It's HOWL-a-ween!!!

BOO!

Don't be scared! It's just me, Petey!

Happy Howl-o-ween, everybloggie. I hope you're having a spooktacular Saturday. At the park across the street from our apartment, they have a Halloween festival every year. The local supermarket donates about 100 pumpkins and neighbors can take one to carve and bring back to the park where they'll be lit up on Halloween night. It's a pumpkin patch!

Here's the one that Mom and I carved. Well, mostly I just offered artistic direction.

Here are some of my favorite neighbor kids, dressed as Spider Girl and Dalmation #101!

We met this cute little bat pup in the park. He was jumping around so much it was hard to get a photo of him.
Here are some of our favorite Jack-O-Lanterns! Like this Frankenpumpkin....
...or this Three-eyed Mustached Orange People Eater!

I think this pumpkin had one too many of Lacie's Witches Brew Smoothies...

Don't be said, Jack-o-lantern , it's time to trick or treat!!!

Elmo was checking out all the pumpkins. If he was the cookie monster, I have a feeling Mom would have gobbled him all up!

Look at this scary window display at the Marc Jacobs store! Looks like our backyard down on the Island! (I mean, with the Spanish moss and alligators - not the zombies!)

I wish we had a better photo of this townhouse that was completely covered in spiderwebs and big old creepy crawlies!

The stores along Bleecker Street go all out for Halloween with wonderful and creative window decorations.

Hee hee, this little Frenchie had a great curly wig. It isn't easy being green!

These six-month old twins live in our building. Aren't they the cutest monkey and flower you've ever seen?

And here's my costume...I'm the FROG PRINCE! A sure-fire way to get lots of kisses from princesses. (Don't worry Rosie, I'm only talking about the 2-legged variety!)

We'll be headed over to the big party at the Dog Run soon, in the meantime, check out Asta's blog to see photos of our party preparations last night. I made some green monster goo by defuzzing a few tennis balls.

Party photos tomorrow~I can promise you, it will be GREAT!

My favorite Philly...

...comes with extra cheese and steak! Hold the onions (they're no good for dogs — just like the Phillies are no good for the Yankees!!!)

GO YANKEES!!!! (Wonder if I can get a seat next to Kate Hudson?)

Fascinating Facts about Cairn Terriers (like ME!)

We just watched a program called Dogs 101 that featured CAIRN TERRIERS!!!!

We are very famous for our STARRING role in The Wizard of Oz. Terry, the black female Cairn whose name was changed to Toto after the movie, was paid $125 a week. The munchkins made less than $100 a week.

Many celebrities have owned Cairn Terriers, including Bill Murray, Liza Minelli and David Hasselhoff!

Our front paws are bigger than our back paws! This makes us excellent diggers (although I've only dug one hole in my life—in the park across the street during spring planting—and Mom quickly dropped in some crocus bulbs and covered it up. I was doing my part!).

I'd never really noticed until we took a closer look at my pawprints in the sand...

And perhaps most interestingly, we're left-pawed. Which could come in mighty handy tomorrow night at Yankee Stadium!!!!

Mica in action!

Our pal Willie took these photos of Mica drinking at the sink while we were away - pretty awesome, huh? Biggify it to get the full effect. (And no, Lacie, you cannot date him!)

Mica seems to be just fine - good appetite, nice pink tongue (pale tongues and gums indicate anemia) and he slept like a baby tucked into the crook of Mommy's arm all night! I think maybe he just missed us...

My Halloween costume arrived while we were away. Oh boy! It's not nearly as heavy as last year's dragon costume.

I've been dressing up for Halloween ever since I was a skinny pup! Like the first year, when I was a pirate. The next year I wore the same skull and crossbones sweater with a big gold and rhinestone necklace and was a gangster rapper!

Then two years ago, I was dressed like this...

I was STING! And Mommy wore a police cap and badge and sunglasses and was THE POLICE.

Another one of my favorite costumes was the year I was a Devil Dog! Except everytime I'd shake off my horns, Mommy said I looked like Little Red Riding Hood...

...and nobody's ever scared of Little Red Riding Hood.

You'll just have to wait until next Saturday for our GINORMOUS Halloween party at the run to see this year's costume. I'm not even giving you a hint!

Last days at the beach...

Well, Mom says we're headed back to New York on Wednesday. (Oh, and for those of you who think we've been on vacation, not quite. We're now just splitting our time between Islands. Not bad, huh?)

But Mom says I need to get back to New York because I've become a bad-ass Marsh Puppy. We were back over at Buddy's yesterday and he and I took turns dropping a rubber ball off the the dock so his Mom would have to scoop it out for us with a net. Great fun. Of course, it was high tide, so no pluff mud, but I still ignored Mom and wandered into the marsh, even took a little dip in the creek...


And look at my tail! It's so overgrown, it looks like a feather. And my ear hairs are so long, I look more like a marsh bunny than a city-slick Cairn terrier. I think there's a haircut in my future this week... Plus when you shake me, enough sand falls off to build a castle. 

Speaking of which, it was wide and flat and empty when we went down yesterday, but we still liked this photo and wanted to share it with you. Pull up a seat!

Here's another one of the little 2-leggeds I befriended. They're all over the place and so happy to throw the ball over and over for me. 

Like this little girl. She played with me for hours. The little Sheltie didn't want the ball, instead, she'd herd me back when I ran off to get the ball, yapping her head off the whole time. 

Here's the dog run we went to this weekend, when it was too cold to go the beach in the morning... Don't you love the name?

Tons of trees to leave pee-mails on, nice muddy mulch, sand to dig in, and tennis balls everywhere. There are even drinking fountains with two basins, one for people and one for dogs.

C'mon Mom, throw the ball already!

Okay - back to the beach....

Mom saw this little sign on the porch at the Iron Fish Gallery and she just loved it. I'm declaring it a birthday greeting for Asta's Daddi George! Good advice for all of us, right?

Okay, this last bit is for Clive's Not-so-little Man who loves dolphins. Mommy had to borrow these photos from Flicker, because she never had her camera with her when these things happened. 

First, on the boat ride over to Daufuskie Island, she saw a wild dolphin leap out of the water and fall back on his back!  It was very exciting and in all the years she's been coming to the South Carolina Low Country, she's never seen a dolphin behave like that. 

Then last night, she had dinner with one of Granny's old friends and Buddy's Mom and another friend. The ladies were all sitting in the sunroom,  overlooking a tidal creek that's right off the deck when Mommy shouted! There was a dolphin just feet away flipping his tail and splashing the water. 

Dolphins in the Low Country have developed a "habit" for lack of a better word, where they strand small fish and shrimp, usually at low tide, by slamming the water with their bodies and tails to stun their dinner, then running it up on the marsh mud where they'll lie on their sides and feast. They are NOT in danger when they do this, although this is referred to as strand feeding. And you only see dolphins do this here in the South Carolina lowcountry. Scientists say it's a learned behavior. Anyhow, the first thing Mommy thought was "WOW! Would Not-so-little Man LOVE to see this!"

Next post: Back in New York City!

Pluff Mudbath

I'd like to introduce you to Pluff Mud. For you mud-loving pups, it's hard to find mud better than Pluff Mud. It's the dark soft soil in the marshes of the Lowcountry of South Carolina that's usually exposed at low tide. It's has a distinct odor that is the result of a combination of bacteria, water and climate.


It's pretty delicious soft and stinky stuff. I even found this song about it.

Pluff Mud Song

I sucks off yo topsiders
Cuts off yo toes
Why you still loves me
Nobody knows

I gets in the cuts on yo feets an' yo hands
An' gives you vibrio vulnificans
I raise half the fush and the swimps in the sea
That's why you can't get along without me

Pluuuuuf Muddddd!

Now, I've never really explored mud before, not like my muddy bestest pal, Eric Square Dog who is a real collector of fine muds. However, today when I went to visit my pal Buddy and saw it was mean low tide, I became entranced with this pudding-like soil...

(Note: The following photos are simulated by Mom since she was shrieking at me like a banshee and was dressed to go out to lunch and didn't want to leave me to grab her camera.)

Buddy has an electric fence so he stays in his yard. Since he's a big black lab mix boy, I've learned that I can escape his vigorous antics by crossing over his invisible fence. Today, I headed over to the neighbors, and decided to explore underneath their dock. Mom was hollering at me like crazy, but I was singing a little song to myself...

"lalalalala, I can't hear you,lalalala, my name's not Petey today, lalalalala, I've already got the best tennis ball so what are you offering me?lalalalala!"

Soon I was crunching over fiddler crabs and oyster shells into fluffy, smelly, dark brown PLUFF MUD!!!
Here is a simulation of what I looked like (minus the tennis ball) when I finally came back to Buddy's backyard. It was as if I was wearing dark brown muddy hip waders! Delightful!!! 

Mommy begged to differ. 

So I got hosed down until my legs were almost back to their normal color. Then we headed home (Mom was very happy she invested in that doggy sling for the back seat) and Mom saw that I still had lots of pluff mud on my chest and chin. You can see it if you biggify this photo.

So I was exiled to the screened porch while Mom had lunch with Buddy's Mom. When she got back we headed to the beach so I could dunk in the ocean and Mommy could give me a really good hosing down! 

Ahhhhh PLUFF MUD!!! Shall we sing that song together?

Mica Update: That tough old tiger is just fine! No more nosebleeds, great appetite and back to his usual tricks. We'll be happy to see him for ourselves when we get back to NYC next week!

Still at the beach & pawsitive vibes for Mica!

Hi there everybloggie! It's me, Petey, still hanging out at the beach. Seems like summer is still hanging out here too. We had record-setting temperatures yesterday - 92-degrees! - and the ocean temperature is just about perfect. Cool enough to be refreshing but not bone-chilling. Deeelightful! Best of all, now that it's October, I can be off leash all day long on the beach.

Ahhhh! Nothing like a big stretch of cool damp sand and a well-chewed tennis ball!

We usually walk down to that tall skinny tree every day. Just look how wide open it is even with the tide coming in!

Scout and Harlan's Mom came to visit last weekend. She and Mom went with Buddy's Mom over to Daufuskie Island on their boat, as there's no bridge to the Island. It's about 5 miles by 2 miles in size, with very few cars, even fewer paved roads, and lots of wilderness. They hopped on a golf cart and rode over to the Iron Fish Gallery (check it out - it's SO cool! - www.ironfishart.com) where Mom got this Juvenile Unicornfish that she named Frank. The artist, Chase Allen, wasn't there but he has an honor policy. The metal fish are all displayed on the outdoor porch of his cottage. If he's not there, you just take what you want and leave a note in the guest book for him to contact you. Or slip a check under the door. I know! And you know what? He doesn't get ripped off!

Here's Frank swimming in our newly wallpapered powder room. He looks awesome against the nautical maps, huh? If you biggify him, you can see his smile. And his eye is a modified CA for the artist. Cool!

Okay - time for another cute photo of the saltiest, sandiest dog on the Island!

We had a visitor on our deck last week - this young hawk. I don't know if he'd seen me playing out there and thought I'd be a good snack or what. He's either a red-shouldered or red-tailed hawk. He was squawking away. Mom's camera had a dead battery so she took these with her iPhone through the shutters in the bedroom.

Maybe he just came for a closer look at the Yard Bird. 
Now, you know I adore my wife Rosie Posie. But recently my heart was stolen by another four-legged. Well, two 2-leggeds, actually. These absolutely gorgeous three-year old twin sisters. Have you ever seen anything so cute? We ran into them on the beach three days in a row. They were visiting from Indiana. They quickly learned how to throw the ball for me, then they'd be so impressed with my catching skills, they'd squeal and clap their hands and dance in the sand with glee.

We three attracted quite a crowd. It was rather charming. I think we should get our own TV show or at least a Hallmark card....

Now for a bit of serious news. Apparently, over the past few days, Mica has had slight nosebleeds at night. Our friend Will is staying in our NYC apartment and has been talking to Mom about this. He also took Mica to the vet yesterday. They don't yet know the cause, it could be a polyp in his nasal passage that bleeds when he sneezes or a sinus infection. The good news is that his blood work came back okay - he'd had some kidney problems but that seems to have cleared up with the prescription food he's now eating and his thyroid was fine as well. He is a little anemic, but that could be from his nosebleeds. Anyhow, send him some positive vibes, won't you please, as we won't be home until the 21st. Will says that he's acting normal, playing, sleeping, eating and drinking from the water tap. So keep your paws crossed for the old fellow.

Finally, in honor of my square-dog pals, I offer you this tribute. I call it: Petey the Rectangle Dog.

See you soon!

Mica Update: Mica seems to be just fine -- no more nosebleeds since he came home from the vet! Fingers crossed that all is well.