My first blog award!

Hi everyone! It sure has been a while since we've last caught up. Sorry I haven't updated or been round to see you for a while. My human has been having computer problems and assessments and there have been lots of strange people doing things to our kitchen, so she's had her hands full. But never fear! My human is now on holidays so I'm sure she'll help me update my blog more often.

Anyway, I've been really helpful around the house while the strange humans were bashing and banging and generally making more noise than Iris at dinnertime. In fact, you could say I oversaw the whole operation. Literally.

Oh alright, sometimes I just slept.

Tiles? What tiles?

I also had loads of fun harmonising with a creature called Circular Saw. My human said she'd heard of dogs who thought they were human and she often says I am a dog who thinks he's a cat, but a dog who thinks he's a circular saw is going a bit far.

Here's what we've been up to while we've been away from blogland:

Hangin'

Chillin'

Taking over the world.

Studying.

Napping.

Making friends.

Tiffany.

Eating seafood (left over baby octopus, rice and celery leaves).

Sorry about the low res images, technology hates us at the moment. Anyway, I also wanted to share with you some very exciting news. I recently received my very first blog award from my friend Sammy the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel from Missouri, USA. As an aside (completely irrelevant if you ask me) my human has asked me to tell you that Missouri is the home state of Brad Pitt, where he...no joke...attended Kickapoo High School! Well, I don't know what the big deal is. My human is full of useless information like that. She recently played trivia with friends and knew the answer to the two most random questions on the whole quiz:

1. What is the deepest part of the ocean? (Mariana Trench)

2. What are the names of Brad and Angelina's children? (Maddox, Pax, Knox, Vivienne, Shiloh and Zahara)

Anyway...back to the serious business at hand! To accept this award I have to follow 4 simple rules:

1. Thank the blogger that gave you the reward.
2. Share 7 things about yourself.
3. Pass the award onto 15 bloggers that you have recently discovered and think are fantastic!
4. Contact the bloggers you sent the award to, and let them know about the award.

So here goes:

1. Thank you Sammy, you've made my day! Sorry it's taken me so long to acknowledge your lovely gesture.

2. 7 things about me:

- If I wasn't named Oscar, my humans would have called me Chip, after the little tea cup in Beauty and the Beast.
- My girlfriend is a sock. A pretty, fluffy, stripey, pastel blue sock of loveliness. I love her.
- I firmly believe that possums are the enemy. Just look at those little devils:



Just listen to their beastly bellows. It is my job, as protector of the household, to make sure no possums so much as sniff our fence. It is a job I take very seriously.

- My human's mother thinks I smell more like a sheep than a dog.
- I am scared of big plastic bags and always give hard rubbish a wide berth on my walks.
- I like to give my kitty sister a hand with her dinner. I help her eat a little faster by barking at her, just a little bit. Then I clean up after her. Aren't I a considerate little brother?
- I have a foot fetish. Too much information?

3. Since I am so late in giving out this award, some of my blog friends have already received it, so I will give it out to 10 blogs I have been following and loving for a long time, the writers of which I have not introduced myself to yet.

- The Army of Four
- Jedi the Keeshond and Ahsoka and Fable the Finnish Lapphunds
- Daisy the Curly Cat
- Huskee and Hershey
- Momo and Pinot the Cavs
- Parlance and her dog Penny
- Ginger and Wiggley the Guinea Pigs
- Kona the hiking dog
- Africa the Boerboel
- Luna the Great Dane

4. Now I'm off to visit all my friends!

Polish sausage and my new haircut!

Phew! It sure has been a long time since I last updated my blog! My human had a sickie again, only this time it was so bad that she couldn't do very much at all, including getting onto the computer to help me write a new post. Well now she feels better and less tired so she said it's time I caught up with all my blog friends. Too right! So never fear, I am back.

I'm back!

It's been really cold and rainy here in Melbourne the last few weeks. My backyard has turned into a swamp. But, of course, I have managed to have a few adventures. (Well, every day is an adventure for me!)

The weather outside is frightful.

Iris has not been impressed by the weather.

She spends most of her time hiding from it.

And looking pretty.

My human and I have been practicing some very basic things that I, being a very excitable sort of doggie, sometimes find too boring to pay attention to. Like my recall. Oh, I absolutely love running up to my human whenever she calls me from any point in the house or yard and I'm also pretty good when we're walking along, but in a park with lots of exciting new smells, not so much. So my human has been taking me to various little parks and ovals to practice random recall.

Let me tell you, I really have a hard time tearing myself away from interesting big sticks and bushes which may hide all manner of stinky treasures! With practice I've gotten better but there are still some smells that prove too powerful. My human was getting very frustrated that sometimes I came the moment she called and five seconds later I seemed to suffer from complete amnesia. Well, she tried to hide her frustration but us doggies are not going to be fooled by all that two-faced human "diplomacy". I could smell it! It smelled kind of like steam coming out of my human's ears. Tee hee! Who'd want to go anywhere near a human with steam coming out of their ears? I stayed well away.

Well, my human racked her brain for ways to overcome my stubbornness (hehe). Finally, she remembered reading something that said humans often underestimate doggies' intelligence. They assume we're going to do something just because humans ask it of us or in exchange for a measly Schmacko. But there are some things that are definitely not worth the trouble for a piece of dried Schamcko. A human puppy might get you a glass of water for a smile and a 'thank you' but if you want them to wash the dishes, it might take a little extra. So my human had to bring out the big guns. Polish sausage! (Shh...don't tell her parents). Now "come" is my fabourite trick!

You called?

In between all that training we also managed to fit in some fun. Like sliding down the slide at the playground.

And zoomies!

And being a doggie hair model!

I call this one: Blue Steel.

And something that's definitely not as fun but probably noteworthy: getting a new hair cut!

Where did my whiskers go?!

Love, Oscar and the gang

Piggy rant

Our human says there are very few things in life as funny as watching a guinea pig eat. Which is lucky for her because we eat all the time! We squeak loudly when it's time for dinner and get super excited when we can run around in the grass because it means....yep, more food!

The reality of being part of a household with lots of animals is that you have to share the love of your human between, in our case, five animals! And one of the many annoying aspects of being part of a household with a dog is that they always need to be the center of attention.

"Oh look, Oscar is eating his dinner!" Snap. Snap.

"Oh look, Oscar is chasing his tail!" Snap. Snap.

"Oh look, Oscar is rolling in poop, how cute! How adorable!" Snap. Snap. Give us a break.

While this suits those of us who are shy just fine *cough* Neytiri *cough* some of us are clearly born to be stars!





Anyway, we've mentioned before that we live outside on account of the orders of our human's Mum and Dad. Our human isn't completely happy about this but she tries to convince herself that it is better for us because we can live more like wild guinea pigs do (before they become Peruvian spit roast...eek!). She likes to think that, this way, we are part of the backyard ecosystem. Well, today our human found out that we are actually more connected to the ecosystem than she would have liked! In fact, you could say that we have our own little ecosystem going in our hutch. Today, while cleaning our cage, our human came a little too close for comfort to one of our friendly neighbours, a huntsman spider! Our human is not exactly scared of spiders (she kept a huntsman as a pet when she was in primary school) and this particular huntsman was just a baby, but she really wasn't happy when he crawled out close to her hand when she wasn't expecting it.

And where was Oscar, "our mighty and fearless protector", during all this? Watching from a safe distance, of course.

Oh hai...

No, really....you look like you're doing just fine.

Love, the Three Little Pigs

A spoonful of sugar...

Wow...long time no blog! My human has been busy doing her back to uni thing and has had no time to help me post about my most recent adventures. She's got a backlog of photos so hopefully when things settle down she will be able to sort through them and post more frequently.

Oops...sorry! I was so excited about blogging

again that I forgot to brush my hair!

Among other things, I've been working on a video about all the human words I understand. I'm my human's first dog and she didn't know much about dogs before I came into her life. She'd read books and articles but I guess nothing really prepares you for the real thing. Especially when the real thing is as cute as me! I guess it's like reading those books humans read before they have human pups. Apparently they tell you all about the best ways to turn human pups into supermodels and prodigies because no one wants a mediocre human pup. My human found the same thing with books about doggies. The problem was that once I came along my human found it much harder to be something called "The Disciplinarian". So my training wasn't always consistent.

This may or may not be my guilty face.

Still angry?

You see, I love training and showing my human how smart I am but a lot of the time there are just so many more fun things to do! Plus, my human sometimes LIKES me to do slightly naughty things like licking her and jumping up on the bed. So instead of having very rigid rules my human and I worked on building a really close relationship and good communication. That way I trust my human and I look to her to know what kind of behaviour is appropriate in any given situation. On walks, for example, I know I can pretty much roam free unless my human tells me I have to "wait", or "stop" or go "this way" instead of that. At home I know that my human will generally let me curl up on her lap but I have to be given the ok first. I guess my human is pretty lenient compared to other doggies' humans. Just the way I like it!

Oh come on...how can you resist these eyes?

Another thing my human is not strict about is my diet. I don't follow any specific diet but rather a variety of different foods in appropriate proportions. My human read about Malteses being particularly fussy in relation to food and didn't want to encourage me to be picky. So I usually get a combination of dry food (sometimes premium, sometimes not), wet food, raw food, cooked food, bones and treats. Any given week I might eat raw chicken drumsticks, kibble, liver, schmackos, carrots and tuna loaf from a can. I haven't developed any intolerances because I don't always eat salty, processed foods with tonnes of additives.

Your offering pleases me, human.

By far my favourite thing to eat is my human's special recipe of mince, rice and vege pilaf. Every couple of weeks she buys good quality mince (about a kilo), fries it in a bit of olive oil, adds about a cup of frozen veges (carrot, corn, brocolli, peas and cauliflower) and about a cup of cooked rice. She adds a pinch of salt or some grated cheese for extra yumminess. Once it's cooled down she gives Iris and I a serving, puts another serving in the fridge and freezes the rest. This lasts Iris and I a few days. My human says I never devour any food quite as quickly or lustily as this one. And the best thing is that I know that along with protein, fat and vitamins this food contains a bucketful of LOVE. My favourite!

Omnomnom!

Love, Oscar