Seriously, you must watch this.
Through a Pup Pal request on Dogster, I was lucky enough to find Shannon Darch, an incredible artist who was able to capture Yoshi and Tsuki's true spirits on canvas. I've added watermarks to the larger digital versions, but they are not part of the painted originals.
This painting of Yoshi comes from a funny scenario that my husband dreamt up for Yoshi. By some bureaucratic error, Yoshi is drafted into the army. And, even though he's obviously a dog, everyone just treats him like a person, and refers to him in conversation as "that short funny-lookin' kid." Yoshi is, of course, still Yoshi, so he never listens to his commanding officer. This gets him put on KP duty, which, in typical Yoshi fashion, he exploits for all it's worth.
For a long time, I've pictured Tsuki as a girlie Japanese pop star, and this painting is pretty much the image of her that I've carried around in my head. As evidence of her rock star status, Tsuki doesn't like to step in puddles, and possesses the world's most discriminating canine palette (dead mice and cat poop seem to be the exceptions to this, but even divas are entitled to their guilty pleasures). She can also be quite demanding of her entourage (that's us), and will insist that we continue to provide petting and tummy rubs, long after our arms have grown weary. Her bodyguard (that's Yoshi) also complains about her bossiness. But, nevertheless, her outgoing and magnetic personality have made her quite a star (in our neighborhood, at least).
Having now worked with Shannon on two projects, I can recommend her without reservation. Not only is she reliable, but she is such a pleasure to work with. I have commissioned work from several other artists, but have never felt that they could quite capture the image that I had created in my mind. Shannon not only created images that are amazingly similar to what I had envisioned, but included additional elements that I would never have considered, making the scenes even better. Both paintings completely exceeded our expectations.
If you've ever thought it would be fun to have an illustration done of your pet (or a human, even), definitely consider contacting Shannon. But, we plan on keeping her very busy, so you better hurry! We're already thinking up our next two commissions!
For the past few months, I've been collecting bento supplies, so that I could make Yoshi a bento box for his 5th birthday. If you have any interest in trying your hand at making bento (for people, even), definitely check out Cooking Cute.
I used cookie cutters and ham to make Yoshi's 'Happy Birthday' message.
Here's the finished bento. It contains cubed steak, hot dog cat, onigiri, colorful dog cookies, and half a hard boiled egg (which neither dog found appetizing -- they must take after their popi).
Here's Tsuki's more girlie bento. Her name is made out of cheese.
The hard boiled eggs were probably my favorite part, and were surprisingly easy to make. Too bad the dogs didn't like them as much as I did.
It's like he's saying, "Itadakimasu (いただきます)."
The birthday boy enjoying his steak.
Little sister has always had an unorthodox way of eating at the table.
Caught red pawed attempting to steal the birthday boy's ham!
Not to worry though, there was still plenty left for Yoshi.
At some point, Tsuki decided it was time for dessert (that's not real chocolate, don't worry). She helped herself, of course.
Then, she headed upstairs to eat her dessert on our bed.
Yoshi tried to be diplomatic about the onigiri. Ultimately, he decided that he was not a fan. Tsuki came to the same conclusion.
"Gochisosama deshita (ごちそうさまでした)."
Happy 5th Birthday, Yoshi! 誕生日おめでとうヨッシ!
Sweet Togetherness
Fun Togetherness
Everything is better when you have someone you love to share it with.
Happy holidays, everydog! We've noticed by your blogs, that some of you got your Christmas presents really early this year. Mom told us that Dog Christmas falls on January 13th this year (today!), so we can't figure out why some dogs got their presents so early...
I guess it doesn't really matter, because today is Dog Christmas, and boy did we celebrate!
[Mom's Edit: Wow, I really dropped the ball on Christmas this year! Luckily, they believed the whole story about Dog Christmas being on January 13th.]
Here's our tree!
This Christmas shiba came home from Japan with mom. I hope it doesn't give her any crazy ideas about dressing us up!
Our tree got a new ornament this year. It's a fox!
This is us seeing our presents and tree for the first time!
I went straight for the monkey from Aunt Laura. It grunts (but not for long)!
Tsuki went for the hedgehog with the tennis ball in his tummy.
Look out, Hedgie!
I'm going to share some wisdom with you. If you tear off their feet, it's much harder for monkeys to run away.
Watch how the master does it.
If either of these toys still contains stuffing by tomorrow, we haven't done our jobs.
Tsuki says: What else is there to open?
Tsuki says: I think I must have opened Yoshi's by mistake, because this one says "Naughty" on it.
I guess an Orbee snowball is okay, but a real snowball would be better. Although, it was rated 5 out of 5 chompers on Planet Dog's Chew-O-Meter.
An Orbee Frisbee!
A Christmas lightbulb? Made out of Orbee? Santa must be running out of ideas.
Tsuki took her two favorite toys up to higher ground, just in case anyone had any funny ideas about sneaking up on her and taking them.
Tsuki looking pretty in her Christmas collar.
Mom says: We tried to get Yoshi to pose by the tree, but these next two are the best we could do.
Mom says: This one was a raging success, since the command I gave was "please block the tree and all of the presents with your bum."
Hope everyone had a terrific Dog Christmas!
Happy New Year, everydog!
Hey, wait! Why is Dog Christmas after New Year's Day? Something fishy is going on around here.
MOM!!!!
We've certainly gotten our money's worth out of the pet bed in our office. Actually, the pets love this bed so much, that we put two more in different locations around our upstairs. They are constantly in use, but the one in our office is probably the busiest. Here's the photographic evidence:
First, we have Yoshi, the master of ridiculous sleeping positions.
Then, sometimes we have Willie, who is frequently found belly-up. Good thing he's not a fish!
It's as if he's saying, "Mom, can't you do something about him? He's hogging my bed!"
Unfortunately, I see the bed as being a first-come-first-served sort of thing, so Yoshi sometimes has to rough it on the floor (or, he could walk 10 steps away, and sleep on the exact same bed out in the hall).
It's also a place for Tsuki to snuggle with the stuffingless husks of her Teddy Possums.
Or, chew them a little more.
...which is exhausting business.
And, last but not least, is little Desi. Out of all four pets, she's the only one who will consistently allow any of the other pets to share the bed with her.
Happy holidays, everydog!
Click here to see Yoshi & Tsuki's holiday dance routine.
There's big excitement on our street! Follow us!
A scene from the new M. Night Shyamalan Shibaland movie is being filmed on our street! It's called The Happening.
It's going to be a car crash scene! Here, you can see the yellow test Jeep, which is going to crash into that fake tree. The Jeep has padding on the front, so it doesn't damage the fake tree. On the right, are the red Jeeps that are going to be used in the scene. There are three different ones, because they're all needed for different effects. We heard that one is equipped to roll!
When we were walking by, they were running the remote-controlled test Jeep toward the tree! Cool, huh?
We don't mean to be critical, but we think the scene would really seem more realistic, if, well... someone was walking some handsome dogs down the street. We're just sayin'...
We don't know what some of you dogs have against mailmen, because we LOVE our mailman!
When we see him, we both start running toward him and our tails start to wag like crazy!
We would hop right into his truck, if he'd let us!
You know one of the reasons that we love him so much?
Because ever since we were little puppies, he would stop by to give us treats!
That's really smart, dontcha think? Pretty good insurance that we'd grow up to be friends, and not get mad when he comes to our door every day.
Maybe some dogs don't like mailmen, because their mailmen don't bring them treats? I could see being pretty steamed about a guy who comes to the door everyday and makes a big ruckus, but never brings any treats.
Luckily, our mailman is the greatest mailman in the world!
Before treat
After treat
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Here are our yummy birthday cakes and giant bones that had our names right on them!
HA! HA! Tsuki had to wear a silly birthday outfit!
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There she goes...look at that back foot!
The best part about it being Tsuki's birthday, is that I get to have cake, but I don't have to wear a silly outfit.
Here's Tsuki opening *my* present! The ones in blue paper were supposed to be for me!
It didn't matter though, because we each got a new Teddy Possum. We killed the one we got for Christmas, so we really needed a new one.
Here I am opening the girlie presents wrapped in pink paper. How embarrassing!
In addition to our new Teddy Possums, we each got a baby bunny, which are super fun for squeaking and killing.
Happy 3rd Birthday, Tsuki!
Here's the pretty, little birthday girl on her 3rd birthday!
Yoshi always gets very excited in the moments leading up to BIRTHDAY CAKE!
This picture really sums up Yoshi's relationship with food.
We thought we were home free until the end of the semester, but she was at it again with the camera today.
Check out those choppers! I am very serious about holding on to my Frisbee!
Here I am in my space helmet. I look like a crazy space dog!
Here I am on my triumphant return from space!
This is Tsuki exploring the rocky surface of the moon during our space trip.
Yep, more space pictures.
Not only is Tsuki an Astrodog, she's also a Lumberjackdog.
Hello doggie friends!
Sorry we haven't been updating lately. If you can believe the irony, mom's photo class is the reason there are no new pictures of us. Apparently, and we find this very hard to believe, the art world doesn't really appreciate pictures of dogs! Even really handsome dogs! Lucky for us, mom's professor told her to "avoid taking dog pictures," so she's been forced to take pictures of lots of weird stuff, like humans. Sounds pretty boring to us, but that guy is A-OK in our book. We haven't been woken by a camera in months!
Anyway, her class can't last forever, and then I'm sure she'll be stalking us with the camera again. In the meantime, we just wanted to let everydog know that we're still working on our plans for world domination, even if we're not going public with them just now.
Arrrroooo!
Yoshi & Tsuki
Here's Yoshi's peanut butter birthday cake from Three Dog Bakery. Looks like someone at FedEx didn't want Yoshi to have a very happy birthday, since the cake arrived looking like it had been turned upside down and shaken. Seriously, the thing was totalled, but Yoshi didn't care.
Clearly, all rules are suspended on one's birthday.
The birthday boy scarfing down his cake.
...somewhat messily, I might add.
Tsuki takes a more ladylike approach to eating her birthday treats, even if she looks a little bit crazy in this picture.
She only finished about 1/4 of what was on her plate, in case you're wondering how a little dog could eat that much.
Happy 4th birthday, Yoshi, you handsome devil!
I started taking a photo class a few weeks ago, and these are the first prints of Yoshi & Tsuki that I've made. Due to dust and some soap residue, they needed quite a bit of retouching in Photoshop. They're still not perfect, but at this size, you can't really see all of the dust specks. Developing film and printing photos is a lot more difficult (and expensive!) than I thought it would be. I like it a lot, but it can be frustrating, since you don't really know if your image has problems until you've gotten to the very end of a looooong process. You know what's weird though, there are people in my class that are so young, they've never taken a photo using film, only digital. If that doesn't make you feel old, I don't know what will.
We're a little late with posting our Christmas pictures (mom's fault), but here they are. Finally.
When we woke up on Christmas morning, this is what was waiting for us! Santa Paws really did come! Two of the presents weren't wrapped, because they were from our Aunt Laura (the cool possum toy) and Aunt Stephanie (the GIANT tongue).
Mom says that most people have either a star or an angel on top of their tree. She said that we are extra lucky, because we have a star and two angels on top of our tree. We told her that she is a dork.
This is me reading the tags and realizing that ALL the presents are for me and Tsuki!
Tsuki said that she could still smell elves on the packages. I told her to be quiet, because she doesn't even know what elves smell like in the first place.
Santa brought us new bees for our Hide-A-Bee toy! How did he know that we needed those?
The possum from Aunt Laura is one of our favorites! We shook it to death, like, instantly.
Tsuki says: "Ha ha, Yoshi! Aunt Stephanie thinks you have a big mouth!"
Yoshi says: "No she doesn't, Tsuki! She just knows that I need a way to hide from the paparazzi and a certain dorky little sister."
This is how Christmas makes us feel!
And, according to Fu Fu's blog, this is how you say Merry Christmas in Japanese:
Merii Kurisumasu
Well, mom and popi got what they wanted for Christmas, a new camera. That means there will be no peace for us in 2007. And, if that wasn't bad enough, we heard mom say that she's going to take a photography class! I guess uninterrupted naps are a thing of the past for me and Tsuki.
Hope your New Year is happier than ours.
It's New Year's Eve! Put down the camera and let's play!
I can't believe I have put up with a whole semester of this.
If a non-camera-owning household wants to adopt us, we'll have our bags packed and will be waiting at the curb. Just say when.
Happy holidays, everyone! We hope you get lots of toys and yummy treats when Santa Paws visits!
(click picture for a larger and more readable version)
It tastes like fall!
Remember our friend Bauer? Well his new niece, Rumor, came home to live with him last week, and we got to meet her on Saturday! She flew home on an airplane, all the way from Oregon! Here she is...
Rumor!
Getting ready to pounce!
Here's Rumor plotting the next round of puppy hi-jinx that she's going to unleash on unsuspecting Uncle Bauer.
It's okay, Bauer, anyone would make that face if they'd spent their day being harassed by a puppy and two shibas.
Here's a picture of all of us! Boys against girls!
