B&W Sunday: Family

Mom and her siblings, San Antonio, TX

Mom's family had a tradition of taking family pictures at Easter time of all the children in their holiday finery. No matter where the were, France, Germany, Philippines, or Texas there are photos. Mom's family grew up in the Air Force and lived all over the world so this was a way of sharing their lives with families back home. 

Mom with Topper, Biloxi, MS

Last Sunday, Terrier Torrent Gizmo posted a picture of his mom with her first dog for Black and White Sunday blog hop. This gave mom the idea to share her old photos with the family dogs too. But she wanted to do more, she wants to tell the story of how hard it is for military families to have dogs only to have to leave them behind when they go overseas. This is what happened to mom's first dog Topper. Leaving Topper affected mom greatly the rest of her life. She never wants to hear stories about people giving up their dogs for stupid reasons, her family had no choice back then.

San Antonio, TX 1960s

Mom's family had lived in Texas for a few years so it was time for their Dad to get stationed overseas. He left his family behind while he took his assignment in the Philippines. When it came time for his family to join him they took Topper to their vet and the children were told that a new family would adopt him. They were all very sad but understood they couldn't take him with them. Military bases today still have problems with abandoned dogs roaming the bases but nowadays it is much easier for military families to keep their animals.

In so many of Mom's old pictures there are pictures of the family dog. She loves this one of her dad home from the war with his beloved friend. 

Happy Easter everyone.

Love Dolly the Doxie (mix)

xoxox

Wordless Wednesday: Found

B&W Sunday: Dolly's First Giveaway!

Bebe and Cece looking for help while I chew on their Nylabone.

I want to tell you a little story about my mom and a woman she met whose name is Bobbi Panter. Bobbi began her career as an aspiring actress in California when her little Shih Tzu Bobo went blind. After her eye surgery Bobo had severe reactions to the drugs they gave him. She lost her fur and had very dry skin. Bobbi would do anything for her little Bobo so she started to read natural healing books for people and pets then began to mix up her own formulas in her kitchen. This led to her developing her own products with the help of a chemist. Before she knew it she was handpicked by QVC to sell her new products. They sold out in an hour, with the help of telling the touching story of her beloved Bobo. Now she has her own company based in Chicago and has developed three product lines!

Bebe and I sharing some attention from Courtney. 

Meanwhile, not long after I arrived, Mom had been out of work for a few years, and desperate to find a job, applied for a technical skills training program at Chicago Career Tech, now Skills for Chicagoland's Future. Accepted into the social media marketing curriculum, mom began to learn all there was to know about social media, something she wasn't very keen on before, except for Facebook. Coincidently Bobbi realized she needed to build up her social media platform for her company, now Bobbi Panter Pet Products. She reached out to a friend that ran Tribeca Flashpoint Media where my mom's training took place. Next thing you know mom and another student were chosen to develop a social media marketing plan for Bobbi's company for their class project!

At the end of the program mom realized how much Bobbi's company had meant to her and hated to see all the work she had done come to an end. But luckily Bobbi asked her to stay on and help out with the social media and other marketing needs of her growing business. And most importantly of all, I could go to the office with her! Which is great because now Bebe and Cece are the company spokesdogs and I get to hang out with them!

So this leads us to the purpose of this story. Because mom loves Bobbi's products so much, they're the only ones she will use on me now, she wants to share them with her followers by having a giveaway of Bobbi Panter's no. 1 best seller Itchy Dog Shampoo! Here's all you have to do:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Please visit www.bobbipanter.com to learn more!


Some boring rules & guidelines:

1. No purchase necessary.
2. Only one product given to a randomly selected winner.
3. U.S. residents only.
4. Must claim prize within 48 hours of being notified.
5. Blogger was not compensated for this post and provided product free of charge.

Exciting News!!

Giveaway??

Do I look excited? I am! I am so excited because now I can give back to all my new friends and followers by having a giveaway! Stay tuned (or as soon as mom figures out how to do it!) for our first giveaway. Its coming soon!

Love Dolly the Doxie (mix)

xoxox

Wordless Wednesday: Where's Spring?

Wordless Wednesday: Muddy Walk

Monday Mischief: My First!

Welcome to my first Monday Mischief blog hop post! Usually we see blogs about what mischief dogs got into over the weekend, but since I am such a good dog, and mom kept me on my leash, there wasn't anything to post! Until today! Its been nothing but rain since we got a foot of snow last week. This afternoon the rain stopped, the park is flooded, mom turned her head for just a second, looked back, yikes! I was almost knee deep in mud walking across a baseball diamond!

The scolding started in as I walked over to her leaving a nice trail behind!

That's not my markings on my front feet its mud!

Mom snapped this just before I licked off all the mud from my nose!

After the scolding stopped I found some stink to roll in and then went and chased some geese. Not bad for my first Monday Mischief!

Love Dolly the Doxie (mix)

xoxox

Black and White Sunday: Spring

What do you mean its time to get up? Its still dark out! Read why us dogs don't like Daylight Savings Time in my last blog post Springing Forward.

Springing Forward!

It's that time of year again when I am going to lose another hour of sleep! I am not looking forward to it at all! I am no longer a puppy, I turn 3 years old in June, therefore I am getting a bit more lazy and don't like getting up early at all!

The "stretch"

I know mom is already planning a strategy to keep me on schedule starting tomorrow, the day we have to get up an HOUR earlier. I do not get out of bed easy, especially if Dad is still there. 

Just ignore her she'll go away!

Like she'll know it will be dark out when we should to go to the park in the morning, IF she can get me out of bed, so she'll have to dig out my LED collar again. Getting me out of bed is hard enough but it's trying to reschedule my dinnertime that will be the hardest. I love my dinnertime. Dad usually gets home at 4 p.m., Mom feeds me at 4:30. Its not unusual for me to start "The Look" as soon as Dad is settled down with his beer. My dinnertime keeps getting earlier and earlier, it used to be I waited until mom and dad had eaten before I would eat. On the weekends I can start "The Look" combined with "The Whimper" as early as 3 p.m. 

One of my "Looks"

Well, Mom does not want to feed me at 3 p.m. on Sunday! I only get fed once a day, that's ever since the vet "suggested" I was eating too much and to cut back on my food. Mom is worried that I am really hungry which is why I want to eat before my dinnertime. Well, yes, wouldn't you be if you ate once a day? She wants to start feeding me twice a day again and thinks that Sunday, after we lose an hour, would be a good time to start. In the morning, when we get back from our walk, she'll give me one half of my dry, or half a cup of my Natural Balance Sweet Potato and Bison, and in the evening at the new 4 p.m., she'll give me the other half of my dry with the wet Wellness Lamb, which is all that really matters to me.

Hopefully I won't gain weight! Mom is confident that if she measures carefully I'll maintain my girlish figure. I truly believe it is the animals that have the hardest time of all with Daylight Savings Time! Nobody asked us!

Do you get fed once or twice a day?

Love, Dolly the Doxie (mix)

xoxox

Wordless Wednesday: Snow

Idita-Walk Challenge Complete!

Our own Idita race!

We did it! Mom and I competed our 1049 minutes of walking between Feb. 1st and March 31st! If you remember from my post Team Dogventurers: Idita-Walk Challenge a group of us dog bloggers challenged ourselves to be active during these long winter months.

The challenge worked great because Mom didn't get lazy and not take me out for our afternoon walk (like she is doing now). And I have to admit the weather has not been cooperating. We just saw on WGN TV Tom Skilling's weather forecast that our area got 16" of snow in just February. But, we have been gaining lots of sunlight so its easier for mom, I mean me, to get up at 6 a.m. and head for the park.

Here's me in action on one of our "nicer" days!

In addition, it was a good thing we got the walk done over a week ago! We had another big storm on Tuesday that brought lots of freezing rain. Since then the sidewalks have been a slippery mess. Mom had lots of close calls but hasn't actually hit the ground, yet, so far so good this year Mom!

Anyway, mom and I would like to thank YouDidWhatWithYourWeiner.com for motivating us and to TerrierTorrent.com for coming up with the nifty Team Dogventurers badge.

Here's to taking walks with your Doxie (mix)!

Love Dolly