Leaving My Mark

Twas a wee bit frosty out this morning, the first I have encountered here in Pittsburgh.  Yes, winter is coming and I am preparing by ignoring mama as she starts to pull my sweatshirts, coats, and the dreaded booties out of storage.  

During the morning's stick-catching frolics, I laid down for a moment to catch my breath.  To be fair, I was running for quite a stretch, uphill, and that's not super simple for a gentleman of my maturity and stature.  So I laid down, caught up, and then it was off again.  But I left behind this note-quite-snow-angel, more like a frosty-handsome-devil.

Love,

Bogart

Meeting Mister Mole

... well ALMOST meeting Mister Mole.  I TRIED.  After taking off in hot pursuit of my very first mole, I managed to get my snout stuck in a bunch 'o burrs.  I will spare you the photo of me with my eyes burr-d shut, and my snout burr-d together.  This is what it looked like about an hour into my 

 de-burr-ing:

That's right, mama pulled out everything in our arsenal to try to de-burr me.  The Furminator, a slicker brush, safety scissors, and a can 'o spray Pam.  Honestly the Pam did help a bit, but I was NOT open to her taking hours to pull out each and every damn burr.  So I gave her the OK to snip away with those safety scissors, and now I look like this:

Still handsome, but a little less full and fluffy in the beard and 'stache area.  Hoping it grows back soon.

I can't promise I won't run into another bushel 'o burrs (oh who am I kidding, OF COURSE I WILL), but I have heard that baby powder helps to remove 'em, so maybe we'll try that next time.

Love,

Bogart

Stay Stick-y, My Friends

Sticks are life. And life is all about sticks.

I'm busy livin', which is why I haven't been doing much updatin'. That's going to change. Gonna get mama to do more regular posting for my friends all over the world. But in the meantime...

There are sticks. Lots of 'em. With our current weather here in Philadelphia (stormy and windy) I am here to take full advantage of the stick-storm. I like to find 'em, grab 'em, carry 'em, and yes, sometimes eat 'em.

The beauty of this advanced stickwork (don't try this at home, puppies, this is a DOG'S work) is how BADASS you look walking down the street. 3 sticks in your mouth, carried at a jaunty angle, almost like a cats whiskers. It says, Look out world, HERE I AM.

It also says, HERE I COME - which implies GET OUT OF MY WAY.

Not in a bad way, you understand, just letting folks know that a VIP is coming down the street and they need to make way. Most people are smart and quick enough to understand. Sometimes I have to bust out the cute expressions.

I know that the human heart isn't really prepared to handle the levels of cuteness that I can bring with just a look and a stick. I do have compassion for you. I will just lay here and give you a moment to calm down. You know, for your health and safety.

Oh and don't get me started on if I'm wearing a sweater and carrying sticks. HEARTS EXPLODE

Love,
Bogart

I Feel Good... YEAH

ATTENTION RITTENHOUSE SQUARE PARK VISITORS (and everyone else within a 2-block radius): I'm feeling GOOD!

Not letting a little thing like major surgery get me down, I'm having more "up" days than "down" ones, and damnit, a boy needs his walkies. Hey, Rittenhouse, HAVE YA MISSED ME?

(I missed you)

Love,
Bogart

Nature Boy

Portland is FULL of parks. The humans here are pretty darned smart about setting aside LOTS of areas for hiking, walking, and biking in nature. Today I visited another new one for me - Forest Park.

This park is HUGE in comparison to the forest area that I walk in everyday. Over 30 miles of trails!

See all of those beautiful colors? We were all so impressed with the trees and the leaves... this is still my first real autumn where the seasons actually experience some change (back in Los Angeles it would go from really hot to just-sort-of-hot and there really weren't any leaves to speak of).

Some crazy growing stuff - it's like a rainforest out here! Come to think of it, it was raining as we were walking so I guess that makes sense.

That whole blue area is the Forest Park trails. It is so freaking cool.

The smells are OUTRAGEOUS! My button nose was twitching the whole time at the olfactory overload I was experiencing.

Hard to see in these photos, but there was a great view from this high vantage point of the river...

And there are DOGS - lots of dogs - who also had the fantastic idea of walking through the trails on a rainy day such as this. Check out this guy - I was completely digging him (even tho I'm not always nice to boy dogs when I first meet them)...

We did lots of jumping, sniffing, and play bows, I was sad when he had to leave to go up the trail as we were going down. Sorry I didn't get your name buddy, hopefully our paths will cross again...

Walkie = hungrie. Here I am being escorted out of the Bogcedes as we decided to stop for a little snackie.

Check this out - remember the backseat cover that I received and reviewed a little while back? Well today dad was super happy that we had it - look what my paws and butt did to the seat! We've gotta recommend it all over again as a great item, all of the wetness and mud got caught on the seatcover and not the nice leather seats...

Ah, St. Honore cafe. It's a lovely place with yummy food. Dad and I waited as mama went inside to place our order. I get to guard mama's spot whenever she's not at the table - it's the least I can do.

Another fine day as a Nature Boy here in Portland. And it feels SO GOOD...

Love,

Bogart

Chez Bogart

To Aire is Divine

Don't Forget! Contest Info and Entry HERE

My Park is on Fire!

Griffith Park - the place where I get to do all of my great hikes - is on fire! It's really sad, so many areas burning, but right now it looks like the LA Zoo and Autry Museum are safe but many houses in the Los Feliz area are threatened. Dantes Peak (a pretty area near the Observatory) has been destroyed.

Here is a link to a blog that is being updated all of the time on the LA Times website: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/breakingnews

Think cool, unwindy thoughts for everyone in the area that the brave firemen get this fire under control soon!

Love,

Bogart

To Aire is Divine

Fetchingly Yours

Ah, such fun in the park this morning with mom... I've been feeling the "need for speed" a lot recently, sometimes I get soooooo antsy when I'm stuck in our apartment. Especially lately as it's been really overcast and kinda cold here (ok, it's all relative, right?) and mom and dad have been busier than usual. It doesn't mean less walks for me, just sometimes shorter ones.

So I persuaded mom (that means I bit her in the thigh until she relented) to take me out for some more serious exercise this morning. Stick work mostly, lots of running, and I brought my latest disgusting tennis ball with me because I really like to chase it.

Mom throws like a girl (surprise!) and sometimes the sticks don't follow the graceful arc that she'd like them to, but with the disgusting tennis ball it's always a party.

Afterwards I'm always a little tired - and drooly - so I take a short rest while closely guarding my stick/disgusting-tennis-ball/hopefully-soon-dead-gopher.

Love,

Bogart

PS - Yes apparently I DID destroy the lens on the new camera, luckily the old one still kinda works... mom says it's slow and that I have to not move so quickly so that she can get good pictures of me, but I think the ones she took today came out rather nicely...

To Aire is Divine