It's a total massacre

Poor Momma. She's starting to feel very unloved. It's not even close.

Casey & Cinderella: 32 (+9 e-cards)

Momma: 3

Pigeon is embarrassed for her.

Even the people who haven't lived in our house in six Christmases got a card yesterday! BOL!

Celebrating

Thanks, everybuddy, for all the good wishes on my adoptiversary on Friday! I TOLD you it was a pretty pawesome Friday the 13th. Some folks asked what we did to celebrate, so I thought I'd share. Usually we don't do a lot for my Gotcha Day, since it's near Christmas. We celebrate birthdays instead. But Momma said that FIVE is a pretty durned impawtant one, and I totally agree with her. So yesterday we celebrated.

Where first, Momma?

Well, Momma and I decided that on a Gotcha Day, it's especially impawtant to remember all the less-fortunate pups and kitties out there that haven't found their furever homes yet. So I dressed up in my Casey Claus outfit and made a special visit to our local shelter with a big basket of goodies!

LBR volunteers always bring thank-you baskets to shelter and vet workers this time of year to thank them for all their hard work helping LBR pups. So I helped Momma make her delivery. Obviously the staff was more thrilled to see me than the goodies!

And guess WHAT?! There was another extra special visitor there when we arrived! I jumped right up in his lap and gave him lots of kisses.

Boy! I don't know how my day could get much more special than that. But you know what? It DID! Momma took me to Petsmart to pick out a special treat. (I'll show you later.) I also helped her finish her Christmas shopping for Cinderella, the kitties, my cousin Bear, and my aunt Gracie. And you know who we saw there too??

Santa was just running all over the place! I didn't take long, since I knew he was super busy, but Momma loves to get her pictures. Santa even told Momma he's never seen a dog pose so easily. I figured he wasn't counting me crawling all in his lap at the shelter because he knew we were visiting instead of posing then. What a grreat guy!

You might think that was it, but NO. Momma had one more surprise for me.

Cheeeeeeeeseburger!!

Phew! After all of that, I was happy to get home and try out my new treat. When we were at Petsmart, I picked out a brand new bed for my room. Cinderella usually gets the nice new beds, 'cause she's old and stuff, but this one is MINE! It's soft and cozy and I loves it.

What a grrreat Gotcha Day. I bet in another five years, we'll have even MORE of a pawesome celebration. 10 years sounds pretty grreat, huh?

What a lucky day!

So I told everyone yesterday that you don't have to worry at ALL about today being unlucky, even if it IS Friday the 13th. See, Friday the 13ths are lucky in my family. Momma was BORN on a Friday the 13th. AND so was the doctor who delivered her. AND Grandpa asked Grandma out for their first date on Friday the 13th! How cool is that?

But this PAWTICULAR Friday the 13th is cooler than any other one before it. Wanna know why?

IT'S MY GOTCHA DAY!!!!

That's right, TODAY is my FIFTH adoptiversary!! I am such a lucky pup. You know, five years ago I didn't think I'd ever be here. See, about five and a half years ago, I looked like this...

I itch again just looking at that picture! I wasn't even a year old, and there I was -- living in a dirt backyard in a hot Texas summer, itchy with mange, sad and dreaming of a furever home. THEN Legacy Boxer Rescue saved me!!

I took months to heal up, and then I started looking... and looking... and looking! Was my furever family out there? Then came that magic day when I KNEW I'd found what I was looking for!

I was HOME!! Momma and I were JUST what each other was looking for. And as soon as we found each other, we never let go.

 So happy happy happy adoptiversary to me and my momma. I hope we have LOTS more years together, because I have a whole lot more kisses still to give.

Christmas traditions

My furiend Mayzie had a wonderful post yesterday about one of her family's holiday traditions -- ornaments on their Christmas tree for every pup and kitty in the family. I thought that it would be fun to talk about our different holiday traditions.

So to kick things off, I'll also talk about our Christmas ornaments. Momma loves loves loves ornaments and collects them to commemorate all sorts of different things that happen to her during the year, like going on a trip or starting a new hobby. Of course, that means there's a new ornament for each new member of the family!

The very furst one of us who joined the family was Scribbles. He and Momma lived in a little apartment in Chicago and didn't even have a tree, but Momma hung their stockings on the heating vent. Later, she found this ornament that looked a little like him.

 Pigeon was next! She and Scribbles got their ornaments at the same time, can you tell? That was after Momma finally had enough room for a Christmas tree.

Whose ornament could this be but mine? I am TOP DOG around the house, after all! The other side of the bone has my name and 2008 written on it, since that's the year Momma adopted me. She adopted me in December, so when I came home I already had an ornament on the tree and my own stocking!

This ornament helped Cinderella become part of our family! Momma was on a business trip back when Cinderella was a foster dog. She'd been thinking about adopting Cinderella for a long time, but she kept arguing with herself about whether it was the right thing to do. She wandered into a store that sold Christmas ornaments, looking for one that would represent her trip. Instead, she found this one that looked exactly like Cinderella. So Momma bought it and adopted Cinderella after she got home! It has her name and 2010 written on the top of the hat.

Finally, since I've mentioned our stocking a few times, I thought I'd show them to you!

Momma's is the little bitty one in the middle. Grandma made it for her, so she won't replace it with something bigger. Mine is the Santa belt one just on the right, and Cinderella's is the fancy lady boot on the left. Then the kitties are on the outside, Scribbles by me on the boys' side and Pigeon's by Cinderella's on the girls' side! For some reason, Scribbles's stocking is always turned where it says "naughty". Hmmmm.

Getting ready for Christmas

My sissy Cinderella has her pawty dress all ready. Do you think she looks pretty?

PeeS: Some people are saying that tomorrow is going to be bad luck because it's Friday the 13th. But let me assure you that tomorrow will an utterly, amazingly, totally PAWESOME day!! Wanna know why?? Well, you'd better come back tomorrow!

I'm BACK!!

Did y'all miss me?? I had a grreat time at Grandma and Grandpa's house, and Momma said she had a pretty good time on her vay-cay-shun. (She keeps muttering stuff about sun and beaches now.) I'm sorry I'm a little delayed in getting back, but you might've heard of a little something keeping us busy.

Icemageddon struck! Now, before you northerners start making fun of us, you should know that Texas is just not equipped for dealing with ice and snow. Nobody has snow tires, and we don't really have any sand or salt trucks either. When it's icy, some guys go out and shovel sand out of the back of a pickup truck. So it hits us a lot harder than you, because you're prepared for it!

Momma grumbles a lot (more of that sun and beach stuff), but Cinderella and I still did our duty to make sure she got exercise. It was treacherous going for a while.

My job was to go on ahead and test out the sidewalk. If I started slipping, then Momma knew to walk a different path. Cinderella kept up rearguard to make sure we were all okay.

Sadly, we had one big casualty from the ice. The big, beautiful pear tree in our front yard went CRACK!

We have tree guys coming out today to clear away the big broken part and see if the rest of the tree can be saved. Yuck! I'm going to miss that guy.

But Icemageddon aside, the impawtant thing is that I'm BACK!!! I'll have the full Christmas card count tomorrow, but let me tell you, Momma hasn't even gotten ONE card yet. BOL!! Ours will go out sometime this week, I promise. We're a little busy here. (Oh, and Frankie and Ernie, did you know your momma is forging your signatures? I know you two would NEVER send out a snowfreak card!!!)

It's beginning to look a lot like CHRISTMAS!!

That's right, folks, it's December 1st. And that means... COUNTDOWN TO CHRISTMAS!!!!

Cinderella and I are going to be hanging out at Grandma's house this week while Momma goes on a vay-cay-shun. I love love loves my Grandma, but she's not very good at taking dictation. So I won't be updating my blog, reading your blogs, or sending out my Christmas cards until next week. But never fear -- I'll be back, and we can start our countdown to Christmas together. Yaaaaay!!!!