I have to share this video with you today, because it is just too funny.

I’ll set it up for you a bit: I had been trying to teach Lucia to “smile” for a few weeks, but I’d given up because she just wasn’t responding to the training. Usually, Lucia picks up new tricks with only a few attempts, so I had been a little downtrodden that I’d failed.

When I arrived home from work one day last week, I quickly realized that Lucia had stuck her nose into the laundry bin again. Darn it! As you might recall, Lucia seems to feel quite guilty when she does something wrong…and she immediately began to diffuse the situation by miraculously remembering how to do her “smile” trick. That punk…

Is it just me, or do I have the most manipulative dog ever?

Our apartment is 3 stories tall. The entryway is on one floor…you walk up a flight of stairs to the living area. Then, on top of that, we have another set of stairs that leads up to a loft area.

Lucia is familiar with our front entryway’s stairs, but she has never walked up the staircase to the loft. When we first moved into the apartment, we walked her over to the stairs, said “no,” and she has not once walked up them. It is kind of bizarre actually…

What IS funny though is when Justin or I walk up to the loft and start calling Lucia’s name. She can never seem to figure out where the voice is coming from…she starts running around the living room, pokes her head into the kitchen and bathroom, and then back again to the living room. Then she looks up and figures it out. I don’t think she realizes that she can take the stairs to join us up in the loft though…

Sneaky humans, we are.

Happy Friday everyone!

It’s hard to take a family photo when Lucia is around. We tried to do so recently and look what happened: total photobomb. As soon as the family assembled, she just HAD to stick her head in (check out the bottom left corner). Oh, and apparently we were channeling the high school prom poses? I have no idea how this happened.

I can’t blame Lucia: she’s part of our family, so shouldn’t she be in the photo too? Stuart, Theodore, Ari, and Kona apparently couldn’t care less about the photo opp though!

Sometimes it is better to just go with it and let our little furbaby ham it up to her heart’s content…

That’s better…

Do your pets make appearances in your family photos?

It is no secret that I absolutely love ice cream. I eat a small scoop of frozen yogurt pretty much every night for dessert…and I jump at any opportunity to visit Dairy Queen or our local “you say when” yogurt shop. Heck, I even love a plain vanilla cone from McDonald’s off of the Dollar Menu (it’s the only thing I ever go there for).

Apparently Lucia has adopted the same penchant for frozen treats. (P.S. – did you know that if you have your pup with you at Dairy Queen they will give him/her a small cup of ice cream? They call it a “pup cup,” and it is free!) My girl knows what’s good…

 Look at her…eyeing the prize…trying to look extra cute and hoping that I’ll be generous…

 The problem here is that I really love a good ice cream cone, and I don’t like to share. How selfish of me…

 But you know what? I can’t resist that little face. Darn her! I caved and let her have the bottom bite of my cone. Aren’t I nice?

Does your pet love ice cream or other cold treats?

Do you know what I love?

The enthusiasm with which Lucia greets me when I return home every day.

She never fails to put a huge smile on my face. How can you not love a greeting like that?

Do your pets greet you with enthusiasm too?