Chloe has lucked out because once a week, she can come to lab with me!  Well, sort of.  She stays with her new dog friend Bailey and his dad all day!  They were kind enough to let me bring her a couple weeks ago to see if they got along and they did! Bailey is a very mellow boy and is about her age, which definitely helped since I know she isn’t too keen about really playful dogs (those that jump on her).  Here they are, spoiled and lounging on a bed!  Chloe is extremely happy in this picture because I do not allow her on the furniture in my house.  She knows she is so totally spoiled here.  That or she is used to me taking a million pictures and videos and knows to smile for the camera!

Let’s just say she didn’t to seem to have any problems hanging out with a new pack all day!  Well, at least Bailey’s dad hasn’t told me otherwise.   There is only story worthy “adventure” I know of…  Apparently Chloe decided she wanted to do some exploration on her own and jumped out of the open window behind the bed (see picture 1).  Let’s just say that Bailey’s dad was quite surprised as to how fast Chloe could run once he heard suspicious jingling collar noises coming from outside…. Don’t worry, she was herded back into the house soon thereafter!  I guess being a Tripawd really doesn’t keep her down!  Maybe its all those beach walks…

Now its my turn to tell you a story of an adventure I had with Bailey!  Not quite as cool as an exploring tripawd, but still story worthy!  The other week when I had a million things to carry (school stuff, Chloe’s bed, toy etc…) Bailey and his dad helped to carry stuff back to my car.  So I got Chloe settled in the back, opened the passenger door to put my things down and then Bailey decided to jump in because he wanted to go for a car ride too!  I start laughing and Bailey’s dad noticed Bailey was in my car.  He then opened the opposite passenger door to drag Bailey out.  Dogs, they are so silly!  I guess Bailey figured that since he spent all day with Chloe, that he was going wherever she was!  Maybe Chloe told him how she goes to the beach everyday (since they allow dogs on the beaches near me, not the case where Bailey lives) and convinced Bailey to want to check it out for himself!  I am sure there will be more adventures of Chloe and Bailey in the future!

Basically Chloe is a squeak-a-holic.  Here is a line-up of her favorite toys!  And of course I have caught her in action playing with them!

Starting from left to right:
Number 1: The “stereo” squeaker.  You can squeeze any part of it and it makes noise! Here she is playing with it 2 weeks post amp!

Number 2: The land mine.  This is a squeaker recently given to her by a friend of mine.  It makes an awful noise and it is quite loud….but she loves it!  This is her new favorite.

Number 3: The devil ball.  This thing has feet and devil ears.  This used to be her favorite until she broke it.  Or should I say, since she has broken the last 5….

Number 4: Mr. Flappy.  My mom gave her this toy as a house warming gift.  She likes to bring it to me when I am reading for school.  Somehow she always knows when I am busy.

Number 5: Mr. Camo “ginger bread” Man.  The shape reminds me of those famous ginger bread man Christmas cookies, so that’s his nickname.  There is a Mrs. Gingerbread Man in maroon (not pictured), but she can barely squeak anymore.  Mr. Camo Man is much more tough, so it will take a lot more that a few bites to get him to keep quiet!

When I’m feeling sad, I simply remember my favorite things and then I don’t feel so bad!

Yep, Chloe is quite the squeak-a-holic…And when she starts feeling those squeaker withdraws (or sad), she goes and grabs another one out of her basket and squeaks it!!    Or I can ask her to go get one…

Update!  Not 2 days after I posted this, my Dad discovered her squeaker burial ground in the dog run at their house!

As you can see, they pretty much no longer work…at least she has the sense to give them a proper burial!!!

We did a celebration fit for a tripawd this weekend!  It was a threefold celebration: 1. It was Chloe’s 3 month ampuversary (oct 29) 2. We have had no additional visits/notices from AC and 3. It was Halloween!!!  I guess you could say that our Halloween had a theme of threes to it…

First of all, what is Halloween without a custom jack-o-lantern?  For this task, the most important thing to do was to pick out a good pumpkin from the cute Trader Joe’s pumpkin patch! I wasn’t sure if they would be OK having a dog sniff around their “produce”, so she stayed in the car… I ended up getting a one from the row of orange pumpkins on top of the hay bale in the lower right.  Then it was time to carve it!

Chloe trying to figure out this pumpkin stuff…

The Little Mermaid pumpkin design! (I was a mermaid for Halloween, so I thought it would be fitting!)

Pumpkin turned into jack-o-lantern. Check. What about the cookies and candy?? You can’t have a proper Halloween without those!  So, off I went on another baking spree, making Halloween themed sugar cookies for the humans and grain free peanut butter cookies for Chloe and her dog friend Bailey (the cat ones on the left). Ghosts, witches and cats, OH MY!

Continuing our Halloween checklist: we made a pawsome jack-o-lantern, some sweets, so then it was time for the costumes!!!  I had what I call a “Project Runway” moment when I went to goodwill to look at their Halloween selection.  For those of you unfamiliar with the show Project Runway, the host Heidi Klum (well known Victoria Secret Angel and runway model) gives 15 designers the chance to launch their own line of clothes by having new fashion challenges every week.  Sometimes the designers are tasked with turning premade garments into something else entirely.  I applied this to my mermaid costume and did a bit of DIY work on Chloe’s costume as well.  FYI I did NOT have access to a sewing machine, it was all done by hand, so maybe you could say it was couture? I certainly have the finger pricks to prove it. Anyway for Miss Chloe, I found a cute child’s bee vest (no wings) and modified the leg/arm holes to fit Chloe’s robust shoulders (she bulked up with all that soft sand running!).   As a dog bee she already had half the number of limbs as a normal bee and I thought she shouldn’t be a completely helpless dog bug by having missing wings too! Luckily I was able to find some small green wings for her costume.  To modify the wing color I got some cheap hose stockings, recovered the wings and then sewed them to the costume. And Ta-da! Chloe is Queen Bee of the Tripawds!  Much cheaper than buying a pre-made costume at any dog store!!! I added her “Tripawds Rule” bandana for a little flair!

Since we got the three important things for Halloween (a jack-o-lantern, sugary treats, and costumes), we were ready to tackle the small stream of trick-or-treaters!!! It’s too bad I am too old for trick-or-treating…it would have been cool to call Chloe a trick-or-treating tripawd! However, Chloe and I were tag teaming the trick-or-treaters, kind of like good cop, bad cop.  She would trick the trick-or-treaters into thinking she was a stinging bee and I would give them the treat for stopping by!  For some reason they could see through her disguise and see that she was three legged dog.  I think she wasn’t very good at tricking them because she wouldn’t make buzzing noises like I told her to nor would she go over to pollinate the flowers I bought.  Or maybe these kids were just too smart….

Trick or Treat: A headless tripawd on the loose?

Trick! Chloe’s head is just under the bed!

Happy Howl-oween from Tripawd Chloe! Buzz Buzz Bark, Buzz, Bark!  And by the way, this is kind of an homage for Chloe being Queen of the Beach too…