On The Job With Duke!

Yesterday morning, we loaded the pups in the truck with us and headed to work. Lucy spent the day with her Daddy, and Duke spent the day with me! I just love having the big guy here to keep me company, and of course, to protect me!

Once a month, my Mom & Dad come down to Pittsburgh. My dad is receiving some kind of injections to help him with the back problems that he's having. While it's a horrible reason to have to come to Pittsburgh, they usually swing by the store to visit me, so I get to spend an hour or so chatting with them which I otherwise wouldn't be able to do. Yesterday was that day! Duke was so happy to see his Grandparents! He was so excited that his enthusiasm was impossible to contain for the first 10 minutes that they were here!

I'm usually the one behind the camera, so I don't have that many pictures of myself with the kids! Yesterday when Duke plopped down on my lap, my mom couldn't resist taking a picture of me with my "lap dog"! I love it! As you can see, he doesn't quite fit on my lap, but that doesn't deter him!

My parents aren't quite used to my wild kids, and my mom told me yesterday that she thinks Duke looks like he wants to eat her.... What this sweet face? He's a big love bug! I'm pretty sure it's just the size of his head that makes her think this way.

Duke settled down shortly after my parents left, he curled up at my feet by the heater and took a nap. Then he helped me eat some carrots at lunch time. We took several walks to take full advantage of the 60 degree weather and sunshine that was here yesterday. By 8:00, he was more than ready for his Daddy and Lucy to come pick us up. He was so ready, that he ran straight to the door, and waited! I can't lie and say that I wasn't ready to go home and see Rob and Lucy too!

I must say that I feel very lucky to be able to bring my boxers on the job with me! It's always great to spend the day hanging out with either one of them!

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...

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!

Under The Weather

For the last several days, Lucy has been flicking her ears. Her Daddy and I made some very honest attempts to put ear cleaning solution in them, but failed. Although we were unsuccessful at getting her ears back in perfect condition, I will say that both of us escaped without any injuries.

I am allowed to massage Lucy's ears, but as soon as I lift up an ear, she's outta there! So, I had no choice but to take Lucy to see Dr. Mary first thing yesterday morning, who confirmed my suspicions. Lucy has an ear infection! Thankfully, Dr. Mary and her wonderful assistant, Nikki were able to put medicine in Lucy's ear (after muzzling her, of course!) and she left the ear alone most of the day yesterday. But, I could tell she wasn't feeling good. She just hasn't been herself these last couple of days, and her mama feels terrible about it!

So of course, she's getting lots of hugs, kisses and cuddles. And I made her favorite meal for dinner last night (chicken & yams). I'm hoping these ear infections don't become common occurrences, because I can't stand to see my little girl sick! We'll be going back to visit Dr. Mary in two weeks, and hopefully my little boxer baby is as good as new by then!

Lucy's Take... RIP Sweet Gator

I'ves gots some bad news to share with you. My little greens gator who amazingly came back intos my life froms outs of nowhere a coupla of months ago, has disappeared agains. Here's hows it happened. Can you help me figure outs where he mights have gone?

My hooman got a littles confused last night, insteads of throwing my gator down da stairs for me to chase, she threws it up da stairs. I didn'ts want to makes her feels bad, so I went after him anyway!

I'ms comin down, ma... But's yous is supposed to be ups der at da top of da stairs... My Daddy's rights, you really is blonde!

Ughs oh! I tinks my gator has suffered an injury. Is he gonnas be okay, Mom? He's gots a really big booboo!

Yous is my favorite buddy, lil gator. I don'ts wants you to go. Hurrys up and gets better, please?

Oh no! He's gone. Did yas haves to do dat, Mom? Where is he? What's did you do wit my gator friend? I couldve's dug a bigs hole for hims in da back yard. Or betters yet, we could have takens him back to the Floridas house... Gators belong in Floridas. What's am I's gonna do without him?

Forgive Us For Being MIA

A new piece of furniture arrived with Lucy's Daddy on Tuesday evening, and Lucy couldn't have been happier to see it. She wasted no time curling up in the chair and making herself very comfortable! As a matter of fact, from the time the chair arrived, till I left Florida on Friday, I caught Lucy snuggled in the chair several times.

Don't you just love getting a picture of your pup that really captures the personality? That's the way I feel about this picture!

Lucy's Take...My Hooman Is Rug Crazy

And she's tinks dat I's is a decorator too.

Da UPS guy, who's is very nice to me by da way, keeps bringing rugs. He hasn't broughts me any treats, thoughs.

Rugs, rugs and more rugs.

I don'ts quite understand da obsession wit da rugs, but I will say dat she has good taste, and always asks me what I tinks.

Dis rug came today, and I helped hers put it in da foyer. She was very excited about how prettys it looked, and den she made me pose for a picture for dat darn flashy ting.

I must look goods on da rug, cause she said "it's a keeper, Lucy!".

I hopes we're almosts done wit da rug ting, cause I'm tireds of testing em out!

You's are not gonna believe dis, but my hooman left me at homes tonight and went to dinners with anutter boxer mom.

She was gones for hours, and hours, and hours. Der couldn't have possiblys been any foods left in da restaurant when dos two left she was gones so long. I can'ts imagines whats tooks so long, but I suspects she and Deanna were talkings about me and Austin and Riley.

Alls I know is, it doesn't takes me dat long to eat. Mys goodness, ma!

And she didn'ts even brings me home anyting. I don'ts tink dat was very nice. What was my hooman tinking?

Good nights, friends. My hooman says it's time to go to beds now because I wokes her up dis morning at 5:15 by laying on her face and doings da wiggles. And she's tired. So, I's guessin I better go snuggles.

Peese Esses: My hooman says dat Daddy is coming to get us next weeks! She's very, very happys and I am too! We'ves missed Daddy so much!

2 Princesses And The Sunshine

It has been a joke in our house since we started the process of buying the house in Orlando that Rob was buying his 2 Princesses a castle. I think Lucy takes the job of being a princess much more to heart than her human does.

It took us 36 hours in the truck (thanks to that lovely stuff falling from the sky that we call freezing rain) to get from Pittsburgh to Orlando. Lucy certainly looked like a princess snuggled up in the back of the truck. She was such a great little puppy on the drive! I was so proud of her. Of course, the last 6 hours or so, if she could have spoken, I'm sure she would have been saying "Are we der yet? Nopes, are yous kidding me? I's is goin back to sleep!"

When we finally arrived at the house, and Lucy was done running like a madwoman through all the very empty rooms, her first priority was to check out the neighborhood. She loves sitting in the front window and gazing out. I'm pretty sure she's on the lookout for another boxer, but we haven't seen one of those since we got here.

I don't know which she likes more, being able to look out all of the windows or chasing the bugs around the house. I'm starting to wonder if Lucy is part lizard, she's pretty intent on catching all of the flying creatures buzzing around our new "castle!"

(Don't you just love those wrinkles around Lucy's wiggle butt? I think they're just precious!)

I've put 5 gallons of paint on the walls since Friday... Wooh, I'm tired. Of course, every single wall in this house requires paint at this point, so I haven't even scratched the surface.

Lucy's done her best to assist her mama by running off with the tape, or my paint brush. Sometimes the little boxer gets a little close to the wet paint as you can see by the paint on her head (which she refuses to let me wash off... "I likes dat paint on my heads, ma. We matches, you and I's both have paints on our heads..."

After 20 minutes of watching me roll up and down, up and down, Lucy gets bored and retreats to the bedroom to catch a few zzzz's! I've completely given up on making the bed and arranging pillows. Lucy just rumples em' all up again...

Unfortunately, Lucy's Daddy couldn't stay in the sunshine with his two princesses any longer, so early Sunday morning, he got up and jumped on the road. Lucy didn't quite know what to make of the situation, and looked rather disgusted when she figured out that her buddy was gone.

Since we've gotten here, Rob has been taking Lucy for 6 or 7 walks a day to occupy her while I painted. (Rob hates to paint and will do anything to get out of it!) It doesn't take Lucy long to learn anything, so two days was all it took for Lucy to figure out that walking around the neighborhood all day long is a lot of fun. Now she sits at the door and whines to go out, even if we've only been back in the house for 15 minutes. The weather here is so beautiful that I don't even mind walking her 6 or 7 times a day!

The Look

I'm probably an over-sensitive person. As a matter of fact, I'm sure that I am. I wonder constantly if Lucy is getting enough love, affection, exercise, and eating the right food.

This morning, I was running a little bit behind schedule. I've been having a hard time dragging myself out of bed, and frankly, Lucy and her Daddy both have been too. It seems that every morning, we get up later and later. At 8:00 AM, Lucy woke up and realized that she needed to be closer to her human, so she walked to the head of the bed, and settled herself in right next to me. She put her head right under my cheek. This is one of my favorite things, so you can bet I wasn't going anywhere.

At 8:15, the realization hit me that getting out of bed and getting ready for work was starting to become an emergency! Lucy wasn't in a big hurry, and she stayed in bed for about 5 minutes before joining me in the morning rituals.

Anyway, I let Lucy outside, made coffee, and got her breakfast ready. By that time, she was ready to come inside. I fed Lucy and went to jump in the shower after taking Rob a cup of coffee. 10 minutes after getting out of the shower, I could hear Rob in the bedroom trying to coax Lucy back out of bed...

I was getting ready to curl my hair when I heard a commotion downstairs. I peeked out the bathroom door and Lucy was sitting at the bottom of the stairs holding her big yellow and black rope toy and looking at me longingly. "Comes play wit me, Ma!"

THE LOOK!

Oh boy! I felt guilty! I instantly dropped the curling iron, and sat down on the floor at the top of the stairs. Lucy did a little wiggle, and came running up the stairs with the rope toy in her mouth. We played for about 10 minutes, me pulling the toy away from her (tug o war!) and tossing it down the stairs and her chasing it. I know it wasn't long enough, but what's a girl to do?

We'll have to play when I get home! I still feel guilty!

Lucy's Take.... 300 Followers!!! Woo hoo!

My hooman and I are so excited to have 300! followers. We's loves each and everyones of you, and loves reading your comments, thoughts and suggestions. My hooman says it's a great honor to have 300 followers, and she's nevers wrong! So, thanks yous all for following us and readings about our adventures. We loves you, all! (Oops, I's already saids dat... I guessin I's reallys love you!)

It's really snowing here in Pennsylvania. But, befores all da snow started, my hooman buckled me in to my harness, and we's went out for a long walk. It's was so colds out, it's only 15 dogrees here.
Here's I am, all buckled ins and ready to go. Dats my hoomans new vacuum behind me. She says it's for da Florida house. Daddy says mommy is koo-koo for washers & dryers and vacuum cleaners. I don't know what dat means, but he laughs when he says it. I could care less if's we have a vaccums for da Florida house or not, I just hope it doesn't make as much noise as the vacuums for da Pennsylvania house!
"Heys, ma, I tinks we better turns around. Looks how far we's gone? I don't see da house anymore. Cans we turn around now? It's too colds out here, and I tinks my heater is calling me..."
"Yeps, I was rights. Da heater was waiten for me. I gots comfy with my bone and figureds it was times to get warmed up."

Stays warm and dry, my friends... I'm offs to see whats else I cans get into...

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

The snow fell all day yesterday in Pittsburgh. By the time Lucy and I left the store, the roads were a bit messy but passable. Of course, by late evening, everything was a big mess. Lucy kept going to the door and ringing the bell, but wouldn't go anywhere once she felt the cold blast of air.

Lucy was perfectly content to sit inside and watch the snowfall last evening. And when her Daddy arrived home and plugged in "Lucy's Heater", she became even more content to stay indoors and keep warm.

Lucy's well trained "hooman" decided that perhaps her little boxer just wasn't comfortable enough and decided to add a blanket to make Lucy just a little bit more comfortable!

I'm pretty sure that Lucy approved, because she didn't move for hours. She was perfectly content snoozing at her "hooman's" feet with the heater blowing right on her.

Okay, I Guess I'll Go Out...

...but I don't have to like it, Ma!

I don't quite understand Lucy's disapproval of the cold. Some days, she doesn't seem to mind it one bit, and other days, my boxer digs her heels in and refuses to leave the warmth of the house.

A week or so ago, Lucy's Daddy brought home a heater from work and plugged it in by the couch. When I got home from work, Lucy was zonked out in front of the heater taking a nap. The other night, I got down on the floor with her and stuck my freezing cold hands in front of the heater... You should have seen the look I got. It was as if Lucy was saying to me "Hey, that's my heat... go find your own!"

I'm pretty sure my boxer has common sense, because she eventually figures out that if she's got to be outside, she might as well make the best of it and she'll run off and find a toy to play with.

Lucy and I have been doing a lot of work on the fetch game. She loves playing tug of war, more than she likes to fetch. So, it becomes a game of cat and mouse as I attempt to get the toy of the moment out of Lucy's grip. I've discovered that if I pretend that I'm not interested, she'll eventually drop the toy, and sit waiting for me to toss it out into the yard.

Lucy definitely seems to be at an age (she'll be one year old next month!) where she is very interested in listening and learning, much more so than she has been in the past. It's like my little boxer is a sponge, just waiting for my next command. She learns so quick it's shocking! (Just like the situation with the camera, she knows exactly what's coming when she hears that baby fire up!)

But, along with a very noticeable desire to learn, Lucy's mischievous side is also making a lot of appearances. It seems that Lucy has figured out that making her human giggle is a very good thing, and when she gets into something that she's not supposed to be in, her "bad" human has a habit of giggling. Lucy knows she's in trouble, and her little bottom ends up wiggling as if to say "I'm soooo sorry, Mom!"

The Four Feet/Foot Rule

I read somewhere a few weeks ago that the amount of space allocated for any one being in the bed, is determined by the number of feet you have- not how many feet tall you are. Clearly, that rule applies in our home because my 4 footed little boxer somehow always manages to take up more than her fair share of the bed. Her favorite spot to sleep is right in the middle of the bed, in between her Daddy and I. Rob claims that it's jealousy and that Lucy's protecting me. I personally think that Lucy has figured out that the warmest place in the bed is in between her two humans.


I found the most wonderful red and green Christmas collar for Lucy the other day. It has wonderful little bells on all of the petals. I couldn't wait for it to arrive. I was imagining Lucy sitting in the middle of the living room looking festive and posing for the camera so that we could send out what would be a very late Christmas card. However, that wasn't the way that it went down. It took me two days to even get her to let me put it on her, and when I finally did get it on her, she became obsessed with getting off. The moral of this story is that there is obviously no Christmas picture. This is the second Christmas accessory that I've purchased for Lucy in hopes of getting a great holiday shot... Maybe today will be my lucky day.