Me and my mama.  We are an amazing team.

We love each other, we respect each other, and damnit, we just really, really like each other.

When the world tries to mess with mama, I bare my mighty Dale teeth, and when the world tries to mess with me, mama becomes a tiger.  She’s got my back, and I’ve got hers.

Some days it feels like mama and me against the world – and most days it’s just us (and our kitties).  Mama can get really depressed at times, I do my best to keep her spirits up.  Showing her “the button” (as dad used to say), always makes her smile.  The button is my big, black, wet nose.

Kisses All Around!!!!

While the tides of life throw us to and fro, mama is my life raft and I am hers.  I feel safe with her and you know that she’s safe with me.

We’re just a coupla crazy kids, just trying to keep on keepin’ on.  Mama says, KISS YOUR DOG and KISS YOUR CAT every day… nothing better than wet, sloppy dog kisses or sandpaper-y kitty kisses!

Love,

Bogart

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Bogart on Huffington Post

It seems that the lovely folks over at The Huffington Post chose a fine photo of me to illustrate one of their stories – now, it’s a not-so-kind short one complaining about dogs at outdoor restaurants and cafes.  Odd that they would choose a photo of a very-photogenic and incredibly-handsome dog such as I to illustrate a story about dogs behaving badly, but the comments section seems to lean heavily toward well-behaved-dog-is-fine-in-my-book, so I’ll let it slide.  And, they were good enough to give mama photo credit, so all is well and my fame only increases.

Love,

Bogart

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Mama is obsessed with my shadow.  Obsessed, I tell ya!

When we happen to be out at just the right time, with just the right light, she goes nuts.  Picture upon picture upon picture.  She’s a little bit crazy (perhaps you already noticed that), but I do indulge her from time to time.  Today is not going to be one of those times.

I am a man on a mission – wielding my trusty sticks (of which I have gathered several of the best specimens in my mighty jaws) and heading for my park.

Are you gonna just stand there, or are you going to come along mama?

You basically have one final shot at this before I commence chomping.  So make it good.

CHOMP CHOMP CHOMP

Mmm… STICKS.

Love,

Bogart

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It’s been a tough week around here after losing Willie.  My long-haired orange tabby pal was not just big in stature, but also big in presence.  All of our other kitties seem a little “off” and have basically been grumpy and needy all week.  I too miss him a lot, even though he didn’t like me all that much (he smelled awfully good).

Tonight mama and I went to pick him up and bring him home.

It’s hard to believe that this little, wooden box holds the remains of my big, furry friend.

Oh Willie, my pal, I would far prefer your furry butt and amazingly fluffy tail, but this box is darned nice.

You still smell good, and I will never forget you.  Now mama can put you on the little shelf with all of our other kitties and with Klaus (yeah, dad wouldn’t be thrilled to know that he’s surrounded by cats, but hey, he was surrounded by them before so I’m sure he will appreciate the company).

Love,

Bogart

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This is mama’s daily list of things to remember when taking me out for my walkie.  Because sometimes she forgets and I hate that.  See how we have cleverly added the most important thing to remember to the daily list?

Each morning mama uses this brush-thing in front of the mirror before she leaves the house.  What better place to remind her of the most important thing to remember for the day?

Mama.  I don’t want a stick up my butt.  PLEASE remember to hang on to my morning poo!  My butt thanks you in advance.

Love,

Bogart

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When even the mighty Airedale WANTS to wear his sweatshirt.

When posing for majestic photos, even a large, juicy stick cannot contain one’s attention.

When the penguin statues begin to appear.

That’s right, I said PENGUIN STATUES

And when it gets so cold that photos of my adorable butt look like paintings.  Welcome (finally) winter!

Love,

Bogart

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Willie joined our furry family only a few years ago – he originally belonged to one of mama and dad’s good friends, and when she passed away he came to live with us.  Aside from a few small differences of opinion (which he generally won), I loved my pal Willie.  He was a long-haired orange tabby, very light of foot and sweet of disposition (except when he was pissed off at me, or when he wanted to pass me in the hallway).  A real handsome devil indeed, expert treat procurer, and from what mama tells me, a warm bed buddy.

A (mostly) gentle giant, Willie even managed to charm this Dale even though he had never lived with dogs before.  I will miss his spirited debates, that gigantic tail that could take you out as he ran by, and the way he made mama so happy.

Run wild and free Willie… WE LOVED YOU SO

Love,

Bogart

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The machine desperately wanted to help me, trying to talk to me in it’s strange, beep-like language.  I looked to mama for advice or translation, she fed it a small piece of plastic, and it shut up.  Cool!

Out came cash for her, and I found a nifty stick – I like this banking thing.  Except for the incessant beeping.  But the money part and the stick part are ok with me.

Especially the stick part.  Haven’t found any really juicy sticks for awhile, so I suppose I am a little out of practice on my stickwork.

But I can make up for that rather quickly, mama, if you just bring that stick down a tiny bit…

Just a little more…

EXCELLENT

Oh it’s tasty alright, with all of the goodness that our neighborhood provides.

You want a piece?

What if I turn it this way?

Still sure?

I mean, if you can grab it then we can share.  Not that I will make it easy for you to grab it, being that we are all so out of shape and all, but hey, I’m willing to give it a whirl…

Okie-dokie, I’ll hold it for ya.  No problemo.  I still have some pooping to do…

Love,

Bogart

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To all of my friends all over the world… here’s to a New Year filled with sticks, adventures, health, and happiness!  Get out there and make it a GREAT one!!!

Love,

Bogart

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Around Chez Bogart, you know that we test out a lot of doggie products – I always give my honest opinion, and I just LOVE to get packages – but despite sharing my home with 4 kitties I don’t often get them involved in the testing.  Today that will change as we’ve received a Sunny Seat to try.

Now.  We don’t normally do the “as seen on TV” stuff no matter how intriguing they may be.  Firstly because Kafka (the short-haired orange tabby) won’t let us get the remote, but also because we don’t have cable, damnit.  And our antenna is one step above rabbit ears, so basically we never really see the stuff.  And at first look, we didn’t have much hope that this would be all that great.

Sure, mama thought, there is no way this can hold even one cat, much less 50 pounds worth.  The pieces looked uninspiring.

But it was indeed really easy to assemble – taking the 5 minutes that the box said it would.  Whew!

After assembly, we attached it to our window with the big suction cups.  Hm.  It’s staying.  We were pretty sure this was the moment it would fail, that the suction cups wouldn’t do their job, and that it would fall off of the window sadly in a heap of plastic.  But we were wrong.

How best to test?  With our un-shy-est cat, Kafka.

Kafka is a sound 15-pounder.  He’s not afraid of much, and once promised some chicken liver treats in exchange for posing for photos, was completely on board with our testing.

This holds!  It does what it says it does!  Thumbs up (is this the part where the chicken liver treats come out?)

Kafka – still waiting for those treats.  But damn, this window seat HOLDS.

A little lovin’ for our fine, feline product tester.  Your butt for science, Kafka!

After the initial testing phase, Kafka took over the seat as his own.  We even caught him napping in it.  No sign of it coming off of the window.  As we said earlier, we thought that this wasn’t going to work but this window seat really performed!  No tools needed, nothing that has to be screwed into walls, this just sticks on a window.  For us, it’s big enough for one kitty, so we can’t speak as to the holds-50-pounds-of-kitty claim, but it really does hold and Kafka seems quite content in it.  AWESOME!

Love,

Bogart

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Many of you had been wondering after my last romp through the Christmas Village if I indeed got any of that yummy strudel.  THE ANSWER IS YES

 But I’m not very good at waiting for it, you see.  Patience is not a virtue in my book.  When in doubt, GO ALL IN I say…

 All schnoz in, that is.

 Push your nose all the way down towards the yummy goodness of the apfel strudel.  YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO

 NOM NOM NOM

 Oh thank you again, dear Helmut.  I am a huge fan of your work.

 Mmm… Mmm… Goodness

 There really was no stopping me after mama foolishly waved the box in my direction.  And then she couldn’t stop laughing so I continued digging for the gold-en goodness at the bottom of the box.  No need to warm it up on my account, just GET IN MY BELLY

Love and happy strudel-y thoughts,

Bogart

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The Christmas Village has moved from City Hall over to Love Park – and we almost missed it!

There’s a big Xmas tree, the giant macaroni-and-cheese noodle, and lots of German specialties.  The tree kind of freaked me out.

To get into the proper spirit I tried to yodel – which I could tell was appreciated by all as they turned their heads toward me and clutched their children closer to themselves.

YOU’RE WELCOME PHILADELPHIA

It’s a very cool setup, with lots of small gingerbread-house-type stalls selling all sorts of lovely and yummy things.

You should go full-on traditional I think.  The folks selling earrings and scarves (and burritos), yeah well, that just didn’t seem as in the spirit as it could have been.  And it was freezing cold today for the first time this year – I wasn’t allowed into the come-inside-and-get-warm-with-some-hot-alcoholic-beverages tent – so really, go with the fun traditional stuff.

Hey, what’s that?

Austrian strudel – MMMMMMMMMMM

Yeah, that’s right.  Dogs don’t generally eat apfel strudel.  But I’m not just any dog, and since my dad was from Austria I AM ALLOWED TO EAT APFEL STRUDEL.  It was tasty indeed, not as good as mama has had actually in Austria, but still yummo.  Don’t let one bite go to waste!

Love,

Bogart

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 This is the new Race St. Pier here in Philadelphia.  What was once a crappy old pier is now an urban park with super-cool vistas.

So come along with me – I’ve got a nice big stick for us – and lets explore!

On my left is the Ben Franklin Bridge.  Busy, noisy, but damn it looks cool from this vantage point.

Lots of trees = good.  Not being allowed to pee on said trees – not as good.  But fine.  I have a stick to distract me.

 Yes this is a civilized urban park, and doggies are allowed.  Even off of the end of the pier…

All the better to pose majestically, my dear.

And stare wistfully off into the distance toward beautiful Camden, New Jersey.

With no people around, the opportunities for Airedmiration were few.  Not that I didn’t try.

YOU LOOKIN’ AT ME? 

 Really, all of this posing is getting  a bit silly mama.  Although I am thoroughly enjoying barking in a spot where my mighty bark reverberates like crazy.  I think even the folks on the trains above me can hear.

Handsome, eh? 

Yeah, I’ll toss out a few model-esque poses for you.

And one with my ear fuzz whipping in the wind.

So this si where I’m going to briefly explain the lovely golden tones in my yes normally quite dark tan fuzz but today even especially so.  This is the “golden hour“, the last hour of sunlight, a time when the sun makes me look especially tall, dark, and handsome.

Not that I have the patience to deal with this – being a model is ridiculously hard work, after all – but there it is.

Really, mama?  STILL HERE?  Still laying on your back taking photos of me? 

Ok, one final truly majestic one: 

I am quickly losing patience with you, mama.  See that train?  I’m gonna let loose a howl that will wake ‘em all up if we don’t move on soon. 

Fishing?  Really?  You humans are funny.

But see how the quality of light has changed dramatically in only a few minutes? 

Not that the quality of DALE has diminished, nor has the quality of this fine stick.

I like the Pier.  It’s cool.  And dog-friendly.  We shall return.

Love,

Bogart

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OK, mama, I will pose with the pretty-lit-up tree.  I won’t look directly at you, but I will give an obligatory look-the-dog-is-standing-next-to-something-mildly-interesting look.

BUT WAIT.  The obviously intelligent makers of this tree saw fit to place a large bowl featuring PINE CONES in the center.  Just far enough away that I can see and admire them, but cannot chomp them.

Although I am actively considering it.  Really actively considering it.  Perhaps once the holidays are over, I can make my move…

Love,

Bogart

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THE DALE BABIES ARE HERE!

Six boys, two girls, not all are yet spoken for.

If you’re lookin’ for a lifetime of Dale lovin’, give Cheryl of Arley Hall Airedales a shout!

Love,

Bogart

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Can he swing?  From a fence…

No, he can’t.  He’s stuffed with garbage…

LOOK OUT

Here comes the Spider-Scarecrow!

Love,

Bogart

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It’s raining, it’s pouring, this Dale thinks his mama is BORING…

Oh really mama, it’s not raining that hard.  Ok, maybe it is raining that hard, but since I’m relatively waterproof (AND wearing my spiffy raincoat), there is absolutely no reason to not go for an hour-long evening walkie.

I’m W-A-I-T-I-N-G

See?  That wasn’t so bad.  And there is chicken-lentil-vegetable soup waiting for me.  The house smells delish and I’ve worked up quite an appetite.  YUMMO!

Love,

Bogart

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Then Cheryl of Arley Hall Airedales might be the right person to talk to about making those holiday wishes come true.  Callie and Chip and also Glory and Rhett are going to be proud Dale parents!

There will be 2 – yes, 2 – litters in December so if you yearn to hear the pitter-pat of puppy feet go fill out her puppy questionnAIRE now!

Love,

Bogart

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Meet Marjorie.

Marjorie is AWESOME.  Marjorie came running – not walking, RUNNING, out of Starbucks when she saw my fuzzy butt walk by.  Marjorie also has an Airedale (awesome points), she recognized me from my blog (major awesome points), and she’s an avid follower of my adventures and has turned on all of her friends and family to the coolness that is To Aire is Divine (too cool for school, Marjorie!).

YOU ROCK Marjorie!  Big Aire Kisses to you and your sweet Dale!

Love,

Bogart

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Love,

Bogart

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