Merry Christmas. What did I get?

Sorry everyone. It has been forever since I have posted a new blog post. Things have been crazy busy but finally is calming down down.

Riggs was VERY excited to see what Santa brought him in his stocking. It is obvious pretty quickly what stuffed animal Riggs favors. *Sigh* Three new stuffed animals to come up with names for. Good Grief.

I hope all of you have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Enjoy the video of Riggs opening his stocking

The nose will find trouble (err...treasure?)

A while back we headed over to Orlando for a little R&R and stayed in one of the hotel resorts.  Each night we would take Riggs for a nice long walk around the hotel complex.  He was in heaven running around everywhere, sniffing all the smells, sensory overload basically.  Anyhoo, one night as we were walking along the sidewalk Riggs in his typical pattern is falling way behind OCDing about something he smells in the grass.  I figured he found another spot of pee or pile of poo or some dead worm.  I turn around to see what it is that he found this time and what do I happen to see...Riggs standing there with an entire Hot Dog in his mouth.

As many of you are well aware if you have been following Riggs blog for any time, he is allergic to just about everything.  So I start walking over to him and that little stinker is trying to consume (more like swallow the thing whole) the hot dog as fast as he can before I can get to him and take it away.

He got about half of it down by the time I got to him and luckily did not have some major allergic reaction.  He must have been so excited when he got a whiff of the hot dog jackpot.

Toy Chest - Tuesday

Thanksgiving is just around the corner and we found this guy at the store.  Introducing....

Gobble Gobble

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween everyone.

Riggs NOT enjoying being a banana split

But I don't wanna get up

Yes Riggs I know you do not want to get up. I don't want to get up and go to work but I have to in order to make money to pay for all your crap. So get up lazy butt and come downstairs so I can go to work please.

Congratulations Riggs. Video Dog of the Day

Congratulations Riggs!

You were named "Video Dog of the Day" on DogTipper.com on October 4, 2011 for the video Dada submitted of you called Riggs vs. "The Bone".

Video Dog of the Day: Riggs, Pug

Toy Chest - Tuesday

It is that time again.  I have no idea what this is suppose to be.  A mouse? A little bear?  Who knows.  Also I don't know where Mama comes up with some of these names for these stuffed animals that she does.  Anyway introducing.........

Uki

Difference of opinion

Riggs does not think he is spoiled.  According to him he does not have enough stuffed animals, food, treats, Nylabones, etc…

I showed Riggs the following photos and pointed out to him why he is.

So inspecting the photos I see the following which convinces me you are spoiled:

• You appear to be laying on a comfy king size bed
• You appear to be surrounded by multiple stuffed animals
• You appear to be chewing a Nylabone that you love

The conclusion I come to is you are definitely spoiled buddy.

Nylabones make a comeback!

When we got Riggs it became apparent very quickly that he loved two things:  stuffed animals and Nylabones.  He would chew on those things multiple times a day for a good hour or more.  Then one day he suddenly lost interest.  A good six months or more went by and he would show no interest in the Nylabones .  Now just as suddenly as it stopped it has started back up again.  He is completely into the Nylabones again. Granted he is 2 1/2 years old now and those teeth and mouth are much stronger and he can easily wear a brand new Nylabone down in just a few days and these darn things are not cheap.

Here is a coupon for $2 off a $5 or more purchase of Nylabone for anyone interested but you have to hurry the coupon expires on 9/15/2011.

Nylabone Coupon

Toy Chest - Tuesday

Before introducing our new toy this Tuesday, Riggs wants to send out a big thank you to all the new friends and followers he met this past two weeks.  He is VERY excited seeing all the photos and reading about all his other new buddies.  A special thanks to Winston for posting a blog posting about Riggs, Riggs got introduced to several new friends because of Winston.  Thanks again buddy.

Ok since many of you are brand new to the blog then it would be best to do a refresher on what Toy Chest - Tuesday is all about.  When we picked up Riggs back in late May 2009, we got him several different types of toys.  Balls, bones, ropes, a kong and a few stuffed animals.  It became very obvious that Riggs LOVES stuffed animals.  Of course Mama spoils Riggs rotten and his collection of stuffed animals grew exponentially.  Each time Mama got Riggs a new toy (a.k.a. stuffed animal) she would give the stuffed animal a name.  At the beginning when there were not that many to keep track off Riggs did a pretty good job at grabbing the stuffed animal we called by name but after awhile and the pile got huge it was pretty much a lost cause of Riggs bring the stuffed animal we mention by name.

So I decided I would start a blog series called "Toy Chest - Tuesday" where I introduce everyone to one of his stuffed animals until I got through every single one of them.  Granted at the beginning I was introducing a new stuffed animal every week to try and catch up and slowly got to the point where I do it about once a month now and here we are 2 1/2 years later and I am still not caught up at introducing them all yet.  Now anyone that owns a dog knows that stuffed animals will not last forever and so when the time comes during Toy Chest - Tuesday there will also be a R.I.P. (Rest In Pieces) for the stuffed animals that have not survived the wrath of Riggs.

So if you ever want to catch up on all the stuffed animals introduced so far just click on the "stuffed animal" label and you can see all the stuffed animals this little spoiled rotten bugger has gotten thus far.

So without further ado today I introduce you all to:

Grape Ape

It's a jungle "IN" here

I know this is similar to a post I did many months back but I have some video captured this time.  After many many years of saving our nickels and dimes we saved up enough money to replace our living room TV (a 13 year old 27" Sony CRT) with a drool worthy Samsung 59" Plasma flat screen TV.

I went and bought Planet Earth on blu ray and over the past several nights we have been thoroughly enjoying it in all its high def glory.  However Riggs has been having some issues adjusting to the new TV and especially to Planet Earth.  He is completely confused on what he hears and sees on the TV.  If you watch the video carefully you will see two times when the monkeys begin to move from the left side of the TV screen to the right where Riggs will turn his head and look up the stairs thinking the monkeys are going to start running up the stairs.  He can not seem to figure out that the monkeys are "inside" the TV.  He is convinced monkeys are going to start running up the stairs.

E.T. Phone Home?

I think I found E.T.

AaaChoo!!!

Once upon a time there was a couple peacefully sleeping in bed.  It was still quite early as the sun had not risen.  However, there was some stirring at the end of the bed as the pug had woken from sleep.  He stood up and leaned forward and stretched and leaned backward and stretched then did a full body shake.  He proceeded to walk up to dada’s side of the bed and placed his head right over his face and...AaaChoo!  Riggs!!!  Gross!!!  Thanks for the lovely wakeup call of snot sprayed all over my face.  You drive me insane dog!

Toy Chest - Tuesday

Let's see what is left in here. Digging down deep, nope already did that one, nope did that one also. Aaahh here we go, this guy is new.

Jacques

I think he is a robot

I am not really sure if Riggs is as much a dog as he is a robot.  Riggs is all about routine and schedule and never deviates from it.  Nothing ever changes.  His internal clock goes off at various times of the day or after certain order of events.

Riggs Schedule (Weekday)

• Wake up at 6:15 am and begin pestering Dada (aka lick lick lick lick) to wake up and feed me.  Proceed to do this for the next 45min to an hour till Dada cannot take it any longer and gets out of bed.
• Run downstairs as fast as I can and run around in circles as I wait impatiently for Dada to get my food ready.
• Stand there and whine and jump on Dada because he is taking way too long to get my food ready.
• Inhale my food as fast as I can, licking every last morsel from in the bowl and all around the bowl.
• Run back upstairs and grab a stuffed animal ready to play.  Begin whining if no one will pay attention and play with me.
• Go for a walk outside around the neighborhood, sniff all the light poles, bushes and as many grass piles as I can get away with dragging Dada to.
• Pee 3 – 4 times.
• Poo twice.
• Wait for Dada to give me a treat back at home.
• Lay down and begin sad pouty face to make Dada feel guilty for leaving me home as he leaves for work.
• Stand at door waiting for Mama to enter coming home from work.
• Run over and grab Angry Face or Pink Eye stuffed animal ready to play.
• Go outside and pee but then stand around and not poo.  I want to eat!!!
• Stand there and whine and jump on Mama because she is taking way too long to get my food ready.
• Inhale my food as fast as I can, licking every last morsel from in the bowl and all around the bowl.
• Run back upstairs and grab a stuffed animal ready to play.  Begin whining if no one will pay attention and play with me.
• Lay down next to Mama.
• Run to door when I hear garage door open and stand there waiting for Dada to enter coming home from work.
• Run over and grab Angry Face or Pink Eye stuffed animal ready to play.
• Go outside and finally poo and pee again.
• Stand under the table and lick lick lick lick Dada’s legs as he eats dinner.
• At 7:30pm, begin sitting or standing and staring at Mama and Dada waiting for one of them to get up and go get me a carrot out of the frig.  FINALLY at 8pm I get my carrot.
• Make a complete mess breaking my carrot up into tiny pieces and then eat it.
• Grab a stuffed animal and stand at the bottom of the stairs waiting for Mama to go upstairs to crawl into bed.
• Lay in bed and suck on Paris Hilton’s nose.
• Chew on my Nylabone.
• Play tug-a-war with one of my stuffed animals with Mama.
• Fall asleep.
• Act like dead weight and pretend I am sleeping when Dada comes to bed and wants to take me outside one last time.
• Pee once.
• Go over to Dada when he crawls into bed and begin lick lick lick licking him.
• After getting pushed away 4-5 times I finally give up and fall back asleep waiting for 6:15am to arrive to start it all over again.

Gross! What is that smell? Run!

Riggs loves the smell of gross disgusting things.  Poo, pee, decomposing dead things; he thinks it smells awesome.  However, Mama will start cooking something on the stove and he takes off upstairs to get away from the odor.  So let me get this straight Riggs poo smells like a bed of roses but the smell of a nice juicy hamburger makes you run away?

W h a t  i s  w r o n g  w i t h  y o u  d o g ? ? ?

Report Card

Every once and awhile we will be too lazy to give Riggs a bath and take him to the groomer to get a bath instead.  The groomer gives you a report card on your dog that covers various things like how his skin and coat looked, his teeth, his ears, his mood, etc...

Riggs typically scores high in most categories but every time the same comment comes back:

"Riggs does not like the dryer"

After they give a dog a bath they have some dryer to dry the dog faster and apparently Riggs total freaks out.  Must be that whole wind issue with him.

Don't say it, spell it

Riggs is by no means dumb.  He understands several words and phrases and you will get an immediate reaction out of him.  So certain words and phrases have to be spelled out instead of said.

Current list of words that must be spelled and not said:

• T R E A T
• R I D E
• C A R R O T
• P A R K
• WALK
• G & G (Grandma & Grandpa)

He also understands some phrases such as:

• "Do you want something?"
• "Mama's home" or "Dada's home"
• "Do you want to go for a..."
• "Do you want to go to the..." 
• "Where is your bone?"
• "Where is *insert stuffed animal name here*?"

Toy Chest - Tuesday

We are in the home stretch folks.  Almost caught up with all the stuffed animals.

Gus the platypus

Making out with Paris Hilton

Riggs is in love.  Stinky Nanners (yellow monkey) and Sunny (orange monkey) no longer matter to him.  He is all about Paris Hilton (pink monkey).

Riggs sucking on Paris Hilton's nose.

Are we there yet?

It is that time of year again to head up north to visit our friends over the Fourth of July.  This year we are meeting up in a cabin located in the Blue Ridge Mountains.  As you can see in the picture below, Riggs is all clean and ready to roll.

Massacre

Wholly crap!  Today we had a massacre.  It has been quite a long time since I have had to post any R.I.P. (Rest In Pieces) but today Riggs successfully destroyed three of his stuffed animals in one day.

I was working on the computer and Riggs was not laying beside my chair like he typically does so I went to investigate and this is what I found in the bedroom.

Wheezy's insides all over the floor.

R.I.P. (Rest In Pieces):

Wheezy the penguin

Bruce the bat

Ducky #2

Yummy, you taste like cotton candy

Lick lick lick lick lick.  Riggs is obsessed with licking me.  He will not lick Mama near as much as me.  He can not lick fast enough. "Yummy Dada, you taste like pizza and nachos and Subway sandwiches."  If I would let him he would stand there and lick me for 45 minutes or longer.  I must be oozing something that taste delicious out of my pores.

Lazy Saturday

Lazy Saturday chilling on the couch watching TV and taking naps.

Toy Chest - Tuesday

Yes another colored monkey.  This time it is pink.  Enjoy the name.

Paris Hilton

Temper Tantrum

As you all are well aware, Riggs HATES taking a bath.  Keeping him in the tub is a constant battle and drying him off is pretty much a lost cause.  Although we really don't need to dry him off because as soon as that bathroom door opens he proceeds to air dry himself by throwing a temper tantrum like a two year old.

Ready to play

Every time we go out and get back home, Riggs does the exact same thing.  He stands at the garage door waiting for us to open it, then he stretches and then he runs over and grabs "Angry Face" or "Pink Eye" and is ready to play.

Same spot every time

We got Riggs this nice big cushy bed for him to sleep in when we are not home but instead of taking advantage of the whole thing he lays down in the exact same spot every time.  Always on the far left side of the bed never moving to the middle or right side.  He has done it for so long you can see an indention in the bed where he has wore down the fluffy part.

Let me sleep Riggs!

Uuuugh!!!  This new dog food is my worst nightmare.  Ever since Riggs started on his new dog food that he thinks is the best thing ever created he can not wait to eat.  Now every morning starting around 6:30am, he starts pacing on the bed and sitting there staring at you.  Every slight move you make he runs over to you thinking/hoping you are getting up out of bed to feed him.

The entire time you are opening the can, dishing into his bowl, chopping it up he is down there whining: "Can you see I am starving down here Dada?"

Same routine occurs in the evening starting around 5pm as well.  Curse this damm dog food.

Toy Chest - Tuesday

Don't think we have introduced this guy yet.  I am losing track.

Checkers the cow

Car window

Riggs loves to go for a ride in the car.  Today I was driving and Mama rolled down the window.  Riggs stuck his head out the window to look around and as we accelerated from the stop light he left his head out the window only so long until the wind got just strong enough that he wigged out and pulled his head back in.  Something about strong wind gust and this dog.  He loves the breeze up to a certain speed and then gets concerned.

Chew it. Don't inhale it

It would be an understatement for me to say that Riggs LOVES his new dog food.  I don't think it is in the bowl long enough for him to taste it.  Giving him his various pills is once again a piece of cake.  We just hide it in the food and he inhales it so fast he does not know they are in there.  He licks the bowl clean.  When he is done you can barely tell that the bowl has ever been used.

Ultrasound done no blockage found

Well the ultrasound was done today and no blockage was found.  If the problem continues the next step will be to shoot him up with some type of dye and take photos to see if there is blockage in any areas they could not get to with the ultrasound.  Total vet bill today...$439.25

I am seriously thinking I need to place some type of Paypal application on this blog to see if anyone feels sorry for me (or Riggs) and wants to donate.  This dog is going to make us homeless at this rate.

Oh yea and IF we end up having to do that dye procedure that is estimated to cost $1200.  

Want to sell friendly loving pug, please do not tell the wife.

Blocked up again

Back to the vet we go.  Two days later and Riggs can not pee again.  Vet emptied and cleaned out his bladder again.  We scheduled an appointment to have an ultrasound done to see if there is some type of blockage occurring going into the bladder and leaving the bladder.  God knows what that is going to cost us.

Freaking great, nothing is coming out

Took Riggs out this morning to go pee and he squatted down in his normal goofy position and stayed like that for a good 20 seconds however nothing was coming out.  Very strange, so we kept walking around and a couple of seconds later he squats again and nothing.  Riggs please not another problem buddy.

Took him to the vet and they examined him, took some x-rays, and stuck a needle into his bladder to draw out some pee to investigate.  It appears that Riggs has tons of little crystals and mucus type stuff in his bladder.  They stuck a catheter up his you know what and all this white pasty gunk came out.

They emptied his bladder and washed it all out best they could.  Apparently the vegetarian based diet Riggs has been on, as we have been dealing with his allergies, has put his ph balance all out of whack and is causing these crystals and mucus to form in his bladder.  The vet has recommended we start him on a soft can food urinary diet.  The problem is the food is high in protein and Riggs might be allergic to it but we decided we would give it a shot and see if he was allergic or not.  Total vet bill today...$584.60.  Suuuuuuuper.

Dog food over treats?

When I leave for work I give Riggs a treat.  Today Riggs had no interest in his treat so I just laid it on top of his bowl of dog food so he can eat it later.  When I got home tonight I noticed something strange with his food bowl.  He ate all his dog food but left the treat in there.  Apparently it is time to find some new treats.  Riggs appears to be burnt out on the pumpkin animal cracker treats.

Inspector Pooseau

Anyone that has seen any of the old classic Pink Panther movies will know who Inspector Clouseau is.  If you have not seen these I highly recommend them.

Inspector Clouseau

Well Riggs is "Inspector Pooseau".  He can smell a pile of poo a mile away and must go and investigate every pile that gets within range of his sniffer.  What is it about gross smelling stuff that dogs just must go investigate?  Can they not tell the difference between good smelling things and disgusting smelling things?  

Another thing, Riggs will find something in the grass (usually it is something dead) and think it is a great idea to roll in it.  Luckily he is clueless that he gives an obvious sign that he is about to do it and I can drag him away before he gets a chance to roll in whatever it is he smells in the grass.

Toy Chest - Tuesday

Three new characters to introduce today.  They came in a three pack together.

Angry Face

Pink Eye

Ummmm....I have no clue

Oblivious to the world around him

Riggs focuses so much on sniffing the ground that he is completely oblivious to anything around him.  Squirrels, cats, lizards, whatever does not matter he has no clue.  A cat could come right up to him and swipe him in the butt and he would not even realize it till he got nailed.

Multipurpose stuffed animal

Looks like Riggs has found more than one use for some of his stuffed animals.  Here he is using Froggy #3 (I think) as a pillow.

Blinker

Riggs loves to go for a ride in the car.  He will pace back and forth from window to window looking out to see what is going on.  As excited as he is to go for a car ride, he gets even more excited when he hears the car blinker for some odd reason.  I don't know if he has associated the sound of the car blinker to us arriving at our destination or what but every time that car blinker is activated super excited Riggs kicks into action.

It's just water!

What is it about water and this dog?

Situation #1:  It is a nice sunny day, the garage door opens and Riggs goes walking outside onto the driveway.

Situation #2:  It rained earlier today and everything is still wet, the garage door opens and Riggs goes to the edge of the garage and then stops.  Dada then needs to drag Riggs outside onto the wet driveway.

Situation #3:  It was a nice sunny day and overnight the sprinklers ran or dew formed on the grass, the garage door opens and Riggs goes walking outside onto the driveway but as soon as we get to the grass he stops in his tracks and has to be dragged onto the grass.

Rush to the emergency vet – Take three

Well lookie where we are AGAIN.  Yup back at the emergency vet.  This time we went to our allergy specialist place which is also and emergency facility.  The poor guy looked really bad this time and after talking with the vet it sounds like it might have been our fault.  For any of you that have been following this blog for awhile now you know that we have been giving Riggs allergy shots to see if we can get his allergy issue under control. Well tonight was his scheduled night to get his shot.  Riggs has been on the shots long enough now that he is up to the full and strongest dose.  The allergens are in a vial with a mixture of saline and the allergens will separate from the saline over time.  So each time before giving his shot we flip the vial back and forth several times to mix it up well.  We think what happened is that we did not mix it up well enough and Riggs ended up getting too strong a concentration of the allergen.  Here is what the poor guy looked like about 15 mins after he got a shot of Benadryl and steroids in him.

Riggs turns 2

Happy 2nd Birthday to Riggs.  He had a tough day of going to the park, visiting grandparents, picking out toys at Petsmart and getting "soft" dog food for dinner.

Toy Chest - Tuesday

Neither one of us remember what we named this one.  Heck we can't even figure out what this thing is.  Any idea?

???

Attack of the killer vacuum

What is it about household cleaning supplies that Riggs has to freak out about it.  Any time one of us pulls out the vacuum cleaner, broom or mop, Riggs comes running over to investigate and then starts running around dodging and weaving around it.  I guess I could kind of understand his issue with the vacuum cleaner but the broom or mop?  Really?

Good luck Grandpa

Over President Day, Mama and I took a trip to Las Vegas and left Riggs with Grandpa.  Sounds like everything went well for the most part.  When taking Riggs for a walk around the neighborhood, he tends to walk as far ahead of you as the leash rope will allow.  Riggs also likes to cut the corners on the sidewalk and if you are not paying attention and quick enough he will cause the leash rope to drag along the grill or underneath a car that is parked.  Grandpa either forgot this or was not paying attention and Riggs successfully got the leash rope caught on the underside of a Porsche.  From the way Grandpa described it Riggs got it caught under there pretty good.  So here Grandpa is on his hands and knees fiddling around under the Porsche trying to get the rope untangled hoping the owner of the Porsche or anyone else for that matter does not come out or call the police to report suspicious activity.  After about 30 mins he finally got the rope untangled.

Are you sure we don't own a cat? (Part 4)

This is the fourth related post I have done about signs that Riggs is not really a dog but a cat.  I know cats are known for finding a window with the sun shining in and laying in the sunlight.  Well apparently Riggs does as well.

Scary outside at night

Riggs gets so paranoid when you take him outside after dark.  His eyes get all wide and he is on constant alert.  Looking all around, listening intently and dang near impossible to get him to focus on peeing and pooing instead of worrying that something is going to come out and get him.  How did we end up with such a wussy dog?  Maybe I should have named you Scooby Doo.

Toy Chest - Tuesday

I think we are finally getting in the home stretch of new stuffed animals to introduce.  We finally have educated ourselves on what stuffed animals will last and which will get destroyed.  Today we introduce...

Stitch

R.I.P. (Rest In Pieces):

Baboo the monkey

If any of you remember back on 12/22/2009 during Toy Chest - Tuesday I introduced Baboo to you guys and told you he makes this loud screeching sound when you squeeze him and Riggs loves to squeeze him over and over.  I mentioned that I hoped he destroyed that stuffed animal quickly.  As you can see it took over a year for him to finally destroy him.  

So dang picky

We have been trying to find a different all natural vegetarian based treat that we can give Riggs so he does not have to always have carrots as treats.  We have tried a couple of different things, but he is so dang picky he just sniffs it and shows no interest.

We finally came across something he likes.  They look just like animal crackers and they are made out of pumpkin.  They are all natural and humans can eat them as well.  They smell really good but I will just take the store owners word that humans can eat them as well.  Riggs seems to love them though so that is good.  A different treat for a change.

It's a jungle out there

If you have not seen the Discovery channel's miniseries LIFE or Planet Earth they are both must see especial in high def.  LIFE was on last night and we were watching it as we lay in bed.  All the sounds of the birds and various animals were driving Riggs nuts.  He was watching the TV very intently jumping up and barking at the screen ever so often.  He was completely drawn in and mesmerized by all the odds sounds the animals made.

Animals are not the only thing on TV that will trick Riggs.  If a doorbell rings or someone knocks on a door on TV he is up and barking.  Also apparently some tones of scary music or the sound of babies crying on the TV will make him sit up to attention and bark.

Is Atopica the culprit?

The allergy shots have began for Riggs but at the same time Mama continues to search the internet for other possible causes and remedies for Riggs itching.  One of the medications he has been on is called Atopica.  Many of the side effects are things Riggs showed signs of when he had a severe reaction.  It is very possible that the medicine that was suppose to help his itching was instead making it into a much more severe issue.  Now it will just take some time to see if he has any more severe reactions or not.  Hoping for the best.

Get up here yourself

Our bed is pretty high off of the ground and Mama was getting tired of lifting Riggs on and off of the bed every time he wanted up or down so Riggs now has his very own stairs so he can do it on his own.  Just like when he was a puppy, we are having to teach him to not be apprehensive about the stairs and that it is perfectly safe to go up and down on his own.  Although every time he comes down the stairs, he steps down on the first step and then jumps the rest of the way to the floor.  Riggs if you bust your leg I am going to wring your neck.