Cardi girl Lola McC. wrote to The Daily Corgi twice; first in June, and then again today. She waited her turn in line for her post, so without further delay … take it away, Lola!
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Lola’s Story, Part One
Hello, my name is Lola.
I’m a female Cardigan Welsh Corgi and I’m fifteen months months old. I live in Mesa, Arizona.
I was a pretty cute pup, eh?
The proof is in the picture, I say.
Hanging with my pupper peeps, back in the day.
My Mom Marie says I’m a little stinker. I’m very smart and sneaky. I’m her first Corgi, but I have a feeling I won’t be the last. I live with six cats and mostly get along with them. One cat (Forest) is a Siamese mix and he likes to play with me until I get too rough. The other cats (Bubba, Ms. Kitty, Tiffany, Tom, and Max) try to ignore me. Sometimes if I get too pushy they’ll give me a bop on the nose as a reminder to mind my own business.
I like to wait until my Mom isn’t paying attention and sneak into the cat room. There are all kinds of cool stuff in there. I like the food, but my favorite thing is to root around in the litter boxes which makes my Mom nuts. She’s catching on to me and it’s really hard to get back there now.
One of my favorite things to do is to chase the pigeons. Mom has several bird feeders in the backyard. The sparrows throw birdseed all over the ground looking for their favorite seed. I wait until there are a lot of pigeons on the ground and Mom opens the screen door very quietly and makes me wait until she says “go” …
I strut my stuff around the backyard after they’re all gone.
I rock.
My favorite toy is a purple curly sheep that squeaks. One of the things I love to do that gets me in big trouble is chew electrical cords. So far I’ve ruined a reading lamp, a fan, and a relatively new crock pot. There are no cords in the family room where I stay when my Mom’s at work.
I’ve had a few piddle accidents since I’ve been here, but nothing else except for a day when the medicine I was taking made me sick with vomiting and diarrhea. When I got here from Oklahoma I was sick with giardia. I’m fine now. The medicine that made me sick was for Panosteitis. My activity level since I arrived has increased a great deal.
I used to live in an apartment with a college student. She had to give me up because she lost her apartment and her parents don’t like dogs living in their house. I was lucky my Mom found me on the breeder’s website. I have a big house and yard to play in. I have to take aspirin daily to lower the inflammation in my legs. My bones are growing faster than my ligaments. It’s kind of a bummer because I was supposed to start herding training. I did very well on my herding test with sheep and they said I could move right into classes without additional testing. I really loved those sheep. Now I have to wait until my ligaments catch up with my bones. I can’t even train for agility until I’m better.
Anyway, I love my new Mom and she loves me. This is my forever home. It seems like I’ve always been here. I can’t wait for a sister or brother to play with. I’ve had a couple of play dates with other dogs. One was a pug named Frank. He was my first friend. Then I met Queenie, Huck, and Pearl who are Cardigans too. We had a big Corgi party in the backyard and made our Moms laugh and laugh. I’d love to make more friends, so if you’re in the area look me up and we can get together to play.
Love, Lola
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Lola’s Story, Part Two:
Hi again everyone, Lola here. I celebrated my first birthday in August. It’s now November. I heard there is a big feast coming up celebrating something called Thanksgiving. I can hardly wait. If I’m a really good girl I bet I can get myself some people food if I sit real pretty.
So many things have happened since June. Forest and I are good buddies. He wrestles with me just as though he were a dog. When I get rough he lets me know right away to cut it out. The rest of the cats tolerate me now. I still chase Max more than anyone. He’s learned that if he just stops and turns to face me I quit chasing. If I don’t, he goes all psycho on me. Sometimes he scares me to death. One time I followed him under the bed and got stuck. Mom had to come and rescue me.
I’ve had a few more health issues since June. The major thing was that I really didn’t like to be touched back by my hips and rear area. Mom decided we should check it out, so off we went to the vet. I was not thrilled by the vet touching me either. Did I mention I hate to have my temperature taken. They decided it would be best to have some x-rays to make sure everything was okay.
My x-rays were a little abnormal. I don’t have hip dysplasia but there is a strange flaring around my hip sockets. It’s almost like I have arthritis but I’m way too young for that. I have to take some yummy chewables twice a day for awhile and then once a day later on. Since I’ve been taking the Chondro-Flex my hips feel better and I don’t get so edgy about people touching me.
On the upside of things, I’ve been making lots of friends. Mom has taken me to several dog parks. I love going there and Mom says I’m a really good dog. I love meeting new people, kids, and dogs. I run and run until I’m exhausted. Nearly everyone I meet is nice to me. I’m sorry to say there have been a couple of not so friendly dogs. We’ve had some Corgi play dates. There were a couple of big get togethers. The first one was at Cosmo Dog Park. They have a big pond there for us to swim in. I met about ten other Corgis that day. No Cardigans were there, only Pembrokes.
The real excitement that day was swimming. My Mom was so shocked when I jumped in and started to swim with the other dogs. She nearly had a heart attack because she can’t swim and was worried I would follow the bigger dogs out into the deeper water.
It’s funny that I won’t use my play pool at home and really don’t like getting a bath, but I love the sprinklers. Now I love the big pond too. There was a Corgi picnic a couple of weeks back but we couldn’t make it. My Mom was sick with a migraine. We read on the internet that there were 50 corgis there off and on all day. I was sad to miss it, but I didn’t let my Mom know.
My Mom says she would be lost without me. She’s been through some tough times the last couple of years and was so lonely after her dog Cleo died from cancer. I’ve seen pictures of Cleo and her roommate Butch. He went to the rainbow bridge about 3 years before Cleo. Butch was 15 and Cleo was almost 14. I heard they were very good dogs.
Mom wanted to get another big dog, but she can’t really handle a 65 pound dog anymore. She needed something smaller, but not delicate, perhaps something sturdy with a big dog attitude. She says she’s always loved Corgis and started to read whatever she could about us. She had heard a lot about Pembrokes, but not so much about Cardigans. After reading all the material she could, she decided a Cardigan was best suited to her needs. She started looking around and found me.
So, that pretty much brings things up to date. I’m starting to grow out of my puppy destructive phase. Mom left me alone with full run of the house for 3 whole hours yesterday. I didn’t tear up a thing. I think if I keep being a good dog and not chew up Mom’s books and stuff, she might let me have run of the house sometime soon. Right now I am blockaded in the kitchen and family room area during the day when Mom’s at work. The family room is pretty big and I have plenty of room to run. When Mom gets home from work the first thing she does is grab me and hug me. It’s just great.
I love my Mom very much and she loves me lots.
The End
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Welcome to The Daily Corgi, Lola!
You sure have a lot to say!
what a great story about beautiful Lola!
Marie, how did Lola act when you touched her hind quarters? Did she do the Gremlin noise? Was it every time you touched her? My Corgi sometimes gets angry when I grab her back end, but I'm not sure if it's just her playing.