Personality Plus

One thing about Minnie that ceases to amaze me - her funny little personality quirks!  She definitely has some strange/amusing/hilarious/annoying/crazy/awesome habits that keep Husband and I entertained every day.  Here's some of the highlights:

• Loves getting her picture taken
• Sleeps on her back with her paws in the air
• Pushes her bed around with her nose into a whole different part of the house
• WILL NOT STOP LICKING PEOPLE (especially me)
• Stands on the patio table like a cat
• Cries when she's left out of a room
• Barges in the bathroom and cries when you shut the door on her
• Sticks her head in the trash (this one is definitely an annoying habit)
• Zooms at top speed in the backyard
• Barks at butterflies
• Digs holes to China in the backyard
• When I first see her in the morning, she runs at me at top speed, almost knocks me over, and then sneezes on me
• Rubs her whole body on my legs to make sure she's got a good coating of fur on them before I go to work
• Sticks her head out the window in the car and lets her lips flap in the breeze
• Lets us dress her up in silly stuff! (See below)

And Then There Was One

Minnie is currently down to one toy.  After lavishing her with an overabundance of chew toys, squeaky toys, ropes, and other stuff, Minnie has one bone remaining. I feel like a controlling mom who took all her kid's toys away, but we were left with no choice - Minnie ate each and every one of them!  She even ate her bed, which is sad because it actually belonged to the original golden retriever in my life, Bea :(


Now that I think about it, I guess Minnie actually does have one rope toy left, but it smells so horrible that we don't really encourage her to play with it.  And Lamby is still kickin' it, but after she ate Lamby's ear off, we rescued her from Minnie's jaws of terror and put her away for the time being.


So the one thing Minnie hasn't been able to torture is her beloved peanut butter filled bone.  That's not saying she doesn't TRY to torture it though.  She grinds it, drops it, flings it, leaves it out in the rain, and buries it.  I think the bone will survive though, because her cousin Jack hasn't seemed to destroy his bone yet either, so I think it is safe.


Does a bone even count as a toy though? I mean it's not like we can make her wrestle her with it, or play fetch with it.  I feel a little sad for Minnie. If she would just learn to treat her belongings with loving care, she'd have more toys to enjoy!

THE bone. When the peanut butter is gone, we fill it back with more!  Which usually leaves us with peanut butter streaked floors. Oh well. 

Obsessed

Sometimes I ask myself, Jill, why do you torment yourself by looking at pictures of golden retriever puppies each and every day?  The result is always the same - every time I peruse golden pics, I always, ALWAYS want another one.  


Now you may be wondering, but don't you already have a golden puppy?  Isn't precious Minnie enough for you, you greedy jerk? The answer is yes, of course I still love my Minn, yes I am a jerk for feeling the need for more puppies, and yes I am being ridiculous, but I JUST CAN'T HELP IT. Why do goldens have to be so dang cute? Sometimes I even wish goldens were less cute, so I wouldn't feel the need to buy every puppy in the world. There is just something about those tiny faces, fuzzy butts, and wiggly tails that makes me want to cry!  


I am obsessed with golden retriever puppies, and I am not ashamed.


I advise you to view some of these photos so you know what I'm talking about, and so you don't think I'm a huge weirdo (which you probably already do).  Even if you have a heart of stone and a love for cats, I guarantee you will want a golden retriever puppy after looking at these photos. Now go!

Basil the Golden

Timber the Golden

I am also posting another picture of Minnie to reassure you that she is still the #1 golden in my life!

Gone Fishin

Minnie had herself another new adventure this past weekend!  Husband decided to take her on a fishing trip...I thought it was going to be a rough time (since she can't sit still for more than 4 seconds), but apparently she did all right!  From what I hear, she had a great time jumping out of the boat and swimming, trying to eat fish, and destroying the rope that ties the boat to the dock. Way to go Minn!  When she got home, she was completely wiped out - she even let us pick all of the ticks off her!


On another note, we took Minnie to the vet and got her some new medicines and food that will hopefully help her stomach issues. The only thing we've noticed so far is that she has been zooming around the yard/house like crazy...then we noticed the bag of food says "high energy diet" on it!  Like she really needs that!

Making sure the water looks safe before she jumped in!

So sleepy on the ride home

Needed a more comfy spot, so she crammed in between the seats!

Minnie's Musings

Hi people, it's me, Minnie! My mom is letting me write this post today because she says that I have so many things happening on my social calendar that she just can't keep track of them! So today I am taking over the blog, and I just can't wait to tell you about what I've been up to!


First of all, this weekend my mom dragged me on TWO walks that I did NOT enjoy. You might be thinking, but Minnie always loves a stroll, tugging her mom down the street, and jumping up on people she sees!  Well let me tell you, I still love all of those things, but I DON'T love them when the temperature is over 90!  I kept panting as fast as I could, I tried only walking in the shade, and I even stopped a couple of times, but my mom didn't seem to notice! I want to ask everyone out there, how would YOU feel if you were sporting a rather thick (and beautiful, I must add) coat of fur when it's summer? It is not fun!


Although my walks were not up to my normal level of fun, I did get to go into a Farmer's Market with my mom, where I got to sniff all kinds of fruits, vegetables, cookies, and pies. My mom bought a huge bunch of bananas because I decided I had to lick them. Well do you blame me? They smelled good!


I also got to go to a pool this weekend, but no one let me swim!  Apparently last week all of my fur clogged up the filter or something. Whatever that means! I was just trying to cool off!  I'm still a little scared of the water anyway. But don't tell anyone!


Yesterday was my cousin Jack's 11th birthday! And guess what? We got to have CAKE! I never had doggie birthday cake before. I licked my slice up in one slurp.  Jack took a little longer eating his, so I ate the rest of it for him. It looked like he needed help! I also gave him a cheese and bacon flavored bone, but he didn't want to share it with me. No fair!


Also yesterday my dad turned on this thing called the "sprinkler." I don't know what it does, but it sure is fun! I tried to bite, chew, and leap through the water coming out, but it kept moving around! Then after playing in the sprinkler, I got a bath. I wasn't really happy about that because I look a little silly with my fur matted down!  But I did get a lot of tastes of my shampoo, and it sure tasted good!


I also got to go on quite a few car rides this weekend. Man do I love riding in the car! I love to stick my whole head out the window and feel the breeze, but my mom and dad always yell at me to get back in the car.  I just wanted to feel the wind in my ears, sheesh!  I really love to jump around in the backseat and try to climb in the front seat with my parents. They don't let me come up there with them though! I don't see why not! I am a very fun girl!  People even like to wave at me when they pull up next to us on the road. I wish some of those people would toss me some treats, for crying out loud! It's not easy trying to let your lips flap in the wind when your mom is yanking your collar to get you back in the car!


Anyways, I gotta go get ready for my vet appointment tonight. I just love going to the vet because I get pets, kisses, and TREATS!!

Me and Jack at his birthday party!

Nonstop Panting

This weekend is supposed to be hot. I mean HOT. Tomorrow's high is 99 degrees. I know last summer it was over 100 for basically the whole season, so 99 isn't that bad I guess, but it's still only May!  The reason I'm mentioning the weather report is that I know what Minnie's going to be doing a lot of this weekend: panting!


My poor pup started panting a ton back in March when it was like 80. She doesn't know what's in store for her!  And more panting = more drooling.  And more drooling = even grosser floors than we already have!  I just feel bad for Minn because she won't be getting a lot of outdoor playtime this weekend, even though it's a 3 day weekend and Husband and I will be home the whole time.  When we take her on a walk, I guess we'll have to do it at 7 am so she can bear being outside!


Wednesday was my birthday and Minnie gave me a special treat...she ate a pile of poo outside (SICK) and then licked me!  Thanks Minnie! She also sported the Cardinals hat for 5 seconds so Husband could get a picture and send it to me. What a special lady! Haha.

Go Cards!

I'm staying on the porch where the temps are cooler!

Whoops

Ok, talk about major slacking on the blog updates! SO much has been going on lately that I honestly forgot about writing in the blog! But that doesn't mean Minnie has been neglected, of course!


In April, Husband and I headed to San Diego for an entire week - an entire week without Minnie! Husband's sister watched her for the week, and let me tell you, I was so nervous about leaving her for the first time! Not nervous about Sis-in-law watching Minnie (she and her husband are major dog lovers, and in fact they have a golden of their own, Jack!) I was just nervous that Minnie would miss us too much! However, I had no idea that I would miss Minnie as much as I did! I'm pretty sure that at least 3 times a day, Husband and I would whip out our phones to look at pictures of Minnie and saw, awwww remember this one?


Minnie, on the other hand, had the time of her life! We got numerous texts from my SIL throughout the day (we called them Pupdates, ha!) so we were always updated on Minnie's adventures. I'm pretty sure she missed us for about 10 minutes total. She went on hikes, played/wrestled with Jack, raced up and down steps, protected the yard from the neighbor dog, and basically had a blast. In summary, WE missed Minnie...SHE did not care. Ha!


When we returned from our trip, Minnie actually seemed a little down for a couple days! She moped around the house (I think she was looking for her playmate!) and put herself in her crate promptly at 10 pm! Poor girlfriend. After awhile she got used to us again...I think she was afraid we were going to leave her again!


After a glorious week with Minnie, I left for another week long trip, so I was Minnie-less again! Husband stayed home this time, so luckily our furball wasn't ditched once again! I missed her a ton! Now I'm back for a LONG time, so I won't have to go on missing my girlfriend!


A couple of other things...Minnie went swimming for the first time on Sunday! That was a hilarious situation. We have a video which I will have to post on here. She was scared at first, but she got the hang of it right away! Next she'll have to learn how to not drink the water while swimming!


We also decided to invest in a choker collar - seems mean but it was a GREAT choice. Minnie has a tendency to pull HARD at the leash, jump on every person she sees, and take off running after stuff. It was getting to the point that she was too strong for me to walk her! The choker collar made a difference right away, and hopefully she'll get the hang of it so that we won't have to use it anymore! You go girl!


Here is a picture of me holding Minnie on Mother's Day (she's almost 8 months here)...and as a reminder, the first time I ever held her! Man has she grown!