Each time your environmnt changes you have to adjust.  In Zach's case, that means new places to hide from yours truly when he has a bone or a treat.  (For some reason, he thinks if he has something to eat he needs to hide from me.)  The other day, Mom couldn't find him at all.  She searched all over our room for him, but it wasn't until she got down on her hands and knees that she saw him.  There's a drum set in our room (no, not Mom's; it belongs to her BIL).  Zach had hidden beneath the largest drum.  It was too low for me to get under.  I could only bat at Zach with my paw.

Then today Mom was looking for Zach, but couldn't find him, not even under the drum.  She got down on the floor again, but still didn't see him.  She picked up a clump of Pansy's hair as she stood up, went to the wastebasket to throw it away and found Zach.  He was lying in a narrow space between the wall and the back of the trash can, happily chewing away on a bone.

Another place that Zach and Pansy both hide is under the bed.  I've tried to crawl under there, but I can only get my head into the space - the rest of my body just won't fit.  You should see Mom trying to get one of them out from under the bed.  She lies on the floor on one side and reaches under the bed.  Of course, Zach or Pansy just move over to the other side.  Mom very quietly gets up and goes to the other side - and the two pip squeaks move to the opposite side.  Mom has even tried to fake them out by getting up and then lying back down on the same side of the bed.  They're not fooled.

Mom does have a last resort, no fail maneuver:  she shakes a canister of treats.  We all come running for that.  (And take a guess on who always arrives at her feet first...)  We always get a treat if we do come running and we always come running because we know we'll get a treat. It's a win-win situation.  Later, Peso.

One thing we really like about our new living arrangements is that now since we are used to our new routine, we get to sleep in bed with Mom!!!  Mom is a bit sad because after sleeping in a crate for the first month or so that we were here, Zach doesn't always sleep in the crook of her arm anymore.  Sometimes he doesn't even sleep next to her.  Pasa, however, loves to sleep under the covers next to Mom.  Mom's only complaint is that Pasa kicks in her sleep!  Mom has also been surprised to find Pansy under the covers some mornings - or even under the edge of Mom's pillow.  Annie sleeps in almost the exact same spot every night, in the middle of the right side of the bed, on top of the covers. 

And me?  Well, sometimes I sleep near the very bottom of the bed, but a lot of times I like to sleep on the floor at the end of the bed, in what Mom calls my "dead dog" position.  I just lie on my side with my legs stretched out.  Sometimes I freak Mom out by just staring straight ahead and not moving my eyeballs.  That's when she bends down to make sure I'm still breathing.  I've heard her make the very RUDE comment that at least she knows I wouldn't die of starvation.  I wouldn't be so sure of that; I sure FEEL like I'm starving...Later, Peso.

Howard, the cat, and I have developed a new game - kinda like hide'n'seek.  Howard hides these special treats in a box of sand and then I have to go dig in the sand to find them.  I just LOVE this game, especially the reward treat.  It's crunchy on the outside with a smooth texture on the inside.  I bet the treats have lots of calories in them - that's gotta be why Mom doesn't want me to eat them.  Who knew cats could be so fun!  Later, Peso.

I haven't mentioned anything about the three guinea pigs.  Their names are Guinea, Guinea and Marshmallow.  Yes, I wrote that correctly.  Two of them are named Guinea.  That makes things a bit confusing.

The guinea pigs' cage is in the laundry room, which is the area we have to walk through to get to the other part of the house.  When the guinea pigs are hungry, they "whistle" when someone walks by.  Mom says at least someone is whistling at her...

One day, Auntie was cleaning the guinea pigs' cage and had put the pigs outside in the x-pen.  Mom didn't know the pigs were outside when she took us out.  We basically ignored them except for Pasa, who was fascinated by them.  The guinea pigs were hiding in a little plastic hut.  Pasa ran all around the x-pen making play bows (and surprisingly, for once Pasa wasn't barking).  One of the Guineas came out of the hut.  The pig slowly went to the edge of the x-pen.  Pasa stuck her nose in between the bars and was very still and quiet.  Guinea touched Pasa's nose with her nose.  Pasa slowly placed her paw on Guinea's paw.  Then Guinea ran back to the hut and Pasa started going crazy wanting to play some more.

Now Pasa wants to be all up in the guinea pigs' business.  Pasa stands on her hind legs and tries to look into their cage.  Pasa is thrilled when they are outside in the x-pen.  Mom says that maybe Pasa needs a guinea pig as a pet.  BORING little rodents, if you ask me.  All they do is sleep, eat and poop.  (Hey, that IS NOT just like me!)  I do check under their cage everytime we go downstairs because I have learned that sometimes they spill their food or drop a piece of carrot or apple onto the floor.  I just wish they would drop stuff more frequently...Later, Peso.

Mom has always said that Pasa is a very polite dog.  (Funny, I don't EVER recall her saying that about me...)  Pasa will not jump onto a piece of furniture or into a lap without asking first.  By asking, I mean she whimpers "hmmm, hmmmm,  Hmmmm, HMMMMMM" , increasing in volume until Mom says "O.K." .

We have doggy stairs to get on Mom's bed and Mom gives us free reign to be on the bed whenever we want.  If Mom is not in the room, Pasa will get on the bed and bury herself under the covers. However, when Mom is in the bed, Pasa "asks" to come up the stairs.  Sometimes, though, she just keeps "asking" until Mom picks her up.  Mom says she's not just a servant to us dogs (we all know she really is, though) and is trying to get Pasa to use the stairs after the o.k. is given (which sounds something like this:  O.K......You can come up......Use the stairs.......Use the stairs, dum-dum).

Today, Pasa wanted on the bed with Mom.  After receiving an O.K., Pasa ran to the steps, but was soon back at the side of the bed whining.  Mom would give her the O.K. again and once again Pasa would run to the stairs and then back to the side of the bed.  Mom thought maybe the stairs had fallen or become pulled away from the bed, so she got up to look.  That's when she saw Pansy lying on the top stair, just below the edge of the mattress.  Mom said to Pasa, "Make her move.  You're the bigger dog!"  Mom turned to get back on the bed and Pasa realized that if she wanted up on the bed, she'd just have to use the stairs.  Pasa backed up, took a running start, flew up the stairs, jumping over the last stair containing the imperturbable Pansy.

I just lay on the floor thinking, "Idiot, you could have saved yourself a lot of trouble if you just jumped over the runt in the first place."  That's one of the many reasons I'm the alpha female in this pack...  Later, Peso.

This incident occurred during the first few weeks we were in our new home:

Mom received a call on her cell phone while Mom was at Wal-mart.  Her neice, in a very excited voice, said "Buy some turtle food!"  When Mom got home, she found out that the two kids had found a turtle in the middle of the road, picked it up and brought it home.  The turtle was outside in the x-pen.  Mom gave the turtle food to her neice, who ran outside and sprinkled some on the ground for the turtle.

Mom did what she always does first thing when she gets home:  take us outside.  Pasa and I ran to the x-pen and sniffed all around.  Mom thought we were just interested in the turtle, so she didn't pay much attention to us at first.  Crazy Pasa was just interested in smelling the turtle, but another smell was claiming my attention.  I had never smelled it before, but it seemed like it might be something to eat.  I eventually found some tiny green pellets on the ground and started munching on them.  Hmm, not exactly like anything I've ever had before, but a starving dog eats what she can find.

After a bit, Mom noticed I was more interested in the ground than the turtle and that's when a light clicked on in her brain.  "PESO, LEAVE IT!!"  Huh, did you say something, Mom?  She started walking my way and I knew that once again I was in trouble.  Mom picked me up and said, "Peso, that's not for doggies!  There's so much calcium in there you'll probably be constipated tomorrow," then took me inside.

Since I had eaten the turtle food, our neice sprinkled out some more food for the turtle.  To make a long story short, just replay the above incident a number of times, until the whole can of turtle food was gone in just a day.

I was not constipated the next day.  The turtle was let go at a nearby creek after biting Mom's nephew on the cheek, resulting in a visit to the emergency clinic for a shot.  After searching the internet, Mom identified the turtle as a Map turtle.  The website said that Map turtles migrate in early summer to find mates; they are aggressive, mean and not tameable.  (Mom wondered about that, because she had never considered turtles as being tamed.)

Mom was surprised to find that there are all sorts of turtle owners out there with websites where people use a message board to talk about their turtles...many different kinds of turtles...and their turtle's personalities.  Gee, I don't know of anyone around here who does that about their dogs..... Later, Peso.

Whew!  This has been one busy weekend!  First there was the holiday that the humans call Independence Day and then Mom's birthday.  Mom explained to me that Independence Day is like the USA's birthday.  I love birthdays, especially presents.  This has brought up two questions, though.

Number one:  Why do the humans insist on celebrating the country's birthday with all those boom things?  (Not that it scares me, mind you, but the other dogs get freaked out.)  Why can't the humans just sing "Happy Birthday" and blow out some candles?  If they must have the boom things, why can't they just have one big boom everywhere and be done with it?  Sure seems easier to me.

Number two:  Why didn't I get any cake?????

Later, Peso.

The new place that Mom and we doggers live in is over Auntie's three car garage.  That means there are stairs...and I don't like stairs.  The treads are wood - and slick!  There are seven steps, then a little landing where we turn and go up four more steps.  We've had a few issues getting used to using the stairs.  The first day that we were here, I started to run down the steps, lost my footing and slid until the wall stopped my face.  Needless to say, I've learned to be much more careful when going down the steps.

Pasa runs up the stairs to the landing, turns and runs up the final steps.  I have a little advice for her:  When you turn to face the right way, look up and see if the door is closed BEFORE you run up the final steps.  Yup, one day she ran up, turned and a few seconds later we heard a "whap" as she ran right into the closed door.  Now she pauses for a moment on the landing to check whether the door is open or shut.

A week or so after moving in, Annie seemed out of breath a lot.  That's when Mom realized that she was making Annie climb the equivalent of a mountain several times a day and with Annie's congestive heart failure, that was not a good thing.  So Annie gets carried up and down the stairs.

Pansy and Zach can run up the stairs like nobody's business.  Mom says they look like blurs as they run up the stairs.

And if it's not enough to have stairs to our place, there are more steps to get in and out of the house.  Mom says that's because houses here are all built on crawl spaces instead of slabs, like in Texas.  So it's stairs, run through the house and then stairs down to the backyard and then the whole thing in reverse to go back upstairs.  You'd think that with all that stair climbing, I'd be losing weight, but you'd be wrong.  Mom says it's probably because I can't go outside anytime I want and chase Pasa around the yard.  I guess I have enough space to chase her around our room, but by the time I get back up the stairs, those dog beds look pretty good to me.  I need a nap before my next trip down and up the stairs.  A little kibble to give me energy for the next trip would be helpful, but Mom doesn't agree with me.  She's such a kibble cop.  Later, Peso.

Mom told me not to write about this, but you know I try not to do what Mom tells me to...

Mom has these three human female harnesses.  (I think Mom calls them "bras".)  She bought them together in one shopping trip a few years ago.  Same brand, same style.  Mom says they have served their purpose well over the last few years.  Well......

Today as Mom was getting dressed in the morning, she put on one of the harnesses and we all heard a "pop".  The wire under the left side broke in half.  Mom muttered under her breath, threw the broken harness in the trash and strapped on another one.  A little later Mom was invited out to eat and she wanted to change into some nicer clothes.  As she was pulling the next shirt over her head, we once again heard a "pop".  Yup, the wire on the second harness broke - and it was also on the left side.  So, Mom got out a third harness to wear and threw the second one in the trash.

Mom went out to eat and ran errands all day with Auntie.  After a long time they came home and Mom ran up to get us from our room and take us outside.  She bent down to pick up Pansy and...you guessed it...another "pop".  The third harness broke!  And it was also on the left side! Mom said that the bra harnesses must have had an expiration date and today was the day.  Personally, from this dog's view, I think the left side of the harness must have to work harder to do it's job and eventually all the harnesses just gave up the fight.  Yup, I'm sure that must be it.  Just don't tell Mom I wrote that.  I have a fear that if you do, the next "pop" I hear will be only a single kibble plopped in my treat ball for supper!  Later, Peso.

I know it's been a long time since I last wrote in my dogary.  A lot has happened in the time between the last post and now.

Mom and Dad are divorcing.  Instead of working out the custody of children, they had to work out custody of us dogs.  Annie, Pansy, Pasa, Zach and myself are with Mom in our new city of Summerville, South Carolina.  Nani, Paco and Pica have remained with Dad in Texas.  They have moved across the hall from the apartment we had moved into in Nov. 2008 to a one bedroom.  Pica stayed with Dad, of course, because she was his little princess.  Mom was only allowed to bring five dogs with her.  It was a very hard decision for her on who to take with her.  In the end she decided that Paco and Nani were the most self sufficient and Nani loved Dad a bit more than Mom.  Paco loved Mom a whole lot and Mom was afraid he'd go through depression if she left him, however, he and Nani get along and he loved Dad, too.  (Maybe more appropriately, he loves anyone who will pet him.)

Nani has always wanted to be the alpha female and now she has achieved her dream.  I'm enjoying not having her annoying me and I no longer have to keep her in line.  Mom misses watching Nani "kill" her stuffed toys, especially Pooh Bear and hearing her "talk" to her squeeky toy when she loses it.  Pasa misses the domination struggles with Nani, but she does like having Mom all to herself.

Truth be told, we dogs have handled the changes quite well.  We knew the humans were VERY stressed and unhappy.  Now there's a whole lot less tension.  Mom is depressed and cries quite often, but we dogs know what to do when that happens - crawl into Mom's lap and lick her tears away.

Mom has moved in with her sister's family, which includes two human children, two poodles, one daschund and three Guina Pigs.  Spot is a male poodle and is about three times as big as I am.  He gets very excited when playing and shortly after we moved in, he cornered and attacked me. In the confusion that ensued, Delores, the daschund, joined in.  I was scared out of my fur and screaming.  Luckily, Mom was only about five feet away and saved me.  I'm still scared of Spot, so when we go through the house to go outside I stay right by Mom.  I'm still Alpha in our room, but Mom says she has never seen me so cowed as I am now when Spot is around.

Delores and I have made our peace.  Delores thinks she is part of our pack and always wants to be wth us.  Mom says Delores is probably thinking, "Finally, dogs I can see eye to eye with."  Just for your information, the other poodle is a female named Daisy.  She is a minature poodle and is just a little bigger than I am.  She's also very sweet, so I don't mind her being around. But as for the big poodle it's like Shakespaw wrote in his play, Hamlet:  "OUT, OUT D*mn Spot!" (Shakespaw should have named his play Let Me Have Ham instead of Hamlet...)

That reference to ham has made me think about my growling stomach, so I'll end this post for today.  I'll be writing on a more regular basis from now on.  Later, Peso.

On weekends, the clubhouse has free kolaches for the residents.  Mom went and brought back two of them - one for her and one for Dad.  Mom ate half of hers and then had to go to the restroom.  She put the other half of her kolache on the bar, which is almost a foot away from the arm of the couch.

Mom was only gone a few seconds, but when she came back, she saw me tiptoeing to the other room with her kolache in my mouth.  She made me DROP IT.  Of course, she didn't want to eat it with dog slobber all over it.  She waited a few minutes (I guess she thought I'd forget that I'd done wrong) and then divided it up between all the mutts.

Next time, I'll have to tiptoe faster....

Later, Peso.

I am pissed today!!  I just realized that it's March already.  That means Mom has missed Annie's birthday and even more importantly, MY birthday!  I know Mom's been busy and all, but to forget her own neglected, emaciated, and starved Chikid's birthday is scandalous.  Where's my birthday treat???  Or at least a birthday bone?? 

Of course, this means she forgot Annie's birthday, too, as her's is in Febuary as well.  Hmmph, I wonder if she'll forget Zach's and Nani's birthdays during March...  Probably not.  How could she miss her precious, golden Chikid's birthday?  Just 'cuz he's always thankful for anything he gets and I'm, well, not demonstrative when I get a treat that I deserve just for being me.  What am I - chopped liver?  (Actually, that sounds pretty good.)

Mom had better be really nice to me today or I might just nip her ankle.  If I made the effort, I could stand on my hind legs and nip her shin.  Nah, too much work.  Quick, someone call the SPCA and tell them about the terrible conditions I have to live in; restricted kibble and treats and now, no birthday celebration... Later, Peso.

Mom says this is a new one in our lives...

Mom takes me walking around the complex quite often.  Guess that's supposed to make me skinnier.  Just makes me tired.  Sometimes, Paco accompanies us.  Of course, being male, Paco wants to mark every tree, hydrant, pole, blade of grass....  Mom lets him mark a few and then starts teaching him what "NO MARK" means.  (He hasn't got it yet.)

Last night Paco had already gone pee on the wee mat when he found out he got to go on "the walk".  He was SO excited.  First thing out the door, he's looking for something to mark.  Unfortunately for him, he had little to work with, having already pee'd.  After a few episodes of "going through the motions", he wanted to stop at another tree.  This time, instead of trying to pee, Paco backed up, placed his rump against the tree and poo'ed.  Mom was flabbergasted, but chuckled all the way home.

I was actually impressed.  Sometimes you just need to improvise with what you have on hand (or in rump).

I don't bother with all that male marking stuff.  I keep my eyes and nose on alert for dropped pieces of food.  Unless I'm really fast, Mom pulls me away.  The day I found most of a Twinkie , but got told "LEAVE IT" and got pulled away was an especially disappointing day.  Later, Peso.

Mom likes to sit on the chaise lounge every morning while she drinks her hot tea, eats an English muffin and reads her Bible.  Of course, this creates a lap and we doggies love laps.  Five of us crawled into Mom's lap.  There was only one spot left; next to the arm of the chaise.  Pasa wanted over there really badly but there were too many dogs in the way for Pasa to get to the place she wanted without causing dog fights, so Pasa crawled up the left side of Mom, walked across her shoulders, jumped down, landing on Zach and backed herself into the space between Mom and the chaise arm.  Mom said, "Excuse me, but I am not a doggie jungle gym."  Hmm, that sounds like something for exercise which explains why I don't do such manuevers.

Pasa had a chewie in her mouth which she dropped when she landed on Zach.  Zach looked up like, "Hey, cool" and snatched up the chewie.  Pretty soon, Nani snuck up on Zach and grabbed his chewie.  Pasa stuck her neck out and after a brief altercation, grabbed her chewie back.  Mom said, "You guys are like kids on a playground."  Playground, hmm, also sounds like exercise.  I guess that explains why I just lounged on the other couch, watching the activities.  Hey, didn't I hear that kids usually get a snack after recess?  Where's the treats???  Later, Peso.

If you've been following my diary for awhile, you know that I'm on a permanent diet.  Last year Zach had to join me on the permanent diet routine.  Mom gives each of us our supper kibble in treat balls.  In our previous house, there was enough room for each of us to be in separate rooms, but in the apartment, there's less room (and gates) to keep us separated from each other and the other lucky dogs who get to eat as much as they want.

Mom's solution has been to feed Zach and me in the bathroom.  I get to roll my ball around on the tile floor, but Zachie has to roll his all around in the bathtub.  That has worked pretty well - until tonight.  One of Zach's kibble rolled across the tub and down the drain!  Zach was bound and determined that he was going to find that kibble.  He pawed and pawed at the tub drain, but the kibble had disappeared.  Zach kept trying to get that kibble until Mom finally came to get him out of the tub.  I wonder if Zach will remember that kibble and try to go after it tomorrow... Later, Peso.

Every now and then Mom makes us what she calls Musgo treats.  It's a shortened version of "must go".  See, if cheese gets too aged for the humans liking, or fruit and vegetables become too soft or bruised for the humans to eat, Mom makes treats out of them.  Dad calls them moldy treats.   (Hey, we dogs like garbage, so we don't mind a little mold here and there.)

This week's treats contain three kinds of cheese, a tomato, sour cream, and an apple.  Mom always puts some flax seed in to make our fur shiny.  Mom must have been feeling extremely generous this week, because she also cooked up some bacon that was perfectly fine and put it in the treat batter.  Instead of flour, Mom used all the crumbs from the mini wheats Dad likes, stale Cherrios and some crushed up whole grain crackers.  She puts in two eggs, (good ones) to hold it all together.

Mom spreads it in a cookie sheet with sides (jelly roll pan) and bakes it at 250 degrees until it's pretty crisp.  Mom lets it cool, then brakes it into pieces and cooks the pieces again at 200 degrees until the pieces are nice and hard, like kibble.

Some of us (okay, mainly me) like to watch Mom in the kitchen, but she says we must know when she's cooking especially for us because we all stand watch at the kitchen door and we get very excited whenever she takes the pan out of the oven.  We don't normally do that when she's baking human food.

Mom told me that I can't have too many of this weeks Musgo treats because they contain lots of fat from cheese and sour cream.  It shouldn't be my problem that cheese and sour cream have fat in them!  Besides, she put a tomato in, so doesn't that count as diet food???

Mom tries to combine flavors that she thinks will go together, like apples and peanut butter.  Some of my favorite treats are when she puts pumpkin or sweet potatoes in.  According to Mom, raisins, grapes, onions and garlic are not good for dogs, so she never puts that stuff in.

Wow, I've written a lot today; probably because it's about a subject I'm very fond of - food!  Now excuse me while I go sit in front of Mom with doleful eyes and try to look pathetic and malnourished.  Later, Peso.

It is cold and drizzling outside.  I hope that means Mom and I aren't going to take our daily one mile "make Peso thinner" walk.  If I were a betting dog, I don't think the odds will be in my favor.  Our apartment building has a hallway down the middle of the building with apartments on each side.  I know that Mom is mean and she might make me walk up and down that hallway a dozen times.

She's been trying to get me to walk up the stairs to the next floor because she thinks that would also be good exercise for me.  I don't trust those stairs because the back of each stair is open.  Last night Mom tried again to get me to walk up the stairs.  As soon as I realized where we were going, I stopped stock still in my tracks, using my front paws as parking brakes.  Mean Mom still tried to get me to go up the stairs, so I lay down flat on my belly with my legs splayed out.  There is absolutely no way I am going up those stairs!

Mom has even tried carrying me up the stairs to try going down the stairs.  Uh-huh, no way!  I'm afraid I'll fall through the open part of the steps.  Mom says there's not enough room for my current big beautiful body to fit through the open space.  Maybe that's true, but what if I got stuck??  I hope someone sees how mean Mom is to me and turns her into the Mean Mom society.  Later, Peso.

I made myself sick and in turn, made mom sick - literally.  It's all Mom's fault.  She's been giving us some yogurt drop treats, choco/vanilla swirled -YUM, whenever we do our duties outside (which is helping a whole lot with us relearning to go out to the patio and use the wee pads instead of the inside floor).  She goofed last night after our last outing and left the open container on an end table.  The next morning, Dad got us up and then went back to bed.  My nose smelled a waft of yougurt treats and I just followed my nose.  Next thing I knew, I had eaten 3/4 of the container, with a little help from Zach.  Unfortunately, that many yogurt treats wouldn't stay happy in our tummies and wanted to come back out.  All day long, we tossed our cookies, um, treats.  That meant that all day long, Mom was cleaning up after us.  Mom can't handle upchuck very well - it always makes her queasy, too.  So after cleaning the mess up, she usually ran to the bathroom.

Personally, I thought this part was kind of interesting:  the treats are swirled tan and white; so was our upchuck, lol.  I guess Paco had snuck a few treats, too, because later that afternoon, he added diaherria to our mix.  I tell ya, I don't think the floor has ever been as cleaned since we moved in as it was by the end of yesterday...  Later, Peso.