First, you divide up the whiteishes and the coloreds.Then you examine all the smellies to make sure there aren’t any dog treats in the pockets. If there are, you helpfully eat them.

Then, you sort out the delicates — carefully, so you don’t scratch them with your paws or your tooths.

Finally, you go find your mama and collect your praises:

Good boy, Doodlebug.

The other day my mama, my grandma, and Puppy E went to the Farmer’s Market. We didn’t get to go, and we pouted half the time they were gone. We were so mad — until they got home, that is.

They walked in, and mama had a big grin on her face.

I asked myself: “Self, why does mama have a big grin on her face?”

And Self said to me “She must have brought you a most bodacious yummable.”

And I was right. So for the rest of the afternoon, my Doodlebrother and I feasted like kings on the most righteous of organic, free/strange, fresh marrow bones.

And then all evening long, we dreamt of our most bodacious, righteous of marrow bones:

Life is good in Austin, Texas.

Hey friends,

We’ve been busy the past month, taking care of our new puppy! Her name is Puppy E, and she got here a little less than a month ago. Despite our best lookings out the window, we never did see the stork come to bring her. Instead, mama and dad left one day and were replaced by our grandma (who took most excellent care of us and let us sleep in the human bed with her!!!).

Those few days really were most fantastical, because not only were we on the human bed and getting human snacks, but also our dog trainer friends from the Center were coming over to take us out on adventurings and walkings. A few times we even got to go to work to hang out for the day and be loved on by all of our friends!

So time really flew by, and before we knew it, mama and dad were home — and the puppy!

We were very excited to meet her since we’ve been preparing for so many forevers, and here are our observations:

• She smells very nice most of the time, but occasionally she smells like it’s time for a diaper change.
• She must be very clever because even on her very first day she got couch privileges, which Chick and I have yet to earn despite our most excellent behaviors and our abundant clevers!
• Some of our interweb friends had warned us that our life would become less fantabulous after the puppy arrived — that we’d get less lovings, fewer treats, and fewer walks. But so far, life is pretty same-like. We have our paws crossed this continues!
• She is very cute, but honestly kind of boring. Most of the time we don’t pay her any mind at all. We thought it would hurt mama’s feelings that we think Puppy E isn’t very interesting, but mama says she is actually thrilled — that this is exactly what we had been practicing for.

Some of our favorite hobbies that involve the puppy are howling like a wolf, in harmony with Puppy and sometimes even the Turkeyman:

Giving her little sniffs to help mama know whether it’s time to do the diaper thing:

And whispering sweet nothings in mama’s ear while she takes care of Puppy E. Mama and dad sure do work hard to keep the puppy from getting too squawk-ish, so they deserve some kind words and sniffs from us boys!

XOXO,

Mr. Doodlebug (Big Brother)