petertheschnauz

Apr 13 2015

Adventures of Peter and Jillian!

So our human has been pretty straight out for months, so this week she is having a “Staycation.” It’s just what the doctor ordered. Day one of our staycation included an adventure! Mom wanted to go to Dogtown, which is the ruins of a colonial era town up in Gloucester. We did not find any of the carved boulders or the basement ruins, but we had a great time exploring and we found out that Jillian likes to swim! Check out her swimming video on Instagram or the complete video on my Facebook page. Here are a few photos from our time in Dogtown.

This was the human’s view for most of the walk:

This is Jilly’s tush

This is the moment that mom realized she has a swimmer on her hands..

So we had a great time but it was too wet for my mom and I. Jilly could have stayed forever. She freaking LOVES mud and water. She’s very odd. We think she is part pig.

Next we took a little walk around Rockport

This is a lovely little town on Cape Ann. That red building you see there is Motif #1 which is supposedly the most painted building in America. It was also seen in the movie “The Proposal” which is supposed to take place in Alaska. When mom saw it in the theater, she turned to Gussy’s mom and said “that’s not Alaska, that’s Rockport!” Fellow theater patrons were not impressed.

We refused to pose and Jilly spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to get into the harbor, but here are a few subpar photos:

Sorry. Sucky ~~Models~~ Photographer.

We are REALLY tired. Barely moving, really.

Adventure on, Barkners…

Mar 29 2015

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The Results are IN

Well Barkners, the results are in and we have a general idea of what breeds Ms. JillyBean in and we are SHOCKED.

Jill was knocked right over in shock.

So here’s what we got:

Jilly is:

A Jack Russell Terrier and Bloodhound Mix.

How does this even happen?

Here is a JRT:

Here is a Bloodhound:

Soooo I at first I was hesitant. I mean I really see the JRT in her, but the bloodhound was a bit of mystery.

The results report that one parent was a JRT/bloodhound mix (half and half) and that the other parent was a half JRT and half “mixed breed.”

Jill is definitely a JRT mix. She is obsessive and friendly and she loves her tennis balls. Plus she looks a bit like a rough coat JRT.

The bloodhound traits describe a calm and friendly dog which are traits that Jill has in spades. She is also very intelligent.

The “mixed breed” part of Jill could be: English Setter, Argentine Doge (hahahaha), Toy Poodle, bulldog and Affenpinscher.

So what do you all think? I fully believe the JRT and who knows about that one grandparent that seems to be a bloodhound, but I do know one thing for sure. I freaking love this dog. And sorry Westie lovers….

A link to her full results can be find here:

Jilly’s Results

What do you all think?

Mar 15 2015

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JillyBean- True Schnauzytown Stories

So here’s a story of a lovely lady named Jill, who was waiting around at MSPCA’s Nevin’s Farm for some ~~sucker~~ kind human to come whisk her angelic face away to her forever home. Her old caretaker had apparently been incarcerated. (My human’s nosy side is tortured by the absence of more information than that.) The vets at the MSPCA had estimated her age to be around 14 and she was quite, er, portly. Gussy and his Momma, who as you know used to be our roommates, live up around Nevin’s farm and mom likes to go on weekends to look at all the animals that they have there and she likes to pretend she’s going to take one home.

This should go without saying, but obviously all this pretending was most likely going to turn real sooner or later.

Two weeks ago, it did. Mom and Mama A went into Nevin’s farm and the last pup that they saw was this mess:

She was chunky and crusty and she had poo stuck to her bum.

Mom was in love.

She walked little miss Jilly around for a bit and then ran right into the adoption center and asked for an application. She was told that there had to be blood work and that someone else had already applied to adopt her. This was perfect for mom. She was trying, but there was a good chance it wouldn’t work out, so it didn’t feel like a commitment yet.

The moms ran around and did errands and a few hours later mom got an email from the director of the adoption center saying that the first family backed out because they wanted a younger dog. Dummies. Mom immediately wrote back and said she was interested pending blood results.

That’s when the panic set in. Mom is not allowed to have two dogs in her condo. Mom didn’t know if she could do this. Mom talked to friends and family and panicked. She’s fluent in panic and anxiety. She got permission from her neighbors and she felt a lot better. She realized that was the thing bothering her the most. She made her decision on the following Monday when she heard that Jilly’s blood work was normal. All that was left was to pick her up on the next Saturday. She fretted over her teeth, then learned that the MSPCA would be doing the dental surgery before mom got her. Everything seemed right and was falling into place.

Saturday, March 7th, 2015. The moms and I went to Nevin’s farm so I could meet my potential new sister. She loved my bum and I didn’t snap at her. The rest was history. Here are a few pictures of us when we first met:

She loved me immediately. Especially my bum. Before I knew it, we were back in the car and somehow, I was in the back seat:

She got a bath at Mama A’s house and we just relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. She made herself comfy VERY quickly.

A week later, I wouldn’t say we love eachother, but honestly, mom can’t imagine life without her:

Welcome to the family, Jilly Bean!

Tagged bio, Jill, Peter, TrueSchnauzytownstories

Mar 08 2015

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Sunday Funday!

Hi Barkners!

Today we had a luau at Durty Harry’s in Brookline. We were joined by several pals and my old lady took several low quality photographs as per usual, but we will share them here nonetheless. We were joined by Pawblo Picasso and Mike and Christian from 2 Dog’s Treats. We wore leis and hawaiian shirts and pretended that we were outside and the temperature was a balmy 75 degrees, instead of chilly temperatures and flurries, which was the reality. Without further ado, here are some photographs from the event.

Here I am greeting my guests:

Gussy and I took sheriffing the event very seriously. Mom was humiliated and told me to “shut my piehole” like forty seven times, but she clearly did know how important my job was.

I was very very very very loud. I did meet a schnauz named Rose who barks once a week. I had to really sniff to make sure she was schnauz.

I checked in with my sister to make sure she was ok:

And she checked in with everyone cause she’s kind of a cuddle floozy:

Some Doods did some SERIOUS playing. Gus tried to join them as well:

And then, some TREATS were distrubited!

Then things got a little out of hand, so I made mom put the camera away. What happens at the luau, sometimes should just stay at the luau. (There was some serious humping with a few Westies, a few Scotties and a schnauzer who shall remain unamed)

Thanks everyone for the great time! We hope to do it again REAL SOON!

Aloha!

Tagged Durty Harry's, Gus, Jill, Meetup, Peter

Feb 23 2015

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The Story of Peter- True Schnauzytown Stories

Once upon a time, in a little town called Nottingham, two very cute schnauzies made more very cute schnauzies. Their names were Fonz and Shirley. Not too far away, in a section of Boston, called Southie lived a human and her sister. The human was named Jamie and she had always loved herself a dog. Her dad, who lived not to far, had a most fabulous black lab named Smudgey, but Jamie wanted a pup of her own. Actually she wanted to want a pup. The jury is still out regarding whether or not she actually wanted one. One day, just before Thanksgiving, Jamie’s sister got it in her head that she wanted a schnauzer. But she wanted the schnauzer to be Jamie’s schnauzer because she wasn’t sure she wanted to commit. Jamie’s sister was the boss of Jamie. She still kind of is, to be perfectly honest. Jamie’s sister orchestrated a puppy search with Jamie, Moe and their dad. And Smudge. She went everywhere with her daddy. In case you are wondering what Smudge looked like here she is:

Wasn’t she beautiful? She’s not with us anymore, but she is greatly missed.

ANYWAY back to the story of me, not Smudge, but maybe I’ll have to tell that one day. So Jamie, Lindsay (mom’s sister/roommate), Melissa (Moe, Pawblo, etc), Smudge and their dad all piled into the car to follow leads that Lindsay had found on the classifieds for Schnauzer puppies. First the went ALL the way down to almost the cape and found a horrendous place that mom doesn’t like to think about. It was pretty much a puppy mill type place and no one could stomach getting a puppy there. So they followed their next lead ALL the way up to New Hampshire. Nottingham is a small town not far from where mom went to get her undergraduate degree. The place where I was born was a small house full of kids and puppies. The owner of Shirley and Fonz was a married mom of four who was also a nurse. She was caring and willing to see mom and her family late in the evening.

When the family came into the house there was a litter of brown schnauzer puppies who were not ready to go to their forever homes yet. The woman explained that there was one salt n’ pepper from a previous litter that hadn’t found a home yet and was ready to go. She brought him out. He was me. She brought out my parents and my dog mom Shirley immediately jumped into mom’s dad’s lap and made herself at comfortable. Fonz did a round of sniffing and settled by the kids in his family. Mom, Lindsay, Moe and Mom’s dad discussed the options. Choose one of the younger pups or take the left over from the last litter. Mom was tired. They had spent the whole day looking for puppies. She wanted something to show for it. (She was young). She choose the leftover so she could take me home that night. Although she didn’t make the decisions for the right reasons, she definitely made the right choice.

They took me home that night. It was the weekend before Thanksgiving in 2003. When they brought me out to the car, Smudge was not impressed. In fact she was pretty pissed. They had done no preparations for a new puppy so they had to find an open pet store to buy stuff. On our way back to Boston I pooped on Lindsay. This is something that Mom’s dad has never let go. And brings up all the time. He thinks it was hilarious. He thought it was less hilarious when I pooped at his feet in the living room of the lake house a few months ago though. Mom thought both were pretty funny. I digress.

Mom brought me home and went to a party. SHE WENT TO A PARTY. Unbelievable. She left this:

To go to a party.

I guess you could say that her enthusiasm for having a puppy had to grow.

Here are the things she remembers thinking that first night (after she came home from her party):

“why is he crying?”

“I can’t do this for the next 13+ years”

“I”m going to have him until I’m in my 30’s!”

Nice right? But our love grew. Within a week she was as obsessed with me as she should have been. She woke up several times a night to let me out to “go potty.” She watched me and praised me. (She gave me a litter box?!?!?)

She bathed me

She made me sleep in a crate (I pooped in it several times)

Thank goodness she doesn’t do that anymore. Obviously I am much more comfortable in my bed.

She and I became the bestest buds that we are today. We didn’t have the best start and Mom would never recommend getting a puppy with such little thought or preparation. But luckily, for us, it all worked out. And now 11 years later, when mom is well into her thirties, she never wants to let me go and there is no one else she’d rather take a terrible Sunday night selfie with.

What are your puppy love stories??

PS. Since I was born in Nottingham, and I’m also a Sheriff. I guess that makes me the Sheriff of Nottingham! HAHAHA

Sorry.

Have a great week everyone, See you on IG!!

Side note- We are going to try to post once a week- if you have anything you would like us to write about, please let us know and we will do it.

Tagged bio, Peter, TrueSchnauzytownstories

Feb 16 2015

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Valentine’s Day Special – 5 things I love!!

In honor of Valentine’s Day, I wanted to share some things I love!

1. My Mama. This should go without saying. We’ve been best good buddies for 11 years. Soon I will do a post about how we met and how I came to live with her. Here is a picture of her when she first brought me home. She was much thinner then. And younger. I guess she doesn’t feel the need to impress me anymore….

2. These guys. One is original from when I was a baby. It was made by Artlist “The Dog”. This toy is exceedingly difficult to find these days, so when my original (purchased at Target over ten years ago) became impossible to repair, mom took to eBay to find it’s replacement. I prefer these guys over every other toy. Mom thinks it’s the rattle in the head, but who knows.

3. My Sister. I know am not always nice about her, but I do love that crazy girl. Her food is delicious and so is her poo, plus she’s fun to chase:

4. Food! Cheese, Pizza, Chicken, Cat food, and most especially these delicious treats from our friends at 2 Dogs Treats. Always stored high atop the fridge so that my sister won’t eat through bag.

5. YOU! I love all my friends and fans and you definitely make our day brighter!

So when you’re having a day when your house looks like this:

And this stuff happens to you:

Try, like the song says, to remember your favorite things, and then you won’t feel so bad!

We love you!

Feb 07 2015

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Meredith- True Schnauzytown Stories

In honor of Caturday, I am sharing the story of my little Tuxedo Sister, Meredith. As I told you, Gussy’s mom had a tuxedo cat named Reily when she moved in with us. Reily was and is a portly fellow who never has any interest in playing unless there is food or significant amounts of catnip involved. Mom found this boring. She often expressed to Gussy’s mom that she would like Reily to play with her. Gussy’s mom should have seen the signs and stopped this before it started, but alas she did not. Totally all Mama A’s fault.

Mom used to have some goldfish. They were big and time consuming and Mom and Mama A had to go to PetSmart to get some fishy supplies. By some sort of terrible coincidence, Kitty Connection was having an adoption event. Natch, the mamas had to go check out the kittens up for adoption and a tiny tuxie named Tina caught Mom’s eye because she looked so much like Mr. Reily-Pants. The volunteer offered to let mom hold the tiny kitty, but warned her that she was squirmy. Mom is a sucker. Anyone could see this scam from ten miles away, but not my old lady. So I think you can see where this is going. Mom stood in the store for almost an hour holding a very NOT SQUIRMY cuddly little Tina and found she couldn’t give her back. So we ended up with this:

Mom didn’t feel that Tina was really a good name for her so she named her Meredith after the small town in New Hampshire where she had spent her summers growing up and where her dad still has a home.

Here’s a photo of my face after meeting her. Note my look of despair. It was partially due to having to wear a citronella collar to keep me from parking in tiny Meredith’s face. Now luckily she doesn’t care and I am allowed to bark in her face all I want. (Quick human note to all those parents of barky barkners out there, this citronella collar has been a life saver on several occasions, but I don’t use it often- better than a shock!)

So now momma’s little girl is five years old. And since Reily has moved out she’s grown kind of portly herself due to lack of competition for food. Here is what I think is the only photo of Meredith with Reily that exists (I think it’s because there was only one open window in the house)

As a side note, mom is really wishing the forecast on the TV in this picture was our forecast now.

So now we have Miss MereBear in all her goofy glory. Ten facts about my silly sister:

1. She cries when we leave the house. Like a dog

2. She is so useful in knocking treats off the counter. I love her for it.

3. We play and wrestle frequently, but we NEVER cuddle.

4. She weighs 10 pounds. She weighed 8 pounds last year. Mom says “whoops”

5. She is missing one of her canine teeth because it broke. Having that one removed probably saved the rest of her teeth because she had really bad teeth as a kitten and because she broke that one she had two dental cleanings in one year. Now her teeth are perfect.

6. She loves laying on mom. Mom finds this endearing. Most of the time.

7. She never has accidents outside the litter box. For this mom loves her and I am disappointed because I can’t get into her litter box.

8. Gus is desperate to eat her.

9. Mom tries to keep her off the kitchen table, but has pretty much given up because she rarely eats at the table anyway. Like never.

10. She is a big purrer. She even purrs at the vet making it impossible for the vet to hear her heart.

Here are some photos from a special Caturday Photo shoot this morning. Let us know if there is anything else you need to know about my crazy cat sis!

HAPPY CATURDAY EVERYONE!!!!

Tagged bio, Meredith, Peter, TrueSchnauzytownstories

Jan 27 2015

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The Anatomy of a Snow Day

Today we are having a snow day. We don’t get very many of those here. Snow? Yes. Snow days where my human has the day off work? Very rarely- maybe once a year. So today we have “winter storm Juno,” which was supposed to be historic, but the jury is still out on that (we have about 18 inches and counting, my human would guess). I wanted to show people who have never had a snow day what one looks like. At least in our house. 5AM The guy is plowing our driveway and I am TERRIFIED!! The only safe spot when the plow monster arrives is on a human’s chest where you can pant and breathe directly into their nose. (Bonus points if your human tells you that your breath smells like garbage.)

6AM Mom puts on netflix and we all drift off (Criminal minds marathon is happening today). 8AM Mom gets up, drinks a diet root beer, eats some Reeses Peanut Butter Cups and we drift off again.

9AM Mom decides to let us out. Neither of us wants to go off the porch. Gussy decides to hold it, I pee on the neighbor’s porch. We go back in and watch several more episodes of Criminal Minds. Mom eats a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Mom realizes that she really needs Gus to pee. She is sure his eyes are turning yellow and that his back teeth are floating. She starts to gear up so she can actually walk us off the porch. She learns that she is not the same size she was since she last went skiing so she has to resort to sweat pants. Gus gets super excited about the fact that she is putting on socks

Really, he’s excited. We are both excited, until we realize we need to get suited up for the weather too. We venture out and refuse to look at mom for photo taking purposes, because, hello? Blizzard Mom took this picture of our front door, where you can barely see the stairs! Whoa! (living our whole lives in New England, we still find it fascinating when snow buries things.) We got back in and my best good sister reminded mom that although mom has been stuffing her face all morning, she had neglected to feed us four legged roomies. That Meredith is good for some things, I suppose. My tummy thanks you Mere! So now it’s noonish and there is no reason to describe the rest of the day because we are back to this: There will probably be frozen pizza later though! We are hoping our fellow snow dayers are staying warm!! How do you spend YOUR snow days???

Tagged Gus, Peter

Jan 25 2015

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All about Gus

I wanted to tell you about our best barkner buddy, Gus. Almost twenty years ago before me and before Gus, two humans moved into a freshman dorm at the University of New Hampshire. They lived next door to eachother and mom could hear Gussy’s mom’s TV and heard that she was watching the coverage of Princess Diana’s death. Our moms have been friends EVER SINCE.

Over the years they drifted apart and became close again. When my human got me, they weren’t that close. She had a kitty named Reily and had been bitten by a dog as a child, so she wasn’t a big fan of dogs. Gussy’s mom finished college, and wanted to move from Boston from New Hampshire to start her career (mom always says she was on the “ten year plan,” mom had graduated 6 years earlier). Mom had an open room in her condo in South Boston and Mama A needed place to live, so they reluctantly moved in together. So Reily and Mama A joined our household around 2005.

Mama A didn’t really care for me because I am a dog and she was clearly a speciesist. I like to think I did my duty to act as an ambassador for dog kind.

When she first moved in, she said “Peter is not allowed in my room, this is Reily’s space.” Mom agreed and did her best to keep me out of Mama A’s room. This lasted for like a week, maybe. Mama A said:

“Ok, so he can come in my room, but he’s not allowed on the bed.” Clearly she didn’t know I’m allowed everywhere. I tried to respect her, but as before I wormed my way onto her bed. And mom came home to find this new development and found this amusing, but unsurprising.

“OK,” Gussy’s mama said, “but he’s not allowed under the covers.”

I think you can guess what happened after that. During the time they lived with us. mom got very sick and Mama A had to take care of me alone and she did that for many months. Mom is forever grateful that she was able to do that because I was completely instrumental in mom’s recovery.

We all moved together and we moved to a nice condo with a big fenced in yard. Mama A decided she wanted a puppy too. And she wanted a schnauz as well. So she did her research and found a litter of puppies in the western part of the state that was described as an “accidental” litter between two family schnauzers, Deisel and Coco. Mom, Mom’s sister (many of you know her as Moe or Pawblo) and Mama A went to visit these puppies and Gusaroo fell asleep in Moe’s lap. That what was made the decision for Mama A, but she insisted that I meet Gus before making the final decision.

So we drove out a few weeks later to see if I approved of this addition to the household. I didn’t. But they clearly ignored my wishes. But now I am so glad they did, cause Gus really is my best good buddy. Even when he tries to eat my sister. Gussy and his momma moved out a year and a half ago because Mama A bought her own place, but she travels a lot for work so we still get Gussy sometimes. Sometimes she brings him to Moe’s though. I am so glad I was able to show Mama A how awesome dogs can be and we are so lucky to have Gussy in our lives, even if he is not full schnuaz. Apparently Coco was a bit of a hussy.

Tagged bio, Gus

Jan 24 2015

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About Me

Welcome to my Blog! As much as I enjoy being a semi famous instadog, I decided that I have lots more to share than can be shared on IG.

Here is a quick bio:

Name: Peter Hank

Human’s Name: Jamie

Cat Sister’s Name: Meredith

Best Friend: Gus

Breed: Miniature Schnauzer

Birthday 9/21/2003.

On this blog, I plan to share my experiences as a small schnauz in Boston with a crazy ass human. I also plan on sharing my favorite things A la Oprah. This blog will also feature guest posts from my cat sister, my human, and maybe even Gus. Bear with us as we try this new endeavor out and please give feedback. But only if it’s nice. Kidding. Kind of.

❤ Peter

Tagged bio, Peter