Recently in Yoshi and Tsuki Category

Sorry for the lack of updates. We're all doing A-OK, I've just been working on some freelance web projects, so haven't had a lot of time to work on Yoshi & Tsuki's site. I guess I'm sort of falling down on the job over here.

They've both still been up to their usual adventures and mischief, and I've taken a bajillion pictures of them over the last few months, so hopefully I'll have some time after August to sort through them and post the best ones.

Tsuki celebrated her 4th birthday on May 2nd, and her gift was 4 new Teddy Possums! They are her absolute favorite toy (and Yoshi likes them, too), so she celebrated by de-squeaking and de-stuffing 2 of them. The other 2 are still in the cabinet waiting for a rainy day. Someday, I'll have to take pictures of the possum husks that are strewn all over our house. Eventually, the dogs wind up ripping them into several pieces, and then it really starts to seem like they're everywhere.

But, enough about stuffed animals. Yesterday was a very momentous occasion. Tsuki killed her first REAL animal! She and Yoshi worked as a team to catch it, but Tsuki was the one who sent the little chipmunk to the big oak tree in the sky.

Here's the little predator with her prize chipmunk.

She didn't really know what to do with it after she killed it.

We figured she'd eat it, but she didn't. She was just super excited to have caught it, and seemed to take great joy in shaking the bejeezus out of it. We felt bad for the little guy, and we tried to help him escape, but the sheebs were fast and determined.

It was so hot yesterday that Yoshi insisted on laying on this tarp where stinky water and leaves had collected. There is a pool less than 10 feet away, but Yoshi is afraid of it, and it's probably not stinky enough for him.

Popi came up with the genius idea to let the hose run over the tarp, which made it more fun, and less likely to result in Yoshi needing a B-A-T-H (or, our canine code word for it, hydrossage). Win-win!

Yoshi pretty much thought he was the coolest dog ever.

Shaking off was half the fun!

Tsuki wasn't thrilled with Yoshi's makeshift pool, but she enjoyed cooling off under the hose.

Happy summer, everyone!

Seriously, you must watch this.

Through a Pup Pal request on Dogster, I was lucky enough to find Shannon Darch, an incredible artist who was able to capture Yoshi and Tsuki's true spirits on canvas. I've added watermarks to the larger digital versions, but they are not part of the painted originals.

This painting of Yoshi comes from a funny scenario that my husband dreamt up for Yoshi. By some bureaucratic error, Yoshi is drafted into the army. And, even though he's obviously a dog, everyone just treats him like a person, and refers to him in conversation as "that short funny-lookin' kid." Yoshi is, of course, still Yoshi, so he never listens to his commanding officer. This gets him put on KP duty, which, in typical Yoshi fashion, he exploits for all it's worth.

For a long time, I've pictured Tsuki as a girlie Japanese pop star, and this painting is pretty much the image of her that I've carried around in my head. As evidence of her rock star status, Tsuki doesn't like to step in puddles, and possesses the world's most discriminating canine palette (dead mice and cat poop seem to be the exceptions to this, but even divas are entitled to their guilty pleasures). She can also be quite demanding of her entourage (that's us), and will insist that we continue to provide petting and tummy rubs, long after our arms have grown weary. Her bodyguard (that's Yoshi) also complains about her bossiness. But, nevertheless, her outgoing and magnetic personality have made her quite a star (in our neighborhood, at least).

Having now worked with Shannon on two projects, I can recommend her without reservation. Not only is she reliable, but she is such a pleasure to work with. I have commissioned work from several other artists, but have never felt that they could quite capture the image that I had created in my mind. Shannon not only created images that are amazingly similar to what I had envisioned, but included additional elements that I would never have considered, making the scenes even better. Both paintings completely exceeded our expectations.

If you've ever thought it would be fun to have an illustration done of your pet (or a human, even), definitely consider contacting Shannon. But, we plan on keeping her very busy, so you better hurry! We're already thinking up our next two commissions!

Click to vote for us!

ランキングに参加中です。 どうもありがとうございます!

For the past few months, I've been collecting bento supplies, so that I could make Yoshi a bento box for his 5th birthday. If you have any interest in trying your hand at making bento (for people, even), definitely check out Cooking Cute.

I used cookie cutters and ham to make Yoshi's 'Happy Birthday' message.

Here's the finished bento. It contains cubed steak, hot dog cat, onigiri, colorful dog cookies, and half a hard boiled egg (which neither dog found appetizing -- they must take after their popi).

Here's Tsuki's more girlie bento. Her name is made out of cheese.

The hard boiled eggs were probably my favorite part, and were surprisingly easy to make. Too bad the dogs didn't like them as much as I did.

It's like he's saying, "Itadakimasu (いただきます)."

The birthday boy enjoying his steak.

Little sister has always had an unorthodox way of eating at the table.

Caught red pawed attempting to steal the birthday boy's ham!

Not to worry though, there was still plenty left for Yoshi.

At some point, Tsuki decided it was time for dessert (that's not real chocolate, don't worry). She helped herself, of course.

Then, she headed upstairs to eat her dessert on our bed.

Yoshi tried to be diplomatic about the onigiri. Ultimately, he decided that he was not a fan. Tsuki came to the same conclusion.

"Gochisosama deshita (ごちそうさまでした)."

Happy 5th Birthday, Yoshi! 誕生日おめでとうヨッシ!

Click to vote for the birthday boy!

ランキングに参加中です。 どうもありがとうございます!

Sweet Togetherness

Fun Togetherness

Everything is better when you have someone you love to share it with.

Click to vote for us!

ランキングに参加中です。

Happy holidays, everydog! We've noticed by your blogs, that some of you got your Christmas presents really early this year. Mom told us that Dog Christmas falls on January 13th this year (today!), so we can't figure out why some dogs got their presents so early...

I guess it doesn't really matter, because today is Dog Christmas, and boy did we celebrate!

[Mom's Edit: Wow, I really dropped the ball on Christmas this year! Luckily, they believed the whole story about Dog Christmas being on January 13th.]

Here's our tree!

This Christmas shiba came home from Japan with mom. I hope it doesn't give her any crazy ideas about dressing us up!

Our tree got a new ornament this year. It's a fox!

This is us seeing our presents and tree for the first time!

I went straight for the monkey from Aunt Laura. It grunts (but not for long)!

Tsuki went for the hedgehog with the tennis ball in his tummy.

Look out, Hedgie!

I'm going to share some wisdom with you. If you tear off their feet, it's much harder for monkeys to run away.

Watch how the master does it.

If either of these toys still contains stuffing by tomorrow, we haven't done our jobs.

Tsuki says: What else is there to open?

Tsuki says: I think I must have opened Yoshi's by mistake, because this one says "Naughty" on it.

I guess an Orbee snowball is okay, but a real snowball would be better. Although, it was rated 5 out of 5 chompers on Planet Dog's Chew-O-Meter.

An Orbee Frisbee!

A Christmas lightbulb? Made out of Orbee? Santa must be running out of ideas.

Tsuki took her two favorite toys up to higher ground, just in case anyone had any funny ideas about sneaking up on her and taking them.

Tsuki looking pretty in her Christmas collar.

Mom says: We tried to get Yoshi to pose by the tree, but these next two are the best we could do.

Mom says: This one was a raging success, since the command I gave was "please block the tree and all of the presents with your bum."

Hope everyone had a terrific Dog Christmas!

Happy New Year, everydog!

Hey, wait! Why is Dog Christmas after New Year's Day? Something fishy is going on around here.

MOM!!!!

We've certainly gotten our money's worth out of the pet bed in our office. Actually, the pets love this bed so much, that we put two more in different locations around our upstairs. They are constantly in use, but the one in our office is probably the busiest. Here's the photographic evidence:

First, we have Yoshi, the master of ridiculous sleeping positions.

Then, sometimes we have Willie, who is frequently found belly-up. Good thing he's not a fish!

It's as if he's saying, "Mom, can't you do something about him? He's hogging my bed!"

Unfortunately, I see the bed as being a first-come-first-served sort of thing, so Yoshi sometimes has to rough it on the floor (or, he could walk 10 steps away, and sleep on the exact same bed out in the hall).

It's also a place for Tsuki to snuggle with the stuffingless husks of her Teddy Possums.

Or, chew them a little more.

...which is exhausting business.

And, last but not least, is little Desi. Out of all four pets, she's the only one who will consistently allow any of the other pets to share the bed with her.

Happy holidays, everydog!

Click here to see Yoshi & Tsuki's holiday dance routine.

There's big excitement on our street! Follow us!

A scene from the new M. Night Shyamalan Shibaland movie is being filmed on our street! It's called The Happening.

It's going to be a car crash scene! Here, you can see the yellow test Jeep, which is going to crash into that fake tree. The Jeep has padding on the front, so it doesn't damage the fake tree. On the right, are the red Jeeps that are going to be used in the scene. There are three different ones, because they're all needed for different effects. We heard that one is equipped to roll!

When we were walking by, they were running the remote-controlled test Jeep toward the tree! Cool, huh?

We don't mean to be critical, but we think the scene would really seem more realistic, if, well... someone was walking some handsome dogs down the street. We're just sayin'...

We don't know what some of you dogs have against mailmen, because we LOVE our mailman!

When we see him, we both start running toward him and our tails start to wag like crazy!

We would hop right into his truck, if he'd let us!

You know one of the reasons that we love him so much?

Because ever since we were little puppies, he would stop by to give us treats!

That's really smart, dontcha think? Pretty good insurance that we'd grow up to be friends, and not get mad when he comes to our door every day.

Maybe some dogs don't like mailmen, because their mailmen don't bring them treats? I could see being pretty steamed about a guy who comes to the door everyday and makes a big ruckus, but never brings any treats.

Luckily, our mailman is the greatest mailman in the world!

Before treat

After treat

Here are our yummy birthday cakes and giant bones that had our names right on them!

HA! HA! Tsuki had to wear a silly birthday outfit!

There she goes...look at that back foot!

The best part about it being Tsuki's birthday, is that I get to have cake, but I don't have to wear a silly outfit.

Here's Tsuki opening *my* present! The ones in blue paper were supposed to be for me!

It didn't matter though, because we each got a new Teddy Possum. We killed the one we got for Christmas, so we really needed a new one.

Here I am opening the girlie presents wrapped in pink paper. How embarrassing!

In addition to our new Teddy Possums, we each got a baby bunny, which are super fun for squeaking and killing.

Happy 3rd Birthday, Tsuki!

Here's the pretty, little birthday girl on her 3rd birthday!

Yoshi always gets very excited in the moments leading up to BIRTHDAY CAKE!

This picture really sums up Yoshi's relationship with food.

We thought we were home free until the end of the semester, but she was at it again with the camera today.

Check out those choppers! I am very serious about holding on to my Frisbee!

Here I am in my space helmet. I look like a crazy space dog!

Here I am on my triumphant return from space!

This is Tsuki exploring the rocky surface of the moon during our space trip.

Yep, more space pictures.

Not only is Tsuki an Astrodog, she's also a Lumberjackdog.

Hello doggie friends!

Sorry we haven't been updating lately. If you can believe the irony, mom's photo class is the reason there are no new pictures of us. Apparently, and we find this very hard to believe, the art world doesn't really appreciate pictures of dogs! Even really handsome dogs! Lucky for us, mom's professor told her to "avoid taking dog pictures," so she's been forced to take pictures of lots of weird stuff, like humans. Sounds pretty boring to us, but that guy is A-OK in our book. We haven't been woken by a camera in months!

Anyway, her class can't last forever, and then I'm sure she'll be stalking us with the camera again. In the meantime, we just wanted to let everydog know that we're still working on our plans for world domination, even if we're not going public with them just now.

Arrrroooo!

Yoshi & Tsuki

Here's Yoshi's peanut butter birthday cake from Three Dog Bakery. Looks like someone at FedEx didn't want Yoshi to have a very happy birthday, since the cake arrived looking like it had been turned upside down and shaken. Seriously, the thing was totalled, but Yoshi didn't care.

Clearly, all rules are suspended on one's birthday.

The birthday boy scarfing down his cake.

...somewhat messily, I might add.

Tsuki takes a more ladylike approach to eating her birthday treats, even if she looks a little bit crazy in this picture.

She only finished about 1/4 of what was on her plate, in case you're wondering how a little dog could eat that much.

Happy 4th birthday, Yoshi, you handsome devil!

I started taking a photo class a few weeks ago, and these are the first prints of Yoshi & Tsuki that I've made. Due to dust and some soap residue, they needed quite a bit of retouching in Photoshop. They're still not perfect, but at this size, you can't really see all of the dust specks. Developing film and printing photos is a lot more difficult (and expensive!) than I thought it would be. I like it a lot, but it can be frustrating, since you don't really know if your image has problems until you've gotten to the very end of a looooong process. You know what's weird though, there are people in my class that are so young, they've never taken a photo using film, only digital. If that doesn't make you feel old, I don't know what will.

We're a little late with posting our Christmas pictures (mom's fault), but here they are. Finally.

When we woke up on Christmas morning, this is what was waiting for us! Santa Paws really did come! Two of the presents weren't wrapped, because they were from our Aunt Laura (the cool possum toy) and Aunt Stephanie (the GIANT tongue).

Mom says that most people have either a star or an angel on top of their tree. She said that we are extra lucky, because we have a star and two angels on top of our tree. We told her that she is a dork.

This is me reading the tags and realizing that ALL the presents are for me and Tsuki!

Tsuki said that she could still smell elves on the packages. I told her to be quiet, because she doesn't even know what elves smell like in the first place.

Santa brought us new bees for our Hide-A-Bee toy! How did he know that we needed those?

The possum from Aunt Laura is one of our favorites! We shook it to death, like, instantly.

Tsuki says: "Ha ha, Yoshi! Aunt Stephanie thinks you have a big mouth!"

Yoshi says: "No she doesn't, Tsuki! She just knows that I need a way to hide from the paparazzi and a certain dorky little sister."

This is how Christmas makes us feel!

And, according to Fu Fu's blog, this is how you say Merry Christmas in Japanese:

Merii Kurisumasu

Well, mom and popi got what they wanted for Christmas, a new camera. That means there will be no peace for us in 2007. And, if that wasn't bad enough, we heard mom say that she's going to take a photography class! I guess uninterrupted naps are a thing of the past for me and Tsuki.

Hope your New Year is happier than ours.

It's New Year's Eve! Put down the camera and let's play!

I can't believe I have put up with a whole semester of this.

If a non-camera-owning household wants to adopt us, we'll have our bags packed and will be waiting at the curb. Just say when.

Happy holidays, everyone! We hope you get lots of toys and yummy treats when Santa Paws visits!

(click picture for a larger and more readable version)

It tastes like fall!

Remember our friend Bauer? Well his new niece, Rumor, came home to live with him last week, and we got to meet her on Saturday! She flew home on an airplane, all the way from Oregon! Here she is...

Rumor!

Getting ready to pounce!

Here's Rumor plotting the next round of puppy hi-jinx that she's going to unleash on unsuspecting Uncle Bauer.

It's okay, Bauer, anyone would make that face if they'd spent their day being harassed by a puppy and two shibas.

Here's a picture of all of us! Boys against girls!

First, Mom tried to steal my Frisbee!

Then, Dani tried to steal my Frisbee!

And then, Popi AND Dani tried to steal my Frisbee!

Meanwhile, instead of helping me in the epic battle to secure possession of the Frisbee, Tsuki was more concerned with keeping the squirrels up in the trees.

Today we got new Frisbees!

The toys at grandma and grandpa's house left something to be desired.

Is it me, or does Yoshi look like he's auditioning for the part of Ray Charles?

Today was bath day. Me and Tsuki spent quite a while sulking.

But, I guess I have to admit, we do look pretty terrific. I could live without the flowery smell though. I much prefer the smell of the dead animal that me and Tsuki rolled in yesterday. Figures they'd give us a bath, right after we managed to get such a good smell on us.

Good thing we have our website, because mom's hard drive is dying and some of our pictures have gotten destroyed. She's been working for two days trying to salvage whatever she can, but we think that some stuff might be gone forever. Cross your paws that it stays alive for a few more days, because there are still so many more save!

On the bright side, I guess we'll just have to get to work making some new memories!

A rare sighting of the shibaroo in its natural habitat.

Beware of low flying shibaroos.

Even though my birthday isn't until Tuesday (May 2nd), we celebrated it today!

Here are some pictures of my birthday cake from Three Dog Bakery.

Waiting patiently was so hard!

This is when we knew we were in the home stretch!

YUM! It tasted like peanut butter!

Yoshi liked it, too!

Since it was my birthday, I decided that I might be more comfortable eating my cake on the floor.

Then it occurred to me that I would be even more comfortable eating cake up on the bed! And, since the rule is that you get to do whatever you want on your birthday, I ran upstairs with my piece of cake and finished it on the bed! I was right too, it was comfortable!

Sorry about the crumbs, mom.

Then it was time for presents! The box was bigger than me!

Mom was so slow with the unwrapping!

It's a birthday bed! Just like Yoshi's!

This was the greatest 2nd birthday ever!

After cake and presents, we went to the dog park to celebrate with all of our friends!

It's Zorro! Isn't he dreamy?

I was so excited when he arrived that I couldn't stop jumping on him!

Shiba party! That's me, Zorro, and Yoshi!

We even got to play in the stream! That's me. I got a little dirty.

This is me and Baxter. He's Australian.

Yoshi got kind of dirty in the stream, too.

But, Zorro got REALLY REALLY dirty! I bet Zorro got a bath tonight and they made him smell all silly like flowers. Poor Zorro.

Tsuki's 2nd birthday is only 8 days away and, despite what Yoshi might say, we have no intention of selling her to the gypsies.

However, I did hear a rumor that there might be some cake and a present.

Today I was just minding my own business and trying to do a bit of sunbathing on my birthday bed. Then, all of the sudden, mom started pestering me by taking pictures. I will never understand why she takes pictures of me when I'm just laying around doing nothing. BOOORING!

And, if that wasn't bad enough, the sound of the camera woke Tsuki up, so then she wanted to get into all the pictures!

All I could do was stick my tongue out at them and make goofy faces, and hope they got the hint.

Another perfectly good nap down the drain.

Yay! Winter is over!

Tsuki met a special friend today.

America's Next Top Model?

Look out world, they're back!

This artwork was created by Laura Anderton. We think she's pretty terrific.

Hey, check it out, we have our own domain!

Now you can get to us by just typing http://www.yoshiandtsuki.com!

Even though it looks the same right now, we're working on a new design and some fun new ideas! We need mom and popi's help, so it might take a while, but if we bug them enough, they'll get it done eventually. Good thing me and Tsuki are both really good at the shiba scream!

As weird as it might look, I don't think life gets any happier than this.

Yoshi attempts his signature move: The infamous Samurai Tail Grab.

"I SAID UNCLE, NOW GET OFFA' ME!"

Today is my 3rd birthday!!!

Here's my yummy peanut butter banana birthday cake from Barbara's Canine Catering.

We were so excited we couldn't wait!

Hurry up, hurry up!

Finally! YUM!

Even though it was my birthday, Tsuki got to eat cake too. No one ever asks my opinion about these things.

For my present, Mom and Popi got me a gigantic new bed! [Author's note: Me and Tsuki told Mom and Popi that we didn't like the beds Santa brought us for Christmas, so mom sold them to people at her work. Santa is overrated.]

I love my birthday.

P.S.: Only 12 days until my 3rd birthday! I hope we get to have cake!

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a tie in the Dorky Face of the Day contest!

Happy Holidays!

Most people don't know this, but, in order to get a jump on all of his holiday deliveries, Santa delivers presents to the very best dogs on his list before Christmas. Having these new beds drop from the chimney made it pretty clear that some awfully good dogs live here.

...while visions of Kong Liver Paste danced in her head.

Yoshi's dreaming that he's the boss of everything. Oh, wait, that's not a dream.

(click for larger image)

Yoshi & Tsuki's true spirits captured by Valerie A. Ryan.

Today we got to go to Carnivale of the Dogs!

Here we are waiting for the best part, HOT DOGS CATS!!!

If there are hot cats around, you can count on me for some award-winning sits!

Tsuki offers some stiff competition in the 'sit' department. Good thing there were enough hot cats to go around!

We loved Carnivale of the Dogs, but chasing pigeons and eating hot cats sure can tucker a dog out.

It appears that the little missus has recently learned a thing or two by observing her outlaw brother:

NOTE TO ONE AND ALL: Having a smart dog is highly overrated. Cat-like agility also has its drawbacks.

Today we had a cook-out at Hali and Bauer's house! Hali and Bauer's mom made hot dogs hot cats and hamburgers, and mom baked PUPCAKES!!! That's Hali, Tsuki, and me waiting for our pupcakes!

Here I am eating my pupcake! Jealous?

Here's Tsuki explaining to Bauer that shibas don't share, especially when it comes to pupcakes! If there's one thing I can say about Tsuki, it's that she's awfully good at explaining things.

Today is Tsuki's 1st birthday, so mom baked us a cake!

The frosting is made out of Kong liver paste!!! Mmmmmm...

She also made us homemade Frosty Paws, and we got to SIT AT THE TABLE!!!

Tsuki could hardly wait while mom cut the cake!

Here's the birthday girl enjoying her cake.

Mmmmm...

I think we should be allowed to eat like this all the time. It's much more dignified.

...but Tsuki could probably use a booster seat.

After her slice was gone, Tsuki got a little carried away.

Happy 1st birthday, Tsuki!

[Edit: 03/06/06] A lot of people have written to us asking for the birthday cake recipe that mom used for Tsuki's cake. Mom got the recipe from the internet, had a veterinarian review it, and then made some changes based on what the doctor said (basically, she removed some dairy products and honey that might have upset our stomachs). Every dog's tummy is different, of course, so you should have your mom or dad run this recipe past your veterinarian, too.

Here's the recipe (for some reason, you have to scroll down a little bit to see it):

Tomorrow is Tsuki's 1st birthday, so mom and Popi planned lots of fun things for us to do this weekend.

Tsuki's tsuper fun activities included:

1.) Stalking me

2.) Chasing me

3.) Making weird faces

4.) Smiling for the camera (that's me on the right)

5.) ...and being an annoying little sister, as well as my best friend

Here I am, enjoying the snow, looking handsome as ever.

Is that a little fox on the hunt, or Tsuki?

That's Tsuki, looking like a proper snow dog.

Mom took this right after I stole some guy's frisbee. Ha ha!

Mom thinks I look really cute when I sleep, so she just can't seem to stop taking pictures of me in my new bed. I told her it was too many, and that it was gonna' bore everyone, but she wouldn't listen.

While I was having my umpteenth photo taken, Tsuki starting whining 'cuz Mom wasn't taking enough pictures of her (she's such a baby), so Mom snapped this one.

All I want for Christmas is the piece of chicken that mom was holding above the photographer's head. Mmmm...chicken.

Tsuki wins the curliest tail contest!

Tsuki's such a little midget that she can't get up onto the bed by herself (which didn't seem like such a bad thing to me), so Mom and Popi bought her her own little Tsuki-sized steps.

Personally, I think that any dog that can't get up onto the bed by themselves, doesn't deserve to sleep on the bed. But, does anyone ever ask me for my opinion? Clearly not.

I'm the leader of the pack (and a highly skilled thief).

I bet my sister can run faster than your sister.

A clever caption escapes me.

Popi hasn't been feeling well, and Mom's been really busy, so I haven't been able to update my site for awhile. I keep telling them that I can use the computer all by myself, but they insist that an adult has to be around to help me. Anyway...here's what we've been up to.

Here I am letting Tsuki win at tug-o-war.


We weren't up to anything, honest.


Is that my sister, or a frog?


Mom is so annoying with that camera when we're trying to sleep. At least this time she was bothering Tsuki and not me.


Occasionally, Tsuki sits still.


Trying...so...hard...to...stay...awake.

I love my little sister.


Even if she uses me as a pillow,...


chews on my toys, and lays in my bed.