Road Trip! Visiting Furends and Fambly

This woz our lastest day in St. Louis afore heading back home and we had furends wot we went visiting. Furst I wented to see my furends Hannah and Molly. Hannah is in the back and Molly on the rite.

Hannah is a rescued doggie and she is about 7 years old now. She camed to live with my furends when she woz 10 months old after she had been adopted from a shelter but returned coz the chillun was allergenic to her. So this is her thurd but final furever-and-ever home. Molly has been here since she woz a little puppeh wot her V-E-T woz trying to find a home for. Her birfday woz November 6, 1996 so she just turned 13 years old.

And their boy, Mike is my very speshul furend coz he has Down Syndrome. When I furst metted him 7 years ago I woofed at him coz he was diffrent and it skeered me. But he gibbed me cookies and then I becamed his bestest furend and even tho we had not seened each udder in a long time, we remembered each udder and I did not woof at him coz I knows now he is not skeery at all.


We all wented out in the yard for a while:

And then I gotted skeered mom mite leave wifout me so I knocked on the door to come back in.

We also taked this very speshul pikshur of me and Molly where I gently touched Molly's paw coz I knows I will never see Molly again and that woz very sad. Not only is Molly 13 years old but she has Cushings disease and she looks horribuls. She is wasting away to skin and bones and hardly any furs. But she luvs her noms and can still play a mean game of tug o' war wif her toys!

Then we wented to my cuzzin dog Casey's house. I had never metted Casey afore coz she has only been at her furever-and-ever home for a little over a year. We hit it off rilly well.

Casey was going to get the needle at the shelter but a rescue group taked her just in time to saves her life. You see, Casey had been in a puppeh mill all 5-6 years of her life just to crank out puppehs to sell in pet stores. Casey never knowed kindness from peeples coz she lived in a cage all her life so she woz very skeered. Well, that is all behind her now coz she has the bestest furever-and-ever home with my boy's aunt and uncle fambly!

So that woz our visting and tomorrow we is heading back to Noo Jersey but we might stop to has some more adventures along the way if'n the wevver is nice enuff.

Road Trip! Greensfelder Park (St. Louis County, MO)

Today we hiked 6 miles in Greensfelder Park with my gramma. It was like in the summer coz it woz 72 degrees outside. There is horse stables in this park so we sawed lots of horsies wot woz out enjoying the beeootiful wevvers.


Here I is hiking with my gramma:

We hiked up high to a seenik overlook:

We taked a break at the Beulah shelter. If'n it woz nite times we could has maded a fire in the fireplace and had a pawty! Wot funs that would be.

This is a sign wot woz in the shelter.

We looked on the interwebs to see who this mule named Beulah woz and we founded her story here on page 3. It says Beulah is the only mule to has a shelter named after her in Mizzoori, prolly in the whole country!

There woz also some waters for me, my fave part of the hike!

Road Trip! First Day At Gramma's House

We woz not going anywhere today.  For one, we spented all day in the car yesterday and for two, it woz Black Friday and I think that means the whole werld goes shopping but if they is not shopping for noms, count me out.  So we did stuff wot did not involve going in the car.  Gramma taked us to a new multi-use trail rite by her house wot woz not there afore the last time we was here.  It is called the Grant's Trail and we walked 4.75 miles on it.

It was a beeootiful day out and there woz lots of udder peeples on the trail walking, on bikes and roller blades.  We sawed udder dawgs too.

Then we camed to these apartments. Does you remember hearing about Shawn Hornbeck? It woz all over the news in the whole country.  A noggty man had kidnapped him and hided him in his apartment for FOUR YEARS.  This is where that apartment woz. Gramma did not knows exactly which one but it woz one in this pikshur.  Skeery.  But that noggty man is in jail now.

Then we walked by a pond and a little park on the way back to gramma's house.

When we gotted to gramma's house, I metted grandma's kitteh.  Can you sees her up on top of the air condishuner?

I don't think gramma's kitteh woz so happy to has metted me.  Her sayed "HISSSSSSSS GRRRRRRR HISSSSSSS GRRRRRRR..."  That woz not welcoming, woz it? 

Road Trip! Noo Jersey to Mizzoori

So we loaded up in the car early in the mornings and headed off on our big turkey day road trip to take Buttons to her new home in Illinoy and for me to go visit gramma in Mizzouri.

First we went thru Pencilvania and had a cupple of shoutouts to some of our Pencilvania furends.


ARRROOOOWOOWOOWOOWOO BorisKitty!

AROOOOOWOOWOOWOOWOOWOO at Khyra!

As you can see, it woz kwite foggy in Pencilvania.

And it woz raining in West Furginia

But luckily it stopped raining in Ohaio.


That woz a very good thing coz we had to get gas for the car. (We is telling mom to hurry up coz we has to pee!)


And we wanted to do a mini hike wif Buttons to stretch our 10 legs! (Me 4 legs, Buttons 4 legs, mom 2 legs = 10 legs) Mom had founded out about this little town in Ohaio wot has a rail trail called the National Road Bikeway rilly close to I-70 to we gotted there and hiked 1.5 miles with Buttons.


There woz a loverly gazebo:


We saw some udder peeples walking in the distance:


Oh, those peeples was walking with two shih tzus wot looked like Buttons' kin!


We woz sad that we could not go in the tunnel coz they was doing construkshuns. Buttons told me not to go closer or the pawlice will put me in jail like the sign sayed:


So then we gotted back on the road and napped.


Now this last pic mom taked wif the camera backwards over her head while she woz driving coz she could not see wot we woz doing behind her head. Silly mom.

Then we gotted to Indyanna and it woz raining again.

Anudder shoutout to an Indyanna furend close to Indyannapolis (yes, furends, that is Indyannapolis in the dark rains)... AROOOOOOWOOWOOWOOWOOWOO to Johann the Dog!
And then here we were in Illinoy:

And metted Lexi and her mom who is Buttons' new fambly!

We had takened lots of pikshurs of our meetings but we woz all so excited and moving so fast that all the udder pikshurs woz just big blobs of blurrs.

So after seeing Buttons off to her new home, we drived on to my gramma's house in St. Louis where we spented the nite.

Stay tooned - more to come!

Road Trip!

Preparashuns is underway for exciting cross-country (well, half cross-country) road trip. We is headed to the Gateway to the West, to the Golden Arches of McDonalds!!! Ummmm, no. Make that the Gateway Arch of St. Louis. Yeah, that's it. So let me tells you how this came about.


So you mite knows that we has been fostering Buttons, the little doggie with a big abandonment story. We had gotten many applicashuns for her but none of them woz the home we woz looking for. She woz not going to go to a home as a giftie for the 2-year-old chilluns coz she is not a Barbie doll. She woz not going to go to a home coz she is supposedly "haipo allergic" - she woz returned to us once coz the husband woz hasing asthma, why would we take that chance again? She woz not going to a home wot would put her in a shelter if'n they could not keep her any more. We wanted to be shore Buttons would be fambly, not just a dog, coz we don't put fambly in shelters. Fambly stays togedder no matter wot.

So then one day my mom got to talking to my fwend Lexi's mom. Lexi is also a shih-tzu and her birfday is the exact same day as my mom's, but diffrent year. But, same year as Buttons' birfday! Plus Lexi looks just like the shih tzu Buttons used to live with afore she was abandoned. It woz too spooky! Turns out, my mom and Lexi's mom was talking about Buttons going to live with Lexi in Illinoy! Read wot Lexi writed about it on her bloggie! Lexi's mom said she would not be adopting anudder dog, she would be adopting another daughter. OMD! This woz wot we meant by Buttons being fambly. And Lexi said it will be Buttons' furever-and-ever home which is even way better than a furever home!

So Buttons had to go to the V-E-T first coz we thought she had a UTI and she did. Here is Buttons on her way to the V-E-T. And a pikshur to show Lexi wot her new sis looks like on the insides. We wanted to be shore there was no bladder stones in there and all clear!



But how to get Buttons to Illinoy where Lexi lives? Fret not my fwends, I has the answer. Turkey day is a howliday so I said to mom, "Mom, I has not seen my gramma in St. Louis in a very long time. How bout we drive to St. Louis and drop Buttons off in Illinoy on the way?" Mom and Lexi's mom thought that woz a grate idea. So we is bizzy packing our bags!



We has lots of exciting things planned. A little mini hike with Buttons in Ohaio on the way when we has to stretch our legs, a hike in Mizzouri with my gramma, a hike in Ohaio on the way home, mebbe spending the nite at the Red Woof Inn or the Howliday Inn, then anudder hike over on the udder side of Pencilvania wot is far away from our house afore finally getting home. These plans is all in place assooming the wevver cooperates so keep your paws crossed. And stay tooned. I is hoping to has lots of adventures to tell about.

Wharton State Forest/Batsto Village (Hammonton, NJ)

Today we hiked 12.5 miles in Wharton State Forest wot is in southern New Jersey in wot is called the Pine Barrens or Pinelands. First I had to do some studying. You has heard of the Loch Ness Monster and Bigfoot, rite? Did you knows that New Jersey has a creature like that? We shore does! It is called the Jersey Devil and I had to knows wot he looks like so I could find him on our hike.

I dunno why Buttons woz so interested in this. She is getting adopted next week and won't even be living in New Jersey any more. (We is going to keep you in suspense and blog about that later - it involves a very long road trip we is taking.)

OK so we gotted there and here was a big giant map just like the one the State Park Service so kindly sented us in the mails.


And almost rite away we woz at Batsto Lake. Isn't it pritty?


We had the most beeootiful wevvers:


I gotted to go in the Batsto River and get my furs wet:


Here is me and the boy on the hiking trail:


Then we passed a gramma and grampa with two little granchilluns and I letted them pet me. They woz nice little chilluns.


Then, OMD, did we has a pwoblem! We camed to this bridge wot had grating on the bottom that we had to walk on and it just woz not werking with my delicate little paws:


Mom was skeered I would cut my pads up or that my leg would get stucked so there was only one thing we could do...

I did not like it at all. It was hoomiliashuns and skeery. But mom says I should be grateful the boy was with us coz she could not has carried me like that and we would have had to has gone back the way we camed.

But I forgotted all about my trauma after mom and the boy shared their homemade low-fat banana nut bread with me. Nommy!


Then we smelled something burning and founded that campers had lefted their fire burning! It was hawt with red flames! Mom and the boy tried pouring water on it but it just maded more icky smokes and kept burning.

Mom and the boy had to kick the logs into the river so the water would drownded the fire out then they kicked sand over the rest. Then mom called the park peeples on her cell phone to tell them bout it. They woz very glad mom called coz fires in the Pine Barrens is very bad. A wild fire can start and then the whole park gets burned up. A little while later the park ranger passed us in his truck going to check on it to be shore it was all the way out coz we was not shore we had put it out enuf.

OK, so now we woz on the Mullica River wot I was sitting on a little cliff nearby. They say this is a very popular river for canoeing in the summertimes.

I did gets to go in the Mullica River many times for swimmings.

Remember that Jersey Devil? He is supposed to has hoofed feets. We saw hoof marks in the sand and we woz thinking it mite be the Jersey Devil but it turned out it woz just horsies.


Then at the end of the hike we was woz at Batsto Village wot is a historical village where they restored the old houses wot peeples used to live in long times ago. Does you knows how much Mr. Wharton, who owned the land in the late 1800's, charged for rent for a house like the one I is standing in front of? TWO DOLLARS a month! That does not buy much of my kibble.

(Pee Ess: That is not a ghost or the Jersey Devil inside, that is the boy.)