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 & 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