Frappy Friday — Burrito Corgi

This picture was taken after Gwen went swimming…this is how I feel right now. Exhausted!

It’s finally Friday!  What a long, but enjoyable week, we’ve had!  We had a very enjoyable time with Andrew’s grandparents and Gwen certainly did too!  She figured out who would save her (Gma) and who would join in the teasing (Gpa).  Gwen realized that if she sat under Gma chair then no one would bother her.

Gwen got a couple bully sticks in her stocking.  These are totally new to her and of course she loved them!  When I tried to take it away from her she gave me the cold shoulder and snarled at me!  (Similar reaction with rawhides.)  Antlers she is fine with you taking them but not these disgusting tasty things!  (Side note:  do you know what bully sticks are made out of?!)  But try and take a rawhide or a bullystick and you best have a squirt bottle in your hand!  I have found that is the most effective way of dealing with it.  She nipped my finger once and got in trouble for that.  Though, the water squirt in the face seems to piss her off even more…  Either way we are now working on “drop it” with these super-duper-high-value chewy things!

Puppy was SUPER well behaved (minus said snarling incident) and I was so proud of her!  She showed off all her tricks and even made friends!  B&B (A’s grandparents) even said that they were very impressed at how well Gwen behaved!  They compared her to other dogs in the family and only had glowing remarks for Gwen.  😀  They loved how she goes in her crate nicely and is not a whiney pest.  They also liked the idea of the crate and how it keeps the dog contained when not around so that she can’t destroy things — we also had success with Dayzee, our lab, and I wouldn’t do it any other way!  When we would eat she would go in her crate, when we opened human presents and stockings she went in her crate, and when we would leave she would go in her crate.  Of course she’d get a cookie each time so she didn’t think it was a bad deal.  Gwen even put herself in her crate a couple times during the day when she would get tired.  She’d just walk in and go to sleep and come back out when she was ready (door remained open).

After all that excitement Gwen will get plenty of time to rest.  Yesterday, I flew out west to go home for my Grandpa’s funeral so Gwen got to stay the afternoon in her box.  Our friend Alicia is going to take care of her today.  Gwen loves her.  Yesterday she came over and Gwen was all waggles and kisses!  I felt bad leaving Gwen but I know that Andrew will keep her well entertained this weekend!

I am going to need to find a new toy box for Gwen!  She got so many toys this year!  What with being the new grand-dog and all…plus I felt the need to spoil my puppy!  🙂  Gwen received a plethora of new balls, an Angry Birds Frisbee, the toys from her Secret Santa (frisbee and balls), a new Kong from my parents, her own pair of socks from my parents, some cuddleys from B&B, a pully toy and a bandana from Andrew’s parents, a couple antlers and bully sticks from us, two new blingy collars from Santa (Santa found them on clearance at $3 each, can you imagine?!), a Kong Wubba, a Kong Squeezz stick, and a box of Christmas doggie cookies!  Gwen isn’t spoiled at all, can you tell?!  At least with all of these things to destroy play with she won’t be destroying the house!

We hope everyone had a very enjoyable Christmas!  🙂 — Gwen and her Hoomans

Opening the Secret Santa Gift

Gwen got to open her Corgi Butts’ Secret Santa present on the 24th.  Here are some pictures! 🙂

Gwen with her Secret Santa present.

Can I open this yet?

We open this now?

What’s in here??

Frisbee!!!

Toys!!!

We got caught mid-flash…these are our Kristen Stewart impressions.

All my new prezzies!

Can I play with this now??

Gwen’s new stocking she got, hanging on her crate!

Our secret santas were Sawyer & Kayley!

We really enjoyed being a part of the Corgi Butts Secret Santa gift exchange this year and we look forward to doing it again next year!!!  (Assuming there will be one next year!)

Gwen sure does like her new toys!  She doesn’t know what to do with herself since she got her secret santa toys the toys from her stocking and from other family members!  Her toy box is brimming!  She’s all tuckered out after all the festivities the past couple of days too.

Thank you Sawyer & Kayley! 🙂

Happy Christmas Eve!

In case we don’t get a chance to say it later, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Before I get into anything else I just wanted to say that GWEN WAS ON THE DAILY CORGI TODAY!!!! 😀  Here is the link to that. 

We have had a busy weekend getting ready for guests and Christmas dinner.  Gwen got to open her Corgi Secret Santa present this afternoon!  We will definitely be posting what she got later this week — expect that post after Christmas sometime. 🙂  I will say that Gwen’s present came from Sawyer, a Corgi in Canada!  I will say that she loves her presents that she got!  And her stocking which is now hanging on the outside of her bedroom aka crate.

I’ve made 2 of our 3 pies so far!  Chocolate and Pumpkin.  Mincemeat will be later today.  I love pie!

Gwen went swimming on Saturday and I got a bunch of good pictures this time (again)!  I will do a short one on that later this week too.  After swimming we got to take her raffle winnings home too.

This antler looks like a fang to me and being the Harry Potter fan that I am, I decided that it was a Basilisk Fang!  It could also be a Saber Tooth Tiger’s tooth or a Walrus/Elephant Tusk.  You take your pick!

Yes?

Just looking cute holding my antler, no big deal!

Another Corgi Carol — Corgi Butts

Something to start off your day right.  WARNING: These lyrics are catchy! *<|:o)

“Corgi Butts” (to the tune of Silver Bells): 

Corgi pawprints, little pawprints
Dogs in holiday style.
In the air there’s a feeling of Christmas.
Corgis barking, Corgis romping,
Causing smile after smile
And on every street corner you’ll see.

Corgi butts, Corgi Butts
It’s a Welsh time in the city.
Herp-a-derp, they’re in shirts,
Soon it will be Christmas day.

Sets of stub legs, lots of stub legs
With costumes red and green
And tourists rush out with their cameras.
Hear the claw-clacks, see the long backs,
Corgis are making a scene.
And among all the bustle you’ll see.

Corgi butts, Corgi Butts
It’s a Welsh time in the city.
Herp-a-derp, they’re in shirts,
Soon it will be Christmas day.

               * * * * * *

I don’t know who wrote these lyrics but they are simply BRILLIANT!!! I found them here on Facebook.  Andrew sang this song all night last night.  We have a very busy weekend this weekend preparing for Christmas and our guests!

Christmas Model Pup

I gots my piktshur taken at the Hooowliday Pawty!  These is tew of them.  Mommy hooman doesn’t knows I posting them!  I iz a model!  Maybee I bee on the Kwismus cawd next yeear!      — Gwen

The Corgpedo!

I said in a brief post the other day that Gwen was going to get “Swimming Lessons.”  Here is the story of that; but first let me back up and tell you how we ended up getting signed up for that in the first place!  Because, to tell you the truth, it was kind of a spur of the moment sort of thing!

Facebook is a glorious thing (sometimes) which allows you to find out about events and things in the area and also lets you stalk  check up on follow what your friends, family, co-workers are doing.  It also allows you to follow different groups or interests in the area.  Along with all the horse stuff that I “follow” are quite a few Corgi and dog pages.  One of the local dogs pages had a flyer for a “Howliday Party and Open House.”  I saw this and knew that we just had to go!  So on Sunday, we plugged the address into our GPS, got Gwen into the car, and headed off to this Howliday Party & Open house.

The place is called Wag-N-Splash and it is an indoor pool for dogs.  It is used for fun, exercise and therapy.  The organization that their event was raising money for is Daisy’s Place Retriever Rescue.  Its mission is to find safe and loving homes for older Retrievers and mixes.  I have a soft spot for Labs, especially Black Labs named Dayzee/Daisy (or any variant of the name).  I knew that I wanted to go to the event and would be perfectly fine donating some money and buying some raffle tickets!

Oh and by the way, I won one of the raffles!!!  I won a penguin toy and an antler!  I haven’t got them yet, will pick up on our next visit. 🙂

We went, I bought some raffle tickets, we got Gwen’s picture taken (I will share that once I scan in the picture — it is adorable!), we bought a fleecy toy, and we talked to the lady about what they do there and ended up signing Gwen up for a “swimming lesson!”  I don’t know what else to call it a “session” maybe?  I like saying swimming lesson best. 🙂

Gwen was signed up for 8 am the next day (Monday).  We rolled out of bed, took puppy out to go potty and then grabbed some cereal bars and loaded up in the truck.  Gwen wasn’t allowed to eat before she went swimming since it was going to be at the time that she normally eats.  Reminded me of the waiting 1 hour to swim after you eat rule.  I think the next part can be told with pictures and video!  Yes, I took some videos and I apologize in advance for the ridiculousness at the ends…I couldn’t figure out how to make it quit recording.

Heading to Gwen’s first swimming lesson! She would make a very intense driver. Can you imagine Corgis driving?? They’d probably ram into the other cars to make them go where they wanted and would certainly use the horn.

All dogs are fitted with life jackets until they are comfortable in the water and can swim without them. Safety first!

The life jacket gave Gwen some buoyancy issues so they switched her out to this floaty collar thing, similar to the floaties that go on your arms but made for dogs. Gwen did MUCH better with this thing! The vest made her kind of list to the side since she doesn’t have legs to counter balance her or a tail to be a rudder.

Such a sleepy puppy once she was all done! She curled up on the floor behind my seat in the car and went to sleep. Then proceeded to sleep aaaaaaall day!

This is the toy we bought to help support the Daisy’s Place. This thing is bigger than Gwen (almost)!

Gwen was all sorts of tuckered out when we got home.  We had so much fun watching Gwen play in the water!  She is signed up to go again this weekend!  I am not sure how much she actually enjoys it but it is good exercise for her and would definitely benefit her health in the long run if we are able to find something similar elsewhere (being military, you know).

The first session is introductory to see if the dog likes the water and to help them to gain confidence in the water.  After the first session the owners are allowed to go into the pool with the dog.  I think the “instructor” is still in the pool for safety reasons and such.  Andrew has plans to get in the pool with Gwen next time, he is looking forward to it immensely!  Next time we are going to take a couple of Gwen’s toys (that are waterproof of course!) to see if she will try to play with them.  They have toys there but she wasn’t interested in them in the water so much as she was when she was on the pool deck.

The pool place is run by a couple of sisters and the swims are by appointment only.  The water is a salt water system so the dogs are not forced into contact with the chlorine which is not very good for them.  I wish that there was something similar to this close to my parents because I think Dayzee would LOVE it!  Dayzee likes to play in the swampy water that is right off the beach at home and I think sometimes she goes into the ocean but I don’t think she likes the surf that much.  I remember going down to the beach for the first time with Dayzee and my Dad.  We took her down to the lagoon part that is right before you get to the Navy section.  Dayzee loved it!  My dad told me that if Dayzee started to drown that I would have to jump into the lagoon and save her…Thank God she can swim!

Happy Corgi!

Gwen is a quick little swimmer!  We didn’t know how she would be since she’s so long and has stubby legs but she sure was quick!  Quick on land and quick in the water!!!  There is another Corgi that swims there too.  She was supposed to come in right after Gwen but we were only there for a short swim so we didn’t get to see the next dog.  The ladies said that their dachshund swims and can’t use the life jacket either since he is built similar to Gwen and he uses the neck ring thing too.  “The Corgpedo” comes form how fast she is…like a torpedo!  Here are a couple little video to finish off this insanely long post!  You don’t have to watch the videos, but I thought I’d share them either way. 🙂

And this last video shows her swimming with the floaty collar:

The End.

Holes in the Floor of Heaven

How I cried when the sky let go
with a cold and lonesome rain
Momma smiled said don’t be sad child
Grandma’s watchin you today

‘Cause there’s holes in the floor of Heaven
and her tears are pourin’ down
that’s how you know she’s watchin’
wishin’ she could be here now
And sometimes if you’re lonely
just remember she can see
there’s holes in the floor of Heaven
and she’s watchin’ over you and me

    –Holes in the Floor of Heaven, Steve Wariner

Today’s story is going to have to wait a couple days.  I had full intentions to get it written today but I don’t feel right writing about something cheerful and fun while I am burdened with such a heavy heart.

Yesterday, I really wanted to tell about the great day that the three of us had but when I got home to start to write, I received some bad news.  My Grandpa passed away yesterday, Sunday, afternoon.  It wasn’t unexpected since he had been ill for awhile but it is still difficult.  I will continue to write about Gwen as I have been because that would be what he would want.  He never got to meet Gwen but he had seen pictures and heard stories about her.  I wish I could have taken Gwen home with me so he could have seen her.  He is no longer in pain, which is a blessing, and he is now with my Grandma (she passed in 2003).  When I think of them I think of them dancing together, I’m not sure why, but I think it has something to do with my crazy imagination and the fact that they both went because of cancer.

Rest in Peace, Gramps.

This picture was from my wedding in June.

I wish to remember him how he was when he was healthy.  This was how I chose to remember my Grandma also.  They took me camping with them each summer when I was younger; we traveled for a month to many places with the RV.  We went to Yellowstone, Mt Rushmore, the Badlands, CO, MT, ND, SD, OR, ID, UT, and of course WA.  Grandpa taught me how to play Cribbage and how to drive a manual.  He signed his name as an extra witness on our marriage license.

One of the stories that Grandpa always liked to tell was the one where I was camping with them, we had a campfire and I was roasting a hot dog.  I put down the stick with the hot dog so I could get a bun and a chipmunk stole my hot dog!  I ran around screaming, chasing after that stupid little creature.  I don’t know what I was trying to do I was just mad that my hot dog was gone!  I never did get that hot dog back.  Grandpa would always tell this story and poke fun of me and say “Grandpa! That squirrel stole my weenie!” like I’d said but the way he always said it was funny.  (I obviously don’t do the story justice.)

Last week when the news from back home started to get worse this song popped into my head; it was raining and I was crying.  With today’s current deluge (such a fun word) this song is once more fitting.  They are not gone for ever.  We will see them again.  Until then we just have to cherish the memories we have of them.

Rest in Peace Grandpa, I love you.

 

Swimming Lessons?

Guess what dog got signed up for “swimming lessons” today!  GWEN DID!  🙂

Her introductory lesson/session is tomorrow morning.

I Saw Gwennie Killing Santa Claus…

Gwen got to go see Santa today!  They also had one of the adoption things going on at Petco when we were there.  It was difficult to walk past all the dogs outside and then when we left going past them was doubly hard since we stopped to look.  There was a pretty Sheltie that was on the end that caught our eye.  We definitely are not ready for another HERDING dog to say the least.  Not until we have a nice BIG yard for them!  There was also a Min Pin/Pug mix.  He looked like a miniature Rottweiler!  Oh he was cute!

Gwen was a good girl for Santa!!  She even helped to get some other doggies to pay attention.  She ended up being the prop that got them to stare straight at the camera…I held her up so they would look up for the picture.  For being such a good girl for Santa, Gwen got a new Santa toy!  I wondered how long it would take for her to destroy it. It took less than 10 minutes to figure out how to get Santa’s head off.  She UNTIED it!  It was tied on since the body was basically a doggie pom-pom.  She thinks it’s great!  It’s like having two toys in one!  A squeaky head and a fluffy pom-pom thing with legs!  (See her handy work in the second picture…)  Hence the title:  I Saw Gwennie Killing Santa Claus.

Just another Christmas song adapted to fit the needs of a Corgi!

We are going to see The Hobbit in a couple hours once puppy goes to bed.  I am excited!!!  We watched 21 Jump Street this afternoon and when we (the humans) laughed Gwen barked.  I am not sure if she just does not like laughing or if she just wanted to join in the fun.  

Dear Santa Clawz…

 

Dear Santa Clawz,

My hoomans told me about you. You are big and have a chubby belly. My hoomans say I have a chubby belly. But I am not fat. Just a short corgi puppy with no tail.  My name is Gwen.  I am almost 8 months old!  My hoomas say that they are taking me to see you on Saturday.  Please don’t use your claws on me!!!

The hoomans say that you bring presents if I am a nice corgi and that naughty corgis get yucky things for Christmas.  I don’t quite understand Christmas yet.  Alls I knows is that there is a giant intruder with sparkely lights and boxes under it in my house.  I like to chew on the boxes but mommy and daddy don’t like that.

Here is my list of things I really, really wants!

• Antlers!  — I will eat magic ones from your reindeers please!
• some squeaky tennis balls
• treats, treats, treats!
• A puzzle toy  — mommy & daddy said this would be good for my brains!
• Floppy frisbees since I chewed up my other ones. 😦
• Kong squeaky stick like we gave to our Corgi friend
• Stuffed animal squeaker toy  — I like to rip out its guts!
• A new pretty collar.  Maybe a blingy one?  Pleeeease?  I like to be a stylish corgi!

Please bring my mommy and daddy lots of prezzies too!  They’ve been good!  They walk me and feed me and give me lots of tweats  and take me to the park and take me shopping give me water tortures only sometimes!  They iz good hoomans!!!  I promise!

Love,   Gwen

P.S.  The hoomans said to say,  “All I want for Christmas are some Orders, please!”  They said it’s like that song “All I want for Christmas are my two front teeth!”  And that you are supposed to sing it when you reads it.  The silly hoomans want to know where we are going to move to and we are still waiting patiently!  Or they are.  I gave up.  I think we will live in this little box forever.