This Little Piggy

After finding a pig in the front yard last weekend, I got to thinking about pigs. I've never owned a pig, but I remember visiting my best friend in elementary school and meeting two rather special pigs.

It seems that my friend's father had brought home two tiny piglets intending to raise them, then have them butchered for meat for the family. My friend's mother fell in love with the little piggies and treated them as pets. They followed her all around the yard and when she went in the house, they settled down on the porch to wait for her. She bathed them weekly and sang to them as she did her yard work. As you can guess, they lived out their lives and never became bacon.

We all grew up with stories and rhymes about pigs. There were the three pigs.

And when we were very little our Mom's probably did the little piggy thing with our toes.

Speaking of the little piggy toe rhyme, I love the Geico ad starring Maxwell, the pig that went "wee wee wee all the way home".

Now I am not a fan of television advertising. Why is it that men are so hypnotised by commercials? When I'm trying to talk to Rob during a commercial, I can see that he's concentrating more on the television than on me. That's when I hit the off button on the remote to get his attention. Anyway, I love Maxwell. He's quite annoying, but he makes me smile.

Another annoying famous pig is Miss Piggy. Now I like the fact that she's a strong female character and I like her tough talk, but I wish she'd leave my Kermit alone. I'm a frog collector and feel very protective of the little green fellow.

Lately I've started playing Angry Birds and the villainous pigs in that game can make me talk back to the game.

The smirks on their faces and the nasty little noise they make when you miss them is what keeps me going back for one more try.

Finally, have you see the 'teacup piggies'? Apparently these started out as toys for children, but became toys for adult collectors.

Look at these adorable little outfits on these tiny pigs. I know I'd have loved these when I was a kid. No Barbie dolls for me. I was strictly an animal lover. Some things never change.

Who would have thought that pigs would play such a prominent part in my life? Are you a fan of Maxwell?

WARNING !!!

When you do too much of this....

You start seeing this.......

We present this as a public service to our readers. We've seen deer, turkeys, chickens, raccoons, opossums, cows and horses in our yard, but we've never before today seen one of these. We're pretty sure it's because Mom has spent too much time playing the bird game lately.


So if your Mom or Dad spends a lot of time with these guys...

Watch Out!!
Your Pal, Fudge

Fudge Explains New Years

Hi Everybody. Happy New Year!

We dogs understand about Christmas, sort of. Humans bring a tree into the house, then tell us not to water it. Be honest now, how many of you sneak over and water it when they're not looking?

We understand about presents. We get lots of toys and treats and sometimes stuff we don't really want like a new brush or a trip to the groomer. That's kind of like humans getting underwear for Christmas. Nobody really wants it, but you have to be nice about it.

What we don't really understand is this thing called New Years. Our humans act like it's important, but why? They stay up late and watch a ball drop off a building on the TV. They can watch our ball drop off the deck any time they want to.

Then after the ball falls on the ground, they do this.

Then they do this. I wondered about this stuff they were drinking, so I stuck my nose in a glass. I started sneezing and couldn't stop. Mom thought it was funny. That woman has a warped sense of humor.

As soon as the ball hits the ground we start hearing a lot of noise outside and start barking.

All in all, this New Years stuff doesn't make much sense to us. Then Dad did something that changed everything. He made us New Year's sandwiches. Look at these!

He put turkey and Swiss cheese on party rye and made one for each of us. Wow, were they ever delicious!! Now we think New Years may be one of the very best days of the whole year. 

Tell your humans that its a New Year's custom to feed turkey and Swiss cheese sandwiches to you dogs. They may not realize this little known fact.
Your pal, Fudge

Have You Met Mr. Chewy?

With my active pack, we go thru a lot of dog food and Fudge reminded me that includes treats. From time to time Rob has asked me if there's a company that will deliver it to us and I've looked at several over the last couple years. What I found was that the shipping charges were out of sight on some and where they offered free shipping, the price of the food was much higher than I can pay locally.

Recently we were introduced to Mr. Chewy.

Mr Chewy carries over 70 brands of dog and cat food. Several of my dogs are on prescription diets and those are only available from my vet, but I checked the food we use most and the price was within pennies of the price I pay locally. Good so far!



But what about shipping costs on a heavy item like 40 pounds of dog food? Here's the good news. Orders over $49 are free. That's right no shipping costs. With a pack like mine getting to $49 is a breeze. If your order falls under $49 there's a flat shipping fee of $4.95. Or you can do as Fudge advises and add a bag of treats to reach the free figure.

We decided to give Mr Chewy a try.

Last week two boxes arrived and the dogs were very excited. I didn't need to tell them the boxes were for them. They knew from the wonderful smells inside.

I ordered a bag of dog food.....

and two bags of treats. These were treats I wanted for Samba and was having trouble finding locally.

Shipping only took three days and that was working around holidays, so we were very pleased. Now Rob is happy because he doesn't have to drive across town and carry heavy bags of dog food around. I'm happy because I have access to products I want for my dogs.

Happiest of all are the dogs.

Mr Chewy also carries Frontline for flea and tick control. He also has a great return policy and even pays the return shipping.

Noah Is Cute

Dear Mango, Honorable Judges and Voting Public,

My name is Noah and I'm a five year old boy Portuguese Water Dog.

When I was born I was only about half the size of my brothers and sisters. Some people called me a runt. That's not a very nice thing to call someone. My Mom called me her little peanut.

Well, all my brothers and sisters had a head start and grew bigger than me. I'm still kind of small and that can be a problem for a guy like me.

My brother Sky is a big guy and he's a really good ball player. I'd like to be big and fast like him.

My Dad Fudge is a big guy and he sings and dances and pushes other dogs around. I'd like to do that, too, but when people look at me they always say, " Oh, he's so cute!"

So you see the problem, I'm just cute.

My favorite activities are riding in the car and sitting on Mom and Dad's laps. Come to think of it, Sky and Fudge are both too big to sit on laps, so maybe there is an up side to being little and cute.

Mom suggested that I enter Mango Minster. She thinks it'll give me an ego boost and make me feel like a big dog.

Believe me, it's not easy being the 'cute little guy' in a house full of over achievers.

Thank you for accepting my entry.
Noah

Bailey The Adventurer

Dear Mango, Honorable Judges and Voting Public,

My name is Bailey and I'm a five year old girl Portuguese Water Dog.

We had a family meeting to decide on what category I should enter. My Mom says the category of Adventure Animal was made for me.

Mom says that even before my eyes were open I was trying to climb out of the whelping box to go exploring and the day they opened, I left the box.

By the time I was five weeks old I was climbing out of our four foot high pen and I've been busy exploring ever since. Mom does insist that I confine my explorations to the house and yard.

Being the adventurous type keeps a girl very busy. I have to stay on guard for any intruders that may enter my yard. I'm on duty rain or shine, sleet or snow.

If strangers enter the yard I check them out to make sure they're friendly.

I'm ready if the yard is invaded by wild ducks.

There's a mouse that lives in this wood pile and I plan to catch him.

Squirrels run up this tree and I think maybe I can learn to climb trees if I try hard.

Maybe I'll start by scaling the walls of the tower. It's good practice for tree climbing.

I try to keep the yard tidy at all times. While doing it I imagine that I'm fighting my way thru the jungle.

I think I'd like to visit my friends in Oz and check out those strange animals called roos, but Mom says Oz is on the other side of the earth. No problem, I'll just dig thru.

It's hard digging in rocky ground so I got some help from my brother, but I have to supervise to keep him on target.

Lots of explorer/adventurers have buddies.  Lewis had Clark, Orville had Wilbur and Batman had Robin. I have Monkey.

Monkey goes everywhere with me and is my best friend. He gives me moral support and in turn I protect him from large brown and white predators.

Thank you for accepting my entry. Monkey and I would appreciate your vote.