Christmas Treats

These are the treats that Tinker received from her Gram and Pap Rowe. Tinker thinks they are sooo tasty and I think they are great for her! Thanks Gram and Pap

Christmas with Gram & Pap Rowe

we just came home from visiting with Nick's mom, dad, brother, sister-in-law and unborn baby neice/nephew : ) It was a wonderful time of lots of sharing, FOOD, cookies, and fun antics with the 3 dogs-Maddie, Lucy, and Tinker. All 3 of the girls did well getting along. We kept an extra eye on Lucy & Tinker when food was around--Lucy didn't eat her food but made sure Tinker didn't touch it either. Tink is getting so much better around other dogs overall though-- Maddie's beginning to give her a second chance. Maddie had a "cookie ball" that Tinker loved to push around and get the kibble out of. Guess what we'll be finding for her for her gotcha day on january 21!!! so excited! another toy she likes to play with in the house. All the girls took turns sharing the cookie ball (with supervision of course ; )

Tinker moved her bed by this plant and fought and hit the plant so many times while nesting.

The leaves were just about touching her little face!

Another angle--how is this comfortable?

(See her shiny coat?!?!)

We slept in the basement on an air mattress, notice where the princess placed herself!!

Up close--Yes Tinker's hiney is on NICK's pillow ; )

Playing with daddy!

Gram had some of Tink's favorites--snausages. In fact they were snausages fortune snookies. Tinker totally plopped herself in the kitched right next to Maddie and patiently waited. At one point Nick and I were laughing at her and she turned her little head as if to say "what??!?! I want one too!" Such a cutie!


Our Christmas with the Rowe's was saturday morning and what a beautiful morning it was. We all took turns opening gifts and of course the doggies had their turn too : ) Tinker recieved a great box of organic treats with no corn wheat or soy. They're crunchy and peanutbuttery and she sniffed them out all weekend no matter where we put them!


Mom, let me help you with that


Lucy, Zach & Liz's pup, snacking on her gift from gram and pap.


Maddie, the not so little one who wouldn't hurt a fly : )


Tinker and Daddy posing for the camera

Aren't they cute!?!?!

We had a great time spending the weekend relaxing with the family. It was a great weekend and a great way to begin wrapping up our lovely vacation.

A girl with many coats

Matt, Amanda, and Plato came bearing Christmas gifts yesterday when they came for a visit!!! Amanda made this beautiful coat herself!! And it adds a wonderful new dimension to Tink's quickly growing ensemble, don't you think?

Relaxing on her bed

showing off the backside of her new coat

The distant "i'm a beautiful model" pose

And finally, "Mum, i love this new coat, can i keep it?"

Isn't she precious?

Yearly Check Up Visit

Tinker and I headed over to Leola for her yearly check up and vaccinations. Some minor shaking, as we sat there, but a few cookies helped assuage her fears : )

The Vet just thinks she is doing beautifully. He mentioned how beautiful her coat is several times. He said "If you looked at her from this angle (she was sitting with her back to him), you would never know she is the same dog as before." She looks great, she's acting great. Her weight is back up to just over 14lbs and he made sure to tell me not to let her get any heavier, which i knew. She has a nice thin layer of fat over her ribs, but you can still easily feel her ribs--perfect weight : )

She took her 2 shots like a trooper, she didn't even flinch. She has another little bump on her underside, but after taking several minutes for us to even find it, the Vet said that it's not a mammary tumor and is skin deep more or less. But he made sure i knew that if it changed in anyway, I was to get her back in ASAP. He doesn't want to do surgery on her any more than i want it to be done.

I love this vet, he's just very down to earth and practical. He's kind and gentle with her and thinks she is just the greatest little girl--which of course I love and know to be true : )

As we were leaving we had a little quorum as to Tink's age. And the decision was to set January of 1997 as her birth month and year. This will put her at 10 years of age, which is the general consensus among the vets and vet techs that she's been in contact with. And this makes me happy cause i'll have at least 5 more years with her : ) (Even though she's gonna live to be 35)

And the best bit--as we were leaving he said "now get outta here; i don't want to see you for another year." Now if that isn't good news, i don't know what is : )

Winston's Christmas Gifts!

Tinker's boyfriend, Winston, send up a wonderful Christmas gift for her the friday before we left for MA (hence the delayed pictures!) He and his Mum, Stace, are so thoughtful!!!

The blanket that her goodies are on, is sooo incredibly soft and fluffy!
I, I mean, she, loves it so much!

Winston so thoughtfully sent up some toys so encourage her playful side! Our friend little Plato enjoyed breaking in her chew toys for her last night. (don't worry Winston, Plato is a chi terrier and won't even come near your beloved Tinker!)

Winston sent over a beautiful pink diamond ring, one of the most rare kind to show his love to little tinker. And those cookies are made with bacon!!! Let's just say Tink thinks those are pretty special : )

Tink didn't enjoy snuggling with the dragon too much,
but she enjoys snuggling with the red blankie!

Thank you so much Stace and Winston for the delightful Chrismas gifts for the little stinker!

Tink meets some new friends

Tuesday, our last day in MA, Katie (my brother's fiance) invited us over to a brunch with her and her sister Brenda and her brother in law Eric. Of course Tink was invited--everyone wanted to meet her! Well Katie, has a pug named velvet and Brenda and Eric have 2 Chi's named rita and yoda. Tink did VERY well with all three dogs, even when yoda snipped at her--she didn't snip back! She kinda said, ya whatever ; ) So here is some proof : )

Tinker & Rita--yes I did hold her for everyone's safety : )

Tink & Velvet--isn't Velvet cute?!?! Tink even let Vel sniff her all over
and a little face to face sniffing. Tinker didn't even seem to mind!

Tink & Rita--Rita takes a long while to warm up to people, so she was a little umm,
yippy and snippy : ) but she's a cute little girl

Velvet thought Tink's new blanky was mighty comfy and umm,
borrowed it while Tink sat in my lap : )

We had a great time in MA and enjoyed our time with friends and family. Tink was very at home and even nagivated her way around my parents house fairly easily (and if you know what my parent's house looks like, thats a feat if you CAN see some days!). She got along well with stretch and well, miss anti-social Aby kept her distance. Very typical : )

Tinker loves Christmas...

Merry? Ya, I'm merry.
Just take the dang bow off and let me go back to sleep

hehe, tinker's a good sport, don't you think?

Tinker's new coat

Our first Christmas with Tinker : ) and what a trip its been. Here is Tinker opening her first Christmas gift in MA from her Auntie Katie

What is it Mum?

Umm, could we take off the big cardboard tag here?!?!


exploring the territory while trying out her new coat

Sitting pretty in her new styling Pea Coat : )

Look Mum, I can beg too in it!!!

The pretty girl took her first walk in her dapper new coat earlier this evening

It's so cute with a black and white herringbone styled pattern and a velvet collar and red lined. I feel like she should be going to church on sunday with it on or to a fancy dance.
Another piece of clothing to add to her collection : )

Tinkerbell, Tinkerbell...

...soon it will be christmas time!!!

Let's just say that this little family is very excited that tomorrow is the LAST day of work for both me and Nick for 1o whole days... and i managed to make it a 1/2 day for me. We're packing up and clearing out first thing sat morning for MA.

It's amazing how much can change in a year.... i'll elaborate more later when my head isn't so fuzzy from being exhausted. Lil Tink has a beautifully shiny coat, is eating like a queen and as much as she wants to keep her weight up and basically has anything her family-loving little heart can ask for (except for dead animals to roll in....).

Sigh, she's excited about the break too ; ) just dont tell her next fri she has a check up and a rabies booster... she'll get over it : )

knock on wood, no accidents in the house for a long while. Just consistency and frequent trips outside and yummy treats for going outside : ) it is so cute to see her look up at you with 1 blue eye saying "can I have one NOW?" even when she hasn't done ANYTHING or pretended to squat! Smarty!

OK, well, Merry Christmas all. I'm not sure when the next post will be, but we'll try and get some nice pics in here. I think the world could use a few more Tinker pics : )

Tink's feeling better

I think that Tinker had a 24 hr bug of some sort. She was feeling much better yesterday and is basically back to her normal self plus an occasional sneeze or 2. But no more boogies : )
Yesterday was a beautiful day filled with cleaning, then lots of relaxing! The weather was beautiful so we took tink for an extra mid day walk. She appeared to love it and promptly fell to sleep for the afternoon when we returned.

Tinker has once again taken to pawing up at the bed when she wants to snuggle! YAY! I knew the snuggle ball couldn't be better than snuggling with her mum forever!

Related or not, but now i'm not feeling great. I think it will pass, just enough to be annoying. Took a short nap on the couch after church this morning and tink, true to herself, snuggled right up next to me. She really knows how to make me happy-- my snuggly loveable little girl. And fortunately for her, her bath day has been postponed until i feel 100% again : )

One more week until Nick and I have 10 days off... can't wait for a beautiful vacation! Tink's pretty excited too : ) We'll get to see Granna & Grandpa and uncle Larry and aunt Katie and everyone else up there... then we get to see Gram & Grandpa Rowe later in the week. it should be a great weekend!

Me is sick...

Hi all, is me Tink. Ima feelin betta today, but i waz sick! Mum says i was a sneezin an weezin and i had boogies comin outa my nose! All i did on fri was sleep on my snuggle ball (and eat o course!) I hard a hard time sleepin 2 nites ago--my nose got snuffed up so i hadda sit up so i could breeth again! Last night was betta, i slept justa fine!
mum called my dr just to keep him up on me and he too is keepin an eye on me!
Mum's been taking out my heatin pad to keep me warm and lots of snugglin.

Mum & Dado no i'm feelin betta now doh because i was awanderin the house. And i couldn't refuse a marrow bone eeda!!! mmm, mmm yummy!

Just a slightly wet nose and some sneezin. not so bad, cause i still get to snuggle! Mum & i slept in dis morning. I wuv it when i get to sweep in her arms in da mornin! heaven!

Tinker Update: Christmas and Gotcha day! is coming

Christmas is coming and Tink is getting spoiled this year. I still can't believe its almost been an entire year. We get to celebrate her gotcha day on jan 21! what fun! She's snuggled up on my lap right now. She absolutely loves her new bed. She loves it to the point where she doesn't ask to get into our bed any more.... i have to pick her up to snuggle before bedtime now... which is ok, but sad at the same time. I never feel bad about her sleeping in her own bed. It holds her heat well, she very rarely shivers unless its in the morning and she does want up for some reason : )

And a smoked bone that is bigger than her head is on her yummy list right now. She physically has to jump into her bed now and she did it last night with this big bone!!! Go Tinker!
We move her snuggle ball into the living room when we're not in the back to help keep accidents nonexistent and its been almost 2 weeks now. (hallelujah!) And again, sometimes she prefers her bed to sleeping on the couch with us while we watch tv or something.

Overall, Tink is doing very well. She's acting pretty well. However, I guess we've trained her that she doesn't have to walk up the stairs herself any more. for 2 weeks after her surgery i didn't let her climb and then when the vet said her arthritis was pretty bad, i watched to see if she could climb the stairs and sometimes she did and sometimes she didn't. But now she consistently "assumes the position" so i can pick her up and away we go. I guess, if she is 10+ then its the least i can do. And i don't mind.

I'm getting her on Dog Gone Pain, a natural supplement that worked wonders for Abygale hopefully by monday (thats another story too...beware of who you buy from on Ebay!) To see if that alleviates some discomfort that she doesn't tell us she has!

This cold weather is getting to her though. I've actually been double layering a t-shirt under her coat to keep her warmer. She shakes and shivers (and so do I) but we stay out until all her business is done. And using cookies as rewards has helped hasten that process too! (and keep it outside!)

Tinker delivered her first doggie christmas gift package to her auntie Lindsay for Rosie and Tink wasn't very happy about it. She was sniffing around looking for the basket she knew we brought in and had a very sad look on her face when she didn't get any. Auntie provided her with a consolation gift of some cheese though!!!

Hopefully a few more to go out this weekend... Winston needs to get his christmas gift soon!
That's it for now...

Rescue Opportunities

I did something I shouldn't have done. I looked through Wanda's list of Rescue Boston Terriers (ABTR). I know i can't adopt another one now, but it makes me so incredibly sad. The list makes me so darn sad. the stories, the problems, the sweet little dogs who didn't do anything wrong... they were just born. Bostons are so loveable and these little ones are craving love! If you're on the market for a Boston Terrier, please please consider a rescue! And ABTR ships dogs.

There is also NEBTRescue that is more local, NJ, PA, NY, and sometimes CT & DE. There are many more dogs available than are listed, so again, if interested do something!

And finally the master BT rescue list : ) Thanks to Littlebeasts.com & BCTA

I know that someday we will have another rescue and hopefully sooner than that we will foster. But i always need to keep in mind that i can't just adopt any boston (or Boxer). Because Tink is going to live for a looong time, i need to keep a very specific type of dog in mind to add to our family. Another female is just not an option. a younger male probably isn't.... oh, but they pull at my heartstrings... a little male with cataracts or another one eyed female that wants to be a lap dog. They all just want love and a safe and secure home. (same with kids, but we wont go there today)

For now, Nick and I have plenty of love to shower on this little one. : )

Oh Tinker Tree, Oh Tinker Tree....

Our beautiful Christmas tree

ooo, who's that under the tree?

A little gift I see!!!

I need a treat if you want me to keep looking cute!

I'll stand for that liver treat...

or sit nice and pretty!

See mum? I'm so pretty!

Yumilicious!

The end!

Our first glorious Christmas with the little one! what fun!

wrapping up New England

Hi Guys, its me Tink. I had a nice visit in Mass vising my granna, grandpa and everyone else in MA. My pup-a-razzi guy slacked a little so we don't have many pictures of me, but i had a great time with plenty of walks and yummy bits of turkey added to my meal!

here are my mom and dad and uncle and auntie... they took a ride without me to see christmas trees but left me a yummy kong. stretch and aby supposedly kept me company

Granna and snuggly as a brick Aby. Aby and i got along alright... we just had a little disagreement at breakfast one morning, but i straightened her out.

this is the face that started my mum's BT craze! and as much as I hate to admit it, if it weren't for auntie Aby, I wouldn't have my home!

Wandering around the back yard. I love going outside without my leash on! Mum & Dad say someday we'll have a fenced in yard too.

And stretch, he didn't get in my face too much this time, so i didn't get to tell him off. Too bad, his nose is quite tasty. But really, he's not a bad guy, for a dashy.

So we're been home for a week already and mum & dad have been busy busy! But not too busy to make me lots of liver treats and peanut butter treats! Mum put a bunch in other bags and I have a feeling, i have to, gasp, SHARE!!! I dont know about this....

We also decorated for CHRISTMAS this weekend, but i'll let mum post that later. Mum keeps telling me that even though this is our first Christmas as a family that they knew about me last Christmas!!! I'm so excited for lots of yummy food!