My Collar Collection

My mom is NUTS about buying me dog collars. She likes me to have a wide variety. I haven't ever counted them but we have a drawer in our laundry room that is FULL of collars for me.

I'm going to model some of them for you so you can see exactly what I mean.

These first two I call my cloth collars. Mom found them both on ebay. The sunflower one is for late summer and into the autumn and the purple one I normally wear closer to Easter. They both have color coordinated name tags. I told you she was nuts!The next collection is my Christmas collection - one is blue snowflakes and the other one is jingle bells. Sometimes mom will put two collars on me because the jingle bell collar doesn't have a name tag on it and it's not very sturdy for an Airedale! I like wearing the jingle bells on my daily walk. Mom says I sound like a reindeer.

These next two are my Nantucket collars. Most every summer we go to Nantucket, Massachusettes for a whole week. It's a blast! I get to go on the ferry and mingle with the other excited people and pets headed over to the Island for their summer vacation. Everyone is in such a great mood. MEEE TOO! So to "style on the Isle" a girl has to have the right outfit to wear, right? I'm sure on the next trip over, mom will consider a third Nantucket collar. You just never know what she's thinking!

These next two collars are my leather heart collars. Mom got the brown one first and loved it so much that she decided to get one in red for Valentine's day. Nuts right!

This next collar is my Airedale collar. It's breed specific! Isn't it so cool! Only - mom is scared of the plastic quick-release closure. She's afraid I'll pull too hard and snap it and run away. Why would I want to run away? I love my mom and dad very much and they're very good to me but mom is still and always will be the over-protective type. My cloth collars all have metal quick-releases and she feels much better about the metal VS the plastic. So I don't wear this collar as often. That's why it's so bright and RED!!! Mom keep asking sellers about this collar coming with a buckle instead but so far everyone says no!

And last, but not least, this is my Master's Pride collar. It's the most expensive one to date that mom has bought and it is a beauty. It has a gold plate on it with my name instead of a hanging info tag. Mom also still has my puppy collars - two of them. The doggie at the very end of my nose is wearing a red navajo collar. This is my very first puppy collar and Happy, the Steiff doggy wears it proudly. I think it's pretty special that mom kept it all this time. Do you still have your first puppy collar? My purple collar is worn by Kipper. This collar came next when I out- grew the red navajo. I also have gentle leaders and harnesses and a prong collar and both leather choker collars and the chain-type chokers. I have quite the assortment and believe it or not mom STILL shops for collars! Word has it that my next one will be tooled leather! Oh goody - I can't wait!

So now that I've modeled ALL of these collars, what about a cookie or two mom, huh?! I deserve one, don't ya think?!

Hugs,

Maggie

My Eighth Christmas

Yesterday my hooman sister and her fiance were here. They celebrated Christmas Eve with me. I just love my sister. When I know she's coming, I wait in the hallway till I hear her car drive in. Jim, her fiance is a cool guy. I really, really like him. He always plays with me when he comes.

They arrived early in the afternoon carrying HUGE bags filled with pressies and as luck would have it, many were for me! After our feast it was time to head to the family room and open the packages - the BEST part! My sister ALWAYS plays Santa and passes out the gifts. She helped me open this first gift and mom was telling her that this cookie was wayyyy too big for me at this near-bedtime hour! What! I waited a long time for this day to come! Pass over that cookie! Awwwwwwww come on mom! Christmas comes only once a year!

Mom held her ground and told me that I could have the other half tomorrow. Oh alright! My next gift was this very cool monkey with the longest stretch arms! He's very soft and he squeaks!

I have a good time helping everyone open their gifts too. I secretly hope they're all for me - hehehe. Dad helped me open the next one. It's this really cool melon ball with paw prints all over it. It's just the right size to fit in my mouth and play keep away from everybody! Actually I'm pretty stingy with all my new toys. Mom keeps telling me to share but nope, they're MINE, all MINE!!!

I kept hoping that I'd get another purple baby gorilla (he was one of the gifts on my list) but my sister said she couldn't find one exactly like baby but she did give me this purple elephant that's even BIGGER than baby is! Thanks Sis! I really, really like him! He has these very neat white tusks that look quite edible! I may have to see if they come off next time mom isn't looking!

I had a very special Christmas Eve with my sister, Jim and mom and dad. Mom says it's time to hit the hay so that Santa can come - time for all little furgirls to be in bed. I'm still prayin' for a green ring toy like the one Miss Sunshade has. I sure hope Santa thought I was good enough to get one! Good night!
The next morning mom and I are up at 5am! We're always up at 5am! Dad got up at 6, we ate breakfast and went for our 2 mile walk. When we got back mom said we could look under the tree and see what Santa brought. Hey, guess what! I got another stuffy! This one is a bear baby and squeaks. He's really cute. Mom says she wants to keep this one for herself. Yea, right! No way mom! He belongs to me!

The next pressie was sorta hidden deep underneath the tree. Dad helped me drag it out and I couldn't wait to rip into it. OMG I got the #1 gift on my list! I'm so excited. Me and Sunshade are now twins! weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Thank you so much Santa. I tried so hard to be a good girl so you'd come and you didn't let me down. Thank you!

The last gift was from mom. It was a bone to keep me occupied for awhile mom says. It took me 1/2 hour to chow it down! So much for the long while!

This was an awesome Christmas. I got so many nice gifts. Thank you mom and dad and sis and Jim and Santa. You guys are all so generous. I feel like the luckiest girl in the world!

Love you lots,
Maggie

Mom's Cookie Tester

Mom baked Christmas cookies this morning and she asked me for my help in the kitchen. Sure mom, I'll help you out all I can in that department! No problem! I'm available!
I always sit right beside mom when she cooking and baking. You just never know when she'll need me to clean up some mess on the floor as she moves from the stove to the frig to the sink. Gotta stay close by so that she has to step over me! hehehehe
The first batch of cookies mom calls Spritz. They have lots of butter and sugar and yummy stuff in them. Mom's mixing away and the batter is flying out of the mixer bowl and I'm hard at work cleaning up mom's mess. I always get to lick the beaters when the batter has been mixed.

Boy, mom was sure generous with the amount of batter she left on these beaters! I'm working hard to get every single drop!

Turn it once more mom. There's a nice big glob on the other side. I'm gettin' it all now! When I'm all done you won't need to wash them!

Time for the cookies to go into the oven. Now it's my job to watch that they don't burn. Can you see the red and green sugars on them? They look so yummy!

Hey mom - the timer just went "ding"! Time to take them out so I can start to drool!

ummmmmmmmm boy! They look pretty tasty! (Mom is butting in - sorry the color is so bad on the hand and the cookie. I was concentrating on Maggie) How soon can I give one the taste test? About 10 minutes has gone by and mom says I can have one! yeaaaaaaaaaa but then she tells me I need to say pretty please with sugar on it! WHAT???!!! Well, okay - anything for a cookie!

While I'm munching on my cookie, the mailman is leaving another Christmas card for me and mom. This card is from Jeri and Bentley. Jeri is the Queen bee for the Airedale Quilting bee that mom sews for. Jeri's job is to keep everyone on schedule so that the quilt gets done on time. Bentley is her handsome, and I mean handsome, Airedale son! Hey, it's another one of Ann Curran's cards! Ann sure does awesome work! Thank you so much Jeri and Bentley. That was so sweet of you! Merry Christmas to you both!

I've had quite a day today! Christmas is almost here! I can't wait! Until next time..........

Love you lots,

Maggie

The Marshmallow Toss

Mom and I play this game when she has marshmallows in the house, which isn't often. It seems like this game only happens at Christmas time when she's baking. It's a really fun game mostly because I get to eat stuff that I normally don't get to eat! I'm quite the chow hound, ya know!This video is also a test. It's mom's first try at taking a video and uploading it and getting it onto blogger. We're giving Sunshade's mom huge applause here!!!! She and mom wrote back and forth till mom had printed out all the directions she needed to proceed. As you read in the last posting about my special clock, you can see that mom isn't very computer oriented when it comes to new stuff, but she really loves to please me and will try her hardest - even when the goin' gets tuff! Thanks mom and thanks so much again to Miss Sunshade's mom. We really appreciate all the frustrating emails you had to endure from us amateur's! So now for the show!



Hope you enjoyed the show. We'll get better with this video stuff with time. We promise!

Love,
Maggie

My Own Special Clock

I was visiting Scrappy's blog yesterday and saw that he had his very own clock. I was very, very jealous and asked mom if I could please have one on my blog too. Mom is not the best with all of this fancy computer stuff, but she said she'd try her very best for me. Anyway, we signed Scrappy's blog and told him how much we loved his clock and he wrote back to mom and gave her links on how to get me one and also told mom that he would be most helpful in any way that he could be. Mom played with this clock thing for HOURS tryin'' to get it right just. We tried different photos and every one mom tried my legs and the number 3 got cut off! grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
She finally gave up last night and went to bed very frustrated and terribly disappointed. She apologized to me for letting me down cause she knew how much it meant to me. This morning she was right back at it. It finally dawned on her to re-size the photo and BINGO - it worked! YIPPEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!! Check it out on the right hand side beneath my profile. I'm so happy. Thank you so much Scrappy and thank you so much mom. See how happy I am!

Love,

Maggie

A Trip to the Bank

Mom had to go to the bank today and she told me that I could go to. Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!! I LOVE going to the bank. They give me cookies :-) Mom put her coat on, hooked on my leash and off we went to get in the car- hummmmmmmmmm, now that we have both Airedale bobblehead and Airedale taxi tag could we call it the Maggiemobile????! What do you think Sunshade?

Can you see me? I'm in the front seat waiting for mom to stop taking pictures so we can get the show on the road! Hurry up wouldya ma!! Mom had to take just one last shot she said before she got behind the wheel. Oh alright!

So away we go! Our bank is only five minutes away so I don't have long to wait for that cookie! Let's see if they're in a great Christmas mood at the bank. Maybe I'll get two cookies!! Are we there yet???

I can see the bank ahead of us. yessssssssssssssss! Shoot - another car is in front of us. Now I have to be patient - not one of my strong points! Here we go - it's our turn. Now I go to work. I need to stare this lady down so she notices me and takes pity on me. I'm a skinny girl, ya know and mom hasn't fed me in WEEKS!

It worked! The lady smiled at me and the drawer opened and out came two cookies - not one but two!!! Thank you, thank you! They're in FABULOUS Christmas moods at the bank! Maggie scores!!!!!!!Thanks for the trip mom! Can we please go back again tomorrow??!!

Just call me cookie monster Maggie!

Kitty Christmas Card

We received a Christmas card in the mail Saturday from our good friends Frank and Cathy. They used to live in Connecticut and they've now moved to Ohio and we miss them lots. They were very special friends. Frank and Cathy have two kitties - Max and Misha, who I have never met, but who have the life of Riley - just like me!

I was napping once again - so what else is new - and Mom told me that another Christmas card had arrived and that it was a kitty card.

You have to know that the word "kitty" in our house ALWAYS brings BIGBADBARKS followed by a race to the window to look out and see if that nasty kitty is out there in the yard. You also need to know that I've never had a "real" kitty of my own. When dad was waiting for his heart transplant, our good friend Miss Barbara used to come here a couple of times a day to feed me and let me out to go pee while mom and dad were at the hospital running tests. They'd be gone all day. Bless Miss Barbara for coming to my rescue more than once! Anyway, a few times I got to stay at Barbara's house for the day. She has a gorgeous Golden Retriever named Molly, who is my bestest friend in the whole wide world and she also has 2 kitties. Mom has never seen me interact with a kitty but Miss Barbara has told mom that we got along just fine. One swipe of those sharp claws puts Maggie in her place!

So the word "kitty" is mentioned at my house as a tease word to get me all riled up. Mom told me that she had a kitty card to show me and off I went!

Darn - she's teasing me again! No kitties out there!
So for the last time she tells me, hey Maggie, look at this pretty kitty card! Nope, I'm not falling for that line ANYMORE!!!

Mom just told me to stop acting like a snippy and to thank Frank and Cathy properly for their adorable kitty card, so Frank and Cathy - thank you very much for the kitty card. Next year please send a doggie card, okay? Is that okay mom? Am I off the hook now? hehehehe

Mom took her Santa dolly out of the closet so that he could sit in the rocking chair and look pretty and festive for Christmas.

My grandma made this Santa dolly a long, long time ago and she gave it to mom so he's pretty special at our house. We have to take very good care of him! I immediate ran over to whisper in his ear that I was a good girl and to please bring me a new stuffy for Christmas. I sure hope he listens. Christmas is getting so close - only1 week away!!! Yippeeeeeeeee!

Till next time..................

Love,

Maggie

Project of the Day

Mom told me that the project for today was going to be making me a new cover for my family room bed. I just love when she spends time doing something special for me. Mom has been complaining for awhile now that the fleece cover on my bed was getting thin and that the eggcrate mattress was starting to show through.

This is because I like to nest. The definition for nesting is to stand up with your tail tucked between your legs and use your right paw and dig, dig, dig, dig, dig at your bed trying to rearrange the situation so that it makes everything more comfy and cozy. Mom pretty much all the time tells me that I'm wasting my time. Maggie, she says, the cover has a zipper and it fits snug and this is just not going to work out for you. You're wasting your time! But I'm an Airedale and I have to figure this stuff out for myself and do it MY way!

I also try to nest on rugs. There is one rug in particular in the kitchen, right in front of the entrance door. It's a longggggggggg hallway-type rug that goes from just inside the door, past the sink and ends in front of the stove. If I'm in a really aggressive nesting mood that day I can actually wrinkle the rug so that when mom or dad comes in the back door from outside they trip on my wrinkle. hehehe oops!

So getting back to the project of the day - mom has now been upstairs for over an hour and I can hear the sewing machine humming away so she's obviously working very hard for me as I lay down here in the family room waiting for my new Princess cover to be all finished. I think I hear her coming down the stairs! Yup, and there's my new white cover blankie. I wonder how long it will stay that nice super white color?! She's putting it on the eggcrate foam mattress and swearing up a storm. My new cover and the mattress are not sliding nicely together - it's sort of a sticky mess and mom's getting frustrated and I'm getting impatient. Hurry up, wouldja! I wanna try it out. Okay - so now it's hitting the floor and it's time for me to give it the sniff test. hummmmmm, yes, this could possibly work.

And now for the taste test! So what's underneath. ohh - double layers! Yes, I'm liking this even more now. It looks like it could be nice and soft for my 8.5 year old bones!

Now it's time for the plop test. It feels pretty good. It contours to my butt nicely. I think you did a good job mom. I think we'll keep it! My pillow is in place. We're groovin'! ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ - The End!

Love,

Maggie

I've Been Christmas Tagged!!!!

I've been tagged by Miss Sunshade

The Rules: The player of this game starts with "3 things he/ she would love to get for Christmas" and also has to list "3 things he/ she definitely does not want to get for Christmas". Then he/she tags 5 friends and list their names. The ones who get tagged need to write on their blogs about their Christmas wishes, as well as state this rule clearly, then tag 5 more victims. And the one who tags need to leave a comment that says "you've been Christmas tagged!" in their comments and tell them to read your blog.

Things I would love for Christmas:

1. To own my own pizza restaurant so I can have pizza every day of my life.
2. My own ice cream shoppe so I can have ice cream every day of my life.
3. A new purple gorilla baby with no big bandaid on him.

Things I would hate to get for X-mas:

1. Lemons - I HATE lemons!
2. Getting my toenails cut.
3. A bath.

My 5 victims are:

1. Butchy & Snickers
2. Jessie & Jake
3. Dory
4. JosephineRose
5. Mary-Margaret

Hey, that was fun. Thanks Miss Sunshade!!!

Yer fren,

Maggie

Two More Christmas Cards

Two more Christmas cards came in yesterday's mail. The mailman was running late and I was already taking my afternoon nap. Mom brought the mail in for me to see and as you can tell in the photo's I wasn't too anxious to get up off my butt! The first card was from my Airedale friends in Vermont, Jesse and Scuffer. I see these guys usually once a year at Barktoberfest in Western Connecticut at an Airedale rescue event. We were there this past October and it was GREAT fun. Jesse and Scuffer's mom is Carol Usher, the artist who does the Wooliedales. Notice the stamp on their envelope. It's one of Carol's creations that was on ebay - a Dale sleeping on a child's block. Mom REALLY, REALLY wanted to win that but lost! Bummer!

The Christmas card is by another artist named Anne Curran of RagtailAiredales. She does AWESOME work. All of my buddies that are Wires, Buster and Butchy and Snickers and Mackie you need to check out her website. You may see something you need ;-)

This spring, for 2 whole months, these furbutts, along with their mom and dad toured our country in their RV stopping along the way and taking in some fabulous sites in America and hooking up with old friends and new friends. I can tell you that I wish that I could have been along for that ride! Thank you so much Jesse, Scuffer, Carol and David. What a cute card and one that I'll save forever!

The second card that I got today was from my Olde English Bulldog buddy Daisy Mae. Daisy has a fancy stamp on her envelope too! These stamps are just too cool guys! Love the red envelope! Very festive!

And I see Daisy Mae has her own Christmas tree and it's a real one to pee on! LOL Way to go Daisy!! Thank you so much Thom, Rebecca and Daisy!

Mom put a couple of new packages under the Christmas tree yesterday. The one in the front has my name on it! I wonder what's in there?? Don't tell mom but I give it the sniff test at least 5 times a day!

This is how I act when I know she's around and watching - like I could care less about Christmas and packages but we know the real truth, don't we??!! As soon as she leaves the room, my nose is right back in that bag and I'm ruffling the tissue paper tryin to see what's in there!

Only 11 more days till Christmas!!!!!!!!!!! I can't wait.

Maggie

Paintings of a Special Girl

Mom has been an ebay addict for awhile now and one of the things she's always got her eye on is anything Airedale! She loves the one-of-a-kind/handmade items and the paintings. I can't remember the first Barbara Keigher painting she bought (we affectionately call her ABB because that's her ebay user name- it stands for Art by Butterfly) but after mom's first purchase she started writing to Barbara on a more personal level and come to find out, she once owned an Airedale so mom and ABB connected instantly. Over the months, mom has sent Barbara photos of me and she would list the paintings on ebay. At times mom was fortunate enough to win some and lots of times she'd lose out and this would distress her to the point that she'd have to either buy a print or buy a sweatshirt. So you have to know that we have quite a few ABB paintings, prints and sweatshirts at our house! This is one of Barbara's beauties that mom lost out on and mom sports the sweatshirt.And this is the photo that we sent Barbara that she copied:

Another one of mom's very favorite paintings by ABB is this one:

And this is the photo that mom sent. I actually had on an Easter bandana and Barbara changed it a wee bit in the painting. Unfortuately mom lost out on this one and we have the print AND a sweatshirt! Guess you can tell mom REALLY loves this one!

This painting is a just a little one and it's one of mom's favorites. Sounds like mom has lots of favorites, huh?! She does. We just love Barbara's work!

The photo was taken at Christmas time. That's Mrs. Carrot - she's a plush carrot! She was a gift from my Yellow Lab friend Charley. I don't have her any more. She was destroyed on one of my bad days!

And not to bore you, but here's one more. This is the photo - pretty ordinary, huh:

And here is the painting. It shows TONS more imagination than the above photo, don't you think?! I just love the background and yes, we did happen to win this one. Mom has it hanging right beside her side of the bed.

Miss Barbara is the same artist who's done paintings of Sunshade.
She's just FABULOUS in our opinion and we just luvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv seeing her new work - always!
Okay, just one more - I can't resist! You know my affection for carrots, right? Well here I am sound asleep looking like an Angel, right (ahem, yea right!) Notice the quilt I'm sleeping on. Isn't this the greatest!



And this is the photo that the painting was painted from:

What did I tell ya! How angelic, right! I'm sleeping. shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh LOL!

These are just a few of Barbara's wonderful art work at our house. I hope you enjoyed seeing them as much as I enjoyed showing them off.

Love ya lots,
Maggie