He don't like peas

This will be short but should give you a chuckle. Most people that see a picture of Bugsy or see him from a distance or don't have a clue about labs think Bugsy is part lab. I always say, no I don't think so and go on to show the physical reasons he isn't and then point out his eating habits.
The big guy leaves crumbs all over my carpet. Now seriously do you know any self-respecting lab that would leave crumbs??
He also tests any 'new' food by carefully taking it in his mouth, bringing it into the living room, putting it down, sniffing it, licking it. having a test chew, dropping it again, sniffing it, licking it, and then he usually decides whether it is edible or not. BTW a lot of the things are not. Who knew I was trying to poison him with a piece of yellow squash?
Which brings me to the point of this post. The boy doesn't like peas. He'll eat a few if you mash them up into his food or something but it's never a sure thing. So the other night I was mixing up his dinner (a few times a week he gets raw/home food)and thought oh I have these peas I'll mash them in. The mix was very mushy - mashed yucca root (very gloppy), ground beef, pork liver all mixed to a paste with added calcium and um yea a few peas that I mashed.
Well even with an all time favorite ground beef in there he had to check out what he was receiving. He decided to eat it but was eating really slow.
Once completed I went over to wash his bowl and found this:


Clearly those approximately 9 peas were not mashed enough to slip by the discerning eater.
Please don't make me laugh - there's no lab in this guy!

A stalk to the lake

Bugsy and I had an early trip to the lake this morning. My goodness he loves to go to the lake now. Apparently the squirrels are more interesting there and gracious me he loves the ducks - in all the wrong ways!
I wanted to try and take some pictures but the video below will demonstrate why I need all hands on deck. So no pictures but enjoy the video of our 'walk' to the lake from the parking lot.
At the end I turned my camera, so the video is sideways (sorry) Bugsy's attention was grabbed by some creature seemingly screaming "beware the black beast of Lake Wheeler has arrived" :-)

Send some positive thoughts please

Bugsy has been slower this week. Now you are probably thinking that would be a good thing. Problem is Bugsy never chooses to be slow, it usually means that something is going on and whatever is going on isn't good.
He has been a crazy boy since we brought him home and this included lots of running and jumping. I still don't think I have ever seen him WALK all the way down the stairs. He goes down them as fast as he can and jumps off the last few steps.
Because we don't know his, ahem, 'breeding' and because he is so large I have always worried about his hips.
Watching him this week I think that the beginnings of arthritis is what we are seeing. I have a pit in my stomach as I watch this not yet 4 year old super active crazy boy look stiff when he rises. We'll go to the vet for a check but there isn't much more we can do.
He gets glucosamine/chondroitin, Nutrajoint, fish oil, walks swims, or jogs daily and has soft beds all over the house.
So could you cross your fingers and hope that it's just something else and not the beginnings of arthritis in his hips?
We'd appreciate it.

some new happenings

My mom finally put some new reviews up on the Daily Zoomie! Some of those things I tried out for her ages ago. Anyway they are there now and might help you make up your mind about some of them. Lots more to come! LINK

I didn't really like the 4th of July, first my humans left me here with my favorite Classical station on but only gave me HALF my dinner before they left. Huh? Excuse me but if you are going to leave me here I want all my dinner!
They fed me the rest after they got back, whew I needed it!

Then when it went dark there was lots of noise and flashes in the sky. I went outside to check it out and man some of those flashes were close. I didn't like it that close. In fact I considered waiting until morning to do any business that way it would be light and no more flashes but my human threw me out, ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!

Turned out it was a good decision that she did. There was a rabbit waiting for me, I pointed at him for my human. I concentrated real hard and focused on him, couldn't even hear the booms or see the flashes then. When the moment was right, I zoomed after him. Ha ha ha scaredy rabbit went running into the neighbor's yard.
Then I did all my business and crashed for the night.

Today my human took me swimming, I love swimming now. But I was pretty upset when we got home she went for a walk WITHOUT ME!!!!! I howled while she was out. Ha that'll show everyone, no walkies without me!
Well I hope that is what happens from here on out. I heard my human talking to someone about doggie daycare. hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, wonder what that is?

Happy Fourth of July from bUgsy!

An evening at The Borough

Last night was way cool. Well actually it was pretty hot but what I mean is that I got to do something special. My humans took me 'into town'. We've done this before but it has been a real long time. Did you know that in the city squirrels don't run away? I wanted to get'em but my humans kept saying "heel". Whatever. Anyway we walked a little bit and then we went to a place called The Borough. Let me tell you they have their priorities right, as soon as we got there the server got a water bowl and filled it for me. Ha ha ha then she asked my humans what they wanted. About time I got served first!
It was real fun at this place although I wanted to check things out and my humans said, "DOWN". Bah humbug! Besides it was stinky rough concrete they know I need something softer to lay on. It was OK though because I got broccoli and some french fries if I stayed "down" so I did.
Then we walked all around town. It was fun but soon I realized I should've peed before we went to town so I was getting uncomfortable. I don't pee in strange places so I really wanted to get home!!
When we finally did get home I peed for about 5 minutes straight. Whew that was better!
SO next time I think I'll go before we go in the car and may be not drink sooooo much water. But that nice lady Schmitty kept giving me such lovely cold water I couldn't help myself.
I want to thank everyone at The Borough for allowing even big mutts like me to accompany my humans. I really like socializing. Could I haz a beer next time?
I was listed as a guest on the receipt I, my human thinks that is way cool - check it out

It's cheesy ice cube season! (cheap fun hot weather treat)

When Bugsy was a pup we had to be very creative in thinking of things for him to chew that were inexpensive, renewable, low in calories, safe and easy to always have around.
Somewhere someone mentioned making large ice cubes for him to munch on. So I filled the bottom of a 32oz yogurt cup with water, froze it and gave it to him by placing it in his pool. This way he had to catch it before he could eat/destroy it and it cooled him off in the process.
As he matured he wasn't too interested in the plain ice cube. He'd go get it from the pool but he wasn't too interested in it afterward. So I got a bit more creative and took a cheese stick and broke it into pieces which I added to ice cubes and water in my 32oz yogurt cup. Wala he was totally interested again. Now he won't leave the ice cube alone until he has de-cheesed it. And if he feels like it he eats all the ice too.
"hmmmmmmmmmm dis iz good!"

So if you want an easy treat and time consumer for your pup, try this. You might use a little beef or chicken broth in the water or cheese or whatever you like to make it interesting. If you use the broth only use a small amount as the salt content will be high.
You can choose whatever size is appropriate for your pooch.
I've attached some pictures below of Bugsy enjoying his cheesy ice cube earlier today. It was too hot for fetch so this was an easy cool form of entertainment for him.
Here you can see the chunks of cheese