Cute dogs & peat

Our dog Bailee Boo is golden retriever, black lab and German shepherd mix. She loves lollipops. One day, she came with us in the SUV and we had to run into the store for something and left her in the car with it running. One of the kids had bought a bunch of these natural-flavored strawberry suckers. We get back in the car and we hear this sucking noise, and I turned around and said, "Bailee" and she popped her head up from the back seat with a sucker hanging out of her mouth. She was sucking on it. It was so funny to see her with it hanging out of her mouth! She loves them. She loves Halloween because of the lollipops.

She is a very special dog to us. She was run over by a big SUV when she was 5 months old, and the vet said he had never seen a dog with such will to live and be so loyal to her family. She had a dislocated hip, bruised uterus and internal bleeding, broken ribs, etc. She was on oxygen for three days and survived it all, and she has a wonderful personality. Loves to lie upside down and smile. She shakes both paws, high fives, sits pretty and will sneeze.

— Joanne Cottam of Nestor Falls, Ontario, Canada
Ulicka

I got my cat, Ulicka, while I was living in Prague. I didn't have the heart to leave her behind, so when I came back to the United States, Uli came with me (the trip ended up being 24 hours long). Anyway, she is a character.

I was living in Portland, and Uli would often wake me up an hour before I had to be up, so I would put her in the bathroom with her food, water and litter box. This routine didn't last long. One morning, when Uli wanted to play fetch and I had an hour to sleep, into the bathroom she went. Seven o' clock a.m. came, and I first started my coffee and then tried to open the bathroom door. Uli had locked me out! Somehow she had pulled the drawer closest to the door open so I was unable to open the door. I was frantic and had to get in there to get ready for work. I went into the kitchen and got a knife and had to "shimmy" the drawer closed with a knife. Now, looking back, it was so funny that it happened!

— Shannon Vealitzek of Boise, Idaho
Tippy

I have a shih tzu who is adorable, but none too bright! He is a major mama's boy and wants a bite of anything I have to eat. One day, I was sitting at the dining table and Tippy was sitting quietly nearby (he never begs, just drills holes in you with his eyes!), but every hair on his body was twitching! I was having a salad and knew he wouldn't eat any greens, but I had a mandarin orange in the salad yet, so I broke off a small piece of orange and tossed to him. I thought he had caught it and was eating it, but he kept sniffing around on the floor and whining. I didn't know if he wanted more or what. I called him, and he looked up at me and there was the bite of mandarin orange stuck to the fur right above his nose! He could smell it, but he couldn't find it. I nearly fell out of the chair laughing, then I grabbed the camera and took a picture. The grandkids loved it!