Happy Halloween!

As you know, I love Halloween - in the past I've even won costume contests. But as far as I knew up until this year trick-or-treat was basically just a myth. We never had many people come to our house for candy. It probably didn't help that in the past two years we've had October snow and a hurricane.

But this year!

waiting for tricks-or-treats

Oh, this year!!

This year on Halloween we learned something great about the street we now live on - everyone trick-or-treats here! It's like they come from all over town to knock on my door!

We had so many trick-or-treat-ers that we even ran out of candy. The street sounded like a block party and the cars just kept coming. It was easily my favorite night of the year, since meeting brand new people is one of my most favorite activities. Plus, most of them were just my size!

candy guard dog

I sat outside with my family for a long time giving candy to all of the cutest kids in costume. Mostly they loved me, and even those who were afraid I was able to win over with a sweet look and a tail wag. I'm a very charming dog, you know!

I hope you had fun on Halloween, too!

New Rules

My little sister is here!!!!!!!!!!

She's almost two weeks old, and already my family has been enjoying our newest member so much.

Unfortunately, I can't post a picture of my little sister where you can see her face, because my parents are working hard to protect her privacy as someone so new in the world. But don't worry, I'll be posting a lot about our adventures together without breaking the new security rules.

I'm finding that with little siblings come a lot of new rules. I learned right away that I can give my little sister kisses, but not too many and not on her belly. I've learned to mind the stroller when we walk together. I also learned in our first crazy nights together that I can protect my little sister, but I don't actually have to fret over her every time she makes a noise. In fact, I'm so used to the new routine already that now I don't even wake up every time my little sister cries at night, because I know Momma and Dadda will take care of it. Besides, a girl like me needs her beauty rest...

I'm still working on our new strict rules about barking in the house. I've already improved greatly when it comes to having visitors here. It helped that my friend Kim brought me some gifts when she came to see the baby. Let's not forget that I still live here and am very special, too!

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to playtime with Dad. I can't get playtime whenever I want it anymore - have to work it all around the baby's schedule - but it's worth it. My little sister and I are definitely going to be best friends!

Best Day Ever...Again.

I don't have a little sister, yet, but that's okay, because I've been making the most of every day I have left as the only baby girl in my family!

This weekend was an especially great one. Momma and Dadda were working around the house a lot of the weekend, getting ready for my little sister, since she is supposed to be born any day now... So, I got to spend a lot of time with them.

And even though they went to the botanical gardens on Sunday morning, I was okay with it, because I needed some nap times...and, we went to the dog park in the afternoon!

Even with our new camera, it is really hard to get a clear shot of me while I'm playing soccer...because I'm SO FAST!

But I did stop for a few moments so Momma could get a nice picture of my beautiful face...I definitely didn't stop because I was tired...

I'm also making use of the pool for as many days as I can. It's already getting a little cool outside, but I'm not ready to give up the pool quite yet!

Even though summer is coming to a close, I'm still making new friends, as well!

My favorite thing to do, though, is just to relax next to my Momma and Dadda. I know that our new adventure with my little sister will be full of all kinds of changes, but as long as I have my parents, I know it will be great.

Plus, I just know my little sister and I are going to be best friends.

See Momma's Big Belly?

Now We Wait...

So far, I'm not a big sister just yet. I've had to wait a long time for my baby sister to arrive, but it's getting much more exciting now that her "due" date is less than a month away.

(Secretly I hope that she'll come a little bit early, and Momma does too... shhhh)

Now, while I wait, I have a lot still to do. For one thing, I have to keep a tight watch over Momma. This is made easier by the fact that she moves more slowly these days and eats much more often. Next, I have to shop for deals on my favorite treats so that I am well-stocked with things to do during our big adjustment time as a family. I'm also fully participating in story time when Dadda reads to my baby sister at night, and, probably most importantly, I'm soaking up all of the attention I can get.

Just yesterday, in order to soak up extra attention and keep my guard post by Momma, I spent some really fun mother-daughter time at a park downtown, and the city has worked hard to revitalize what once was not nearly as nice as it is now. Yesterday was my first visit to the renovated park.

Momma brought our new camera - it's fancy and complicated, so she's going to be practicing on it a lot before the baby arrives. What better subject for her practice than a model like me, basically a professional in the industry?

I know I make it look easy, but I am sometimes a challenging subject, you know. That's why I'm the perfect partner for Momma's camera practice.

I didn't know until we arrived at the park that I would have the opportunity to take a dip in the water, but once I found that out, we really fell in love with the place.

We also met a nice photographer friend by the river, named Paul, who took some photos of me, too, with a camera even nicer than ours. Here's his best work with this most beautiful subject!

What have you been up to? I hope your summer has been as much fun as mine, spending time as a family, visiting with relatives and taking some adventures. Now it's nearly Fall, and I'm finally going to get to be a big sister!! Wish me luck...

Calendar Girl

I got some terrible news today: my most favorite treats - the kind I get as a reward for finishing all of my dinner every night - have been discontinued!

I can't imagine why anyone would want to stop making muttos. The outside and the inside are two different delicious flavors, and the size is perfect for my dessert every day. Now I'm going to have to settle for off-brand dog treats that aren't even sweet-potato-flavored. It's a tough life.

So, to keep my mind off of this bad news, I need your help:

I want to submit my photo to the 2014 Corgi Butts calendar contest, and I need to know which picture you think will give me the best chance of winning. I don't mean to brag or anything, but, as one of the prettiest dogs around, I think it would be fun to launch my modeling career by getting into this calendar.

Will you help me decide which of these photos to submit for the contest?

The first ones are from when I was just little, so that you remember how terribly cute I am. My more serious potential submissions are below. Keep in mind that this is for a calendar, so a seasonal photo may do best.

And now Spring...

Summer...

Fall...

And Winter!

Please let me know your top pick!! Remember you can find me, GoGo the Corgi, on Facebook. Have a great weekend, everyone!

Heat Wave

This has been a very hot summer. Lately it's been so hot that if I try to go for too long of a walk I start to slow down in the middle of it... I get so hot and tired that sometimes I even lay down in the grass before the walk is over!

What? I just needed a short break for belly rubs!

I think maybe it should only be this hot on one day of the year, and that day is the 4th of July!

Everyone in my family loves to celebrate the 4th of July together. It's the perfect day for it to be hot outside, because we can go swimming and eat all the best hot weather foods, like fruit and hamburgers and ice cream. I love to eat all of those things! Did you know they make ice cream for doggies? And, well, you already know how much I love swimming...

There's just one thing I'd like to change about the 4th of July -

Can we get rid of fireworks?

I don't know about you, but I don't like all of the noise that fireworks make. It's too sudden and it doesn't make any sense to me, so I bark and howl like my own personal alarm system. Then I have to put on my Thundershirt - it's designed specially to help me feel calm. I don't mind snuggling up with my momma and wearing my Thundershirt.

But, um...

How do I say this politely?...

I kind of think this shirt makes my butt look big!

So let's just get rid of fireworks, okay? Maybe we can come up with a different night-time hot weather holiday tradition, like chasing lightning bugs, or eating peanut butter sundaes. In the meantime, let's focus on my good side -

About Ohio

Can you guess what I did two weekends ago?

Here, I'll give you a hint:

That's right! I went on a BIG car trip!!

Mom and Dad loaded all of our things into the car and we spent 12 hours on the road in order to get to Ohio. I didn't mind the long drive, mostly because car rides make me sleepy, and because it was worth the long trip to get where we were going!

My dad's grandparents live in Ohio and let us stay with them, which is great because they have the coolest possible house. It's set up like a big circle with each room leading to the next and the next and the next and then back to the first, so when I run around it I never have to stop or change directions. One hallway is the perfect ramp for playing ball, and in the middle of the house there's a place where I can go outside without my leash. It's like they designed the whole thing with playful puppies in mind. In this photo you can see my pal Sophie out in the enclosed part of the yard.

And if the house itself wasn't fun enough already, the family we saw on our trip to Ohio made it even better still. I saw my dad's parents - my friends in Room 25 know his mom as your teacher!

I spent a lot of my time on this trip to Ohio playing with Sophie and Penny. Penny loves to run, just like me, and we chased each other around and around the house. Penny must not know other dogs who can bark as loudly as I can - you should have seen the surprise on her face the first time she heard me! She's only little, and she's younger than me, so I tried to teach Penny a little bit about being tough. Here she is hanging out with me.

I had tons of fun on vacation with my family, and I already can't wait to see them all again. I think one of the best things about vacation is spending time with people we love.

Another cool thing about my Ohio vacation was that I got a special delivery from my friends in Room 25 would be doing during their vacation! My friends, you must have been so busy in these past two weeks!!

You wrote about friends, games, faraway places, zoo animals, and going on airplanes. You also wrote about one of my favorite things: swimming.

Did you celebrate the Fourth of July while you were on vacation, too?

I really enjoyed your thoughts and drawings about vacation, friends. I hope that you had a fun time, and that you are ready to work hard back in Room 25! I always love vacation, but I love coming home to my routine, too.

See? Here I am, back at home in Connecticut, cozy in my own bed, dreaming sweetly of family and the fun that I've had...

Home, Sweet Home

We just arrived back home after an amazing long weekend vacation with family in Ohio. Dear friends, I want to write to you, of course, about my trip, but I'm afraid that will have to wait until I catch up on my rest.

When we first got home, I checked out the house to make sure all was as it should be, then Momma and Dadda went to get some lunch. See, even after 12 total hours of naps in the car since yesterday, and a good night's rest when we stopped at a hotel halfway back from Ohio, I'm still one tired puppy today. When my parents got home from lunch, this is how they found me.

I didn't even lift my head when they opened my crate! Just moved a paw aside to get some belly rubs.

Vacation is awesome, but there's no sleep like at home. Sweet dreams until next time...

Things in Common

This week my Missouri friends sent me some very sweet drawings and stories about their best friends. Some of them even have best doggy friends!

I had so much fun reading about their friends, I was thinking about what they wrote. One thing that stands out to me is that lots of us have things in common with our friends and family. That's one of the best things about the people that we love, right? We are a lot like each other, and we like to do lots of the same things.

I know that's one of the best things about me and my momma. I always say we're just alike, and even now that she's pregnant, we still have lots of things in common!

See her belly? There's a baby in there. But I won't let that make us too different. Now that Momma's pregnant, we're both a little porky. She said she has to gain weight to make room for my little sister, and I say I have to gain weight too so that she feels good about her bigger-than-normal belly.

Also now that she's pregnant, Momma sleeps with a body pillow on her side. I like that idea, so when I fall asleep around a toy or a foot, I use it as my own body pillow.

Finally, now that she's pregnant my Momma and I have a new thing in common: she can't bike like she used to, so now our favorite exercise is to walk to the beach!

On Friendship

Dear Friends in Room 25 -

I'm so glad to hear from you again! I was happy to find out that you are learning about gardens. I'm an expert helper in my mom's garden, chewing the sticks that we find and chasing the water from the hose!

I hope that you had a fun weekend; I know I did. On Friday, I went to school. Most of my friends live in my neighborhood, go to my school, or play at my park, and that's how I know them. Friends in Room 25, I bet you have different friends at school and at home, too. That's what it's like for me.

I don't have a cell phone or a digital camera of my own, so I don't have too many pictures of my school friends. Here's one of me and my classmates from my certificate when I passed some of my first exams, though!

I like this photo because I think it makes it look like I'm the lead singer in a puppy band.

Most of the friends I make hang out at the park with me. I have a few photos of those friends, like this one of me with one of my oldest friends: Murphy.

I like Murphy a lot because he lets me make up the rules to all of our games.

At the park with my friends, we run a lot and sometimes paw at our ears and the ground. My best friends are the dogs who are tough enough to wrestle or play tug with me, but I know not every puppy likes to do that, so I choose those friends carefully.

Even when I was little, I made friends with lots of bigger dogs...

...and now that I'm big, I still like to hang out with little bitty dogs, too.

It's fun for us little dogs to jump up on the benches and say we're big.

I have some people friends too, of course. Most of my neighborhood friends are people, and what I love most is when my friends come over to my house. Lots of times they even bring food! Here I am with my friend Alex when she came to visit our old house, before we moved:

And now I'm getting really excited for my little sister to be born in September. I heard that having a sibling is like having a permanent friend, right? I'm going to teach her how to play, and to be smart and strong like me.

Summer School

Last year I wrote a post called 'Summer School,' because I was taking a class at puppy school. It was hard work, but I got to have a lot of fun, too.

This year I'll be studying again - my family has a lot to do to get ready for my little sister to arrive, and my task is to learn better manners when I'm walking on my leash.

But my summer studies aren't why I wanted to write a new 'Summer School' post this year. I'm calling this post 'Summer School' in honor of my new friends in Room 25 at in Missouri!

Dear friends, I heard you were reading my blog, and I got your letter!

I love playing in the mud!! Don't let my white paws fool you - I like digging in the dirt, jumping in mud puddles, and rolling in anything that doesn't smell too good. That includes mud, worms, even dirty laundry. There's only one thing I don't like about playing in smelly, dirty things like mud.

Can you guess what it is?

Yep. Bath time.

I know, I said I like water, but bath time is totally different! Sure, I get treats when I get a bath, but I also have to let Dad get me all soapy and then dry me off. It's a bummer. At least in the summer I can rinse off in the pool sometimes and don't always have to get a bath. Thank goodness for the swimming pool!

So, friends in Room 25, I hope that you are having a fun summer! What are you going to study? I'll keep you updated while I learn my manners and take time for some vacations as well. I hope you'll write back to me sometimes about your adventures, too!