Thursday, February 28, 2008

A Birthday and a Contest!

Well, someone is having a special birthday next week and I thought I would have a contest in his honor! Yes, Sumo is going to be 12 on Monday, March 3rd! Wasn't he the cutest little guy that you've ever seen?













I decided to try and figure out what Sumo's age is in human terms. (You always hear that you multiply the age times 7 to get his 'real' age). Well I found a site on line where you plug in all kinds of information on your animal (health, activity level, weight, training, etc..) and they compute the age for you more 'scientifically'! Well, these were the results:


Sumo's DogAge is 55.5!
That's 15.6 years younger than the average DogAge for Sumo's breed.

DogAge is the biological age of your dog, measured in people years. Your dog is lucky to have such a good caretaker.

Wow! What a young guy! No wonder he's still out chasing coyotes!


So, here is the contest. Leave a comment with a favorite memory (past or present) of a pet. I'll be drawing a name on Sumo's birthday for 2 skeins of Shibui Knit yarn and a Yarn Cake Holder.
(Now, if you are not a knitter, let me know and I will have a special prize for you as well.)






Speaking of birthdays, today is Sheri's birthday over at The Loopy Ewe. Head over and wish her a Happy Birthday as well.


As for me, I am busy cooking and packing for my weekend away. Here is what my stove top looked like yesterday. A big pot of this. And a pan full of vegies to make these. And, of course, a double batch of our favorite cookies.
Yes, that is a LOT of cookie dough! Steve helped me make them and brought in a HUGE tray to work today. He works until noon, and then the movers come and they are moving the clinic to a new location. They are all pretty excited. Gee, I'm so bummed that I can't be here this weekend to help move. Darn.



Well, I better go finish packing. I'll leave you with a few more baby photos of Sumo.




























Until Next Time....

52 comments:

Anonymous said...

He's so cute! And he still is! One of my favorite pet memories is my cat, Tonya, who died at only three years old from leukemia. That was in 1997. We got her at 6 months old through a rescue. Turns out she tried to adopt our neighbors, but they couldn't keep her because of allergies. We walked across the street to get her and could tell that she'd been outside for quite a while and decided to give her a bath to help her out. She just sat in the tub and cried, but never tried to get out or struggle. Then I stayed on the couch with her in a towel on my chest and pet her until she was dry. She was the best kitty. (please don't tell my current ones I said that);-)

marit said...

Sumo's holding up extremely well- just as cute now as he was "back then"!
My fvourite pet story? Well- the one not long ago when Mr.Black- our cat- chased Foxy off the grounds were pretty funny. Also when Mr.Black payed the birdbox a visit- he climbed up the tree and sat on top of the birdbox,being very disappointed when none came out...
Or way back when I lived at home and took a walk up a mountain with Rusken, our border collie(useless as a sheepdog), when we met a badger! In the middle of the day! Both animals stood still on the path, trying to stare each other down! The badger gave up first,and disappeared, and Rusken came back to me...

CelticCastOn said...

Awww Happy Birthday Mr.Sumo! Give him a big hug from me. My memory is pretty recent. It was the day Molly came to live with us. We had just got Boston the night before so they were both new to the place. Molly had a hard time seperating from her previous owner, she paced back and forth looking out the window, trying to get out, crying, meanwhile I was sitting on the couch crying myself saying its not fair!! Now I'm soo glad we have Miss. Molly, she is the protector of her little brother Boston, even though B is bigger than her. They are inseperable now :)

Unknown said...

Happy happy birthday Sumo. You are very lucky to have such great humans to live with.

Favorite pet memory - Dudley was still an only dog and he was a just a little bundle of general goodness. We had the back door open to the fenced yard. I was doing laundry for a family of 6 and folding in on the sofa when hubby called me into the other room to see something on tv. I ended up sitting down and watching with him. Dudley kept running back and forth from the other room, into the tv room, jumping up on my lap and then back out again. I couldn't figure out what he wanted. Well when I got back up again, he had taken all of hubby clean laundry outside - one pair at a time and spread them all over the back yard! It was very funny. g

Anonymous said...

I have so many animal stories but here's my all time favorite. I was a single mother of 3 small children. We didn't have lots of money for vacations so I would take them camping. On one camping trip we had brought our dog, a yellow lab (Janet). We would go with a big group of friends. The first night we got there a guy came up to me and asked if he could walk Janet. He was part of the group so I said OK. When they got back he handed me the leash and started walking away. Janet pulled her hardest to follow him. It was a little embarrassing. She wouldn't give up. The next day he walked her again and again the same thing happened. I invited him to stay for dinner to keep Janet happy. We became quick friends and continued to see each other when we came home. Janet LOVED this man. Well soon it became romantic and then I married him. Janet was so happy. She's in doggy heaven now but Tom stuck around. We now have 2 other labs who love him just as much.

Robin said...

Yes that guy is adorable. I loved seeing how Steve looked back then. He still looks really young. How exciting to be moving to a new office. I don't know about a favorite pet story but I love when Gizmo goes outside in the snow and she picks her feet up like a princess and turns around and looks at me "Are you crazy????" She hurries up at least when it is cold.

Anonymous said...

Your Sumo looks so much like My Wheatie!! And they are close in age too, Wheat just turned 11 in January. Everyday is so special with him, but my favorite memory is when we dressed him up in my hubbys undershirt. He was so serious looking, it was a great photo op. Happy birthday to Sumo!!

Patricia said...

Hello Janice. Sumo was and still is a handsome boy. I think that our pets last longer with more love. I enjoyed reading about you on the Loopy Ewe sight. I have been to your blog a few times and I have made a couple of your recipes. They turned out great! My husband is in the Coast Guard so we move every 4 years. We had just moved to Smithville New Jersey (near Atlantic City) and were busy doing upgrades on the home we had purchased. We have two cats and a dog. One of that cats and the dog are great movers. They aclimate very well to new surroundings and car trips. The other cat (Alex) makes his displeasure known. Anyway, We had pulled out a stall shower and were measuring for the new insert. There was a hole in the floor for the pipe placement. Alex crawled in when our heads were turned and was then between the second and first floor beams of the house under the floor. He would not come out no matter what I offered. I finally set our other cat near the hole and gave her a few squeezes until she meowed. I did this a couple of times until his head emerged through the hole to see what was wrong and I grabbed him. To this day he still will not go near a bathroom and this happened 7 years ago.

SwissKnits! said...

Happy Birthday Sumo!!

My favorite memory is of my dogs Rufus and Talley. When we lived in Wisconsin (early 80's) we had a huge snow storm, afterwards we went out to play, with the dogs, in the new snow. We began rolling snowballs and the two dogs (dobermans) took over rolling the balls backwards!!! Both dogs had a blast and it was so funny watching them roll these huge snowballs, with their front paws and walking backwards on their hind legs. Poor Rufie... he ended up killing the root of one of his front teeth that way. I miss them both...

Karen said...

That Sumo...he's a handsome guy for sure! Our last dog was a 120 lb. rottweiller named Marlee. She was sweet and loved everyone. But, she was also very food driven...sort of a food addict. One evening on my way home from work I stopped and bought 3 foot long Subway subs because I didn't feel like cooking. I cut each sub in fourths and spread them out on the counter. I walked about 20 steps into the living room to tell everyone to "come and eat" and by the time I returned to the sandwiches, Marlee was swallowing the last piece! She managed to eat all 3 feet in about 30 seconds. She also ate 6 pumpkin pies in her lifetime (not all at the same time) and numerous other "people" foods. She was a wonderful dog that loved our family. We lost her at only 6 yrs old to canine diabetes. We still miss her.

Happy Birthday Sumo and may you have many more years to bless your family with your love.

Unknown said...

aw, seeing those pictures makes me miss my (long departed) yellow lab Sabre. Happy Birthday Sumo!

my favourite pet memory has to be when Sophie (my younger kitty) first jumped on my now-husband's lap. she is not usually a fan of people other than me, and was very unhappy to be stuck in a car for a 1500 mile trip from where i was going to school back home for the summer. about 100 miles into the trip, she hopped onto his lap (he was driving at the time) and snuggled down for a nap. i knew then that he was a keeper!

Angela said...

My favorite pet memory is when we got our brand new Yorkie puppy, Pebbles, almost 12 years ago. We just adored her. They wouldn't let us have her until she was 3 months old because she was so small. When we got her, she weighed only 0.9 lbs. When we picked her up, she only wanted my daughter to hold her, and she continually licked my daughters hands and face. It was only later that we realized that it was because she had snuck and eaten some candy earlier and had sugar all over her.

StampinShelly said...

Happy Bday Sumo! And many more!
We had a long haired doxie named happi. When our children were infants, she always laid on the floor right by them. One day when our youngest was about 8 mos old, she was sitting on a blanket on the floor. She loved Happi and held out her hand. Happi licked her little hand. Somehow, Lilli got ahold of her tongue and held on for dear life! As I was running across the room to rescue the poor dog, she just laid there and gave me those "um help me out here, please" eyes. I knew if she didn't nip then, she never would (and she didn't). Dang, I miss that dog!

Allison said...

lbsbwHAPPY BIRTHDAY SUMO! He was such a cute puppy! Thinking of favorite pet stories has brought many a smile to my face. I've been lucky to have several wonderful pets over the course of my life. I think the best was our cat Carlos. Any abbyssinian cat who was so sweet and happy. He used to love to play fetch with a peppermint. You know the kind you get when leaving a restaurant? We would toss it to him and he would play with it and then bring it back to be tossed again. Don't know why but it was so much fun. When we moved from our house we found peppermints all over the place under furniture and in the backs of closets, etc.

Confessions of a Knitting Diva said...

Our black cocker, Mel, peed in a photographers shoe!! The man was at our housing doing a photo shoot for a newspaper article. When he left, he said,"Um, I think your dog peed in my shoe." Yup, it was full of pee!!! I could have died. Mel didn't get any on the floor, just in his shoe. The guy left in his stocking feet. The next day I called to ask how much I owed him, and he told me that his boss thought it was so funny that they were running the cost through an expense account. We lost Mel to Lymphoma on Dec. 19, 2007. Happy Birthday to Sumo!!

Mitchypoo said...

I love seeing pics of Sumo because he reminds me of my beloved Simba whom I lost January of 2007. She was a labrador/rottweiler cross but looked like a lab. I raised Simba from 3 days old. She was abandoned by her horrible owner who took off with the Mama dog and abandoned 12 pups. She was so tiny and hadn't opened her eyes yet. She was as big as my palm. She was my child whom I fed with a baby pet bottle and soon a regular baby nipple with queens milk and she just grew and grew. When she opened her eyes, she saw me, Mom.
We were close for all of her 14.5 years. She thought she was human and she would give hugs by squeezing you with her paws. She protected me during my divorce and consoled me when I needed it. Never again will I get so close to an animal I think.

Happy Birthday Sumo!

meg said...

Hi Janice,

I look forward to meeting you at the Loopy Spring fling!

My favorite pet memory is of our family yellow lab, Murphy. My parents were out of town and had asked me to stop over and check on the dog(they were only gone overnight). I went over and found he had escaped the backyard. I went around to all the neighbors asking if they had seen Murphy. One told me they saw him walking along a road nearby. I jumped in the car, saw him walking and pulled over. I told him, "Get in the car" in my most stern voice. He looked sheepish and got in...I peeked at him in the rearview mirror on the drive home and thought he looked different, but chalked it up to him knowing he shouldn't have jumped the fence and taken off. Well, once we got home and I took him inside, the phone was ringing with someone asking if we were missing a dog "Murphy" as they had tracked us down from the dog collar and were hanging on to him until I picked him up. I had picked up another yellow lab!! No wonder he looked sheepish!!

I have never lived this story down!!!!

Anonymous said...

I had always wanted a puppy as a kid but my parents said "no." Then I broke my ankle when my father was away on a business trip. My mother felt sorry for me and suprised me with the cutest cocker spaniel!! The best gift ever! Happy Birthday, Sumo and many more! I also can't wait to meet you, Janice at the Spring Fling! Will you be bringing some of those delicous "Monster Cookies?" :)

rohanknitter said...

Awwww, look at little baby Sumo!
He looks so adorable in those pictures. Puppies sure are hard to resist.
We've had plenty of pets over the years and lots of good memories with them, but I think one of the funniest things I've ever seen was Max the weiner dog playing with that lamb we had in the house last year. Watching them chase each other around the house was priceless.

Edna said...

We have a golden retriever who will be 13 in May and I have two favorite memories of when he was much younger. He was just a babe and would jump on my husband's head when we set him down on the bed while my husband was still asleep. Also when a "toddler" he would bark and bit at the water running in the tub for his bath.
Sumo reminds me a lot of our Rusty.

monica said...

Sumo is such a sweetie. And he was an adorable puppy.

Pet story. We had a couple cats when I was younger. They loved to chase each other around the house playing (they were father and daughter) At Christmas they would chase each other up the Christmas tree. Every morning there would be ornaments on the floor and on occasion the entire tree would be on its side. Sweetums, the girl of course, was smaller than her dad Mittens, she would run under the console stereo and he would try to run under after her and would hit his head every time you think he would have learned. He also loved marshmellows and we would feed them to him and he would sneeze like crazy from the powder sugar on them. They were the best cats ever.

Anonymous said...

I got my first dog when I was 20 as my parents would not let me have a dog growing up in the city. We named him Spike and spoiled him rotten. My favorite but not so pretty memory is Christmas Day 1990. We were opening presents with my in-laws and someone let the dogs in. Spike had tried to crawl under a fence that my in-laws dog crawled under all the time....he was a German Shepard mix and the in-laws dog was a Shih Tzu. Spike needed stitches and quick. We looked in the yellow pages for an emergency vet and eventually found a vet who would help us but we had to help with the procedure. He had to put the dog under anesthesia because the injury was so bad. We spent Christmas Day at this unfamiliar vet's being vet assts. for the day.
We miss Spike and all the trouble he always seemed to find.
Jane

Jolynn said...

My favorite pet memory is of my cat, Snowey (now deceased, sadly.)

We had just rescued her from the streets of Cleveland a few weeks before this happened. She was very skittish still, and would avoid us at all costs. She flinched whenever we even attempted to pet her.

The first time she ever really came close to me of her own accord was during a really bad thunderstorm. I heard her crying outside my bedroom door, so I got up and let her in. When I got back in bed she jumped right up with me and lay at my feet. I quickly fell back asleep. A few minutes (or a few hours, I couldn't tell ya) later I felt her crawl really close to my body. She was just purring away. She ended up curled in a ball right next to my face when I woke up the next morning. I was so happy!

After that night, she was always by my side whenever I was home!

ikkinlala said...

Happy birthday, Sumo! What a cute puppy he was!

I grew up on a farm, and we've had a lot of pets over the years, so it's hard to choose a favourite memory. Here's a weird/funny one that I like (in some ways): there were a lot of mice in our old house, and my parents either got tired of dealing with dead mice from the snap traps or decided that they weren't safe in a house with little kids, so we had a live trap and would just release the mice in front of a cat. One evening, we just kept catching mice. We'd dispose of one, and twenty minutes later there'd be another one in the trap. And I guess the other cats must have been off hunting somewhere else, because the only cat who was around right then was Bouncy (one of the best cats we've ever had - she died last spring, and we're not nearly as good about tracking ages as you are but we think she was 14). She was a small cat anyway, but at that point she wasn't even fully grown yet.

She ate nine mice in three hours, and waddled for the next day or so. I guess she knew she was supposed to kill those mice, but I'm not sure why she thought she had to eat them all.

Anonymous said...

Pet Memory:
We had two dogs, a small mix pudgy
black and white dog and a golden retriever Sadie. The Vet wanted us to help our little dog Missy lose some weight. My husband came up with a couple of high dishes for Sadie, so Missy couldn't help herself to our golden's food, plus eat her own. One day, my husband and I both watched Sadie, our golden take food from her dish and drop it on the floor for Missy. Missy remained a little plump and lived to a ripe old age. We lost Sadie at 10 years old, but have never forgotten her sharing her food with Missy. She was the sweetest dog ever.
Happy Birthday Sumo! Pets add so much to family life.
Thanks for the memories!

WendyKnits said...

Happy Birthday to Sumo. He sure was an adorable puppy! And a gorgeous guy now!

My favorite pet memory: My cat Arthur (whose photo is in my current blog post) used to love to dance with potholders. Give him a potholder and he'd wrap his front paws around it, clasping it to his chest and rise up on his hund legs and jump around.

Of course, there was never a potholder around when I needed one -- Arthur danced away with all of them.

He's been gone since 1992 and I still miss him.

Unknown said...

Hi Janice,
Happy Birthday to Sumo. My cousin's birthday is the same day.
My favorite memory is of the first
dog I had after I married and had
children. She was a mix and part
of the mix was an English Sheep Dog. She was all hair. The little
kids use to come in and ask "why
doesn't your dog have any eyes?".We
use to have to pull her hair away
so they could see that she had eyes. She was a wonderful dog and
although we had several after her,
she was my favorite. Also I check
your blog everyday and look forward
to seeing your new creations. I also enjoyed the interview with Loopy on Sheri's blog. Have a nice
weekend.

Anonymous said...

Baby dogs...they are a true creation for happiness and love.

My favorite pet memory is when my cat, Mocha, used to walk out in front of me, plop down and turn over and then would curl around very coyly, beckoning to be rubbed/massaged/loved on. He is the most wonderful cat!

Christine

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday Sumo!You are the most photogenic dog that I have ever seen.May you have many more birthdays.
Our dogs ,Thelma and Louise ,were littermates.They got along beautifully except for one thing-the dog beds.Although the beds were exactly alike ,they both wanted the same bed.One day when Thelma was on "the" bed,Louise paced back and forth for several minutes,hoping her sister would get off.Finally,she just sat on her head.Thelma got off with all of the dignity that she could muster,while Louise settled herself onto the bed.Although our sweet girls are gone,we still laugh about all of their issues with the beds.

Unknown said...

Happy Birthday Sumo! And many more...

My absolute favorite memory of Sadie, my currently 9-year old sheltidoodle, is when she was less than a year old. My mom had made a loaf of bread in her bread machine that turned out dense, so she tossed it out on her compost pile without a second thought. Later that afternoon, I looked out the window just in time to see my little 5 lb puppy hurtling across the back yard with the entire loaf of bread clutched in her jaws. She was bounding and having the time of her life! It was precious.

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday Sumo!

I've had several dogs during my life but some of the happiest memories are of Charlie who was a small black and white cocker/beagle/Heinz 57 mix. My little brother Jay was 8(51 now)and decided to teach 10 wk. old Charlie to fetch a stick. He tied slices of balogna with string to tree sticks. When he threw the sticks the balogna would fall off almost immediately while the stick kept going. Charlie would waddle about 2 feet to eat the balogna and then look up at Jay for more. He never did learn to fetch a stick. :)

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday Sumo! What a cute pooch! My husband and I have no children yet but we definitely treat our Lucy like she's our child. One of my favorite memories of her is of watching her at the doggie park 2 summers ago rounding up every single dog in the park for a game of chase. She started out goading a few nearby dogs into chasing her and then moved onto another small group of dogs. Within a few minutes she had a pack of about 12 dogs chasing her around the pond. She was so exhausted when we left that she slept the whole way home in the car and all evening once we got home.

KnittingHawkeye said...

Our Chocolate lab is now 6 and sop is our yellow lab mix, Gwen.
When we first got my dog Gwen (Guinevere) after we put our black lab down, it snowed. There used to be a field across the street from our house. My dad and I decided to walk across the street in the snow. Gwen, who was this little caramel fluffball, was hopping along behind us in our footsteps. She was too short and small to walk in the snow on her own, so she hopped from one foot step to another. It was soo adorable.

Ana said...

Happy Birthday Sumo! My favorite memory is of my pet Tobie. Tobie was a pure black cocker spaniel. Tobie just loved balloons. We would blow up a balloon just for him and he would walk around the house with the knot in his mouth. Not once did he ever pop the balloon. He would carry around that balloon until it was almost completely deflated and we took it away from him. The funny thing is if he knew where we kept the bag of balloons at he would sit there and just look at it until you blew one up just for him. I have so many fond and funny memories of him. The other memory I have is when I moved away. I was gone for a couple of months. The first time I came home, he wouldn't let me in the house. He would growl at me. For a week straight everytime I said his name I would get a growl. I would go nose to nose with him and all he would do is lick my face. Each time I would come home he would do this. The last time I was gone for three years(hubby was in the Navy). He let my husband in the door butt wagging a mile a minute, my son got in the door he sniffed him butt wagging a mile a minute. I got in the door he sniffed me and yep you guessed it he growled at me. I guess he was still mad at me for leaving him. I miss him terribly.

Anonymous said...

Awww Happy Birthday, Sumo! We had a wonderful Siberian Husky named Nikki, but at almost 13 years old, we had to have her put to sleep. That was on a Friday and I cried all weekend - it was so sad to walk in the house without her greeting me. On Monday we went to "look" at the SPCA and found Dakota, a black lab mix in the last pen. He had been abused and was afraid at first. We took him home, and on Tuesday my younger DD went to her preschool to tell everyone we had a new dog. She told them that Nikki in heaven, sent us Dakota (the new dog) because she knew how sad her mommy was. We have now had Dakota the Wonder Dog for 10 years and have another dog we rescued, Miss Lucy. I don't know where I would be without these guys!

Anonymous said...

ACK! See what happens when I type before my daily dose of coffee kicks in...I am from Virginia Beach, not what it says above, LOL.

Anonymous said...

Hi--Happy Birthday Sumo--you are a special dog.
I was thnking about Rascal our Siamese Cat. Remember the time we had to leave the cabin after a weekend at the lake with out him. I remember how happy everyone was when we returned the next weekend and he was sitting on the front step. WE think he may been locked in the neighbors garage. Mom
PS--not a knitter!

KSee said...

Well, I've always had cats and only three dogs in the last 40 years so I'll tell you about Samantha my first cat a Siamese. The year was 1966 and I moved from NYC to VA because my boyfriend just got back from Vietnam and we married. So I brought Sam with us when we moved to Quantico so he could finish out his time. I would not leave Sam alone so when we would go siteseeing in DC she came along. On one outing we went to the National Cemetery to see JFK's memorial torch. I put Samanatha on a leash and she would just walked along. As we were going back to out VW bug Sam needed to go, so right there at the curb she did her business. It never occured to me that people did not walk their cats. Now as I look back I can remember to "looks" I got.

hakucho said...

Baby Sumo was adorable!!! Growing up I had a cat named Freckles (a tricolor calico or money cat). One day she came home all covered in grease. Where we lived there was a bakery near by and we think she fell into a vat of something. She had to have a bath, and then her coat was so shiny. Another time she disappeared for 3-4 weeks. We really thought she was gone for good, but then one day she came back all dusty and thin, but she came back to us and I was never happier. She was quite the cat...I could go on an on....

Paulette said...

Happy Birthday, Sumo! You are one cute dog---the only thing cuter than a puppy is an old dog with a white face! We've had 2 Golden Retrievers, Bumper and Riley, each lived till almost 14 yrs old. So many good memories of each---Bumper was so sweet and gentle, around young or old. Riley, well he was a party animal and always thought the party was for him! He didn't "get" the concept of gentle, but he was very sweet and thought everyone loved him as much as he loved them. What a guy! We miss them both alot.

Jknits said...

My husband and I were driving to Connecticut for a vacation when we got stuck in traffic. We pulled into a strip mall to get a map and there was a pet store. We went in just for kicks but fell in love with a darling English Springer Spaniel. We walked out but realized we couldn't live with out him and went right back. We named him Rafiki Yangu Rais Powell - My Friend, President Powell. Thank you for reminding me. May Sumo live a long and happy life.

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday to a great dog. Love hearing about your adventures with him. My favorite memory is about a chocolate lab that my son had. He would love to play with toads that would always be around an outside faucet and flower bed area. He would always be rolling and pawing at them, or putting them in his mouth, but never eating or harming then. One day I yelled at him to drop the toad and he must have thought I was going to take it away, as he swallowd it whole right there on the spot. Yuck!! Jackie in Ohio

marit said...

Happy Birthday, Sumo!!!

annie said...

Happy Birthday Sumo!

One of my favorite pet memories is when my cat gave birth to kittens under our dining room table. I was in high school at the time, and this was the first and only time we had a cat that gave birth. She had three kittens, and we thought that was it. Then the next day, she had a fourth. We were very surprised, and that kitten, who we named Chipper, was always just a little bit different. She would talk in a chirrup-chirrup type voice, instead of a regular meow. And she was quite an acrobat, and would hang upside down from a ladder that we had going up to the attic! Very comical...

Jennifer said...

so adorable! happy early bday, sumo!! xo

Anonymous said...

My favorite dog story is about Hank, our Border Collie. A few months ago I was at a meeting about how to get rid of carp in the lake. A woman I didn't know was attending and she was knitting socks, so I introduced myself. It turns out we live on the same road. She said she walks down the road often and was trying to figure out what house I lived in. She finally said, "Well, where are you in relationship to Hank the dog's house?" I told her Hank is my dog and I live at his house. My wonderful dog knows more neighbors than I do. Hank died recently. He was truly the best dog in the world.
Woolstock

Mary said...

Happy Birthday Sumo! One of my favorite memories was of one of my childhood cats named Stormy. That cat would put up with so much from me and loved every minute of it. I used to dress her up in doll clothes and she'd never fight it, except to run downstairs to my mom so she'd "undress" her. She used to wait for my bus when I came home from school. My current cat Pumpkin is the one of the great feline loves of my life but Stormy will always hold a special place in my heart.

Shelley L. MacKenzie said...

Not sure if there is still time or not to enter the contest...but I'll give it a shot...

My memory of Tinker Belle is when she was a kitten. I would be standing at the sink doing dishes or at the counter doing something and she would come and sit beside me. Then, before I knew it she would jump up and hold onto my pant leg with her claws and then procede to jump (yes, jump) her way up to my shoulder where she would lay down and look to see what I was doing. That was really cute for the first 3 or 4 times...after that it was painful. I have never seen a cat do that before so I have always loved that memory of her.

Marianne said...

Happy Birthday, Sumo! That is awesome!

I have so many memories of my guys over the years. One that often pops into my mind is of my first Lhasa Apso, "Little Bear", over 30 years ago. After we would eat, he would stand up to beg, then slowly sitting on his haunches, so that he truly looked like a Little Bear, and then he would wave his front feet. He was a little doll. He loved his bacon & his green beans, etc. One night, we were having supper with friends, who had their grandbaby there. I was really afraid that Little Bear might snap the toddler's fingers, as he tried to grab for the offered green beans, but my friend, his breeder said not to worry, he would be fine. And, Little Bear sensed that he had to be gentle, and gentle he was! He gingerly took the green bean from the toddler, instead of grabbing it, like he did from us! Another one is that Little Bear loved to lick the rim of my Dr Pepper can, every time I had a sip from it. He loved Dr Pepper!

Anonymous said...

Guess what -- today 03-03 ia also my birthday. My favoite pet memory -- I was home alone, my children are grown and my husband was away on business. I started having extreme pain almost like labor pains. As I walked the floor in pain, our Shar pei started to follow me from room to room. When I crawled into bed crying in pain she got in with me and was right up against me until the pain went away. A few days later I had gall bladder surgery. I don't know how I would have made it without her comfort.

zippiknits...sometimes said...

Sumo is just a little older than Jazz, who was born on June 27th.

We both wish Sumo a very happy birthday today!

Sorry that we have no special "yarn" to spin about family pets, though. Unless it's about my bantam rooster, Henry, showing my White leghorn rooster, Bully, that it takes more than size to win a fight. Poor Bully lost an eye that day getting suckered into stooping to peck Henry on the head. Woe to all big guys! The little ones are tricky!

Dj said...

I don't really have a favorite memory as much as I just want to wish Sumo a very happy birthday and am happy to share the day with him!