Happy 9th Birthday LEO!

Leo’s 9^th Birthday was on September 24, 2013. Since he is so tuned into my mood, his mood often is nothing more than a mirror of my own. Well, he definitely sensed my excited mood that day, from the minute I woke up, he was EXCITED too!  From the first moment of the day (which always starts with a belly rub) he could tell that we were in the midst of greatness. Since he sleeps on top my feet, he has no other choice but to wake up when I start to stir. He usually comes right up to my face with his tail wagging like crazy. He almost immediately rolls over and waits for his belly rub. I gave him extra belly rubs on the morning of his birthday and told him over and over that it was a special day because it was his birthday! YAY LEO! I’m sure there was no doubt in his mind that it was his birthday! (and not just because I yelled it a million and one times)

He had his usual scrambled eggs and dry dog food for breakfast topped off with his favorite dessert, a few nibbles of the cat food. (He usually gets yelled at for this, but of course since it was his birthday, I let it go.) We went for a nice long walk outside and I told him that after work, I’d be making him a birthday cake. A lot of people suggested that I make him a meatloaf cake, but I decided to go with a white cake recipe by Fanny Farmer.

Since it only makes sense that everybody will want to share cake with LEO on his birthday, why not make something that the whole family would enjoy. Besides, it’s just too weird to put candles in a big chunk of meat and sing! And of course we would be singing! We had to do the traditional celebration and take lots of pictures.
In order to get ready for his birthday party, we blew up a couple of small balloons and tied them to his collar. Now to all the people who know LEO really well, they may be wondering how a dog with such anxiety (and a well-known fear of balloons) could have balloons tied to his collar. Well, although this may not make sense, he is only afraid of the balloons that have helium and float from a string. He doesn’t particularly mind when balloons are tied to his collar. Go figure. We then walked around the neighborhood with his party balloons on. He ran through a grass field, stepping on one at a time causing two little pops but he didn't seem to mind! (Again, he knew it was his birthday)

After our walk, we all gathered around the table and lit his candles. Although I held him up to the table in my lap, he was not allowed to get too close to the cake. My husband was yelling that he would drool on the cake that everybody was going to eat, so I had to respect this and keep him at a distance. He also loves to shake his head back and forth randomly which causes basset slime to go flying across the room and god forbid a stream of basset slime were to land on top of the cake. Well, that would have just ruined a perfectly good party! Yes, I insisted that we sing to him and everybody in my family complied even though they were shaking their head as my husband said, “You are a very sick woman.” Its okay, I don’t mind. If being a very sick woman means that I love my LEO too much, well then, I am perfectly fine with that description of myself. There are a lot worse things that I could be called. All in all, LEO had a wonderful 9^th Birthday!!!