What's a Gambit?

You all know I love little dogs.  (That's why I got voted off the dog park two weeks ago.  Remember?)  Well today I met the neatest little dog.  His name is Gambit.  Like a swear word with a G.  (His dad said that, I didn't say it.  I just retweeted it! I know I'm not supposed to use swear words. 

I didn't know what a Gambit is, so I looked it up.  His dad said Gambit was a cartoon character, and this is what I found in Wikipedia.

Gambit is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, commonly in association with the X-Men. Gambit belongs to a subspecies of humans called mutants, who are born with superhuman abilities. Gambit has the ability to mentally create, control, and manipulate pure kinetic energy to his desire. He is also incredibly knowledgeable and skilled in hand-to-hand combat. 

Well, if that didn't describe this little tough guy, I don't know what else could.  He came right up to me and started wrestling just the way I like to.  We ran and dodged and dodged and ran and ducked and jumped and twisted and ran some more.

Then he did that thing that Mom tells me not to do with some dogs 'cuz they don't like it.

But, since he was doing it to me, I figured I could do it back, and mom wouldn't care. 

 

Then we really started dancing:

He didn't even want to stop to let me have a drink.  He had soooo much energy.  Like the Wikipedia thing said.

Gambit and me had a really really really fun time.  I hope I see him again. 

This week is Thanksgiving and I'm going to Mrs. J's to stay for a few days while Mom and Dad go to some place called Las Vegas where they play lots of basketball.  Mom and Dad like to watch basketball.  I'd rather go to Mrs. J's and play with TomCat and sometimes there are other dogs there too.  I wonder if Gambit will be there.  That would be just great.  I would like to play with Gambit at Mrs. J's.  But we would probably break things if we played in the house.  Maybe I'll wait and see Gambit at the Dog Park again.  I hope so.

Happy Thanksgiving everybody.  I'm thankful for all my animal friends and my human friends.  And my Aunties and my Day Care ladies and guys and my little humans at the school.  I hope you have lots to be thankful for too.

Love,  G

First Day of School

Finally.  I had my first day on the job at the Elementary School in Phoenix.  It's been how long coming?  Let's see, Mom had the idea when that Brad Jaffe came over to help me not bark every time the phone rang.  That was, let me check my calendar, yes, that was December 17, 2014.  (By the way, that's my Uncle Billy's birthday.  He lives in Washington State with my Aunt Jill and two cousins, Kyle and Kate.  Uh, oh, I'm doing that digressing thing again.)

Where was I, December 17, 2014 and now it's November 15, 2016.  So that's 365 days from December 17 until December 17 of 2015.  And 30 days has September, April, June and November, when short February's done (except we need to count an extra day for leap year) all the rest have 31.  So that's a total of 670 days from start to start.  Way to go Mom!  Good thing you're retired or we would never have made it. 

We should have made it a week sooner.  I was scheduled to go last Tuesday.  But the night before my foot hurt.  I went into the living room with my left paw in the air.  Mom checked me out and put me to bed, but in the morning I was still limping so she called in to tell the School that she could still come but I couldn't.  They told her to stay home.  They didn't want her to come without me.  I'm the important one.

But we finally made it this week.  And it was fun.  First Mom took me outside to take a picture with my vest.  She says her Mom used to do that every time the kids had a first day of school.  How can there be more than one first day of school?  So here I am.  In all my glory.  Mom liked these two shots 'cuz they show off my pretty face. (Hmmmmm)

 Then we drove to the school.  There were 7 little tigers in my class.  3rd, 4th and 5th graders.  They were so cute.  They introduced themselves.  One little girl, Anna, was really really quiet.  And her friend Toby said, "She's shy.  Anna are you scared?"  But she gave us her name and told us her dog just had 8 puppies.  I was thinking that Toby was being really nice to her.  He seemed to really care about Anna.  I liked that.  Later on, I went over and gave Toby a big kiss on the nose.

One boy, Juan, said he was really afraid of dogs.  So Mom and me stayed a little away from him.  But I could see him watching me all the time and thinking maybe he could like me.  I could tell what he was thinking.

Mom shared some of my pictures with the kids and told them all about how I was adopted and they asked a lot of questions.  She told them I was from St. Louis, Missouri and asked if anyone knew where Missouri was.  Toby said yes, but when Mom asked him to tell the rest of the class, he said he forgot.  So she told them it was a two day drive to the east.  She showed them the picture when I was driving out for the first time and I stuck my tongue out at her from the back seat of the car.  That wasn't very flattering.  But then, she didn't ask my opinion of the pictures she chose.

Then they practiced how to greet a dog for the first time.  That's so if they were to ever go up to a dog who is not as nice as me, they wouldn't get bit.  I kinda liked it, 'cuz they all gave me pets.

When we left, Juan came up to me and scratched me under the chin like he was supposed to and then patted my side.  I told you he was thinking he could like me.

I was glad to get back to the car later.  I was thirsty and tired.  But I'll remember my first day of school.  And I'm going to share with you the pose I liked better than the ones Mom picked for my FDOS.  This one has my red Therapy heart showing quite nicely, and I think I struck a stately pose.

Can't wait to go back in two weeks.  I'll tell you all about it!

Love, G

I got voted off the dog park!

We went to the dog park in Horizon Park again.  There were a lot of fun dogs there.  I played with lots of dogs my own size and we had fun.  This was Astor.  He's a really really big huskie german shepherd mix.  He was really pretty.

Then there were dogs more like me and we all romped and ran.

After awhile some really tiny dogs came in.  Of course I went to greet them.  I'm the Official Greeter of the Park as you know.  There was one that was sooo small.  She could fit right between my paws.  So I kept trying to capture her right between my paws.  I chased after her and captured her and chased after her again.  She was soooo much fun.  Her name was Lou.

But her mom didn't like it much.  I don't know why.  She kept telling me to go away.  Even my mom kept trying to pull me away.  I wasn't hurting Lou.  I just really really liked her.

After awhile, Mom said, OK, enough, we're going home.  She apologized to Lou's mom and we left the park.  It was OK, 'cuz by then I was tired.  But I hope I see Lou again soon. 

Love, G

PS.  Do you think Mom should have taken me out of the Dog Park, just 'cuz I liked Little Lou?

My Pretty New Friend

This is really cool.  We saw some strange little birds outside the other day.  Mom took a picture of one of them.  They are all green and yellow and pink and look like a little parrot.  These are the pictures Mom took.  In this one you can just see the green back as the little bird was hanging on the lower branch of the tree.

In this one, he's walking around on the wall.

Mom went to her favorite reference source (Google) and looked up what it could be.  It really is a little parrot.  It's called a Phoenix Love Bird.  And here's a better picture of them hanging on a cactus:

 They really once came from way far away in Africa and were somebody's pet.  But once in awhile a bird would escape.  And sometimes breeders let them loose.  And all of a sudden, many years later, they just live here in the wild.  Apparently they only like Phoenix, 'cuz even though they have escaped in other parts of the country, Phoenix is the only place where they've created their own colony.  Isn't that fun?

I hope they come and see me again.  They are really pretty.  I love love love my new friends!

Hope you see some pretty new friends, too.

Love, G

Can you spell Neurofibramatosis?

I want to dedicate my blog this week to my cousin.  He lives in California and has a dog who loves him a lot.  Frosty, (that's his dog) asked me if I would tell my blog people about my cousin Zach. 

Zach has NF (Neurofibramatosis).  And for many years, Zach has helped to raise money for research to combat NF.  He even has a Facebook page and he calls it Zach Attack!  Which I think is pretty great.  I don't know that much about NF except Frosty says it's pretty serious.  So I'm going to let Zach's mom tell you about it. 

Please don't feel like you have to give money.  I won't know if you do or not, but I will know that you know about the disease now.    That's what Frosty wanted me to do for Zach. 

 

Joyce Simmons Marks

September 24 at 7:15pm · Los Angeles, CA · 

Hi Friends!

Will you take steps with us to End NF?

http://join.ctf.org/teamzachattack

On October 22, 2016, we will be participating in the LA NF Night Walk to increase awareness of neurofibromatosis (NF) and raise funds for the Children’s Tumor Foundation...and we need your help. This year the event will be hosted by CBS weathercaster Josh Rubenstein, Freeform's star of Young and Hungry, Jonathan Sadowski, and supported by NY Jets kicker Nick Folk located at 4024 Radford Ave. Studio City, CA. It is a night fundraising walk with a glow in the dark theme and there will be food, wine, beer, kids carnival, and celebrity karaoke at the afterparty. Registration opens at 4:30pm and the walk starts at 6:00pm. The afterparty with karaoke will be from 6:00 - 9:00pm.

NF has touched our lives in a profound way. Zach was diagnosed with NF 14 years ago. He has a progressive brain tumor that required a total of 4 years of chemotherapy to arrest. We are lucky...Zach’s been off of chemo for 6 years! We are optimistic about his future hoping the brain tumor nightmare is behind us for good! But NF is a lifelong disorder and one that he will have to deal with forever. Please join our efforts to raise funds for research and support by making a donation to this worthy cause, and/or walk with us. You will help the Children’s Tumor Foundation fund research and provide information, programs, and services for the millions worldwide who live with NF.

There is no cure for NF. There are no effective treatments. But the Children’s Tumor Foundation has created a number of innovative programs that are already speeding up the drug research and development process. They are actively driving clinical trials and are bringing together top scientists to work collaboratively to solve the mysteries of NF. It is work that gives renewed hope to the millions of people worldwide who live with NF.

It would mean so much to us if you could help us reach our fundraising goal of $5000.00. If you can, please make a donation today by visiting my fundraising page below. Every dollar truly helps! If you would prefer to send a check, please make it payable to Children’s Tumor Foundation, include in the memo area “In Honor of Zach Marks and LA NF Night Walk,” and mail it to:

Children’s Tumor Foundation
Attn: LA NF Night Walk
120 Wall Street, 16th Floor
New York, NY 10005

If you would like to learn more about neurofibromatosis and the incredible work being done at the Children’s Tumor Foundation, visit www.ctf.org.

Children’s Tumor Foundation, visit www.ctf.org.

Thanks for listening and learning about NF and my cousins Zach and Frosty.  It's important.

Love, G

Been Really Busy

I know.  You've missed me.  I haven't been here in a couple of weeks.  But I have an excuse!  I've been awfully busy.  While Mom and Dad were getting ready to go to Arizona, I had my last meeting with my Day Care Center.  As you probably know, St. Louis was the site of the Debate on Sunday between Cotton Candy Head and Mrs. Clinton.  So we also had to go down to WashU to make sure everything was progressing well before we left.

So I went to my Day Care Center.  I didn't tell them it was my last day.  I was afraid they might be sad and I always want my people to be happy.  That's my job.  And they seemed pretty happy.  Even the one guy who used to not like me (he would back away if I got near and Mom said I should stay clear of him 'cuz he was afraid of me.  I'm a pretty big, black dog and some people are afraid of big black dogs).  But this time he actually called me to him and petted my head.  Then he gave Mom a big grin and I knew we were all happy.

Mabel, the puppy wasn't there that day.  She was home sick.  My Auntie Debbie knows Mabel, too.  She says Mabel is my girlfriend.  Mabel is NOT my girl friend.  She's too young for me.  She's only a few months old.  She's not my girlfriend.  I don't have a girlfriend!

I left my Day Care and we went home to take a walk down to WashU.  They were putting lots of tents up.  They put the tents in cages like I used to stay in only really, really Huuuge cages.  Like these:

Once we decided everything was OK at Wash U, we got ready to leave.  Mom didn't bring my pillow.  I told her to bring my pillow, but she said I didn't use a pillow.  It just took up extra room.  So for the first couple of hours on the trip I couldn't get comfortable.  I didn't know how I was going to last 22 hours in the car without a pillow.  I begged Mom to find me a pillow.

My mom is pretty smart.  She invented a pillow.  She took the stuffing out of my doggie bed and made it into two pillows for me.  Then I could go to sleep finally.  I don't think she will forget my pillow again.

We stayed the night in Amarillo, Texas again.  Only this time we were able to find a hotel that had a restaurant nearby that let me eat on the patio with Mom & Dad.  We walked to the restaurant and it was fun.  I like it much better than eating in the hotel room.  The waitress was cute and nice.  She took Mom and Dad's order.  Then she said, "Your dog is looking at me like he's offended."  Dad said, "That's because you didn't ask him for his order."  And he was right.  So she brought me a bowl of water which was what I really wanted.

That night we watched Cotton Candy Head and Mrs. Clinton.  I went to sleep.  And now I'm going to take a nap with Dad 'cuz I'm still tired from all the traveling.

Have a good day.  It's really nice here in Arizona.

Love, G

Youngsters are getting Bigger, too!

We went for a long walk yesterday.  I didn't really want to go.  I did my usual STRIKE in the courtyard.  That's where I put my feet down and won't go forward no matter what mom does.  But she tried something new.  She said, "Guinness, we're walking to the Dog Park.  Now do you want to come with me?"

What, I thought.  Walking to the Dog Park?  Normally we drive.  Is this a trick?  I wasn't sure, but I decided I should give it a chance.  I could always go on strike if we went the wrong way.  So I agreed and ran out the courtyard.

When we got to the library stairs, I went on STRIKE again.  I just wanted to be sure.  But Mom said, "Guinness, did you forget?  We are going to the Dog Park."  So I gave in and went on.

Well, we DID go to the Dog Park!  And guess what?  There were dogs there!  And one of those dogs was a puppy Marmaduke.  I didn't even know Marmaduke could ever be a puppy.  And this puppy was bigger than me.  And he's only 8 months old.  Look at him!

He runs funny.  His human says he only runs in a straight line.  He doesn't do turns.  And he looks like a pony when he runs.  But I liked him.  And we had a lot of fun.  I was tired and had to rest before we made the long walk home.

I guess I can trust Mom if she says we are going to the Dog Park.

I really do like to walk.  I don't know why sometimes I just decide not to.  I probably need a Doggie Shrink.  Dad thinks maybe I do. 

Hope you have nice walks and go fun places like I do.

Love, G