Forbidden love

Someone has stolen a toy that my Mom specifically bought for me.

The main suspect: Rufus, a.k.a The Woofenheimer

Let's set the scene, shall we?

First, he waits until I'm distracted, which rarely happens.

Ooh, something shiny!

Then, he moves in on the toy. Slowly but surely, he stalks his prey.

Wow, look what I found! Eh, it's just a baby toy though.

Then he pretends to remove the "dangerous" item for my protection. Riiiight.

I'm just gonna move this over here, out of the way. It'll be all right, Nick. I'll save you!

Then, when no one is looking, the love affair begins.

Where have you been all my life?

Oh crap! Here comes the pipsqueak again.

Mooooooooooom! Rufus stole my toy!

And therefore, ladies and gentlemen, I rest my case.

You can't prove anything, runt. And I refuse to be ashamed of my forbidden love.

You look maaaahvelous, dahling.

Don't hate me because I'm beautiful. It takes a lot of work to look this good.

It's hard being me

Seriously Mom? I can't drive the Corvette today? I bet James Bond's mom would've let him drive the Corvette. I'm just sayin'.

My boy

The day my Mom and Dad came to pick me up, they brought a little person with them. His name is Joey, and he is officially My Very Own Boy.

I like little people, but he isn't very little at all. Mom says he's in third grade and he is already four feet, ten inches tall. His legs are a lot longer than mine are and he runs really, really fast. We like to play chase and all kinds of games outside.

Mom calls him Monkey Man. I call him My Boy. He is very sweet and likes to rub my tummy and give me big hugs. I like to bite his socks and try and pull on his pants legs. His socks smell really, really good - especially after he goes to baseball practice.

Today, My Very Own Boy isn't feeling very well. Mom said he was up all night with a fever and he has a sinus infection. When she took him to the doctor, she let him ride in the car without being in a crate. That's so unfair! Why do I have to ride in the car in a crate?

I have been taking care of him on the couch today when I'm not busy following Mom around. He gets to use lots of tissues and sometimes I can steal one out of the box when no one is looking. That is fun!

Who, me?

Um, Mom? I don't think you're going to be very happy about this. Nick's been a little...busy....

Dude! You are sooo busted! *heh heh heh*

Who, me? I didn't do anything.

Nothing at all.

Look here - unless you capture me on film with some evidence, I'm innocent I tell you!

What? This piece of posterboard on my nose? It proves nothing!

Friday Frapping - The Secret Corgi Convocation

Last night, I had my Secret Corgi Convocation with my great uncle Jon Farleigh and his brother Dewi. It was more fun than should be allowable by law.

First, their hooman mom Elizabeth said hello to me. She is really nice. She also carries a lot of good treats in her bag.

Then, I got to meet Jon Farleigh and Dewi.

Butts were sniffed, pee mail was read, and we were ready to start our training mission.

Hey guys, let's go over here so we can talk and the hoomans can't hear us.

Let's go this way!

Let's go this way!

***sound of brakes squealing...***

Treat break! Mmmm, salmon treats!

Then it started getting dark so our Moms took us and our boys out for ice cream. I wasn't exactly sure what ice cream was, but it was goooood.

Really, really goooood.

I came home and fell asleep in one of my favorite spots, and dreamed of ice cream. I hope we can have another Secret Corgi Convocation again - thanks Dewi and Jon Farleigh!

Too clean

Whew. It's been an exhausting week. Being an International Man of Mystery is a full-time job, I tell you. That and trying to keep my ears up have just worn me out.

Tonight I have a Super Secret Corgi Convocation with my great-uncle Jon Farleigh and his blue brother Dewi. You can see them over at The Chronicles of Cardigan. Mom even made me take a bath last night for the occasion. Now I smell like oranges and my coat looks really handsome. Hopefully I can find some deer poop to roll in before we go to our meeting so I can smell better, no one likes a good-smelling dog!

Have a great Friday, everybody! Make sure you root for VCU and University of Richmond tonight...I have no idea why, but everyone around here is talking about it. If it involves food, I'm in!

I can hear clearly now my ears are up...

Meet my big brother

This is my big brother, Rufus.

Rufus is eleven years old. His birthday is Christmas Eve! His real name is Gorthleck Gwilliam, which you can see why we don't call him that. He flew on a big airplane from England when he was just a little bit older than me! Mom and Dad drove up to Maryland to meet him and brought him home a few weeks later.

Rufus wasn't really happy when I came to live at our house. He kind of got mad when I tried to eat all of his crumbs under the kitchen table and sleep on his bed. He also didn't like sharing Mom and Dad with me too much.

You could say that he's a little bit cranky. But I don't say it too loud because his teeth are way bigger than mine.

I think he likes me though, because slowly but surely he is getting a little closer to me every day. Usually when he pushes me out of the way to eat my food out of my bowl.

I'm working on him, though. He actually kissed me the other day! Either that or he was trying to figure out if I would make a good snack.

You'll have to excuse me...

I'm a little bit busy right now. And soon enough, Mom says I won't be able to fit under her bed anymore, so I need to make sure I check everything out before that happens.

Flirting with Disaster

My Aunt Kathie is the absolute coolest. Not only does she provide little people for me to play with, she has two dogs named Amy and Teddy. I guess they are my cousins, but they look funny. Amy is a Whip It, and Teddy is a Grey Hound. They both look like they could use a good cheeseburger, but they are really nice and liked playing with me. Well, I should say that Amy used me like a bowling ball and it was kind of embarrassing in front of Georgia and Bogey. She didn't bowl them over!

The other thing she has is this really cool pond with these big red, orange, white and black things swimming around in there. Some of them are bigger than I am! I tried to go in the pond to check it out, but I kept hearing my Mom calling my name and then Bogey and Georgia would come get me. Mom didn't seem very happy with me getting that close to the water. One of these days, I'm going to get in that pond and see what those things were! I'm sure my Aunt Kathie wouldn't mind at all.

The things I have to do for beauty

Apparently, part of this whole International Man of Mystery thing involves being devastatingly handsome. I think that I look just fine, but the hoomans around here apparently thought I needed some help today.

I went to my Aunt Kathie's house today to play with some members of the Samily - my great-aunt Georgia and my great-uncle Bogey - and they tricked me! Auntie Dina brought out this big jar of yummy stuff called peanut butter and lulled me into a false sense of security. First, she put this stuff all over my earses and I look completely ridiculous. What was wrong with one ear up and one ear down, I ask you? Now I'm not nearly as aerodynamic.

Then, she put me in her lap and started messing with my paws. I tried so hard to be good and then she gave me some yummy treats and let me stick my nose in the peanut butter jar.

I was so tired that I slept the whole way home. Mom is trying to keep me awake tonight but needless to say, I'm not speaking to her right now.

Oh, the humiliation. I hope this week goes by fast.

Herding the young 'uns

One day this week, Mom took what she called a "mental health day" from work. Something about people getting on her nerves, I dunno. It was a really fun day - we slept until 10 AM, we played in the yard, and then Mom took me on a special trip in the car to go meet some new hoomans.

Mom took me to this house where she introduced me to my Aunt Kathie and my cousin Finley. Finley is three years old and we got along really great. She wanted to play "Dog Show" a lot which was really her flailing a big stick around and calling "Nick!" over and over. Sometimes the little hoomans are hard for me to understand but I try my best because they are fun plus they always drop a lot of food when they eat. Winning!

They also had a lot of this green vine stuff that I hopped around in over and over. It made me really tired but it was so much fun!

It might look like I'm playing, but I'm practicing my camouflaging techniques. I'm sure this will come in handy later on my international missions of mischief.

Catching up on my reading

An International Man of Mystery has to be prepared for anything. He has to be well-schooled on the ways of the world. Today, I devoured Maximum PC, Scientific American, and In Style.

Hey, don't judge. Sometimes I need to keep up with the latest fashion trends.

Bad Hair Day

When I was still living at my Grandma Janet's she noticed something kind of funny about me. All my brothers and sisters had nice, smooth hair - but my sister Abby and I ended up looking like we had fuzz. I think maybe some good conditioner would have fixed it, but Grandma sent a test to some fancy place and they said I have the fluff gene. I'm not sure exactly what that means, but I'm hoping that it means I'll get something to eat.

One day, a bunch of people and dogs came to Grandma's house and they put each of us on a table and talked about us. My hooman Mom was there and she was hoping that I could go home with her. Everybody was talking about my hair and Mom said that was okay with her, she didn't care what my hair looked like. And really, is it that hard to see why when you look at this picture of my Mom?

Yikes. Talk about a bad hair day.

Greetings and Salutations!

Well, hello!

My name is Nick.

I am a Cardigan Welsh Corgi. Or at least that's what they tell me. Apparently there are other kinds of corgis that don't have tails, but my hooman mom says that she prefers corgis with handles. I don't like to think of my tail as a handle, but more along the lines of a perpetual plaything.

See this beautiful lady? No, the red and white one. That's my mom, Scout. Some people know her as GCH Cardiridge Jean Louise Finch RN HT CGC. That's a lot of letters and stuff. Last year, she went to a big place called Westminster and won a big ribbon there. I mean really big and I bet it would be really tasty too. I think she should get a ribbon for being a great mom too. I miss her a lot. She lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee with my hooman Grandma Janet.

And this is my dad Chase. Isn't he handsome? Lots of hoomans know him as Am/Can CH C-Myste Baledwr Pursuit of Happiness, CD HT PT RN VC CGC TT. Wow, my parents both have a lot of letters and stuff! My dad is really silly and likes to run around chasing ducks and sheepies and things. He usually lives far away in New Mexico with my other hooman Grandma Penni, but right now he's in Tennessee too chasing sheepies.

So while my dad Chase was in Tennessee, he met my mom Scout. There was a lot of magic and I think maybe some Barry White music was involved.

Um, okay. That was awkward. Hold on a second, I need to chew on something so I can erase that out of my brain....

Anyway, I ended up having seven brothers and sisters! Look how tiny I was.

But now I'm not such a little guy. I'm growing up! I have some big paws to follow between my mom, my dad, and even my great-grandpa Sam who is like a big supermodel. So that's why my hooman mom is calling this blog, Nick the Cardi - International Man of Mystery. Talk about putting a lot of pressure on me! But it will be fine, and I hope one day I'll have a bunch of cool letters after my name too.