Miss S decided that she needed a job so that she could earn some money to buy herself some treats that she wouldn't have to share with the other puppies. She offered to write the blog for Mom in exchange for an allowance. It wasn't as easy as she thought it would be. She started by looking things over on the computer. 

A little while later when Mom checked on her, she was just staring blankly at the screen. She was sure that the lack of thumbs wouldn't hinder her progress. Lots of people only type with their two index fingers, so it couldn't be that hard. The only thing was that she didn't have any ideas on what to write. She tried just staring at the screen for a while. Then she tried snuggling with the mouse, hoping that it would help a puppy out and give her some ideas.

Finally she decided to just leave the blogging to Mom. Mom asked Miss M if she wanted a turn blogging, but Miss M wasn't interested in blogging. She decided that looking cute is her best skill, and that she should stick to what she is best at.

Mr. C decided that his talents were best used to hold the couch cushions in place. Miss B decided to pose in front of the throw blanket on the back of the couch to make the couch look good too.

Miss S decided the best way to make it up to Mom was to cuddle up on top of her on the couch.

Mr. M wanted to help too, hoping to earn his own allowance. He's a growing boy, after all. He wants to go shopping so that he can get a fancy new collar to impress the girls. He saw Miss S snuggling and had an epiphany. He is excellent at snuggling. Mom always calls him her teddy bear anyway. He might as well do what he does best.

We decided to take the time to put out a valuable public service announcement (PSA) discussing a little known condition called Restless Pit Bull Syndrome or RPBS. Anyone with a television has likely heard of RLS (restless leg syndrome). RPBS has some symptoms in common with RLS, but the causes are quite different.
If you have pit bulls and are experiencing some of the following, you might be at risk for RPBS:
1.) Loss of feeling in the legs, feet or arms while reclining in bed. This is one of the key symptoms used in the diagnosis of RPBS. This is caused by large puppies resting their heads on your ankles, or laying across you, most likely while fast asleep and completely unaware of your plight. Depending on the size of said puppies, you may not be able to re-position yourself easily.
2.) Acute pain in your chest. This is normally caused by sharp little puppy elbows being pushed into your sternum when they sit up to check out noises. Don't worry. It is not a heart attack. It is simply another symptom of RPBS.
3.) Inability to breath. This can be cause by two things. The first cause may be that a large puppy has decided to go to sleep right on top of you. The second cause may stem from excessive licking in the face. This usually occurs in the middle of the night if your puppy wants to go out, or first thing in the morning when the puppy is ready to get up and play.
4.) Temporary loss of hearing in one ear. This is usually a result of a puppy licking your ear, during which time, you will not be able to hear anything but the puppy. Depending on how diligent the puppy is in his or her ear cleaning efforts, this may also be accompanied by popping of the ear being cleaned. This symptom is temporary.

There is no known feasible cure for RPBS. The only permanent solution is to have puppies sleep in their own bed. Pit bull snuggles are highly addictive however, thus rendering this solution undesirable. You may find temporary relief by getting a bigger bed- until the puppies are ready to actually go to sleep, at which point, they will snuggle back up to you again. 

Resistance to the pit bull snuggle is futile. Even the cats can't resist a good pittie snuggle.

Lately, Miss M had been a little disappointed in the kitties. Kitty P still doesn't want to play with her, and Mr. M has turned into a kitty hog, who doesn't want to let Miss M play with Kitty S. She hasn't had much kitty play time lately and was very sad about it... until today. Mom and Dad decided to take a short nap mid morning and let Miss M nap on the bed with them. At one point, Mom got up to get some water, and the cats followed her back into the bedroom. Kitty P wasn't interested in sharing the bed with a dog, but Kitty S jumped right up. Miss M was soooo happy. She got to snuggle the kitty a little and the kitty started playing with her- even chewing on her foot anytime she would take it off of the cat. We usually feel like the puppies are being too rough with their heavy paws, but the kitty purred the whole time, so apparently, she was okay with it.

Kitty P has been warming up to the puppies a little bit, but they don't trust her. She has scratched them a couple of times and even drew a little bit of blood on Mr. M when he got a little fresh one day. Today, she tried playing with the puppies several times- batting at their legs when they would walk by where she was laying on her back under a bar stool. The dogs didn't pay a bit of attention to her. I think they felt like it was a dirty trick.

The puppies have all been doing really well with their training and are getting better at leaving things alone when told. They have had lots of practice at "Leave it," this weekend. Miss M got to leave a frog alone. Miss S and Mr. C got to leave the trash can alone several times. Mr. M got to leave the sign in sheet for Dad's classes alone. Miss B has been trying her hardest to be good- which takes a lot of effort, and all of the puppies have been listening better in general. We were surprised by Miss M yesterday. She doesn't really like going into her crate and most of the time tries to run into the other room. If Mom is in the other room and Dad is putting the puppies into their crates, Miss M usually runs to Mom, hoping for Mom to let her stay out. So yesterday, we went to put them in the crate for breakfast, and Miss M started walking out of the room. Dad said, "Miss M. Go to your crate." It wasn't in a rough voice- just a normal speaking voice. She stopped, turned around and walked right into her crate. Mom closed the door, but we were so happy with her that we let her right back out as a reward.

We thought about taking the puppies to Grandma and Grandpa's house for Easter, but their two legged cousins were going to be having an Easter Egg hunt, and we are pretty sure that our puppies would find all of their eggs and eat the candy before the boys even had a chance. The puppies are very skilled at finding small plastic things to chew on. We bought them some of the Easter egg toys at PetsMart a while back. They had the plastic eggs torn open within minutes and had removed the squeaky toy inside. Unfortunately, they were more interested in the plastic eggs than in the fuzzy toy and proceeded to chew them into tiny sharp pieces, which we then had to pick up before they could eat them. So an Easter egg hunt would have been a bad idea. Plus, it was rainy today, and we didn't really want to go anywhere. Instead, we played in the house.
As an aside, our puppies have a habit of rearranging holidays. At Christmas time for example, we can have a tree, but presents underneath it are risky, given their love of opening boxes. They actually save us quite a bit of money at Halloween. We decided that it wouldn't be a good idea to have candy for trick-or-treaters. The puppies like people, but I don't think they would understand the costumes. I think it would freak them out too much. So instead, we save money and our waistlines by not buying candy- which is handy since we usually end up with way too much candy left over.