We are very strange doggies!

Our mom says we are very strange doggies because we never get on the furniture...except for the big bed. And we only get on the bed when no one else is in it. We read stories about lots of other doggies who sleep with their parents and take naps or have roaching sessions on sofas or chairs. For some strange reason, we never do that! We do our share of counter surfing, but chairs, sofas and other furniture just don't interest us. Once in a while, I (Poppy) used to get up in Mom's Lazy Boy, but I left so much Aire-hair in it that she started putting stuff in it so I couldn't get up there. After about 2 or 3 times, I didn't even try anymore. Penny likes to sleep on the big bed and occasionally, I get up there too. However, as soon as someone tries to get in the bed, we go get into our own beds. I TOLD you we were strange! We each have our own ginormous bed which we sleep in every night and sometimes during the day. We also use them when we play bitey-face and I (Poppy) like to roach on mine. Penny never roaches! She also never sleeps upside down like I do. She just might be even stranger than I am! Our mom also thinks we are strange because we can learn something by being taught only one time. That is...IF WE WANT TO! Being Airedales, we appear to be pretty hard-headed most of the time, but if we hear a noise that is associated with something good, we will react with excitement every time we hear that noise. For example...one time, Mom opened a plastic zipper bag containing gum drops. There happened to be one tiny piece broken off one of them and she gave it to Penny. From then on, whenever Mom or Dad open a zipper bag, for any reason, Penny comes flying from wherever she was in hopes of getting another piece of gum drop. We BOTH show up whenever someone uses the ice-maker and Penny will always run to the kitchen when she hears someone taking silverware out of the drawer. If Mom wants to brush Penny's teeth, she rattles the silverware and she comes flying out into the kitchen. I will shake a paw to have my teeth brushed, but sometimes, Penny needs a little prodding to get her lazy self off the big bed.

Aire-hugs,

Poppy & Penny

Why we blog and why we shouldn't stop!

Hi everybody. It's Poppy & Penny's mom. I am taking over the blog today because of something I read on Opy's and Marvin's blogs. Opy is threatening to open a can of Whoop-ass because some bloggers are being stressed and Marvin's Jeannie is feeling guilty about not being able to read and comment on every blog everyday. I started reading the DWB quite by accident, a long time ago. I did a search on the internet for Airedales and accidentally came across Bogart's (the Airedale's) blog. I followed the link from his page and eventually found out that there was a whole community called Dogs with Blogs. A few months after I started reading the DWB, Oscar the Aire-boy died suddenly and I knew from the comments left on his blog that all of the bloggers on the DWB are very caring people. Yes, we all know that none of our pets are actually doing the typing here and that it is a community of pet lovers from all over the world. From reading the funny stories and sharing in the pain that some DWBers have endured, I decided I wanted to start a blog so I could be part of such a caring community. We all have at least one thing in common...we love our dogs, cats, hammies or whatever kind of pet you may have. The DWB allows us to share information, support each other when someone is in pain over the loss of a pet, make some new friends and laugh at the antics of our pets. I, personally, like the idea that when one of my dogs is sick, there are people all over the world praying for her and I do the same for any other pet who is sick or in pain.

From time to time, we all have trouble thinking up something to blog about, but I don't think it should cause us stress. Sometimes, we can get an idea from someone elses blog or we just won't add a new post that day. I, too, would like to be able to read and comment on everyone's blog everyday, but I know that is impossible. Yes, it's fun to read the comments that people (and pets) leave on my blog, but I realize that it is very time consuming to leave those comments. We all have lives outside of the DWB and we all know that our everyday lives come first. If we don't have the time to read the blogs or comment it shouldn't stress us out! So...in conclusion: let's not get so stressed with blogging that we make Opy open up that can of whoop-ass! None of us wants to know what is inside that can!

Now that I have vented, the girls are going to post a couple of pictures just for the fun of it!

Aire-hugs,

Poppy & Penny's Mom

Penny the lean, mean fighting machine!

Hi everyone! We are having a boring day, today and neither one of us has gotten into any trouble (so far), so I, Penny am showing you a picture of me in my younger days. I was bred to hunt bear and wild hogs in the North Georgia mountains. I actually had my teeth on a hog once. My father had his jaw broken by a bear! Obviously, he survived or I wouldn't be here. Once upon a time, I was a lean, mean fighting machine! Fortunately, for my mom and dad, I wasn't a very good "gun" dog so the breeder decided to sell me. Sometimes, I feel really sorry for my brothers and sisters up there freezing in the mountains while I live a life of luxury down here where it's warmer and my biggest worry is when I will be fed next! I also don't have to worry about tackling any wild hogs or bears. The meanest looking things I ever see are some squirrels that are pissed off because Mom hasn't fed them or the mean little Manchester terrier next door. I learned, a long time ago, not to stick my snooter through the fence. Sasha would bite it off! She is one mean little dog! I did have a tangle with a squirrel, one day and Mom thought I brought a dead squirrel up on the deck. When she told Dad, he told her that I didn't just "find" a dead squirrel...I MADE him dead! Now that I am almost 9 years old, I can still give those evil squirrels a run for their money (or their sunflower seed). Our evil mom has a squirrel feeder in our back yard and sometimes, she claps her hands before she lets us out the door. It's sort of a warning to the evil squirrels that we are COMING! If Mom doesn't clap her hands, those squirrels just continue to eat and ignore us, completely. They have figured out a way to escape into the trees even if we are right under their feeder! They are evil, I tell ya! I sure am glad I wasn't a good gun dog so I could live here instead of in a kennel up there in the cold mountains!

Aire- hugs,

Penny (the lean, mean fighting machine!)

More stuffies we can't have!

These are Mom's prized stuffies that we are never allow to go near. The two on the left live about 6 feet off the floor on an entertainment center shelf and the two on the right live in Mom's china cabinet where we can SEE them, but we can't touch or even smell them. She had a hard time taking these pictures because we were watching her every move and trying to get our furry mouths close enough to snag one. No luck! I guess we will just have to wait for yard sale season to start again. Almost every Saturday, our parents bring us new stuffies that they buy at yard sales. They used to buy them in stores for around $9 or $10 apiece until they learned that they can get them at yard sales for anywhere from 10 cents to a dollar. That makes a lot more sense since we usually destroy them within a few seconds.

We are just having a lazy day, today since it's kind of cold and ugly outside. We did go out and harass the neighbor dogs for a while, but that is only fun for so long and then we get bored. We used to be able to run from one side of the back yard to the other and harass two dogs on each end, but the two pugs moved away and now all we have is a Manchester terrier who is mean as a snake and a Rottwieler mix who doesn't pay too much attention to us. Their people would like to let them come over in our yard, but for some reason, we only seem to be nice to other Airedales upon first meeting. It's weird...it's kind of like we KNOW our own kind! On New Years day, Mom took me (Poppy) to an Airedale meet-up and I was very nice to all the other Aire-kids, but when a German Shephard walked by us, I tried to eat him! Mom was embarrassed! SHE thinks we need obedience classes. WE think we need to be around other dogs more! We also don't seem to have any problems with any other kinds of terriers. Maybe the whole thing is a terrier thing!

Aire-hugs,

Poppy & Penny

Problem with teddy bears!

Hello to all of our furry and not so furry friends! Today, we are launching a protest about teddy bears. See those cabinets on the right hand side of the photo? Well, they are FULL of teddy bears and we aren't allow to touch them! SO not fair! Our mom collects teddy bears and they are EVERYWHERE! There are 2 curio cabinets full in the living room and there are wooden poles in all of the bedrooms with teddy bears wired to them. I tell you, they ARE everywhere! The worst part is we are not allow to touch any of them. Since we can't tell the difference between Mom's bears and ours, no bear is safe unless it is too high for us to get at it or if it's in a cabinet. That cabinet you see in the photo is always covered with Aire-art from us lusting after the bears behind the glass. Mom has to sneak HER bears into the house in a plastic bag held way over her head and then wait for us to go outside so she can put them into the cabinet. One time, she brought a new bear in and instead of putting it in the cabinet or wiring it to a pole, she hung it on a pole with the loop from it's tag. She figured we wouldn't mess with it since we never bother the bear poles. Wrong! I, Poppy waited till she wasn't looking and I snagged that bear. By the time Mom caught me, he had no eyes and a big hole in his belly. To this day, she has still not found an exact replacement for him. That should teach her to wire them up as soon as she brings them home! We think it would be a BETTER idea if she just gave us ALL the bears and quit collecting them.

Aire-hugs,

Poppy & Penny

Huggin' a stuffie bear!

Hi, everydog and their hoomans! I, Poppy like to hug my stuffies and make really weird noises. As you can see, I'm sucking on this bear, but you can't hear the noises I'm making! Mom says it sounds like I am being severely injured, but as you can see, I am fine! The bear, on the other hand...not so fine! He has big croco-dale teeth markes in his back and one of his paws has a large, gaping wound. That's where we surgically removed the voice box that kept saying, "I love you!" Mom bought this bear for us, for Christmas and she didn't know it had a voice box. One day, she was on her way out the door to get the mail and she heard a tiny voice say "I love you". She looked around and couldn't figure out where the voice was coming from. She decided she must be hearing things and proceeded out to the mail box. When she came back in, Penny had the bear and she was trying to de-pants it. Nothing unusual there! Mom went into the kitchen and then she heard the same tiny voice saying, "I love you". Now, she KNEW she wasn't imagining it. She came into the living room to see Penny biting the bear's paw and it kept saying, "I love you." Mom was relieved to know that she wasn't going looney tunes! The bear didn't talk for long...about the 15th time it said, "I love you", Penny's big 'dale teeth bit through the plastic box that held the speaker. At that point, Mom confiscated the bear so she and Dad could extract the voice box before one of us swallowed something we shouldn't. What a bunch of "buzz kills"!

Our Mom and Dad have done some pretty weird stuff with some of the noise-makers they have extracted from our stuffies. Dad removed a voice box from a Clifford the Big Red dog that sounds like a whole bunch of barking dogs. He made it into a door bell so when some of our neighbors come over and want to see Dad in his workshop, they ring the door bell by the basement door and it sounds like a bunch of dogs barking. They took another voice box out of a duck that quacks to the tune of "Old McDonald had a Farm" and it sits on a shelf by the back door. Whenever Penny and I won't come in from outside, Mom squeezes the "quacker" and we can't get in the house fast enough! We actuall had two of those ducks, but after seeing what we did to the first one, they decided to save the life of the second one. It makes a great 'Dale caller...it works EVERY time!

Aire-hugs,

Poppy & Penny (the stuffie killer)!

Penny's fear of the camera

Today, that "other" dog (Poppy) said I, Penny could take over the blog. You see, I am very camera shy. Maybe I belong to one of those religions whose followers believe the camera is stealing my soul. Maybe not...but it sounds like a good excuse. Mom finally held me while Dad snapped my picture. I still have my soul, but it wasn't fun! After all that work to get me to be still, that "other" dog managed to get in the picture too. Who says we need TWO dogs, anyway? I was here first so I should be "top dog". When we are in the house, Poppy is the alpha and she bosses me around all the time...but, when we go outside, I am the supreme ruler of the back yard. I aire-snap at Poppy and chase her until I can roll her over on her back and attack her belly. I never actually hurt her, but it sure SOUNDS like I am going to do some serious damage. When we get back inside, it is just the opposite...she picks on me unmercifully! She makes me do zoomies when I want to take a nap and when Mom takes our stuffies out of the dryer, after their bath, Poppy always grabs them away from me. When we get new toys, Poppy always grabs them first and won't let me have any until she is done inspecting them. Hey, maybe she's just watching out for me so I don't get any dangerous toys! Yeah, right! There is ONE area that I absolutely rule! It's our dog feeding room. I won't let Poppy in until I make sure I can be the first one to my bowl. Then, when I finish eating, I try to push her out of the way so I can have her food too. Somehow, I always get caught at that! Oh, well it doesn't stop me from trying.

Aire-hugs,

Penny (& Poppy, the "other" dog)