Social butterfly

Today the overcompensation continues! We took a ride across town so I could meet a new friend.

Oh, and look at that jerk taking the picture. I got my play bow on...
So anyways, my homie also helped me get ready for a very special gathering tomorrow. She tricked me with treats and combed the bejesus out of my FACE.
Pain's the price of beauty, dogs. Am I right?

Sunday!

I think my homie might be trying to overcompensate for the fact that she's not going to have time to pay the proper amount of attention (i.e., LOTS) to me this week; today was an action packed day. After our morning walk, we went to PetSmart to buy me some eau de lactating dam to help with my separation anxiety. Then we headed to campus for another walk with one of my many dogfathers.

Look at his deathgrip of love. I like him because unlike my homie he doesn't make me work as hard for affection and recognizes that I am a perfect bundle of cute.
ANDTHENISAWASQUIRREL!!!!OMGDIEDIEDIE!!!!
See how polite I am? I sit before killing.
Ok, I didn't get a piece of that squirrel. But I would have if I weren't on a leash. I didn't want it anyway since squirrels on campus are on a diet of Sbarro's and Burger King. If I wanted Sbarro's and Burger King I would make the homie get me Sbarro's and Burger King and skip the middle man.

Anyways, later that afternoon my homie finally let me out onto the deck to hunt for squirrels, skunks, feral cats, and chipmunks.
I also helped oversee some car repairs...
But mostly I did this.
Good night!

Where's the wabbit?

Good morning
Originally uploaded by rachelprofiling

Hi everyone! The homey and I just took a 30 minute walk, and guess what I found.

A dead rabbit! Yum! I dashed behind some flowers and other vegetation to where it was, and when my homie came around to lift me out of there she saw it and was kinda grossed out. I didn't get to play with the rabbit but it was worth it just for that. Muahahahaha!!!

SQUIRREL PATROL!!!

I don't know why my homie thinks this is funny: when I'm on squirrel/skunk/chipmunk/feral cat patrol, I run back and forth from my lookout point to the door 400 times or until I get tired. There's nothing funny about it. It's me trying to tell her, "YOU THERE, HUMANOID, THERE ARE THINGS FOR ME TO LIQUIDATE OUTSIDE. WHY DON'T WE GO OUTSIDE?"

This is serious business.

School day #2

Why hello there.
This morning I stayed at the apartment alone while my homie went to her class again. It's a big day, really, because I hate hate hate being left alone. But today I didn't let my separation anxiety take over.

Now back to squirrel, skunk, chipmunk, and feral cat patrol.

Goodbye, Mr. Quackers...

Goodbye, Mr. Quackers
Originally uploaded by rachelprofiling

...we hardly knew ye.

School daze

What a full day, dogs! The homie had her first day of class (she's a TA which I think means that she gets to have the scorn of undergrads heaped upon her), so we got up at 5:30am. I'm not complaining. That's when I get up, but Lazy-Bones can't get up without a little difficulty, or, if need be, a little woofing from me. Later in the morning, I got to hang out with one of her awesome, amazing, saintly friends while the homie was in class.

And then I slept for an hour before I had to get my full checkup at the vet's and my last round of vaccines for this year. And then I did more of this.Bonus cellphone picture find!

Sunday bonus bite!

Benson comes to town!

Benson and his peeps (my dogparents) came to visit again! Yay!
Questo è il bacio di Tosca!
Once again, I sunk my teeth into the bacony goodness of his puppy fish.
We sat for stinky treats.
Well. I'm shattered. Time for bed.

You know what I hate?

Woe!
Originally uploaded by rachelprofiling

The stairs.

They scare me.

Healthy pup... need your input!

My homie is a first-time dog owner (help!!!) and I'm worried she's going to kill me. So I'm wondering what you dogs do for your daily routine. Right now I'm on a regimen for recovering from my lady's surgery (on 8/3/09). I get to walk about an hour to an hour and 15 minutes a day but no running free or playing with other dogs (cuz I play rough, rrr). We walk 20-40 minutes in the morning with 2-3 more short walks throughout the day. I eat 2/3 of my daily food allowance after my long morning walk and then the rest in the afternoon around 4.

Right now I'm doing well on Taste of the Wild Wetlands (with duck) formula since that's the kibble my breeder had and switched me over to before I moved in the with the homie. But she's thinking of transitioning me over to one of these:

• Orijen Adult Dog formula
  
• Evo (red meat small bites formula)
• Before Grain (buffalo)

Have you tried any of these?

I went to the vet today an I'm down to 13.2 pounds from 14.4.
My homie says she feels like a failure of a Filipino mom for letting me lose weight on her watch. I might have lost weight because of my surgery or because I got transitioned fully to kibble from raw meaty bones. I need to find a good food so I can become a runner and stay svelte.

So, what do you do and eat everyday to stay fit?

Bonus! Here's a picture from today. It's been windy here in the Midwest...

Benson

Friends, let me introduce you to my lover, my own Mario Cavaradossi: Benson, the Shiba-Inu. He's a few months older than me, and we have been official since August 11.

It was love at first sight.
I'm a modern girl, so I made the first move.I think a few more pictures of him are in order. Here he is when he was still a pup. My homunculus took this picture...
He only rides in fast and fancy cars.
He's quite the gentleman and very generous. He let me chew his bacon-flavored fish.
It's sad that he lives 2 hours away in Chicago.
And as my name would imply, I am a jealous bitch...

Drunk-tired

First trip to campus
Originally uploaded by rachelprofiling

Today I accompanied the homie to her home away from home: campus! We visited the super cool secretary at the Irish Studies department and then picked up some books at the English department. There are some scary elevators on campus, geez.

After a 30 minute walk in the morning and another 45 minutes on campus, I think I'm pretty much done for the day. ...until I wake up that is! muahaha...

Dogparents and Squirrel dude!

Today my second pair of dogparents (my homie is Filipino and said I have to have many many sets of dogparents—a.k.a. godparents—in keeping with Filipino tradition) came from Chicago to visit me.

We had lunch al fresco at a restaurant with a serious identity crisis, then got gelato (of which I was totally deprived!!! injustice!!!!), and then went to my favorite boutique. My dogparents bought me a travel bowl and a Squirrel Dude toy! I was so tired after our outing that I pretty much fell asleep right away...

Later in the evening, my homie put a few salmon treats in the Squirrel Dude, but I had a hard time getting them out. Things got a little violent...

No adventures, but...

Storms have been passing through all day, but we finally had a chance to take a longer walk. It is HOT here.
I tend to conk out after 15 minutes. I'm still recovering from my lady's surgery I suppose... We Lakies were built to last but some things slow us down, you know.
Here I am after dragging the homie to the shade of the car. I do that a lot. I like to pretend I'm looking for a place to do my lady's business under the shade of a tree or large bush, but then I just stand there to cool off and annoy my homunculus hahaha.

Everyday my homie tries to spend at least a little time "teaching" me obedience and manners until I decide to not even act like I care. Today she reinforced the "MINE" command with her crazy fruit-flavored (I assume, based on the color) running shoes. They are apparently off-limits. Pssh.
But really, we just spent most of the day listening to music and reading (her), throttling squirrels and squeaky cats (me), or sleeping (both of us). Dogs, if you want to live the quiet life, find a grad student writing a dissertation. They don't do anything!

Why Tosca?

Today the weather is gross, so I won't be going on any great adventures today. Instead, I thought I would tell you about my new name (as of Monday, August 10, 2009). My homie decided to name me after Floria Tosca from Poochini's opera Tosca because of how my affair with Benson the Shiba-Inu illustrated my great capacity for passionate love and biting.

Also, on my first full day with the new homie, I would bark and whine everytime she'd leave me. So she thought Tosca was fitting.

She also thinks it fits because I just might be suspicious and manipulative. Can't really dispute that.

My first week at my new home

I'm tired.

What a disaster! How have I been wronged? Let me count the ways. First I have to switch from raw meat to Taste of the Wild kibble which smells and tastes like duck and sewage, and from daily raw bones to daily Dental Dino (with a raw bone here and there)! Then they get me... "fixed." And THEN I have to move in with this smelly homunculus (hereafter I will also call her my homie, but not in the "we're friends" kind of way) in the most boring town in America. Did I mention her A/C went out on my first night there? Not ok. I don't like to glow—because I don't sweat, even when it is 82 degrees in the apartment at 4am. Oh, and then I have to take these horrible walks 4 times a day in a harness that makes it so I can't run after tasty stuff like smaller dogs and poo and trash that other dogs and people (respectively... I think?) leave all over this poorly manicured hayish excuse for grass they have around my apartment. And and and, there are all these steps I have to face before and after walks. I'm a little worried all that stair-work will add a little too much donk to my badonkadonk.

Worst of all, I have had to leave my pack... sigh...

Riding in an elevator, being taken from my littermates to go home with someone I don't know, getting a bath, being left alone to die in the apartment while my homunculus "just grabbed a little dinner" with friends: I can't tell you all how many times I've simply lost control of my bowels this week, people! But it's not my fault. Times have been tough, and I can be a little emo, but I think my homie has been working hard at becoming the perfect maid, cook, and walker. The pack leader stuff needs a little work, but she'll get there in time.

Hahaha, no, not really.

My first kill

No one's gonna believe I did it.

Siesta day

Folks, I'm stressed. I'm not here a week and my homunculus delivers me into the horrible hands of the PetSmart grooming ladies for "Bath, Brush, and More." I'll give you a bath, brush, and more. Buncha jerks.
I was rudely awoken by my alpha-wannabe at 5am before the PetSmart fiasco at 9. Naturally, I slept about half the day. No second long walk for me, oh no. I did dream about running though.

BONE. YUM.

The wonderful breeder I came from used to feed me raw and gave me raw meaty bones to crunch on while I was in my crate. It kept my pearly whites pearly white (and nice and strong for biting boys). My current homunculus is kind of put off by having raw beef all over her apartment, so she also gave me my bone in my crate... but put a placemate down in it! Silly. She should have known I'd drag it all over the place, sit in the mess, and push the bone up against the sides muahahaha.

The funnest day yet!

My homunculus and I were greeted by a wonderful surprise today: a visit from my boy/chew-toy Benson, a handsome Shiba Inu, and his homunculus. We went to Panera and PetSmart. Treats for all! Muahahaha.

We took a walk before hanging out in my apartment. (Look at those disgusting homunculus feet! And yes, I do like to lick them.)

Get outta my shot, bozo.

Where is my homunculus? If she doesn't come back I will BARK until she does, so help me dog.

Can you tell he loves me?