Betty's First Birthday

Can you believe it?! Betty White Bartoloni turned one year old on July 8, 2009. She has had an amazing and eventful first year - moving from Idaho to California, meeting her new family, going to puppy classes, becoming potty trained, making new friends, and finally being able to sleep in her mommy's bed. Amazing!

We decided to have a small birthday celebration of sorts. My mom called me in the middle of the day at work to see if she should get Betty something small from a bakery she had found in Yorba Linda called "Le Woof." She was supposed to get one small treat for Betty, but ended up getting a whole bunch more (which you can see in the following photos.)

On the day of her birthday (July 8), Betty got the special treatment. I stopped to get a #1 candle, which we put on her cake. My mom also go her a small party hat.



Betty did not like wearing the hat, as can be seen here:



...and she even hangs her head here:



We took off her hat and then put the "birthday girl" scarf my mom bought on here. Here we are together and then one just of the cutie herself.





Betty seemed to enjoy some of her cake.




Flash forward a few days. Betty was scheduled for a grooming and looked marvelous, so my mom wanted to get some new pictures of Betty and her birthday items. Think of this as birthday Take #2.

This time, Betty got a "pupcake" to eat. Yum.



Finally she eyes the pupcake and looks intently at her prey.



Before Betty could eat, my mom and dad wanted her to have the hat on again. She tried to protest, even kissing my mom's had here to say, "Please don't do it! Please! I love you!"



Next, Betty tried to take off across the table. Before she left, however, she attempted to grab her cupcake. I swear this picture is real and not doctored. She is trying to grab it with her paw!



My dad picked her up and her hat fell down over her eyes. Notice how he is still grinning for the camera. What a ham!



Don't worry, we fixed it. He's still smiling.



So Betty had a wonderful first birthday. She even got a toy ball that says happy birthday which she plays with all the time.

Betty then survived the longest week she's ever spent without her mommy or grandmommy as we went on a cruise to Alaska. We called her a few times and she tried to lick the phone. She was very excited to see us at the airport. And contrary to popular belief, she did not gain 10 pounds from being a week with just her granddaddy.

Betty's growing up!

Hello Friends!

Some exciting news from the vet yesterday. Betty has grown to a whopping 10 pounds! I guess it makes sense...her mom was 12 pounds and her dad was 8, so right in between sounds good. I told her that I can start lifting her over my head instead of a weight.

Betty still loves to cuddle with her stuffed animals. She especially loves the one my mom gave her for Valentine's Day.



Betty has also started to lay out in the sun. I'm excited for summer to come to see my Dad (the constant tanning machine) and Betty sit together, basking in the sun. Here she is on her towel with a pillow and her stuffed animal friend. My dad got her all ready to go.



But the biggest recent news on Betty is that she has learned to use a doggy door! I got one that snaps onto the screen door and spent some time getting it ready to go. Then it was time to test it out. My mom and I would stand one side and get her to come to us. I tried to take some snapshots along the way as we practiced.

Here Betty is inside looking at the door as we called her.


Next, she begins trying to push through the door.


And finally, after a lot of "Come here, Betty!", she made it through.



Then we thought we would test it the other way (coming back in the house.) My mom and I went back in and got ready to call Betty. She stood at the door for a second, wondering why she couldn't walk in right after us.


After a minute, she decided to try pawing at the door. We yelled "Push! Push!", but to no avail.


She started to get frustrated and lean against the door, waiting for me to open it. As her mother, this broke my heart, but I knew she had to do it herself.


But finally, we yelled enough encouragement that she finally made it through! And of course, she got a treat for a job well done!


Now Betty goes in and out of the door whenever she wants with no problem. What a big, grown up girl!
____________________________________________

To close, I wanted to share two pictures I took of Betty as she lay in bed. She loves soft blankets (as you can see.) Here she is lounging in bed...


And I call this one "wake-up call" as this is how I wake up every morning.


Too cute!

My Funny Valentine

Greetings all! I again apologize for the long time in between posts...life can get busy in a hurry!

In mid-January, Betty was blessed to have her two aunties, Lindsay and Amy, visit her all the way from Missouri and Texas, respectively. When they first arrived, she was a little timid and wanted to hide behind me. However, the girls moved to the living room, I went to the bathroom, and I came back to find Betty wedged between them and loving the attention. Here's a picture of the love.



Betty clearly wanted to hold on to Amy's hand as well...



They adored her, as was expected. Betty also got to meet her other auntie, Mindy, at my aunt's condo in Huntington. Here we all are together.




They all loved meeting her and she loved them all, too. It was a big love fest. :)

_____________________________________________

Since I last wrote, we also had a somewhat traumatic experience. Betty went from being a miss to a ms. (she was fixed.) This was probably harder on me than on her. She did really well and didn't chew on her incision, so she didn't have to wear the cone on her head. She also had her dew claws removed on her back feet, which meant she had her feet wrapped tight, making it appear like she was walking on stilts. It was pretty funny. (I apologize for not taking pictures).

_____________________________________________

After we could finally get her groomed, my mom really wanted to take pictures of her with her valentine scarf on (that the groomer gave her.) Some of the pictures were just adorable and a few of my favorites are below:

I love this one, even if you can't see her whole body.



Here she is stretching, which she loves to do...



and this is her pensive look...




SOOO CUTE.

_________________________________________________

Lately, my mom has been wanting to buy things for Betty left and right. More than anything, she has wanted to get her little grandpuppy a small sofa-like bed with a backing. Well, we saw one today and she had to get it (even though it's bright pink). Betty seems to really enjoy it thus far.





In the excitement of getting the new bed, Betty jumped on my leg to stretch and I quickly got this picture that I love.



Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!

Puppy's First Christmas

Happy Holidays Everyone!

We have had an especially nice Christmas this year with our new addition to our family. Before I begin with Christmas, I would like to review a few things Betty has been up to. First off, she completed her puppy school with flying colors! Betty is now very good with the following commands: sit, go to your mat, touch my hand, and down (lay down on stomach). We are currently working on her not pulling when we go on a walk. She's really not that bad, but the trainers at Wags and Wiggles said she shouldn't pull at all but walk with you. We are still working on Betty's nervous nature around other dogs. Each time she has a visit, she seems to get better. Here she is at the end of her first visit with her two friends, Bayley and Suzy Q, and my friend's daughter. We all enjoy our puppy playtime!



Betty has also started reading...just kidding. But she doesn't like my mom to read when she decides it's playtime! If my mom sits on the sofa to read her book, Betty runs over to her, tries to sit on her book, scratch at her book, and if all else fails, climbs and sits on her shoulder. I caught her with my camera once.



I told my mom maybe she just wants her to read a story about dogs...

------------------------------------------------------

Now...to Christmas. Betty has been having so much fun getting into the Christmas festivities. She has helped out with wrapping gifts and baking cookies. After she realized she wasn't getting any of the cookies, she took a nice nap under the tree. We like to think of her as our special present under the tree this year.



Christmas morning was so much fun. Betty got to open her gifts. After about the second gift, she got the idea that something in the wrapping paper was for her and then proceeded to think that every present (including mine) was for her. Here she is opening one gift with my mom.



Next, she got into her stocking.



Some of her Christmas gifts were "replacement gifts" - meaning that Betty had chewed through some of her favorite toys so we got her new ones. Here is one of her favorites, ball on string.



Betty also had a good time with the rest of my family for lunch on Christmas. She was a good girl and didn't bother people during the feasting. When it came time for presents, she again thought that anything wrapped was for her. Luckily she's a small dogs and I can hold her back. :)

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Here are two last pictures we wanted to share. The first is one I took of Betty and I (and she totally looks like a stuffed animal!)



Lastly, with the Rose Bowl coming up, we wanted to make clear how much Betty loves USC.



----------------------------------------------------------------------

Even though Betty wasn't exactly a Christmas gift to us, I still wanted her to pop out of a box like you see puppies do on Christmas. (Ok, so maybe that's only in the movies, but still). I made a box for her and we took a video. This one's a keeper!

The Photo Shoot

First of all, sorry for the delay in updating! Betty wants everyone to know that she is doing well.

That being said, Betty is growing quickly. She is hovering around the 7 pound mark. Right after Halloween, Betty was given her final puppy shot, meaning that she could now visit with other dogs and more humans. (The vet wanted her to get all of her shots before she was around other dogs.) As soon as that happened, we had three things in mind: 1) Betty can get grooming now! 2) Betty can play with other dogs/go to puppy school and 3) Betty can go on a walk!

I'll begin with the grooming. We found a lovely grooming place right around the corner from our house called Sandy's Grooming. She was so sweet to Betty, even though Betty was a little nervous around her. Here is a picture of scruffy Betty the night before her first grooming. She loves her little bed, which we call the Betty bed!



The next morning, my mom and I took Betty to Sandy's Grooming. Here we are about to go in.



We didn't want to cut Betty's hair too short, so she only got about 1 or 2 inches off. However, we made sure she had her hair cut around her eyes so she could see! My mom was so excited with her haircut that she decided we would take a Christmas picture of Betty that afternoon. Therefore, we had a mini photo shoot in our living room, with Betty and three Christmas stuffed animals placed on a red and white blanket. As you may imagine, it's not so easy to get a puppy to pose for you. I probably took over 100 pictures to get the perfect one with Betty in position. First, here is the favorite shot of her.



And yes, we are using it in our Christmas cards. :)

However, I thought it would also be fun to show you a couple of not-so-perfect shots. Here, Betty is about to run and jump off of the sofa.



And as the shoot dragged on, Betty began taking her frustrations out on her small cuddly bear friend.



Overall, thought, Betty was a very good girl throughout the shoot.

----

Betty has also attended two puppy classes at Wags and Wiggles. She is definitely a little shy of the other people (and especially of the dogs), but she is progressing slowly. She now knows how to sit, touch my hand, and go to her mat on command. The funniest thing about going to Wags and Wiggles is the fact that Betty is shy around all of the other dogs, including those much smaller than her. In fact, we spent 10 excruciating minutes with Betty being chased by a maltipoo puppy named Phoebe who was one-third of her size (and Betty was not happy about it). We are working on the socialization thing. We have also had two play dates with Betty's new friends, Suzy Q and Bayley, who are my friend Sabrina's two yorkie dogs. They have been so nice and patient with Betty. While she was terrified to be around them the first time we visited, she slowly calmed down and began to sniff at them. During the second visit, she mingled with them right away (although still a bit guarded). She is making progress!

---

Betty is now also enjoying walks around the neighborhood. My dad loves to parade her around. One day, Betty slipped out of her harness! Luckily, my dad said sit, and she just sat and looked at him. Phew! She now has a smaller harness. :)

She also enjoys car rides and visits to local stores. When I put her carrying bag down on the ground, she gets so excited and jumps right in! She has now been to Petco AND our favorite, The Container Store. She is also a favorite customer in the drive-thru of local Starbucks.

---

I will hopefully get more pictures of Betty posted soon...and there are some cute ones!

Howl-o-ween for Betty

I've been asked by several people if we would dress Betty up for Halloween. Well, I guess the answer is yes and no. With Betty still a puppy and not always wanting to sit still, we figured the costume wouldn't stay on long (or would at least be chewed up.)

However, when I went to PETCO to get her the Puppy's 1st Christmas shirt, I saw that some of the Halloween stuff was on sale, including a couple of orange and black t-shirts with writing on them. I saw one and thought it was too cute to pass up. It says, "My other costume is much scarier!" I thought this was funny since there is nothing scary about Betty at all. (On that note, my dad is looking for a "Beware of Dog" for the back gate. I love it.) I also saw a little bat collar on sale and decided to get both.

So we first put the shirt on Betty and here are the pictures. The first shows the back of her shirt with the writing, and the second one shows Betty's joy at wearing the shirt. I swear Betty is saying, "Seriously? You are seriously going to make me wear this thing?"





Once Betty calmed down a little, we got her to sit on the bench between my pumpkins.



Luckily my camera works quickly because she then wanted to jump down, seen here.



We then added the bat collar to Betty. Now this was hilarious. She was trying to eat the bat eyes off. After a few minute of this, we got her to pose in the bat collar. Here she is looking up at my mom, who is trying her best to keep Betty occupied and not jump down. Funny the things you have to do to get a puppy to keep still.



And as you were looking at these pictures, you might have thought, hmmm, what are those neat USC pumpkins? Who made them? Well, they are actually called "funkins" made out of foam. My mom saw them on Martha Stewart and ordered two. I spent one night carving these and it was no easy task. Here is a nice shot of them.



In other news, I heard on the radio that there is another contest for the cutest dog, so I took a couple more shots of Betty and thought I would include them here. I need to pick by Friday. Hopefully she can be a finalist and win us some money and a trip to the Marley and Me movie premiere!