Yes, it’s that time of year again when we engage in both a flurry of activity and time of reflection.  Ray and I have been participating in a thirty days of Thanksgiving project on Facebook.  We are trying to keep a mixture of things to be thankful for, from the little things to the large.  It’s also the time for lots of boxes to be delivered and this week was no exception.

“Mama, what’s in the box?”

Since we regularly get orders of treats or food for the fur babies in the mail, Ray was pretty sure this was mostly for him as well.

He was excessively nosey so excited that it was hard to get the tape cut and the box opened with his big jug head in the way.

But when I finally got it opened, imagine the glee for his puppy who LOOOOOVES his bully sticks.

So let me tell you what we got but first let me tell you why we’re so excited.  Every Sunday Ray and I go to TSC for some Ray-Ray lovin’ and to purchase a couple of bully sticks.  Our local has the best prices we’ve found in $5.99 for a 12″ bully stick.  The next cheapest place was over $8 for the same size.  Antlers as you may know are not exactly cheap either, even though the shed ones (at least in my mind) are cheap to free if they’re found.  So we ventured over to best bully sticks where we found the same 12″ bully sticks for just over $2 each!  Shipping was fast, too.  I placed my order on Moday and received the box on Thursday. So what you see in the picture is a 1 pound bag of antlers which ended up being 3 larger, heavier antlers, one antler burr, one large bag of Sam’s Yams and a bag of twenty-five 12″ bully sticks all for under $100.  If you haven’t ordered from this company before and decide to do so now, I’d be especially thankful if you would mention my name in the “where did you hear about us” box. 
If you enter a code that I will be happy to email to you, I will receive a 10% off coupon.  (email me at peaceabullassembly at yahoo)  Then once you place your order you can pass the savings along via the refer a friend program as well.*  Why does the 10% off mean so much to us?  One of the things we have in the works for the holidays is that we are doing an antler drive for the pooches at our local shelter and I’ve made a start on that with the order we got yesterday.  I think my sorority alumnae group will be participating and hopefully we will have an antler for each dog who might otherwise spend the holidays without.  The best thing about the antlers as opposed to a kong, say or a toy that can be played with in the kennel is that if it hasn’t been worn to the nub already, it can be taken home when the dog is adopted.  I’m very excited about this drive and hope it will be a success. 

Do you typically participate or lead collection drives during the holidays?  What has worked/ not worked for you?

*please note, I am not receiving anything for this other than the 10% off coupon, though I did sign up to be an affiliate and if approved you will see that  link in the sidebar eventually.

Happy Monday, Folks.  WOOF!  Last week when my Mommy told me she had another three day weekend and that she didn’t have any plans to cheat on me to attend any adoption events, I was elated!

But then she said she was going to visit my Auntie in Michigan and I was confused because that sounded like she was going to leave me at home, but then she started packing my bye-bye bag!  Oh, I was getting pretty excited because even though she sometimes takes my bye-bye bag with her and leaves me at home, she did act like I was going.  And I did go!  We were in the truck for a million hours an hour and a half when Mommy decided to stop at a Rest Area so I could go potty, but there were so many smells there that we ended up taking a sniffy walk so I could stretch my legs and investigate. 

When we finally got to my Auntie’s house I was more comfy and did my business there and then there was another surprise!  Cousins!  My Auntie has three doggies of her own and I got to meet two of them. 

First I met Bobbers. 

Her name is really Bob because my Auntie found her and discovered that her owner had turned her out to the streets.  Auntie was not going to get attached so she named this girl doggie Bob.  That was last Spring.  Since then, Auntie learned more about Bob’s “story,” got her icky shots and made sure she wouldn’t have any baby Bobs.  Bob didn’t like me very much.  I’m an only child here and sometimes I’m kind of pushy when I want to make friends.  Bob didn’t appreciate me jumping on her head to say hi.

Next I met Mocha.  She is not much older than me and almost as tall as me.  She has a funny curly tail and we played like pals.

Mocha and I were a good match, Mommy said.  We both are ram-bunk-shus, Mommy said.  I think that means that we’re both cute and bouncy.

Speaking of cute and bouncy, I didn’t get to meet my cousin Pinky.  She sat in the window and barked at me and Auntie said Pinky doesn’t know that she is not a Pit Bull.  Since I don’t understand that I am not the same size as Pinky and I was pretty excited from playing with Mocha, I didn’t play with Pinky.

When we got back home I wanted to go to bed early and all day Sunday Mommy said I had a ‘fun hangover’ because I was so sleepy.  She even had to wake me up in the morning because I just wanted to sleeeeep alllll daaaaaay.  We did get to go to my shopping store and buy bully sticks and get some love and also we played in the yard.  Mommy and I played run and get it for awhile but then I was tired and thirsty so we stopped. 

I can’t wait to see my cousin Mocha again.  Next time I hope we get to play longer but that just might give me a two day fun hangover.

Hope you had a great weekend too!

Recently Asia and I had lunch together at one of our favorite lunch spots…Fresh Market.  Each time we go there it’s like a frenzy of sights and smells in a sensory overload kind of way and we spend way too much on “lunch.”  To be fair, that day we ended up with lunch, dinner, snacks and some fresh fruit so it was definitely worth the visit. 

When I got home that night, Ray was pretty interested in the contents of my shopping bag as well.  He’s always up for an opportunity to try new fruits and vegetables and this was no exception.  While most of the contents of our fruit basket were not for Ray’s consumption, he did get to partake in some of the fresh goodness.

Ray loves apple slices and these are not much bigger but sooo much more fun.  Do you have a guilty pleasure lunch spot? 

I see that term bandied about quite a bit and since the majority of the blogs I read are centered around Pit Bull-type dogs, I imagine quite a few of these dogs are “Power Chewers.”  Sometimes I think Ray fits into that category and sometimes I don’t.  For instance, when I first started giving him Churpi-chews it would take about a week or so for him to chew the entire thing.  The last time I gave him one, he had it entirely eaten before we finished our dinner.  At that price, there will be no more Churpi-chews for Ray-Ray.  Hooves have been a great and inexpensive replacement, as we can get those for just a few dollars and they do last well more than a week.

Bully sticks are a highly favored treat for Ray and a twelve inch bully can last almost 15 minutes if we’re lucky.  We use them mostly at the beginning of a football game since they tend to settle Ray and get him more focused.  We’ve also been favoring the frozen stuffed kong, using the recipe that Pitlandia posted the other day.  I had been freezing Ray’s kongs, but not using a lot of the mix-ins so he was clearing the contents pretty quickly.  Ray loves his kongs, we’ve been using them a lot more for feeding, though we do still use his bowl as well.

Antlers are something that Ray is very mezzo-mezzo about.  He prefers the split elk antlers but right now only has his deer antlers, one with a large nub and one more tapered.  Because that is what we have available right now, he has been chewing on those more lately.

For some reason, the antler seemed much more fun on this day than on previous days.

A few weeks ago while at an Outreach/Adoption event, I was disconcerted that so many people called Honor “fella.”  I guess it’s hard to tell from a face and I wonder if certain dogs are assumed to be boys and certain ones are assumed to be girls.  Anyhow, that got me thinking about all of the fancy trimmings I’d read about for so many adoptable dogs and on a whim a couple of weeks ago, I grabbed some of my granddaughter’s head bands and stuffed them in my adoption bag. 

I didn’t know who I would be handling that day but these headbands are great because they are so stretchy that they can fit on a variety of sized dogs.  After that a sweet reader asked how they were made, so I thought I’d share.

Back in May when I was planning Asia’s baby shower I wanted to really do some fun things that didn’t necessarily involve playing traditional shower games but still get a lot of interaction going.  What we came up with was this:

We set up a table full of supplies so that guests could decorate onesies and/or headbands.  We bought white onesies in a variety of sizes, the stretchy crochet headbands, feathers, rhinestones, flower tops, glue, puffy paint and other types of trimmings and just let the guest’s creativity run rampant.  I got lots of the supplies on ebay where I was able to get some really great prices and variety of supplies.  Who knew you could buy stemless flower tops?

I’m wondering if I can use any of these supplies to figure out a way to make bow ties or some other dudely accessory.  What do you think?

Today was the beginning of a nice three day weekend for me, but it wasn’t all about the relaxing.  Ray had an appointment to have his stitches removed this morning, so we had that ordeal  task to start off the day with.  While I can basically touch Ray anywhere and check for lumps, bumps, scrapes and anything else an adolescent might get into, he’s not as desensitized with others.  He’s not great at getting his nails trimmed, so I reasoned that having someone poke scissors into his leg might not go as planned. 

To make the trip easier, I brought one of his blankets from home, a pocketful of his favorite treats and a bully stick to keep him occupied.

Waiting for someone to take these pricklies out of my leg.

I figured we’d have a better go of it if he were occupied with some of his favorite things, but Ray had other plans.  First, I don’t even know if I mentioned this before, but Ray is a nervous pee-er, so he kind of let loose on the floor, the knee of my jeans and a portion of his blanket.  Twice. 

Finally with the doctor, the tech and the mommy not getting anywhere, they suggested that if I leave the room they might have better luck with him…which they did.  After a few minutes out came my bouncy, happy boy without his prickly stitches.   hummmpf.

Then to add insult to injury, on a tip from our friends at Pitlandia I stopped to cash in on some Halloween Haul on sale for Ray, too.  Since he loved the pictures of Athena in her superhero attire,  I got him this great Captain America t-shirt.  The only problem is that the XL was juuuust a little snug.

Besides, while Ray-Ray is many things, a superhero really doesn’t fit is personality.  No, with all the sweet comments he gets on Facebook, both on his and my pages, everybody knows Ray-Ray is a Rock Star.