Marshall's Plans for 2012?

Ruff competition? Labrador 'runs' for mayor
Follow the link to the story:
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/25917712?GT1=43001


We know a lab that could run for office....

Wouldn't that be a good campaign picture?

xoxoxo,

The Puppies

Lazy Sunday

Last night we had a visitor!!

Uncle Justin came to visit again and this time he brought his daughter Gracie!!! Isn't she pretty?? She was a little shy at first with the camera, but she came around.....

Here she is still shy........ and hiding behind her Daddy......
Then we started to tell her how cool blogging is so she said she would show her face some, so long as we agreed to play!!
We love to play!!!!
Just so long as nobody takes my blue bone!!!!
We wore ourselves out with Gracie last night so today we are laying around and sleeping a lot!! Partying is hard work!!
xoxoxo,
The Puppies

Awww.....

Ok, this is too cute so we had to post it, even though it isn't us and it isn't even about a dog- it's still pretty cool!



We have been asking Mom and Dad for a pet lion ever since we saw this, but they keep saying we don't have room in the house!! Boo.

xoxoxo,
The Puppies

Guard Dogs

Since we lounge around a lot like this.......

....everybody may not know, but we have a job at our house- we have to earn our keep around here! Our job is protecting the home and we take it very seriously!!!

Fortunately for us though, our job ends when Dad gets home!!!

xoxoxo,

The Puppies

Poor Marshall!!! (well, not really...but poor other black doggies!!)

Black pups face doggie discrimination Dark-coated pooches tend to linger in shelters the longest
We just read this article on MSNBC--the rest of it is below the pics of the Marshman--so we had to post pics of our lovely black dog that came from the shelter and had been on death row since he had been in the shelter a while...... but he met Mom and stole her heart so she took him home with her! These pics are a little old, because the Marshman decided he hated cameras sometime in 2007 so it is hard to get new good ones! But we LOVE our black dog and hate to think of others wasting away in shelters simply because they look mean (or whatever other reason).



From MSNBC.com:

Black pups face doggie discrimination
Dark-coated pooches tend to linger in shelters the longest

By Melissa Dahl
Health writer
MSNBC

It's not like Pamela Gregg was a stranger to helping out the underdog. She thought she knew what kinds of pooches linger the longest in animal shelters: Older dogs, abused dogs, sick or injured dogs — dogs like George Bailey, the hound mix she'd rescued after he'd been struck by a car.
But black dogs? While searching for a companion for George Bailey, Gregg was shocked to see a banner on an Ohio animal shelter's Web site that detailed how tough it is for big dogs with black coats to find homes.
"It said something like, 'We know that you people prefer colors, but we've got wonderful black dogs here, won't you please consider them?'" recalls Gregg, who's 49 and lives in Xenia, Ohio. "I was shocked, because I think that black dogs are beautiful — and I couldn't believe people would not get a dog based on its color."
To the uninitiated, the idea seems so strange — doggie discrimination? But among those in animal rescue circles, the phenomenon is commonplace enough to have earned its own name: "black dog syndrome."
"There's not a lot of that type of statistics on many aspects of sheltering," says Kim Intino, the director of animal sheltering issues for the Humane Society of the United States. "But I think that every person that has worked in a shelter can attest that in shelters animals with black coats can be somewhat harder to adopt out — or to even get noticed."

Even after a year had passed at a Los Angeles animal shelter, no one had noticed Estelle. Except, of course, for the staff; they fawned over the big black dog and her gentle demeanor. They started letting Estelle roam the office during the day, which let one couple see her in action — outside her cage and calmly interacting with people. They fell for her, and took her home.
But not every black dog is lucky enough to get that kind of special attention, says Madeline Bernstein, the president of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Los Angeles.
"They're the hardest to adopt out, they're in the shelters the longest and therefore, they're most likely to be euthanized if nothing happens," Bernstein says. (Breeders don't tend to face this problem at the level that shelters do, simply because they have fewer animals to deal with than a city shelter that takes strays in every day.)
Bernstein has plenty of theories about why people might not want black dogs in animal shelters. It's mostly an unconscious thing, she says, which may explain why black cats have the same problems finding a home. People who are aware of superstitions about black cats (don't let them cross your path!) may also be unconsciously harboring superstitions about black dogs.

In British folklore, such as stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Sir Walter Scott, the black dog is a creepy, spectral figure that haunts cemeteries and is an omen of death. (Non-lit geeks who've never heard of those stories have at least seen "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban," in which a big black dog called the Grim stalks Harry.) Another Englishman, Winston Churchill, battled serious bouts of depression which he called "the black dog."
But some speculate that black dogs just don't have the right look to catch the eye of potential adopters.

"Black dogs might appear older; even when they're young, they have bits of facial hair that may be white or gray," Bernstein says. And the ignored breeds are often those who simply look a little big and scary, and whose bad reputations may have preceded them, such as Rottweiler, Doberman pinscher and pit bull mixes.

Bernstein says some people turn in their black dogs to the shelters because they've gotten new furniture and don't like the dark fur their pet sheds.

Too hard to seeBut it may be the simplest reason that's costing these dogs a good home — their black coats can make them invisible in poorly lit kennels. (Same problem happens with amateur photos on shelters' Web sites, which is how many people find the dog they intend to adopt.)
"Sometimes if a potential adopter sees a whole row of black dogs, they think, 'Maybe they're not being adopted for a good reason. Maybe there's something wrong with these dogs,'" Bernstein says.

So volunteers at some shelters put extra energy into getting their black dogs noticed. They place brightly colored, eye-catching blankets and toys in their kennels. At Bernstein's shelters, they tie pink ribbons around the necks of the girls, and fasten big bow ties around the necks of the boys.
"In our kennels, the black dogs are all decked out," Bernstein says.

One shelter in Kettering, Ohio, the Society for the Improvement of Conditions for Stray Animals even ran a special discount on black dogs in February, slashing adoption fees in half after executive director Rudy Bahr realized that out of his shelters' 42 dogs, 28 of them were big and black. Bahr instructs his employees in the same sort of tactics Bernstein's shelters take to attract attention to black dogs, like tying bandannas around their necks and taking the dogs to a well-lit area outside to have their photo taken for their Web site.

It was that kind of photo on the shelter's site that attracted Gregg's attention as she continued her search for a companion for George Bailey. "I was trolling through their pictures and there she was," Gregg says. "She was a hound mix like George Bailey, but Molly is sleek, shiny black. As soon as I saw her I completely fell in love. I couldn't get in my car fast enough."
Molly and Bailey turned out to be a perfect match, and if Gregg someday rescues another dog, she says she'll definitely go for a big black dog.

"If and when I get another dog, I will probably deliberately look for another black dog, only because I've learned of black dog syndrome," Gregg says. "Bring 'em my way, because I love 'em."

Horsing Around

Even though we have daycare this week, we still have some energy to play a little bit.... we were just about to get into it when Dad came home so we had to run greet him!!! hope everyone else is getting in some good playing time!!'

xoxoxo,

The Puppies

We are so thankful and really lucky this week!

Our wonderful friend Charlie gave us this award!! We are totally stoked to be accepting it, but we have rules to follow in order to receive this award, so we are going to do our best to figure it out!!

First we have to post the rules:

Add the logo of the award to my blog (got it)
Add a link to the person who awarded it to me (woo hoo! that was a first for us!!)
Nominate at least 7 other blogs - (see below for our picks!)
Add links to those blogs on my blog (since we just learned how to do that, no problem!!)
Leave a message for my nominees on their blogs. (will be done as soon as we finish posting this post!)

We are going to nominate the following fellow puppies:

Bella

Harry

Chef

Mack

Joe Stains

Petra

Peanut

Whew!! Now we have to go post to everyone's blogs so we can follow the rules perfectly!!

xoxoxo

The Puppies

thanks again Charlie!!!

UPDATE: we just saw on Mack's site that he gave us this award too, so we wanted to recognize him in this post also!! Thanks so much Mack!!! We aren't worthy but we feel really lucky and are so grateful!!!!

xoxoxo,

The Puppies

We are so so thankful!!!!

Our dear friend Chef gave us this totally awesome award, and we have been so excited about it that we bragged about it in daycare the entire day! Everyone else was totally jealous..... it was great! :)
Thanks Chef!!!!!
xoxoxo,
The Puppies

Clean Laundry!!

We love sleeping on clean laundry before Mom or Dad gets a chance to fold it!!!
Here's me from another angle so you can see just how comfy i am on those towels!!! (after all Mom, those are MY towels anyway so who cares if i sleep on them after they have been put up or before, right?)
And here's Maggie napping next to me.......
She had to settle for the dirty ole Alabama blanket!!! i was taking all the towels for myself!!!! :)
xoxoxo,
The Puppies

Parents can be so annoying....

p.s. that's maggie telling Dad he's annoying her at the end of this video......so you see it isn't just me who thinks that parents can be annoying sometimes!! ;-)

Saturday mornings continued......

Since we played on Dad all morning, it was only fair that we took naps with him afterwards!!
Don't i look comfy?
Aren't we cute together?
Of course, i had to share time with my sissie Maggie!!
She loves napping on Dad.... she sleeps on him at night too!

We sure hope everyone else is having a good weekend!!!
xoxoxo,
The Puppies

Saturday Mornings!!!

We love to play on Dad on Saturday mornings and of course to play with each other!!!

I'm getting sooo good at this!!!

Mom got us a new stuffie yesterday.... i had it maybe 30 seconds and was playing on the couch.... when Mom heard a ripping noise, so she had to investigate.....


Uh oh!!! Mom took the stuffie away when she saw this!! She said she was going to fix it and put it away.... I think she should have just let me finish doing my job.....
de-squeakering my stuffies!!!!!!!
xoxoxo,
Opal

Softball Game!!!

We got to go Dad's softball game and watch him play yesterday!! It was so much fun but it was so hot too!! Fortunately, Mom brought us some water to drink and ice to chew on!! We were way too excited to pose for good pictures because there was too much going on! The only thing we didn't understand was why they didn't let dogs on the field!!

xoxoxo,

The Puppies

Death of "Hissy"

While Mom and Dad were away today, I played with one of my favorite stuffies.... Mr. Hissy!! He is a big ole cat and Mom said he was indestructible!! Well, he wasn't... and I showed her today!!! She came home today to find my kennel in this shape.....

Stuffie innards everywhere!!! I did such a good job that Mom couldn't even find the squeaker when she went looking for it! And I was clever and took all the innards out from the head, right here:
Just because i tore apart my stuffie didn't mean i was done playing with him......
I like to stretch out completely when i am chewing on my stuffies! Mom thinks it is silly so she took a picture and told me to post it! You don't think it's silly do you??
xoxoxo,
Opal

Going on Vacation....

Sadly, it is not us who are going on vacation but our parents! :( They told us we are going to go visit Miss Janet and Miss Billie and Miss Claire at the VET. Not that we don't like them, but we want to go on vacation too!!! Not Fair Mom and Dad!!! We don't know what a beach is but we think we would like it very much! Mom said something about the place we are going not allowing pets because it is for sale and has to stay "nice" but we would be good!!! We promise!!!
Anyway, until they get back, we will be doing this:

And this:
We also wanted to say sorry we haven't posted this week, but we have daycare this week and when we get home from daycare we are EXHAUSTED and just want to sleep and don't want to get on the computer or get our pictures taken!! We would post this weekend but stupid Mom and Dad aren't leaving the computer with us at the VET so we will have to wait until Monday. :(.

xoxoxo,
The Puppies

Sunday Dinner!!

On Sundays, we get to go to Grampa Jim and Grammaw Jeanne's house for dinner... it is awesome!! There are two cats to play with... even if they don't like playing!!! And there is......
some really yummy food so we can practice our begging!! it usually gets us lots of yummy food over there!
And they have a huge yard and back porch where we get to hang out!!

And of course, part of our hanging out is looking cute, like Maggie does right here.....
And unfortunately, there was a thunderstorm so Marshall got to get all drooley and panty, as pictured here.....
Here is a shot of the sky so you know he isn't faking! ;)
And for good measure, here is one more of me begging, since that is what we do best over there....tonight it got us lots of yummy salmon to snack on!!
We hope everyone else had as good a Sunday night as we did.... it was awesome!! Now we have to get our beauty sleep, because we are full and because tomorrow, we have to be rested up for doggie daycare!!

xoxoxo,

The Puppies

Coming home from our walk.....

These pictures are from our return from our lovely walk we took yesterday!! Boy was it hot!! Hope everyone else stayed cool yesterday!!!

I didn't want Mom to take a picture of me laid out flat on the floor here, but she tried to get one!!!
Stay cool today where possible! Mom and Dad have promised us a trip to a park today- we can't wait!!!
xoxoxo,
The Puppies

Happy 4th of July!!!!

Happy 4th of July everyone!! Dad came back from vacation last night so we are going to be able to spend the holidays together!! We hope everyone else has a great day!!!
Please excuse the quality of this video of us greeting Dad.... Mom needs to learn how to work her camera better!! She has promised to work on it before the next video posting!

xoxoxo,

The Puppies

More of us "partying" while Dad is out of town....

We really miss Dad if you can't tell!!! I hope he isn't gone long because we can't take much more excitement! :)

xoxoxo

The Puppies

When Dad's Away . . . .

Puppies Get Treats!!!! Hooray!! We got yummy yummy frosty paws!!!


They were so good that even Marshall joined us for a picture!!! We don't know if all puppies get yummy treats while their Dads are on vacation, but we do!!! It isn't as nice as having Dad at home but we take what we can get!!
xoxoxo,
The Puppies