Adventures of Scrappy Pete, Wordless Wednesday

Well, if you know me, you know I'm very rarely out of words. So, in order to be wordless, I am going to post a gazillion pictures of my pup Petey Bella in costumes. Because, really, it makes sense for little purse dogs to have outfits-- their whole purpose is to be an accessory. But big dogs in clothes? Oh. My. Gosh. It's too funny. Note, she has a raincoat, a pink sweatshirt, and a Halloween witch costume, but I couldn't find pics. Use your imagination. :)

Just buzzing around for treats. You gots treats?

Santa Paws worked me to the bone this year!

Her birthday is 3/17, so it's St. Petey's Day!

Sometimes the Wildlife Service has us check on critters out here.

Gotta have a collared shirt for Casual Fridays

Pink snowsuit didn't get much use in GA

UGA colored sweater and booties. Bring it on, Denver cold!

It's not really a costume, but it's her professional photo for her Linked-In-Canine page.

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Adventures of Scrappy Pete, Little help from my Friends

Good luck clover found on a walk with good dogs

Petey Bella has no trouble making friends. She is pretty intuitive about other dogs and usually takes the submissive role with them, even if they are smaller than her. Now, I've noticed that she doesn't like to meet other dogs while she's on a leash, and she does not like dog parks. I think it goes back to her life prior to being rescued...I think she was put in some terrible situations and so she goes all PTSD on the other dogs in the dog park. I digress...

When someone comes over to play, or she goes to someone else's house, she's just the coolest pup. I pet-sat for a family in Decatur, who I'd met through Sittercity.com. Their little poodle mix, Shadow, was a super fun, well-trained pup and he just loved Petey Bella and Leo (my boyfriend at the time's dog). The follow-up comment from Shadow's mom was, "Shadow didn't want to come home from Camp Adrienne!" Petey had great fun running and playing with my pal Christy's dogs Jazzy and Stumbles. Stumbles and Petey were too cute sharing stuffed toys. They'd each carry them around and set them on their dog beds and then borrow them back from the other.

Smiling pups on a ROAD TRIP!

Petey Bella gets along great with my mom's dog Siena. Siena is very alpha, but she and Petey have never had any disagreement. When I still lived in Atlanta, we called it doggie-sleepover and Siena would get to come over to my house to play! (Wow, that's totally a "Stuff White People Like" there.)

 I moved to Denver in July and didn't bring Pete with me because of the hectic nature of MOVING TO AN ENTIRELY NEW CITY 1500 MILES AWAY WITHOUT ANY MAJOR PLAN OTHER THAN A JOB CONTRACT scared me about bringing a dog with no apartment. Due to 3 major work travels, I didn't make it back to Atlanta to pick her up until December. 6 months without my pup? Torture for me! She and Siena got to play, fight over my mom, and snuggle.

Petey and Phoebe sit patiently for treats.

My mom had knee surgery, so Petey got to go visit with my friend Monica and her pups, German Pointers, Phoebe and Gabby. Petey has stayed with them several times-- and prior to Gabby, they had a very old dog named Tessie. PT Bella was super sweet and calm with her-- it's like she realized she needed to be patient with a geriatric friend. Speaking of those "kids," as Monica calls them, those dogs have a great backyard with a doggie door. It took Bella many many times of watching Phoebe zip in and out of the dog door before she would bother. She liked having someone open the door for her better, anyway.

Petey and Duchess waiting on a bedtime story

Of course Petey gets along great with little Duchess, my sister's dog, and our family's first dog. My sister Emily and I were roommates for much of our twenties-- so Duchess and Petey were too. They would sleep with each one of us, but whichever of us went to work first-- the dog hightailed it out of our bedroom and beeline for the other bed-- to get snuggled in with her furry sister and other owner. Crafty pooches! My mom noticed it with Siena and Petey, and my sister and I noticed it with Duchess and Petey-- they like to lie down on the bed either symmetrically or identically. It's pretty sweet.

 My sister married this great guy who has a great dog, Abe-- he's a pretty similar build to Petey. He's a rescue lab-pit mix, and he's the most loyal, perfect dog. I don't usually like boy dogs, but Abraham is phenomenal. Petey, Abe, and Duchess have gotten to have some fun visits while my sister and her husband honeymooned and took other trips. Who doesn't love a good dog pile? :)

Abe and Pete, sleeping off some good laps

Siena and Pete, snuggle pups

Barely no room for da hoomans to sleep

Adventures of Scrappy Pete, Talented Explorer

Your pillow? No, it's mine.

My Petey Bella is pretty much the snuggliest, easiest, dog ever. She's happy with nearly any food (although eggs and yogurt are pretty awesome), she sleeps either curled up in a tiny (as tiny as a 65-pound giant can get) "Bella Ball," and she's good on walks, hikes, and runs. She knows her name, err, names-- she will answer to so many different ones. 

 She knows:

Her patented "Petey Head-Hug"

--sit
--lay down (yes, grammatically it's lie down, but whatever!)
--gentle (when accepting a treat. This is important for the treat-giver's fingers.)

--shake 
-- shake (I'm putting it twice because if you say it twice, she'll switch paws)
--hop down (good for making up the bed purposes)
--come here (good for snuggling in bed purposes)
--Petey Pee (she squats. I swear.)
-- Bella, go baf-room!-- she poops within 2 minutes. 
--Yoga dog. (It's probably called "bow," but I taught her yoga dog when she does a Downward dog stretch. It's adorbs!)

Didn't see nuffin' down der in de dirt, I swear.

She knows the words for upstairs, inside, outside, go, ride...probably more.We're working on "no bark" and speak. She doesn't speak on command, but she generally will yowl, whine, and stop barking at the mailman, strange sounds in the hallway, etc. after one "No bark!" That's a pretty darn good pup. 

She has kind of an Eeyore from Winne the Pooh personality. She jumps over little scares and army crawls away from things she doesn't like. She is nervous around vacuum cleaners and loud noises, and is not terribly alpha. Except when she's on a leash. Then she has no problem finding her proverbial tail, her vicious bark, and her strength to move mountains. Oh, and against cats. She HATES cats. Or rather she would LOVE a cat-- to chew on. I recently discovered she's not a huge fan of elevators-- but more on that later. 

She's blurry because she's running.

Have harness, will travel.

Forgot her shades, but remembered the SPF. 

Definitely the dog days of summer

Petey Bella is my adventure dog. She's easy to take in the car-- she gets terribly excited for the leash, even more excited for the harness or doggie seatbelt harness, and super easily enters a vehicle upon the phrase, "in you go!" We would go for runs in Decatur and Grant Park and long walks on the trails-- a favorite is around my friend's property by the Flint River in Hampton. I'd call her "Adventure Pete" and we'd go exploring. She's very careful to stay only a few yards ahead of me and would just smell and smell all the scents that nature offered. I'll see if I can embed a video of her "fording" a creek-- she's just so fun and cool. She's also great about just laying out with me-- the hot Georgia summers on a blanket in the grass with me catching some Vitamin D and her snapping at bugs and rolling around-- those are some relaxing days. 

I think I mentioned that she's an easy eater. She will sit quietly next to your chair while you're eating, and not really beg, but she's happy to lick your plate clean. I call it the "doggie pre-wash cycle." My coworker Robin offered once to save meat scraps for her, since I'm vegetarian and never have meat in the house. I assured her, she thinks that tofu is delicious, and that peanut butter is the cat's pajamas. She has been known to get her head a little stuck in a yogurt cup, and we even have a song to go through the Chick-fil-A drive-thru. It sounds like Adele's "Rumor Has It," and goes "Chicken Nugget! Chicken Nugget! Petey wants a nugget in her bellllllly." Look at these awful pictures of my dog's terrible life:

Bruster's dog sundae

The yogurt...so sneaky!

Baked on casserole? I can work with that.

Yes, she had special dog waffle and eggs.

Bull pizzle? Oh thank you just a tripe.

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Adventures of Scrappy Pete, Introduction

The ever-classy Duchess

Siena's tough, but she's a lover.

Meet Stinks and Siena. Stinks, (as I nicknamed her because she always seems to have a lovely, ah-hem, stench, despite her stately attitudes) is our family's first dog. She came into our lives as a tiny puppy the neighbors couldn't handle and she was just the best first dog. She knows commands, she has personality, and she can tell the difference between "talk" and "speak." Her actual name is Duchess, but she answers to Puppy Girl, Il Duce, Stinky...Duchess is over 10 years old and adjusting nicely to being a big sister to my little sister's first human baby. Duchess is definitely the queen fur baby. Siena is our family's second dog. She came to us as a pit rescue who stole our hearts. She's the perfect brown of the sun-drenched bricks in Siena, Italy...and is a constant companion to my mom. She can climb trees and fences and she loves to roll in freshly-shampoo'd hair and dryer sheets. 

Same brindle coat, adorable mug.

About a year after our family rescued Siena and one of her pups...another rescue dog found us. She looked like Pete the Pup from the Lil Rascals and was all skin and bones. She made it a habit to jump into our cars (my sister, my brother, me) when we were leaving for work-- just to say good morning. 

Petey Bella's storybook Doppelgangar

We loved the cottage with scary heater

 We fell in love with her big, round, brown eyes. Pete the Pup was named Petey, but we didn't want her to have gender issues, so my aunt Janet called her Petey Bella. She gets called Pete, Petes, Petey Pants,  Pokey Big Puppy (because she's 65 pounds, but looks like the Little Golden Book Poky Little Puppy), Bella Boo...she had a prescription filled at a CVS of all places and when the pharmacy tech asked for her last name or ID, I was stumped.



The conversation with the pharmacy tech went something like, "Please confirm the patient's full name."
Me: "Pants? Her name is Petey Pants I think."
Pharmacist: "You don't know this patient's last name? Where's the ID?"
Me: "Um, she doesn't have her driver's license yet because none of her four feet can reach the pedals."
--stank eye from employee--
Me: "She's my dog. You're filling a prescription from a vet, not a doctor."
Pharmacist: "So we put the last name as dog."

Whoa-kay there.

Preppy Pete is ready to hang with the Denver hipsters

So we've had her since 2006, and she was probably a year old then. She had been bred and starved, so she was skin and bones, but had fetuses in her. Once she started to gain weight, she miscarried the pups, which made it easier to keep her because we didn't have to find families to adopt lots of puppies. I will never, ever understand why people want to make money off of animals and do so by hurting and starving them, but I am incredibly grateful that the people who did this to my Petey Bella did it nearby so she could find me to come live with. She's a really awesome dog. 

Oh hai! You're home! Been missin' you allllll the day!

Petey's always got head hugs for her momma