Running!

I am super excited to report that my parents have started running. Yes, that's right... the people who only like to exercise in front of the tv have decided to start running outdoors. This is great news for me, because I like to go go go. The bad news for me, of course, is that I am old... couldn't they have done this when I was younger? My mom even ordered a new jogging stroller (see below for picture .... cuz she is super excited about it). She claims it won't run me over and that way she can bring me and the little man along on her runs. I am not sure I buy it, but I did see someone with a dog and a stroller, so I guess its okay. Plus, she owes me.... she left for a few hours today, and when she came home she was covered in Riley's fur! Can you believe it?  She is such a cheater :)

Healthy Puppy!

I got some great news lately... my liver levels are NORMAL! Now, I know you don't probably know a lot about dog livers, and I haven't talked a lot about my issues, but trust me when I say, when your liver goes bad, your parents have to do a lot of icky pooper scooping. Plus, they get really worried. Well, I have been taking this awesome supplement Denosyl that the vet gave me (and my mom smartly found for super cheap on Amazon... well, okay, not super cheap but like half the price of the vet). After a few months of this, my liver levels went down, but I was still sick. As of last week, I am as healthy as I was years ago! Dad blames cheap dogfood ingredients (even though I have a stupid expensive prescription dog food) for poisoning me slowly over time. Mom blames that short little human who keeps throwing his food on the floor for me. Either way, I don't care... I am HEALTHY! And I totally have my doggy spirit back. I like to play and I even tolerate the little one who chases me all over the house.

People were asking my mom about my blogging today, and so she of course had to give me guilt about it, and now here I am blogging. Just so you know, Jewish mother guilt works on dogs too. Things are good with me. I continue to love rolling in grass, chasing tennis balls, and eating things that others think are disgusting... NO TASTE I tell you! I have also now gotten used to the little man in my house. Well, I think he's a little man, but his voice is kind of high pitched, and he giggles a lot. Also, most men seem to walk upright... him not so much. I mean, occasionally he kind of tries, but mostly, he seems to go around on all fours just like me. But I digress... what was my point? Oooh something shiny! Okay, back now... anyway, yeah, the little man. See, here's the thing. He has figured out how to feed me. Its awesome at dinner time. Its like one for me, one for him, one for me, one for him. Sometimes mom or dad notices, and that means no more goodies, but most of the time, I get away with it. Time to get walked now before the little one comes home. Dad is so awesome with my afternoon walks, and its not so hot anymore, phew.

I am helping science!

If you happen to be following the Project HealthDesign blog, you may have noticed that I am super science-y. I am serving as an animal model for my mom's research.... that means she is tracking me with the Estrellita application! Read the blog here:

http://projecthealthdesign.typepad.com/project_health_design/2011/02/dogs-as-animal-models-for-research.html

Luci happenings...

Phew.... Don DOES like me after all! He put me on the LUCI blogroll!

Tonight is the going away party for Janet... I sure hope I get to go. Mom keeps telling me there is something for me in Don's office, but I haven't gotten it yet. I totally deserve something awesome after all the neglect I got yesterday when my mom ignored me to make this cake instead:

How I feel about Mom's work

There are lots of things to love about going to work with mom:
- Smelling new things.... anywhere there are grad students, there are bound to be funny smells!
- Slippery floors. I LOVE to race around on the tile.
- Elevators.... going up without stairs is crazy. I was scared at first, but now I love it.
- Getting treats and extra petting from mom's friends

There are also things that make me mad about mom's work.... the one today is that even though I love LUCI and spend lots of time there, apparently, I am not worthy of being on their blogroll.... don't they love me?

Home at Last

Its been quite a May for me. First, my parents drove me 30 hours across the country (with a stop off to see my Uncle Jay, which is always much appreciated). I got to go to Nonni and Pop's house in Alabama which was really nice. Then, they made me drive another 30 hours BACK across that darn country.

Some highlights:
- Tricking Nonni into getting up earlier and earlier each morning to take me for walks
- Almost catching a duck.... who knew I wanted them so badly!? It was like something just took over for me that I couldn't control, almost like I was born to go after ducks.
- Nonni giving me treats in every bowl of food.
- Running on the dock and getting pet lots and lots by my pop while watching fish jump in the river.
- Taking over a huge house with just me and my parents while Nonni and Pop were in Spain.
- Meeting that nice policeman in West Texas.
- Eating Brisket at Cooper's Barbeque... YUM! BEEFIES!

Some lowlights:
- My dad getting yelled at by the rest area people who wanted me to get stung by scorpions rather than pee on their grass.
- driving.... and driving.... and driving....
- Getting carried up and down on top of an RV in Austin... (a) why would anyone watch baseball in that heat and (b) don't my parents know that girls were soooo obviously not invited to that party unless they were the kind of girls that Uncle Jay and his friends could hook up with?
- Getting my stomach cut open and a fatty tumor biopsied. I am okay, but I wish they would quit cutting me open... newsflash people: It always just fat!
- My mom throwing food in the river at those stupid fish when I was right there happy to eat it.
- driving.... and driving.... and driving....
- Leaving my Nonni and Pop

So, summary.... it was a good trip and dogs do love trucks, but I am glad to be laying in the middle of my living room floor back in California!

Happy Saint Patricks Day!

My mom brought me special treats from the place named after me!

New friend Bolt

My mom's friend Melissa came over last night with her daughter Z. We watched Bolt... it was so fun! Also, we had pizza which means my dad gave me a lot of crust. I am so happy that he hates crust, because it means thatI get to eat a lot of it.... nevermind that it makes me gassy later. Anyway, the good news is that we had this whole thing about whose human different people were, and my dad is my human, but Melissa said I have two humans so I guess my mom is also my human. Anyway, Z decided she was Penny, and Melissa was Bolt. So, that meant Z is Melissa's human, and it was sooo funny because she was crawling on the floor and Z pretended she had a leash to walk her. M wasn't a very good walker with the leash though, kinda like me, and so Penny, I mean Z, I mean Penny, kind of gave up. Oooh I have to run.... my dad just made me ground turkey for dinner... yum! Nevermind that I am personally growing my parents' carbon footprint with my carnivorous diet and habit of pooping everywhere.

Update from a big fur ball

Hi there,

I've been busy busy busy the last few months. I like to move around the house a lot and sleep in a different room at various hours through the day and night. I like my mom's office and my bedroom the best.. luckily for me they are right on top of one another. My parents keep insisting on calling my room the "guest room" but most of the time, there are no guests, and they each have their own rooms... even if they do call them "offices" so I think I should have my own room.

Anyway, lets see what else.... well, my fur is growing out long now. It has been crazy cold here (well, cold for California... not like there is snow or anything). My dad says its good to have the long fur for the cold weather, but really, I think it just makes me stink, and my mom totally agrees. As if its not bad enough that they all yell at me all the time about my breath! Now, my fur gets wet in all this rain and it stinks too. I stink so bad that Zabelle my little friend brought over this weird things like baby wipes for my teeth. My mom tortures me with them, and my dad even got out a toothbrush and tried to brush my teeth. I showed them though and spit that toothpaste all over them and ran away and hid in the other room.

Oh I almost forgot, I do have one pretty cool piece of news.... my dad's book is finally out Now there will be a whole lot less stomping and cursing going on around here! I can finally relax and sleep and snore in peace.

Love you all!

Savannah the furry little stink monster

Happy Birthday To Me!

I am officially 8 years old today! I had a great day.... went for a walk, went to the park, had belly rubs, and now I am eating a puppy pop. Yummy!

Go Chargers!

Need I say more?

Happy Memorial Day!

On this great holiday day, I thought I would wish you all a good one. I have had a great weekend.... I got to go to the beach on Saturday and then the spa. I got to go on a hike yesterday. And today I have been lazing around under my mom's feet while she works. I hear my Uncle Mike is coming to see me tonight too.

Now, all that positive does have its downsides. I recently learned that Bo is getting a lot more attention than I am. I get it... he's the President's dog, fine fine. But, when we were at the store, I was so excited that the check out guy gave me a treat that I almost missed it, but then there it was ... a WHOLE BOOK about Bo! I have to do my OWN authorship and all I get is a stinking blog.

Moooooommmmmmm! Come on!!!! I want a book too! (I sure hope she reads this and gets that I was whining and whimpering and gives me what I want).

http://www.amazon.com/Americas-Commander-Leash-Naren-Aryal/dp/1934878707

Why oh why does the world hate me?

Okay, so to start with, last night, there was a crazy bad earthquake... well maybe not crazy bad. Nothing fell down really, but it did shake for a long time. I was really scared and tried to run in the bedroom. My mom sat with me and comforted me though. My dad ran outside... he is soooo East Coast! I heard it was a 5, which I guess is pretty big.

Then, this morning, before my mom's alarm clock even went off, there was all this crazy noise outside. They are taking away my sidewalk! I love that sidewalk. I walk on it, and sniff things, and do all kinds of stuff, but there they were just breaking it up and taking it away.

So, then I came to my mom's office, which was awesome at first because I got to see my Uncle Don, and he pet me and pet me and was super nice. The only problem was that my mom forgot her keys. So, I had to get locked in the lab while she went and did stuff, and I hated it so much I started barking. But then she came back, and we sat on the couch, and also I got to lie on the awesome cold tile floor. So, I guess it seems like its going okay now. I hope I get to go home soon and my world stops changing!


Here are some pictures of me hard at work in the LUCI lab.

Space Doggie!

The STAR group went out for their annual outing... they went cosmic bowling, and all I got was this silly light necklace.

Adorable video

My mom has had a rough couple of weeks at work... lots of grant and paper writing. I showed her this video to cheer her up. This might cheer you up if you are having a bad day.

'Bout time I made it to flickr

Originally uploaded by kaufmans

All my friends have been making fun of me, cuz my mom is soooo boring and never hardly posts to flickr, but my friend sam hooked me up.

thanks sam!

Mom and Dad are back.... and I can almost roll over

My parents abandoned me for a week... they went to some place they keep calling "the big island" but I don't know whats so big about it. As for me, I was pretty well taken care of. My friends Gabi and David hung out with me all week. David taught me to roll over, but I am so fat, I get stuck on my back and then sometimes he is a sucker and just gives me the treat anyway. He also got me two new toys... woohoo! My parents came back and that makes me happy, but they keep talking about how I need a bath, and I am less happy about that. I'll post a picture though once I am all pretty again.

Bye bye Margarita!

I am so sad Margarita has gone... but I will look at this picture of her and think of her fondly often!

My New BFF

So... I am really sad that Margarita is leaving... don't get me wrong. I am even trying to score an invite to her going away party this weekend.

I do want to say, however, that I totally have a new bestie... her name is Gabi. She is way more renegade than Margarita. She took me on a golf course (I haven't been on one of those since my mom was a beer girl when I was just a young pup). She also walked me super far one day, so far I thought I might totally die, cuz I am kind of old and fat. Anyway, I was pooped, but then I was sooo happy, because we were at my other good friend David's house, and he took me for a ride in the car. I thought I would get to go somewhere cool... Normally, he takes me to the beach. That's fun except for he is always making this weird noise when we go there. It sounds like "Hunnnngggington" and he tries to get me to make the noise too... weirdo. Anyway, sorry, got distracted. I am kind of ADD. So, anyway, we got in the car, and instead of going some place cool, he just took me home. It was okay though cuz my new bestie was there.

My mom just told me she is going to stay with me for a whole week in February. I am soooo excited. I almost peed myself with joy, which kind of gets my mom back for torturing me with some kind of crazy small dinosaur thing that makes weird noises.

Patterson Family Holiday Card

Clearly Don knows who is important and has addressed the card appropriately.... either that or he just really wants to be on the blog :)

Either way, I will appease him.