Aunt Mainey's back!

The airport has been good to me lately. First, my Momma and Pops got back from their trip to Bali, which was great! And now, Aunt Mainey is back from Australia to play with me!

Well, like the Beagle from down the road always says "The airport taketh, and the airport giveth."

I don't really know why he lisps sometimes. Maybe it's a beagle thing.

And in other news, Aunt Jol passed her driving test! Now maybe she can give me car rides too!

Back from my break!

Hi doggy pals!

It's me, Sonic! I haven't been blogging for such a long time, that I think some of you might have completely forgotten about me already. I blame Pops, of course. Because it's never my fault... it's always the Humans' fault.

So I've been chilling out a lot...

So here are a few updates about what's been going on for the past few weeks:

There was a week when Pops and I made many many trips to the nasty place the humans call the airport. First we sent Aunt Mainey away, then it was Momma, then my grandparents, then finally Uncle Eff. Basically, in 10 days Pops and I sent every member of our family away! It was so awful. I missed everyone so much!

Being home alone with Pops meant we had quite a bit of quality time together. We had a long talk about Pops' childhood and how grandma used to bring him along to awful activities like shopping or visiting her friends, and Pops would have nothing to do but sit in a corner and stare at a wall. You see, this was a long time ago, before humans had things like iPhones, laptops, or even something my Pops called a "Gameboy".

He then promised me that he would never bring me along to boring places like that. I'm not sure I know what he's talking about though - everywhere is interesting to me, and I can always keep myself entertained by leaving Golden Offerings around.

Pops bought me some snacks to
distract me from missing Momma

Momma and my grandparents are back now. Momma went to Bali again, and came back  all darker... like a daschund. Then she raved and raved and raved about the beauty of the ocean and how fun it was to surf, while Pops just smiled and stared blankly.

So excited was Momma that we ended up renting two surfing movies for her to watch: Point Break and Blue Crush. And then that weekend, they took me to the beach for the very first time!

I have to say, I didn't really like the beach. It was awful and scary! It's hot, the ground is funny and soft, and the water! There was this part where the water kept rushing at me and trying to wash me away! I was so scared, but my Humans thought it was funny. They're weird like that.

That's a lot of water out there...

No, Momma... I don't want to go there!

Time to get out of here!

Anyway, I'm going to go and catch up with your blogs now. I'll write again soon!

I'm 2 years old!

This post is a little bit late, and the person to blame is of course, my Pops. But anyway, last Sunday was my birthday! I'm now 2 years old, and in dog years that would make me a teenager now!

I'm a big dog now!

Unfortunately, my Momma and Pops were away on a weekend getaway... but at least my grandparents and Aunt Mainey were around to keep my company. So I wasn't left alone or anything, and it gave me some time to think about the things that have changed since I was a little puppy.

I used to be afraid of The Great Outside, and would hide behind the door. I used to need Momma and Pops to carry me up and down the stairs, but now I can climb up and down by myself... and I'm even faster than they are!

In fact, I am completely independent now, and can do pretty much everything myself. The only things I need my Humans for are:

1. Taking a bath (though I think I can get by without ever taking one)
2. Filling my food bowl
3. Cleaning my food bowl
4. Filling my water bowl
5. Cleaning off my dingleberries
6. Traveling to Knuckles' place
7. Brushing my fur
8. Dabbing my paws clean after I pee-paw myself
9. Opening the Big Gate to the Great Outside
10. Going for a walk in the Great Outside
11. Getting onto my Humans' bed
12. Cleaning up my Golden Offerings
13. Buying more toys for me
14. Buying more food for me
15. Putting on or taking off my collar
16. Updating this blog
17. Switching on the TV so I can watch Bones
18. Protecting me from Dobermans and cat ambushes
19. Opening the container with all my treats
20. Fishing out my treats when they roll under the bed
21. Reaching for my toys when I toss them onto the table
22. Opening room doors
23. Pulling my bed out of my crate
24. Packing my toys away (not that I should need to)
25. Belly rubs!

But other than that, I can do everything by myself cos I'm a big dog!

What are some things you guys need help with?

New Years and Pops' birthday

When it comes to the end of the year, we celebrate two things at our home: the coming of the new year, and Pops' birthday. My Pops was born on the last day of the year, so Momma always teases him about having only 24 hours to celebrate being a certain age before he has to start counting down to being older again.

This year, he turns about... 500,000 dog years old. Yep, he's a pretty old human.

Can you see me staring down Cousin Tails?

So anyway, that meant that lots of people came over to party, including Turdley Uncle Qian (who didn't give me a Christmas present this year) and Cousin Tails. This year, we didn't really get into any fights, although there was a peeing contest that the humans didn't really enjoy.

The humans ate a lot of food, played Xbox, and made a lot of noise. I tried to beg for scraps, but didn't do very well. I think I have to work on my whining a bit. The Beagle from down the road says I've been getting complase complica compute lazy.

Here you can see me trying to beg for food from Aunt Sarah and Uncle Alex. Uncle Alex is like the biggest human I've ever seen, so his head was accidentally cropped from the photo.

Whine whine whine

Then it was time for cake! This year, Momma went and got Pops the bestest birthday cake he's ever gotten.

Stormtrooper cake!

It was a custom-made Stormtrooper cake! Basically, it was a really sugary and sweet cake - or so I heard. Cos I wasn't allowed to eat any of it. Hiew hiew hiew...

Happy birthday, Pops!

After that, it was more messing around with Cousin Tails, and receiving lots of attention from the humans. I like guests. Guests always pamper the dogs.

Stand-off on the stairs

Look how big my nose is!

Hope you all had a good start to 2011! Happy new year!

Pops' big DVD sale

Momma's been bugging Pops to clear some space in the room so that she can fit in, I dunno, more shoes or something. So Pops decided that he had no choice but to go through his beloved DVD collection and find some DVDs and Xbox games to sell away at a flea market that Aunt Jol was setting up shop at.

Once again, with the fleas! Why are humans so obsessed with fleas?

Anyway, Pops managed to pile up quite a big stack of old DVDs that he never watches, and some Xbox games too. Just to show you guys how many DVDs he was planning to sell, I posed with the pile so you can see the scale.

Look at all those DVDs!

Unfortunately, not many people wanted to buy these at the flea market, and most of them came back anyway. But Pops did find a way to clear space after all! The old DVDs are now living in Aunt Mainey's room.

I miss Aunt Mainey

Aunt Mainey where are youuuuuuu? Why are you so far away from meeee? I need a hug, and you're way across the sea...

So I did what I do best: I tried to summon Aunt Mainey with a Golden Offering. She must have felt the magic pull of the summoning spell over in Australia, because she told me not to do it again as she has to stay in school for now.

Never underestimate the power
of my summoning spell

PS It's grandma's bday today! Pops is going to cook a special lunch for grandma! Happy barkday, grandma!

Attack of the Clone!

This is going to sound like something out of Dennis the Vizsla's blog, but Flat Brutus has been cloned! The original Flatty was looking a bit worn out from all his travels, so Momma took him to a mysterious place and had him cloned.

The clone Flatty (on the left) and
the original Flatty (on the other left)

The new Flat Brutus is a slightly smaller, sleeker version of the original, and he comes with a magical force field that protects him from rain, water bowl spills and pee. Momma says that this force field will help keep him safe as he goes to his next destination - Australia!

Maybe Clone Flatty will bump into Aunt Mainey or Uncle Eff while he's there?

The Beagle from down the road says it's a good thing we sent the clone away. Apparently, clones look and act like their originals, but they tend to go crazy and eat other dogs and humans when you least expect it. Or when their Doberman masters command it.

I summoned Aunt Mainey!

As you guys might know, my Aunt Mainey has been in Australia for the longest time. Why she'd wanna move away from me, I don't know. But anyway, I've been performing the Human Summoning Ritual that the Beagle from down the road taught me in Aunt Mainey's room every now and then, in the hopes that all the Golden Offerings will summon her.

And you know what? It works! My Aunt Mainey came back and surprised all of us one evening! I was so happy, I farted!

Aunt Mainey and me

She didn't stay for very long though, but I did manage to play with her quite a bit. Since Momma and Pops would be out at work all day, Aunt Mainey and I got to spend quality time playing together. She even took me for car rides now and then! That was so cool, because I don't get many car rides anymore, not since Pops got his new job.

It's that dog-friendly game that you
can play without opposing thumbs

Then almost as quickly as she came back, Aunt Mainey had to go to Australia again. Boo! I tried to hide in her luggage, but Momma found me and took me out. I guess I wouldn't want to be away from Momma and Pops anyway.

How did they find me???

So that was Aunt Mainey's little trip home to visit us. Paws crossed that she'll visit again soon!

Airport pwnage

Now as you all know, the airport is a nasty, nasty place. Every single time my humans need to go to the airport, it means one of my favorite humans will be going away. My Momma went to Sandy Eggo for two weeks, and Aunt Mainey and Uncle Eff are still away in Australia right now.

No, not the airport!!!

So I was kinda a bit freaked out when Pops took me to the airport the other day. After all, it was just me or him. So either he was going away, or he was sending me away! I didn't like any of those options at all.

But it turns out that we were just picking my grandparents up! And everytime grandma goes away, she comes back with presents and toys! I was so excited!!!

So we parked at the carpark and waited, as the plane was delayed. We couldn't go into the airport itself as non-government dogs aren't allowed there (I saw a van drive past carrying some government issue German Shepherds). Pops took me out so that I could sniff some international-smelling grass and leave some Golden Offerings on the trees.

Something tastes foreign...

It was okay, I guess... funny smells, funny tastes... There were giant metal birds flying past, leaving behind yucky tastes and smells. I think I prefer the trees and grass back at home.

International relations

Anyway, we picked up grandma and grandpa, and I DID get presents! But Momma won't let me have them yet, until I decide which of my old toys to throw out. Anyway, I'll post about my new toys later.

Lamb burgers and DJ Hero

Wow last weekend was really awesome! On Saturday night, "Douchey" Uncle Qian (who insists he's not douchey) and Uncle Tim came over to cook lamb burgers for us. Well, Uncle Tim did, anyway... Uncle Qian was just here to eat. Aunt Jol and her friend Marie came along for the special treat as well.

They smell as good as they look

Uncle Tim made these lamb burgers from scratch, and they smelled really really good. Even before he started cooking them, I could smell the yumminess and I spent the whole time snooping around the kitchen. I wasn't allowed to eat the lamb burgers cos I had my own dinner, but you never know when someone might drop something on the floor and I can use the 5-second rule!

Isn't anyone going to drop something?

At the end of the cooking, here is the result:

Human food sure looks pretty

I was very very cunning and stalked everyone, but nobody dropped any food on the floor, not even my usually-klutzy Aunt Jol. I was very disappointed, but at least I got a good whiff.

The next day, Aunt Jol, Aunt Cheryl and Aunt Gen-Gen came over for a short while to play the DJ Hero game that Uncle Tim loaned to us. I could smell cousin Tails' smell all over Aunt Cheryl, so I went a bit nuts at her to sniff any messages that Tails might've left on her.

Aunt Cheryl was very shocked
when I jumped onto the couch

They enjoyed the game a lot (thanks, Uncle Tim!) but they got pretty confused by the controls, and started cheating.

I'm pretty sure you're only supposed
to use one pair of hands...

Guess humans just aren't as good as multi-tasking as dogs. Me? I can nap, look cute, and fart at the same time.

PS Today is Aunt Mainey's birthday! Happy birthday, Aunt Mainey! Come back and visit me soon!

The Original Only Friend Award!

My Aunt Mainey has a friend that we call "the Oof". Why is she called the Oof? I'll tell you a little story and you'll know why.

A long time ago, Aunt Mainey would only ever invite this one friend over to our place. So anytime my Momma and Pops would meet one of Aunt Mainey's friends, it would be her. After seeing only this friend for a long time, Momma and Pops decided to jokingly call her "the Only Friend." But as time went by, my Humans met more and more of Aunt Mainey's friends, so "Only Friend" became "Friend #1", as you could still count the amount of friends Aunt Mainey had on one paw.

Aunt Mainey and the Oof

Aunt Mainey swears that she has more friends than we know about, but Ostrich wisdom says that if you can't see them, they're not there.

Well, now Aunt Mainey has introduced us to a lot of her friends, so "Friend #1" is no longer a special enough title. That's when they decided to give her a new title, and that's how she became the Original Only Friend, or the Oof.

I remember when I started this blog, it was pretty lonely, and the only comments for over a month were from my Aunt Mainey and Aunt Jol. My Momma entered me into the DWB site, then after a while a pretty Mexican dachshund started to visit my blog regularly. Soon after that, a bunch of other dog-bloggers became my friends too, and I started getting more comments!

So in honor of the Oof, I decided to make an award to let these pawsome dogs know how special they are!

The Oof Award goes to the following dogs:

Lorenza
The Musketeers
Martha and Bailey
Happy
Maggie and Mitch
Sugar
Khyra

I've since made a lot of other really special friends, and you're all really pawsome too... but I felt that I should do something extra for these dogs. Thanks to everyone out there for being my friends!

April Fools!

Recently, the Beagle from down the road told me about this pawsome event called "April Fools". Basically, for the entire month of April, you can make fools out of your humans! I was really excited, so I went and peed on my Pops' shoes, I peed on Momma's leg, and then I did poopy in Aunt Mainey's room. And these weren't the little marking pees like when Momma sprays her perfume... these were the nice long "lift your leg for a good 10 seconds" pees!

Of course, my Humans were really really upset with me. I didn't know why, of course, since it's April Fools and I'm allowed to. Besides, it's Pops' job to clean up after me. He should be happy that I've given him things to do!

Oops...

Then I found out from Tooky the Wise Turtle that April Fools doesn't work like that. In fact, it's only the first day of April and not the whole month. So that's why my Humans are so upset. Oops!

Airport? NOOOOO!!!!

Last night, there was some very unusual stuff going on in the bedroom. Momma was tossing some of her clothes into a big black bag. She doesn't normally do that at all. So I went to check it out.

"What's with the clothes, Momma?
What are you doing?"

So as I snooped around a bit more, she kept piling on and on the clothes, and then started charging up the camera and asking Pops for SD cards and stuff. What's an SD card, anyway? Is it something like a V-day card, like the one Brutus got from Stella? I didn't think so... and something wasn't right.

Then I heard my Humans use the terrifying word: "airport."


Noooo!!! My Momma's going away??? What if she goes away for a long time, like Aunt Mainey and Uncle Eff? What am I going to do without Momma? I'm freaking out here! I don't know what to do!!! What if Momma's leaving me forever? Pops doesn't even know how to give me a bath without getting soap in my eyes!

I'm soooo sad! Hiew hiew hiew!!!

I miss Aunt Mainey

During the weekend, Aunt Mainey packed her bags and went to a place called the "airport" and she hasn't been back for a few days. I keep going into her room thinking she's going to be there, but either she's hiding from me or she's not around. I think she's not around.

I miss the smell of Aunt Mainey's socks

Momma and Pops told me that she's gone back to school and she'll be back again at the end of the year, so I'll look forward to that.

Hurry up and come home, Aunt Mainey! In the meantime, I guess I'll just keep trying to summon you back with Golden Offerings in your room. After all, you're the only member of the family to have stepped on my poop so far.

Happy Chinese New Year!

Wow it's been like a week since I've last put up a blog post, and it's been because it's been a crazy week over here. Well, it's kinda crazy. Anyway, it was recently Chinese New Year over here in Singapore. I could've sworn that there was another new year about two months ago, but here it comes again, apparently.

Chinese New Year is like an excuse to put up lots of red things, and go visiting all your relatives and stuff. Aunt Mainey likes the part where all the married folk have to give money in little red packets to unmarried folk, but Momma and Pops were less enthusiastic about that.

On the first day of CNY, I didn't really think it was all that special at all. My Humans sorta just left the house early in the morning, and then didn't come back till later. It was like any other day in my life, really. Although when they came back, they brought a whole bunch of relatives with them... including a couple of human puppies for me to play with! That was pretty cool, but we forgot to take photos though.

There's some good and bad news about CNY though. The bad news is that Momma thought I really needed to take a bath before all the visitors came to play with me, so yeah... I got stuck in the Torture Chamber and she soaked me as usual. You'd think that I'd get used to this after a year, but it never gets any less icky.

The good news is that I got so clean that I was allowed onto the bed!

Cuddling with Eve

This isn't the first time I was allowed onto the bed, but Momma finally let me play with her plushie Eve! I was never allowed to go near her before, but on this day I got to snuggle up with her. That was awesome!

"Hey, I wasn't doing anything..."

Anyway, there was a lot of food going around, but I didn't get to eat any of it cos I got some wet poopies again. I hate those wet poopies. They went away for a while, but came back for a couple of days during CNY.

Oh, and everyone's all saying that this year is the year of the Tiger. To that I say "who cares?" It's just a giant cat... and cats are nobody's friends.

Anyway... I can catch up with everyone's blogs again! Yay!

Super Bowl Monday

Yes you read right: here in Singapore it's Super Bowl Monday because the sun rises earlier here than over there... or something like that. My Pops tried to explain that to me, but it just went into one of my big furry ears and out the other.

The Super Bowl crowd
during the iffy half-time show

Anyway, a whole bunch of friends came around to watch the game, like Uncle Qian (the one that Salinger referred to as "turdley" and another one of you called a "douche"... though you've since changed the comment, whoever you are hahahah!), Uncle Javad, and others that I've not met before.

My first Super Bowl was pretty exciting at first, but it got really boring later on when people stopped showering me with affection and kept staring at the screen. By the fourth quarter, I was snoozing soundly until someone caught an "in-conception" or something. That made everyone want to wake me up with loud cheering.

Saints win! Saints win!

The good news is, the team that Momma and Pops wanted to win actually won! So that's great! Though deep down inside, Pops wanted the Vikings to win. I forgot to tell you guys what happened after they lost to the Saints two weeks ago. Pops was so sad... I've never seen him that sad before! Oh well, the Saints were his second choice at least.

Oh well... now it's time to wait for the next season!

Birthday photos from the park

Last Saturday, the whole family (except Grandpa, who had something else on) took Knuckles and I to the park for our birthday. It was tons of fun, and there was cake, snacks (like real honest-to-goodness meat bones!) and presents!

Our birthday cake

When we got there, there was a huge crowd of children who are here on a vacation from China! I don't know where China is, but I'm sure it's somewhere near Chinatown. Anyway, these kids were all dressed up in red, and when they saw Knuckles and I, they went berserk and started taking so many photos of us! We were like celebrity dogs, and we couldn't look anywhere without a flash going off in our face.

There were many many more kids
than just the ones in this picture

Then we cut the cake, and ran around. Aunt Mainey's friend came along and she gave me a plushie that she'd purposely fished out of those toy-catching machines at the video arcade. There was just so much going on! At one point, it started raining and Momma was really upset that the day would be ruined, but the rain only lasted a few minutes and we got to run around some more.

Oooh cake!

Running with Momma and Aunt Jol

My new present: Marie Cat!

Later in the day, this human puppy started playing with us. She just couldn't resist our fluffiness and kept wanting to touch our fur. She was really cute, and ran around with us too. But Knuckles and I were too fast for her to catch up. Still, we'd stop and let her touch us once in a while.

The human puppy loved to run with us

The human puppy did the Vulcan nerve pinch
on Knuckles. I want to learn that trick too!

By the end of the day, we were both really really tired. We could barely keep our eyes opened for photos!

Yawn!

Double yawn!

Oh, and check out the Photoshop magic that Momma did on our photos to make them look nicer. Momma just learned how to do something called a vignette (sounds like Italian food). I think it was worth the wait!

This is me, looking handsome

And here's Knuckles, looking pretty handsome too

After the park, we just went home and slept. I love birthdays! I wish I could have one every year!

It's my bday!

Shhh... My Humans are still asleep, so I have to be quiet while I write out this quick post. Today is my birthday, and my Humans couldn't wait to give me my new presents so they gave them to me late last night. I got new snacks and my own Xbox controller!

My birthday gifts!

I've never had a birthday before, but it's so awesome! I mean, I get presents! It's like Christmas all over again, except this time I'm special!

Momma fed me my new snacks, and I loved them all.

 

Waiting for the command to EAT!

Yes, I'm very happy now!

Pops was so happy about the Xbox controller, because now it means we have the same toy. But first, he had to teach me to tell which one is mine and which is his. But I'm smart! I know which one's mine!

Xbox controller plushy!

I'm really happy with my new Xbox controller, but who is Pops kidding? The Beagle from down the road says it's cruel to get a puppy an Xbox controller for his birthday, when there isn't a working Xbox in the house! Hurry up and fix or replace your Xbox, Pops!

My brother Knuckles and Aunt Jol is coming over later, and we're going to go to the park! Momma says she's got a surprise for me there! I'm so excited!