~ Country Tail

Gobs of excitement this morning. I have a veeery special guest post to share with you. It speaks for itself. Here we go…thank you GINGER!

A Tail of Two Cities

It was the best of chorkie times, and the worst of chorkie times. Last summer, Norbie’s Momma Julie left for a trip, and he stayed at our home: Richard and Ginger. We actually don’t live in a city, but rather, in the countryside on the edge of 600 acres of cranberry bogs. As tearful and choked up as Norbie was (for about two seconds) to see his Momma leave, he began to bounce around for joy as he realized treats a-plenty were flowing, there was a large farmhouse to explore, and there was an acre of thick, green grass in which to run and romp.

Norbs, we love having you to our home. As a reminder of your travels, here is an excerpt from the country journal you keep at our house:

“Hey, I heard momma tell them as she went out the door not to give me more than two or three treats a day, but these guys must be hard of hearing or sumpthin’. I only have to look cute and really hungry to easily finagle way more than that out of them. I am in doggie heaven here. Yeah, yeah–they made me learn how to sit pretty, beg, and all that show-off, goofy doggie stuff, but I’m a quick learner and if a treat awaits, I’ll pop up or down and make them smile. They’re pushovers.

I hang out at Ginger’s feet while she’s cooking and every so often she says, “Oops!” and a smidgen of something tasty falls right in front of me. I know she likes clean floors, so I am happy to oblige by whisking away the crumbs and giving my little belly some welcome deliciousness. OK, so I’m a crumb-grubbing gobbler. You got me there.

I can’t climb stairs, so I’m patient when Richard disappears to the second floor. When he returns, I wag my tail so hard it looks like I’m twisting to Chubby Checker, and since he likes Oldies, I know he appreciates that. Then I bounce straight up and down and run back and forth. He picks me up, I plaster kisses all over his face and yup, I get another treat. I’m good! They both tell me so.

The Best Thing was wrestling with Ginger’s red flip-flops in the grass. I made little bitty chorkie grrr sounds and threw my head from side to side with the red rubbery yum yum clamped firmly between my tiny teeth. Since it was bigger than me, I would sometimes fall down. But what do you do when you fall? That’s right! You get right back up. Who says a chorkie can’t be a philosopher who flips for flip flops? Have you ever fallen down and gotten back up? That’s the spirit! Tell me about it!


I also took a trip to the beach and even posed in a kayak for a few photos. No, they wouldn’t let me leave the shore, but that’s OK. Ginger, who is an artist also took lots of photos of me and painted a very handsome Dog Portrait of yours truly. But that’s another Tail to tell.


Before long, Momma came to get me and I got lots of good-bye hugs and a new blue tug toy as a parting gift. Trips can be fun, and it made going home feel special. After all, there’s no place like home.”

What a stellar jaunt down memory avenue!

Live Love, Norbert -

City pup Debonaire /

Country Pup Extraordinaire


~ An Apple A Day…

“…Keeps the Vet Away”


ESPECIALLY, if the apple looks like this!

Yesterday I mentioned I was going on a big adventure, and boy did I ever.  Julie and I put on our wooly sweaters, trekked through the brr-brr chilly air and ended up at THE pristine, white mecca of computer technology blissfulness. The APPLE store! Not just any Apple store, but a tri-level flagship computer kingdom.

I don’t drool much, but I salivated something fierce when I saw this…

Here is why the Apple store rocks my Chorkie world:

  • friendly - open the door for us, allow Chorkies into their store, take  your picture and tell you how impeccably adorable you are
  • clean – the floors are so immaculate you’d eat off them
  • name tags – not good with names? no problem! all the workers wear name tags around their necks ( I could have included this under the “friendly” bullet point above, but I just think it deserves its own little plug. I want my own name tag because folks are constantly asking me my name)
  • customer service – our personal MAC specialist spent 2 hours showing me the ins-and-outs of my new Apple baby, was very patient and answered all my questions.
  • products – this one is intensely obvious; Apple computers are marvels…almost incomprehensible, right? HOW do they even work? Genius.

Want more proof? Check it out here:  http://www.apple.com/getamac/whymac/

Norbert + Apple = deep, kooky love

I am such a fortunate Chorkie. Julie believes in me so much that she made this purchase to support my creative writing endeavors:

And even BIGGER news: I am getting my veeery own website for my blog! Can you believe that? Ya, uber-ridiculoso exciting. I will keep you posted for shizzle on the development.

I was going to pose the question: MAC vs PC?, but we all know there is no point in debating it. Instead, let’s all just gush over how mad-delicious Apples are. It’s conclusive: an Apple a day will definitely keep Norbert’s vet away. Although…

My vet is super fun. Last time I went in, they gave me treats-a-plenty and a new hairstyle along with my checkup:

A hint below for tomorrow’s Tail. Get ready for it!

Steve Jobs you da man! Please invent a puppy friendly keyboard. Oh, and a teleporter, because that would be a good invention too. Yeah, a telelporter.

Cheers, Norbs