Haircut.

Here I am, in all my shaggy, majestic glory:


I guess you all knew this was coming, if you've seen any of the recent updates on Flickr. Clearly, I had become a very fuzzy beast. Here I am, then:
And here I am, now:
I have been shorn. Sigh.

That kid, Lucy, is still hanging around me a lot. Now she knows my name. She yells at me and wants to hug me all the time. Here she is getting awfully close -- actually, she just put that ball there.

Smile! I'm a dog!

My visit to the dentist was a success, if you call being drugged and having stuff stuck in your mouth a success. At least they didn't take out any of my beautiful chompers.

I'm home now, a bit groggy, but mostly myself. Let's face it, I'm not the most energetic pooch out there. I like to relax.

But Bridget and Jake said something about brushing my teeth in a few days. I think this is ridiculous. I doubt I will put up with such things. There better be treats, man, lots of treats.

In fact, I have a pretty good idea of what kind of treats I would like. Can I please please please please please have one of these? Or maybe three?

These are the rats that live at my Aunt Paula's house. Last time I stayed with Aunt Paula, she let me sleep in the same room with them because I was so obsessed. I am a focused dog. Focused. RATS!

Hi There.

It's been a while.

All's well here. Tomorrow morning, I go to the dentist. I'm not thrilled about this. I just hope I don't come back sounding like this kid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txqiwrbYGrs

Oh, if you're wondering about my twin here, that's just a painting of me. By a real painter. Yup. An oil painting. A portrait. Of me. I rule.

Totally. Gross.

It was bound to happen at someday. I'm almost surprised that it took her this long. To our knowledge, up until today -- for the first 13.75 months of her life -- Lucy ate food intended for humans. Today, all that changed.

Lucy ate dog food today.

She was playing contentedly in the dining room, eating Cheerios out of her snack-trap. When I saw her chewing, I assumed she was eating Cheerios. Then I looked at the "Cheerio" in her hand, and realized

THAT'S NOT A CHEERIO!

It was a piece of kibble. As was the "cheerio" in her mouth.

Totally. Gross.

Turns out, the snack trap was empty (perhaps Carter ate the rest of them?) and Lucy moved on to the nearest source of snackage, which happened to be the remaining kibble in Carter's bowl.

She has not shown any ill effects so far. No barking, no lifting her leg.

[FYI, for those not in the know, the "snack trap" is this supposedly handy cup with a lid that kids can put their hands through to take out a snack. It's supposed to prevent the snacks from spilling out everywhere. Lucy, however, seems to have perfected a snack-trap technique that evades the product's supposed spill-prevention mechanism, and she regularly dumps the snack trap contents everywhere.]

Here, you can see her demonstrating her technique, triumphantly.

I'm on Vacation!

I thought I should try to get in one more post before the end of the year. Here I am, in my dog carseat on the way to my vacation. Some people claim this is actually that baby's carseat, but I'm pretty sure it's mine. Just like I'm pretty sure that the soft fuzzy teddy bear is mine.

Jake and Bridget and Lucy have left me to go somewhere, but I am doing just fine. I spent a few days with my girlfriend, Gertie, and now I am having the time of my life at Aunt Paula's Home for Pets. I get to hang with Bus and Marlin, and Paula lets me get on furniture that Bridget and Jake wouldn't let me get on. It's awesome here! I'll be back in my regular home in 2009, but I'm having a great vacation.

Merry Christmas to all, and here's hoping I can blog more frequently in 2009!

Love,
Carter

Thanksgiving!

I am a Thankful dog for many reasons. Today, there are a lot of people at my house. There more people we have here, the more chaos there is, and chaos is where I thrive. When there's chaos, no one notices when you steal a toy you're not supposed to have (like Lucy's teddybear). No one sees you skulk into the kitchen to steal food. People totally forget that they shouldn't put food on the coffee table, and I totally score yummy people food of all kinds. It's awesome.

I haven't been able to blog much, so I'll give you the update.

Relations with the house baby continue to be a rocky road.

Here she is, taunting me with a ritz cracker:



But here I am, successfully eating some chex out of her hands. Yum!

And here I am on Halloween. A whole bunch of kids in weird outfits came to our house and got candy. I tried wearing this hat, but no one gave me any candy. Lame!
That's all for now. I smell turkey. YUM!

I haven't posted in a ridiculously long time. The reason? I give you two words: THAT KID. Seriously, I cannot get a break. I move across the room, and she's after me. I sit down in my bed and she's crawling over. I try to get away, but then she screams. I need a vacation!

The kid, she is mobile now. This is scary. Here she is, getting up in my grill.
She is trying to get to my alligator, but it is MY alligator. Sometimes, I like to chew on her toys and then pretend that I don't know they're her toys. I especially like to grab her teddy bear. Bridget found him in my bed one morning. If that kid's gonna leave her bear lying around in the middle of the living room floor, I think I'm entitled to snuggle with him when I want to!
While I am really seriously disappointed that the kid is chasing me, there is an upside to her current behavior: food. I've discovered a whole new world of snacks that I had never had before: Cheerios! Fig Newtons! Graham Crackers! I get so much stuff outta this kid. I can walk right up to her Exersaucer and take stuff off the tray! It's great. And there's all kinds of stuff left behind after she's been in the high chair.
So the food is good. And usually, Jake and Bridget are really good about giving me treats when the kid is around. I'll stick around if they're offering treats. I like treats. But usually, I just want to go off to one of my beds and be by myself. The kid tries to follow me, but I try to hide. Otherwise, she tries to climb on me and bonk her head into me, and stick her fingers in my nose. That kids needs to learn some manners!
So other than that, this summer has been pretty good. I've been hanging out in the garden a lot.

There's a lot of grass out there that I can munch. Bridget put up this silly little wire fence to keep me out of there, but it totally didn't work, and now it just trips her up when she tries to go pick tomatoes.

I spent some time visiting my friends this summer, including of course, Aunt Paula (and Bus and Marlin) and also Tony & Stacy and the girls. My good dog buddy Gertie lives at that house, and I had a good time hanging out with her.

I'm a good dog. I'm patient with Lucy. I protect everyone here from the postman and anyone else who comes to the door. I have recently begun eating the bees that come to buzz in the hostas in the front yard. It's a pretty good life. But if anyone would like to come take this kid off my hands, I'd really appreciate it.

I'll try to blog more soon. Thanks for reading!

Woof!