Furry Friday: Birthday Boy!

My precious fur-baby turns five years old today!  In dog years that makes Riley thirty-five.  Where has the time gone?!  In honor of the birthday boy, I've put together some highlights of his first four years:

Year One

House-broken:  within the first three weeks! So smart...  We have my dad, his Grandpa, to thank for this.  During his first three weeks he spent a good majority of his time at my parents house while Justin and I were visiting his father in the hospital.

Weight:  5 pounds

Favorite Toy: his red loofah which quickly lost limbs to his sharp puppy teeth.

Favorite Snack:  Bil-Jac Liver Treats

First Leg Lift:  This is a funny story... his first time to lift his leg to pee was on my Grandpa Dankievitch's new boots.  It was as if Riley looked at him and said "you ain't so big." 

Best Friend: his "uncle" Apache Chief (Justin's mother's dog)

Year Two

Favorite past-time:  Sitting on the back of the couch to people watch out the window.  This bad habit was developed while his daddy was away on a business trip to Florida.

Favorite Snack:  The Everlasting Treat Ball.  

Best Friend:  Romeo, a Jack Russell Terrier in our apartment complex

Favorite Toy:  a rubber squeaky ball shaped like a Monkey. This was supposed to be indestructible, Riley proved the theory wrong.  We'd gone through at least two more of these toys before he lost interest.

First hotel stay:  Holiday Inn in Schoharie for Jennifer-Marie's wedding.  He is so adaptable.  Took it like a champ.  Rode the elevator and everything.

Weight:  Fifteen pounds

Year Three

Favorite past-time:  lounging on the lawn of our new house

Favorite Snack:  Dentastix

Least favorite activity:  bath time

Favorite Toy:  Red Guy

Weight:  Seventeen pounds

Best Friend:  Grandpa, he walks him on lunch hour and feeds him copious amounts of snacks

First trip to L.I.:  We went down to see my cousin Alan who was home from California.  We stayed at Uncle Richie & Aunt Kathy's.  While we were at Alan's party, Riley and Aunt Kathy had a photo shoot.  He was such a little stud.

Year Four

Favorite activity:  long walks at the local SUNY campus

Favorite Toy:  currently a tie between his new furry Monkey and his squeaky Christmas Moose.

New interest:  getting his teeth brushed!  Believe it or not, the dental kit I bought at Christmas has been getting a lot of use.  We haven't worked up to the actual toothbrush yet, but every night he stands in front of the drawer where it is and I rub the toothpaste on his teeth.  I'm hoping we can graduate soon to the brush or at least the little blue finger-brush in the kit.

Weight:  18 pounds, hence the longer walks on campus

Funny new habit:  Helping himself to an empty toilet paper/paper towel tube from the cabinet.  My sister Jessica had stockpiled these for him and I keep them on "his" shelf in the pantry.  Now if I'm not diligent about closing the pantry door, he helps himself.  Prances around the house with it like he's so proud of himself.   Then he tears it to shreds.  LOL

Happy Birthday Riley Chance!!  

Here's to another five years of fun with my snuggle pup.