Last week I mentioned some great photos that Hala @ Muttropolis took of Mommy and me for the “Mommy & Me” Photo day.  And…. Here’s one of them! :-)
Daddy thinks that “Mommy and Me” are quite photogenic.  Mommy tries to deflect Daddy by often asking, “Isn’t your little boy the cutest puppy ever?” but Daddy usually follows up by asking me, “Isn’t your Mommy the most beautiful Mommy ever?”  :-)

Really, though, Mommy says she hates being in pictures, and only poses cos she loves to have pictures taken with me.  And Daddy says he doesn’t mind at all. :-D

Kathy and Hala went to Joann’s Fabric store to buy that make-shift backdrop and brought in the real pink tulips that you see in the photo.

The Fashion Island Muttropolis can get pretty busy and crowded, but Hala managed to get a nice little setup to take some really great photos.  Daddy even suggested that she set up her own website to showcase some of her work!  Hala, we’re still waiting….  ;-)

During this week, Mommy and Daddy (well, mostly Mommy), have been putting me on the treadmill regimen again.  I usually get walked for 12 minutes at 0.6 (Mommy) or 0.7 (Daddy) miles per hour, with a 1 minute cool-down.

I think the treadmill is really helping me, because this weekend, I walked most of the time at Fashion Island.  I couldn’t sit still in my stroller, and I kept wanting to jump out.  Of course, Mommy and Daddy have no complaints, cos walking is good for me.

Anyway, all they had to say was, “Oscar, ready to see Kathy at Muttropolis?” and I was on a mission to get some treats and started to strut past LensCrafters, round the corner at The Yard House, and passed the Daily Grill to meet up with my home-girls at Muttropolis.

Shortly after I arrived at Muttropolis, I met a really cute pup named Dino.  He looks like he’s got Tide-white socks on! :-)

As you can see below, I was a bit shy and coy and hid behind Mommy.  I usually don’t like hip-hoppin’-energetic-whipper-snappers, but both Daddy and Mommy thought Dino was soo cute and wanted me to take some photos with him.

Dino’s mom thinks that Dino’s part Jack Russell and part Doxie.  While I can smell a bit of the Jack Russell Terrier in him,  I’m not so sure about him being a Doxie!  Although, I thought he really was a cute pooch myself, and I’m really happy he didn’t have the Eau du Petstore on him.  :-)

After a little while, I warmed up to Dino enough to greet him again.  You can see that I still needed my Mommy at my side for reassurance, though.  I dunno why, but I get the jitters around puppies for some reason.

That’s enough for this week.  Come back next week for an update on how Mommy’s been trying to get me to be the Mayor of some of our favorite stores using an iPhone app called Foursquare!  :-)

If you’ve seen some of my blog entries from before, you know that I’m a big fan of the Apple store and all the gadgets they have there.  In fact, you can see me in the photo above, navigating my site using the iPad!  :-)

The iPad is a pretty cool thing for me, cos I can use my snout to operate it.  I don’t need a mouse or a fancy pen for it either.  Just my moist nose against that brilliant and shiny scratch resistant screen will do!

Daddy’s been thinking about waiting for the next generation iPad that might include a camera or webcam, but I heard him and Mommy talking about not needing a built-in camera at all. 

Daddy said something like, “I have a webcam on my desktop and laptop, and I never use it unless I’m traveling so that I can Skype with you [Mommy] and Oscar when I’m away.”  Mommy concurred.  So, I think they’re thinking about getting me one for Christmas!  I can hope, right? :-)

Oh, by the way, I’m not sure if you know this, but I don’t particularly like other Dachshunds.  While I don’t go out of my way to show them my dislike, I don’t really go out of my way to greet them or to enjoy their curiosity or company either.  But, there are a few times when I meet a special dachshund that I take a liking to.

A couple of weeks ago, while walking behind Neiman Marcus, we ran into a rather unique dachshund with quite a distinct feature! 

His name is Piggy — because of a curled tail that he has.  But what’s more interesting is his hair.  Daddy didn’t take such a great photo with his iPhone, but he did get an outline of my new friend Piggy.  Take a look below. :-)

Piggy’s dad sometimes puts hair-gel on his mohawk so that it’s more accentuated. 

But apparently Piggy doesn’t like the scent and tries to rub it off. 

Silly boy, don’t you know you look absolutely cool with that mohawk??

Just a bit of attitude and some heavy gold chains around your neck, and Piggy, you could be the next Canine Mr. T.  Piggy, I pity da foo’ who don’t respect yo’ fro!

Not only is Piggy a cute little bugger, he does a few tricks as well!  Take a look at the video below.  :-)

Well, that’s it for this week.  Next week I’ll post some photos of Mommy & Me from the Muttropolis “Mommy & Me” Mother’s Day Photo day.  Hala from Muttropolis took some GREAT photos of us and I want to share them with everyone!

If you’ve read any of my blog entries you know that I love to visit Kathy and Hala and get treats every weekend.  Today, though, was a special gathering of sociable Doxies at Muttropolis.

You can see Mommy holding me below while I try to sniff some baby Piebalds.  Being that Mommy and Daddy call me Puppy Pie, it probably would have been a good addition to the family to have sibling Puppy Piebalds, but Mommy knows that I like to be an only child.  :-DAs some of you already know, I normally don’t care for Pugs and other Doxies, but today I met one that I somewhat liked.  Also, he knows this really cool trick.  He can actually “sneeze” on command!  His name is Joey.  Joey’s the white and gray dapple, second from the right in the photograph below.  He and his mommy live in Huntington Beach and occasionally visit Fashion Island – not like Mommy and Daddy and I do, which is every weekend! 

By the way, did you know that my Daddy’s the Mayor of Muttropolis @ Fashion Island on Four Square?!  :-DAs much as I love to meet other dogs, sometimes I just need a break.  As you can see below, I’m turning away so fast that my ears are a blur for even my Daddy’s speedy SLR!

As Daddy was taking photos of us just outside Muttropolis, this rather spunky Pomeranian came up to my Daddy and stood up on his legs and just wouldn’t leave him alone until Daddy snapped a photo. 

And as soon Daddy’s shutter went off, so did the spunky Pomeranian.   It’s a good thing he didn’t stomp on my head as he was prancing off!I have to say, those Puppy Piebalds are really cute! Mommy and Daddy say that if I weren’t so high maintenance, they’d consider getting a brother for me, but I just know that the truth is that they love spoiling just me.  :-)

Anyway, I’ve done enough blogging for today.  Here are some more photos of the Piebalds as I close my posting.  See you next week!

Easter usually  conjures up images of Cadbury Chocolate Eggs, and Easter Bunnies clucking like chickens, but this year, I’m making a bold and new fashion statement!  Ribbit! Check me out in my Easter Froggy suit!  We took this photo last Saturday, the day before Easter.  Mommy and Daddy bought the Froggy Schnitzel Suit from my favorite store at Fashion Island — Muttropolis!  But the ears – we bought the ears at a local Petco near our house.

I wasn’t too happy about having to wear the suit during the day of the photo shoot, but as usual, the photographs were worth it.  It’s just that I’m not flashing my smile.  I look like I’m trying to show off Zoolander’s trademark Blue Steel look.  Serious.  Sexy.  Slightly Angry!  Grrrr.

Just the week before, I took this photograph with the official Fashion Island Easter Bunny.We always have to mind the rules of a very stern English woman (Daddy calls her Mary Poppins) whenever we take holiday photos at Fashion Island:

• I can’t sit on Easter Bunny nor Santa Claus — Boo!
• Just one photo only.

Fortunately, Daddy’s speedy SLR lets him take a dozen shots before Mary Poppins is even aware he’s broken rule #2! :-D

This is a peculiar Easter Bunny who happens to be afraid of even small dogs like me!  Last year, he actually crept away from me ‘cos he was so scared!  Now, he’d be good playing the role of a Scaredy-Cat-Chicken-Clucking Rabbit – Bok! Bok!

Even though Mommy likes to take yearly photos of me with Santa & the Easter Bunny, Daddy says his favorites are always the photos of just me and Mommy, like the photograph below.

Daddy took this picture right outside of the Easter Bunny photo booth.  He just had to point out to Mommy how my porky-chop leg was hanging over Mommy’s lap.  Thanks Dad. :-|

Well, I think I’ll close my posting with this special public service announcement: “Bunnies are to be appreciated for life, not just during Easter.  Please don’t impulsively buy bunnies because they’re so cute during that moment that you see them.”  :-)

Last weekend Muttropolis was hosting a Kissing Booth to help raise donations for the Irvine Animal Care Center.  Because it was for a very worthy cause, and because I love being a ham, I asked Mommy and Daddy to make a donation so that I could get my photo taken.

The photos were taken by Hala, who works at Muttropolis.  Daddy says Hala took some really nice photos and that she’s got great timing for capturing cute moments.  He says Hala’s going to be an up-and-coming photographer!

Here is one of the photos that Hala took of me.  I think the crop and timing is just perfect!  And the kisses on my neck give me goosy-bumps.  :-)

Here’s another one of me, sticking my tongue out ever-so-slightly.  Mommy loves it when I do that for pictures.

In this photo, I’m “looking” in the direction that Mommy is, and so is the Babelicious Bulldog Beatrice.

You can see the entire Kissing Booth that Brittany’s dad made for the event.  Brittany works for Muttropolis, too, but maybe she and her dad should go into business making Kissing Booths instead!  ‘Cos this one looks really cute.  :-)

We couldn’t stay long last week, because we had to get going to a birthday party.  But I managed to see Kathy, my favorite friend at Muttropolis, scored a few treats, and got some great photos taken.  Not bad for a leisurely Saturday outing!  :-D

By the way, as cute and photogenic as Beatrice the Babelicious Bulldog was, she just wasn’t my type, so, when she asked if she could friend me on DogBook, I said, “Sure, just look up Oscar.”  (TTFN!).  ;-)

As you can see by the date of the previous post, it’s been a long time since there’s been any activity on this blog, but it’s about time we changed that.  :-)

My Mommy and Daddy have been busy trying to help other people learn about a condition that I have called SARDs.  You can read all about it here on this site for SARDs and IMR Awareness.

Since SARDs, I’ve been trying to adjust as best as I can to my new life, using my super-sensitive olfactory senses to sniff out new life forms, and going where no dog has gone before… 

Hey, wait a minute!  What’s my dad doing trying to slip some geeky Star Trek talk into my blog?

Anyway, with the stroller that Mommy and Daddy bought for me, I pretty much get to go wherever they want to take me, with the exception of indoor restaurants.  But, pretty much every restaurant that we’ve been to with outdoor patio seating has been happy to have me as a customer.  :-)

This picture you see right here was taken at an adjacent park  next to the Terra Nova restaurant at the Wyndham Hotel in Costa Mesa.

We went there for a brunch and they even have a special menu for puppies like me. 

Unfortunately, I’m allergic to chicken, so I couldn’t have any of the treats on the puppy menu, but I had a good time there, especially ‘cos Daddy got some nice pictures of me with Grandad, Grandma, and Mommy, especially this one below. :-)

Since we launched SARDSAwareness.org, we’ve been very consumed with updating the site and helping pet owners with their queries about SARDs/IMR.

As a result, we haven’t been able to post much to Oscar’s blog.

We hope to get back to Oscar’s blog in a short while, but in the meantime, we feel it’s more important to help other SARDs/IMR dogs that are affected.

We hope you understand.

We are proud to announce that we have finally launched a new site dedicated to spreading the awareness of Sudden Acquired Retinal Degeneration Syndrome and Immune-Mediate Retinitis (SARDs/IMR).

This is our way of donating our time and resources to help the cause of SARDs/IMR research and treatment.

Thanks to Dr. Grozdanic, who has always made himself available for questions and advice, and who has also provided us with invaluable information regarding SARDs/IMR, the information that we have acquired and learned has been presented on this page.

If you haven’t seen it already, please have a look at www.SARDSAwareness.org.

Thank you! :-)

Acronyms to be aware of:

ISU  – Iowa State University
IVIg – Intraveneous Immunoglobulin

This blog posting chronicles Oscar’s experience with SARDS.  To get caught up, please read Day 1’s entry by clicking here.

If you would like to be notified of new postings to Oscar’s blog, you can subscribe to his email feed.  Look at the “Subscribe to My Blog! :-)” secion to the right side of the blog.

One important thing we failed to mention on Day 1 was the immediate treatment that was prescribed for Oscar:  Heavy dosage of Prednisone, a steroid, and an antibiotic treatment of DoxyCycline.

The ophthalmologist at Eye Care for Animals suggested this course of treatment for a week, then suggested that we quickly decide on whether we will participate in the experimental treatment using human immunoglobulins.

We now continue on to Days 2 & 3….

As soon as we got home, we both got on the internet to research whatever we could find out about SARDs/IMR.  Hours later, after reading through countless articles of human SARDs we finally landed on this link from the Iowa State University (ISU).  Click here to read the press release.

After reading the ISU press release, we started to look for articles and websites containing the name “Sinisa Grozdanic”, the professor at ISU who is attributed to pioneering the treatment of SARDs/IMR using IVIg.  All significant articles and videos on YouTube all pointed back to Dr. Grozdanic’s research performed at ISU.

Having recognized that Dr. Grozdanic was the central figure around any and all significant information regarding SARDs/IMR, we decided to take a chance and write to him.

It was Friday night when we wrote to Dr. Grozdanic, and had described Oscar’s symptoms and diagnosis.  We thought it was a shot in the dark as our thoughts were “A professor who’s neck deep in research for the great good of all animals wouldn’t have the time for our queries.”  But we were trying to be hopeful, as we went to bed that night.

On Saturday morning, as soon as we woke up, we checked our emails, and as it turned out Dr. Grozdanic had in fact replied back to our email at around 1:30 AM his time.

We ended up writing emails back and forth, and we asked questions to clarify the differences between SARDs and IMR.

Additionally, we were provided publications and a power point presentation about the differences between SARDs and IMR.

That weekend we read and re-read the documents as much as we could, in order to better familiarize ourselves with the condition that Oscar was afflicted with.

Now that we were better educated, we had better and more intelligent questions for the ophthalmologists at Eye Care for Animals.

If you would like to access the files that we were provided, please email us via Oscar’s email link to the right of this blog.

By the conclusion of our blog postings on Oscar’s condition, we will have acquired and set up SARDSAwareness.org to share the documentation with everyone.  We’ll inform everyone when SARDSAwareness.org comes online.

Please visit us next Monday for Days 4-6.

Thank you for visiting Oscar’s blog.  Normally, Oscar’s postings are full of photographs of Oscar and his Mommy, and the locations that they are visiting.  But this posting is very different, and as a result, is not like Oscar’s regular blog postings.

After reading this post, please read some of his earlier postings and view his wonderful photographs so that you can better acquaint yourself with our lovable baby, Oscar Mayer, Der Uber Schnitzel, and us.  :-)

Thank you for visiting.

Oscar, Suzanne, and Jay.

The following are a few terms and acronyms that you should familiarize yourself with before reading this blog posting:

Auto-Immune Disease — A disease in which a body produces antibodies to attack its normally useful and healthy tissues and cells.
ERG — Electroretinogram
IMR — Immune-Mediated Retinitis
SARDS — Sudden Acquired Retinal Degeneration Syndrome

Normally Oscar’s blog postings are in his own “voice”, but due to a recent event involving his eye-sight, he is temporarily incapacitated.  So, we, his Mommy and Daddy, are going to write a series of postings about his condition.

Oscar will resume his own voice after we complete our series of postings on SARDs and IMR.  Please read on to find out what happened to our little baby, Oscar.  We  hope the postings will educate you about his condition and that your new found awareness of SARDs and IMR may help save your own dog’s vision and life.

While we have had many emotional responses to what transpired during the past month, our initial objective is to share with you factual information about Oscar’s diagnosis, prognosis, treatment, and recovery.  We will elaborate more on our emotional experiences with the various Drs. and people that we have come to know after we present useful information about SARDS/IMR.

Additionally, because there is so much to cover, we will be writing about SARDS/IMR and our experiences over the next few months, one week at a time with a posting each week.  There is just too much to cover on a single posting, and we wish to make small progress each week rather than to put it off until it is completely done.

So, let us begin with Day 1….

On Friday, March 13, 2009, Oscar was tentatively diagnosed with SARDs.  We say tentatively diagnosed because the veterinary ophthalmologists were unsure of the exact diagnosis, but were inclined to diagnose Oscar’s condition as SARDs, as opposed to IMR.

The ophthalmologists who diagnosed Oscar were Dr. Blocker and Dr. Treadwell of Eye Care for Animals in Tustin, CA.

SARDs and IMR are two rare auto-immune diseases that cause sudden blindness in canines.  An auto-immune disease is a disease in which the body produces anti-bodies to attack and destroy its own healthy and useful tissue.  In this case, Oscar’s body produced antibodies that were attacking its own retinal cells, causing the rapid decline of his vision.  Over a span of 3 days, Oscar’s vision went from seemingly normal to nearly blind.

Canines that ultimately develop SARDs/IMR have a history of some or all of the following behavioral and clinical symptoms:

• Reluctance to jump on/off platforms, such as beds and sofas, in dim light conditions.
• Reluctance to walk down the stairs in dim light conditions.
• Reluctance to chase a ball if it is closer than 10 feet, but will chase it if thrown further away.
• Abnormally dilated pupils for months, or years, before the “sudden” onset of blindness.
• Polyphagia (“excessive” eating), often causing weight gain.
• Polyuria (“excessive” urinating)
• Polydypsia (“excessive” drinking)
• Hypersalivation
• Tearing eyes
• Seasonal skin allergies
• Food allergies
• Vaccination allergies
• History of previous, or current, tumors (neoplasia), which is applicable to IMR, not SARDs.

To confirm objectively if Oscar had indeed lost visual function, an ERG was taken to measure electrical activity in the retina.  To our dismay, the test results showed that there was no electrical activity in Oscar’s retina.

But we were certain that Oscar had some form of vision, as we knew that he was able to track our slow movements by sight, particularly in brightly lit conditions, such as being outside in sunlight.  However, his indoor and night-time vision, which canines have superior ability over day-time vision, was significantly absent, if not completely gone.

Additionally, a bright-light and dim-light maze test was performed to confirm his day-time and night-time vision.  Both tests showed objective evidence of diminished vision.

Day 1 was quite traumatic for us, as we did not expect to hear such a diagnosis of a rare and incurable condition.

There were so many terms that were medical and foreign to us that we were too stunned to ask any intelligent questions at the veterinary clinic.

So, we wrote down a few things we had heard while the Drs. were diagnosing Oscar, such as “arterial attenuation”, “pale optic nerve”, “normal fundus”, and most importantly,  “SARDS” , “IMR”, and “intravenous human immunoglobulin treatment”.

This concludes the blog posting for Day 1.  The next posting will focus on the research that we did during the weekend immediately following Oscar’s diagnosis.

We’d like to close this posting with the following:

In the U.S., approximately 4,000 cases of SARDs/IMR are reported each year.  With a large canine population of over 70 million in the U.S., 4000 cases is relatively miniscule, and the condition of SARDs/IMR does not receive any attention relatively compared to diseases and medical conditions such as heartworms, mange, ruptured discs, or other genetic diseases that many canines are predisposed to.

It is for the above reason that so few pet owners and Doctors of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) are aware of the existance of such diseases.

Ask any or all of your canine pet-owning family members and friends if they have heard of SARDs or IMR.  Better yet, please forward this blog entry to them and ask them to take our poll below.

Meanwhile, as you are already here, please participate in the brief poll below and let us know about your SARDs/IMR awareness.

To our personal friends and family,

Please answer the poll as you would have prior to your knowledge of what has happened to Oscar, before we started to converse about SARDs/IMR.

Back when I was just a teenager, I was a jet-setting model for some of the top canine fashion designers.

It wasn’t always easy posing still under the heat of the photography lamps, but I was a professional, and always delivered the look.

All my friends think it’s so fun being a glamorous model, but the photo shoots take hours sometimes and I’m always on stand-by, waiting for the photographer to review his images before he lets me go on a break, or lets me make my next wardrobe change.

I’m always embarassed to see this next photo, because I’m naturally shy and coy.  Everyone says I’m the perfect Canine Klein model, but it’s hard imagining myself to be this perfectly beautiful sexy wiener, even if I’m wearing these tighty-whities.

I’m well beyond my modelling days now, but it’s great now and then to see photos of myself in my peak youthfulness.  :-)

By Southern California standards today was quite a cold day!  {{{Brrr!!!}}}  That’s why Mommy decided that I needed to wear a sweater to keep me warm.

Also, Mommy and Daddy decided to pass on Newport Beach’s Fashion Island, and head over to The Spectrum in Irvine, ‘cos it’s usually about ten (10) degrees cooler in Newport Beach.

After donning my sweater, I led Mommy and Daddy over to Mommy’s most favorite candy shop in the whole world, See’s Candies.  After taking this picture, Daddy went inside to buy Mommy some of her favorite chocolates: Coconut Specials and Milk Chocolate Buttercreams.

I know I’m not supposed to have any chocolates, so I don’t even bother asking for any! :-)

I must have been in a gallery strolling mood today, because my next stop was to see the works of Thomas Kinkade, the “master of light.”  This is the Village Way Gallery where a lot of Kinkade works are shown and sold, but you don’t see any of them at the entrance where I’m posing for my photo.

It’s still December, and Santa’s still out and about, letting the good and bad kids sit on his lap to take photographs.  I already did this two weeks ago, so I’m way ahead of schedule!  But Mommy decided that it would be nice to take a photo in front of Santa’s House anyway.

The breeze picked up a bit, and Daddy thought it would be cute to get some photos of me with Dumbo ears!

After our posing in front of Santa’s house, two really cute and well-behaved kids came over to visit me.  Unfortunately, I was still pouting ‘cos I had to wear my sweater, so I wasn’t feeling particularly sociable.   But, the kids were so gentle and patient when trying to pet me that I just had to spend some time with them.

It turns out that one of these kids has a miniature dachshund at home, too!  The funny story is that on his first night at his new home, he ran back and forth all night in the other bedroom, and by the time morning came, he was so exhausted and worn out that he just plopped and slept all day!  Crazy wiener boy! :-D

I really have an affinity for the Apple store.  They won’t let me work the iPod touch, ‘cos I’ll scratch the screens, but the Apple store clerks sure do love saying “Hi” to me!

Here’s a woof-out to my new friend Ryan at this Apple store at The Spectrum.

Mommy told him about my blog, and Ryan said he was gonna definitely check it out! :-)

Here’s another friend I made today.  His name is Timi.  It turns out that Timi’s girlfriend has a dachshund, too!  Oh, is that Ryan again in the background??

Did you know that Russo’s Pet Experience has a store at The Spectrum, too?  Anyway, we visited there and today there were two mini doxies playing in the pen.

I checked them out and gave them a high-five before we left.

As I mentioned before, it was prretty cold today.  Mommy asked Daddy if he’d be in the mood for a Peppermint Mocha Hot Chocolate from Starbucks.

Daddy agreed that it would be the tasty thing to do, so we headed into the Barnes and Noble Bookstore.

Here’s a picture that Daddy took while we were waiting for the barista to prepare Mommy’s and his order.

Mommy and Daddy leisurely enjoyed their hot chocolate, while I enjoyed the warmth of being inside.  You can’t see it in this photo, but next to us is a display stand of all kinds of dog books, from “Marley and Me” to Cesar Millan’s books, to the Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover books.

I read them all while Daddy and Mommy enjoyed their refreshment. :-)

Daddy decided to take one last photo as we left Barnes and Noble….

Thanks for stopping by, and see you next week!

It was earlier this year when Mommy Pie was watching an old Disney’s classic, Pinocchio.  And suddenly she had a great idea for a costume for this year’s costume contests!  Because I’m a “real boy” and all, Mommy thought that I should dress as Pinocchio this year for the various costume contests that I locally enter.

After looking online for a bit, Mommy found this picture of Pinnochio as the inspiration for my costume.

You see, my Mommy is the Creative Director for my blog, as well as for all my tasteful and fancy clothes and costumes that I wear.  So, whenever she gets an idea, she starts talking to Daddy about how they might get it to work.

Usually, Daddy will just start looking in all directions inside his head and say, “Yeah, that’s doable.”  When that happens, we get in the car and head down to Joann’s Fabric shop down on Yorba Linda Boulevard.

It takes Daddy about sixteen (16) to twenty (20) hours to make a costume like this Pinocchio.  I hope you like the photos!  :-)  By the way, Mommy likes to call Daddy a fantastic “Seamstress” but Daddy prefers to be called a “Tailor”.  But Mommy tells me that I’m supposed to tell all my friends that Daddy is a “Seamstress”.  (Daddy is huffing and puffing right now!)

The photos below are from this year’s costume contests at both Petco and Petsmart in Anaheim Hills, CA.

Here’s one of me greeting a Kracky Krab.. or is he a Loopy Lobster?  I don’t know.  I just know that I’m a real boy.  Can you see from the photo below that I’m confused about my competition’s species?

In case you didn’t know, Daddy was lying on his stomach to take these photos.  He says things are more interesting from down down low, or way up high.

In the next photo, you can see Mommy and me sitting and waiting for our turn to walk down the cat-walk.

It’s not easy trying to remain calm when you have to put on your best face and strut to earn a living.  As you can see, I look a bit stressed out in my next photo.

When I finally got called up, Daddy had to scramble to get my shoes on and to take this photo as well!

Do you think I look pouty above?  It’s a look I’ve perfected after being inspired by Zoolander’s Blue Steel.

Here’s what Daddy calls a 3/4 turn auxilliary view.  Sometimes Daddy talks like he’s taking photos of a car.  But as you can see, I do have these cute little round wheel-like shoes on. :-)

After I charmed the judges with my devlishly cute looks, I’m feeling a bit more relaxed.  It helps to be held in the arms of my wonderful Mommy :-)

The moment of truth is coming…  The judges are about to announce their winners…  And I’m looking happy, excited, and anticipating the rush of victory!  :-)

“Tadaaa!”
“Bingo!”
“Show me the Money!”
“Woohoo!”

Here’s Mommy and me doing our victory pose.

Although Daddy grumbles about having to make these costumes every year, he really enjoys that people enjoy the costumes, but more importantly, Mommy and he enjoy looking at all of the great photos that are taken.

And even though I get to buy myself a Nylabone with this year’s “lucrative” winnings, what’s more important to me is that Mommy and Daddy treat me like a real boy.  :-)

Mommy and Daddy had a special party to go to this afternoon, so my outing for today turned into an outing for the night!  I had never been to Fashion Island at night before, so tonight was a treat, especially with all the Christmas lights and decoration, which you’ll see some of later in this post.  :-)

I decided to go to the Apple store today.  Normally I just walk to the entrance, look around, and give a cute wink to the Apple store employees and we head down towards the other shops.  But tonight, I wanted to look at some of the electronics to see what I could buy for Daddy this Christmas.  Daddy’s a geek and likes gadgets.

As you can see, I was looking quite dapper in my Holiday Sweater, all decked out in red.  Daddy asked the friendly Fashion Island Apple store employee if I could be an honorary Apple store clerk for a few moments, and guess what?  I got to wear those cool and dandy lanyards that only Apple store clerks get to wear during the holiday season!  Too bad the clerk’s name wasn’t Oscar, but the print is so small you can hardly read it anyway.  Anyway, I want to say a big “Thank you” Sean for letting me “work” there for the night.  :-) 

One of the perks of being an Apple store clerk is that I get to hang out at the cool retail window display!  As you can see, they have quite a cute Santa setup in the window.  I had the “authorization” to hang out there, and get this cool shot, as an official Apple store clerk for the night!

After my long shift at the Apple store, I decided that I needed a bit of a break, and that it was just about time that I go tell Santa what I want for Christmas.  It’s a good thing that I had just left the Apple store, because I had remembered all the Apple Ipod Touch models fresh in my mind.

It was 5:51PM when we got to Santa’s photo boutique, and the sign said he’d be back at 6:00 PM.  So we all stood in the queue for a few minutes, waiting for Santa.

As you can see below, Mommy waited in line patiently, holding me, until it was my turn to sit on Santa’s lap.

So, as Daddy coached me, I told Santa exactly what I wanted (I mean, what Daddy wanted):

• A Porsche Carrera 4S for Mommy.
• An Audi S5 for Daddy.
• For me, just a few Nylabones, and a few squeeky toys from Petsmart!

On the way out, Daddy suggested that we take another photo of me near the queue.  Daddy says ambient lighting always makes for a better photo than using a flash.  I think he’s right.  What do you think?

After we finished at Santa’s photo boutique, we walked over to the huge lighted Christmas tree in front of Bloomingdale’s.  There, I met a really cute doxie named Neesa (if I didn’t spell your name correctly, please email me so that I can bark at Mommy and Daddy to fix it!) who apparently likes to wear clothes!  This is inconceivable, because I so-really-do-not-like wearing any clothes at all! 

Mommy and Daddy call me Pouty Schnitzel after they put a sweater or jacket on me, because I get all pouty and start acting dorky.  But tonight, I was on my best behavior, cos I had to impress the ladies.  ;-)

As we did last week, we went over to my new favorite store, Muttropolis.  I thought I might be able to get away with not having to take another photo for the rest of the night, but just as we walked into the door, Dorky Daddy says, “Hey, let’s put those reindeer candy cane horns on Uber Schnitzel and take a photo!”  And so, here I am, pouting again and looking “ridickerously” cute.

After Muttropolis, Mommy and Daddy had some yogurt at Pinkberry.  Afterwards, we headed over to Russo’s Pet Experience again, then finally headed home.

I must have been pretty tired and worn out, ‘cos Mommy said I snored all the way back home in the backseat in my car-seat.

Well, that’s it for this week.  Maybe we’ll go somewhere different next week!

Mommy and Daddy took me out for my weekly outing to Fashion Island, in Newport Beach, CA.  I love to go shopping there and take my Mommy and Daddy out for walks.  If they’re good I let them buy ice cream at Haagen Dazs and frozen yogurt from Pinkberry.  ;-)

Today, we started our walk from Macy’s and quickly made it over to the Santa House, across from Restoration Hardware, where Daddy took a picture of Mommy & Me:

We then headed over to the verra verra verra tall Christmas Tree in front of Bloomingdales, where Daddy took this photo:

We walked around Neimman-Marcus and headed over to my favorite store, Muttropolis.  At Muttropolis I got some really friendly attention from Kathy, who scratched my magic spot.  Thanks Kathy! :-)

Mommy and Daddy were pondering buying me a stroller for when my back gets sore (I had back surgery last year so sometimes it gets sore when I go walking for a long time).  On the way out of Muttropolis, Daddy snapped this photo of me in Mommy’s arms.

After Muttropolis, we headed over to Russo’s Pet Experience.  Mommy and Daddy take me over there to visit all the cute puppies and furry animals.  Sometimes I like to sniff the bunnies and other puppies that visit the the pet store.

In fact, on our way there today, we met this Pomeranian:

Well, that wraps up my Saturday outing.  I’m not sure where we’re going next weekend, but I hope to have just as much fun!

Bye for now! :-)

I were an Oscar Mayer wiener…

Could this be a big dinosaur bone?

at Wienernationals…

That is what I am

I’m also the President!

You got a problem with that?

aber ich liebe Bier

Translate this at http://www.freetranslation.com.

Riiiiicolaaaaa

To win costume contests…

I hear they’re looking for hush puppies!

Yummy!

All mine! Oohh, yummy!

I think I can fly with these ears!

Hi Mommy!

Make for very pouty wieners!!

After a nice warm bath.

Is my favorite spa treatment after a bath.

In my comfy new blankey.

If that bunny comes any closer, I’m outta here!

Then my body caught up to me!

My first adventure starts in the front yard.

This shoe is bigger than I am!

Either way, I sure am cute!

Anybody care to hang ten?

Look at my cute little webby feet!

And I’m here to deliver!!

Stayed up all night blogging!!