Imagine my surprise this week when Friday and Saturday were the biggest blog days of my blogging career. I didn’t know what was going on. What I figured out is that someone on Pinterest, repinned a blog I did last August on Hornero Nest Building. So for 3 days my blog traffic went through the roof. And I thought maybe I was hitting Rockstar status, but luckily, DogDaz is back to normal. Thank you to my true followers, YOU, for being here with me through the statistical ups and downs.
Overall it was a quiet week at the zoo. People really connected with the shadow dogs on Sunday. I guess shadows are part of how we know we are alive. I think shadows are cool and when you walk alone, or travel to a lot of places by yourself, sometimes they are the only document of the fact that you were really there.
We had our first snow storm on Monday, now that it is spring in the Northern Hemisphere (go figure that out). The cats really enjoyed looking at it. The dogs enjoyed eating it. Sofie did not like the icy slush on her paws, but it was over as fast as it came. By Tuesday all had melted.
As we told you, Sofie was very busy down by the beach and found the remnants of a fire in the horseshoe pit and broken glass. This is a sad state of affairs and many people shared our anger that a few rotten eggs seem to spoil the fun for everyone. I don’t think we are every going to change that anywhere in the world, there will always be spoilers, but at least, we don’t have to be one of them and the dogs and I try to leave places BETTER than we found them.
The girls and I have been walking everyday but it is not always easy and rarely pain free. Thank you all for your care and concern. I do tend to do to much walking, especially when it comes to the dogs. ICE is my friend. Actually, I should go get some right now since we just came in from our afternoon jaunt……
I am back. A nice ice pack on the knee makes a world of difference. Well, that’s it for the week here at the DogDaz Zoo. Thanks for playing along with us.
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Follow Up Friday is part of the blog hop hosted by Heart Like A Dog. Check out the other blog hoppers:
Just another DogDaz morning at the zoo ❤ 
Tags: Animal, animals, Award, Bald Eagle, blog hop, Blog Statistics, cats, cute dogs, dog, Dog People, DogDaz, Dogs, Follow Up Friday, Friday, knees, lorian lipton, Pet, pets, Pinterest, postaday
What a week it has been. The animals, and humans, gave me the best birthday ever. We ate a lot. Played a lot. And cuddled much. That was perfect. Thank you all for the sweet birthday wishes. That was so nice.
I am glad to say that I am back to walking my mile with the dogs, even though it hurts. I am trying to accept that maybe, from now on, my knees are just going to be a constant reminder that I am alive. As long as the pain can stay on the nagging side and not the screaming side, I guess I will have to learn to deal. At least no surgery! Louise and Sofie are so happy to be back on the road with me. And we even are walking with Mojo rising occasionally (Louise’s boyfriend from next door).
Peanut left last Sunday to go back to school, so of course, Nine ended up locked in her room one night this week mysteriously. I swear that cats can teleport through closed doors, but it seems they can only go one way; they do not seem to be able to teleport out. He was around for dinner and snack, but V found him in the morning frantic. We did not hear a peep all night though. I do wonder what he destroyed in there (sorry Peanut, I will go check).
Many blog friends were worried that Noel would hurt Sofie with her menacing glare. Let me assure you everything is all right. We have never had a cat to dog fight in this house. Only cat to cat. Noel could do some damage if she were to get angry, so I never want to cross her.
Weather has been crazy but we are going down to the water more and more. The Osprey have returned and their nest is up and ready for the family. Amazing. I just read an article that the Bald Eagle population of Maryland has grown tremendously in the area. I haven’t seen any by me yet sadly, and I am wondering if maybe the Osprey keep them away. They sure don’t keep the Turkey Vultures away (wish they did).
Baby Stella has fallen in love with K8 and won’t leave her alone. She is in her room all the time now. I think she needs to be separate from her brother Nine, to have any chance at a voice. She did a great job of playing tag on Thursday with Little Binky of AngelWhisper.
That’s it for the week. Thanks for playing along with us.
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Follow Up Friday is part of the blog hop hosted by Heart Like A Dog. Check out the other blog hoppers:
Just another DogDaz morning at the zoo ❤
Tags: Animal, animals, Award, Bald Eagle, blog hop, cats, cute dogs, dog, Dog People, DogDaz, Dogs, Follow Up Friday, Friday, knees, Osprey, Pet, pets, postaday, Turkey Vulture
Following up on Monday Mischief, the dogs and I have started to walk a little again. Recovery is about 50% there, if I don’t screw it up. I tend to try and do to much to soon, because I am impatient. I see the surgeon next week, so we will see what he thinks. I am walking the girls further and further every day. We are all really happy to be getting back to ‘normal,’ especially with spring coming. I haven’t tried to walk down to the water since last month when I had trouble getting back up the hill and started to cry. Maybe soon though.
Louise on her chair
In response to the Wordless Wednesday post on Louise hanging off her office chair, everyone said that I need to go out and get her a dog bed, bean bag, coach, or (my favorite from Cupcake) a Barkolounger. WunderButt offer us his chair, which was very nice. This weekend I definitely need to see what the options are. I think she will still hop up in her chair most of the time because she likes to be up at my level but thank your all for the suggestions.
People were in love with the little Munchkin kitty that I posted a GIF of on Wednesday. They are like a corgi kitty: little legs with a big heart. Peanut turned me on to this newly created breed of cat that was noticed around 1983. The history can be found on Wikipedia – Munchkin Cat.
I can’t believe today is the first of March. That means 20 days until Northern Spring! Yahoo!!!! Birds have been flocking to the feeders and the bird bath.
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Follow Up Friday is part of the blog hop hosted by Heart Like A Dog. Check out the other blog hoppers:
Just another DogDaz morning at the zoo ❤
Tags: Animal, animals, blog hop, cute dogs, dog, Dog People, DogDaz, Dogs, Follow Up Friday, Friday, Louise, Munchkin cat, Pet, pets, postaday
Two follow ups for this week. First is on the post I did about Blog Fishing. We got wonderful comments from so many people on what they do to try and handle all the blogs they want to read. Jodi, from HeartLikeADog, suggests Google Reader, so I am going to give that a try. Lots of people say they read only what comes in their email. These are all great ideas to Blog Fish. Thanks for the comments.
And secondly this week we received a lovely “Why I Love Thee” award from our little friend Kirby, at Kirby’s Dawg Blog. Kirby is just the cutest little thing. He is about 10 months old, and he and his human, Lea, really enjoy all things blog. It looks like they have a lot of fun. Thanks for the award, we are honored to be chosen.
The rules of this award are quite straightforward.
First you thank the friend who passed the award to you – thank you very much, Kirby! And link to their blog – see above.
Then, if you’re an animal, you tell everyone why you love your bipeds (your people). If you’re a biped you tell why you love your animal(s), or why you love animals in general, or anything you like about love. (Clowie, of Clowie’s Corner, who gave Kirby the award, who then gave it to us, added the last two because, she said that not all bipeds are lucky enough to have animals living with them.)
Then you pass the award on to at least one other blogger.
Why I love my bipeds – by Louise (aka Lulu Belle)
I love my bipeds because they make me feel safe. Mom taught me that not every biped is cruel and will hurt me. The family, especially the little big bipeds, give me a tons of cuddles and let me sleep on their beds. The best thing about my family is that they are mine. I know that they will always be with me and that they will always protect me, and I them. Also, they brought me my little sister, Sofie Bear, that I love very much. (But Mom, I could do without the felines!)
Now I pass it on to 4 blogs that I love:
HeartLikeADog
Dakota’s Den
My Three Moogies
Golden Woofs
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Follow Up Friday is part of the blog hop hosted by Heart Like A Dog. Check out the other blog hoppers:
Just another DogDaz morning at the zoo ❤
Tags: Animal, animals, Award, blog hop, Clowie, cute dogs, dog, Dog People, DogDaz, Dogs, Follow Up Friday, Friday, Louise, Pet, pets, postaday, Why I Love Thee Award
Weeks seem to fly faster and faster. I can not believe that it is Friday already. Mom is making good progress with her exercises and her knee rehab. She rode a stationary bike for 10 minutes Wednesday (though she was not happy about it). And the Physical Therapist said that maybe she can walk on the Treadmill today for a while. She is not allowed to take us on the road yet for a walk because they are scared that she might fall, but she is getting close. We said that we would not wrap our leases around her or chase squirrels, but the Doctor said ‘no.’ We can’t wait. We miss our walkies. Here I am helping Mom with her exercises this week.
Lift, Mommy, Lift!
Follow Up Friday is part of the blog hop hosted by Heart Like A Dog. Check out the other blog hoppers:
Just another DogDaz morning at the zoo ❤
Tags: Animal, animals, blog hop, cute dogs, dog, Dog People, DogDaz, Dogs, Follow Up Friday, Friday, knees, Pet, pets, postaday
Things have been crazy lately. Mom has been traveling the last two weeks even though she ripped her knee. She came home on the weekend to see us, which was nice, but she still could not walk long distances. We have been going to daycare at least every other day when she is gone. She is coming home tonight and we understand that she has cancelled any future trips until she can get through a couple of weeks of physical therapy. We are really going crazy without being able to walk everyday down to the river or around the neighborhood. We know Mommy wants to walk us but it is just to hard for her now. And it doesn’t help her that there is snow on the ground too.
We are the protectors (that is my paw there protecting Mom’s leg) – Sofie
We like to lay on Mom!
Noel misses Mom a lot too when she is gone and doesn’t come out of her office much except to eat. She doesn’t want to talk much to anyone when Mom isn’t here. Then when Mom comes home, she wants to be close to her but us dogs are much bigger and we want Mom’s lap, so Noel just has to wait. We know that Mom makes time for everyone when she can. Noel is her special baby.
I think I will just sleep until Mom returns. No fun without her.
Follow Up Friday is part of the blog hop hosted by Heart Like A Dog. Check out the other blog hoppers:
Just another DogDaz morning at the zoo ❤
Tags: Animal, animals, blog hop, Cat, cats, cute dogs, dog, Dog People, DogDaz, Dogs, Follow Up Friday, Friday, Pet, pets, postaday
Mom has been away in North Carolina all week on business, but the blog rolls on. She has been monitoring our activities and left me, Louise, to follow-up (you didn’t think she was going to leave Sofie in charge, did you?).
First I will catch you up on Caturday: people thought that Baby Stella was really cute in her picture. Well, she is kind of pretty… for a cat. She doesn’t really like me and Sofie much though. I am sure that has nothing to do with the fact that Sofie chases her down the hall all the time.
The Black and White Sunday Blog Hop got lots of nice feedback on us playing with a toy on the deck. I try to teach Sofie the proper way to mouth a toy, but she does not listen.
For Monday Mischief, Mom did some weird witchy magic that made us change color and everyone loved it. But don’t worry, it isn’t permanent. We like being just the way they are. Blonds do not have ‘more fun:’ Black dogs RULE!
Tuesday, Mom had virtual coffee with other bloggers and she thought it was a really fun thing to do. Most people fessed up to drinking way more coffee then they should in a day, but the tea drinkers were very present too. Did you make a coffee date with anyone because of the post? I think that some people did actually bring their pets, but all we dogs got was water and a cookie.
By mid-week, Wednesday, we were really tired because we had been in daycare all day (that happens a lot when Mom travels). Sofie is so tired when we get home that she can’t keep her eyes open, even to play ball. I get even wilder than usual for about an hour when I come home from daycare and run around like a banshee until I collapse too. (They say that I snore very loud on those nights.)
By Thursday, we shared a wonderful new award call the REALITY award. We love to be honored with all these blog awards. It makes us feel extra special.
Waiting for Dr. Kate
Did we tell you that Mom made us go see Dr. Kate right before she left. We had to get those horrible booster shots that she makes us get every year. I was very brave and actually ended up smiling (a vet tech gave me some special cookies). It was Sofie that had the most difficult time. She whined and hid and did all those silly baby things she does. She was not happy when Dr Kate told Mommy that she was getting very chubby and needed to loss weight. Mommy said that she should get a little doggie treadmill, since she can’t walk us anymore. I don’t think I would like an inside walk going no where. Dr. Kate thinks that Sofie’s ‘Snow Nose’ comes from an allergy to plastic. Plastic bowls, plastic toys… it could be anything. Sofie is on a new diet: no more food, no more toys, no more walks. More cookies for me!!!! What do you mean you heard that I could lose a few pounds too? No way! Mommy will be home for the weekend and then she is goes again next, this time up north to New York. I don’t understand why I just can’t come to work with her. I could stay in her hotel room and bark at all the strange and unfamiliar noises that I hear in the hall. On second thought, it is more fun to go to daycare and wait patiently for her return. Follow Up Friday is part of the blog hop hosted by Heart Like A Dog. Check out the other blog hoppers:
Just another DogDaz morning at the zoo ❤
Tags: Animal, animal awareness, animals, Blog, blog hop, dog, DogDaz, Follow Up Friday, Friday, Mommy, North Carolina, Pet, pets, postaday, Sofie
Well, it is that time of week to look back so that we can look forward.
Mom! Louise has all the toys and she isn’t sharing.
People were very taken with the wonderful angels, Gertrude and Squash, who were present on the blog last weekend. I appreciate the nice comments, we all have our fur angels and sometimes we need them to visit more than others. I am blessed to have a whole zoo of angels that all come visit from time to time.
The dogs were so bored after their Monday Mischief that I had to break out a new Bo-Bo. All those toys and they can’t find anything to do. Amazingly (and I really should not say anything or I will jinx it), the new Bo-Bo still lives!!! But let us see what destuffing goes on tomorrow.
We really appreciated the response to Meet Mini Beaver. It was great to find out that Sofie is not alone in her attachment to a Lovey. Droppie, of AngelWhisper has a squeaky duck; Misaki has a squirrel; Doggy has his blanket, and; the humans at Animal Couriers make sure that when their dogs have a Lovey they go buy lots of extras. Cupcake on the other hand, like Louise, is fickle and will play with anything (or not).
Knee Update: The bad news is, as expected, I tore the Menisus in the left knee. But the good news is: not planning surgery immediately (I do hope that is good – right?) Since I already have trouble with the knees we are going to take the most conservative approach. The doctor shot the knee with drugs and I am going to go to Physical Therapy to try and get the muscles stronger. He said 50% of people are not bothered by the pain of a tear after about 12 weeks (that seems like a long time). We are hoping that it will stop hurting even though it will never go away. When I asked him if I would every be able to knell again, he was a little hesitant to say anything other than, “you may have limitations.” Wish me luck, folks. All I want to do is get back to my walk every day with the dogs. We are all going crazy! Maybe next month.
Follow Up Friday is part of the blog hop hosted by Heart Like A Dog. Check out the other blog hoppers:
Just another DogDaz morning at the zoo ❤
Tags: Animal, animals, Blog, blog hop, Bo-Bo, dog, dog toys, DogDaz, Follow Up Friday, Friday, Knee, Lovey, Pet, pets, Physical therapy, postaday
Catching you up on this and that is what Follow-up Friday is about:
The knees. (What Do Other People Do?) Still waiting for MRI. Don’t understand why it takes 2 weeks to get authorization, but it is a good thing that I am a patient person. I assume if I was bleeding out, they would just let rigor mortis set in. I have an appointment with Surgeon next week. Probably tore the meniscus, but with all the arthritis in my knees, this could be a long road back. But anyway, the dogs have decided that they need to protect my knees and immediately, upon returning home from my trip, had to find ways to both apply pressure to each one.
I am absolutely enforcing the ‘don’t run down the stairs before the human’ rule (which sometimes I am lax about). They must stay at the top of the stairs until my cane and my legs get down to the bottom, or I do let them go before I even start (I figure that is safer for all). Nine, the Mancat, has taken to throwing his full little body on the steps when I am coming up, and now he has also been added to the obstacles to be avoided.
Follow Up Friday is part of the blog hop hosted by Heart Like A Dog. Check out the other blog hoppers:
Just another DogDaz morning at the zoo ❤
Tags: Animal, animals, blog hop, dog, DogDaz, Follow Up Friday, Knee, Musculoskeletal Disorders, Pet, pets, postaday, Sofie
It was a very busy week here at the DogDaz Zoo. All the kids are home and we have many more beds to jump on and rooms to run it. We also worked hard to get a lot more cuddles and pats on the head and treats…. lots of treats. The family was very busy wrapping boxes and putting crinkly stuff in bags and we had fun helping. Mommy told us that we had to be very good the night before Santa Paws came, because we were home by ourselves for a really long time and he would see. (Well sort of good because Mom doesn’t know that I have started to sneak on the big bed and lie on her pillows when she is out of the house: it smells like her and that makes me feel comfy. And since Mom didn’t know, and Sofie and the cats were sworn to secrecy, no one told Santa Paws, so I was in the clear.) All the humans went to Grammie’s with all those boxes and bags. But we saw that our stocking were still hanging, so Santa Paws was not going to forget us. Then the humans got home and Mom put us to bed and in the morning we saw that Santa Paws had come sometime during the night. By afternoon, the Bobos were NObos, and the bacon bones were history. What a great week we had, we hope your’s was special too. – Lulu Belle
Follow Up Friday is part of the blog hop hosted by Heart Like A Dog. Check out the other blog hoppers:
Just another DogDaz morning at the zoo ❤
Tags: blog hop, christmas, dog, DogDaz, Dogs, Follow Up Friday, Pet, pets, postaday, Santa Paws
Imagine my surprise this week when Friday and Saturday were the biggest blog days of my blogging career. I didn’t know what was going on. What I figured out is that someone on Pinterest, repinned a blog I did last August on Hornero Nest Building. So for 3 days my blog traffic went through the roof. And I thought maybe I was hitting Rockstar status, but luckily, DogDaz is back to normal. Thank you to my true followers, YOU, for being here with me through the statistical ups and downs. 
Overall it was a quiet week at the zoo. People really connected with the shadow dogs on Sunday. I guess shadows are part of how we know we are alive. I think shadows are cool and when you walk alone, or travel to a lot of places by yourself, sometimes they are the only document of the fact that you were really there. 
DogDaz Zoo 