Levi is Back!

Anyone there? Levi here. Boy, I had a busy week since the last Schnauzer Saturday. Wanna read my diary?

Sunday: Moomie let me sleep in the master bedroom for the first time. Me forgot to kiss her goodnight at first but I remembered around 4:00 AM so gave it to her then. She wasn't very happy about that. Levi doesn't know why. I give good kisses.

Monday: Moonie and Daady took me to a park to look for sticks. Me found bunches of them but she wouldn't let me take them to the river to wash them off.

Tuesday: Me found a GAINT toad in my dog yard and Moomie almost wet her pants when I told him "hello" and tried to kiss him. She got so yellie it hurt my ears. He was almost as big as me. No, really, he was. I hope he comes back but Moomie scared him pretty bad. He hopped away before she could kidnap him and put him in her Relocation Program.

Wednesday: Moomie and Daady went to some place called a car museum and they were gone a LONG time. I had to stay home, they said, and keep the place safe from aliens from outer space. Daady came home with a big smile on his face and all night he kept saying, "old" over and over. "Old" must be very good but me was disappointed that Moomie and Daady didn't tell me what a good job I did watching for aliens to land outside the windows.

Thursday: Levi found a moving stick by our cattails but Moomie got all yellie again and she wouldn't let me play with it. Me don't understand. At the park she didn't care how many sticks I carried around. That one must have been really special. She even gave it a name---Baby Blue Racer.

Friday: Me got to go to Starbucks for a little cup of cream. Moomie and Daady LOVE Starbucks and me loves the girl at the window who gives me cream.

Saturday---today: Moomie FINALLY let me get on the computer. She is still typing, typing, typing ALL THE TIME at the political sites and won't let me at the keyboard. She promises only one more week and she will get back to normal. Where is normal? Where is she going?

Smell ya later.

Love Levi

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Levi's Diary

Me missed blogging on Schnauzer Saturday because Moomie was busy on something called political sites. She was like a crazy person typing, typing, typing. But today she finally said I could post my diary from last week.

Monday: Levi had a stick up my butt. I tried and tried to poop it out but it was stuck and Moomie had to come to my rescue. That was embarrassing. Me didn't want her to help and I kept running away, but it sure did feel better after the bark up my butt was gone. That's what happens when you eat it, she says, it has to come back out.

Tuesday: Moomie took me to a place that dog-napped me from her arms and then they stole all my hair! When she got me back Moomie said I wasn't cute anymore. I changed colors and now Moomie is sad that I am more gray than black. I don't know why. She and Daady are all gray. Me thinks I look awesome.

Wednesday: Daady dropped some good stuff on the floor. Beans and potatoes. Levi learned to sit right by him at dinner time because he spills me treats.

Thursday: The mailman brought a torture thingie to the door called an Easy Walk harness. Moomie says I walk SO nice when I'm wearing it because Levi doesn't pull on the leash. Me managed to step out of it once when some little girls wanted to pet me. But Moomie tighten up the torture straps so I don't think that will happen again. Me likes little girls.

Friday: After dark Moomie let me go bug hunting on the deck for a very long time. Boy that was fun. Me really good at catching flying bugs.

Saturday: Moomie brought me treats from some place called the Farmer's Market. They were better than the beans and potatoes.

Sunday---today: Moomie got all yellie because I was playing with a spider in the house. Me threw him in the air and then would watch him run and then I'd throw him in the air again. Levi doesn't understand. She takes me bug hunting on the deck but I can't bug hunt in the house? Humans have weird rules.

Smell ya later,

Love Levi

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The Long, Hard Cry

Time has no meaning up here at the Rainbow Bridge which is my excuse for not keeping up with my blogging. I just got busy with angel training; I'm learning to give new born puppies a little angel power push into the world. I've also done my share of shade sitting under the tennis ball trees. Some of the dogs up here are crazy about those trees. They're not content, like me, to just wait for the balls to fall on their own. You can always find a few canines jumping on their hind legs, plucking yellow prizes from the low branches.

I haven't been checking up on my earth family much lately either. But I came running to the magic water recently when I heard my mom seriously sobbing like I hadn't heard her do in a very long time. She's not generally a crybaby like that. I could feel her pain all the way up here and it broke my heart. I barked for my angel brother to come along and we saw her standing in front of the Moving Wall, the replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. She was telling her friend that she didn't expect her emotions to boil up like that. She didn't stop crying until she and Dad got back home and she took a long nap.

They had seen the real Wall in Washington D.C. a few years after its dedication in 1982 and at that time they spent a long time looking up names in the book so they could find them on the wall. Mom had been pen pals with over fifty serviceman back then. Boys, really, she says. After one of those servicemen came back home they met and he affected her life in ways she still doesn't talk about to anyone.

"So many wasted lives," she kept saying in her head. "So many families touched by all those deaths." And by the ones who came home with physical and emotional scared. There was one homemade plaque placed at the end of the memorial with a name and the words "death by diaxin." It really affected Mom and Dad. Dad had a friend who fought the effects of Agent Orange for decades and died now long ago. Mom felt so badly that she didn't think to bring any flowers along to place beneath the Wall. When they visited the real Wall she brought a poem she wrote.

Tomorrow is Schnauzer Saturday and I'm hoping Mom will help Levi blog about his adventure in Senior Citizen Land but it might be Sunday. You know how old people are. One day is just like another....except on Saturdays. That's when my humans savor the farmers market. And I need to get back to keeping a closer eye on Mom. She's been a little down lately. ©

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BIG Trouble for Levi

Anyone there? Levi here. I'm in BIG trouble and me don't know what to do. I needs advice. Oops, Levi has to go. Moomie is coming and I'm not allowed on the computer without her next to me.

Being an angel dog sure isn't as easy as you might think. I was right in the middle of watching the Angel League Agility Trials when Levi started sending urge mental telepathy messages out into the world. By the time I got back to the magic water to look down to see what was going on, Mom had come into the kitchen after her nap to find my dad had scattered every mail order catalog in the house all over the table and counter top. He was on a mission. He was looking for the same baseball cap that Levi had just chewed up. It was his favorite hat, a Tony Lama number they bought 3-4 years ago, and there wasn't a chance in hell he was going to find it in the current batch of catalogs.

Mom had been warning and reminding Dad not to leave that hat on the table next to his La-Z-Boy but he forgets that Levi isn't me and he will steal things off all the low tables in the house. Poor Dad. He wore that hat every where, probably because it reminded him of his pre-stroke days. He loved his western attire---Pendleton wool shirts, Levi jeans, Tony Lama cowboy boots and Stenson hats. But they aren't very wheelchair compatible so he traded them in for a better level of independence that comes from sweat pants and pull over knits.

Levi was upset when Dad caught him in the act. Dad was upset, too, and he blamed himself for not taking better care of his hat.. My baby brother had never ruined anything more than a piece of paper before. (Not that he hasn't tried but Mom keeps a close eye on him.) Even Mom felt guilty for not corralling Levi in the laundry room when she took a nap. The whole house was in a gloom and doom mood as Mom searched the internet for another Tony Lama hat like the one Levi ate. No such luck. I wanted to use my angel power to help find one but my older brother tells me I can't do that. There are rules, he keeps telling me, about frivolous interference. Yadda, yadda, yadda. So now I have to watch poor Levi worry about getting un-adopted over this. Silly boy thinks Dad and Mom won't love him anymore.

Speaking of love, Levi got this neat Blogging Friends Forever gold card from Nottie Scottie, Rocky, and the gang over at Forget Sit & Stay. Levi will be beside himself when he sees this gold card and maybe it will make him forget about the hat. Thanks you all!

Like all awards it has some suggested rules for pawing it forward:

1. Only five people allowed.
2. Four have to be dedicated followers of your blog.
3. One has to be someone new or recently new to your blog and live in another part of the world.
4. You must link back to whoever gave you the award.

We're going to paw it foward to: Mr. T-Bone Beasley, Secret Schnoodle, Scruffy, Lacie and Stan's Place. And the forth one goes to any long-time friend who hasn't gotten this award yet and wants to grab it. For our new blog follower we paw it forward to: Mona and the Mommy.

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Best of Levi Sleeping Award

Mom and Dad went to a family day picnic today. They had all kinds of entertainment for kids and grandkids, which Mom and Dad don't have but they always go anyway. Among the activities was a clown show, a balloon artist, dunking booth, fish pond and Mom's favorite, a cake walk.

Mom has fond memories of cake walks going back over sixty years to her pre-school days when she won a cake at her very first cake walk. It was a strawberry angel food cake made from scratch and it was decorated with whipped cream and juicy red berries. The cake walk was a popular custom at the weddings of her youth. Mom walked the cake walk a dollar's worth today---four times with 2008 rates---and she told Dad, "Some traditions die hard when you have such vivid memories of the first time you ever won a prize." That got me to thinking about poor Levi not placing in the medal at the Paw-limpics today. Every puppy can't win every contest they entry but they should have a good memory of their very first contest. So I want to create one for my baby brother.

Levi sent in several photos for the sleeping category at the Pal-limpics and the judges picked the first one below to go up against all the other dogs who entered. Did they get the best photo of Levi sleeping? I'm asking all our friends in cyberspace to vote between the four below so I can present Levi with his very own prize. Silly, I know, but he'll be so happy when one of his photos wins this Best of Levi Sleeping Award that he'll forget all about not winning metal at the Paw-limpics. Vote in the comment section!


1) The Wall Hugger



2) The Floor Kisser



3) The Full Monty #1



4) The Full Monty #2



Congratulations to all the dogs who placed in the medal and honorable mentions at the Paw-limpics. There were some awesome entries. Here's a link to the sleeping event. Mom especially like Bolo, Archie, Willow, George, Happy and Jackson.

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