Happy Holidogs and New Year

Hey faithful friends and readers! We're not dead. We've just avoided blogging for a while. We have many stories to share including a travel story or two that happened over the late fall, but we'll put that on hold to wish you all a very Happy New Year.

The pups had a pretty nice holiday. Even though one pup was a bit naughty. Can you guess which one it was?

Nope, it wasn't the criminal this time. It was the cracker. Who just days before Santy Paws was scheduled to visit, made his Momma fall down and go boom into a ditch, all 'onnacount of an old gentleman black lab/pittie mix who was well-behaved on leash with his owner. Loki, being well, the cracker that he is, has 2 speeds: black or white; good or bad. There is no middle ground with the cracker and over the last few years we've been attacked numerous times by off-leash black-ish or pittie-ish type dogs where owners either don't fence or don't care if they invade our space putting Loki in the position to defend himself, Juno and me. The thing about Loki's brain is that once he learns something he NEVER forgets. For example, one day a white truck passed us about 1-2 feet away on the road, and a big pittie leaned out and bark-attacked us as it went by. It not only scared the be-jesus out of me (it was a complete surprise and being so close to me) it freaked out the cracker enough that til this day he will always prepare himself when any white truck passes us. For reals, Internet. He sees a white truck and he will literally go on the offense, whether there's a dog or not in the truck. Now I usually catch it and tell him it's all good and he backs down. Same with dogs I can see who aren't a problem but he may view as a potential problem. I just tell him it's all good, the doggie is no threat and he buys it and moves on. This time though I was diggin' on some tunes in my headset and I wasn't really prepared for the upcoming sweet doggie with his nice lady owner. Loki decided not to wait for me, and just like he always does, makes a decision on whether this dog belongs in "good or bad" column of his brain, so lumped this nice pup into the category of "dogs who attack us"  and just pulled enough that it unbalanced me and I had a good rolling fall into the ditch. I'm still fairly sore from it.

The nice lady felt so sorry and apologized a zillion times for it, though I insisted it was not her fault in the least. Meanwhile during the fall, i was so tangled up, I had to let Juicy's leash go and she proceeded to hop on over the road to say hello to the nice sweet doggie and owner. The owner, picked up Juicy's leash and handed it to me while I had to keep Loki from "meeting" her pup. (Why should he get to meet the pup who was a complete gentleman while he was a big doofus head? No, he does not get such allowances for bark first behaviors like that.) What an embarrassing sitch' for me, Internet. Rolling around in a ditch with a loose husky bouncing around and cracker barkin' his fool head off at what?  A nice sweet lady and her gentle dog. Sigh. It never gets old living with a cracker. Even at his mellow age of 11.5 years old.

Don't worry, I told Santy Paws it was not his fault, he was just making a decision for when his mom's brain was "elsewhere" and he couldn't rely on me to give him the proper intelligence report on the situation. So Santy Paws let it go and gave him a nice full stocking.

I mean, how can anyone resist this face? I swear he really does try his best to do the right thing and he always asks me what that right thing to do is. It's not his fault if I was out to lunch! Am i right Internet? I chalk it up to bad handling!

"Santy Paws knows I only have my family's best interest at heart Momma! He even doesn't mind that I share Juno's ducky toy that he brought for her!"

"See what I have to put up with Internet? And they call ME the criminal! I'm not the one making bruises on Momma's tush. Nom Nom Nom. Santy Paws always brings me the bestest treats!"

After stuffing themselves with stocking treats, we all enjoyed a pumpkin-pie-with-real-whipped-cream breakfast (including the pups), and fell into a sugar coma.

Then we all went for our annual walk at the Christmas tree farm. Yes, that is a boot on Mr. Wild Dingo's foot. He had some minor foot surgery earlier this month. It's only been three weeks and he's still bitchin' and moanin' about the pain. Typical man! Tee hee.

Santy Paws left me this pillow for me.  He and Mr. Wild Dingo chipped in and bought me a new camera for traveling too. I wanted a better camera that would be a step up from my point and shoot and lighter than my very heavy, lens-changing DSLR for travel so I asked for a Sony RX10 ii which has a nice bright lens, decent sized sensor (1" which is bigger than my point and shoot but smaller than my DSLR) and a 8-200 mm reach, which means I don't need to bring multiple lenses when I travel. It's light enough to fit in my purse but big enough to take nicer shots than my little point and shoot with the 1/2.3" sensor.  So now there's more travel plans on my list for 2018! There'd better be, because I have to find use for this camera!

How was Santy Paws for all our pup readers out there? I bet he was generous with woo!

Happy Winter Solstice! Happy Kwanzaa! Happy Hanukkah! Merry Christmas! Merry Dog-mas! Happy New Year! May 2018 be bring you peace and joy.