Our Christmas Tree

It's hard to believe that Christmas is less than two weeks away! There is still quite a bit of decorating going on in our house, but that is mostly due to my dad, who can be compared to Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. You can tell how much my dad loves to decorate by the photo of our tree below (the same picture was also featured today on the pawsome blog, Speedy the Cheeky House Bunny for his Christmas Count Down!).

And here is Sookie standing next to it (I had to hold a treat up to get Sookie to stay still!):

And again, remember to enter my giveaway for a $10 e-card to T.J.Maxx. Hurry, as it ends in only five hours!

Wordless Wednesday

P.S. Don't forget to enter our giveaway for a $10 virtual gift card to T.J.Maxx (it ends in a day)!

Sleepy Black & White Sunday

Our first BarkBox

We received our very first BarkBox in the mail a few days ago, thanks to the fact that we won a free 3-month subscription to BarkBox in a giveaway that was posted on the blog, Ruckus the Eskie. We would like to send a big thank you to Ruckus and BarkBox!

Particularly because this is our first, we were very excited to receive it and check out all the goodies inside. Here is our personal review of each product:

The first item Sookie noticed was not the treats, but the P.L.A.Y. Zucchini squeaky toy. No matter how many toys she has, she ALWAYS gets excited when she receives a new one- particularly squeaky toys, which are her favorite. The first thing she did with it, like with other new toys that she approves of, was take it in her mouth and look for a place to bury it. 

Needless to say, this toy was a hit!

"This looks like a nice spot for burying."

What I like about the Bocce's Bakery Truffle Mac & Cheese treats and all the other treats in this box is that they don't contain any artificial ingredients and are free of preservatives and other junk. In addition, I like that all of the treats are made in the USA.

Sookie also seemed to approve of the Mac & Cheese treats, as you can tell from the picture below. 

YUM!

I was a little worried about giving Sookie the Happy Howie's turkey sausages at first, since they seemed like they would be pretty tough for her to chew. As stated in the instructions on the back, I cut a link of sausage into small pieces and offered her one piece to see how she liked it and whether it would be difficult for her to chew. She did seem to struggle a bit with it, so I cut that piece in half and she was then able to easily chew it.

Sookie does seem to like these treats- I just have to make sure to cut them into extra tiny pieces before giving them to her.

These cut-up pieces of sausage are still a bit too large for Sookie to chew, so I will have to cut them again in half before giving them to her.


 

I have not yet given Sookie a treat as large and tough chew-wise as the N-Bone Pearly Whites dental bones, so I am a bit worried because of her small size. I could imagine that the vanilla mint flavor would help with her breath, though! I will be sure to supervise her closely when I give her the bone to see how she does with it.

As with the dental bones, we have not yet tried the Etta Says deer chew. This does seem like a treat that Sookie would enjoy, though! Like with the turkey sausages, I will cut this into extra small pieces before I give it to her.

Sookie seemed to like all of her goodies- well, at least the ones she actually tried- but her overall favorite was definitely the toy!

A spoiled rotten dog

Along with clothes, we love to buy Sookie toys as well- and lots of them! I can't even put a number to how many she currently has. The teddy bear that she is cuddling with is one of the Christmas toys we recently brought for her (of course, we couldn't actually wait till Christmas to give it to her!).

This, ladies and gents, is the face of one very spoiled pup! 

Another new sweater

Yesterday we brought Sookie a brand new winter sweater at Big Lots. Unlike some of the others that we purchased for her, this one fit her perfectly and it only cost $8! With all her jackets, sweaters, and blankies, we definitely won't have to worry about her being cold this upcoming winter!

Sookie about to fall asleep after going for a walk in the neighborhood, showing off her new sweater 

Sookie's sure-fire way to get out of trouble (It works everytime!)

The irresistible head tilt!

Chihuahuas and birthdays, oh my!

I've been a bit preoccupied with things for the past few days, so I haven't been blogging and commenting much (My apologies!). Firstly, I have been pet-sitting an itty bitty four pound Chihuahua named Gaby in my house since the 3rd. She is the cutest little thing! We have all fallen in love with her- well, everyone except Sookie that is. I think she is jealous of all the attention that Gaby has been receiving. There are enough people living here that she is still receiving plenty of attention as well, but since I am the one caring for Gaby I have not been able to spend as much time with her as I normally do. However, Gaby is going home tomorrow so I will be able to spend more time with my baby girl once again. Obviously we will all miss her when she goes, though I think she will be returning on Thanksgiving week which I am very happy about since she has been such a wonderful and entertaining little house guest. Hopefully by then Sookie will have adjusted more to having her around!

Here are some cute photos of Gaby:

And here's one of Gaby and Sookie together (It's not hard to tell that Sookie wasn't very happy about having to be so close to her!):

For some reason, Gaby tends to spin in circles. Not sure if it is related to anxiety or if it's simply a habit. I managed to capture a video of it while we were outside. The noise in the background is the wind; luckily little Gaby didn't get blown away!

Furthermore, yesterday was my birthday. I am now officially in my mid 20s! I didn't have a big party, though. It was just my parents, sister, brother, my boyfriend, and the furkids, which I was perfectly fine with. 

My favorite: ice cream cake!

Our Halloween

It has been quite an exciting Halloween!

For the majority of the day, Sookie was dressed in her Trick or Treat shirt and matching-colored bow.

She also- and still currently is- parading around the house in her devil costume, barking at all the intruders trick-or-treaters. Earlier today she actually ended up peeing a bit on the tail of the costume while my sister and I were walking her. However, it is now cleaned up and good as new (much to Sookie's dismay)! 

There is an awful lot going on outside today!

We carved jack-o-lanterns as well. Sookie kept getting in the way, trying to eat the stringy pumpkin guts!

My brother and boyfriend carving pumpkins while Miss Nosy looks on

Here is the end result of one of them (We tried our best, but we are obviously far from professional pumpkin carvers!):

And this is what they look like at night, which also happens to be right now!

We didn't get any Halloween-themed goodies for Sookie or the cats, but I did make sure they were given yummy treats for the holiday!

Sookie waiting for her treat

Stray and Miracle munching away

Even Muffin the Guinea Pig received a Halloween treat (she had a bigger piece of green pepper before this).

Hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween!!

Sleepy Wordless Wednesday

Sookie Bares All

Show some modesty, Sookie!

Sookie the Little Devil

Sookie's Halloween costume arrived in the mail a few days ago. When I first saw it I thought I was going to have to return it to PetSmart because it was too big for her, but it actually fit much better than I initially thought. I can't say poor little Sookie shared my excitement about the costume, though. However, I will surprise her with some yummy Halloween doggy treats on the big day to make up for my evil mommy ways. ;)

I also had the pleasure of pet sitting a gorgeous and sweet Australian Shepherd named Nimbus yesterday at my house. I didn't get any photos of him, but I did manage to capture a few cute videos of him- one of him playing with my sister's giant fitness ball in the backyard and another of him playing tug-of-war. What makes the latter video extra cute is that he seems to be falling asleep while holding on to the toy!

Trick or Treat

My sister brought a cute Halloween shirt for Sookie, which came in the mail a few days ago. She wasn't sure if it would be too big for her or not, but fortunately it fit her perfectly!

I also purchased a devil costume for her on the PetSmart website, which hasn't arrived yet. I'm not sure what it is going to look like on her, as there was no picture displayed on the site of a dog wearing it. However, PetSmart was offering free shipping on its site for a few days last week and the costume was less than $8, so I couldn't pass it up. Can't wait to try it on her!

Here is another picture that I took of Sookie outside (I'm sure all of you have noticed that I like to create the 'splash of color' effect on my photos):

This was also the photo that I used as an entry for Petco's Halloween 'Make a Scene' photo contest. Sookie would really love it if you guys voted for her (just click on the link)!

A hint of color

Wordless Wednesday- cuddling

Sookie and the Vacuum

We were doing some vacuuming and wanted to see how Sookie would react to the vacuum hose. This is what happened:

Sookie the Brand New Doggy!

Sookie was finally groomed today! It's amazing, as she doesn't even look like the same dog. Here are before and after pictures to show how different she looks (You'll probably recognize the first photo from a post a few days ago):

It's a miracle!

Our groomer does such a good job with her, also considering the fact that she is not exactly the easiest dog to groom. Even the groomer at PetSmart was not able to do much with her because she was so fidgety! However, I'm sure Sookie is also less stressed out now than when she was at PetSmart as the groomer we currently use comes to our home so she is not in an entirely different place. And the fact that there are no other dogs there to make her even more anxious is also a big plus!





"Can't you just let me sleep, Mom??"

Of course, I just had to put a bow in Sookie's hair afterwards to show how much prettier she looks wearing it now than in the 'before' picture with all the hair in her face. As you can see she was very tired from all the chaos of the morning. This was a good thing for me, as it was much easier to put the bow in this time since she was too sleepy to move around that much!

Tock-Tober

Sookie wanted to join the kitties at the Tabby Cat Club and participate in Tock-Tober. Aren't her tocks lovely?