I have an announcement to make!

I, Rudy, a very clever dog if I do say so myself, have conquered these stairs. These are the evil stairs that stand between me and the upstairs. These evil stairs have no backs, and always make me think I'm going to fall right through. These are the very stairs I paddled my way up and down for the first few days.

Yesterday I figured it out....well, going down of course. One paw at a time, one paw per step. I did it.

I celebrated by taking on those scary basement steps. Yay for me. Going up is still tough. I like to sproing up two or three at a time, but I'm not wiping out anymore or sliding backwards and landing on my oh so cute little tail.

And best of all, the uprights have stopped giggling whenever I'm on the stairs. How on earth did they think that would HELP me at all. So, I just wanted to let everyone know that I AM a quick learner.

Take care all,

Rudy, the staircase slayer

Hey world. It's me again.

So, I had a really traumatic experience tonight. I thought my world was ending. The uprights, apparently, had somewhere to go. This was the first time they left me home alone, and I didn't like it.

They moved my super-deluxe crate into the living room, and they tricked me with cookies into actually going in. Then, they locked the door, told me to be a good boy, and LEFT!!! What could I do? I barked and howled and yelped and carried on. I just got here. How could they crate me up and abandon me already?

Eventually I calmed down, but I'm hoping Mom and Dad think I freaked all night. Serves them right. They went out for something called prime rib. They didn't bring any back for me, so how good could it be? They also said something about having a gift card from Christmas. How that could connect with this prime rib stuff I'll never get. Anyway, now that I think of it, it was kind of nice of Mom to leave some gentle lights on for me. She put the outside lights on so I could see the backyard through the window (nice thinking Mom) and then put some pretty coloured Christmas lights on inside. It was light enough for me to see and dark enough for me to nap.

So, I resigned myself to never ever seeing them again, and fell into the dark cold sleep of despair. I'm sure I laid there for days, weeks maybe, and then the strangest thing happened....

They came back.

Seriously. They came back. They came back to me!

Is this what forever home means? That they always come back? I pretended to forgive them by jumping around like a crazy dog. (They love that.) Then I went out for a pee and pretended I was so excited I fell into the wood barrel. I'm so glad no one had a camera, or that would be making the email rounds.

So, I'll need to do some further investigation into what this whole "forever home" concept is, but I'm thinking it might be a good thing. You might say I'm cautiously optimistic.

Gotta run. It's time for bed, and I have to get there early if I want to beat Daddy to his pillow.

Later fellow Canadians (and of course, all my American and international buds, too).

Rudy

Well, here's my update.

Mommy finally got Daddy out of bed, and we headed out in this very scary looking truck - not nearly as nice (or comforting) as the one he drove me home from Minneapolis in. I did okay, but the uprights (my new nickname for my mom and dad when they're being silly) got all stressed because I kept exploring the front seat and the back compartment of the truck. So, for their benefit, not mine, we went to a pet store where they tried to buy me a doggy seatbelt. (Apparently my big brother behaves better in the truck so nobody freaked out on him.)

The joke was on them (or so I thought). There were none big enough for me. Imagine my horror when they found me a lime green harness, and the saleslady had the audacity to put it on me right there in the store. She showed them how to hook it to the seatbelt, and that was the end of my in truck wanderlust. Poop. Hudson rolled his eyes at me and made fun of me all the way home. Now I like my green collar and leash just fine, but the harness was just waaaayyyy to much to put me through. Mommy was just cooing about how great it looked and how nice that it matched. Yeah. Yay. Nice.

The rest of the ride was fun. We sat in the parking lot at the mall, and the parking lot at Safeway, and then we came home. I must admit, despite the horrific green harness, that it's good to come home. I still have a hard time remembering that all my changes and travels are over. This is my forever home. I like it. But Daddy really needs to do something about all that snoring.

They just moved my crate to the living room, so something's up. I don't think it's going to be a fun thing. I'll have to keep you posted.

Take care,

Rudy

Okay, so today is my first Saturday. So far, it's not all I thought it would be. You'd think having Daddy home all day would be a blast, but so far he's really grumpy and keeps climbing back in bed. He doesn't even want to play with me when I hit him with my paws or frantically lick the inside of his ear. Apparently we'll be going for an "adventure" and a "car ride" but I don't know how any of that will happen while he's still in bed. I'll have to get back to you later with an update. Right now I'm off to snuggle in close and maybe, when he's nearly asleep, I'll bark at him. Mommy thinks it's so funny when I do that. I'll let you know how it goes.

My Thoughts on Snow

1) I like it. It's way cooler than alligators.

2) It's like an all you can eat slurpee buffet.

3) It does NOT belong in your water bowl. Not funny Mom.

4) It makes great scrunching sounds under your feet.

5) If I ever have to dispose of my brother Hudson's body, I'm pretty sure I can hide it under the snow.

6) Sometimes you find these really cool little lemon popsicles in it. Mmmm.

7) Snow seems to bring out snowplows. They are great to bark at. Florida definitely needed more snowplows.

8) I think snow is the opposite of humidity. In Florida there's this thing called humidity. Basically it's warm water in the air (yuck). Snow is cold water that falls out of the air. And....you can eat it. You can't eat humidity. Humidity sucks.

9) Personally, I hope it stays all year long.

10) I'm almost a hundred percent sure (not really, but I'm hoping) that alligators cannot live in the snow. That's a huge relief. Trust me.

And those are my thoughts on snow (for now).

Rudy, the abomidable snow dog

Hey there. This is Rudy.

Hello there. I would like to introduce myself. My name is Rudy. Well, at least that's what the lady at the rescue named me, and my new Mom and Dad really wanted to honour that, so my new name is officially "Ruddock Einstein" but you can call me Rudy for short.
I am happy to have arrived here in Winnipeg. What a wild journey it was! My Mom and Dad (you know them as Gordon and Tracie, or rather Tracie and Gordon) fell in love with me over something called the internet. They said there were no sheepdogs in Canada who needed a home, so they had to branch out. Well, they sure branched out far. When I woke up Tuesday morning I lived in Cooper City (right by Ft. Lauderdale, FLORIDA). By dinnertime I arrived in Minneapolis. There's this stuff called snow there. Everybody thought I'd be freaked out by it, but I immediately rolled in it to put their minds at ease. Turns out, I LOVE SNOW. Who knew?
This crazy guy (I just call him Daddy) met me there, and are you ready for this???? He drove straight through the night to get us home to my new mom and my crazy new brother (Hudson). I heard something about closed highways, but that didn't slow him down even one tiny little bit. I think I like it here already. There's another dog to play with, I've already helped myself to a spot on daddy's pillow, and best of all...I have not laid eyes on a single alligator since I got here. I'm hoping there are none hiding under the snow. That would totally suck. At least in Florida you could see them coming.
So, I just wanted to say hi to you all, and introduce myself. My mommy says that meeting someone named Spock at Christmas really inspired her to find me. My daddy grumbled stuff about doggie airfares, hotel rooms, and all night drives, but I am pretty sure he loves me anyway. I'm looking forward to meeting lots and lots of you interesting yet crazy Canadian folk, especially now that I am one of you.

Love, kisses, and cuddles,

Ruddock "Rudy" Einstein