letter from my human

dear sienna,

another month has FLOWN by – we’ve lived together for nine months now, and it’s been and it still is HEAVEN!
you are AMAZING, little girl…

you mean EVERYTHING to me, and i love you so much that there (almost) are no words to describe how i feel…

this month was the anniversary of the day when i had to help your wonderful beardie big brother totte to the rainbow bridge, and the grief is still like a razor blade…

it’s so WRONG – he should *be* here with us!
(but, truth be told, he would probably have gone CRAZY since you’re so high energy! *lol*)

on the anniversary (february 4), i had a ROUGH day, and i cried a lot.
i sat with you on my lap, my face in your soft fur, and you licked away my tears…

you’re a master comforter, sienna, and all i have to do to feel better is to SEE you!
when i DON’T see you, i panic.
like last week – what WERE you doing during the 30 minutes you were GONE, sienna???
i almost had a heart attack because i worried so much when i couldn’t find you!!!
we went outside, i let you off leash , and you ran ahead, like you always do.
i fully expected you to do what you always do: run ahead and then wait for me until i caught up with you, and then we would continue our walk together.
NOT THIS TIME, as it turned out.
whn i came out onto the path leading from our house, you were GONE – you’d been swallowed up be the earth!
i called for you, but NOTHING.
PANIC!!!
i checked the snow to see if i could see your pawprints anywhere. but NO.
“toller princess gone without a trace – abducted by aliens???”
but no: after a while i noticed that there was a hole in the snow, leading to a space under the concrete ledge along our house.
i trudged out in the snow (it was waistdeep), and started digging my way towards the concrete ledge.
there was no snow under the ledge, but i couldn’t see you anywhere under there…

i went inside and called your twoleggergrandmother, to give her a firsthand experience of my panic *crooked smile*, and then i went back outside.
after a while, a woman came walking by with her handsome german shepherd boy.
she asked me who i was calling for, and so i told her about you and the fact that you were GONE.
while we were talking, the german shepherd boy started looking over at the ledge, and all of a sudden, here you come, barging out from under the ledge, through the wall of snow.
your ears were “glued” to your head, your hackles were about a feet high (or so it seemed), you were shaking, and barking like a CRAZY DOG!

now i don’t KNOW, but i THINK that the normally so brave and cocky toller princess, her redheaded highness, bringer of all that is wonderful in the world, little miss spitfire, sienna the fearless, had become at least SOMEWHAT worried there for at least a LIIITTLE while, when she realised she couldn’t find her way out from under the ledge!
don’t EVER do that to me again, sienna – my heart can’t handle it!!!

here are a few photos of you (taken by lotta, of course!) playing in the snow:

you LOOOVE the snow, little girl, but you think it’s a BIT annoying when lumps of snow get caught in the toe hair.
when that happens, you sit down, and just let me help you remove the snow lumps, and then you’re off running again!
and when we get back home after a walk, and your paws are packed with snow lumps, you just stay sitting in the hall, while you wait for me to prepare a “paw bath” with warm water.
when i get back, we dip your paws one by one, and melt away the snow, and then we dry your paws.
as always, you stay sitting until i’ve hugged you, and after that you feel you can go into our apartment.

you’re still LOUSY at eating, sienna – why don’t you have the infamous retriever appetite???
at the moment i’m mixing cooked fish with your kibble, so now you’re eating a LITTLE bit better, for a while, at least.
am i supposed to buy orijen kibble for you?
your godmother tells me that your godtoller zappo didn’t like the brand of kibble i bought for you either, but when he was fed orijen “six fresh fish” he LOVED that, so maybe i have to think about buying *that* brand for you instead?
GAAAH – there’s still quite a lot left of the kibble i bought just before christmas!

i don’t know what to write – my feelings for you are so INTENSE, but you KNOW this…
you’re my raison d’être – the reason i’m still breathing, but most of all you’re the reason i’m finally LIVING!

i love you so much, sienna, and i hope and believe that totte’s sitting at the rainbow bridge with a HUGE grin on his face while he’s watching us!
THANKYOU fot this month, little girl – let’s rush into the next month and have some fun!

ALL MY LOVE, ALWAYS,

your human

letter from my human

dear sienna,

another month has gone by – we’ve now been living together for eight months!

you must know by now how much i love you, and how happy and grateful and PROUD i am to be your human…
you’re AMAZING, little girl…

you mean the world to me, and i’m not just *saying* that – you ARE my world!
you’re the reason i get up in the morning, and you’re the reason i’m working so hard at losing weight (27.5 lbs and counting).
you make me smile, laugh, think and FEEL, sweetie, and i’m happier than i’ve been in a LONG time (and we’re talking MANY years, sienna!).

as much as i HATE to leave you at home (i know *you* HATE it too, but sometimes i *have* to go places where you can’t come), there’s nothing sweeter than coming home to you, because you’re so happy to see me again that you just EXPLODE…

this month you

1. discovered that turkish yogurt is DELICIOUS
2. learned that snow is TONS of fun
3. “remodeled” the mittens i got from maria (she’s very good at knitting!) – you made sure i wouldn’t have sweaty palms or thumbs. maria told me that *one* of the mittens survived, but the other one has gone to its ancestors. rip, mitten – though i only knew you for one day, i could tell you were a warm soul…
4. visited your twoleggergrandma for the first time, and you met my younger brother and his family. they all fell in love with you, of course – how could they *not*???
5. were really AFRAID for the first time in your life – that SAINTY CLAWS person sure is SCARY, huh?

i LOVE you, little girl…
everytime i look at you my eyes get all misty, and i feel all warm inside – i feel so BLESSED to have you in my life.
you saved my life, sienna, and i’m going to spend the time we have together trying to repay you for that.

i can’t wait for all the fun things we’re going to be doing later this year – dogshows, trials, obedience classes, tracking, agility (maybe? who knows – you may not like it? naw, who am i kidding? *lol*), walking, swimming, playing, and loads more that i’m not aware we’ll be doing!

you. me. nuff said.

LOVE ALWAYS,
your human

vote for me!!!

my human has entered my elf photo in a photo contest over at picturesongold.com.
if you like that photo, she’d be VERY happy if you voted for it (and us)!

http://www.picturesongold.com/contest/details.php?photo=2429

and this post marks the end of christmas

lotta sent me this photo yesterday, and since the photos my human took of me while i was wearing that stupid elf hat were PRETTY bad (which was probably the reason i looked REALLY grumpy in all of them), i thought i’d show you this one – this is the result you get if the model feels she’s working with a PRO!

and NOW christmas is over!
*lol*

playing games

a few days before christmas we were at lotta’s to celebrate “pre-christmas” (since my human and i and lotta and her fourleggers weren’t spending christmas day together) – my human had bought small boxes of liver pâté for all of us fourleggers, and that was VEEERY yummy!
*grinning*

i played a couple of games that lotta’d bought – the first game is called “dog smart”, and you’re supposed to lift these wooden cups, because underneath them there are TREATS!

game # 2 is called “dog twister”, and that one is TRICKY!

you’re supposed to moved these small boards, because (yep, you guessed it!) underneath them there are treats.
but the boards are VERY flat, and there’s nothing to *grip*, and so you have to struggle for a bit to get them to move.

the last game / toy is called “dog pyramid”, and this is what i looked like playing with it

that one was REALLY fun!

it works kinda like the treat ball, you know the one where you roll it and you roll it and you roll it and FINALLY a treats falls out of it.

“dog pyramid” has a weight at the bottom, and so it stands back up after you’ve whacked it with your paw (and believe me: you HAVE to WHACK it to get any sort treat action out of it!).
it’s a bit noisy (especially if you play with it on the parquet flooring *lol*), and it’s A LOT of fun!

lotta’s fourleggers don’t like noisy toys, and so i was the only one playing with that last one, but the other toys got 4 paws up from all of lotta’s fourleggers!

when my human saw how much i liked the “dog pyramid”, she decided to get me one for christmas, so she ordered a PINK one from “SAINTY CLAWS”, and he delivered it to a store, and once the COLD weather calms down a bit, we’re going to the store to get it!
*grinning*

all these toys were invented by nina ottosson.

christmas & new year’s report

OH MY DOG my human is SOOO lazy!!!
if you (aka *i*) want anything done around here, you have to do it yourself, it seems…
think i’ll start looking for a new secretary – this just won’t do!

yes, christmas and new year’s came and went…

my human and i went to my human’s mom (my twoleggergrandma), and we celebrated christmas with her, her fiancé, their fourlegger, boston terrier signe, my human’s younger brother, his wife and their two girls nelly and hanna.

here i am on the bus:

we were on that bus for a LOONG time (1½ hours), and so after i’d peaked out of the bus window

i went to sleep for a while – riding on a bus for FOREVER is BOOORING!

when we arrived at my twoleggergrandma’s, i tried to get signe to play with me, but she was a bit grumpy, so i don’t have any play photos to show you.
but this is what she looks like!

after a while my human’s younger brother and his family came over – do you think my human thought of getting a photo of all of them together?
NOOO…
*pouting*

the girls had opened two christmas gifts already, and were busy playing with their new gameboy type games:

hanna

and

nelly

THEN things got a bit SCARY!
all of a sudden there was this old man, all dressed in red, and he’d brought a big sack of christmas gifts!!!
i was a bit spooked, and so i watched the whole thing from under the livingroom table.

my human tried getting me to at least come and say hello to that old man, but i flat out REFUSED – “NUH UH – NOT GONNA DO IT!!!”
she explained that the old man’s name was “SAINTY CLAWS”, and that he was KIND, but i still REFUSED.

this “SAINTY CLAWS” person had left *my* christmas gifts at home (at MY home, that is), so he didn’t have anything for me in his sack, but my human got a REALLY nice pair of longjohns, so now we can be outside without her freezing her legs and butt off – NICE!

here’s a photo of me in front of my twoleggergrandma’s christmas tree

we went home the next day (my twoleggergrandma drove us in her car), and then all was “normal” for a couple of days, and then came new year’s.

we spent the day (and the evening) with lotta and her fourleggers – us fourleggers helped lotta clean out her “treat supply”, and the twoleggers had tacos, and after that they had pears and whipped cream (us fourleggers got to try some of that whipped cream and it was YUMMY!!!).

i didn’t react to the *noise* of the fireworks at all, but the *light* they made was a bit scary, but not enough to make me not want to play or eat treats, so that was okay.
my human was VERY happy to see that i wasn’t afraid of the fireworks, because my beardie big brother totte was TERRIFIED and PANICKED, and had to eat medicine to not pass out from fear…

some photos from yesterday

before we all went on an hour-long drive north of our hometown (my human moved to the town we live in 10½ years ago, and her mom, her grandmother and her brother all still live in her old hometown), we stopped at THE CLUB, so i could run and play with lotta’s fourleggers for a while (and, so lotta could take these brilliant photos!).

as you can see, i LIKE snow!
*grinning*

when we got to the town (the old hometown), my human went and picked up the painting, and then us fourleggers had to stay in the car while lotta and my human went into a shop and bought christmas presents for all of us!
they also bought kibble – a four million lb (or maybe “just” thirty lb) bag of royal canin medium adult for me, and another one for lotta’s fourleggers!
i suspect that that was where my human found that red-and-green-stripey torture device she made me wear earlier today…

after they’d finished shopping for christmas presents, we drove south for about 20 minutes, and then i got to get out of the car together with lotta and my human, and then we went into this building that my human explained to me was a building where elderly people live.
we went inside, and i got to meet someone REALLY special – my human’s grandmother!
she’s 92 years old (fun fact: my human was born on her 50th birthday!), and she’s a lover of all fourleggers!

and *then* we went and visited *my* human grandmother, and i got to meet and play with my human grandmother’s boston terrier girl, signe-britt, who’s 10 years old!

that was a lot of fun, and my human grandmother said that i should be PROUD, because signe-britt is kind of a loner who doesn’t like to play with other dogs, but she playbowed to me!
*grinning*

the punishment

yup.
i’m calling the toller union – this has GOT to be illegal!

the painting

yesterday me and my human went with lotta and her fourleggers to pick up the watercolo(u)r painting that me and my human won a while back.
it had been sent away to be framed, and was now ready to be brought home by us.

it is GORGEOUS, you guys!
LOOK:

thanks to my human’s INCREDIBLE photography skills *rolls eyes* you really can’t see what a work of art not only the watercolo(u)r painting itself, but also *the frame*, is – there are THREE layers of passepartouts on it, which makes it look REALLY neat – “classy” is a word that comes to mind, really!

and yes, that’s me in the bottom right corner of the photo – my human tried to get me to sit next to the painting for a photo, but i wouldn’t have any of that!
she was upset with me, but she’ll get over it.

hip, hip, hooraaaaaaaaaay!!!

today’s my human’s birthday!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HUMAN!!!
i LIKE you, you know…

we celebrated by playing outside in the SNOW (it’s been snowing NONSTOP since this monday, so we have A LOT of snow, and it’s BRILLIANT!!!) and eating meatballs!
*grinning*

i LOVE the SNOW – i leap out into it, and then i stick my head down and plow my way forward!
my human thinks it’s COLD outside (-10 degrees celsius / 14 degrees fahrenheit), so we’re only outside for a short while at a time, but we take many short walks instead of a few longer ones, so it’s okay!

my human’s realized that i’m suffering from a false pregnancy, so i can no longer fool her into thinking i’m STAAARVING – she won’t feed me more kibble than i’m supposed to be getting, regardless of how much i nag her or give her the evil eye!
*GRUMPY*

this weekend i’m going to go to see my human’s mom and *her* mom, and i may even get to meet my human’s mom’s fourlegger – boston terrier signe-britt!
*hoping*

my human and i, and lotta and her fourleggers are going to go christmas shopping on saturday, and we’ll also pick up the watercolo(u)r paiting that my human and i won in november – i’m very much looking forward to seeing what it looks like after it’s been framed by a professional!
*grinning*

i hope lotta brings her camera, so i can get some new photos to show you – it’s been a while since you saw any new pictures of me!