Bedtime Rituals

I know, I know – it’s been forever since I last blogged. But to be honest with you, there has been a lot going on in the Trice household. When I last blogged, Mom was in the process of looking for a new house. Well since then, she bought a new house, we moved to Kyle, and Grandmomma moved in with us. Now it seems I ALWAYS have a lap! Grandmomma gave me a talking to this morning and said that I needed to blog more, so here I am.

Mom came home again last night. Sometimes I think she gets lost. She told me that she was coming home Wednesday and didn’t come home until Friday. What’s up with that? I was so glad to see her! ~wiggle wiggle~ Brother Jingles was still feeling pretty sickly, so he didn’t go say hi to her at the door, so I had to say hi enough for both of us! Yay me!

I was so excited when it came to bedtime. I have my rituals, you know. First I wait until Jingles is safely on the bed. He comes first,  ya know. (Yeah right.) Once he is on the bed, I come up to the side of the bed and let her know that I can’t come up the stairs. The stairs are reserved for when nobody is around – it all goes back to that helplessness bit.

Once he is all comfortable lying next to Mom, who is normally reading, I come crawling over her, wiggle under the covers and lay on top of Jingles. Mom gets so disgusted. Last night she muttered something about Jingles being sick and how dare I lay on top of him. Well I just wiggle a little and *poof* there I am – in pole position – snuggled right between Mom and Jingles.

Then I realized I hadn’t got to the bathroom, so I had to reverse that entire process and go outside. What a pain.  A little while later, I heard Mom asking Grandmomma if I was in bed with her. I looked around and was like, wait, what? Mom’s home? I couldn’t get out of Grandmomma’s bed fast enough. I scrambled and scrambled and scrambled and LEAPED off the bed to go running in there. I had plumb forgotten Mom was home and had gone to sleep in Grandmomma's bed. What a silly dachshund I am! I'm too young to have memory issues!

Subsequently, I had to repeat that getting in bed ritual all over again! Bummer!

Learned helplessness?

So tell me my friends and faithful readers, what does learned helplessness mean? Mom said that as she put me on the bed tonight. I can't help it. I stared and stared and stared at the stairs (stares?) but couldn't get up enough nerve to get up them. She doesn't understand how long it takes me to work up the nerve when she's not in here. Oh well.

Ooh. A fly. Snap! Zooom I'm off. I snagged mom's phone and am now blogging from the kennel. I like the darkness in here.

Ooh. There goes Jingles. Zooooom. I'm off again. Now mom said I had ADD. What's that? Why can't she talk in words I understand? ~sigh~

When mom left yesterday morning, she said she'd be back this evening. Brother J and I got so excited about seeing her. As a present, we pulled allllllll the covers off her bed. Sweet, huh? Then we spent most of the evening wrestling on her. She says we are brats, annoying, and lots of those other words I don't understand. Oh well. She ends up letting us give her kisses so she must love us.

Ut oh. I think mom noticed I took her phone. Gotta go. Keep your fingers crossed that I can make it up the stairs WITH the phone.

Ciao,
Spence

Challenge Mastered

My family is so weird. Cousin Sarah was doing something in the hallway with this stick. It made a funky noise and was scary. I could hear mom calling me, but I couldn't get past the stick-monster.

Mom tried an experiment and put my special shirt on me. Woooosh, right past that stick-monster I went! She and Cousin Sarah just laughed and laughed. I can't wait to show Grand-Mama who is coming later today.

On another note, Cousin Sarah finally realized she had issues with apologizing too much when she came into the room and Sister Kiji said, "I'm sorry". Heh heh Kiji is a funny bird.

Peace out.

Crash-boom bye-bye

It has been confirmed! Proof positive that every time Momgoes out of town, the crash-booms come! Thunder, lightning and all of thathorrible stuff … it just makes me shake and whimper in fear. Cousin Sarah saysit won’t hurt me, but I’m still scared. Well mom took me to the goodie store(yay treats) and bought me a new, special, just-for-Spencer shirt. The last twotimes the crash-booms have come, Cousin Sarah has put my special shirt on me,and I have slept like a pup – right through the crash-booms. (I know thecrash-booms have come because when I get up in the morning, the grass outsideis wet and stuff is all blown around out back. So my fellow pooch brothers andsisters who are also scared of the crash-booms, or don’t like it when Mom/Dadleave, or don’t like rides in the car (rolls eyes), have your folks get you a thundershirt. They are awesome… just like having a Mom-hug all the time.

On another note, I found my foster mom’s address. I think I’mgoing to write her an e-mail to let her know how I’m doing and that I miss her.Yay Central Texas Dachshund Rescue! (Mom says it’s very possible that we mayget another brother or sister when we move to a larger house. I’m so excited Icould just pee!)

Don't I make a cute baby? (P.S. I hate being held like this.)

Licks and wiggles,

Spencer Mc Wiggles

Dog door nightmares...

I am currently in the process of re-evaluating my love for my brother... well more specifically his love for me. (Not really, but it seems like a good way to start the story off.)  Sometimes he can be really irritating.

For example sometimes he lies on the top stair of the flight of stairs that go up to the bed. He KNOWS I can't go over him. When I first moved in, I was terrified to go out the electronic dog door. I wasn't sure how all of the clicking should go - when I should go out, when I should wait for the click.  Back then, I'd just wait to hear him go out then zoooooooooooooooooooooooooom to the door and hope I made it out the door before it clicked back shut. I can remember sometimes trying to come back in the door and WHAM, it wouldn't be open yet. I'd be dazed. Mom would be laughing on the other side of the door. After she picked herself off the ground, she'd open the door and let me in.

Well Jingles told me a story the other day. I won't tell you what he told me 'cuz I don't like getting him into trouble. But it kinda makes me wary of that whole back door thing again. The other day I was playing with the AC repairman. An hour or two after he left, mom realized that I was still outside. She opened the door to find me laying on the outside ramp, where I had patiently waited all that time for the door to open.

I know, I know - I'm a spaz. Well now that Jingles knows the whole backdoor phobia is back, he races outside like he wants to play (YAY!) - then leaves me outside and I can't get back in (BOO!). Thank goodness Cousin Sarah put a furry bathmath on the door ramp which makes it easier for me to come in. I think it's a comfort thing, ya know? It scares away the stories Jingles tries to tell me.

He is an awesome brother sometimes. I think he just does this stuff to be because he hasn't had giggles in a LONG time.  Geesh!

Love and licks,

Spencer

Easter Weekend at the Kendallaise Ranch

So this weekend, I went out to Uncle Richard’s and Aunt Liz’s. Brother Jingles and I were both so shocked to see Mom packing OUR stuff, too. Normally she just leaves us (sniff, sniff). But we didn’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth and hauled buns out to the car. I didn’t even make my normal “I’m going to run off before getting into the car” jaunt. I was a good boy!

We made the long drive out to Boerne. As soon as my little feet hit the ground, I was off running. There was wide open space EVERYWHERE. I ran and ran and ran and ran.  Now some of you are probably thinking, “How can he run with his crooked little back and messed up legs?” I don’t know how I did it, but I ran like a banshee and sniff sniff sniffed everything there was to be sniffed. There were goats and donkeys and horses and llamas and alpacas (but more about that later). I typically tried to stay in sight of Mom, Cousin Sarah, or Grandmomma. Otherwise they’d call me. I’d have to be the obedient son and run back. Dad gum it felt good to run.

Well at one point, all of the family moved to the deck by the barn. I learned that if I went down the ramp, I could go under the barn. And if I went under the barn, I would end up by the fence to the pasture. I could then sneak out into the pasture to check out the big animals. Mom kept coming to get me, which wasn’t much fun. But I kept trying!

Finally she decided to just let me run. I got all the way to the new barn out in the pasture and some big creature came out to sniff me. It’d sniff then go bucking off. It was kind of funny to watch. Then another one came after me. Then an even larger set of similar looking ones. (Mom called them llamas and alpacas.) By this time, I had made it to the creek. Cousin Sarah had come out after me since all the four legged giants seemed to be stalking me. Mom was too busy trying to get her big camera out. Suddenly I looked up and I was surrounded. I couldn’t see anything but furry legs! I freaked. Cousin Sarah called me and I came streaking out of the circle to safety around her legs! Brother Jingles came out to check on me. He almost got kicked by a donkey and high-tailed it back under the fence. I’m beginning to think he’s a lot smarter than I give him credit for… Aunt Liz said that the llamas and alpacas normally run off dogs, but they probably couldn’t figure out what I was and if I was even dangerous for all that matters. Regardless it was kind of scary…

No matter how tired I was, I kept running and running and running – all weekend. I had a blast. I sure was hurting when I got home though. What an awesome way to spend Easter weekend!

Woof-Daddy Jingles here...

Woof daddy Jingles here. I don’t know why all of the newdogs get to blog. Goofy always teased me about my legs being too short. Truthis … I’m just lazy. I would rather lay around and lick the couch or something.

Spencer is a pretty cool brother. I’m just hoping he doesn't go postal on me like the last small dog that lived here did. That dog was wack.But she didn’t earn her “goofy” name for nothing.

Spencer is a little odd. He’s afraid of a lot of things. He was doing pretty good – then he had to go to the hospital for a while. He had surgery, which I know all too well about, then had to live in a cage for sixweeks. Now he is having to learn everything all over again – how to trust the dog door is the big one.

He is a cute little booger. I am not sure how he keeps sofit though. He IS a treat hog, big time. If I slip up, even just a little, that lil’ dude snatches the cookie right out of my mouth! But that’s okay. He’s good company.

I’ll pop in every once in a while and keep you updated from my point of view. Until then,

Peace out,
J-dog

Love at First Sight

This picture was taken the day that my Mom and cousin Sarah met me. I can't quite sit up like this anymore. Mom says that doesn't matter though, that I'm still cute as can be.

Mom and Sarah first met me in Round Rock. They were instantly in love. Mom tried to adopt several other dogs. Who knows why since I am so darned cute. But things kept going wrong. However as soon as she turned back to me, the ball started rolling quickly. I was soon a part of her life.

Intro to My Life

Hi,

My name is Spencer McWiggles and I am four, going on five. I have been a part of the Trice household for about four months now and just love it here. I know I’m pretty lucky because my mom says she rescued me. I had an awesome foster family with Central Texas Dachshund Rescue, but it’s nice to have a forever home.

My life here is pretty interesting. I have a dog brother, Jingles, who is thirteen and a half. He tells me he used to have a nice coat of red hair, but now he’s pretty gray. Then again I never can tell if what Jingles says is true. He likes to tease me a lot. He barks and barks and barks. Mom has stairs that lead up to the couch so we don’t have to jump and hurt our back (that’s another story for another blog). Brother Jingles sometimes lays on the top step to block me from coming up. Mom says that he learned that from family stories.  Baby cat used to do that to the Queen Supreme Lady Raider dog. So he tries it with me and just chuckles.

My bird sister is Kiji, who is thirteen. She is off in her own world and speaks her own language. She does know some English words though. Then again, who am I? I don’t speak any English words! But she lives in a cage in the living room. I was thankful for her vocal company when I had to live in my own cage for a while in the living room.

And then there’s cousin Sarah. Whew… there are no words to explain Sarah. She does have an awesome lap and lots of places to snuggle up to when there is a thunderstorm. She doesn’t like for me to sleep on her bed like Mom, but she does sometimes when there is a storm. It’s probably easier than listening to me cry.

Anyhow, I hope that you decide to hang out here a while with us. There is always an amusing tale to tell here at the Trice (and Sarah) household.

Woof,
Spencer