Birds of a Feather

Hello out there in Blogland,

We really love birds. Well, not just any bird....we love Penguins.
Penguins just have the cutest look about them...walkin' on their two feet upright just like hoomans do. In fact they kinda look like hoomans...only smaller and oh yeah, they smell like they took a bath in fish.

Penguins alway look like they are dressed in a tuxedo and are on their way to a formal party.
But there are some special Penguins out there skatin' on ice and pushin' around a hockey stick.

The Pittsburgh Penguins. And they play hockey at the Igloo in the Mellon Arena in Pittsburgh, Pa. Ya know where that is? That's where we live, in southwestern Pennsylvania.

The Pittsburgh Penguins are in the Stanley Cup Playoffs this year and the people of Pittsburgh are pretty happy about that cause the Pgh. Pirates are havin' another losin' season....at least right now...but that is nothin' new.

We'll anyway I just thought I would dress up like a famous Penguin, Mario Lemieux. He lives here in Pittsburgh now and is part owner of the team. He used to be the Captain of the team but has retired now....cause he got....well......OLD.

Do I look like a hockey player or just an silly old bird? Wish I could get the black feathers to stick on this shirt........

Dewey Penguin Dewster skatin' here.........

The Shearing of the Sheep

Hi Ya Blogland Friends,

Tonight we are goin to talk about shearing sheep. Ya know what that is?
Sheep shearing, typically just called shearing, is the process by which the woollen fleece of a sheep is removed. The person who removes the sheep's wool is called a shearer. Typically shearing occurs once per year per sheep. The annual shearing most often occurs in a shearing shed, a facility especially designed to process often hundreds and sometimes over 3,000 sheep per day. And that's a lot of work my friends.

Wow, do ya see all the wool on that sheep? Now look below an see a different kinda sheep....a wire fox terrier sheep....Now that's Fred, my father, and as ya can see he needs a haircut. Why, ya can't even see his eyes, now, can ya?

And this, my friends, is my brother, George, who lives with our Dad, Fred and my big bruver, Scott and his wife Heather. George also needs a haircut. The warm weather seems to have arrived around here and ya can't be walkin' around with all that hair. So Gram and Pap, the grooming table and tools went over to big bruver Scott's house to see what they could do with Fred and George.

It took an entire afternoon but after the floor was filled with hair and Fred and George were sick of bein' on that grooming table, the finished product was unveiled. Now this was a quickie job, so it is not Grooming Salon worthy, but ya can see the improvement. First Fred.......

Then George. Now George in particular looks like he lost 10 pounds but then he isn't as stocky as I am anyway. He takes after my Mom...kinda delicate except when there is vermin involved or a mud puddle. But I digress.......

Oh Yeah, now at the same house lives the little hooman baby person, Parker....ya know the one that smells funny, makes funny noises and cries a lot...... Well there he is bein' carried around papoose style and would ya look at the funny bone he's a chewin' on!!!!! Why, what is he thinkin'? I bet it doesn't even taste good cause it looks like it is plastic or sumpin' Ya wanna chew on sumpin', chew on a good hard bone....Hrumph, we have a lot to teach this little hooman baby person. I hope Fred and George are up to the task. Well, after all that work, this family is pretty tired and so we bid ya a good night and hope ya all have a wonderful weekend.......

Dewey Dewster reportin'.........let's get this to press........

We're Back from the Woods

Gee we missed you guys…….

it's Dewey and Toby reportin' from our perch at the front cottage window….. Gram could go outside on the deck here and catch us lookin’ out. I would like to tell ya, Gram needs a bit of help here cause she left all the camera stuff at the cottage so none of the video we took can get transferred into the computer cause all the camera parts are still at the cottage. Someone please help my Gram find her mind……

We were at our cottage for more than a week……it is in the woods outside of Titusville Pa.( where the worlds first oil well was drilled in 1859). We haven’t been there since early December…..so this was a good visit. Toby was never there before since he only came to live with us in February and boy did he have a good time. No fences and lots of yard and acres of woods…wow, he was impressed......
Now, I can tell ya that me and my Mom don’t do this, but Toby seemed to think chasing stones was great sport and when Pap threw the stones down the hill…. Toby ran after them and attacked ‘em........
Here’s Toby sittin on the deck with his dirty face….ya know ya get a pretty dirty face when ya pick up dirty stones in it……

Whenever we are here, we take long walks in the woods checkin’ on everyone else’s place to make sure no burglars have been around causin’ trouble. We checked out McCarthy’s place and found an old drain pipe layin’ on the ground. Me and Mom felt sure that a chipmunk or two was livin’ in there….and of course we needed to roust it out.

Oh yeah....check out my Mom...cause when we were walkin' through the woods she found a mud puddle and laid right in it....gettin' all dirty....now I tell ya, I never do that cause I know that means a bath is comin' and yep, she got one......

We attacked that pipe and ran around the yard with it to make sure any vermin were sufficiently terrified…..

We were at that pipe so much that we collapsed the ends of it……sure hope the McCarthy’s don’t need it anymore……..oh and we didn't see any vermin at all.....rats.....

Gee, we had a great time, but there’s only dialup service there and we couldn’t visit anyone’s blog usin’ that……so it’s good to be home………. and we'll be 'round to see what ya all have been up to while we were gone.

Dewey Dewster and family reportin' here........back to you now.........

Restin Up........

Well, hello out there in Blogland,

Dewey Dewster here…..

This house is taking a rest from a long weekend of backyard work. The weather was so nice that we all got out and raked the old leaves, cut off dead branches and took long walks.

Mom came in and thought that she would catch up on her reading. Looks like she is interested in Wire Fox Terriers….hopefully, she isn't lookin around for another husband.

But all of that reading is really tiring and so she had to just try a little roachin'.....looks relaxed, doesn't she? Oh, I forgot to tell ya, we made sure she was decent for ya.

After all that activity, we had to just let it all hang out. Well, not everything, cause that would cause a outcry of sorts….so some things are covered up so this can be rated “G” ,suitable for all audiences.

And Here’s Toby letting it all hang out…why, he’s not even restin on the sofa….ya can tell he is still a puppy ‘cause who rests on the floor? But we really needed to censor this a bit too since it may be viewed in mixed company.….ya gotta cover up the unmentionables, ya know…….

Gee Toby, glad to see that ya finally got a bit modest.
And here’s me sort of roachin except when I see Gram with that camera, I just get a bit shy and have to shift my position some..... no peep show for me, no siree........ Well, not the Full Monty anyway…….


But here’s my favorite way to rest….I like a pillow for my head…..I mean isn’t that what pillows were made for…head restin?

See, we learn a lot from the hoomans, don’t we? Wow, it's been a LONG DAY.........

Good Night All.......... Rest up for that big Welcome Home Pawty now, will ya?

Asta Marie on Marriage and Husbands

After my Middle Name Meme posting, I got a few comments requesting more information on my marriages. It has been some time now since all this occurred, but I will let you get a glimpse of my life for the past few years.

I guess I misspoke earlier when I said that I had two husbands since I actually had three husbands. The first one was so forgettable, that I simply forgot about him.

Where shall I start?
When I was 2, my Mom decided that she wanted to have some grandchildren………lord knows that her hooman kids weren’t giving her any. And so we needed to find a suitable husband for me. That was a job as Mom did now show me….the vet butchered my tail when I was 3 days old and there was no getting it back. We found a prospective suitor in nearby Ohio and Mom took me down for the canoodling. Here is a photo of Buckshot, husband #1, that showed his best side. I want to tell you that when I went down there to meet him, he looked like a sheep about to be shorn. Mom never took a picture of what he looked like then.

We canoodled twice but I didn’t get any puppies….most likely because of all that hair…but that's only my theory……

By the time I was in season again, Buckshot had moved on and I was introduced to Willie. Here’s Willie…not a bad lookin fellow….nicely groomed…but I didn’t KNOW him. Who wants to doink someone that you just met? I tried to bite him, his Mom, his Dad, my Mom and anyone else that was around. However, he had his WAY with me twice and I had 3 puppies.

I won’t go into what all happened because it was pretty tragic but I lost 2 of my puppies, the 2 boys and only the girl was left...... my sweet Abby. Here’s Abby then ......

And here's Abby now.


My Mom understood that I was just not into casual sex and the next time she was ready for puppies, she brought Fred home for my big bruver Scott. Now look at that face, would ya? Wouldn’t you just swoon and melt after lookin into those eyes?
She didn’t have to coax me into canoodling with Fred and we had 4 puppies, all boys, on Halloween in 2006. I had problems with both of my deliveries and my Mom had the fix-it surgery when they delivered the 4 boys. Here I am after getting home from the vets. Do I look sick or what?

But my Mom is happy with Dewey (while I wish he would have found a new home). She says he is so much like me, it is scary. So while I did just love all of my babies, I wasn’t crazy about all of my husbands. And it is good that I don’t have to worry about taking care of any more kids, just my Mom. And my Mom is happy because she was afraid that she was going to lose me with all of the problems that I had.

So that’s the story of my three husbands and all of my kids.

Yikes !!!! I've Been Tagged........

Middle Name Meme

Eric Square Dog tagged me, Asta Marie, for the middle name meme. Now Eric sure doesn't look square to me...he is pretty round in all the right places, but then what do I know? I have only had 2 husbands and the only one I really liked was Fred. Someday, I'll tell you all about what being married is really like...then you won't make the same mistakes I did......

Here are the rules:

1. You have to post the rules before you give your answers.
2. You must list one fact about yourself beginning with each letter of your middle name. (If you don't have a middle name, use your maiden name or your mother's maiden name).
3. At the end of your blog post, you need to tag one person (or blogge of another species) for each letter of your middle name. (Be sure to leave them a comment telling them they've been tagged)

So I am Asta Marie and I have a middle name MARIE that I use all the time.

M is for Mother as I have been and still am a Mother to Dewey Dewster and 4 other pups. Whew, that is a job I am not willing to repeat. Ever again...... another really long story......
A is for Artist as I am a lover of art. I try my hand at it every now and again. I especially love the art of getting muddy....why you look and smell delicious after laying in a disguisting, dirty, smelly mud puddle. And just to create the right effect, I put my whole face in there too and come up dripping wet. That is art at it's finest. Just don't try to wash my face when I am getting a dreaded bath. Yuck !!!!
R is for Ratter.....well my Mom always calls everything a mouse but I'll get'em if I find 'em anywhere near my house. I have caught some little mice, snakes, moles and I helped Mom catch a big rat that looked surprisingly like a groundhog once. We just barked him outta the neighborhood. Not sorry when he was gone.......no siree.........
I is for Intelligent and my Mom tells me that I am the smartest dog ever. How smart am I? Well, when Mom calls in a take-out order to the Chinese Restaurant, they always say "You come 10 minutes " and Mom always repeats that to my Dad. She said' "You come 10 minutes." That's my cue, as they say.......I know that means I get to go in the car to help Dad get the stuff home safely ( ya know, there are Chinese food burglars lurking out there all the time....gotta be on your toes at all times). I am right there by the door waiting for him to take me. There are lots of other things too...ask my Mom to tell you sometime.

E is for Energy and I am full of it. In fact, I would play ball for 8 hours straight if Dewey would let me. Since he learned how to play ball, I never get to play anymore except when we can get him out of the way. That, by the way, is one of the drawbacks of being a Mother...gettin a son like Dewey and then having to live with him. Anyone want a ball-playing Wire Fox Terrier named Dewey? He's FREE.....

A Mother is the special one that cuddles you at night .

An Artist is a person who fills your life with light.

A Ratter takes intruders and kicks them out the door.

Intelligent is what I am and I'm lookin 'round for more.

Energy is a state of mind and I find mine each day.

And here's the list of who I tag so I can go and play.

Huck the terrier

Robbie the Border Terrier

Willow the black Dale

Dixie The Poodle

Fenway the Border Collie

Good luck guys, can't wait to hear all about everyone..........

The Pittsburgh Dog Show

Hi everyone,

It's me and Toby reporting from our window perch on the Great Pittsburgh Dog Show held at the Convention center this Saturday and Sunday. We didn't get to go....I know why...they were afraid that we would win all the prizes and there wouldn't be anything left for anyone else....lucky we decided we didn't WANT to go either....so that left more prizes for all the other doggies who did go.
So, this is the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh from the side entrance as you approach from the parking lots in the Strip District.
And this is what the convention center floor looked like from the floor above. Look at all those hoomans who came to see doggies strut around the show ring and leave pee mail in pens lined with cedar chips.
Hey, this a view of some of the many bridges in Pittsburgh on the Allegheny River. This was out the window in the convention center and you can see PNC Park in the distance.
And here are a few of the buildings visible from one end of the convention center along Ft. Duquesne Blvd.

If ya wanna see some of the doggies that were in the ring click on the YouTube videos below. I'm a warnin ya, the only ones you'll see here are the Wire Fox Terriers and not much of them either since it takes forever and a day to upload video to YouTube and anywhere else. And the video gets distorted as well. But ya can get an idea what the doggies looked like anyway.

Here's Altha in the ring with her 13 month old puppy, Summer.


And here are both of the Wires showing that day right before the judges decision. The Judge was Peter Green. The other wire is Hettie and she is the littermate of my Dad, Fred.


By the way Summer won the ribbon. Pretty little girl......Congratulations to Altha !!!!