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

People Do Cool Stuff, Too

Sometimes people are so cool! This really nice lady named Patty Aarons and her friend Judy took their gorgeous Bernese Mountain Dogs to two book readings for kids in Michigan. They have dogs named Skye, Trina, Magnum (I bet he’s big), Abigail and Annie B. Two of them have special CGC Certification – that’s a Canine Good Citizen. (I’m not certified to do a darned thing!) Anyhow – They read my books at The Atlanta Public Library and The Lewiston Library Reading Garden in the great state of Michigan and even got a spread in the Montmorency County Tribune.

They’ll do another reading on Aug 9th at Gaylord, MI Library. Here are some pictures. Isn’t that just the nicest thing to do? I’ll tell ya – kids love us Berners!!
Patty said that Skye tried to sneak off with a stuffed me. (I like to play with - and shred - those cute little stuffed Hannah toys, too!) I'm not sure why mom thinks kids want these toys 'cause Berners sure like to play with little puppy dollies like themselves. But kids like to play with them, too.

Another creative teacher at Chapin School in New York read the book to her kids and then they did snow stuff they don’t normally get to do. For example, they did some sledding on wheels in the gym and then puffed up a parachute stuffed with cotton balls so all the kids got to be in a big snow globe! How much fun was that? I like to catch blowing bubbles, but cotton balls would be a riot!
Love and good cheer to cool people!
Hannah

Hannah and Her Sister Star in a New Movie

Hannah and her sister, Lucy, filmed their antics in the snow over New Years weekend (yes there was snow on the ground!)

Hold on, please, for two minutes of doggie amusement:
Watch Hannah's Video!
If you like it don't forget to "Like" it!

We sold over 1300 copies of "A Snow Day For Hannah" since Oct 15!! Thanks for all of your support. YOU helped us do this!!

Happy New Year and Best Wishes For Fresh Powder!
Love,
Hannah & Lucy

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 Understands Denver, The Guilty Dog

Over the weekend I did a bad, bad thing (but it was fun)! Mom had some gals visiting for some ‘girly’ time. Her friend Ann (who is creating her own blog called “The Healthy Lush”) had these awesome, fabulous smelling sandles. Ann eats lots of healthy soul food and so that’s probably why those soles were so hard to resist. I didn’t really chew on that part of the sandles, though. After all, that’s the most important part! I just chewed off the top thong parts - It seemed more helpful to leave the soles. Mom didn’t understand. She says I’m full of badness! She made me watch “Denver the Guilty Dog” three times and do a few hail Marys and sent me into time out. I know I was supposed to feel guilty, but Denver was hilarious on his way to the penalty box (Ann has a cool yellow lab dog named Bailey that kinda looks like Denver)

If you're into guilty dogs - watch this one too! Poor Maggie!

BTW, Mom is psyched because Baker & Taylor said that they will distribute the book and we're almost done with the proofs from the printer. Maybe we really will get the book in September!

Love and a soulful expression!
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 & 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

About Me, Hannah the Mountain Dog

Hi there! I'm Hannah and I'm a Bernese Mountain Dog. My ancestors originally came from Bern, Switzerland. Sometimes people call us "Berners" as a nickname.

Do you have a nickname? My other nickname is "Hannibal" and my sister Lucy has the nickname "Lucifer." That's Lucy in the picture with me on this page. We love to play tricks on our people, Linda and Jim, and that's why they gave us these nicknames.

My breed is part of a family of dogs called "Working Class Dogs." Working Class Dogs are really big dogs like Saint Bernards, Newfoundlands and Great Pyranese. Those kinds of dogs are even bigger than me! Working class dogs work really hard at things like pulling milk carts and avalanche rescue, because, you guessed it, we all loooove the snow and the mountains!

And we love people and small people, too! We like to lick nice children and lean on their parents. And if there's any ice cream or peanut butter in sight - you better watch out because I might try to steal it from you!

People love us Berners, too. When I walk down the street, everyone smiles at me, and because I'm a very cute puppy, I puff up my chest, wag my tale a lot and smile back and try to get lots of people to pet me. I'm usually very successful at this, particularly if I'm sitting outside a restaurant waiting for Jim and Linda to finish breakfast. The guy at the breakfast place even named a special pancake dish after me! His name is Tim, his place is called Syrup, and he likes dogs a lot.

Sometimes Linda calls me "Wiggles" because I get excited and squirm around a lot. Do you do that? I bet you do sometimes. Squirm and giggle and wiggle? Those are some of my bestest moves.
Lucy and I are really lucky because we live in Colorado and we get to go hiking in the mountains a lot. One time, though, we drove all the way out to California and got to play on the beach. And you're in big Berner luck because soon you'll get to read about that beach adventure in another book that your folks or grandparents will buy for you!

Love and lots of wet kisses,
Hannah

PS - Come see the book about me called "A Snow Day for Hannah" at http://www.mountaindogbooks.com - I guarantee you'll love it!!