Saturday, November 29, 2008

Messin' around!

Saturday...long weekend. We did nothing today. Mom fixed a wiggly toilet seat and I practiced the art of napping. We watched movies and the TV picture went out for a bit, so we reset it. Lots of things can be fixed by unplugging them for a bit. Like telephones, computers, televisions.....lots of stuff.

Tomorrow we go to work at the office. We get more done on one Sunday than we do in five weekdays. Strewth, it is. I'm learning Australian thanks to the Bottle Tree.

Next week my mom gets a new eye and my Uncle Michael travels to Kharagpur, West Bengal. We are sending our prayers that he stays safe and sound. That's like half-way between Mumbai and Thailand.

G'day...

Mary-Margaret

Friday, November 28, 2008

"Armageddon" over Thanksgiving dinner!!

(parden the pun...I couldn't help it!)

Arrrrrrrrrrrghhhh....! I think the turkey won this match. Ohhhhhhhhh, [urp!] I had the most everly best Thanksgiving Day. It's the day after now. Ugh! Here's how it went:

10:00AM - left for Grandpapa's
12:00PM - arrived and got fed lunch of chopped chicken leg
2:30PM - left for Aunt Janet & Uncle Michael's house
3:10PM - found hor's d'oeurves tray - cheese is very good to snack on; I discover yummy tidbits that drop on rug and Janet comments that I'm like a furry vacuum cleaner.
3:30PM - discovered that sometimes things that are pretty tasty fall onto the kitchen floor by accident; I help Aunt Janet keep floor clean.
5:00PM - I follow fambly into dining room and get comfy under the table. I'm not disappointed there, either.
6:00PM - following fambly back into kitchen, I continue to be on crumb watch, and I am rewarded with my own plate of turkey, followed by seconds and thirds. Cousin Peter is very perceptive and understanding of my love of the holiday celebration. I go "O-U-T" a couple of times, and check the perimeter of the back yard
6:30PM - I stretch out and nap - did you know a lot of turkey makes you sleepy?
9:00PM - I finally get Mom off the couch by sitting on her chest and "talking", convincing her it's bed time
3:00AM - I wake Mom up to take me to use the "facilities" and then we go back to bed.
6:30AM - Uh oh....I think the turkey wants a re-match. I wake Mom up and barely make it to the bathroom before the turkey reappears the same way it went in. Fortunately, it's easily removed from the berber carpet of the guest room, and I barf up the rest on my piddle pad. I am embarrassed and ashamed, but everyone is very kind to me, and Aunt Janet says most everything comes out of the berber carpet and not to worry.

The rest of the morning I am recovering from Turkey Day, and catching up on my napping. We get to GrandPapa's about 10:30AM on Friday and he offers me more chicken. Mom notices I'm still a bit green around the gills, so I don't accept his hospitality until 12:15PM.

Yorkies have an excellent capacity for recovery, especially when it comes to chicken.

Hope you all had a great day!!

Love, Mary-Margaret

Thursday, November 27, 2008

In the Jungle.....!

My VERY good friends, Dexter, DeeDee and Demi's mom sent this over. It's not often you see a wild Yorkie running in their natural habitat.



Alas...alack. How we long for the good old days before we became domesticated.

Enjoy your holiday. We wish you a "Happy Turkey Day!"

Love, Mary-Margaret "Wild Dog" O'Brien

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Happy Anniversary to us!!

Today, November 25, 2008, is me and my mom's THIRD anniversary. It was November 25, 2005 that we first met, fell in love and adopted each other. Here's some pix of my first year.

Here's me my first night at home. Silly Mom thought that the "piddle pad" would solve every imaginable probable mess. Oh, how naive she was back then.



And here's me staking a claim on the "big comfy leather chair". I hadn't figured out yet how to get on the high back, but that didn't stop me from trying. I also learned very quickly how to dig my fingerettes into the leather to keep from flying off when Mom plopped herself into my chair. A flying squirrel I am not!



My very first Christmas. Wow...what a concept. I LOVE Christmas!



Me and some of my friends at Puppy School. This is where we all learned to get along with each other. Some of those lessons still stick with me after all this time, too. I sure do miss going to school.



Here I am, one year old. I've learned a whole lot in my first year, including an appreciation of fashion and design. See??

Time sure flies when you're having fun. I'm everly so fortunate to have been adopted by someone who is also my very best friend. My life is excellent, and my prayers are that all the pups in the whole world will be adopted and loved as much as I am.

Happy Anniversary, Mom!!

Love, Mary-Margaret

Saturday, November 22, 2008

The Incredible Shrinking Tree

A few years ago, before I was adopted, Mom found a nursery that was going out of business. She bought three beautiful trees - a flowering pear, a bottle tree, and ...something deciduous but we cant remember what it's called. Two of the trees were in 15 gallon containers, and the bottle tree was in a wood box, maybe a 20-25 gallon crate? She also bought some shrubs for our slope, and two really pretty bushes for the back planter. Everything is doing really well and nothing died. Except our "Benjamin Button" tree is growing backwards.

The one tree called a bottle tree never gets any bigger. Nope. It just gets shorter. She goes out and looks at it and goes "Tsk tsk!", and wonders how a tree can get smaller instead of bigger. The base of the trunk is bigger, and it keeps getting new leaves on the top, but it never grows.


(See? Short tree, fat trunk! Click on the picture and you'll see!)

The owner of the nursery is one of our clients and he came in last week. When we told him about our shrinking tree, he said he would come look at it. "Yup!", he said. "It's getting smaller!". Mom had nightmares of a herd of gophers living underneath it and taking bites out of the root system, but Pat (the nursery man) said, "No, that's not it!". She told him that she had visions of it slowly sinking into the ground like one of Elmer Fudd's carrots, but Pat said "Nope. That's not it, either!".

He came to the house the other day and put something called "gypsum" on it, and put a lot of fertilizer on it, too. If you ask MEEEE, it doesn't look any different, and I told him so. "Wait until after spring", he said. "Maybe you'll see a difference then."

Gosh, I hope so. I never heard of a tree getting smaller before. Mom said she had two other trees there and both of them died. I guess a shrinking tree is better than a dead tree, huh?

Optimistically yours,

Mary-Margaret

Getting Ready for Turkey Day!!

Oh yum. I think I like roast turkey even better than duck or chicken. Mmm- mmmm-- MMMMMM!! Yup. That is my everly most favorite day, too. The one day that I can have TURKEY TURKEY TURKEY. Forget the cranberry and green bean casserole. It's the turkey I go for.



This year, I was really lucky to get a spa appointment before Thanksgiving. Mom asked Miss Marilyn to trim a little extra on my upper lip. Last time when I got picked up, Mom was giggling about me looking like I had a Groucho Marx mustache. This time, you can actually see my lips. They're not pink like the humans have.

My lips are black, and so are the palms of my hands and bottoms of my feet, and my nose. Black black black. I wonder why that is? I mean, think about it. My tummy is pink and my skin (under my fur) is pink. How come not everything? Doesn't make much sense. In humans, no matter what color their skin is, their hands and feet and inside their nose and ears is all pink, pink, pink. Hmmmmmmmm. Oh and I got a double bow - rust and orange - for Thanksgiving. Took me all of maybe 60 seconds to get it out. Usually it takes me a week or so. Must be the doubleness that makes it easier?

Mom says I ask too many questions. Well, how ELSE is a pup to learn, huh? My GrandPapa is EIGHTY-EIGHT years old and he still asks questions. He's very interested in how the universe got started, and he's watching to see how the experiment in the Alps goes. My Dogness, imagine twelve miles of PROTON ACCELERATOR (click on link to see about it!). Whoop-ti-doo!. And if that's not enough for those humans, they're going to smash them together with some "particles" going the other way. BIG BANG!! Maybe next spring, huh? They had a fews months delay because of some little problem. The Pakistanis are worried about it exploding the world. I'm worried about it spilling my water dish.

The picture above is of me at the stop light telling Mom to give it up with the camera, and I do not like "papparazza", thenkyewveddymuch!!

Have a great holiday!

Love, Mary-Margaret

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Birthdays, Birthdays, EVERYWHERE!!

First it was my Uncle Michael on 11/1, then my mom on 11/15, now it's my GrandPapa's TODAY! Woo hoo....and on 11/23, it'll be my brother-in-law Joel.

We bought THREE Hallmark cards for sending out and there was a reward. Yup. Von's told Mom that because we bought THREE cards, I could have MY CHOICE of TEDDY BEARS. See the one I picked?



Here's me and my new baby saying "Hello" to people from our car seat. Isn't my baby just bee-yoo-ti-full? I just call it "Baby" like I do for my other Stuffies. That way I don't mess up and call it by the wrong name. Everybody in my toy box answers to "Baby".

Happy Birthday, GrandPapa. That's a lot of dog years, I tell ya. But stay positive. My Aunt Rose was 14 1/2 dog years when she left for the bridge. Thats....uh....um....oh, hang on..let me get the calculator....(clickity...tappity...punch)...101.5 years old. Wow!!!

Love,

Mary-Margaret O'Brien

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Happy Birthday to Mom!



Wow...what a day. Everybody called to give her good wishes, even people she hadn't talked to in a while. That was nice. Then we went to work for a bit and Robert (my main crush) was there in his yellow hard hat, and he took some time to give me belly rubs. Mom took a couple of pictures, too.



Then, Uncle Rudy and the twins, and Uncle Jason and Auntie C came over and took Mom out to a late lunch/early dinner. Whatever it was, she didn't bring anything home for me AND..(ahem)..she says she may never eat again, or at least not for a while.
They all went to RJ's Sizzlin' Steer. As usual the food was great (I hear), except they discontinued the Apple Dumplings which upset both Mom and Auntie C a bit. They've put in a request to reinstate the dumplings.

Me and Uncle Rudy had the run of the house AND backyard. We get along everly so well. Uncle Rudy looks bigger than me, but he's just got more hair. I think I weigh more than him. Oh, who cares. We love each other no matter what and that's what counts, right?




A very good day, I must say. Cailin and Clancy took my bubble wrap but I don't mind. I get tired of popping it anyhow after a while. The bubble wrap made absolutely certain that Auntie Sissy's Cinnamon Plum jam didn't break, and that the really nifty London Christmas ornaments and the pictures of Cade and Carter that she sent for Mom's birthday didn't break. All the way from Minnesota and everything arrived in perfect condition. I think I might have some Plum jam, if it's ok with my mom. She's thinking about it, but she reminded me that plums are just fruit that hasn't become prunes yet....whatever THAT means. I'll let you know more later.

Love and kisses....

Mary-Margaret O'Brien

Friday, November 14, 2008

Par-taaaaaaaaaaay!

We got to work, unlocked the door and THERE WAS CAKE!! Wow....CAKE, and presents and a card. I was everly so excited I could hardly contain myself. And then....(sigh)...I found out they weren't for me.

A little later a really BIG BIG box got delivered by my most favorite FedEx man. I raced up to it, stood on my tippy-toes, and tried to read the label. It was suggested that I step back just a bit; that it wasn't for me. (deeper sigh) It was a replacement copier for the one that fritzed out on us, and by the way, the new one doesn't work right either. Next time, we'll buy a Canon. (but I digress....!)

Finally, at last, Cheryl got back from the court, and we had a client there, and it was time to open the presents and ...ta daaaaa...eat cake. Everybody sang "Happy Birthday", even me. I was hopping up and down, "talking" (as I do) and when it got to the name I almost said "Mary-Margaret", but I was polite enough to wait just a second and good thing, too. Turns out it's for Mom, so I said her name (in my own language), and just kept on singing.

"I don't CARE if it's chocolate and I can't have it, I WANT it", I said. The grown-ups decided on a compromise. I got beef jerky with vanilla frosting. Not bad. Don't knock it if you haven't tried it, ok? I do love Birthday parties so very much.
I asked very nicely for seconds and was turned down flat. So I pouted some.

Then, I got my kibble dish and dragged it into the reception area and flipped it over. Mom said the floor looked like a herd of wild rabbits had left their calling cards.

Next, I saw some little pieces of paper sticking out of our client's shorts. His name is Patrick. Anyway, couldn't have been all that important (I figured) if they're sticking out so I plucked one out and he didn't even notice. I could have been great as a pick-pocket, huh? So I sucked on the paper for a bit and got it sort of soggy, then I shredded it into some pretty tiny pieces just to entertain myself.
Hey....if I don't know what a lottery ticket is, how do I know I'm not supposed to do that, huh? He and Mom picked up the tiny, soggy pieces and put them into a little pile, and Patrick put them back in his pocket. Just in case his numbers are called, at least he can maybe tape them back together? I hope?

So that was my day. Ah....yes. And I went to get the mail WITH NO LEASH again, AND got to go to the planter and piddle without a leash, and when I was done, I hopped right back on the stairs to go to the elevator. Yup. I know how to behave. Mom says she's really proud of me. I like feeling like I've made her happy. She tells everyone how good I am, and it makes me blush. Yup. It does.

G'night for now. Tomorrow is Mom's birthday and I want to make sure that she has a good day. My cousins are coming over to take her to lunch. No, I probably can't go, but I bet my Uncle Rudy will come play with me while they're gone.

Love, Mary-Margaret

Thursday, November 13, 2008

I'm not a BABY anymore!!

OH OH OH....Big surprise for me. Sort of a "coming of age", if you will? Wow....it's like when humans get their driver's license, or they can vote. TODAY...November 13, 2008....(ahem ahem?).....I got to ride down the elevator AND go get the mail with Mom with NO LEASH on. Yup.

If she stopped, I stopped. If she said "go", I did. I am really full of myself right now. Who knew? Me....all grown up. I tell ya....I'm jazzed. I feel so honored that I am finally trusted to behave myself and not run off. You could tell I was really pleased. Yup. I'm not a puppy any more.

Love,

Mary-Margaret

PS - Golly gee, this guy would sure make a good "big brother" for me. Also, being that he's African of descent, he'd be a great pup for the Obama girls, dont'cha think? He's an African Boerboel named "Otis". I found him on the African Boerbel site and was immediately impressed. He could be "Otis Boerboel Obama" if they adopted him. I never heard of an African Boerbel until today, but aren't they kewl??

Sunday, November 09, 2008

A Letter from Auntie Allie


Dear MM,

I thought you would like to see a photo of my son's rescue dog, Fiona. Fiona is about 1 1/2 years old and was lost for awhile in a big city. The Humane Society could not find her family, and at about the same time, my son was there looking for a dog to adopt. He fell in love with the beautiful Fiona so in a couple of days he returned to pick her up. He brought her home to a nice big house and huge yard that's all fenced with a doghouse and new toys waiting for her there. Soon, he found out that Fiona had heartworms and had to take medicine for several weeks and be kept quiet. So she got to come inside quite a bit and just relax with the humans while she wasn't supposed to be running a lot and chasing her favorite toy, the tennis ball you see in the photo. She is now much better and weighs about 60 lbs. She loves her brave soldier and his wife.

When joking about being in the Army for so long, my son once answered someone who asked "what do you miss about civilian life?" He said, "oh, I just miss my hair, and my dog" He had a dog similar to Fiona, whose name was Max. Max went to the rainbow bridge several years ago. I'm sure he's happy that "his boy" who has been dogless for over 13 years, now has another fine shepherd. Proving that even highly trained soldiers, whom some think of as being "hard", still have a big soft spot for their precious dogs.

You might remember that I have told you about my Fiona who was an exceptional Scottie. She's also at the rainbow bridge, and always in my heart. My son loved our Fiona so much that when I called him to tell him she had passed, I just said "hello" and he said "Fiona. Fiona is gone, isn't she?" He was half a world away but I guess she must have paused on her way to the rainbow bridge to touch him one more time. When he told me about getting a new dog, I was happy for him. Then he said, "Guess what I named her?" I had no idea, really. When he said "Fiona", I was just astounded.

Love,
Auntie Allie in Kona

Saturday, November 08, 2008

My new friend, Lolly

"There ain't no bugs on me....". I take Sentinel tabs once a month. They're little and brown and taste like absolute heaven to me. Doctor says they taste like liver. Well, if that's true, I sure wouldn't mind having some liver someday. Mom makes a face whenever I bring that up. Maybe liver is just for pups? Although she says if it's cooked right, with onions and bacon, it isn't too bad.

Back to my Sentinel tabs. We ran out and had to go pick up another supply. Good thing Mom pays for them and not me. Wow. Twelve dinky little tabs for $90.00. Yes...NINETY dollars. Sheesh. Life is expensive. (and PS - I weigh 9.6 pounds. Can you believe it?)

Hmmmmm...what else? Oh....yes. Remember my Grandma? It will be exactly one year to the day that she went to the Rainbow Bridge on November 27th, which is also Thanksgiving Day. Mom said she wanted us to spend it with Grandpapa, so we're going up to Santa Monica and do just that. We're going to go to Uncle Mike and Aunt Janet's for dinner. Mom's also bringing a pumpkin pie just like Grandma used to make. Considering Mom doesn't cook anymore this should be interesting. Is it just me or did this last year go pretty quickly?

(Here's me and Lolly making big plans)


About my friend, Lolly. She was at Doctor's when I got there. We hit it off right away. Now we're practically best girl friends. My mom gave her dad a business card so we could have a play date at my office sometime. She reminds me a lot of my very good friend, Star, whom I haven't seen for everly such a long time....ever since she jumped out her car window on the freeway off-ramp because she was so excited about seeing me. I guess her mom didn't care for that much. Like having to chase Star in the traffic and all. Dog, if I did that, I bet I'd be in really big trouble and maybe even get grounded or my allowance taken away. That is SOOOOO dangerous.

We're working tomorrow, probably. And Mom brought a bunch of stuff home to do today, too. That, and she's reading a James Patterson book, which she pretty much loves.
She hates it when writers don't do their research, but Patterson is pretty good. One time an author wrote about how the character who lived in Santa Barbara made a sandwich and spread Hellmann's mayonnaise on it. Sheesh. Even I know that they sell it as Best Food's mayonnaise west of the Rockies. Mom wrote him about it but all that happened was she got stuck on a mailing list and now she gets advertisements every time that author has a new book out. Not even so much as a "Thank you!". Hmmmph.

Enjoy your weekend. I know I will. Napping, barking, napping, snacking, napping....oh, and watching some "Animal Planet", maybe.

Love,

Mary-Margaret O'Brien

PS: My mom's going to be 9.142857142 dog years old on November 15th. Wow. That's a lot of dog years, huh?

Thursday, November 06, 2008

Dear Diary.....

Sorry I haven't written in you for a while. Stuff happens...life happens...no matter how hard I plan, I know I have to depend on other people to help me, and I can't plan for anybody but me. I try, but you know how it is.

I know where everyone's office is. Mom laughs because she thinks that I'm so little that I shouldn't be a good tracker. But I am. I really am. We go out the door and she says "Go find Auntie Linda!" She's in charge of the whole building, you know. She calls me "PooPoo LaLa" and it makes me smile. No body but Linda can call me that. It's what you might call a "pet name".

I go out the back, up the walkway to Starbuck's....cross over and there's the elevator. I wait while Mom punches #2 and we go up. I get out and walk right over to Aunt Linda's. First, I look in through the glass to see if Ozzie is there. He's my student from Puppy School. He's pretty polite to me but still...he does have big feet and he sometimes accidently steps on me. Not on purpose, but I have to be careful.

Whoopeee....it's safe. I stand up and look in and Linda sees me. "POO POO LA LA", she says, and I race right over to her and give her kisses. I just love her so much. I've known her ever since I was a baby. Then I go visit Mike McMillin who owns the building. Ozzie is his brother, and is Mike's Mom's dog. I give him kisses, too, and then tell Mom to quit yakking, and that it's time to go to work.

A couple of days ago I saw a familiar face on the sidewalk in front of our building. OHMYGAWSH...it was Opie, a black miniature poodle. We met at Miss Marilyn's Day Spa a few months ago. We circle and sniff and then sniff and pounce. It's a pup thing, but you get the drift. Our mom's start talking and his mom asks what my name is. "Mary-Margaret O'Brien", says my mom. Woo hoo....she tells mom that me and Opie already had a play date at Miss Marilyn's and that's how come we are so friendly. What can I say? I know LOTS of people and pups around town. Mom's pretty amazed that more people know me than her.

Oh yeah...the other thing is that our building was getting painted. One of the painters was lying on the deck on his side so he could paint under the window sills. I tippy-toed up to him and sniffed a little here....a little there....(hee hee)...and he didn't even notice me. Then, I gave him a really big schlurpy kiss and he went "Whooooooooa!". (hehehehehehhe) He laughed and we played a bit. He wouldn't let me get into the paint, though. Darn it all.

What else? Ummmmm....Oh, I know. We got to work this morning and I saw my friend Robert. Some people call him Bob, but he's Robert to me. He had a treat in his pocket for me and I made him feel really loved for a while. Mom said to hurry up, we were late for work. So I said goodbye to my friends and skittered up the stairs.

I just LOVE my work and my clients. Even my friend, Jami, came by today, and had lunch with me. We played for a bit and then she had to go back to work and so did I.

Sorry about not having pictures for you. The darn battery needs to be charged again. Maybe tomorrow?

Love,

Mary-Margaret

Monday, November 03, 2008

Dink's Memorial Fund

Whenever I can, I make a contribution to Dink's Memorial Fund. There's a lot of pups out there who need some extra help, like Bentley and Shadow and....maybe some day, even me...or YOUUUUUU!

My Aunt Connie is running the auction there. See, you can donate your allowance AND get some neat stuff, like shirts, beds, blankets, bows (don't tell Mom about the bows, though) and toys and....well, you just name it. Makes giving pretty much fun, don'tcha think?

Please read Dink's story and look deep inside your hearts AND your pockets. I don't have pockets, but I have a really big heart. So if I have some money and no pockets to put it in, I send it off to Dink's Fund.

Thank you, everydoggy, for your love and support.

Mary-Margaret