Black and White Sunday

 This is Black and White Sunday’s Blog Hop.  Dachshund Nola and Sugar the Golden Retriever are the hosts.  Our thoughts and wishes for a complete recovery are with Sugar as she recovers from a surgery earlier this week.  Bentley and Pierre send love and licks her way.  

I offer proof in Black and White that once upon a time, the Bayou State actually received snow.  Bentley loved catching snowballs!

 Strawberry Fields, Central Park in New York City is a tribute to John Lennon.

 

Thank you for stopping to visit! 

**This is the last day to cast your “like” vote for the finalists in my

“Make My Pet a Star” contest.  It is unbelievably close so every like matters.

You can read their “Human Bios” on this page at the top tab.

Vote at http://on.fb.me/1bfaBvY

 

Enjoy all my blogging friends’ photos by clicking their links below.

Sepia Saturday

It's the second Sepia Saturday hosted by my friend, Ruckus the Eskie.  The first week featured some amazing photos and I can hardly wait to see what today brings.  I had a difficult time deciding between two so I am posting both.  Enjoy them, have a great Saturday, and try to stay warm!

 

Bentley

Cypress Trees

Thank you for visiting and be sure to check out everyone's Sepia Saturday photos!  

Thanks to Ruckus the Eskie <3

*Don't forget to join the Move Your Muttathon today!

**Cast your "LIKE" vote for one of the four finalists in the "Make My Pet a Star" contest.  

Visit my Facebook page to cast your "like" vote.  It's a close race!

Resolve to Move Your Mutt

This is the big day Bentley and I declare our resolutions in the Move Your Mutt campaign.  It is an effort by petsmove.org to help band pet owners together supporting each other in keeping our resolutions to get off our butts and move our mutts.  I have filled out my registration and added Bentley's current stats.  Pierre will be joining us but I am only keeping a diary for Bentley.  I will post both of their progress here so he won’t feel slighted.

This "N That Thursday

This is January 2, 2014, which means the Holiday season has officially ended.  I hope everyone has recovered from all of the excitement.  I hope that you have made it to day two of any resolutions.

That brings me to our “Move Your Mutt” resolutions.  We will officially post our goals on “Fit Friday,” and participate in the “Move Your Mutt-a-Thon” on Saturday, Jan. 4^th. 

If you’d like to learn how to join in the fun with your dog, visit either http://petsmove.org/ or http://slimdoggy.com/ for the information.  

Black Eyed Peas, Cabbage & a Happy New Year

  There is one southern tradition that we participate in every January 1st.  I cook black-eyed peas, cabbage, ham, and cornbread.  The peas are for luck, the cabbage is for money, and the ham is for progress.  What is significance of the cornbread?  It is delicious with black-eyed peas, cabbage, and ham!  I'm not sure if serving and eating this particular meal actually leads to a better year.  We've eaten it each New Year's Day for as long as I can remember.  I'm not about to chance it's legitimacy at this point!  In case you are wondering, yes, the dogs get a tiny plate with a sampling of each.  I think they deserve the same advantage as the rest of the family heading into 2014.
   We participated in the BlogPawsChat last night.  It was so much fun and I connected with many new Twitter pet friends.  PetBox gave away fifty pet boxes to lucky winners as we scrambled to answer trivia questions.  I played and tweeted until the very end, or so I thought.  I saw the door prizes announced and people started saying their good-byes.  I had company at my house so I bid my farewell to go socialize.  Imagine my surprise when I kept hearing my phone "ding" with incoming tweets.  I went to see if it was my new friends saying "Happy New Year."  It was actually them saying "Congratulations!"  I had won the free three-month subscription to PETBOX!!  WooHoo!!  Yippee!!  Bentley and Pierre are so excited to pick out their choice of goodies.  Thank you so much to PetBox and BlogPaws Community.  What an awesome way to begin the New Year.
     I can only imagine what is in store for us after we eat our lucky dinner today!  Look out 2014...here we come.  The Returns and I wish all of you the happiest year that you can imagine.

Bentley & Pierre's 2013

This is the time of year everyone looks back to see if they have really accomplished anything during the past 365 days.  I was discussing this with my Basset Hound, Bentley and our granddog, Pierre the Westie earlier today.  They both feel that they had a very successful 2013.  I told them it would be fine if they shared their reflections of the past year in today’s blog.  I suggested they draw straws to see who would go first but Bentley nixed that idea.  Pierre thought he should go first since technically he is a guest in our home.  Bentley said that was a lame reason and so it went back and forth.  I told them we would go alphabetically which meant Bentley first by either name or breed.  Sometimes, it is necessary to put my foot down with those two.

Bentley: My year had its ins and outs.  What I mean is I go to the back door, bang the blinds, my mom, or dad let me out, I go bark at the neighbor before I come back to the door and hit it to signal them that I want back inside.  I must say my people have been well trained.  Of course, I could ring the dog bells hanging on the door and bark to come back in but that is so overused by dogs.  Last February, we participated in the Barkus and Meoux Mardi Paw parade.  There were at least a gazillion dogs of every description there.  We wore costumes, made a lot of new friends and I even made the evening news!  Some humans that read my mom’s book started sending me fan mail and I even got some presents in the mail.  I have decided to cooperate when we go out for walks.  It makes me look so much more distinguished when I do not have to drag mom around.  Sometimes a smell still leads me astray but you know…puppy steps.  I also discovered a cool new store called Petsmart.  It is wall-to-wall pet stuff and I get to go inside to shop.  Mom and Dad let me pick out toys, smell a bunch of dog food, and look at some strange lizards.  I didn’t really understand why they had chew bones out in open bins if they weren’t meant to be free samples.  It seemed a bit of a cruel hoax to me but Dad bought me some so it was okay.  We also went to the “Stinko De Mayo” pet wash to benefit the dog park some good folks are trying to get established.  I think it would be awesome to have a place to play with other dogs.  Pierre came to live with us during the summer.  I like having him here even if he is a bit hyper.  We wrestle and play chase in the yard.  He takes off running, can’t stop when he gets to me, and ends up using me as a springboard.  I usually have to take him down for that until he says “Uncle.”  I have a bunch more that I could tell you but he is whining that I am taking up too much space so I’ll let him give you his account of his year. 

Pierre: Happy New Year everyone!  I am so excited to tell you how fabulous my 2013 has been.  What?  Oh, Granma says I can’t give you an actual day-by-day account so I suppose I will just touch on the highlights.  I started the year living with my mom in our apartment.  It was just the two of us and we had a great time together.  We went to the Mardi Paw parade with Bentley and Tucker.  The three of us looked so good.  I am still a bit miffed that I wasn’t on the news too but who understands the media.  Anyway, my mom’s boyfriend asked her to marry him.  She discussed it with me and I told her it would be fine.  I’d love to have a daddy and I knew it would make her very happy.  The thing was, he lives very far away on an Army base where it snows really deep and gets in the sub-zero temperatures.  Now, I’m not saying I couldn’t handle that type of weather but I’m more of a mid-sixties temp guy.  I asked her if I could stay with Granma and Papaw until they move to a more reasonable climate next summer.  I love my Papaw because he gives me treats.  I packed up my stuff and made myself right at home with them.  It has been quite an experience.  I get to run in the back yard, play chase, and I have discovered these furry animals that like me to terrorize them.  Granma calls them “squirrels.”  I sit at the back door and watch for them to climb down a tree.  I kind of lose my mind when they get on the ground.  I run in a circle screaming until they open the door, then I charge out and yell at those squirrels to get out of my yard.  They do too; they are really scared of me.  Bentley laughs at me because he says I will never catch one but I keep trying.  I’ve also discovered some underground squirrels that papaw calls “moles.”  I try hard to dig them up but they have eluded me so far.  I love to chase lizards but they have gone away since it has gotten cold outside.  I miss them and I still check the monkey grass to make sure they aren’t just hiding.  I’m being spoiled here at my grandparents’ house but they insist that is their job.  Bentley is glad I am here because I get on the couch all of the time and now he can get on the couch too.  Before I moved in, dogs weren’t

allowed on the furniture.  I think that he owes me one for that privilege.  Well, I guess I’d better go see if Bentley wants to go outside and bark for no apparent reason; after all, it’s getting late.    

This is a Blog Hop for BlogPawsChat on New Year's Eve! @PetBox will be giving away 50 PetBoxes during the Twitter Chat 8-10p.m.est Come join us!