Guest Blogger...Remembering Marco

My Boxer Mailing List friend, Joanne lost her boy Marco several weeks ago. I've volunteered my blog as a tribute to her sweet boy. I saw Marco's sweet face on her Christmas card back in December and immediately fell in love! After seeing his puppy pictures, I'm even more enamored with him!

Marco was born on December 3, 2006. The breeder was in the family. We had been contemplating a boxer for a while, as we had grown to love the breed by seeing the boxers that our relatives owned. I had actually picked out another boxer from this litter, a light brindle female. But someone else came to look at the dogs, and fell in love with that same dog. So I had the option of keeping the female or letting someone else buy her and take Marco instead. I guess there was some karma there, as Marco turned out to be my heart dog. But I sometimes wonder how that female is doing.

Wasn't he a cute puppy?


One of the greatest joys in Marco's life was bestowing a face washing on one of his humans. Here he was 3 months old ready to give my grandson, Jordan a face licking!

This is one of anly a few pictures that I have with Marco and I, as I am usually behind the camera, not in front.




My grandkids had to look out for their toys with Marco around, especially when he was young (he was 7 months in this photo).


As you can well imagine this ball didn't last too long.

Again, Marco at his favourite spot with my grandson. They both loved looking out the window.











Marco had a few special dogs that he really liked - one was Gabby - they had some great times running around getting dirty.


As you BML owners with white boxers know,they sure can get dirty. By the way, Gabby is Jades mom.

















Marco was a pretty good big brother, but at first he was pretty rough on little Jade. We had to keep Jade outside the fence when she first got home, because he wouldn't let her go pee, and played quite rough. But as you can see, he also spent some time teaching Jade the 'ropes' on playing with sticks.



Jade and I miss Marco very much!

Lucy's Take... Reportin' For Duty, Ma!

Hi's everybodys! I gots to spend the day with my mama at work today, and thoughts that I would tell you all abouts da fun we had! I really enjoyed havings a girls day with my mom! She gaves me lots of hugs and kisses, and we played hides and go seeks for a little whiles dis morning! For lunch, we hads some pizza and Mikes and Ikes... I likes da yellow ones!

"I'ms ready to helps you sell some furnitures, Ma!! Brings on da customers. Where's dey ats?"

I hads some time on my paws, so I decided to finds a good spot to hide my bone for laters! This spot worked for a little whiles...

... Den da hooman found it and puts it on da desk by her coffee. I don'ts know why she puts it der, but I had to gets it back...

.. So dats I could chew on its! Mom boughts dis bone for Dukes a couples of weeks ago, I dont's know why he didn't likes it! I loves it!

Dis evening she let me clean out a peanuts butter jar! Dats was a lot of fun...

... Ands I mades sure I gots every last drop of da peanuts butter dat I coulds reach! My tongue can only get so far into the jar!

Mom's didn't gets any pictures, but I also gots to meet 3 little kids! She saids I was very good wits them! They gaves me tons of kisses and hugs and tugged on my tail! Dats was awesome... I wonders why we don't have any of dos at home? Mom... Cans we get some little kids? Pleeeeeze?

The Best Spot

The last several nights we have had a battle of sorts in the bed. For many months now, Lucy has been very content to let Duke sleep at the top of the bed next to me. For whatever reason, she's just not content with that anymore. Maybe she's decided it's her turn, and he needs to retire to the end of the bed and give her a shot at snuggling with her mom, but he has no intention of doing that.

Last night started out like every other night. Duke jumped up into the bed and got comfy; the top half of his body on my chest, a paw on either side of my head and his head resting dead center on my chest. Within minutes, he was snoring. Lucy had curled up on the other side of me by my hips. She kept looking up at Duke and I, and she would sigh! I knew it was only a matter of time before she decided to correct the problem.

Somehow I managed to wiggle part of Duke's body off of my chest, which is no small task with an 80 pound boxer I can assure you. I had just settled in and started to get comfortable when I noticed that Lucy had gotten up and was making her way slowly up to the top of the bed and my pillow, with her little bottom wiggling the whole way. She knew exactly what she was doing, and didn't much care what Duke thought about what she was going to do.

It took her only a minute, she circled a couple of times, still wiggling, and settled down right next to me with her head on the pillow, and this time when she sighed, I knew it was a contented sigh and not a frustrated one.

At 4:00 AM, I was awakened by the fact that the room was so hot that I could barely stand it. I got up and turned the space heater off and made a trip to the bathroom. By that time, both kids had gotten up to and figured if I got to make a pit stop, so did they. I let them both out for a quick tinkle, and then we all climbed back into bed. This time Lucy jumped into bed and got first pick of the best spot, right next to my head while Duke had to settle for snuggling in at my hip!

The "Best Spot" in our bed is very clearly next to mama's head!

Moving On...

The stolen porterhouse steaks of a week ago are still a very sore subject in our house. Not so sore that Lucy & Duke's Daddy didn't think of them when he was standing at the butcher's counter ordering a bunch of thick cut porterhouse steaks last evening because those steaks had awesome bones on them!

Rob and I were more than happy to share our bones with the kids, after they sat and waited patiently, of course....

Poor Lucy still doesn't get why Daddy and I are saying funny things to Duke about "The Circle of Trust!"

Be Careful What You Tell A Boxer....

...Because they just might hold you to it! And if they can't make you comply, they're probably going to take matters into their own paws. Let me tell you the story so you can relate to what happened...

You remember that Duke was at work with me on Sunday, and he was such a good boy all day long, greeting customers, making new friends and making people fall in love with him. At the end of the day, I told him that he was being so good that he deserved a steak!

That night on our way home, Rob and I stopped at the grocery store and bought a bunch of steak with the intention of cooking it for dinner. It was a nice thought, but there was something wrong with the grill. And while Rob messed around with the grill and tried to get it to work, I pounded out (2) very thick porterhouse steaks. He came back into the house, and was in the kitchen getting something to drink. The steaks were on the counter, and I had to pee. I figured since my husband was in the kitchen, it was probably safe to go to the bathroom, but what I didn't take into consideration (silly me!) was that there was a football game on in the living room and my darling husband wasn't paying any more attention to what our sweet counter surfing boxer was doing than the fact that I had left the room.

When I came back to kitchen, the steaks weren't on the counter.
Me: "You got the grill fixed?" "No, why would you say that?"
Rob: "No, what made you think that?"
Me: "The steaks are gone!"

I immediately turned around to see my sweet Duke chowing down on the remainder of the porterhouse steak, and poor Lucy trying to get a bite of it for herself! Needless to say that Duke's amazing performance at work with me on Sunday was usurped by his stealing 3 pounds of porterhouse steak from our kitchen counter...

Our Perfect Picture...Almost

This picture of my kids was almost the perfect picture! If only Duke had been looking at the camera like Lucy was! I guess it's proof that this isn't a perfect world that we are living in.

I snapped this one, and then Lucy (who has a harder time sitting still than Duke does) jumped up to come say hello to her mama! And there wasn't any treat that would lure her back up there beside Duke. She was probably thinking that her mama has enough pictures!

Sometimes I wish I had more of these perfect pictures. I guess we just need to keep practicing and hope for the best. In the meantime, I do really love this picture of the kids. I should tell you that this is one of the kids favorite spots in the house to hang out. I wonder what it is about this spot?

Duke's Take... On The Job With My Human

Hey, guys! It's me Duke, again. I'm on the job with my Mama today. Lucy went with Daddy, and I'm gonna help mama out today. Here's how a day on the job looks...

This is me standing guard at the front door. I have to protect my human from any unsavory characters because my Dad isn't around... Sure hope that I don't have to throw anybody out of here today!

I must be doing the job right because my human has dried lamb treats in her hand. I always sit and wait patiently for her to give them to me. Sometimes a paw on her leg speeds up the process. These humans can be slow sometimes...

Gotta chill out for a little while, you know, take a load off and get ready for all of those unsavory characters.

A boxers work is never done!

Perps In The Yard

On Tuesday afternoon, it was beautiful here in Pittsburgh, and I was lucky enough to have my 2nd day in a row off (don't hate me, I worked 21 days in a row to get 2 days off in a row!) Okay, it was beautiful for January in Western Pennsylvania. I spent as much time outside with the dogs as I possibly cold. Even though it was a tad chilly, the sun was out and it felt great to all 3 of us!

I knew as soon as I looked at Lucy and Duke that they were paying very close attention to something going on in the yard, although I had no idea what. At this point, any rabbit stupid enough to still be hanging out in our yard, is fair game! They've had plenty of warning, and more than ample time to get the heck out of Dodge!


Within seconds of my pondering what the kids were watching, and my managing to snap a picture, they had both taken off across the yard- full speed ahead, and they both went straight to the shed. I haven't been down to the shed in a while because our yard is basically a big mud hole, so I had no idea that Lucy had managed to dig a hole to China underneath the shed! She can get her whole body under there, and she managed to come out pretty muddy, which Duke wanted no part of! He was very content to stand on the sidelines, supervising the whole raid!

I still don't know what's living under the shed. I do know that there should be a lot less mud underneath the shed because Lucy tracked a whole bucket full of it into the house! I'm just thankful that at least one of my children has sense enough not to get covered from head to toe in mud every time he goes outside... I love you Duke!

Friday Business

I have two very important things to blog about today... So, I guess I had better get started! Times a wastin, right?

Here's a cause that we can all get behind: The Coalition to Unchain Dogs. I cried when I saw this beautiful brindle boxer, Tiger chained. And I cried tears of relief when he was un-chained. He probably ran for days, and days! Without further ado, meet Tiger!:



Lucy, Duke and I were thrilled to be the recipients of an award. We received the Pawsome Blogger Award from our friend Basset Mama... We love visiting with her and her two little basset sweethearts! As many of you know, my first puppy love was brought on by a sweet little basset hound named Nicky! So, it's always a happy visit for us!



In order to accept this award, I must pass it along to 8 blogs that bring me fun, love, laughs and furiendship.

1. Maggie Mae Says
2. The Antics of Two French Bulldogs
3. How Sam Sees It
4. Oh, Corbin
5. From Sophie's View
6. Browndog CBR
7. Downunder Daisy
8. Gardening With Wyatt

I wanted badly to bring the children to work with me today, but it's 16 degrees here (even less if you factor in the windchill), and we had to switch vehicles, and unload a truck. So, I figured it was in their best interest to stay home today and snuggle up with each other and keep warm! I gave them strict orders to keep each other warm today as I handed each of them a biscuit! I'm sure that Lucy's taking my orders seriously, she always does, especially if the orders have anything to do with striking some odd pose at her brother's expense! Hopefully, their Daddy and I will be home early tonight!

Duke's Take... My Sassin Little Sister

It's me, Duke. I've never blogged before, but Lucy convinced me that I needed to do it, so I guess I had better listen. Making Lucy mad just isn't a good thing- take it from me, I should know! And I guess in order to get some fair representation in our house, I should probably speak for myself once and a while. So, here goes...

I'm a pretty quiet, laid back fellow. I don't have much to say, except when mom is taking too long to get my dinner ready, or when Lucy takes a toy from me that I want to play with. Other than that, I just keep to myself, although I love to snuggle with the human, and because Lucy likes it so much, I let her snuggle with me too. Gotta keep the ladies happy. I'll never get any peace and quiet if the ladies aren't happy, ya know? I guess I'm one step ahead of the game since I already know that. My Daddy is still working on that- I keep trying to explain it to him, but it's taking some time to get the message across!

Anyway, moving on to other topics, I want to tell you how much I love my new family and my new home. Having a little sister is great, although, I must tell you, she can be a bit much to handle at times. Daddy always says that I'm way to easy on her, but I don't think I am. I'm a polite boy, and she's littler than I am, and well... she's a girl. How hard can I be on her?

Sometimes, I do have to put her in place. This morning, for example, she was being really mouthy! Mama calls it "Sassin", and she just wouldn't stop "Sassin", so I had to do my best to help Mama out, and calm her down. Sometimes there's just no other choice but to grab that little darlin' by the neck and chomp down a bit... I don't ever hurt her, Mama says I'm very gentle with her. And sometimes, she even stops "Sassin" when I do it. This morning wasn't one of those mornings though!

Sometimes, you just have to step back from the situation, and hope that some miraculous force may be with you when you return to take care of the "Sassin" little boxer named Lucy!

Mama laughed at me this morning when she saw me up on the ottomen with my eyes glowing! I don't know what came over me, I just knew that if I didn't stop Lucy from "Sassin" Mama was gonna go crazy! See sometimes, she wakes up with a headache, and that horrific noise my sister makes, just doesn't go well with Mama's headaches!

I don't know what happened to me this morning, but by the time I jumped off the sofa, Lucy had quit barking, Mama was laughing, and once again, I had managed to save the day! Gosh, sometimes I think my work will never be done. Especially if my job is keeping Lucy in line. I'll tell you, it's a challenge sometimes, I don't know how my Mama ever did it before I came to live with her!

Well, I guess I've said everything I need to say for now, I sure had fun! I'm betting my Mama will let me blog again soon, but only if she thinks I did a good job! I'm sure she will, she's always telling me that I'm a very good boy! I think that's a good thing.

Oh, she just asked me to tell you, that she's got a surprise for you all tomorrow! She got an award today, and she's going to share it with you all tomorrow!

A Pouncing Boxer Puppy

Lucy has this thing she does. I've never quite been able to describe it. And I've never been able to catch her in the act either. But, one night last winter, Lucy came across a frozen cube on our deck... The next 20 minutes were minutes that I'll never forget. The following video took me back to that moment when I saw it. It's exactly what Lucy did to that ice cube on our deck!

I hope you get as many giggles out of it as I did!

Lucy's Take... I's Finally Got My Blog Back!

I know's whats you are all tinkin, dats I let da human take over our blog. She's been doins such a good job of it, that I've just been lettin her takes it over. And Duke, well he's not really interested in bloggin... I's was sittins on da deck dis mornin wishin dats I would gets a chance to talk to you alls, and wonderins what I would tells you about if I did! After alls, it's been months since I've been able to write my own blog.

My life sure has changed for da better since da hoomans brought Duke home! I luvs havin a brudder and he comes in handy very often. Has da hooman told ya alls what a great pillow he is? I just loves to cuddle wits him and makes sure dat he knows how much I luvs him!

He can be's a little strange at times. For some odd reason, he doesn't always likes to go outside. For xsample, if it's cold or rainin outs, he hates to be outside. And lots of time, he just stands in da doorway, watchin me plays in da yard. I tinks dats he's really just waitens for me to come back inside so he can play wits me! It's whats he would rather do than anytins else!

... And he's really smarts! He tinks I have excellents taste in toys. I knows dis because he always wants whatever toy I's is playin wits! He's go to some pretty extreme measures to get dems off of me too!

Well, I gots to run... Duke just grabbed a toy, so I needs to go plays wit him! i really donts wants to keep hims waiten! It was nice visiten wits you all! Hopefully I'll be's backs soon, but if nots I hope my hooman is doin a goods job of entertain yous! Just be careful, and don'ts believe evertins you reads about Duke & I... sometimes she can be a little goofy, but we's luvs her anyways!

Everyone's A Critic...

One of the sweet joys of life is having the pups in the kitchen with me while I'm cooking. Or, should I say, one of the joys in life USUALLY, is having the pups in the kitchen with me while I'm cooking... Of course, to everything there is an exception and today was that exception.


Lucy: "She's takin ways too long up der. What's do you tinks she's doing?"
Duke: "I agree, it's takins a very long time, and she's not droppins nuttin to us. Are we sures she knows what's she's doin?"
Lucy: "Maybes dats da problem!"
Duke: "I'ms tireds of waiten, I'm takins me a nap!"


"Hey, ma! We tinks it's definitely dones! Buts if you's is not so sure, we'll try its out for ya, okay?"

I had no choice, it was either drop the boxers a piece of chicken, or listen to them protesting loudly over how long it was taking me to cook! And since I've already got a raging headache, I dropped some chicken- and in case you're wondering, the critics were right, it was most certainly done! The critics were correct again! I knew there was a good reason for having them in the kitchen!