Awards, awards, and an award!

I feel so honored, so many of you guys are giving me all these awards! Thank you so much!

Thank you Charlie, Desert Pups, and Dozer and Cooper for the Brillante award...

Thank you Amber, Ben Ben, Penny, and Verdi and Gaucho for the Arte-y-Pico Award...

Thank you Dozer and Cooper for the Good Dog Blog award...

And now, because Dozer and Cooper had requested that I send them some Canadian fish 'n chips in return for the Good Dog Blog award, I will put these delicious looking fish 'n chips right here and Dozer and Cooper can come and pick them up anytime from my blog. Here ya go fellas, enjoy them!


Before I finish this post I'd just like to share a picture with you all... There was once a big empty bird nest in our tree, but the humans took it down a while ago and put it in a flower pot. Now a couple days ago I walked outside, and look who I found on top of the bird nest inside the flower pot!


That crazy cat, I'm sure her brain isn't working quite right, 'cause before she was pretending to be an evil monkey and now she's pretending to be a furry bird on her nest...

My Toy Collection

Nothing very exciting has been happening for a few days, so today my human and I decided to search through the whole house (all three floors), the whole front yard, and the whole backyard, to see if we could find all of my toys. My human even had to dig up a few that have been buried in the backgyard for years! We put all the toys together in a box, so now I have 30 toys all together! I'm sure there's many more toys buried under the dirt and grass, but we'll find those another day.

Here I am, sitting by my toy box full of all my toys, new and old. I've never had this many toys all in one place before!

Let's see what kind of interesting dog toys I have in this box...

A pink frisbee, all my exploded, murdered, and destroyed stuffies from the 4xBs, a bunch of rings toys I've had since I was a wee pup, some rope toys, a couple of kongs, a squeeky burger, some chewy bone toys, and 11 balls.

Man, just look at all these balls! Tennis balls, glow in the dark balls, giggle balls...

I wanted to dive into all those balls, but my human made me wait while she took some pictures. I tell ya, it was tough! Those balls were staring up at me, just waiting for me to sink my teeth into 'em!

Can I play with my toys yet?

The First Dock Jumping of the Year

Alright everydog (and hamsters and cats), before I start this post I'd just like to apologize to you all 'cause I haven't been able to visit your blogs very much lately. Now that the nice weather is finally here, the summer has been very busy! I'm missing out on hearing about everything you guys are goin' through right now, so I'm going to try really hard to find the time to catch up on all your blogs, okay?

Also, we've noticed that many of you can't find the comment box on my latest blog posts. We're not sure what's happening there, we've tried to fix it, but apparently it's nothing that we can fix... I hope it'll start working properly again soon!

Anyway, as I had mentioned before, our summer has been quite busy since the sun finally came out. On Saturday we went to a lake. I used to not like water until I was about 4 years old, and since then I've gradually come to love the water! I'm turning 7 in August, and this year is the first year that I can jump right into the water on my first try without being a scaredy-cat at all! So we all went to the lake, and I brought my orange ball of course, and my humans threw it off the dock so that I could jump into the water after the ball. I tell ya, even though I choked up lots of water afterward, this was the most fun I've had in a long time!

Here I am, just jumping off the dock... Man, I feel like I could fly!

After I land in the water, I get my orange ball and start to swim back.

There was just one problem I had getting back to the shore... I had to climb over this long floating thing, and it's a lot harder than it looks!

But I, Sparky the Wonder Dog, can do anything!

After much struggling, I manage to kick off the long floating thing and land with a splash on the other side...

After I get back to the shore and then to the dock again, my human Lizzy takes my orange ball...

...And then I bark at her until she throws it again!

Another flying leap into the water...

Swimming back again...

Climbing out of the water onto the shore...

After a while I'll take a break and cool down the humans by shaking all the water on them.

And then I'll find a nice spot on the grass to roll around and dry off.

I'll get up and shake again...

And then get down and roll again...


Oh, what a grrrrEAT day it was! I'm looking forward to swimming more as the summer continues! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend, too!

An Extra Special Post

You all might be wondering why this post is extra special... Well I'll tell ya why... I have blogged for well over a year, and I know I still haven't blogged as much as you'd all appreciate, but this blog is extra special 'cause it marks my 100th post! Yup, I've blogged 100 blogs, and I've still got many more blog posts to come!

Anyway, after I came home from camping last weekend, can you guess where I went? Strait to the tub. I hate baths. I've probably told you all so many times that I hate baths, but it's true. I don't struggle to get away or anything, but I put my tail between my legs and my head goes down, and I look up with sad puppy dog eyes. You'd think that would be enough for the humans to take me out of the tub right away and set me free again, but all they do is complain about something, um, what was it? I think they call it "stink". They also mention "dirty". And a while later, after I look like a miserable drowned rat, they rejoice and say "clean", and "nice". I think I look much cuter when I'm dry and fluffy, right? I suppose I'll never get why the humans are happier when I'm soaked to the skin with water and shampoo. Funny, I wonder why they don't like it when I give myself my very own bath with "pond water" and "mud"?

Anyway, now to get down to the point. There is one good thing that comes with a bath. That's the part where you get to dry off! No need for towels when you've got carpet and couches to use! Do any of you guys do this?




Now, my good friends George and Velcro tagged me for a meme! Here goes...


What is your name? Sparky.

If you could change your name what would it be? Hmmm, well, maybe I'd change it to "Super Dog" or "Sparky the Great". Does that sound good?

What is your pet's name (it can be a webkinz or a real pet)? Let's see, the cats are the human's pets, so I guess they're mine too, right? Their names are White Cat, Rascal, and Marble.

If you could change your pet's name what would it be? Change the cat's names?! Ooooh, now that would be good! But I'd better not tell you what I'd name them, 'cause I might get into trouble...

What is your brother or sisters name? My brother's name is Buddy, and I have two sisters named Peanut and I think the other one was Olive. I haven't seen Olive for about 7 years, and Peanut for about 5 years, and Buddy I saw about 3 years ago. I'd love to see them all again!

If you could change their name what would it be? I don't think I would change their names...

Now tag as many people as letters in your new name for yourself. Hmmm, well there are quite a few letters in my new names, so how about I just tag 5 dogs? They are...

Clover
Ben Ben
Deetz
T-Bone Beasely
Goober Stan


I hope you'll all have a GRRRReat weekend comin' up, and stay cool!

A Camping Trip BLAST!

I hope you all had a grrrrEAT weekend - I know I sure did!

On Wednesday I was wondering why my humans were packing their bags. On Thursday the humans were loading their bags into the big van and trailer behind it. I thought they were going to go away without me, until I saw it... My orange ball! It was at that moment I knew I was coming on the camping trip too, and man did I ever get excited about it!

If you'll remember, I also went on this same camping trip last year. All my humans and their church go camping together every summer for 3 nights, and all the dog owners usually take their dogs along as well. So of course I get to go, too!

We were the third family to arrive at the campground, so there was still lots of room to set up our stuff before everyone came. The moment we all piled out of the van, I took off running as fast as I could go around the campground. I ran to the shelter in the middle of the campground, I ran to the other people already there, I ran in circles, I ran up the giant hill and down it again a few times, and then I ran strait to the first tent I saw and peed on it. Hey, I hadn't peed since early that morning, so I had to go somewhere! I just didn't think the giant fields and trees all around were worthy of my gift I had been holding inside of me all day.

During most of the camping trip, all the 3 to 7 year old boys and girls followed me everywhere. The humans were saying I had my own fan club! I must say though, I was getting quite bored and tired of the little kids. Hey, I'm glad they love me, but when they're pulling my ears and tail and hugging and kissing me every second of the day, I tend to get tired of them quickly. But I was pretty good with them, I only gave a few warning growls when they got too annoying!

My favorite part of the camping trip was when we all went to the beach! I tell ya, when you've got your ball, the sand, the water, the space, and the sand castles to pee on, you've got everything!

Dexter the Cocker Spaniel tried to chase my ball with me, but I always got it first, of course. I'm faster than any dog around!

Jake, Dexter's brother, didn't even bother to chase the ball. He chased Dexter for a bit, and just ran around doing his own thing for a while...

And then he decided to take a nap.

As for Shadow, he just wandered around in the water the whole time. That's a Labrador for ya!

I spent almost the whole time at the beach chasing my orange ball. Dexter finally gave up trying to get it before me, so I got to play ball by myself.

I took a little break to say hello to this little dog.
And then I just ran around for a few minutes before we went back to the campground.

We had a wonderful time, and I was zonked right out when we got home! I fell asleep belly up on my human Lizzy's stomach, and I didn't get up for a looong time. It felt good to rest!

The Typical Pond Day

The nice weather we've been having lately is grrrrEAT for going up to the pond and doing what I do best - chasing tennis balls. Well, actually, not tennis balls anymore, but now my bright orange heavy-duty ball. I kinda killed all my tennis balls, ripped the fuzz off them and punctured holes in them with my teeth so many times that they don't even closely resemble any kind of ball anymore.

My orange ball is much harder to destroy, but I have managed to put a big crack in the side of it. Now when I take my ball for a dip in the pond to cool off, the water pours into the crack and fills it up. Then it makes a perfect water gun! I like to squeeze my orange ball just like I do my squeaky toys, so when I'm super close to my humans I can squeeze the orange ball and it'll squirt a stream of water (mixed with my drool) out of the crack in the ball and land on my humans. They think it's gross, but I'm just trying to help cool them off on the hot days! (Er, and cold days too, I suppose)

After my humans take my orange ball from me, I bark and bark at them until they throw it again. Sometimes other big doggies come along and want to chase my orange ball too, but I always beat them to it!

After I get my orange ball, it's strait back to the pond to cool down and fill up my orange water gun again. Before we leave, I usually take a good drink to fill up my own personal water gun to help water the poor plants and fire hydrants on the way back home.

What's This?

My human walked into the living room to find me inspecting what appears to be the scene of a gruesome murder.

Looks pretty bad, doesn't it? Let's see if we can find any clues as to what happened...

Ah ha! A piece of pink, do you see it? There's only one item in the house that matches that certain piece of pink, and it's...

...The Pink Piggy! Let's take a closer look at the pink piggy and see if we can find any more clues... Hmm, he doesn't seem to be lookin' his best, does he? Do you think he was the victim of the gruesome murder that took place in my own living room?

Uh oh! It looks as if his pink butt was torn off! Who could do such a horrid thing to my Pink Piggy?
Let's go back to the scene of the murder and put all this evidence together... Yup, it fits just like two puzzle pieces. The victim was definitely Pink Piggy.

I wonder who the murderer was?