My good side

During the warm weather the humans like eating lunch out on the patio. I used to like this, but now I’m not such a big fan. The sun is so bright on my little eyes. I stick around as long as the food lasts, but then I go back inside where it’s shady.

Lately, I’ve been feeling so sleepy that I usually just take a nap through lunch.

But just the other day, it was gorgeous outside and I had a little bit of pep in my step, so I went and joined No. 2 and the baby Klingons out there.

No. 2 had his camera out and he was taking pictures of the Klingons. When he saw me come out, he aimed the camera at me. I was kind of walking towards him and then, just before he snapped the picture, I turned my head to the side.

No. 2 said, “What did you do that for?” But then he looked at the picture on the display thingie in his camera, and all of a sudden he changed his tune. In fact, he allowed as how that was practically the best picture he’d ever taken of me.

Don't you think I know which is my good side?

It’s kind of funny that after more than 16 years together, he’s finally figured out how to take a good picture. Listen to the dog!

Woofs,
Willie

Edited: December 5th, 2011

The littlest Klingon

As soon as the black fleas went back, we kept on having more baby Klingon guests. I didn’t care for the second batch too much. They were a little scaredy and a bit too Klingon-y to me, too many sharp points and not enough caution about using them, and so I gave them a wide berth.

Sure, they look all innocent now.

However, the third batch was just fine. These came to us with a case of the sneezles and the wheezles.

They didn't feel that gud.

The tiny tortoiseshell Klingon, the runt of the litter, had it the worst. She didn’t even weigh in at a pound soaking wet, and while the other two Klingons would run and jump around, she would just lie there on the sofa very quiet. Now that’s my kind of Klingon! We got along very well together.

Lullaby... and good night....

However, the humans were worried about her, so No. 1 took her to That Place. After they came home, No. 1 started squirting some sort of white gloppy substance down her gullet for a few days. It may have been that, or it may have been the Tuna Cure that No. 2 invented, but on about Day 3, that tiny thing reached out and batted at a toy!

After that the littlest Klingon started feeling better and began to have a very big appetite. That’s when the humans knew she was going to be all right.

Out of my way, human! That's my yogurt!

Here she is, paying a visit on me in my happy place.

If you won't let me in, I'll just sit out here.

Three Klingons and a tribble. Can you tell which is which?

We wuv each other.

The two orange baby Klingons went back to the shelter when they got over their colds. But the littlest Klingon had a lot of catching up to do, so she stayed with us awhile longer. No. 2 grew extra attached to Bunny (which No. 1 named her because she looked and felt like a dust bunny), and he asked all of his friends if they would like to adopt her. One of his bestest friends, a very nice young human, said yes! She had just adopted a Klingon a month earlier, and that Klingon needed a playtime companion.

Have you hugged your Klingon today?

The best thing about this was that we kept on visiting Bunny at the friend’s place. Here she is a couple months later.

She sprouted legs.

It’s hard to say whether she remembered me, but she definitely remembered that dogs are OK. Her housemate ran away and hid from me, but Bunny came right out and said, “Issa goggie!”

Here’s one more picture, from about half a year later.

Look at that fluffy tail!

I’m glad this story had such a happy ending. For the first time I kind of understood why humans like to keep Klingons around.

Woofs,
Willie

Edited: November 11th, 2011

What are papillons for?

After my last story, my buddy Toby sent in a question.

What are Papillons for? Molly says that dogs were originally bred for a purpose. We (cavaliers) were bred to be comfort dogs – keeping humans warm and happy – we’re good at that. Other spaniels were bred to sniff out game. (We are still pretty good with our noses.) So what is your speciality?

Well, we papillons are also a type of toy spaniel, descended from the continental toy spaniel a whole long time ago. Some humans think that there might be a little bit of chihuahua thrown into our mix to make our ears stand up but I don’t know. What’s certain is that papillons were a favorite kind of dog of the big important humans in a place called Europe. If you go to this place on the interwebs you’ll see a gallery with gobs and buckets of paintings that have papillons in them! We’re very good models.

Anyway, we are for just the same thing as you: to keep human laps warm!

We can do other things too, like agility. You remember I told my story about agility before? Recently, No. 2 and I saw a papillon named Primo on the Purina Incredibobble Dog Challenge on the teevee. He finished second that time, but guess what! He won the small dog agility this year! According to this place on the interwebs, you’ll be able to see him on the teevee again soon! Way to go Primo!

You might also want to watch this moving picture on papillons from the Animal Planet. Check out the little guy herding sheep! It also shows the most famous papillon of all, MY HERO, Kirby. He won the Westminster Dog Club show once upon a time. After that, humans started to recognize what kind of a dog I was when we went out for walks.

Finally, I’d like to put in a plug for a really good book, Memoirs of a Papillon by Genevieve.

The subtitle is, “The Canine Guide to Living with Humans without Going Mad.” I could write a book about that, but thanks to Genevieve, I don’t have to!

Woofs,
Willie

Edited: October 19th, 2011

In the land of the giants

No. 1, No. 2, and I took another car trip, to a place called the city.

It was very different from our last road trip, when we went to a place that had a wooden house, trees, places to run around, and no other humans anywhere you could see. This new place had lots and lots of people, and almost no ground at all! It was all asphalt and concrete, everywhere you looked. Where’s a dog supposed to pee? No. 1 and I looked and looked, and we couldn’t find any grass or ground cover or even any mulch! What kind of place is this?

I wasn’t sure what I was going to do until a city dog came along and showed me. There are little grates, about one foot by one foot, with some ground underneath and a tree in the center. Sometimes there would be a little square without a grate, and that was the spot for a potty break. Pretty pitiful if you ask me.

Aside from the lack of facilities, it wasn’t such a bad place. We had a really comfy bed, at least until No. 2 got up at a ridiculously early hour.

Can't you see some of us are still sleeping?

To get to our room you would get in a little closet with a metal door, and then a motor would whir and you’d feel as if you were moving and yet everything in the closet would stay in place. Eventually the motor would stop whirring and the door would open, and then we would be in a different place! How do they do that?

No. 1 was busy most of the day, so No. 2 and I got in the car and drove around the city. We stopped at a place where No. 2 said the giants played. It’s funny, though, I didn’t see any giants, just normal-sized people.

The park where the giants play.

No. 2 took this picture of me with a plaque, which he says shows one of the most famous giants. This one was named Willie, just like me! Willie Mays. Have you heard about him?

My favorite giant.

After visiting the park we walked along the waterfront. And walked. And walked. It was a looong walk. I still didn’t see any giants, but it seemed as if you really would have to be one to live in a place like this. No. 2 walked the legs right off me. Later that day, I slept in the car almost all the way back home.

Woofs,
Willie

Edited: October 16th, 2011

Flowers and gardens

Paws up and many thanks to all my interweb friends for your nice words about losing a member of the pack. Me and the humans appreciate it. Biscuits for you.

Today I’d like to talk about one human quirk that I’ve never quite understood: They like plants. Especially flowers.

Our front door.

Let me just say for the record that I’ve got nothing against flowers. But I can’t eat them, and their scent is not the kind of perfume that a dog appreciates, so for me they’re just a part of the background.

I’s a different story for the humans. They think flowers are cute. That means they have to take pictures of them. Sometimes they even want to have a dog in the picture.

Fine. I'll pose by your hibiscusus.

No. 2 wasn’t satisfied with just growing flowers by our front door. A few years ago, he got a little garden plot in a nearby park, and he started growing them there, too.

No. 2's garden

I like these flowers. Know why? Because we have to take a walk to get to them!

Going for a walk to the park with my two humans is one of my favorite things. We take our time on the way to the garden, stopping to sniff all the pee-mail along the way. When we get to the garden, No. 2 picks some flowers and vegetables. Then he uses a magic rain shower device to make it rain. I do not care for this part, because sometimes the rain gets too close to me. In fact, sometimes I even wonder if he makes it rain on me on purpose.

But then comes the best part: the walk home! To a dog, there’s no place like home. Somehow this part of the walk never lasts as long as the walk to the garden. Maybe it’s because I’m out in front with my special going-home gait. Hurry up, you guys! What’s taking so long?

Woofs,
Willie

Edited: October 2nd, 2011

Roughing it (again)

I’m not a really big fan of roughing it (see my story about gorving). It was all the same to me that we hadn’t really been on any camping-type trips since then. But No. 1 came up with a place she thought I might like.

Little cabin in the woods

Now this is what I call roughing it! You have walls. You have a floor. You have light. You have heat in case it gets too cold. (No. 1 also praised the hot water for showers — not that I would know anything about that.) Best of all, you have a bed to curl up on.

No. 2 likes the loft, which you get up to by climbing a ladder. This part isn’t really dog friendly, but it’s monkey-friendly and also 50-year-old-teenager friendly. He went up there and we almost couldn’t get him to come down again.

How's the weather up there?

When you want to go outside, you open the back door and there you are, in the middle of a forest. And there was almost no one else around!

Here I am, showing off my mountaineering skills.

I am a wolf in the forest.

Sad to say, we spent only one night here, and then we went to a big hotel for awhile. There wasn’t much for a little dog to do. It was noisy, confusing, and there were soooo many people, everywhere you looked. I had to be careful not to get stepped on.

Maybe roughing it isn’t such a bad idea after all. I didn’t much care for gorving, but gocabining is all right with me!

Woofs,
Willie

No. 2 here: If any of you are wondering where this is, these are the Shinneyboo Creek Cabins, just a stone’s throw from the I-80 highway to Reno, an exit or two past Emigrant Gap.

Edited: August 22nd, 2011

Me and the interweb

I started this dogblog a couple years ago, but actually me and the interweb go way back.

Once upon a time the www was still a shiny new thing, just like me, and No. 2 set up a little corner of it just for me. Here’s what it looked like:

Blast from the Past

Some of you might recognize the old-school formatting, i.e., none. I’m glad that I had No. 1 to help me design this dogblog! It looks a lot spiffier, don’t you think?

Eventually No. 2 took the old page down, but it did lead to a couple of good things while it lasted. First was that one reader wrote to my humans and told them I had the frosting gene. That was interesting.

Second was that a white papillon in Japan wrote to me! Her name was Puzoo. She said that she also likes the making of the bed, and her humans said something very wise, which is that all papillons are equally to be loved. I’ve never seen Japan, so I asked my humans where it was. They said it’s far away, so far that you can’t even get there in a car ride.

But still, it’s nice to know that I have a friend way, way over there. I hope that I’ll get to meet you some day, Puzoo!

Woofs,
Willie

Edited: August 19th, 2011

Bark! The Herald Angels Sing

Remember back when I was young pup, and a tree came into the house? Well, I’m glad to tell you that it happened again! And again. And again …

Now, instead of being a surprise, it’s a tradition. And we dogs are very big on tradition!

Every year, around the time that the nights start getting a lot longer than the days, the same things happen. First a tree comes into the living room. The humans hang all sorts of stuff on it.

Here are three of the humans’ favorite hang-up things.

See how they look just like our Klingons?

But naturally this is the very best one.

It's a good ornament.

Then the stockings go up. We don’t have a fireplace any more in this warm place, but the chest of drawers works pretty well.

One for No. 1, one for me, and one for No 2.

The Klingons get into the holiday spirit, too, in a grinchy sort of way. They have some very strange ideas about how to celebrate. For example, they like to pull the decorations off the lower branches of the tree. And they like to drink the water from the bowl the tree sits in. “Mmmm! Yum! I’ve looked forward all year to tree-sap flavored water!”

Here are the calicoes doing their version of making merry.

Ho. Ho. Ho. Whatever.

Gradually, over the course of two or three weeks, presents start to pile up under the tree, but the stockings always stay empty. And then, one night while we are all asleep, something magical occurs! We get up in the morning, and the stockings are full of presents! It’s the big day!

The first order of business (before breakfast, and before the humans even get dressed) is to open the stockings. Here I demonstrate the proper technique:

I'm helping.

My stocking is the best, with lots of things that dogs appreciate, but No. 2’s is usually pretty good, too. It has a lot of sweet things in it. No. 1’s usually doesn’t have anything to eat, except shortbread cookies in honor of her Scottish grandma. It does usually have pieces of fabric for her to make the blankies with. She appreciates that.

Then we have breakfast. and then, it’s time for the presents under the tree!

When we were all much younger, the Klingons used to open their presents, nice smelly Klingon-nip toys, and then proceed to flop on their sides and act goofy for awhile. Now, though, they don’t even act like they’re interested, and I usually have to open their presents for them. I tear into the paper with my teethies and rip with my paws until I have gotten the thing uncovered. Klingon-nip is okay, but it’s no substitute for a nice yummy dog treat. That’s what’s in MY present!

After we unwrap the presents, No. 1 starts making a glorious Christmas feast! And when we sit down at the table, that’s the best part of the day, because as we all know, Christmas is all about eating.

I'll have a drumstick. And a wing. And a big hunka white meat...

Woofs,
Willie

Edited: July 11th, 2011

Toy stories

You met Bootsie. Somebody said Bootsie looked like a lamb. He’s not a lamb, he’s a poodle.

Bootsie and the whole gang

I’ll show you each one of my stuffed toys.

Ducky

This is a good one. A duck with bunny slippers! Those dangly slippers are so much fun to grab with your teethies and fling around. I don’t know what happened to the eyes of one bunny.

Flopsy

Flopsy is some class of a rabbit and she stays on our bed most of the time. She’s jolly good fun to run after and drag around.

Red lion

This lion was the very first toy that No. 1 ever got me. So many arms and legs, and so chewy!

Mr. Bun

Mr. Bun, Mr. Bun! Oh, the good times we’ve had. Of all the bunnies, you’re the most fun to beat up.

Mau-Mau

No. 1 brought this little guy home from a place called the Magic Kingdom. Mau-Mau is good for biting, shaking ferociously, and tossing in the air. He’s been decapitated twice and had his head sewn back on by No. 1.

Pinky

Pinky has dangly feet, which is very good. He lost an ear in an unfortunate incident one day, when it was chewed off by some other dog that came visiting. It wasn’t me, I swear. It was that other dog. Really.

Purple Klingon

Aha! Finally I get to show those Klingons who’s boss! Take that, you purple fiend!

Spidie

This spider has lots of legs, enabling one to get a good hold for the thrashing. This one usually hangs out under the sofa, where it is also excellent at gathering the dust bunnies.

Original Fetch

When my humans took me home for the first time, my breeder mom sent me with a toy just like this one. It’s soft and chewy, it has a tail, and it has jingle bells inside it. No. 2 would yell, “Fetch!” and throw this across the room, and I would run like the dickens after it and bring it back.

The fetch is excellent for the hammer toss. The trick is to get ahold of it by the tail and swing it around in circles until maximum velocity is reached, then let it go. It flies like the wind! If you don’t let it go, you get the excellent game of ‘wappity-wap.’ Wappity! Wappity! Wappity wappity wap!

I wappitied that first fetch so many times that it wore out, and No. 1 made me a new one. She sewed it right on her sewing machine while I watched, can you believe how nice she is? She even put the jungle bells in. Then I wore out the second fetch, so she made me another one. The one in the picture is the third iteration. We still call it the Original Fetch, and of all toys, the original is still the best.

Woofs,
Willie

Edited: July 4th, 2011

Doggie intelligence

Did I ever tell you about the time my humans failed the doggie intelligence test?

It’s a good story. It happened a long time ago, back when I was still a youngster and we lived in the old place. You know, the place that looked like this:

Except when it looked like this:

Or this:

Number 1 was always very proud of me and telling everybody that I was the smartest little puppy in the world. Her friend and fellow dog lover, who had three big clumsy white dogs (you can see one of them in this story), invited us over to take a doggie intelligence test.

So here are some of the things they have you do on a doggie intelligence test. They show you a treat and put it under a cup. Then you are supposed to get it out from under the cup. That was easy. I went over to the cup and did the “papillon wave,” where I reared up and waved my front paws vigorously in the air. The humans laughed, but it works every time. Out came the treat. “He asked for help!” they said. I passed!

Then there was the blankie test, where they put a blankie or towel over you and see if you can get out from underneath it. The white dogs, I’m sorry to say, failed this one miserably. You throw the blanket over them, and they say, “Who turned out the lights?” You should have seen them wandering around bumping into stuff. Their brains are almost as small as Klingons, and that’s really saying something.

I, on the other hand moved with such lightning-fast swiftness that they couldn’t even get the blankie on top of me! Woo hoo! I passed! Now can I get another treat?

Well, you get the idea. Ten tests passed with flying colors, ten treats. Oh, and did I tell you what the treats were?

Dog heaven

This was a big-dog house, so I got big-dog treats. I had never eaten those before in my life! Yummmy! More! More!

Now we get to the part where my humans failed the test. Number 1 was thrilled out of her mind, of course, because it had just been proven that I was the smartest little dog in the world. But you see, there was just one problem. A small dog’s stomach only has so much room in it, and when you stuff ten pieces of yummy big-dog treats in there …

Well, let’s just say that they came back out again. It wasn’t my fault. Towels were fetched. Apologies were made. And the smartest little dog on the planet went back home with two mortified humans.

By the way, just for fun, here’s a link to another dog who took the intelligence test and didn’t do quite as well as I did … LOL! Enjoy!

Woofs,
Willie

Edited: July 2nd, 2011

Really, I’m a very good driver

Some of you may not really believe that a dog knows how to drive. (See my last story.) Well, here is more proof.

Looking out the front window is for wimps. I look out the side.

I usually handle the technically complex job of driving the car when the ignition is turned off. Anyone can drive with the motor on, and so I leave that easy part to Number 2.

Nothing like going for a spin in the parking lot.

Oh, by the way, Number 2 wants you to look at his beautiful new car. He likes how quiet it is, and the fact that it doesn’t have to go to the place with the long hoses and the greasy smell quite as often. But as far as I am concerned, it has the most important thing, which is a good center console in the front seat so that the dog can sit between the two humans.

Woofs,
Willie

Edited: June 27th, 2011

She’s home!

Back in that other place where we used to live, it was No. 1 who stayed home and No. 2 who went away in the day. When we moved here, it switched around; No. 2 started staying home and No. 1 went away in the day.

Guess what? She quit doing that! Now she stays home and No. 2 stays home, we all stay home and I have a human and a spare ‘most all the time! I highly approve of that.

It’s a good thing, too. You know, I used to hear her car coming and I would bark her home. She must have gone and got herself a quieter car, because it’s been awhile since I heard her coming. Sometimes I don’t even knows she’s in the house until I see her. In fact, just about everything comes quieter these days.

This is where I hang out while No. 1 is working in her studio all day. She gave me this comfy brown fabric and I made a nest for myself here.

Just two feet behind No. 1's chair.

Woofs,
Willie

Edited: June 20th, 2011

This blankie is dog approved

No. 1 says that there’s only one thing that I don’t understand.

I'm checking out this nice blankie.

She puts her hands on her hips, looks at me, and says, “You cannot lie on a quilt while I’m quilting it.”

Why not? I’m just doing my job. I am the Quilt Puppy after all. It is my solemn duty to check out each and every blankie, to make sure that it holds all the properties that a dog desires. This is a very nice one, very comfy, and from here I can supervise your activities closely.

“What am I going to do with you?” she asks.

Nobody here but us teapots.

Woofs,
Willie

Edited: June 11th, 2011

My favorite time of day

There are lots of great times of the day, but my very favorite comes in the evening when the humans start puttering around in the kitchen. When I hear the squinch-squinch sound of the can opener, then I know… It’s Klingon feeding time!

Here’s the thing about Klingons. They’re carnivores, which means they’re supposed to have nice meaty diets. The humans give me dog kibble, which is fun to crunch in your mouth, but it isn’t as juicy and stinky and delicious as food from a can. That’s the kind of food the Klingons get to eat. Well, two of the three Klingons anyway. The third one doesn’t care for moist food and only eats dry kibble, which only goes to show what small brains Klingons have.

Now you might think it’s a little bit unfair that the two sensible Klingons get yummy canned food and I don’t. But I’ll tell you a little secret. I get some of the Klingons’ food, too. Sometimes #2 sneaks me a bite, and sometimes I take matters into my own hands … er, mouth, and dart in for a bite when the Klingons are finished.

Of course, such an exciting event as canned food time demands a song. When dogs get excited, they sing. Don’t you?

Here I am, singing the canned food song.

In case you want to sing along, #2 made up some human words to the song. Of course the dog words are better, but the human words are good too. They go:

Canned food! Canned food!
Give me your canned food, do!
I like canned food
So much I’ll bark at you!

The melody is “Bicycle Built For Two.”

One of the Klingons also sings along sometimes, but she meows instead of barking and that just isn’t right at all.

Edited: April 30th, 2011

The making of the bed

One of the most fun things EVER is the making of the bed.

First, No. 2 takes all the blankies, the sheets, and everything off the bed. This is very exciting. All of a sudden there is a great wide expanse of empty bed for me to run around on, spin, jump, bark, rumpage, and FRAP!

Sometimes No. 2 joins in the fun.

Really?

Then he gets a new sheet and stands at the end of the bed. “You ready?”" he asks me.

I was BORN Ready!

He flaps the new sheet high in the air! It is so exciting!

I spin like a whirling top!

I surf the sheet, catching the leading edge and conquering it.

The sheet comes down.

You try to cover me but I am too swift.

No. 2 never gets it right the first time, and is forced to repeat the maneuver.

He is chagrined.

Do it again!

I am ready for Phase 2!

Then come the rest of the blankies and the pillows, etc. And the fun is over, until the next time!

Woofs,
Willie

Edited: April 20th, 2011

I’m up on the wall!

No. 1 and No. 2 decided that they wanted to look at me up on the wall, in addition to looking at me in person all the time.

A nice human came over, and she brought her young human and guess what, they have a phalene! A phalene is just exactly like a papillon except their ears go down instead of up. My long lost cousin!

Angel and me getting treats from the young human.

After the visit, pretty soon my portrait arrived and No. 2 stuck it up on the wall.

Very handsome if I do say so myself.

Woofs,
Willie

No. 1 here… the fabulous pet portraitist is Tamara Burnett.

No. 2 here… I am so glad that we had Tamara paint this picture. (It was my birthday present to No. 1!) After becoming acquainted with Willie, she mostly worked from a photo. When Tamara first brought the painting to us, it somehow didn’t look quite right. Then we figured out what was missing. There is a tiny spot on the left side of his nose, which was not really visible in the photo. We asked Tamara to paint it in, and then suddenly … wham! It was Willie! It was amazing to me that such a tiny detail could make such a big difference. I really appreciated Tamara’s willingness to work with us to get this keepsake just right.

Edited: March 14th, 2011

Agility

No. 1 says that she first learned about papillons when she saw one at a dog show doing something called agility.

The took me to a field with all sorts of things lying around in it and that was agility. I had to touch my paws to stuff, climb stuff, jump stuff, walk across stuff, crawl through stuff, generally do a lot of things that made little sense. But the humans seemed intent on it so I played along. There were liver treats involved, so that helped.

Back at home, we practice. It is much more fun. No. 1 lays her blankie rack down on its side and I jump over the legs.

Halfway across!

I jump, like the wind! I am agile!

It's so exciting, I must bark to the moon!

Now? Now? Now? Now?

I am too swift for your camera.

Woofs,
Willie

Edited: March 12th, 2011