More About Me

Recently, my good friend Michelle (@GrrlySquirrel75 on Twitter)  tagged me in a post on her blog in an order to learn more about the sweetness that is me. So, because I dig her, I will tell you a bit more about myself (and maybe you'll return the favor and tell me more about yourself in the 'comments' section):

Describe yourself in seven words: Smexy, loving, caring, silly, self-deprecating, hungry, and fun!

What keeps you up at night? Other than my siblings, not much. But sometimes they, my fuzzy siblings I mean, are just plain crazy.  In and out the doggy door...bark bark bark at the moon....jumping on and off the bed. Dang em! But, other than that... not much keeps me up. Except when dadz comes home late from work and he has some tacos from the food truck!

Who would you like to be?  Me! I mean, come on - look at me, I'm fabulously fuzzy and well.... oh, you mean other than me? Well, my momma thinks I'm a reincarnated Buddha!

What are you wearing right now? Nothing, I'm a commando-style sort of dresser! But, sometimes I wear little sweaters, and other fun, dress-up, stuff.  You can see more of my dress style here.

What scares you? Not much, I'm a pretty relaxed little doggy. But sometimes I've gotten scared by my own toots (can you believe that!!).

The best and worst of blogging: Oh, I love blogging! The best - sharing life through my perspective. Dogs have a pretty good lens on life, so I like sharing things from my point of view.  The worst... probably getting my momma to type my thoughts-sometimes she needs a good poke or two to motivate her.

Last website you visited: Um, lets see.. that was Twitter, just so I could check out what's going on.

One thing you'd change about yourself: Nothing. You can't change one thing... it's a circle, one thing trickles to another and another and then ends up changing things you hadn't intended to change.

Slankets or no? Probably not, unless it makes a nice blanket for me to curl up and snooze on. I don't need sleeves... but I think they look comfy!

Tell us about the cat/person that tagged you: Michelle is a sweetheart! She is kind and generous, and sends me great tweets full of love. She's always positive and wishing me the best, and she calls me her 'sweet tater'! What could be better than that!

Well, that's it - I hope you all enjoyed learning more about me! Like I said - please share more about you in the comments below!

With lub,

MattieDog

Selflessness is a Squeaky Orange Mouse

I have a lot of toys and depending upon my mood I like to play with one, some, all, or none of them.  So, I like to keep them strewn throughout the house.  I have a wicker basket that momma picked out special for my toys.  "Mattie, lets pick up your toys," says momma as she bends over and picks up all my toys.  As she picks each one up, turning to toss them in to my toy basket, she will occasionally stop and stare at me.  I almost sense she is trying to tell me something...something to do with helping her. But, I like my toys throughout the house...I just never know when the mood will hit me to play with my squeaky duck, or my one armed bear, or the flat chewed up post man.

So, I ignore her; and she mutters something as I walk by her and go lay down on the sofa.

Recently, on a trip to go visit the children at the cancer hospital, and before we got in the car, I trotted over to my toy basket and grabbed my little squeaky orange mouse.  Squeak, squeak!  The squeaky mouse accompanied me on my rounds as I visited the children.  Mostly I dropped my squeaky mouse and the hospital staff end up being the care taker to my little toy while I wandered around with the kids.  Eventually I leave the squeaky orange mouse on the floor of the toy room.

There's this one little girl who also comes to the hospital on the same days I visit.  She reminds me of sunshine, her hair all golden and her skin so translucent that she almost glows...I like to call her Sunny. Often times I meet up with Sunny in the toy room...mostly because she tolerates her treatments well, and she likes to play with the toys. Sunny is a sweet child with a kind demeanor.  She always makes sure that the other kids get their play time with me and that each receives their sticker for petting me nicely.  Sunny is the first child to enter the toy room and the last child to leave it at the end of the day.

Momma is often late to pick me up from my visits, but she knows she can find me in the toy room with Sunny.  At the end of the day I lay down and watch Sunny as one by one she picks up the little toys, carries them over to big toy chest and places each one gently in to the chest for the night.  Sunny sings, and wiggles her little arms to and fro, her little golden hair bouncing about as she skips around singing and picking up the toys.  Sunny picks up my squeaky orange mouse and places him next to me. She seems so happy, so content to simply collect the toys and put them away.

Just like every other time before, momma comes to pick me up and greets Henry, one of the hospital staff members, and together they come in to the toy room--momma to gather me and Henry to close up the room and take Sunny to the waiting room where she'll meet her parents. And, even though it happens every time he comes in to close up the room, Henry looks around the toy room and says with genuine surprise, "Wow Sunny, you are such a sweetie, thanks for cleaning up the toys!" And Sunny always responds, "I like to help," giggling she takes Henry's hand and waves bye to me with her other hand, and walks out of the waiting room.

Momma bends down to pet me and I look around the room a bit and think about Sunny...and her approach to helping out.  She did it because she liked to help, because it made her feel good, and her selfless acts made others happy.  Even though Sunny was a sick little girl receiving cancer treatments she still thought of others...and did things to make life easier for them.

Momma stopped scratching my head and reached down to pick up my squeaky orange mouse.  I quickly bent my head and grabbed the little rubber mouse *squeak squeak* and carried him in my mouth as we walked out to the car.  Through the whole ride home I kept my little squeaky mouse by me in my car booster seat...and when we got home I carried my squeaky mouse in to the house and placed him in my toy basket, right next to my stuffed Curious George.

I sat down next to my toy chest and looked up at momma...she was smiling down at me. A soft, gentle smile of thanks. 

When you have the opportunity to take an every day moment, and through kindness, make it special for someone...do it. Be selfless.