NO INTERNET!!!! GRRRRRR!!!!!

Hello my dear readers, you haven't heard from me in a long while and the reason why is the title of this post: NO INTERNET!!!! GRRRRRRRR!!!!
I am in Hermann,MO right now visiting with my lovely family, and I have very,very limited access to the internet, which drives me nuts, but I promise to keep you guys updated as soon as I get back home. Please,hang in there and I'll post to you later this week. Cheers!

Where are the new posts?

Whenever there is a new one, it usually appears on the top of the page once you open the blog site. However, because I'm in campaign to stop puppy mills for a while, all the new posts will appear below the "NAUGHTY!" post. So, to read a new post you should scroll down the screen to the blog archive and click on the post title below it and... voila! You're reading it! I'm also keeping the "NAUGHTY!" post on the first page so you can vote for your favorite Beatle in the poll on the left side of the screen. I will be posting new stuff on a more consistent basis, about 1-2 posts per week.

STOP PUPPY MILLS!!!

Life is good but sometimes we come across not so good things. Last week, the famous TV hostess Oprah Winfrey did a show on puppy mills and I was in absolute shock! I might have come from one of them, who knows? My parents weren't aware of this when they bought me in 2005. Anyway I'm fortunate enough to live a decent life, but the same cannot be said about millions of my fellow WOOF speakers friends all over the USA.
Please take a moment to watch this video about the horrific things they do to four- legged people at these places. Stop supporting this unscrupulous industry and sign the pledge like I did, by clicking on any of the "STOP PUPPY MILLS" banners. THANK YOU SO MUCH !!!

HSUS MySpace Page | Stop Puppy Mills Website

HSUS MySpace Page | Stop Puppy Mills Website

Naughty!

I feel like dancing today!
Well, shake it up baby, now (shake it up, baby)
Twist and shout(twist and shout)
C'mon,C'mon,C'mon,C'mon baby, now.....
Let's dance!

My second Christmas-2006-Christmas Day

We spent Christmas Eve at Grandma J's. Everybody! 11 two-legged and 2 four-legged people in a 3-bedroom house with a finished basement. Mission impossible? Not really, everybody had a good night sleep and in the morning we all took some pictures by the Christmas tree before packing everything to hit the road and arrive in Hermann for Christmas Day. In fact, we had lunch on Christmas Eve and dinner on Christmas day, the 25th. Over at Grandma A's, we had, I mean they had a lot of great food too thanks to Grandmas and Aunt V. Uncle N and Aunt V were there and at some point, cousin J(their oldest daughter)came over with M, her husband and their 5 children including one four-legged daughter who looked just like me and whose name was Gabi(I'm not sure about the spelling). She was really cute and had a nice haircut. She was about 6 years older than me and we played together for a while, check our pictures out! Again, I had so much fun, and I loved my Christmas presents which included savory treats. After dinner, we all had to pack up, load the cars and hit the road back to Saint Louis.
Let me explain these pictures: left to right is L,Dad,Mom and Aunty H. I covered their faces because I still haven't spoken to them about showing their picture here. I don't know why my eyes look like I'm possessed and so do Gabi's, LORD !!!




Below are the pictures I took of them carrying stuff into my Grandma A's house.




Now check out this year's Santa outfit they found for me ( I might be a Santa who came from somewhere else other than Lapland...)

My second Christmas-2006-Christmas Eve

Dec 24th,2006. With the cars loaded with our suitcases, my Grandma C's delectable concoctions and all the gifts Mama, Grandma C and Aunty H wrapped the night before, we took off to Grandma J's in Blue Springs,MO in the Kansas City area. It took us good part of the morning to get it all in both trunks. Mama drove the pick-up truck with my Uncle K and I sat in the back with Grandma C. Dad drove Mama's small SUV with my Grandpa K, my Aunty H and headed to the airport to pick up L. We got there just in time. After unloading the two cars, presents, luggage and food that required special care during transportation like cheesecake and other fragile, delicious desserts, we finally got in the house where the rest of the family( my Uncle B, my Aunt L with my cousin A in her belly, my cousin S and of course Grandma J and Uncle Sammie) were already awaiting our arrival. Mama put the frozen " pao de queijo"( Brazilian cheese bread rolls) my Grandpa K brought over from Brazil in the oven, to add a special touch to the Christmas lunch menu. Well, he actually brought the bread mix and Mama and Grandma C made rolls and froze them overnight; no way the rolls could have stayed frozen from Brazil to the USA, DUH!! The strong men in the house, all of them, carried some tables to the living room from the basement and put them together so we had a massive rectangular improvised dinner table but every single person had their place... except me and Sammie. We are special! The food smelled yummy and I heard the two-legged people's excellent reviews. My Grandma J did a great job. We wanted to try that food so bad, but since we're special, all we had was our special food. Nonetheless, we were happy to be surrounded by all those people and get to play with my cousin S in the backyard. I plan to post a video, but will not do so at this time because I need permission from my Aunty L and Uncle B to broadcast my cousin S here. Meanwhile, I will work on finding a way to edit that video and try to cover her face or something in case they say it's not OK. Does anybody have any idea how to do this? If so, write instructions in the comments. I appreciate it, thanks. Check out all the presents around our Christmas tree in our family room.

Everybody from Brazil except me and Daddy ( Grandma J's home )



Now watch Sammie and I play/fight in the backyard.



Mom,Dad,Aunty L, Uncle B and Grandma J with me and Sammie. Cousin A is in my Aunt L's belly.



S,Sammie and I having fun in the backyard.

Everybody is here !

Everybody was here, yeah! Yahoo! Hip Hip Hooray! Full house! What else could I ask for? There was even my Aunty H's then boyfriend L, who arrived from Brazil in the last minute before we left for Blue Springs(my Grandma J's house)where we had our Christmas lunch(DEC 24,2006). L and I used to play a lot together, but he liked to tease and play RUFF with me; I would tell him: If you keep being RUFF,I'll bite you! Sometimes I did!
Christmas is here again... time to celebrate, overeat and gain weight...

Nice to see you again Grandpa K

That month of December 2006 was really busy. We had a lot of people over and I just loooooved it! The last one to arrive was my Grandpa K and I was so excited that my "fetch" buddy was back and I would have my walks in the park almost every day, weather permitting. He's a very fit Grandpa and always up for anything. I've never heard him say: ooohhh, I'm lazy...., he's definetely a doer and a great achiever, I guess this is thanks to his Japanese roots. When I grow up, I wanna be like my Grandpa K but don't know if I will have the determination to study my whole life and get a postdoc like he did. I look up to you a lot Grandpa and you're such a good example for your kids and grandkids.

Meeting my Uncle K

My Uncle K also came a long way to see me. He flew around 11 hours from Brazil to get to St. Louis. It was late December 2006, when he finally got his vacation and took off to visit with us all and spend the Christmas and New Year's holidays in the USA. He lived here for a year as an exchange student in a little town called Three Oaks,MI and had the amazing opportunity of going to the prom and graduating from High School in a foreign country. His host family had two-legged and four-legged children( both WOOF and MEOW speakers),so he didn't feel challenged by me like my Mama, Aunty H and Grandma C did. It was a piece of cake for him to get used to me and vice-versa was true. He has 2 two-legged children, Portuguese speakers who will eventually learn how to speak English because both of their parents do and will teach them. My cousin H is 6 and my cousin F is 4; I can't wait to meet them! Dear Uncle K, sorry about all the trouble I caused you( that's another whole post!!!) and thank you so much for what you did! I miss you, please come back soon!

Blood test

My Mom, Grandma C and Aunty H took me to my doctor's for my regular check-up. He always asks Mama to bring a sample of poo(sorry, but that's the cutest word for that disgusting thing). I didn't feel like going number 2 so Mama couldn't take a bit of it to the office to check me for worms. He then told her that he needed to draw my blood. That added a lot to the medical bill and cost me my precious blood. Boy, I screamed at the top of my lungs, it huuuuuuurt!!! Like MAMA, I haaaaate having my blood drawn, it's so, so, uncomfortable and painful! My squeamish Aunty H (I don't know how her mind functions, she went to see the BODIES exibition and took the Jack the Ripper walk when she was in London...)and Grandma C couldn't stay in the room looking at me being victimized like that and left. Mama had to stay to give me moral support, but I could see in her eyes she was suffering to see me in such agony. She told me I'd better poop next time,'cause she'd rather go through the humilliation of picking it up, putting in a tube, and taking it to the doctor's than spending more money and damaging her ears with some trillion decibels of scream when I'm pricked by a needle.

Meeting my Aunty H

Early December 2006,It was a cold day, very cold indeed, like most winter days when we all (my Mom, Dad and Grandma C) went to pick up my Aunty H at the airport. The snow had already partially melted but it was sunny and the trees had ice wrapped around its branches and the sun reflection on them make them look like they were made of dazzling crystal. I think my Aunty H was looking forward to meet me but was even more excited about seeing snow for the first time. I got all groomed and Mama and Grandma C told me I should be on my best behavior when I meet Aunty H because, like both of them, she would need to get used to four–legged people before starting to feel at ease with me. So I told them not to worry,"I’ll be on my best behavior! Promise."
My Dad pulled over to the sidewalk to drop Mom and Grandma at the airport entrance while we tried to find a parking space but all parking lots were packed and we decided to go around in circles until they showed up with my Aunty at the door. It wasn’t long until Dad received a call from Mama to notify him he could come to the main door and pick them up. I was in the back seat and the first person to get in the car was my Aunty. She was pretty and sweet and sat right next to me. How can I not hug her? So, I jumped on her lap to give her a hug. Then I remembered what my Mama and Grandma C told me: "Sushi, you need to be on your best behavior!" But you know what? I think she was so happy to see snow for the first time that she didn’t seem uncomfortable at all. She even gave me a hug back! More of our stories coming soon Aunty H, miss ya!

Tricking Mama and Grandma C

Ever since Mama started working again, I would stay in the fenced hallway area the whole day, which was much better than staying in the crate but, because my Grandma C was at home all the time, I took turns staying inside and outside as much as I wanted since she was there to open the door for me whenever I rang the "potty" bell. It was just one of those ordinary days when Mama got back from work around 5:30PM. I was in the mood for playing hide-and-seek and when Mama closed the garage door she didn't realize I was inside quiet and hiding. I don't know why they didn't miss me for a while. I think I stayed in the garage for about one hour while they were eating dinner. After one whole hour,HELLOOO!!! Where is Sushi? Where is Sushi? They started to look for me in the house and I was nowhere to be found. Then they went to the backyard and started looking for me under the deck. I enjoyed the garage's temperature, which was more comfortable than the chilly weather outside, so I stayed there. I remember both Mama and Grandma C frantically calling my name several times SUSHIIIII! SUUUUUUUSHI!!! SUSHIIIIII! and already saying to each other I got kidnapped from the yard but, I was playing hide-and-seek and thought I should remain quiet. I like winning all the games I play. Then, I guess when they chilled for a moment and had an insight to go look for me in the garage...AHA! There I was! I was kind of getting tired of hiding and glad they open the door and found me. They both breathed a sigh of relief, PHEW!!! Despite the fact that I tricked them, I got some hugs and belly rubs! How mischievous was that?

Accessorizing my head

Mom bought this jeans cap for me to use in the Summer time. She tried to put it on me countless times and I could never leave it on. One day though, she put it on me again and it didn't bother me. It was OK for a few minutes so I told Mama if she wanted some shots of me in that cap, she should hurry up and get the camera ready because I don't usually tolerate anything put on my head. The baby pink bandana is the salon's fault. They see me naked the whole time, can't they see I am a BOY ??? What are they thinking about? And Mama don't try to wrap it around my head so it looks like "motorcyclist fashion". It's not manly if the color is pink! I thought I was the only one who was colorblind...

My hairstyles

These pictures were taken right after coming back from the hair salon. The gold ribbon is not too bad...
Mama is responsible for the stylish fringe(bangs) in the batch I am not wearing anything on my hair and it's sort of parted to one side. Mommy knows what's in and out in hair fashion! I put some songs in my slides. Have fun!

My hairdressers

Since I was born, I've only had 2 radical haircuts. The first one, I was a little over 1 year old and I thought I was going to look as beautiful as Sammie with the same haircut he usually has, so when I was on vacation at my Grandma J's I asked her to take me to Sammie's salon for that. We went together, Sammie looked cute as always and I didn't. I have a long neck and it looked a bit strange. My consolation was the fact my hair grows real fast and it was Summer time and less hair would definetely be more comfortable for me. Now I know that haircut doesn't work for me. The second one is the one I have right now. It made me look younger, pretty much like when I was a baby. They call it "puppy cut". In between, all I had at hair salons was some trimming around my paws, face, belly and bottom. A couple things that piss me off at these places are:
1. They dope me, not heavily, but they do. I keep telling them I'm well behaved but they don't listen. My parents notice my slightly different behavior when they pick me up from the salon and they believe they dope me. GRRRRR!
2. They often mistake me for a girl and I usually come back home with pink or red ribbons in my hair. WHY ???
Anyway, I'm posting some photos taken with those in my hair, because Mama thought I looked cute wearing them.

Music Videos

I am now adding some music videos to my slideshows with songs I like at the moment. If you like them you can watch them very tiny in the bottom left of the screen while the slideshow is being played or you can click on "full size view" and view it instead of my slideshow and once you're done viewing it, you can view the photos or, the other way around. It's pretty cool, you can watch both the slide and the video as many times as you like or until your ears can't stand the song anymore.
I believe I don't share the same musical taste with everybody, so in case you don't want to listen to the music, just click on the Sound icon in the video to mute it and enjoy the slides only.

I'm so hairy!!!

My hair is long and if I don't have it cut, it can grow all the way to the floor. Mama thought she would let it grow forever, but it would be very high maintenance. She is the first one to complain about all the work. The thing is, my hair is so thin and yet voluminous, that even when combed daily, it's very hard to detangle in certain areas like my neck and chest where I use my collar or harness. Mommy has been brushing me since I was a baby, and that is such an important thing to do at an early age. It's amazing how much we have bonded with our grooming sessions alone. I trust Mama will not hurt me while trying to untangle my hair even if it takes a whole hour when she finds herself lost in the mats. I wish she could do my nails and cut my hair too, so I wouldn't need to go to the hair salon anymore. I don't like those places! Thank you so much for taking care of me Mama. Dad, thanks for giving me a bath most of the time.
In this slideshow I had mats galore, in all pictures, poor Mama!

I was thirsty!!!!!!!!!!

Ok I'm hairy, but that is another whole story/post. Well, because I'm hairy, I have to drink water in a special way. Usually when my moustache and beard get wet, they don't smell good after a while(that's what Mama says)so, I always drink water from the bottle, yes, the bottle! Dad is totally fine with me drinking from the bowl but Mama convinced him that my water would stay fresh in the bottle and that would minimize the wetting and...stinking of my facial hair:(
I much prefer drinking from the bowl because I can get more water faster than drinking from the bottle, drop by drop and lying on my belly, but...I got used to it. It is quite a treat when I go to my Grandma J's and get to drink from Sammie's bowl. Mama says it's OK once in a while, yeeeeaaah!
When I was little, the bottle was attached to my crate but as I grew older and got potty-trained, I didn't need it anymore and it was taking too much room in the hallway area so, my "Mr.Do-it-All" Daddy invented a great wooden "thing" which had a metal grid to hold my bottle and that took much less room than the crate. Only its door was being used as a support for the bottle so we decided to put it away in the basement. My Dad's invention was a pine wood circle base with 2 wooden pillars securily fixed to it vertically and paralell to each other, far out from from the center of the circle. Those pillars held the metal grid to which the bottle was attached on one side. The rest of the circle, behind the other side of the grid, was used to store my huge food container. It is a pity I don't have a single picture of this anywhere in my files, and won't be able to take any since my Dad donated it to the Salvation Army last year. We've found something even smaller made out of PVC tubes, which is also great. No need to lie down, now I can drink while I stand!
Look how thirsty I was after that riot in the backyard. In this video, I am drinking from my Dad's invention(you can see part of it...), the "Sushi Fountain".

Good Boy !

I love it! I love it! I love it! Positive reinforcement(I think this is the educational approach my parents are using to raise me). What makes me think so is I'm a little over 2 years old now and unlike other unfortunate children, I've never been beaten or severely punished by either Mom or Dad because I was misbehaving. Whenever I did anything wrong, they let me know they didn't approve of my behavior( in rare situations, I swear!)and right afer that, they showed me how they wanted me to behave and if I learned quickly (which usually happened...errrr..apologies for my being conceited here...)they rewarded me with some sort of small prize like a cookie, a little treat or a few kibbles, but my favorite one sounded like music to my ears: GOOD BOY SUSHI! GOOD BOY !!! That is just magical. I really like being praised for something I do right(who doesn't?) and it makes me feel great about myself. Plus, I make both my parents happy too and when they're happy...I'm happy!
I can say that positive reinforcement did work for me and still does. No traumas, no resentment, fast learning(because you don't get to be called "STUPID!" when you don't "get it" the first time around and that usually slows the whole learning process down since your mind blanks out)and of course my "music": GOOD BOY SUSHI! GOOD BOY!!!
I will always be a child to my parents, even though I am not one anymore in the four legged world and chronologically speaking as well. In spite of that, I will be a child at heart forever and might still make some mistakes in the future, but I'm cool 'cause I know they believe in my potential and use positive reinforcement.GOOD BOY SUSHI! GOOD BOY!!! OOOOOH I love it!

The other side of the backyard fence. I'M FIERCE!!!

Beautiful day, my favorite time to be in the deck sunbathing and guarding the house, that's my job. When I'm on duty my ears and nose are like radars detecting anything that can threaten my family's security even while I'm lost in my afternoon nap. Any slight odor or noise would get me up and ready to fight to protect my territory. I am usually disturbed by the presence of, I guess 3 individuals behind my backyard fence on the left side. One is two-legged, and the other two are her four-legged children. I've never seen them, but Mama told me those children are much, much bigger than me. Sometimes I try to look in their backyard through a hole in the dirt under the fence but it's kind of difficult to see through. I'm not at all intimidated by those other kids and I am here to do my job well. I don't really know what happens to my brain when I hear them approach, that I rush down the steps to the yard, and start shouting at them in a language that consists of only one word: WOOF! Don't know why, I just lose my mind in these situations and the only word I can say when I'm challenged is WOOF repeated several times at different pitches and intervals. I can also say WOOF!!! or wooooooof or just Woof! depending on my mood. My Dad says it's WOOF! but my Mama says it's AU! AU! AU! that I say, not WOOF! WOOF! WOOF! They keep arguing over it, silly guys...Check out the video of me doing my job and speaking my one-word language( WOOF! or AU!)Please don't be upset Daddy but after listening to myself here I think Mama is right on this one. AU!AU!AU!(sorry neighbors...)

Meeting my Grandma C

On October 21st, 2006 and my Grandma C arrived from Brazil. I showered and got all groomed for her to make a good first impression, and I made! She's going to stay with us for a long time. We'd better like each other... In the beginning I wasn't so much at ease with her because like Mama, she was not used to four legged people either. However, she was not afraid of me and we quickly began to get along very,very well. She took me for walks in the park almost everyday except on those nasty weather days. She kept me company and an eye on me, while my Mom was at work. I had lap time, nap time, cookie time, a wonderful time! I love you Grandma C and I know you love me too. I'll be telling more of our stories in upcoming posts.

Another potty training aid...GREAT !

I'm already one year old and pretty much house trained but my crafty Grandma C( my Mom's Mom)sent me a bell which is supposed to be hung on the kitchen door knob, so whenever I feel like going potty I can just ring it and someone would let me out. She made that herself using micro beads, nylon thread and Christmas bells( about 6 of them). It is basically a strip with my name written on it vertically, and the cool thing is she wrote it by juxtaposing the beads in order to form my name. Along each side of the strip she attached 3 little bells. It didn't take long before I started using it by myself after some demonstrations Mama gave to me on how it worked. The main purpose of using this tool is, to signal to my parents that I need to go potty since they don't speak Woof very well. But, I'm smarter and ring it whenever I wanna go out, whether it is just to do my business,sunbathe or get a breath of fresh air. Since they do know I'll only do my business outside they always open the door for me. Check out the video of me using this great gift Grandma C sent to me from Brazil. Thanks Grandma, I can't wait to meet you in person!(video is not straight but you can still see how it works)

Club house, the woods and......Ticks! Aaaarrrgh !

In one of my visits to Hermann( maybe the weekend of my Birthday, can't remember...), I had a chance to go out to the country and run freely as never before. The club house is in the middle of nowhere, amidst the woods where silence and peace reign supreme. A serene fishing pond is surrounded by irregular terrain with some of its margin's lengths lying beneath softly inclined slopes. I couldn't resist indulging in such a magnificent adventure into the woods with my Dad, experiencing different scents along the way, running at full speed, getting all muddy and even drinking water from the little creeks(I think that gave me belly ache the next day, but who cares,I had a blast!).
The only thing I did not like about all this was the amount of ticks that attached themselves to my skin. It hurts!!! I hate ticks, who doesn't?

Happy 1st Birthday to me!

Today 09/17/06,I turned one. My Mom and Dad sang Happy B-day to me and so did my Grandpa and Grandma. I was in Hermann but we didn't celebrate because we're always busy when we visit. My Aunt V and Uncle N also stopped by to say HI and wish me a Happy Birthday. Although I didn't blow out any candle or there wasn't a cake for me,I was very happy indeed. I had all the hugs I wanted and my favorite treat,yum!

Meeting Orson

My Mom had to fly out to Utah one weekend in May 2006 to see Daddy(he was working there then). She also visited my Aunt Cane who lives there. These airlines are so fussy sometimes, that I decided not to go with Mama and stay at my Dad's cousin's instead. Thank you E for having me over! He has a cute son named Orson. We couldn't communicate very well since he speaks Meow and I speak Woof. We were trying hard to have a conversation but it didn't work out. His Dad put him in his lap and I got jealous because I have to monopolize every lap available. I don't know why Orson was a bit scared of me. I believe my voice was louder than his and I was a bit bigger than him as well. I met him only once but I hope to talk to him next time and practice my Meow on him. Such a difficult language to learn! I'm making some progress though. You'd better study some Woof too Orson! I'll post a picture of him as soon as I get it sent to me.

10 months old...modeling career ahead ?

I think I am photogenic and I often ask Mama to take a lot of pictures of me. I like to strike a pose most of the time, but there are times I don't feel like modeling at all and Mama is all excited with the camera to shoot, so she gets a lot of "crappy" pics(excuse my French)and has to either edit,delete or save them so I can use some here just to embarass myself... You never know, I might be on the cover of a famous magazine one day...check this batch out on a Times Square billboard in NYC. I really liked the results and hope you do too. Have fun!

Growing up

I grew up quite fast. After my first Christmas, just a bit after the new year of 2006, when my parents returned from their skiing trip in Utah, they almost didn't recognize me. I stayed at my Grandma A's in Hermann and as always, I had a great time. Thank you both so much for having me over. I was much bigger and my hair was longer too. That was the most noticeable growth spurt of the whole growing up thing. It was a nice process for me, I've grown more after that, not many major changes in my body- just lost all my baby teeth and got new ones as time went by. I don't remember losing them, but I'd swallow my own teeth sometimes...I don't know how I managed to do that, but I did because I was not aware. Maybe I was eating while it happened.
I learned how to behave better in any given situation and I do great in the car. I never pace or feel sick ; I usually lie on my Mama's lap. I think they did wonderful letting me out of the carrier on my first car ride. I'm used to very long road trips. I learned to pee on trees, polls, short bushes or whatever I identified as a target to mark my territory.That took a little while, I was a little over one year old when I started to do that. I just learned this by myself, neither Mama or Dad have taught me to do so, but they approve of this behaviour, as long as I don't go to the bathroom in the house. I also felt much more comfortable on the leash ( I understand, my parents only want to prevent me from getting lost in the park or streets).My food is usually the same, some dry kibbles, but I've tried different flavors after one whole year eating something called: puppy chow. I was getting tired of that already! I also learned to behave better when being groomed, it is almost impossible to do it by myself like felines do, so I rely on my Mama's patience and dedication to keep me looking great at all times. I'd say the grooming is one of the most important step in bonding with Mama and Daddy. He is responsible for my baths, most of the time, and she takes care of my hair and cleans my eyes and ears. Sometimes Dad combs me but he's not very patient when dealing with all the mats and tangles so I'd rather have Mama as my official hair care professional ( she's not really a hairdresser because she cannot cut my hair, but she puts me in a lot of different hairdos, some of them are OK but others... give me a break....piggy tails for example.... why do you do this Mama?)