Puppy Paradise

Hey I gave birth to a litter of nine puppies in July and thought I would be blogging about it every week, but being a new mom was totally exhausting and so I disappeared from cyberspace for awhile. You can see some videos of the puppy birth and the little darlings when they were tiny tots at http://www.mountaindogbooks.com/video.html.

Now that the puppies are all in good homes and I’ve had a vacation, I’m feeling a little more normal and can say it was a lot of fun having those little guys around! Four of the pups were born at home, but then I had to go to the vet to have the rest because one was stuck upside down – little (well, big) Dougie. I was a real good mom, too. I licked the puppies and kept them all clean and fed them for 4-5 weeks. Then they got sharp little teeth and learned to eat mush and that was a huge relief.

I had 5 boys and 4 girls and named them Dougie, Ziggy, Dot, Ava, Meyers, Lilly, Spock, Oliver, and Katybeth. There are lots of cute pictures of them at http://www.mountaindogbooks.com/puppyphotos.html. They were a hoot, those little rascals! At first they ‘swam’ around like fish because they couldn’t walk or see anything, but in only a couple of weeks they opened their eyes and started walking around, then soon they were running in all different directions. You can only imagine the chaos, I guarantee! They loved to play with each other and wrestle and nip at each other and then slept in a big dog pile until they got a little older. I was really happy they all went to live with great people, and guess what? We got to keep one!

Little Dot stayed to live with us. (She's the one looking like a clown in the picture). She was named that because she has a big spot on her tummy. And she has funny little dots here and there, just to back up her name. She's getting pretty big already, geez she was only born 5 months ago!  She’s a sassy little gal, but we like having her in the pack and she’s learning how to behave pretty well, although she chewed up Mom’s golf shoe last night.

Mom is going to write a new book about those puppies, which should come out in the spring. But in the meantime, you can still get the last two books and stuffed toys that look just like those puppies at http://www.mountaindogbooks.com/store.html - you know, if some young reader needs one for a holiday gift!

Peace, Motherhood, and Happy Holidays!
xo
Hannah

Hannah Gets Her DAG Card

Dad says it’s official – I can get a DAG Card! (The Dog Actor’s Guild, silly…) Check out our new beach video. If you liked the Snow Day Video you won’t be able to wait to see our antics on the beach!

And check out these shenanigans at home. Mom set up a blue screen for me and everything. Boy did we have fun shooting this video. Dad was doubled over and mom cracking up so hard when she was editing that she wet her pants, just like Lucy does when someone fun comes to visit. She said I looked like Buck Rogers, whoever that is – some beach dude I guess. We haven’t heard them in hysterics like that for awhile. It got us all worked up to trying to figure out what was happening. But then I think they were laughing just because it was us and we’re connected to them. We’re nutty crazy for the beach and love makin’ waves. I hope the kids think the new video is funny, too.

Not only that – Mom had an interview with Hal on KRXA 540 last Friday before her book signing at Pilgrims Way bookstore in Carmel. If you’re super bored today you can listen to that, too.

The holidays are coming, so remember – you can buy “A Snow Day For Hannah” and “A Beach Day For Hannah” online or at your neighborhood bookstore. (If they don’t carry it, then if you ask for it maybe they will.)

A Special Event: Hannah and Lucy will be at the Sie Film Center on Colfax (formerly the Denver Film Center) on Sunday, Dec 16 at 11:00. Mom will do a reading, we'll watch the videos and then guess what? The kids get to watch The Polar Express and SANTA WILL BE THERE!!!

Mom is also going to do a reading at Gorsuch in Vail on December 21st from 2-6pm. They are selling her books like nobody’s business – on display as you walk in the door with the little Hannah dogs... (they are Berner lovers, you know!) Lucky me to be in such a fancy pants store.

Hang Ten…
Love Hannah

Carting & Caroling with the BMDCR

The Bernese Mountain Dog Club of the Rockies had a great gig last weekend called "Carting and Caroling." The decked out dogs were soooo cute and these carts are soooo cool! (We need to get one for book peddling - and maybe a penquin, too. It's the right colors after all.) And these guys had a great sense of humor, too. For example, here are some of the doggie lyrics to the carol, "White Christmas":

I'm dreaming of a dog biscuit
Tall as a house and twice as wide
Little toys that squeak
And kids that shriek
And huge bones made of rawhide.

Then there were tunes using lyrics like "yellow snow, yellow snow, yellow snow!"

Dad, of course, loves to sing songs, especially if the songs have funny lyrics. There were Berners toting

Berners, Berners celebrating in Christmas outfits, Berners hanging in Hanukkah hoopla (or were those Hannah-ka getups?) and lots of holiday cheer to go around. One dog howled through the whole thing. I'm not sure if he was singing or trying to get the people to stop their silly canine santa songs, but everyone was in a happy holiday mood, and very well behaved I must say!

Hope you're starting to get in the holiday spirit, and that you need lots of books for kids, too!

Mom thinks she's at about 600 "A Snow Day For Hannah" books sold in 2 months with more orders coming in, and apparently that ain't all bad!!

Love and cartfuls of holiday cheer!
Hannah

Hannah Spins a Yarn

It was super duper cold out today so Lucy and I were left inside while Mom and Dad went to work. Mom wasn't too happy with me when she got home. Not only was I hangin' real sweet on the couch, but I found her knitting and tore that yarn all apart. Boy was that a blast!! She yelled at me and called me a "feline." That didn't sound too good to me. She said I needed to do 100 hail marys and no bones for a week. She said I could have choked to death and kept ranting and raving on and on, bla, bla, bla.

But that scolding wasn't as bad as last week. We did this whole book thing in northern California - driving around peddling books. Lucy and I were pretty good hanging in the lap of luxury in the back of the Tahoe on our cushion thrones until we picked up Dad at the airport and got to Sacramento. Then I found some great smelling poop on the lawn next to the gas station and rolled in it. (We only had two more days of driving to go!) Boy was Mom on fire then!! Dad tried to squeegy that great poop off of me and Mom kept pouring water on me and saying a lot of bad words I'm not supposed to repeat.

But the trip was worthwhile. "A Snow Day For Hannah" is in about 60 book and toy stores now and we're running out of those cute little stuffed dogs that look like me with the edleweiss collars. And hey, the Follett Company contacted Mom unsolicited and said they want her to set up an account so that their library and school customers can buy the book. She was a lot happier about that than the poop roll. She danced around a lot and so Lucy and I danced with her.

Hope you don't need a sweater!
Love and yarn balls to you!! Hannah

Travels With Hannah

I traveled around the western part of Colorado last week with Mom and Julie Mordecai, Executive Director of the Colorado Alliance of Boys and Girls Clubs. We all had a blast meeting kids, doing readings, and I especially liked all the attention I got. One little boy was so excited to see me he wet his pants (like I do sometimes when I see my folks after they've been away for awhile). Another boy said "I had a dog but someone killed it!" That scared me a little, but Mom says I'm pretty safe.

Anyway, we must have met over 200 kids altogether in Craig, Steamboat, Grand Junction, Durango, and Alamosa. Lots of them have dogs of their own. But they thought I was cute, too.

Mom got to stop at lots of books stores and we were in a few papers and we even got to be on the public radio in Ignacio! Mom was a little nervous to be live on the radio, but it sounded like she did okay and another guy, Vonn, from the Boys & Girls Clubs was on with her.

But our favorite thing was that Julie had a pajama party in Alamosa and a bunch of kids came over in their jammies for a reading while their parents drank wine and bought books to support the Boys & Girls Clubs. We met a 7 week old adorable Bernese puppy named Yoda. He was missing his litter and sure liked to play with all the little stuffed dogs that Mom was selling with the book! Can you tell which one he is?

Tomorrow we head out to peddle books in Utah, Nevada, & California!

Love and Kisses from Hannah!

Hannah & Her Sister Star in Ben-Fur

As dogs we, of course, eagerly love to go on walks ~ as many walks a day as anyone will take us on! It’s the highlight of the day ~ all those smells, places to go, things to see… But now that I’m a little older this has become problematic if only one master is available to walk us together.

At first Mom tried walking us on separate leashes and complained it was like reigning in the Budweiser Clydesdales. (Click on Clydesdale video - love the hair extenders!) Frankly we did conspire to drag her down the street; and then connived to wrap the leashes around her legs; and then argued about it loudly when we were all tangled in a

knot. It was hard for Mom to maneuver a baggy pick up as well. That’s always quite exciting. We’ve even pulled Mom down a couple of times, we’re so strong as a team. She’s not too keen on that!

So Mom got us a new get-up ~ well really she rigged it so that Dad could walk us both over to get her Starbucks latte in the morning. He claims we’re like Ben-Hur racing around the track with our harnesses and the doggy connectivity device. (Click here for exciting Ben-Hur race & imagine Dad in one of those hats) Lucy and I think we’re the stars of Ben-Fur... but me thinks Dad’s kinda being a chicken. He’s too scared to carry the two cups of hot coffee back in the chariot. Mom’s gotta figure out a coffee connectivity device so we can work it all out and accomplish our act of service in the morning.

Mom says my book is finally coming in a couple more weeks. I can't wait to see it!!

Love & tons of harnessed energy!!
Hannah

Hannah & the Mama Grizzly

Mom says it’s a dog-eat-dog world in politics and I’m not supposed to bark about it because I’ll offend potential book buyers. She says even though there’s a lot of rabid politicians, there are a lot of nice Republicans and Democrats out there that like books about dogs, and that I need to “Wag More, Bark Less.” She says I can start my own Pee Party with a unique dogma and try to clean up the smelly mess left under the bushes if I want.

Don’t let your karma
Run over your dogma!

Love, Hannah

PS: Dad got a new mangroomer from Sharper Image!

Hannah & the Mangroomer

Hi, it’s Lucy here, Hannah’s sister. (I’m guest blogging today, that’s me on the left licking my chops.) Hannah’s in some trouble. We were driving up to the mountains and mom and dad stopped in Vail for a brief time and left us with a car full of fun stuff to consider. They think we are maturing, but we’re totally not at all! We’re still full of mischief!! But hey, think about it. They left us with a mangroomer and that looked like a dangerous item that needed to be taken down. I told Hannah, “Just imagine if dad turns that thing on us, he could shave us bald or give us a Mohawk, and then what would we look like? And leave us with a hairy rat tail, or a mullet to boot!” That might look good on other folks or a poodle, but she wasn’t too keen on that so we agreed to tear it apart ~ and his other electric razor too. Dad wasn’t too happy (although we did see him laugh), and he didn’t really want to share this story too much either. But it’s a good one and now his back is still like ours. He should be happy that we saved him!

BTW, mom says the book is going to the printer this week and should be ready in early September. We can hardly wait!

Keeping up the good work!
Love, Lucy

Hannah & Her Monkey Business

Dad went fishing this morning with his brother and Mom was on the phone for awhile with her sister, telling her about my book, and so I snuck upstairs to find out what was going on up there. Didn't take long to find this cute little monkey - well, not so little. He was big and stuffed full of great stuffing like a big old turkey. He kind of looked like Curious George and so I shred him. (You know Curious George, right? He gets into so much trouble that it seemed like I should retaliate somehow.) Schnikees was that so much fun! I got the stuffing all over the room and my sister, Lucy, was just watching me and smiling. I think she's a little older and wiser, because I got into some serious trouble after my mom found the monkey and stopped laughing. Well, I think it was more about the other monkey business that I left for her in the other room. Sure stunk up the place real good! But she was on the phone and didn't let me out in time, and she was the one that left the door open so I could go up there! She should have known better!!

Happy shredding!
Love, Hannah

Hannah & the Blender

When Mom & Dad came home after going out to dinner last night I was totally freaked out and hiding in the bathroom, locked in the shower to boot! She couldn't find me but she was startled by this really loud noise in the kitchen. (I was startled too, to say the least!!) I don't know what happened but when I was sneaking up on the counter I think I knocked one of my big old paws onto some kitchen machine and moved a knob. Mom laughed when she saw the blender was on and the house hadn't burned down yet. She said she thought I was making margaritas, but I'm not sure what those are. I learned a lesson, though - no more sneaking up to look on the counter for me, boy! That scared the beegeebees out of me!

Don't get locked in the shower today! Come read my book instead!!
Love Hannah

Hannah's Safeway Adventure

I had the mostest funnest adventure this morning. (Even better than when we made my book!) Mom went into the grocery store and I waited patiently in the car for her. Usually I like to sit in the drivers seat when she’s gone and pretend I can drive. But today I waited in the back of the SUV because I could see her walk in and out of the store. I was really ready when she came out to load the groceries in the back. I pretended to be sitting real good and straight, but as soon as she leaned over to put in a grocery bag I jumped right over her and ran into Safeway! Oh boy, oh boy was that funtastic! I ran circles around all the fruit bins and she was chasing me everywhere, but sure shoot she couldn’t catch me. I think she was laughing pretty hard, but I can’t be sure. It was a super fun game. Some work guys were putting in really long florescent tubes. Luckily I dodged around them! Everyone in the store was so surprised and laughing at me. I was having a blast! I was trying to find the meat department but I never made it there. I headed for the front door with a big grin on my face! I almost knocked over a little old lady on my way out, but I was more careful than mom expected, which was a great relief to her. (I think she was glad it was so early in the morning and less people were there.) A nice man caught me in the parking lot. Boy, oh boy was mom mad! She yelled at me and said I could have been hit by a car, besides being just so plain unruly and full of trickery. I don’t know – what do you think? I think it was worth it!

Big doggy smile & lots of licks...
Love, Hannah

Hannah's Book: A Snow Day for Hannah

Hannah loves mountain climbing and the snow. When she sees a snow storm coming, she high-tails it home to wait out the storm. She can't wait until it's over because then she will be able to bound outside and play in the fresh snow.

Follow Hannah's snow adventure in this adorable children's book. Filled with fabulous photographs of this cute little pup, enjoy the rhymes as you watch her climb up!

Hi - this is Hannah and I would love it if you came to visit my very own website to look at my very own book. You can see all kinds of super cute pictures of me climbing mountains and doing fun stuff in the snow that you might want to do too! Do you know what? Some kids have never even seen or felt the snow and so together we can show them what it's like!

Lots of Puppy Love!
Hannah