Reason for my absence

Hello everybody! Can you believe I haven't blogged in a whole year?! Ya, well that is because mom and I moved into our very own apartment and couldn't afford internet. I nagged her about it a lot because I just knew   you all would be missing hearing from me. But no worries everyone, cause I'm back!!

Okay, where to start? A WHOLE YEAR has gone by! A lot has happened to me in that time. To begin I am 2 years old now. Officially an adult, says mama. Mom gets tons and tons of comments on how well trained I am. (TRAINED?! wtf..)

Well, one really big happening of the year was that I had a litter of puppies! Well, I didn't have them, my girlfriend did... but you know what I mean! My 8 beautiful children were born on July 3rd! That makes them almost 9 months old now! You want to hear something embarrassing? They are ALL already taller than me! :( This is them at 4 weeks old:

 This one is them at 5 weeks old! I was a really good daddy, too! I still get to see 3 of them all the time!

Something else that happened in the last year: I got neutered. I got a gastropexy too at the same time. If anyone doesn't know what a gastropexy is, its when the doctor ties/staples your stomach to your rib cage. The reason for this is to prevent the stomach from twisting/flipping, which can be deadly! Scary stuff! This surgery is very beneficial for deep-chested large breed dogs like me because we are very prone to bloat. Here is a picture of my surgery cut.

Here I am with a heat wrap on, recovering from my surgery. I could hardly eat anything for a week!

Mom adopted me a sister in the last year, too! Her name is Lucy and she is white cat! I know, I know, dogs and cats don't get along... but we love each other a whole lot.

Wanna hear something really cool?! My picture, the one used for my headliner on this blog, was selected to be in the Rocky Mountain Great Dane Rescue's 2012 calendar! I'm a star! Also my photo was on an advertisement that sat outside of our town's big pet store! Yep, that's me down in the corner!

Now, mom and I are getting ready to move from Gillette to Casper, Wyoming. We are approaching our last day of work in the next week, which is sad for me cause I don't get to go with mom to her new work like I do now. :(  I have a lot of adventures to look forward to, and I can't wait to start sharing them with you again!

Interactive Puzzle Toy

Something fun I've been forgetting to mention is my Nina Ottosson Interactive Puzzle Toy! Mom and I have been eye-ing these toys for awhile now, and mom finally found some in the wholesale pet magazine she buys her work things from. I've had it for over a month now, and I'm getting pretty good at it. 

This is what it says about these toys on her website:

"Nina Ottosson's range of durable interactive games have been designed to stimulate a dog's brain while reinforcing his relationship with people. Each design has a unique mechanism that requires mental as well as physical dexterity to work through the challenges and reveal hidden food rewards.
The games can be set to different levels of complexity to satisfy all ages and types of dog. So whether you have a Forrest Gump or an Albert Einstein, there is a Nina Ottosson game to suit him!"

Mom got me the Dog Tornado. She picked that one because it was designed more for bigger dogs. Its really fun. She hides treats in the compartments then covers them all up. So my job is to swivel the layers around to get the the compartments with the treats in them.

Mom got mine off of www.petedge.com. You can find all of her puzzle toys on her website at www.nina-ottosson.com

My Birthday!

Yesterday, March 4, was my birthday! I am one year old now!! We were going to throw a party, but we decided to keep with just a small group of my friends. I invited Dexter and Duke over, and of course my brother and sister, Harley and Sandy, were there too. I had a lot of fun playing outside with them all afternoon.

This is me and my big sister, Sandy, waiting for my friends to come over!

 Here I am all dressed up!

Here Duke was celebrating with me! Him and I were the only ones who didn't try to take our hats off. Well actually, with the exception of Dexter, who just wouldn't keep his hat on to save his life, everyone else was wearing party hats. But then I decided since it was my birthday I wanted to be the only one wearing a hat, so I took matters into my own paws, and took everyone else's hats off of them.

This is the birthday cake mom made me. It was so good! I'll make her share the recipe at the end of my post so that you can talk your mom into making it for you too!

 Yum! This is me and my friends eating my cake!

From left: Me, Dexter, Harley, Duke, and Sandy.

 Licking my plate! So good!

 And finally I got to open my presents. Harley felt the need to help me, so I let him. 

So overall, my birthday was great! I finally got the toy I've been wanting forever! It's a big stuffed fish! His body squeeks and his fins crinkle! Every time we would go into the pet store I'd play with it, but mom never bought it for me because she said it was way too "over-priced". Mom also got me a 6-foot rope toy, a squeeky fox, and a new kitty toy (yes, a cat toy. I love them, they are so much fun the chase and jump around with). She got me some bones too, like a huge pig ear!

Here is how we made my birthday cake:

1 cup white or whole wheat flour (we used organic)
1 tsp baking soda 
1/4 cup peanut butter (we probably used more than that. What can I say? I love peanut butter!)
1/4 cup vegetable oil 
1 cup shredded carrots 
1 tsp vanilla 
1/3 cup honey 
1 egg

Mom and I doubled this to make a cake big enough for all my guests. This recipe is meant for a little cake, because dogs aren't supposed to eat as much cake as humans are.

You need to heat the oven to 350°F.

Then you mix together all the ingredients and pour it into a greased cake pan. Mom and I used an 8" round cake pan.

Then we baked it for about 35 minutes.

Once the cake was cooled we put it onto a plate and frosted it. Since human cake frosting is really bad for dogs, mom puree'd a tub of low fat cottage cheese and we used that. It was really yummy, and mom said it worked as a frosting surprisingly well. Mom decorated my cake with some soft Milk bones.

Making my new coat!

Hello! As you may know, I am a Great Dane. Therefore, I have very short hair that provides me with little protection against the cold, cold winters of Wyoming. As you also may know, Great Danes are very large, so it is hard to find a coat that isn't too small. (Even though I'm still small for my breed, because I am still growing)
Anyway, Mom and I decided to make my own coat.

I sent mom to the store for me to pick up some fabric. Her and I share the same taste, so I trusted her to pick out good fabric. Mom came home and the first thing we did was measured how big my coat needed to be. Mom bought 2 yards, but we only ended up using about a yard and a half. Then, she cut out the pieces. My coat has two layers, So we had to cut two of each fabric. We had the body piece, the straps to go under my belly, and the collar.

Then I had Mom sew my coat for me because believe it or not, I'm not very good with the sewing machine. I did try to help out with the sewing by laying down on the foot pedal. The sewing machine went nuts and Mom didn't think it looked very good so she used the seam ripper to take out what I had sewn. Whatever, She can't say I didn't try.
The whole sewing process look a really long time. Mom had to sew the inside and outside together, then add the straps, collar, and bias tape binding around the edges.

Finally! After waiting forever, My new coat was complete. Mom added some buttons to the collar so it would stay down. I think it looks pretty cool. And finally, a coat that fits me! I can't wait to wear it to work!

New Friend and Doctor Visit!

   Wow! Has it been a long time since I've posted or what?! Again, there has been a lot going on. But most importantly, I met a new friend. He is really cool and fun. The best part is, he is a Great Dane too! His name is Duke, and he is a lot taller than me. I get to hang out with him a few times a week. Last weekend Duke hung out with mom and I practically all day both Saturday and Sunday because his dad had to work. On Sunday we had a lazy day for the most part, and this is us sharing mom's bed.

Duke is so weird, he drinks out of the sink! I stay away from the sink. Who knows what it might do...

There has been talk coming from mom about moving and me getting a new little brother or sister. She wants a miniature poodle, or a Chinese Crested. Or both! That is actually okay with me, because I like little dogs. Im around little dogs at work all the time. I give them kisses and let them smell me. I play with a Pomeranian sometimes. His dad works with mom and me.

 Something else you may want to know is that mother has taken up brushing my teeth. I don't like that she shoves an annoying toothbrush in my mouth, but I actually like the toothpaste (Don't tell mom I said that). It is poultry flavored, and mom bought it from my doctor.

   Speaking of the doctor, he came to see me this week. I have a sore on my foot, just above my toenail, that has become a hassle too because now mom has to scrub my feet on a regular basis. Also, I'm on antibiotics for the next 20 days! There are it's advantages to that though... Mom "hides" the capsule in cheese. I've outsmarted her however, because I just eat the cheese, and spit out the pill. So mom shoves it in the back of my throat and forces me to eat it... Mom has learned that I like to do things the hard way.

A month of..

So for the past month, I've been neglecting my blogging responsibilities. There has just been too much going and and not enough time for me to get my paws on mama's computer to update! She's been hogging it big time working on "school stuff". no fun.

So anyway, I've been doing a lot of fun and boring things.
Fun:

• Several visits to my favorite park, one of which included 5 other dogs.
• Met 3 new friends, a weenie dog, a basset hound, and a corgi.
• I chewed my way through 4 more remote controls (I don't know what it is about them I just can't resist)
• Gained 10 pounds probably since my last blog
• Got new toys
• Destroyed new toys
• Discovered cat toys are the best
• Realized snow is not the enemy

Boring

• Assisted mom and grandma bell-ringing for the salvation army (yawn)
• Sat on my butt waiting for mom to get done doing homework
• Got in trouble for nipping at a baby rat (she looked at me with the wrong tone of squeek)

Yep... Thats how it's been. after this week, mom will no longer have classes to go to or homework to do, so therefore she will be paying a lot more attention to me as well as giving me more blogging time. 

This is me playing with McGuyver, a great dane that came into work one day 

All Riled Up with Nowhere to Go...

Today had been fun so far, you know, until mom yelled at me a lot for trying to entertain myself while she was away at class! Must I explain? Okay.. well you see, it was conveniently placed, Harley had me a riled up and hyper, and the majority of my toys are outside buried in the snow... One thing led to another and... REMOTE!

I really don't want to be here for when Grandma gets home and hears about this...