A Little Bunny Told Me...

I'm a dog.

No, that's not what the little bunny told me.

The little bunny told me that you missed reading my blog.  So, I'm back, and here to bring you a recap of this puppy's first Easter!

I wasn't sure exactly what was happening, but last Friday morning, Alicia and Matt started packing up a bunch of stuff, including my crate and food.  I got very excited because I just knew that meant a car ride.  And I love car rides!

What I don't really love though, are long car rides.  And this was my longest yet; 5 hours!  When we finally got to Grandma's house I was ready to curl up and go to sleep - but not before chasing some cats, eating some cat food and eating and drinking everything that was left out in my Aunt Annabelle's food bowls.  Once I'd finished all of that, it was time for a nap.

Do not disturb.

I spent most of Saturday doing what I did on Friday night.  I also got into the cat poop.  I love cat poop just much as any other dog...maybe even more.  But it made me barf.  And made my butt not feel so good either. You'd think I would have learned my lesson, but I found some more cat poop on Sunday morning and after a tasty snack, proceeded to try to give Matt and Alicia kisses, and then threw up again.  Lesson learned: No more eating cat poop! (Yeah, right!)

Sunday was the best day, though, because the kids came over to play with me!  Nico, Alex and Makayla even brought me and Aunt Annabelle Easter presents.  First I played with mine...

It has a squeaker in the butt and one in the head!

Then, because Aunt Annabelle seemed to be too busy playing with the kids to play with her toy, I played with her toy too.  And since she didn't seem to mind (or maybe because she doesn't like confrontation), I kept alternating between the toys for the rest of my stay.

Playing with Annabelle's toy is even more fun than playing with mine!

The kids went outside to do an Easter egg hunt, but I wasn't invited.  I even helped Alicia hide the eggs earlier that morning, pointing out which eggs were too easy to find by picking them up with my mouth, occasionally rooting them out with my paws (when necessary) and trying to break them open.  She didn't seem to appreciate my help, though, and I think this is why I had to stay inside and watch the kids from the porch.

Watching egg hunts is boring.  Nap time!

Thankfully, the kids brought all the eggs inside, and once they ate the candy out of them, they didn't seem too interested in the plastic eggs.  Don't they know that the egg is the best part?

Nom-ing on an orange Easter egg!

But back to my nieces and nephews! I love my nieces and nephews.  They like to pet me and drop food on the floor and have faces at the perfect height for licking.  And they can be so silly! Kevin's kids - Ava, Connor and Sean - thought my crate looked like fun, so they took turns locking each other in it, and then they all jumped in together!  

Those silly kids think going in the crate is fun!
They can keep the crate, but I'm not giving up my bed.

Probably my favorite part of the weekend, though, was Sunday night, when an exhausted Annabelle shared her bed with me.  Normally, Annabelle gets up and goes to find another place when I come in the room looking to snuggle.  But either she was too tired to bother, or I'm wearing her down and she actually doesn't mind (enjoys?) snuggling with me.

She likes me! She really likes me! Or she was just too tired.

What a weekend!  I had so much fun spending time with my family and eating cat poop.  I can't wait until we visit Grandma's house again.

Puppy's First Snow!

I'm a dog.  As you may have noticed, I'm having Alicia catch up on some forgotten posts today.  Today was supposed to be a snow day, but nary a flake has fallen.  I was hoping to get some action shots of me playing in today's snow, but since there is none, we're going to take this post back to a Saturday in January when we did get snow.  Just a little bit, but enough for me to realize that I LOVE SNOW!

Snow is fun to sniff.

Snow is fun to eat!

Snow is fun to play with!

Did I mention that it's fun to sniff and eat? It is.

I spent all walks that day and the next sniffing, snorting, playing, and just having a ball in the snow.  It was awesome.  Snow has easily made its way onto the list of Molly Manute's favorite things.  My revised list looks something like this:

1. Going on car rides
2. Sleeping on my chair
3. Snow (eating, sniffing, playing, etc.)
4. Playing with my dog friends (especially Chili and Ovie, but also whoever is at the dog park)
5. Playing with Mr. Squeaks (original or replacements)
6. Playing in the ivy (I'll have to tell you more about this later)

So I would really like it if there was more snow.  Are you listening to me, weather? Snow!  Please snow!  Lots of snow!

Puppy's First Christmas: Meeting Santa

I'm a dog.  Word on the street is that Christmas is a week away.  I'm still getting the hang of this whole Christmas thing - trees in the living room, being told "No" when I try to sneak some cookies off the counter, being told "No" when I try to investigate what has been placed in the "Molly" stocking.  being told "No" when I try to eat the poinsettia - and today I discovered a new side of the impending holiday: Santa Claus.

This afternoon, we went over to PetSmart to get a bag of food, and suddenly I was trapped in a room with Santa Claus.  I heard a rumor that Santa was a jolly old man from the North Pole who delivered treats and toys to all the good puppies.  The person who wanted me on their lap was a woman with glasses wearing a red velvet suit and a horribly fake long, flowing, white beard.  I know this because when I got up on the bench, the first thing I did was lick Santa square on the mouth.  She was forced to adjust her beard and give herself away.

Eventually I settled down enough for the woman to take one good photo.  Tada!

Don't I look beyond thrilled to be meeting Santa?  My face might look bored, but see how Santa is straining to keep me still?  I couldn't contain myself.

It's hard to believe this shot didn't make the Christmas card.

Puppy's First Christmas: Holiday Greetings!

I'm a dog.  I am not adept at video editing.  But even I could make a holiday greeting card using Animoto, because it's just so easy!  But I didn't make this one. Take a gander at this puppy (Ha! Dog humor.) that Alicia put together for our family Christmas card.  Take special note of the adorable puppy who gets a several photo shout out starting at :45.  What a cute pup!



Merry Christmas! Happy Hannukah! Season's Greetings! Happy New Year!

Puppy's First Christmas: Decking the Halls

I'm a dog.  It's not Christmas yet, but it will be soon.  I've been picking up the slack around here and getting everything ready for Christmas.  I want it to be perfect.  After all, a puppy only gets one first Christmas!

I began holiday preparations by having Matt and Alicia drive me over to a nearby church to select a Christmas tree.  Last year, they had their tree on the ground in a stand.  This year, I advised them to get a shorter tree and put it on a table so I wouldn't be tempted to eat either the tree or the ornaments.  Here's the one we selected:

In between chasing children, I picked out the tree!

 Ain't she a beauty?  I think I did a really good job, considering that until recently, I had realized people liked to take chopped down trees and feature them in the living room with decorations.

Helping the "old man" put up the tree.

Once the tree was up, it was time to decorate.  I let Matthew and Alicia handle the placement of the lights and ornaments, but provided valuable assistance sniffing and licking (okay, okay, and trying to chew) several of the ornaments.

All decorated!

My favorite ornament is one that Alicia found special and gave me as an early Christmas present.  It's a pit bull puppy made of dough, and it looks a lot like me!  

When Alicia found it on Etsy, she said she gasped and ordered it immediately.  Aside from the brown spot on her face, this pup is almost my spitting image.  The lady who makes them, Judy Caron, was even nice enough to change the pup's red collar to blue, and write my name on it!

And of course no Christmas would be complete without hanging the stockings "with care" from the card catalog.

Another of my early Christmas presents is this personalized "Snow Dogs" stocking from Company Store.  Alicia found last year's designs on clearance earlier this fall and knew she'd struck gold.  My only complaint is that the white puppy with the green scarf is missing her brown cow spots.  I can't wait to see what I find in my stocking on Christmas morning!

Stay tuned to see if Santa decides whether I've been naughty or nice.  On the one hand, I think he has to side with "nice," since Matt and Alicia are always telling me what a good girl I am, and people are still not tired of telling me how cute I am.  On the other hand, I usually jump up on them and try to lick their faces off right after I receive that compliment, and I have munched on my chair a few times, which hasn't made Matt and Alicia too happy.  I guess we'll see!

Happy Howl-a-ween!

I'm a dog.  Today is my first Halloween. I woke up this morning ready to put on my costume and go out trick-or-treating.  Then Alicia informed me that trick-or-treating doesn't happen until later in the day.  And that dogs are not allowed to eat candy.  And that kind of spooked the holiday spirit right out of me.

She did inform me, however, that we could go on some nice long walks in costume!  My best dog friend Chili loaned me his squirrel costume, which no longer fits him.  Since I love squirrels (or rather, I love to chase them), Alicia thought this would be a perfect fit.

Unfortunately, the costume was a bit too big.

And I wanted to eat it.

So we switched to Costume Plan B: Molly Moo!

I already came equipped with the white fur and large brown spots, so this costume was a natural fit.

Just add a cow bell and some horns, and voila!

Instant cow.

Moo!

Crazy-eyed cow.

Me and Katniss Everdeen from the Hunger Games!

Happy Halloween!

I Scream! You Scream!

I'm a dog.  We all scream for ice cream!

I didn't know it, but Alicia had been saving up a special treat for me.  Back in July she stopped over at Dairy Godmother to treat her camp staff to a little Wisconsin-style frozen custard.  While she was there, she picked up one of their Pumpkin Puppy Pops.

So what is a Puppy Pop?  Puppy Pops are frozen, yogurt-based treats for dogs, which are wheat-free and made with all natural ingredients.

Now that it's September and summer is over, Alicia is back to the daily grind, working as a school librarian.  This means she doesn't have as much time to spend with me.  This also means she was feeling guilty and remembered that she had a special treat to give me.  I can't believe Alicia had been holding onto this thing for so long without giving me a taste!

The peace/guilt offering.

Yum! Yum! Yum!

It keeps trying to run away from me.

That's better.  Alicia popped it out of the plastic
cup and into my bowl, where it couldn't go too far.

Mmm...That was good.  Thank you! I'll have another.

I sure hope she feels guilty again sometime soon.  Like maybe later today.

Dip, Doggie, Dip! Dip, Doggie, Dip! Now Slide! Slide! Slide!

I'm a dog.  As of today, I'm a dog who went in a swimming pool!  But I'm already getting ahead of myself.  Let me back up.

Today I went to my first ever dog party that I was invited to attend.  While I attended another dog party once, I wasn't invited to it and just kind of crashed it towards the end and took some treats.  But I digress.  Today was the annual Parkfairfax Doggie Dip.  Or maybe it's the Parkfairfax Doggy Dip.  I'm not sure.  The party was scheduled from 12-2 and was located just down the street from our house at the Lyons Lane pool.  Even though Alicia has been trying to get me psyched up about it all week long, I had no idea what she was talking about and was unsure where she was taking me, as the pool is not on any of our regular walk routes.

I was a bit nervous as we turned the corner and I spied a bunch of dogs and people hanging out at the pool.  I stopped in my tracks and sat down and then crouched, surveying the scene for anything suspect.

As we walked down the sidewalk, my tail got to wagging and I was excited.  Then we got inside and Alicia took off my leash.  I guess she was expecting me to run and jump into the pool, or at least run over to meet some of the dogs.  Instead, I took note of the pool (pool = wet = bad) and made a beeline over to the corner farthest away from the water and went about one of my favorite activities: sniffing.

A few came over to say hello, but I was too nervous and overwhelmed to pay them much mind.  I was looking for an escape route.  There was no way that I was getting anywhere near that pool.  Soon enough I found some large stacks of deck chairs and climbed atop them.  From this position I could keep an eye on the pool water and make sure it didn't make any sudden moves, like the ocean water did back in June.

While it was definitely safer up there on the stacks of chairs, it was still fairly precarious.  My paws kept slipping through the slats and I got stuck almost every time I took a step.  

Alicia wasn't sure this was the best place for me (wrong!), so she scooped me up and carried me over to the pool steps, where a bunch of dogs - (mostly golden retrievers and labs, one enormous great dane and a couple other dogs) were milling around, hopping in and out of the pool with balls and rubber duckies in their mouths.

Norman, a golden retriever puppy who I happened to meet and play with last night while out on a walk, was over at the edge of the pool, so I went over to say hello.  He'd already been in and was making plans to go back in very soon.  In fact, he just up and jumped into the pool without so much as a goodbye.  It seemed like the party was in the pool, but I still wasn't sure.  I walked along the edge of the pool, crouching down every once in a while to test the water - by lapping it up, of course - but wouldn't go in.  I went to the stairs and dipped in a paw.  Sure enough, the water was wet! No thank you.

So I walked around some more.  Dogs were shaking themselves off and making me wet.  There were puddles everywhere.  All the balls were in the pool.  It just made sense to hop in and see what all the fuss was about.

You'll notice I'm wearing a leash in the pool.  That isn't standard practice.  I had my leash off before, but when it looked like I might want to jump in, Alicia got nervous and leashed me up.  And thank goodness she did.  Turns out, I don't know how to swim!  There I was trying to keep my head above water, and there was Alicia reeling me in.

I finally got to the side and she left me to pull myself out on my own while she snapped a picture.  Good thing I'm all muscle!  There was no way I was staying in that pool any longer than necessary, so I gave it my all and hoisted myself out.

After shaking off the excess water I decided that perhaps it would be best if I just watched from the sidelines and left the swimming to the professionals (aka golden retrievers).  While they were doing what they do best, I did what I do best: watching, sniffing and running around with other dogs.

Lifeguard Molly, on the alert.  Just don't drown.  I can't save you.

Checking on the little dogs in the baby pool.

Horsing around on the pool deck.

I was having a great time.  I was running around, jumping on dogs, chewing on dogs, getting into play stance and bouncing around.  The world was good.  Then I got into a great chase with another dog right along the edge of the pool.  My leash was off and I was running fast, cutting corners and having a blast.

NOT jumping in the pool.  Just cutting corners way too close.

And then what do you know, but I wind up falling in the pool.  Yikes!  Last time, I chose to jump in the water.  Which was a mistake.  This time, I fell in and was terrified.  I was frantically trying to paddle with my front paws while my hind legs and butt just sunk.  Alicia quickly grabbed me by the collar and lifted me to safety.  Thank goodness!  This time, it was a bit scarier, so she didn't have a chance to snap any photos.

After that, I kept playing, though a bit further from the pool.  Alicia tried to bring me over to the baby pool, where they were allowing us big dogs who can't swim a chance to take a mini dip in water that only came up to our ankles.  But I didn't trust it.  Water is sneaky and there was no way I was getting in that pool.  Even if it was less than six inches of water in one area and Alicia was already standing in the water, trying to get me in.  No sir.

I took a few more sniffs around the pool and tried to drink a little bit more pool water, and that was that.  Overall, a great time.  If it hadn't have been for all that water, I'd rank it the best pool party ever!  So many dogs to play with and chase.  Lots of people petting me and calling me cute.  What could be better?

And now, if you'll excuse me, I'm beat.  Time for a nice long nap in my crate.

Climb Every Mountain

I'm a dog.  I climbed a mountain.  It's true.  In preparation for taking her campers hiking, Alicia and I did a test-hike at Sugarloaf Mountain, a free mountain owned and operated by a non-profit organization, in Dickerson, MD.  It was about an hour away from home, and I knew I'd need every ounce of energy I could muster, so I slept the whole car ride there while Alicia drove.

Once we arrived I anxiously jumped out of the car and was ready to go!  We parked about halfway up the mountain and started hiking the White Trail.  One thing that was great about the hike was that we were some of the only people hiking the mountain.  I tend to get distracted very easily, so this was perfect for me.  With no one to get me off track I just focused on making my way up, down and around the mountain.

Taking in the scenery.

Looking for options other than climbing
over the fallen tree.

No other options. Gotta climb!

After hiking for about an hour, we detoured off the white trail and took the blue trail up to a parking area for a snack.  While we were up there, we found this cool area where they'd constructed an overlook and decided to see what we could see.

I see...trees.

You can't tell, but the other side of this wall is a straight
20 ft. drop to semi-jagged rocks. I'm a daredevil!

After this we walked down to the bottom of the mountain and then...all the way back up to the tippy tippy top!  To get to the peak, we took the Orange Trail, which is an incredibly steep 1/4 mile hike.  Alicia was worried that I wouldn't be able to do it, but I powered through and made it to the top.

We made it!

I'm the Queen of the World!

A celebratory earstyle I tried out.

I think it makes me look regal.

On our way back down to the car we came across our first group of people.  It was a camp group!  Full of kids!  Who wanted to pet me!  If I thought the feeling of accomplishment from hiking was good, getting pet and scratched and adored by 12 children at the same time was unbelievable!  And then they thanked Alicia for the privilege of petting me.  Not too shabby.

But then things took a turn for the worst.  Just as we were nearing the end of the trail, the wind picked up and it started to rain.  A total downpour.  Now, I have no problem with thunder or lightning.  But rain...I hate rain.  I loathe rain.  I despise rain.  It makes you get wet.  I do not like wet unless I'm drinking.  So I pulled Alicia along and we ran to the car.  She opened the back door and was futzing with my carrier door while I was getting soaked, so I just hopped right in the car and laid down in the foot well.

It's nice and dry here.  I'm not leaving.

Alicia spent a minute or so trying to coax me out of the well and into the carrier, but there was no way I was going out in this rain.  No sir.  I had big plans to curl up and sleep while I dried off.

Taking my well-deserved nap.

And that's exactly what I did.

Good hike!  Let's do it again sometime when it isn't raining.