For those unfamiliar with these parasitic little bastards, just do a quick googling – every site seems to show the little razor-like teeth that they have.  I’d been experiencing some loss of appetite and some pretty funky diarrhea, which is what alerted the humans that there might be an issue.

But oh lucky me, they’re pretty easy to get rid of.  Just some nasty granules that get sprinkled on my wet food 3 times a day for 3 days.  The problem is that wet food just doesn’t seem tasty to a young handsome dog with intestinal issues right now… so a bit of force-feeding was in order.

First trying the old hide-it-in-a-piece-of-cheese trick.  Generally, this works.  I have to give the humans credit for this one.  The slice of cheese just looks so yummy all folded up with a special wonton center (the filling being, of course, whatever medication is required and not easily administered).

But with these granular packets it’s not so simple.  They fall out all too easily of a cheese pouch.  And I can smell them – never a good thing when trying to trick me.  Mom and dad have tried hiding the granules in chicken, cheese, several brands of wet dog food and – my personal favorite – cat food.  All to less than stellar results.

So it’s been best to force-feed me.  I have to get rid of the intestinal evildoers.  Then I can eat and poop with gusto again like the fine Airedale that I am.  And for all the other humans out there – if your puppy that should have a cast-iron stomach has diarrhea (especially dark colored) and/or isn’t eating with relish, bring in that stool sample for a checkup (and do us the favor, collect what we poop out rather than submitting your fine canine to the indignity of the poop probe!!!).

Love and intestinal fortitude,

Bogart

BookmAIREk Me!

Today I had to go to the vet because I have some sort of weird skin thing going on on my tummy. That and I’ve had a touch of the diarrhea lately. Mom and dad thought better safe than sorry, and before I could begin to disagree we were in the car and on our way.

I’m sure the vet is a really nice person…. really… but he just has so many requirements. Get up on the table Bogart, turn over Bogart, lets see how much you weigh in front of all of the hot bitches Bogart, now it’s time to gather a stool sample Bogart…

Wait, did he just say “gather a stool sample”? What could that mean? You’re going to stick what? – where? – when? – why?

YOWCH!

Mom and dad said they could hear me all the way out in the waiting room and knew that the anal probing had been administered. But as always the Airedale gets the last laugh. Mom and dad thought that they wouldn’t have to “collect” a sample because they allowed the evil vet to do the anal probing? Well guess what – I was totally clean. Nothing to collect. So they just have to wait until the next time I have to poop… then go back to the vet with it in a baggie.

I win AGAIN!!!

Love,

Bogart

UPDATE:  As of 6pm the “sample” has been produced, collected, and now resides on some lucky “fecal flotation” testers desk.

BookmAIREk Me!

But mom’s camera is ailing. She THINKS it’s just the digital card (and she has a NEW camera that she SHOULD use when documenting all of my golden moments) and that it SHOULD be fixed asap.

So no bathing beauty shots of me. Just as well I guess. I was fully funk-a-delic and had a lovely layer of crust (that I carefully cultivated at the dog park and other places around town) that needed serious removal via bubble-filled shower.

Love,

Bogart

BookmAIREk Me!

It turns out that I have a grandma and grandpa in Austria and they came to visit!!!  Mom has been really distracted and keeps “forgetting” to bring the camera along, missing all of my golden moments with my new grandparents.

But I’m SURE she’s going to fix that little problem, aren’t you mom?  Wouldn’t it be a huge shame not to get any photos of me with the only grandparents I’ve ever met?  Wouldn’t you feel like the worst mom in the world if you didn’t get a few photos???

That should work.

Love,

Bogart

BookmAIREk Me!

Mom and dad are such hipster-wannabees. They say they don’t, and that they aren’t, but they just are. They always drag me to these hangouts, mostly restaurants, where all the hipsters are.

Today we stopped at Fred 62 in Los Feliz so that dad could have a burger and mom could have a grilled cheese. Humans are soooo fascinating in their eating habits (not). I did get lots of smiling and people stopping to admire me, so it wasn’t a total loss, but it was awfully hot outside (it is always 80 degrees in March in LA?) and the sun was making me a little uncomfortable.

They were nice enough to bring me a bowl of water which was much appreciated, but once the admiring stopped I was ready to go.

So basically look for any hipster lunch hangout places around town, and you’ll see me!!!!

Love,

Bogart

BookmAIREk Me!

It has been brought to my attention that my hair is getting a bit… LONG.

I’m quite wiry, I have the kind of fur that can get quite scratchy when I get really good and dirty (which is as often as I canine-ly can). When I’m freshly washed, however, it’s really quite soft and furry. Wavy rather than curly. I do get brushed on regular occasions – regularly enough that the brush already bears the bruises of my chewing on it when dad isn’t looking. And a few bite marks from where I made contact during several brushing sessions.

I haven’t had a single haircut ever. I keep hearing about them, tho. It’s not something that I’m looking forward to, even though I see how cute other puppies look with a nice clipping. Mom and dad seem to be looking into such things much more lately than they did before – mom is determined that I go somewhere “nice”, which just leads me to believe that this clipping thing is something overwhelmingly unpleasant, so much so that mom feels the need to overcompensate with the treats and loving in advance…

I prefer to think of myself as a free spirit, going au naturel, letting the puppy pelt grow, letting my dale fro fly….

So we’ll see how long I can divert the humans’ attention from this grooming thing. Bathing is enough for a natural beauty such as myself…

You make me feel like a nat-u-ral airedale…. (airedale….)
Power to the Puppy!!!

Love,

Bogart

BookmAIREk Me!

This is my current stick collection.

I am quite the connoisseur – not just any old stick will do. That’s what mom and dad think, that I just pick up any stick and drag it back to the house. Daily. Sometimes twice a day. But noooooo…..

It’s all to support my scientific (by Airedale standards, anyway) theory and to give you all a valuable tip about where to invest your hard-earned money: STICKS!

Sticks are – by far – the most useful thing EVER. They are of course incredibly fun, and provide hours of amusement for any dog. The benefit to the teeth with careful chewing (watch out for splinters!) is there. The feeling of accomplishment when a large stick has been reduced to toothpicks cannot be understated.

And then there are those humans… I’ve noticed that even humans love sticks! They clean floors with them, eat with them, walk with them, even build houses out of them! I found these last week at the Pasadena Flea Market, just waiting for some human to come along and use them…

So, in closing, I must encourage you all to INVEST IN STICKS!!!

Love,

Bogart

BookmAIREk Me!

Dad heard somewhere recently about a new non-alcoholic beer for dogs.  Supposedly dogs absolutely l-o-v-e it…

So today he thought he’d try a little experiment – non-alcoholic Clausthaler beer for Bogart.  I was fascinated by it at first, I really wanted to get a lick in while he was pouring it – I’ve never smelled anything like that before.  But Dad wouldn’t let me, he wanted to pour it into my dish.  Ok Dad.

I gave it a good sniff…

And I think I can categorically say that I DON’T LIKE BEER.  Blasphemy for a puppy with a Dad from Austria, I know, but I just can’t see what all the fuss is about.

Love,

Bogart

BookmAIREk Me!

Not just a pup, but a man. Tonight at about 10:30 mom was taking me for my last walk of the day… a very normal event, nothing exciting. Sometimes she doesn’t even put on regular clothes, just throws a sweatshirt over her counting sheep pajamas (mom, we’re really going to have to talk about that someday). It’s dark, there is usually no one else around, I just run out to my favorite peeing spot and do my business.

Well tonight I felt something… an urge, an itch, it was unexplainable – something just wasn’t right anymore.

And with mom watching in those damn counting sheep pajamas, I did it – I LIFTED MY LEG TO PEE. That’s right – peeing like the big boys. Apparently I’m right-pawed as I lifted my back right leg to pass my nightly water. Not on a tree, or against a fence, no sir-ee bob – but just letting it fly into the wind. Like a fuzzy tripod.

Of course with it being so dark out at night mom couldn’t take a proper picture. Not to mention there wasn’t anywhere convenient for her to carry her camera – not in those counting sheep pajamas! So there is no record of this great event, just the tale…

That’s right, I’ve passed over into manhood – no more peeing “bitch”…

Love,
Bogart

BookmAIREk Me!

Holidays are fun, there are so many people out – which means the opportunity for adventure is great!

Today started with some fun at the dog park – with a grapefruit, of all things. Remember I told you about when dad thought it would be funny to feed me a pickle and thought I’d make a really funny face – then I didn’t? Well, we had a similar encounter this morning with my buddies, the Airedales.

Dad was eating a grapefruit – something that shouldn’t appeal to dogs, right? – but we’re not just dogs, we’re AIREDALES. So dad thought he’d try to be funny again… here’s the result:

After a ride home and a quick nap, we went out to lunch at the Corner Bakery in Burbank. Nothing for me there, as mom was having her same old boring sandwich and dad had chili and wouldn’t let me try any. So I just waited for them to finish, and for 2 tables full of people to finish admiring me.

Then we walked by IKEA – mom’s favorite place. We were going to go inside to get a hot dog (dad keeps promising me one of these someday, haven’t gotten one yet) but I’ve been having some digestive issues lately so dad decided maybe another time. Just as they were discussing my intestines, I suddenly had the urge to poop. So I pooped on the IKEA lawn. And mom and dad laughed and were trying to joke about it with stupid Swedish accents (who cares, dad still has to pick up my poop – not the other way around – so they can tease all they want).

Love,
Bogart

BookmAIREk Me!

Today mom took me to Petco (as you know, one of my favorite places) to have my picture taken with Santa Claus. Since I know nothing of this person or this holiday (yet!), I was just happy to be going into the store. We got there around 9:30 this morning, because Santa was supposed to be there at 9.

There was no Santa Claus. There was no photographer. Just a lot of angry humans with their doggies. Apparently, Santa had been out on a bender (I understand this to be that he drank too much firewater) and the photographer left in disgust. Somehow the Petco employees were able to convince the photographer to come back again in a little while, but he had to stop and buy a Santa Claus suit. So we all waited.

There was Elvis the miniature Schnauzer, Ripley the fox-like mutt & Tara the Rottweiler, Gunner the Doberman, Nico the terrier-mix and others… We managed to have some fun while the humans yelled at each other. Everyone was friendly, mom had conveniently grabbed a bag of Charlee Bear snacks so we were busy feeding everyone while the dogs all ran around and peed all over Petco.

Finally the photographer arrived with – what mom says – was a lousy backdrop and no Santa. He set up and then a very glum-looking Petco employee stomped past us with a folded Santa suit in his hands. Uh-oh. We waited a little while longer and then finally Santa was ready.

The first few pets went up to take their pictures with Santa – what a mess! Santa didn’t have a chair and the backdrop was too short for him to stand up… The photographer really didn’t know how to pose pets with Santa (read: how to bribe us to look cute for a second). When it was my turn, mom was busy making sure that I looked adorable and she even didn’t yell at me when I bit the nasty Santa. Not hard, just a nip, because he was making my mom mad.

I think the picture that we chose was kind of nice – the photographer only took a few digital photos (now I’ve watched mom take pictures, and she’s muuuuuuch better than this guy!) for us to choose from so mom picked one and then we went up to pay for it. Then we found out that it’s going to be mailed to us! Mom was mad again because she wanted to put my cute face into everyone’s Christmas cards…. ah well, sorry mom, the world will have to wait for my cuteness!

I’ll post the picture when we finally get it. Right now I’m off with Dad to his friend’s furniture store, Sweet Smiling Home. It’s a really nice store, if you’re looking for Indonesian or Asian furniture they have really great stuff (mom and dad got their bed there, that I’m not allowed to sleep on… yet). I get to see Sophie the Dachshund so that should be fun.

Love,
Bogart

BookmAIREk Me!