Wordless Wednesday

Happy Birthday, Heartdog!

Today Madison is two years old - it's quite a Barkday!

Man-dad made this photo card for Madison, but he couldn't quite bring himself to carry doggie-cupcakes to the dog bark.

BOL. Men, says H-Mom.






This is kind of cool, and it came from Dogster:

Dear Madison,

Woof woof!

We want to wish you a very Happy Birthday full of love and joy and tail wagging. We are thrilled to be able to celebrate it with you!

Madison will be profiled today with other birthday doggies on Dogster's special Birthday Stroll.

Since it's your birthday we want to give you something special, so we have given you 25 Dogster bones and one vote of 5 Paws! Dogster loves you!

Sincerely,
Your Friends at Dogster

25 Dogster bones and a 5-paw vote? Now that sounds important!

Facebook & more

H-Mom is really busy with her job now. She still hangs with Madison a lot, of course, and does the late night walk and all that kind of stuff, but she is on her computer all day a work - writing, editing, surfing - and so she usually doesn't even turn her laptop on.

So, Madison is busy with other stuff too. The dog park with Man-Dad every morning. Chillin' with the teen-H and her friends ...

and then we come to FACEBOOK, and what happens when you give a group of teens some cameras and a very tired dog:




How completely undignified and embarrassing. I mean really. But then again, they could have painted a moustache on Madison's face ...

YES. This photo is all over Facebook. Sigh.

How fast does THIS THING go?

You would be surprised, actually.

Madison found this turtle by the lake at the dog park. The thing is, turtles are not afraid of giant schnauzers. Not even a little bit.

They just turn into giant rocks. And they wait it out.

When the coast is clear, you should see them move. With their stupid looking legs and their stubby little tail wagging like a propeller. And then, PLOP right into the water.


Too bad Man-dad missed getting the photo of Madison jumping into the water right after the turtle. But you see, turtles can sink like a lead weight, and giant schnauzers, luckily, do not.

Life is busy!

H-Mom has been seriously AWOL. From HERE, I mean, not from Madison-time. Man-dad has been taking Madison to the park almost every morning, but when he can't - because he is busy now, too, REALLY REALLY busy, then H-mom gets the car and heads to the dog park at the pre-dawn crack of the new day.

A really really good run, a tug with some buddies and some time lounging in the grass and dirt makes the rest of the day okay, no matter how busy everyone is.

Life is busy, but life is good.

You know how often we don't get to the dog park? We can't remember the last time!

We know about 20 regulars at the dog park. And that is probably being very generous with our estimate. So we are wondering, with all the dogs in Fort Lauderdale, and considering the possible alternatives to the dog park, what is the percentage of lucky lucky dogs in our city. Lucky dog-park dogs, that is.

What's your guess?

Cool slab of concrete

Forget it when it's hot outside, but on a cool morning, the balcony is the perfect place to air out a giant fur coat. These cool Fort Lauderdale days are working for Madison.

Road trip

We went on a road trip - the three of us, Man-dad, H-Mom and Madison. Madison rode in the back of the truck, sniffing all the really different things out the windows.

We made two cool stops: Clyde Butcher's photo gallery and the Skunk Ape Research Headquarters. We were looking, but we didn't see a Skunk Ape. Don't say anything because Man-Dad believes. He really does.

There was no swimming though. Guess why?

Chilly Friday Swim

It's been pretty chilly in South Florida. The iguanas are dropping like flies - literally falling out of the trees, deep in a state of cold-induced suspended animation. Not many left. Manatees are hanging out at Port Everglades, looking for artificially warmed waters. Lots of dead fish washing up and weird weird weird sighting of great white sharks and other fish not usually found in Florida waters.

What a winter we have had.

Not much swimming for Madison either, because even though SHE doesn't mind a little chill in the water, Man-dad and H-Mom opt out of standing around with soaking wet pants legs by the dog lake.

But today ... it was a great day. Even though it was only in the 50's, Man-Dad took Madison to the lake. It was awesome. A little lonely (not many brave dogs like our GERMAN girl), but awesome.

H-Mom is missing Madison

So she figured out a dog-friendly little web to weave on the WEB today!

She just posted an album of all kinds of AWESOME pet catalogs on the Catalogs.com Facebook page. And she put a whole bunch of links with excellent merchandise (lots of health care stuff! Madison needs Comfortis and Heartguard refills!) with the most used pet care related Catalogs.com savings codes.

Go to Facebook and Fan the Catalogs.com page. Click on the "Special Offers" tab and see all the cool work she did today.

Isn't that nice of her? She even found something special for Madison. What could it be?

What could be BETTER than a job where you get to cruise online catalogs and SHOP?

Next step: how to get Madison's gorgeous face on a catalog cover!

(But this little guy is PRECIOUS isn't he?)

H-Mom is already working some angles. Stay tuned!

Scarey teethes

Man-dad sent this photo to H-Mom on her phone. She couldn't figure out what it is.

It's easy though, huh?

It's Madison's choppers. She is sleeping on her back with a smile on her face.

That's because she is dreaming about going to the dog park with Man-dad. And maybe finding something really really good for rolling.

Getting S*&T-faced with Man-Dad

A picture is worth 1000 words. One million words. One billion words.

What HAS Madison been doing with Man-Dad? Hanging with the guys, being wild. Getting down and ... uh ... dirty.

That's our girl, with farm-dog genes through and through. Bred to herd the cattle, guard the livestock and rustle the chickens.

Yep. That's our girl.

Everyone smiles at her and backs away now. Even the other dogs are a little hesitant to rub shoulders with her.

Squirrel Obsessed

What's a walk without stalking a squirrel or two.

Madison is of one opinion and H-mom is of another opinion completely. The squirrels? They have their own point of view, which they don't hesitate to share from a safe distance up the tree.

Prizes? This lonely pooch says YES!

H-mom entered our blog into a cool contest for dog blogs. Even though she is gone all day now, maybe her great writing and my beautiful face can win me some PRIZES to keep me busy while I am being lonesome. That would make me feel better.

So vote for the "Madison" blog right away! Here is the "magic code":

2wR2f

And here is the info that we got which is how H-mom found out about the contest that made Madison think that a whole PILE LOAD of prizes would make her feel just a little bit less lonesome:

VOTE for "withlovemadison" by going to the homepage www.TrainPetDog.com and entering the above voting code in the voting box and clicking on the Submit button.

We need at least 50 votes to qualify for Round 2. Boy that's a lot.

But ... Madison has lots of empathetic dog pals, who know how terrible it is to be lonesome, and who might just think that it is really cool for her to maybe win some prizes. We would even share!

This is my life ...

ahhhhhhhhhhh .... laying at the feet of H-Mom while she sits on her laptop.

Even though she is GONE all day. And we really miss her. And I follow Man-Dad around, like his shadow, making sure that HE is not going anywhere.

H-mom is so so busy

Madison has been hanging with Man-dad all day during the week. He is such a good dad. He gets up early and takes Madison to the dog park. And then he walks around outside with her. And he gets her breakfast and lets her sleep on the Stearns & Foster while he works on his computer.

H-Mom gets home at 6pm. Really, a bit later. It makes Madison all mopey during the day, but really excited when she comes home.

H-Mom is working on a cool consulting gig. In a week or so, she'll know if it is a real JOB job. Like a full-time permanent one with benefits and everything.

And H-Mom is kind of sad about not being home and doing all her creative stuff, and writing all day and hanging with Madison, and even bickering with Man-dad.

Change is good. We just have to keep on telling H-Mom that.

OMDog. It's still raining.

Artic Blast

Fort Lauderdale - all of South Florida - is in the icy grip of an arctic blast. Thank goodness Madison skipped her last appointment at the grooomer and is sporting a thick and curly Schnauzer coat. This weather is glorious for a giant black dog, at least when the sun is shining.

But today? Plummeting temperatures and rain all day. Dismal.

What to do, but lounge. Mope. Make long sad sighs.

While our dog park floods, sitting deserted and very very chilly.

Madison, the Aggressive Menace?

H-Mom is just burned up.

Yesterday, Madison was called an "aggressive" barker by one of the dog park regulars. There is this movement on to remove the dogs that make noise. Yes, DOG noise. It's called "Bark Park" last time we looked, and H-Mom is more than a little miffed.

Madison is a rabble rouser, a wild child, a "come let's play and be crazy this morning" kind of girl. She likes a rumble in the dirt with her buddies the Rotties, with lots of yapping and flashing of teeth, followed by a companionable ramble to the water bowl and some side-by-side sniffing or charitable tandem gnawing of the chew-toy.

But, aggressive? We think not. Madison has never bit, growled or attacked another dog. In fact, she has been aggressed upon, to which her response is a submissive belly to the ground and happy "I give" tail. And then a retreat to H-Mom.

Aggressive, we think not. If she was, you'd know it. Eighty pounds of Giant Schnauzer, with pearly whites and excellent muscle mass would not be a meek opponent.

She's a lover, not a fighter. And a bundle of energy that will happily round up the dog park dogs in the absence of a herd of cattle.

Tolerance and community? There's trouble in the playground.

Check it out: Even Chilled out Miami Dogs Bark

Dogs Bark, even Chilled-out South Florida Dogs

Dogs Bark, even Chilled-out South Florida Dogs

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After School Nap

Sometimes when the teen-human gets home from school, she heads straight to bed. And sometimes, she just hits the deck.

Madison is almost always willing to stretch out and share a couple zzzz's.

There is nothing like a giant, bear-sized paw as a pillow.