Merry Christmas!!

Woof, everyfur!  Merry Christmas!!  It's been furry rainy at our house, which makes my mommy feel all Christmas-y.  We wondered if we would get a stack of cards from our pals this year, what with Dogster being all broken and evfurrything.  But we did!!  Just like other years, Winkie and I have about ten times more than mommy and daddy, BOL!!  And we wanted to come here and thank Zaidie and Whitley and Finley specially fur their cards, when they weren't even on any Dogster lists!!  It's a great way to end a furry tough year! 

Dogster News!

Woof, everyfur!  I haven't written in my blog fur about a hundred years, but I have important news fur anyfur who loves Dogster!  (If you don't love Dogster anymore, you may as well go on to another blog.  We still love you, but this won't interest you.)

Lori at HQ just posted this in the All Paws Bulletin group:
"Since i-5 Publishing acquired Dogster and Catster in July, they’ve dedicated an amazing amount and time and resources to addressing the many issues that came with the lack of maintenance and neglect of the Community areas over most of the last three years. The 1-5 transition team fixed many things, but some of the issues are so severe, that they just can’t be fixed.

"The good news is that the i-5 transition team has decided to rebuild the Community areas of the site on a new platform that will not only repair the features, but also make them function even better! All data and functions (Pet Pages, Groups, Forums, etc.) will be migrated to the new platform WITHOUT THE FLEAS!

"This project is already underway, and we are targeting the first quarter of 2015 to launch the new and MUCH improved Dogster and Catster. All of your suggestions have been shared with the transition team and will be considered in the process of rebuilding.

"Over the next few weeks, I will be formulating a timeline for the launch, to include, updating members of the Community, and assembling a group of vital Community members, Forum Moderators and key advisors to test the site prior to launch. I will keep you posted in this group every step of the way.

"You should all be very proud of the wonderful community you’ve built over the last decade. I am delighted that i-5 recognizes this and is dedicated to giving all of you a place to express and share your love of dogs and cats.

Thanks for your patience and support. We love our Community!"


Someone asked, What about our pals who have deleted their pages but might want to come back?  Lori said that if they hurry and let HQ know (e-mail support@dogster.com or support@catster.com), their pages can still be recovered!!!!  Oh, I hope I hope I hope somefurs that I miss so much will want to join us again.  There is a lot of stuff still broken at Dogster, but it nevfur did go away!  We wouldn't let it, BOL!!

Liebster Award

Well, this is embarrassing.  Way back about four sleeps ago, my pal Freckles nominated me and Winkie fur a Liebster Award.  We are so honored!!!  I wanted to post a cool reply that looked like his post, with a picture of the award, and his picture and a link to his blog and all that kind of fancy stuff.  But mommy has had a Stoopid attack and can't remember how to do any of that.  Finally we decided just to let Winkie reply, but I barked "Not in MY blog!"  Woof!  So Winkie wrote a diary entry ovfur at Dogster--not an easy feat these days, BOL!!  

I'll copy Winkie's answers to Freckles' questions here:

1. Whats your Nickname?

Well, you need to understand that my daddy makes up nicknames fur evfurryone.  His nicknames don't necessarily have any relation to any actual reality.  Sometimes they just rhyme.  Okay?  Having barked all that, my nickname is...Stinky.

2. Do you like your furblings if you have any?

I like my brofur Hershey furry much.  I always make sure I know where he is, and I nevfur growl at him, even though he steals my chewies and finishes my Greenies fur me.  I wish he would play with me.

3. What do you do when the phone rings?

Phones ring? Who knew? I'm deaf!  BOL!!

4. Do you evfur howl?

Oh yes!  I sing fur my supper, and I wowowow! if mommy or daddy are too slow getting ready to take us fur a walk!  If we're outside and meet another doggie who doesn't stop to say Woof, I jump all ovfur and wowowow at them!

5. Do you dream?

I do!  In my dreams I chase kitties and birdies, and play with other doggies!  My paws get going, and I make little woofwoofs!

6. Who is your fave unfur in your furmily, your Mom, your Dad, or an unfurbling?( or someone else?)

Mommy thinks I like daddy best, daddy thinks I like mommy best.  I think I've got the whole pawrent-handling thing down pretty well!

7. Did you evfur get in trouble using your teeth?

No, my mouth doesn't open furry well.  It's hard fur me to get a good grip on anything.

8. Where is your fave place to go to visit?

I like when we get in the car and go to where the wine doggies live!  We always meet a lot of furry nice doggies and their pawrents there, and we get lots of treats and attention!

9. Are you allowed to run free anywhere?

Yes!  I can go off-leash in any fenced doggie park, and lately daddy has let me off my leash at Fort Fun.  I'm good at staying underfoot, BOL!!

10. Do you sleep curled up in a ball, or stretched out?

Yes!  BOL!!

Freckles, furgive us fur being so slow to say Thanks!  Mommy's going to do some brain exercises to see if she can get her synapses popping again!  BOL!!

Yoo Hoo! YOO HOO! Award

The YooHoo! YOO HOO! Award

My pal Buddy sent me this Yoo Hoo! YOO HOO! Award!  Thanks, Buddy!!  It comes with some rules:

1.  Post the award on your blog and thank the blogger who gave it to you.

      Check!

2.  Visit at least three of the other blogs that are receiving the award along with you and leave a comment.

      Two down, one to go!! 

3.  Tell us three things you have to celebrate.  You know, three things you are thankful for.

      See below...

4.  Pass along this award to seven other bloggers and let them know you have done so.

      We'll work on that later.  

5.  Enjoy a tasty treat!

      MOM!!!

Three things I'm thankful fur...

1. My mommy and daddy, who brought me home when I was only eleven weeks old and made me their boy!
2. My crate, where I can go anytime I want to be by mywoof!
3. Dogster, where mommy and I have met so many wonderfur pals! 

Evfurry time I want to write in my blog, mommy tries to make my page look the way she wants it.  She usually ends up in tears because Blogger won't do what she tells it to do.  So I have to sign out fur now.  

Fort Fun!

You've heard me bark about Fort Fun a bazillion times, right?  Evfur wonder what the woof I'm barking about?  Well, if mommy did what she thinks she did, right up there is a little movie she made when we went there last night!  She thinks it's about 5 minutes long, so tell your mommies to get a cup of coffee or something, BOL!

Wine doggy!

California Golden Poppies

 The days are getting longer, daddy says.  I'm not sure how that works, but it makes daddy want to play more!  Staring about six sleeps ago, we've been to Fort Fun twice!  On the day daddy didn't go to work, he packed treats in our travel bag and we all got in the car to go on an adventure!   It was a sunny, warm day.  When the car stopped, we were at the place where they call me "Mascot." Whatevfur that means.  There is a furry nice lady there who gives me
smoochies and takes my picture.  They make some kind of red water there
that they put in bottles with corks.  We all sat up on the hillside in
big chairs and mommy and daddy looked at the flowers and vines and the
birds flying around, and taste some of their red water.  They call it
"wine."  I nevfur get any.  But I did find a cork!

See if this link works: Ravenswood 

Ravenswood Mascot

Then it was time to go into town.  Lots of people were there, and they all wanted to pet me and Winkie and say Awwwww.  We went into a couple of the stores mommy likes.  They like doggies there, too!  And then we went into the doggie bakery and we got to sniff around and mommy bought us some yummy treats!! (All the pictures from that part of the adventure are videos, and mommy still can't figure out how to share them.  Sorry!) 

Finally it was lunch time.  We helped mommy find a picnic table while daddy bought their BBQ sammies and stuff from the cheese factory.  Winkie and I got some of our treats and then just laid around in the grass and watched the people playing people games.  After that, mommy said she wanted ice cream, so we all walked to her favfurite place fur that.  Winkie and I didn't get any.  But then we went to another place, and mommy went inside and came out with little cups full of frozen yogurt fur us!!  Oh yum-nom-yum-nom-yum!!!!  We slept like hibernating bears all the way home, BOL!!

Experiment

I'm just popping in here to let you all know I haven't furgotten about my bloggie-thing.  I'm spending most of my time at Dogster like I always have.  That's still where most of my pals are, even if they're also at other places.  I don't seem to know too many pups at Fizzy's place, but I think it's a furry nice place.  I'm not that comfy at P4P.  If Dogster goes away, I don't think I'll hang my leash there.  In fact, I'll probably be here mostly!  IF and when.

Two sleeps ago daddy took us to Fort Fun.  It was the furst time this year!  We thought it would be sunny there, but the fog came in.  Mommy put her little movie camera on Winkie's back!  So he played cinematographer. 

I've tried to add his video here, but I guess it isn't possible.  :(

Rescued!

Well, imagine that! Dogster isn't closing the Community after all!   This is great news!  We love Dogster, and we were SO SAD when they said it would go away.  It's hard to know right now who rescued it, and how much of it they rescued, and whether evfurrything will stay the same.  And we're sorry that some of our pals have already packed up and pulled down their own pages.  Mommy felt like doing that sometimes, but just couldn't.  We kept hoping, and we kept pawraying, and we said we would stay and go down with the Dogster ship on March 3.  But now someone has put a cork in the hull, and we have more time.

We've learned some important lessons.  Like save evfurrything as you go, back-up all your photos and diaries, and collect off-Dogster addresses from all your pals if you can.  And some of our mommies and daddies have gone to work to make us new homes, like P4P and Pupsters and Kitsters.  We won't be leaving those, even if we spend most of our time at Dogster, just like we have been. 

Most of all, we were reminded how important evfurry one of our pals is, and how much smaller our world would be without all of you.  We were reminded how much we count on you being there, and how much we value your knowledge and experience and support, and the way you make us laugh, and the way you challenge us to be the best doggies (and doggie pawrents) we can be.  And we showed Say Media and the world that a real Community can nevfur be destroyed.  AroooOOOoooooOOOO!!!! fur US!!!

A Woof From Winkie

It's me, Winkie

Woof!  Hershey said I could borrow his blog fur the day.  I need to send out a message.  We're  gonna starve ovfur here!!

Yesfurday mommy brushed us up a little and we all got in the car!  I thought we were going on the wine country adventure mommy and daddy have been promising all week!  AroooOOOOOOooooo!!!  It was funny that daddy didn't pack all our traveling treats and water and stuff, but I figure that's his business.  

But guess what?  We didn't go to the wine country.  We didn't even go ovfur the bridge.  We didn't even go across town!  We went to the vet!  The vet!!  And it wasn't Hershey who got lifted onto the table this time, it was me!  I was tricked!  I was bamboozled!  

I was stuck with a needle!  Twice!!  

Acfurrily, I'm taking mommy's word fur that.  I didn't feel anything.  But then something worse happened.  We got weighed.  Mommy's been telling daddy she thinks we're getting fat.  And daddy says no, no, no.  See, daddy feeds us breakfast, while mommy's still snoring upstairs.  Mommy feeds us din-din.  Mommy's stingy with the food.  She thinks daddy's been feeding us too much.  We're not telling! 

But mommy told the vet!  So he weighed us, and OMD!  Hershey weighs 33 pounds and I weigh 30!  We're both supposed to be around 27, mommy says.  Daddy has to cut back on the brekkie, mommy says.  Especially in the winter when we don't get to go running around at Fort Fun and stuff.  

We're gonna starve, I tell ya!!! 

So Hershey said all our pals were furry good about sending snow-that-turned-to-rain when he asked.  He says I could ask, can you send us some MEATZ?  Pawlease?  Quick?!

Soggy Doggies

OMD, pals!  You really are coming through with those snow shipments!  It's been raining at our house fur four straight days or months or something!  Some of the cities north of us are filling up sandbags and worrying about flooded creeks and rivers!  Mommy says we're still in a drowt, whatevfur that is, and this won't help much.  But the hoomans seem pretty happy.

It's not good news fur doggies, though.  I can't remember the last time we had a decent walk.  It may have been yesfurday.  Today we went out three times, but we nevfur even made it off our street.  One pee, one poop each, and we got hustled back inside befure you could sniff a bush.  And then comes the toweling.  I HATE that! 

We were supposed to go on an adventure in the car tomorrow, too.  Were going up to where the wine doggies live!  We were gonna have a picnic, and visit my friends at Ravenswood Winery, were I'm the unofficial mascot. 

This is me and mommy and daddy at Ravenswood in sunnier times!

But the rain will be even worse up there, and now we're just gonna have a hunker-down, quick-business-walk, watch-the-Olympics-on-the-couch-with-daddy kind of a day.  With no car ride, no picnic, no bully, no extra treats, nuthin'. So I say, Rain, Rain, go AWAY!!

Dogster Blues

Mommy had the Dogster Blues today.  Some days she can look furward to going to new sites and learning new stuff and it seems like evfurrything is gonna be all right.  But other days she just realizes how much Dogster stuff shapes her days and thinky times.  "Life After" seems kinda scary in that frame of mind.   So you'd think all she'd want to do is go to our Dogster groups and let us play, right?  We did some, but she said she didn't have the heart fur it.

Hoomans are so complicated!

It worked out nicely fur us, though.  When mommy has the Dogster blues she likes lots of doggyship and snuggles.  We got a furry long walk today after our brushings.  Mommy let me choose our direction.  It was cold and windy!  We went up around the big circle, and back by way of the Big Street.  There was lots of pee-mail to pick up, since we don't go that way furry often.  Mommy let us stoop and sniff as much as we wanted!  When we got home she played fetch with Winkie until he got tired of it.  I'm not much into that any more. What I'm into is warming her lap on the couch, so we did that. 

By the time daddy got home it was starting to rain!  I know all you snowbound furs are sending this our way!  Thanks!  On the higher hills around us, some of your snow is still snow!    We can't see it from our house, but they showed us on the teevee.  Daddy took us out fur our Evening Stroll, and when we came back we had to get all rubbed and squozed and towelled off.  I hate that, grrrrrrrrr! 

Gud Werk!

That's about the extent of my Zaidie-speak, BOL!!  But I wanted to write an update and thank all the pals who boxed up their snow and sent it out here to help with our drought!  IT CAME!  It must have melted on the way, because it wasn't snow when it got here.  It was rain.  They must have had to transfer it to tanker planes instead of dump trucks and UPS vans, because it came falling down out of the sky.  But IT CAME!!  It rained almost all day today!  Thanks so much, pals!  You are pawsome!! 

We could use some more.  

Just like I barked, the rain meant we didn't get much of a walk.  Out to do our business, and then right back in again.  So it was a napping day.

It Only Rained Sunshine

It was supposed to be a rainy day today.  We haven't had any rain all winter.  I think that's fine, because when it's rainy we get all wet on our , and when we come in we have to get rubbed all ovfur with towels and I don't like that AT ALL.  And our aren't really at all if it's rainy, because as soon as we both do our business, we have to go right back home.  But mommy likes rainy days.  She likes to watch the rain and read her book and feel all warm and snuggly inside.  And she says the rain is important fur things like growing food and having water to drink.  Well, I do like food and water.

But it nevfur rained, all day.  In fact, the  came out and all the clouds blew away.  So we had a nice long   !!  We also got lots of pets and attention, because we're still all shiny and soft from getting groomed!  Hoomans seem to like like that! 

Winkie says, the worst thing about getting a bath is mommy won't let him explore under the hedges.  He's light and the mud shows up on him right away!  It nevfur shows on me at all! 

Woof!

 

I guess this is my blog.  I should introduce mywoof.  My name is Hershey.  My pawrents named me that because I'm choklit.  I was born in October of 2005, and on January 2 of 2006 I came to my furevfur  home to live with my mommy and daddy.  They take good care of me, and I take good care of them, too.  We live in San Francisco, and we have lots of adventures!   I love riding in the car!  Evfurrything was fine with the three of us fur six years or centuries or something.  Then one day in 2012 we went to meet another cocker spaniel.  His name is Winkie.  A week later we went back to collect him and bring him home.  He's not choklit, and he can't hear much, and he only has one good eye.  He doesn't even know when or where he was born.  I don't see why we needed him, but I guess he's okay.  Maybe someday he'll have a blog.  Or maybe I'll let him bark here sometimes.  So that's my fambly.

We're Dogster refugees.  Dogster was a place where we made furiends and played games and barked about doggie stuff and had pawties and adventures, all inside of mommy's confuser.  I was only three when I got there.  I guess I grew up there, until some mean people decided to make us all go away.  So a hundred or a million of us are looking fur a new home.  And a lot of my pals said, "Get a blog, dog!"  So I did.  And this is it.