The day after...Hurricane Sandy

We are safe and sound in NJ!  We still have power too!   Grandma is so happy we had those trees up front of our house removed when we did!  Especially that really big tall one that hung over our house!    A lot of the neighbors had trees removed when we did.  (What's that saying -- monkey see, monkey do.)  We are thankful they got trees trimmed and dead trees removed too.

Anyway, our street looks pretty good.  Nothing like when Hurricane Irene hit last year in August.   Last year at this time in the morning, all the neighbors were out front picking up big branches all over their lawns from Irene and raking up tons of leaves.

This year, not too many branches down from neighbor trees, and a lot less leaves since a lot of trees from the block were removed.

Maybe that branch hitting Mommy's car earlier this month was a blessing in disguise, not just for us, but for our neighbors too.  That wind was so strong -- someone's dead tree or branches could have caused serious injury around us.

It's too bad Mommy is still so frightened of tree branches from that branch earlier this month.

Mommy's head is hurting so bad -- probably from worrying too much.  (Seems like something is squeezing her temples together towards her skull.)

In any case, we just wanted to send out a blog post to let everyone know we are ok in NJ. Still the occasional gust of wind going on this morning, but it's nothing like it was last night.

We hope all our blog friends are ok too!

Here is a picture of our house this morning after Hurricane Sandy.   Hurricane Sandy decided to check our mailbox for mail.   I don't know if the Post Office delivered mail yesterday, butt, I guess Sandy decided we didn't need to pay any bills so, she got rid of those bills for us!   Thanks Sandy!    Oh, and Sandy decided to turn around that 1212 sign, it used to face up and down like the mailbox, but now it is more parallel with the house, and it faces the mailbox.  Mommy likes the way it faces now.  Mommy will keep it that way!    Oh, one last note, there was a little part of a tree branch on our roof between the front door and a bedroom window.  It got up their weeks/months ago when we still had our trees out front of our house.   Mommy told a neighbor weeks ago, I'm sure if there is a strong enough wind one day, it will knock down that little part of the tree branch that's up there --- Mommy was wrong!   The little branch is still there.  Guess Sandy likes that little piece of branch up there, so it stays!

Lassiter Chase and Benjamin Gilligan

Quick update on Sandy from NJ

Just a quick update from our place in South Jersey on Hurricane Sandy.  We are fine.  We are surprised we still have power -- but the lights have been flickering all day.

It's been a very windy and very rainy day.   We finally got a proper potty break at 8pm tonight when the rain finally let down.   Earlier in the day, Mommy kept trying to get us to go potty in the yard -- we were able to take quick pee breaks outside butt got soaked.  It was no fun -- trust us!   So, we were so happy at 8pm to get outside when the wind let down a bit and the rain wasn't pounding as hard as before.


Right now there is a bit of a calm spot.  But the news on TV says we should be getting bad wind until 6 am or something like that.  Maybe this is the eye of the storm or something.

Anyway, Mommy is so nervous with this Hurricane.  She still hasn't gotten over that tree branch falling down weeks ago that almost hit her, butt hit the car instead.  So, she is terrified looking out the window at neighbors trees swaying in the wind. 

Guess in time, Mommy will get over her fear of trees.   We still have some trees in our back yard, but they provide shade.   Hopefully Mommy will get over her fear of trees soon before she gets all the trees in the back yard cut down just like she got all the trees out front cut down earlier this month. 

Stay safe everyone.

Lassiter Chase and Benjamin Gilligan the Shelties

P.S.  Grandma wanted Mommy to post a picture of how she prepared for the storm.  Grandma got herself a big bottle of Prune Juice.   Mommy was supposed to post the picture -- butt she didn't.  Sorry Grandma!  Grandma thought everyone would get a big kick out of her Prune Juice preparation for the storm.

Halloween Trick -- Roll Over

Here's what we did on Benji's 1st Gotcha Day Anniversary - we came up with a  Halloween Trick.   So, in case we run out of Candy for the kids Trick or Treating on Halloween -- this is our back-up plan, a trick.

For those of you with 2 dogs, you probably know how hard it is to train us both to do something.  Mommy wanted to make a Halloween trick out of it.  She doesn't know if there is a trick like this out there -- who knows, there probably is.  Butt, Mommy thought hard about it and came up with this by herself.

Hope you enjoy the video.

http://youtu.be/xbm_svqDzUg

Happy Halloween!

Lassiter Chase and Benjamin Gilligan the Shelties (Lassie and Benji)


P.S.  In case you missed my (Lassie's) Card Trick from Halloween last year, here is the link to the blog post.   We got Benji a day or so after my Card Trick last year. So, that's why we wanted to do a Trick together on his Anniversary.

http://www.lassiterchase.blogspot.com/2011/10/trick-or-treat-card-trick.html

Thankful on a Tuesday

We are super behind in reading blog posts.   Mommy promises to help us get caught up ASAP.

We are very thankful for a bunch of stuff lately -- it was all made possible from blogging.


1.  We wanted to say a big Thank You to Oreo and Chewy's mom.  Mommy's niece had a super important assignment for school.  It had to do with picking a career, researching information about that career, and interviewing someone with that career.  (Oreo and Chewy's mom helped with the interview!) Thanks so much for your help!  Mommy's niece got a perfect score on the report and even had 2 extra bonus points because the teacher really liked her report!   Thanks again for your help!

2.  We received our BarkBox in the mail, we signed up for it last month. Thanks Finn, for telling us about BarkBox and for your help in us getting one.  We were so excited to open it up over the weekend.  It was full of fabulous stuff.  Our favorites are the liver dog treats and a pink snake stuffy toy!    Grandma isn't a fan of snakes -- but at least it's pink and not brown or black, so she is giving it a chance.   Grandma says that once our snake gets a hole in it -- she isn't going to fix it.    It's a good thing our snake is made out of some sort of industrial strength stuffing or something like that.  We have been playing with that thing with all our force (tug 'o war and everything) -- and it hasn't gotten a hole yet.   Sorry, Grandma, looks like our snake toy will be around for a while!  All jokes aside about the snake,  we really like our BarkBox gift and we appreciate it, Finn and her Mommy!  Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!

Sorry the picture is sideways.  That's our pink snake toy.  Benji was working on pulling off one of the eyes of the snake when the picture was taken.   I had already pulled off the other eye before the picture was taken!

Mommy is also excited about the box that the BarkBox came in.   Mommy has been looking for the perfect box to keep some of our important stuff in.  (Like the taco holder I used last year in a blog taco contest.   A special note that Finn wrote us.  Benji and my first collars. etc...)  This box is perfect for us to store stuff in.  Mommy loves it and she doesn't have to worry about labeling it, or it getting lost with other boxes. 

3.  Another big Thank You goes out to Oskar his mom Pam!  We entered a contest at Pet Blogs United to win a cool canine hipster bag.  We were in shock to find out we won the contest! 

Mommy's current black pocket book that she uses faithfully everyday is in bad shape -- she has had that pocketbook for YEARS.  Grandma even sewed the strap of the handle back onto her bag after it fell off years ago! At one point Mommy was holding the strap of the pocketbook onto a zipper of one of the compartments with a keychain loop before Grandma fixed it.  Mommy was about to use duct-tape to re-fix the handle of the bag! I can't believe Mommy used to walk around in public with her pathetic looking old pocketbook.  We thought about posting a picture of Mommy's faithful old pocket book -- butt we were afraid everyone would laugh hysterically at it!

Anyway, now Mommy is so happy because she has a BRAND NEW POCKETBOOK and plans to use her new The Tiniest Tiger Canine Cool Hipster Bag everyday!  It has so much room in it.  It is very stylish!  The pattern on the purse has dogs on it!   Last week, Mommy was really worried about stuff like expenses from taking down trees and getting her car repaired, etc... -- that's why we kinda weren't on the blog last week.  Butt now, the new pocketbook came in  -- and it really made her day and brightened her spirits.  

Photo of Benji and I, Lassie, with the brand new Canine Hipster bag we won for Mommy.  It came with a bunch of stuff in the bag including a hat, pens, an Iams bandana (I am wearing), a coloring book, and more.   Our Jerky treats are kinda camouflage with the pattern on the sofa - not sure if you can see them -- they are pawsome! 

The bag was filled with stuff in it, including an Iams bandana, pens, bookmarks, and much more. (It was the swag from the Red Carpet Lounge from a Blog Tour.)  We even got some Jerky dog treats in the package too!   Mommy's brother-in-law was eying up our jerky -- butt we told him to keep his paws off our jerky!   Thanks so much Oskar, the makers of the Canine Cool Hipster bag, and everyone else who made this gift possible!  We are so overwhelmed and thankful for your generosity!   If anyone wants to see a better picture of the hipster bag or find out more info on the bag, you can look on Oskar's blogpost for more information. http://petblogsunited.blogspot.com/2012/09/tiniest-tiger-canine-cool-hipster.html


4.  Another Award!  Thanks Cocco, for the "Super Sweet Award."   Cocco is a mini pig -- we just got to know Cocco thru the blog a few short weeks ago.  He is Pawsome!  Well, that is, do pigs have paws?  I think they are called hoofs.  In any case -- Cocco, since "Hoofsome" doesn't sound right, we hope you don't find any offense in us saying you are a Pawsome Piggy!

This is a fun award with some questions we had to answer.

1. Cookies or cake? If we had to choose just one, we say we like Christmas Sugar Cookies the best!  Besides presents from Santa Paws – Sugar Cookies are our second favorite thing about Christmas.  
2. Chocolate or vanilla? Vanilla (Mommy never lets us have chocolate.)
3. Favorite sweet treat?  Vanilla Ice Cream in the bottom of an Ice Cream Cone.
4. When do you crave sweet things the most? I know we are boys.  Butt, we love Mommy giving us hugs and kisses.  She is sweet.  So, we crave sweet things all the time from Mommy!
5. If you had a sweet nickname, what would it be?  Our newest nicknames are Babykins (for me, Lassie), and Huff ‘n Puff (for Benji).   They kinda sound sweet.  Benji’s nickname sounds like some sort of pastry.

We never know who to choose to send the award to, so if you want to play along, just say I gave the Super Sweet Award to you.


5.  And a great big Thank You to all our blog friends!  Really, not a day goes by that we aren't thankful to have great blog friends like you.   Your comments mean the world to us!  We appreciate all your positive and wonderful comments each and every day!  We can't thank you enough!

Thank you,
Lassiter Chase and Benjamin Gilligan the Shelties (Lass-C and Ben-G)


P.S.  Tomorrow is Benji's 1st Gotcha Day Anniversary!  Happy Anniversary Benji! 

Our award - Lovely Blog

Ben and Lily the French Bulldogs gave us an award.  How pawsome of them to nominate us for an award! Thank you so much! 

It's so fitting that the award has a tree on it -- we've been thinking hard about whether or not we will plant another tree in our front yard since we had to cut down our oak trees.  We like the tree in the award.  It looks like there are butterflies on the tree -- maybe we should just plant a butterfly bush out front instead of a tree.  :)

Now, back to the award...

We are suppose to share 7 things about ourselves....

S-E-C-R-E-T-S

1.  Benji sounds like a girl whenever we play fight!  He has a high pitched voice sometimes.

2. Mommy yells -- No Dirty Dancing -- whenever she catches me and Benji doing (you know what).  She often explains to us that we are both boy dogs -- and that is inappropriate behavior.

3. I (Lassie) like to pull down the covers off Grandma's bed, and I sleep on her pillows during the day when she isn't looking.   Whenever Grandma goes to bed at night and sees the covers all messed up on the bed -- she yells, "Who's been sleeping on my bed!"

4.  I (Lassie) don't like to let Mommy go to the bathroom by herself.  A lot of times, I  sit and wait in the bathroom with Mommy to keep her company.  I will scratch and bark at the door if Mommy locks me out of the bathroom.


5. We eat table food leftovers sometimes -- my (Lassie's) most favorite table scrap is -- Mashed Potatoes!  (Benji will eat anything -- every food is Benji's favorite!) 

6.  I (Lassie) don't trust women sometimes.   I had a little spaghetti sauce on the white area around my nose this week.   Mommy tried to wipe it off -- and I wouldn't let her.   Mommy's sister tried to wipe it off -- and I wouldn't let her.    Mommy's brother-in-law tried to wipe it off -- AND I LET HIM.   He even spit on the napkin (to wet it), and wiped the sauce off my nose.

7. I (Lassie) like to jump on Mommy's lap when she is sitting on a chair.  Benji likes to jump on Mommy lap whenever Mommy is laying down on the sofa.   However, if Mommy is reclining in Grandma's Lift Chair (a combination of sitting/laying down)-- then, both Benji and I like to jump on Mommy's lap.  It's a very complicated formula, I know.   (Note: we only jump on Mommy's lap -- we don't jump on anyone else's lap if they are sitting or laying down.)


Hope you enjoyed reading our little "secrets".  Not sure if anyone else wants to play along and list secrets about themselves.  Feel free to just say I gave you the award if you want to.


Have a great night everyone!  Thanks again Ben and Lily for the award.


P.S.  Here's a photo of us that has nothing to do with this blog post about the award...

Mommy's oldest niece took this picture of us today.  Mommy calls this picture "Heads or Tails".  Benji is the one at the top of the picture, and I am the one at the bottom of the picture.    Guess I just wanted to... Put my head on Benji's shoulder.

Mish Mash Monday - Sleepy time

The fine art of snuggling up under a warm blanket.  This is me, Lassie!

Benji  (Not sure if you can see, he is really itching around his eyes because of his allergies.  The vet prescribed a steroid, hope it helps.)

Lassie and friends (Snuffy from Sesame Street and Mommy's niece's big brown bear.)

Mommy, you know we are both boy dogs right?  The carpet and bedding in this photo are a bit too girly for our masculine side.  Oh well.  Guess anything goes on a Mish Mash Monday.   Have a great week.

Lassiter Chase and Benjamin the Shelties (Lassie and Benji)

P.S.  Mommy was too scared of another tree branch falling down on her or her car -- so she had the tree company remove more trees than planned in front of the house.    Little bit sunny up front now at noontime -- butt at least Mommy has more of a "peace of mind" when walking to the car.     We still have plenty of trees in the back yard to provide shade to the backyard during the day.  Mommy isn't sure if she will plant a different kind of tree in front.  She just knows -- she doesn't want anymore oak trees!  Mommy was thinking maybe to plant a crape myrtle type of tree/bush in the springtime but doesn't know for sure.  (Research says they bloom all summer long with flowers -- sounds nice, what's the catch?)

Another "Fall" at our place

Wish people would just call the season "Autumn" instead of "Fall."   

Well you all know I blogged about the  "fall" that Grandma had when she fell down after us dog's got a bath from fleas.

Guess what else decided to "fall".

Tree branches!

Right on Mommy's Car.

And almost on Mommy's head!

Luckily Mommy was standing a couple of steps away from the car when the branches fell.  It could have killed her!


So, we had to get some of our trees trimmed ASAP. There's only so much Mommy can afford and we are still trying to pay off the roof that we put in earlier in the year. So, I had to make an Executive Decision as Head of House, and decided we could only get some trees trimmed and other trees removed right now. 

The tree trimmers trimmed some branches and cut down some trees.

Us dog's had to supervise the tree trimming company.  They came out and trimmed some trees yesterday.  It was hard work supervising from the kitchen -- butt we did a pawsome job.  We supervised from the kitchen because it was a safe place.

Not sure how those threads got pulled out of the little carpet in the kitchen while we were in there supervising. 

Mommy got an estimate on her car, she was in tears, butt thankfully has insurance. The branches dented her roof near the rear windshield.  The branches also put a dent on the side of the car and scratched it up all over! (That little piece of bark was like the branch's calling card -- the rest of the branches broke off in several pieces and were laying all over the ground.)

Not sure if you can see, how the roof of the car is dented behind the black antenna.  The dent runs parallel with the rear windshield. 

So, please refer to the season as "Autumn" around Mommy, because enough "Fall" has been going on around our place lately.  

Thanks for listening, we appreciate it.

Lassiter Chase and Benjamin Gilligan the Shelties

P.S.  While Mommy was waiting for the tree trimmers to arrive and give an estimate -- Mommy's niece decided to write words that describe us.  She wrote "Lassiter" and "Benjamin" going up and down and then tried to write words to describe us that started with that letter in our names.  Mommy's niece asked for some help on some words -- Mommy wasn't focused at all on it, butt did her best to help.

We were both exhausted  from waiting for them to compile this list of words to describe us.  (I am on the sofa and Benji is on the floor.)

Here's what it says for "Lassiter"... Loveable (Note: they were going to write Loud instead, butt I made them change it!), Awesome, Smart, Skinny (I'm under 30 pounds), Intelligent, Talentive (Note: it's supposed to say Talented, but Mommy wasn't focused and she must have said the wrong word, or didn't notice the spelling error.), Extraordinary, Respectful (Note: Mommy's niece came up with this word. Mommy's niece said -- when we eat, Lassie doesn't step on our feet or bark at us to try to eat what we are eating -- Benji has no table manners!.)

Here's what it says for "Benjamin"...Barkitive (Is that even a word), Entertaining, Naughty, Jumpy, Athletic, Monster (Note: Mommy couldn't think straight at this point -- and Grandma was the one that said Monster), Inquisitive, Nosy (Note: we couldn't figure out if there was supposed to be an "e" in that word or not to be Nosey.)    

Right before the photo was taken, Mommy actually noticed that the name Benjamin was misspelled.  It used to say Benji-man.   Mommy stared at it and stared at it -- finally she noticed his name was misspelled. 

By the time they finished putting together this list of words -- Benji and I were fast asleep.  Took them forever!

Bad Fleas!!!! Grandma fell.

Benji is on the left, I am on the right.

Mommy was going thru a range of emotions over the past few days -- she needed to calm down a bit before she actually did a post about what happened, (or else this post would have been a bunch of HBO words, with the word "flea" thrown in here and there.)

Mommy noticed I had a flea on me last week.   She got rid of that flea, and a few days later noticed me itching again -- and saw another flea.

Mommy started to panic and said -- I need to give you dogs a bath and put that flea medicine on you.

After us dog's got a bath, Grandma ended up slipping on the wet bathroom floor/carpet, fell down towards the hallway, hit her head, and got all bruised up.

Mommy heard the thump when Grandma fell -- and heard Benji barking frantically in a really high pitched bark.   Mommy was in the laundry room when it happened-- and quickly ran to Grandma to help her up. 

All Mommy remembers is pushing Benji aside to help Grandma.  Benji was springing up and down with his front legs and barking in a high alarm sound. (I think Benji was either trying to alert Mommy that Grandma fell or trying to keep Grandma alert.)

Mommy doesn't remember what I (Lassie) was doing when the fall happened.   What Mommy doesn't know is that I was trying to keep Benji calm and out of their way as Mommy helped Grandma to get up.

Grandma is ok.  She refused to go to the hospital.  She has a bunch of bruises everywhere, but we are thankful that Grandma didn't hit her head in a different spot -- or the fall could have killed her.

A few days after the bath -- we got the flea medicine squirted on our backs between our shoulder blades.   We hope the flea medicine works and those bad fleas go away!!!


It's all the fleas fault that Grandma fell down!  Bad Fleas!!!

If the fleas didn't get on me -- Grandma wouldn't have fallen down.




Thanks everyone for listening.  We hope those bad fleas stay away from you and your loved ones too!

Lassiter Chase and Benjamin the Shelties


P.S. These are things Benji and I have been doing to help Grandma since her fall....


1.  We licked the cinnamon off Grandma's fingers after she ate a cinnamon donut so Grandma didn't have to go wash her hands.

2.  We stand in the hallway, guarding the wall in case Grandma falls down again so she doesn't hit her head again.

3.  Grandma keeps her bruised leg elevated on her lift chair (the lift chair is a recliner chair with a remote control). To be helpful to Grandma, we rotate shifts and when we think Grandma needs to keep her legs elevated longer -- we lay under the recliner part where her legs are -- so Grandma can't put the recliner down in the sitting position.  She has to lay with her feet up in that reclining position until we move.  (We only have Grandma's good intentions in mind when we take doggie naps under the recliner. It's not because it's the most pawsome hide-out ... it's because we want Grandma's leg to feel better!  Honest!)

I think Grandma appreciates all the things we have been doing to be helpful.