one happens to be open and no one is standing near it, which outrages Crazy Man. He kicks a foot at the open door, shouting something like, "THIS IS WHAT THE F---- IT SHOULD NOT BE!!!! THIS IS WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!!! THE F--- SH---!!!!!! DAMMIT F----!!!!!!"

Eventually Crazy Man gets tired of yelling at a hole in the sidewalk, and sees us standing about 15 feet away. He starts walking toward us and his shouting is tinged with fear as he repeatedly jabs a finger at Biggie's face (but just out of reach): "YOU BETTER NOT!!! DON'T YOU DARE!!! I'M TELLING YOU, YOU ... YOU... YOU BETTER NOT!!!" This entire time my fingers are loosely around Biggie's collar as he stares directly into Crazy Man's face as he walks by. He's entirely motionless, not pulling at all on the collar, just in The Stance. Crazy Man passes within 3 feet of us, and I see fear in his face as he walks by and crosses the street and directs his swearing at someone else. Biggie turns his head to watch him walk away. During this whole time, the only thing that has moved is his head as Crazy Man walks by. Not a bark, not a growl, just a silent watchfulness from Biggie and an amazing energy.

Once Crazy Man is clearly walking away, we turn in the same direction for home. Biggie walks along nicely on a loose leash, keeping his eyes on the guy until he is well out of range, and we walk past a number of large men through a relatively dark gauntlet of piles of garbage bags and shuttered industrial and commercial storefronts. He pays them no mind as we walk home, and he ignores the smelly garbage and escorts me home like a little (ok, maybe not so little) gentleman.

When we are in the elevator, he sits and I give him all sorts of hugs and kisses and praise. He stands there stoically, but with a quiet smile on his face, saying, "Of course, Mommy, what did you expect I would do? I'm a kuvasz!"

More puppy+baby cuteness

This is to emphasize my sweet and lovely side before I show you my teeth and my prey drive:

Renovations

Pacco asked why I am always lying down. That's a good question, Pacco, and the answer is because I am a Big Lazy Puppy. But sometimes I stand and sit and here is some some gratuitous furcake to show you how big and handsome I am. I'm almost bigger than Stratton Mountain.

It was Halloween the other day and it was a Very Strange Day.

First I walked the neighbor children to the bus stop and waited for the bus with them. They smelled the same, and they sounded the same, but they were wearing funny clothes and gravy on their faces. And they didn't want to play with me, they only wanted to give me treats until Mommy ran out of them. Well, that part wasn't so bad. It was just strange because they didn't even ask me to do anything for the treats. Sometimes they would tell me to sit, but I was already sitting. I love getting treats without having to work at all! Good thing Mommy taught me to be gentle with my mouth because their little hands are smaller than my breakfast meat, and I was very very hungry because I hadn't had breakfast yet.

Then that night my mommy and daddy left me ALL ALONE for hours and hours when they had to go see The Police. Why did Mommy and Daddy go to The Police and I had to sit in jail all night? I didn't do anything wrong! So I decided to show my displeasure by rearranging my furniture a little. I took my jail and moved it from the sunny spot by the speaker, up to my rug. Rugs are boring when they just lie flat. You can see my redecorating in this COPS-like re-enactment:

P.S. Pacco, I'm STANDING in this one!

Baby pictures

Finally! Because who can resist puppy and baby pictures?

Here are some pictures of me playing with Gia, a human puppy. Gia is 6 months older than me! Boy, her parents must not feed her very much at all because she is a lot smaller than me. Gia came over with her parents and her puppy Duncan. Duncan was a little grumpy and he did some naughty things, but more on that later.


Here, I made myself very small so Gia wouldn't be scared. After I was lying down for a while she came over to check me out. She patted me on the face and it was kind of fun except when she poked me in the eye.


Then I patted her on the face very gently (you can see my paw moving in this picture) and since she only has 2 legs and not 4 she fell down and cried a little. But her mommy was nice and understood that I was just trying to be nice and pet her.



After Gia and I played in the living room a little, I moved to the kitchen and lay on the tile where it was cooler. There Gia made up a new game with me called "Walk past my face and step on my leg." I lay very very still and Gia walked by and sometimes stepped on my leg. She liked that game. Good thing she's so little because it didn't hurt at all when she stepped on my leg.



Here she is getting ready to step on my leg. I gave her 2 choices of leg. Mommy was fumbling to switch her camera to video. Whenever she does that, I get very still and stop whatever I was doing. She hates that. (heee heee heee)



Puppy staredown. Her hair was sticky-up and so was mine. Well, one ear at least.



This is Duncan. Look how little he is! Duncan likes to be naughty when people aren't looking. He liked to play with Mommy's other dog Boo but when he came over he would find something to make a peepee or poopy on when the people weren't paying attention to him. I think he didn't like it if his mommy or daddy paid attention to another puppy. We played a little bit but he was a little grumpy because he's older. Mommy also said maybe he's grumpy because he always has puppies around, like Gia and then me. Gia is too small to bother him much but as you can see I'm big enough to bother him A LOT! (Which he did - chasing Duncan all over the place and nibbling on him...)

Then he went into our bedroom and made a poopy on my bed! Luckily he didn't know that's not a bed I use very much, so it was ok that he pooped on it. If he pooped in my crate I would have been mad. Mommy gave him my rawhide to play with and he wouldn't share it with me. It made me cry. Mommy always told me I have to share my toys so I always let other puppies play with my toys.

Well, most of the time.

When Mommy makes me.

And it's a toy I didn't really care about anyway.