Celebrating Our Strangeness

Oh, wow, we've been honored with a really cool and funky award for our strangeness by Those Elgin Pugs, who, BTW, crack us up every time we read at their blog and look at those pics. Those dudes (um, ladies and dude) will do anything for a laugh - check out their poetry chops on Puddles post here (look in the comments)! Oh, yeah, they're strange! We don't think we could possibly compete with their strangeness, but still - we'll do our best.

Now you must go forth and celebrate the strangeness of friends (and strangers - strangers are always allowed) by nominating blogs run by strange folk. *Beware, some people don't like you to refer to them as strange…Try to avoid them if possible."

Of course, as with any award, there are some rules:

1. Add the logo of the award to your blog post - CHECK

2. Add a link to the person who awarded it to you (don't mess with strange people) - CHECK (see above). But, we're gonna do it again here 'cause we don't want to be messin' with strange people (or dogs).

3. Nominate seven other blogs telling us why you think the recipient is strange enough to deserve the award.

We consider being called "strange" a very complimentary thing. We take it to mean "interesting" - in a good way.  So, we hope all our nominees feel the same way and take our "strange" comments in the good-natured way it is intended.


We have to say that we would have put Puddles first on the list, and we think everyone would agree, but she just received this award, so she has been duly recognized for her interesting strangeness!
1 - First up - Frankie Furter - Um, do we need to explain this - the dude married TWO girls! As confirmed bachelors and bachelorettes, we think this is strange indeed! Plus, he just cracks us up!

2 -  The Blablabs - check out their video Get Pet 101 and you'll see what we mean.

3 - I Still Want More Puppies because of the strange fascination with space, like this, for example - whatever "space" is. We only know what OUR space is, and we don't like it to be invaded!

4 - Two Pitties in the City - Ms. M + tutu = need we say more?  We love it!

5 - Hound Girl - Haylie and Fred, a fabulously strange couple - in the best possible way.

6 - Miley - A Curious Cavorting Cavoodle - now that's wonderfully strange, dontcha think?

7 - Pei Days - A beautiful Shar Pei named "Lola" - how exotically strange!  We love how she signs everything "Me, Lola." 

4. Leave a message for those nominated on their blogs.  Okay, we plan to do this immediately, if not sooner.  However, as we've admitted, our sense of time is very fluid.

5. And, if you email catephoenix(at)gmail(dot)com and tell her you've received the award for your strangeness, she'll enter you in the biggest kick-ass Strange Men competition ever. Details over at http://www.strangemeninpinstripesuits.com/ (click on the award link on the home page). We visited this website and, yeah, it's STRANGE all right, and a little scary. We might have to leave a light on tonight.

The Road Dogs (off to celebrate strangeness everywhere)

Oh, Wow - Awards - For US???

We’ve been honored over the last week with awards by a several of our blogging furiends – Prudence at Cow Tails and Chew Toys, Pibble at Scratch My Belly , Pup Fan at I Still Want More Puppies , and Lisa at Heartprints Pets, Jes at How I Lost My Sanity, Miley at Curious Cavorting Cavoodle and Emerald at The Blab Labs.  And we want to thank all of them them for choosing us for this honor! We are a bit overwhelmed by the generosity of our blogging furiends! At first we had some of Pip’s insecurities and spent several days agonizing – Are we worthy? Do we really deserve these awards? What if we do something to disappoint?  Did we get all these links right?


Then we thought – what a great opportunity to tell ALL our blogging furiends THANKS! Not just for reading our blog, but for writing yours, too!

You see, when we first had the idea to write this blog, it was just to chronicle this one particular adventure. We had no idea there were so many animal blogs out there. Guess we’ve been too busy playing and eating and stuff to notice. But thanks to Life With Dogs and the Saturday Blog Hop, we found all of you. We’ve been inspired, entertained, touched and informed by reading ALL of your blogs. And, to paraphrase Jack Nicholson in As Good As It Gets – don’t you just love that movie? Little Verdel is just the cutest thing! What? Oh, yeah, paraphrasing Jack Nicholson – You make us want to be a better blog! We think you are biggest bunch of creative, funny, smart and generous people and animals we’ve ever met!

As we humbly perform our award duties, we just wanna say we are honored to be in your company!

So, here’s a few things you might not know about us.

1 - This isn’t our first road trip! No sir. We’ve been traveling since we came to live with our parents. And that’s because -

2- We didn’t always live together full time. Mom and Dad lived in different parts of the country once upon a time (some of us lived with Mom and some with Dad) and we’ve traveled through many states to see each other, mostly in automobiles, but some of us have done a bit of flying! But we never really wrote about our travels, or even took many pictures of what and who we saw, what we did, the motels we snuck into, the places we pooped, the trees we sniffed and peed.

3 - This was our first trip with the food hauler.

4 – This was our first trip that lasted more than a week.

5– Not too long ago, we also had three German Shepherd brothers - Dusty, Jake and Jett. Over the past few years, they have gone over the Bridge and we miss them terribly.

6 – This is our first trip without them  and we were sad not to have them with us. You might notice there are eight dogs on our logo – we couldn’t bear to think of a trip without the big guys, so we had the logo made, including them of course, and plastered it on the food hauler and the truck and carried their photos with us. Obviously, not the same, but it made us feel better to have their smiling faces with us! They sure loved the road trips. Of course, they are always in our hearts and thoughts, but we miss them so!

7 – We have a very fluid sense of time - in case you hadn't noticed :)

We’re more than thrilled that you stop by and visit and hopefully are entertained on occasion. We’re entertained by all of your blogs, for sure!

Now, we’re gonna take another page from Pip’s blogging manual and offer up this award to ALL our blogging furiends. There are too many to mention individually and we have way too many favorites – all of YOU!

The Road Dogs (tails waggin' cause we found all of you)

Happy Wedding Day to Frankie, Ruby & Penny

It's blog hop Saturday, but we can't think of anything besides the wedding of the century!  Of course, we're talking about Frankie, Ruby & Penny's upcoming nuptials - with bad girl Puddles officiating.  "What Puddles has joined together - let no dog get in the middle of" - or something like that.  Anyway, we're looking forward to the festivities and hope there's lot of cake!  Like this -

Here's to you - Frankie, Ruby & Penny!

Cheers!

The Road Dogs

Molly of Pony Antiques

You may remember from a post last week that while we were searching for a real ghost town in Montana, we kind of ran out of road.  Not ones to give up that easily just because we (meaning Dad) can't read a map correctly, we decided to try to get to the top of that hill and find that ghost town from the other direction.  So off we went . . .

Have we mentioned that we (and Mom and Dad) are easily distracted by shiny objects, food and an assortment of other things?   We had to drive through a little town called "Pony" (isn't that just too adorable?) to get to the other end of that elusive road.  We love little towns, especially the ones that have just one main road running through the middle.  They're usually not that crowded, which suits us just fine, and they usually have a grassy place to stop and play.  And if Mom and Dad want to go in some shop that doesn't allow dogs, they can keep an eye on us from anywhere while we wait patiently in the car and bark "hello" at other dogs we see.  And weird statues!

Mom and Dad like to sniff around antique shops sometimes. They’re not professional antiquers (although they are antiques themselves – BOL!) and they don’t know exactly what they’re looking for. But, they’re always hoping to come away with some goofy treasure that might land them on the Antiques Roadshow and make them millionaires. So far, all they’ve gotten are some goofy treasures that probably aren’t worth what they paid for them. But, they have some fun so we let ‘em do it.

Anyway, they found Pony Antiques and figured this was probably the place where their undiscovered million dollar treasure waited.  Ummm, NOT!  They came back with some old silver buttons made from coins and a, um, pickle fork?!

But, they did meet a cutie pie named Molly that was helping her folks run the shop and being the official "greeter."  She graciously posed for several photos, but she was a dog of few words and didn't have time for an interview because of her shop duties and we didn't have time to wait around for her snack/potty break.  Daylight was awastin' and we had ghost towns to find.

Anyway, here for your viewing pleasure are the many faces of Molly -

How's this?  Is this my best side?

No, wait, I had my mouth open.

How's this side?  Do I look dark and mysterious?

Hmmm, wonder what's for dinner tonight?

And that's what I think of squirrels and baths!

Sorry Mom, didn't see you there.

Okay, enough with the picture taking. Now scram!

The Road Dogs (we can take a hint)

Here's the Plan . . .

Here's what we have planned for Mom and Dad today -

What do you have planned today?  Oh, yeah, other than blog hopping!

The Road Dogs

Interview with Max and Sadie

We met Max and Sadie and their mom at the campground in Virginia City, Montana.  Since they're a couple of traveling dogs, too, we thought it would be pawsome to introduce them to our blogging friends.  We gave them free reign, um, leash,  for this interview and asked them to tell us a little about themselves.  Their mom is a professional writer and has her own blog, too - we think they may have gotten a little help with some of the spelling :)  So, without further ado, we present the adorable Max and Sadie.

Max (left) and Sadie (right) keeping a vigilant eye on the outside world.

Max taking it easy.

Sadie in her favorite hiding spot.

Max:  Howdy fellow canines and human companion animals!  I'm Max, often referred to as "Maximum Dog" by mom. I love traveling in the RV, even if my pesky "sister" (she's not really related) Sadie is somewhat neurotic.

Sadie:  Am not! He just thinks he’s so superior!

Max: Anyway… We have lots of fun because all these new places smell amazing. I can tell who has been there and what they ate and lots of other things!

Sadie: Me, too!

Max:  Um, yeah, if you every stop your neurotic vigilance. Sadie doesn’t know the meaning of “relax”.

Sadie: I do, too! It’s when you flake out and let your sister do all the work of protecting the homestead.

Max: See what I mean? We have fun, though. We visited Virginia City, which smelled very old and I could have spent months reading the history in the layers of scents. I’m an educated animal but I do like to pursue my instincts by filling my nose and my head and my dreams with all the delicious odors. It’s like a movie for your nose!

Sadie: What’s a movie?
Max:  Mom says Sadie’s a blond.

Sadie: I’m white and brown! Mom never said that! What’s that mean? Oh, look, there’s a dog I can see from the window, be right back….

Max:  Blond. I’m telling you. Anyway, when we were in Virginia City, there were deer that would come through the camp in the early morning. They look like big brown dogs, but as soon as Sadie sees them she growls. Sheesh. Like that’s going to make a difference. They aren’t afraid.

Sadie: Protecting the homestead. All by myself.

Max:  . . . well. It’s been fun talking to you all, and I hope to see you on the road sometime. I love road trips and staying in my RV. See you soon!

Sadie: YOUR RV? MOOOoooooommmmmmm. . .

Road Dogs:  Max, Sadie, thanks so much for sharing with our readers.  Stay in touch and let us know when you go on the road again!

The Road Dogs

Fish Out of Water

Ennis, MT may be a small town, but that doesn't mean they can't have cool art like the big cities!  Just one thing, though - um, we may not be the sharpest tools in the shed, but we thought fish belonged in the water?  Guess that's what they call artistic license?

The Road Dogs

Doxies as Art

We love to browse Etsy, a furtabulous online mecca for arts and crafts and fun stuff. Today we found these adorable doxies and just had to post this in honor of all our doxie furiends out there. We met several doxies on our trip - remember the "hot dog" in Taos? And Felize in West Yellowstone? And we've met lots and lots of doxies in blogland - we think doxies might be the "bloggingest" breed. Tell the AKC to put that category in their dog show!

Without further ado - we give you The Doxie Collection by Friends of Socktopus

Release you inner Doxie

The Road Dogs (art connoisseurs extraordinaire)

Grrrr is for Gruffins

Gruffins!  We drool when we hear that word!  We just received some yummy samples of banana nut Gruffins from Tiny Little Dog's Mom!  They are the perfect snack'um size and have all natural ingredients.  We love banana anything and our Mom even sneaked a bite, too.  She loves the banana bread!  We know all our bloggie furiends are always on the lookout for new nom noms, so check 'em out.

Gruffin, Gruffin, who gets the Gruffin?

We all wait patiently, except Taz, who's climbing on Kayla and looking a little like he's possessed!

You're mine, Gruffin, mine all mine.  Come to papa!

See, perfect snack-um size!

Yummy natural ingredients - no preservatives, yay! 

So, go visit Tiny Little Dog's blog and find out how to get your Gruffins!  They're a perfect snack while blog hopping, mmmmmmmm.

Happy blog hopping!


The Road Dogs (eating Gruffins and Blog Hopping)

Humans are strange animals!

We love our Mom and Dad, we really do, but sometimes they do the silliest things.  We were taking a nice drive in Montana when they decided to pull over and do some digging.  We were excited, we love to dig!  BUT, this digging wasn't for us - in fact, they made us stay in the car and WATCH while they were digging! Total bummer!  We're expert diggers and could really have helped and made things go much faster.  They just kept digging in these big buckets and then dunking stuff in water.  We were thinking maybe they were digging up surprises for us, like maybe some bones!  We wanted to tell them they didn't have to wash them off - we like dirt, too!  But, after what seemed like forever, they came back to the car and - NO BONES!  Nothing at all for us!  Just these crummy little red rocks that you can't even eat!

Mom says there's a lot of garnets in here and they'll be real sparkly if she ever get arounds to polishing them. 

We say - whatever!  That's a lot of work for a bunch of teeny tiny rocks!

We're just warning you - if your folks say they're going digging, it doesn't necessarily mean fun for you! So, don't fall for it!

The Road Dogs (not diggin' in Montana)

We decided that blizzard wasn't going to keep us from some cool adventures.  Okay, so it wasn't a blizzard and it pretty much melted by noon and Dad has a big ole truck with four-wheel drive.  But, still, that was a lot of snow!  Anyway, after Mom & Dad got caffeinated, we went on a hunt for ghost towns. Virginia City is actually a tourist stop pretending to be a ghost town, but it was still really cool and the people were really nice.  Some stores were locked up and preserved just as they were back in the 1800's.  But Dad wanted to see a real deserted ghost town - so off we went.

Hmmmm, there's supposed to be a ghost town up here????

This sign is a gross understatement!!!

See what we mean?

No ghost town yet, but plenty of these guys!

A look down the hill - this hill was so steep going up that Mom thought we would flip over backwards! She did the white knuckle thing all the way up and wouldn't say a word.  What a sissy!

This was amazing - this lake is actually close to the TOP of the mountain!  We wanted to play here, but as you can see, this space was kinda crowded.  We need LOTS of room! There were some dogs, too, and we think they had already staked out their territory.  We decided not to invade it.  We think it was a wise choice.  We were quite surprised to find this many people at the top of this humongously steep and rutted road.  Guess they all have big old four-wheel drive cars.

A look at the lake from the road - yeah, that's right - the road!

We did find this big field a little further up and had it all to ourselves.

Taz in his Joe College sweatshirt.

Kayla and Cooper sniffing it out.  Strange smells, indeed!

Turns out we (and "we" means Dad) took the wrong road and there was no ghost town up here and the road didn't go through so we had to go back down the way we came up!

The Road Dogs (4-wheeling in Montana)

Montana Madness

Okay, we know it's been hot enough to fry your paws pretty much everywhere. So, we're gonna share some more of our adventures Out West to cool you down. After we had seen (and smelled) all that Yellowstone had to offer, we hitched up the food hauler and headed North into Montana. It was raining and we hadn't put all that many miles between us and the buffalo when we came to a little town called Ennis. We decided it looked friendly enough (no packs of wild dogs that we could see), so we stopped for a bite of lunch and a look see. The people were super friendly and told us about a campground a few miles away in Virginia City, which is a famous ghost town.  Dad had wanted to see some ghost towns, so we decided to stay a bit and check out the local smells. *

The next morning, Dad opened the door to let us out for a potty break. Then he said to Mom - "Don't look out the windows!"** OMD - what was out there?!  Not more buffalo, we hope!  Nope - here's what greeted us -

Snow!

Oooooweeeeee! We love the snow!

Cooper goes nuts over anything!

Gracie's seen LOTS of snow - she lived in Park City for awhile!  She loves it, too.  She just doesn't act like a goober, like Cooper does!

Aspen's seen her share of snow, too, and digs it!

Kayla just wants to eat everything!

Mmmmmm, snow!

Are you cold and snuggling under a blankie now?

The Road Dogs (chillin' out in Montana)



*Pawnote 1 - The events pictured here occurred at the end of May. We are waaaaay behind in sharing our road trip adventures. 

**Pawnote 2 - Mom doesn't like snow!