Category Archives: pets

February 9, 2018 · 7:00 am

Frankie the Wonder Dog’s Declining Health

Our little man isn’t doing too well. All of his health issues are starting to catch up to him and are really taking a toll on his little body. Rene and I have been doing all we can to make sure that he is comfortable and happy, but as much as we try nature is starting to beat his medicines.

Last night Rene took Frankie to the vet and we got some distressing news – his body is holding fluid and there is a mass in his chest that right now cannot be identified through the fluid.

It was a devastating visit both emotionally and financially.

We have always half joked that as long as we have credit, Frankie will be cared for. Unfortunately we have now reached a point where Frankie’s medical bills have tapped us out.

Frankie is such a good boy. He’s a breed ambassador and makes friends everywhere he goes, not just for himself but us as well. Normally Rene and I like to only show images that show a happy and healthy Frankie, like these:

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But lately he’s really looked more like this:

We have really great vets who are doing their best to care for him, but he has so many ailments that it’s tough nailing down what’s doing the most harm to him at any given time.

It’s really tough to be a Frankie dog right now.

We started a donations page for Frankie back in March when his first major cardiac event and that was a major help. He is alive today because of the kindness of those donors and we have had to reactivate it because of the extraordinary expenses related to his care over the last couple of weeks. Please visit his page at the link below. Any help you can provide goes directly to paying for Frankie’s medication and vet visits. We know after this last visit that there are more trips to the vet coming and likely more medications as well.

Frankie’s Fund

Rene and I do not like asking for help. We took on the responsibility of a dog knowing that it meant that we were supposed to care for him and we do our best to make sure that he is paid for, but there have just been too many bills coming too fast and we don’t want our dog to die of something preventable just because we couldn’t pay for it this week.

Thank you so much for checking it out and donating if you can. Words cannot express how much Rene, myself and especially Frankie appreciate it.

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Filed under advocate, animals, causes, charity, dogs, family, Frankie, fund raising, health, in real life, love, medical, money, personal, pets, pictures, pit bulls, rene

Video

Revisiting Wiggy Webs and Dog Rescue

Wiggy Logo NO Sub Heading

Rene and I are doing a lot of re-branding and building of our web presence since our commitment to take control of our careers this year. This happens to coincide with the end of any contracts that existed with my old production company, Wiggy VonSchtick Productions. The only thing that came out of that dissolution in any way intact was the YouTube channel Wiggy Webs where we auditioned some web content.

The most popular videos were a series called Make-up with the Wolf where award winning make-up and F/X artist Myke “The Wolf” Michaels demonstrated how to do Hollywood level make-up effects on a budget. I’m proud to say that the most popular video is of Rene getting transformed into a Buffy style vampire.

But as I was looking back at the video manager I found a video that I had almost forgotten about and thought was worth featuring today. It was for a group that was trying to rehome over 80 dogs because the rescue that had been their home was being shut down. A group of photographers, including Lori Fusaro, and dog clothing manufacturers got together to take good, happy adoption photos that helped get all of these animals new homes, most at a rescue in a different state.

Watching this again, I remember being at the rescue site and how all the dogs could tell that something was going on, even before all the photoshoot started. Some were nervous, but many were so happy to have as much human interaction as they got that day. With the number of unwanted animals in the United States, rescues and shelters serve as savior to many animals that would otherwise die. If you would like more information about how to help or adopt animals check HERE.

Even though Wiggy VonSchtick is shut down, Wiggy Webs is going to stay up as long as people keep watching it. And if we make the odd nickel every few months from Google AdSense that’s ok too.

Now back to the new stuff!

See you next time.

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January 21, 2015 · 8:41 am
April 16, 2014 · 4:00 pm

52 in 52 Story 11 “Frankie Doggie Meets Crabby Abby”

Writing the Little Nene story gave me lots of ideas for other children stories, especially ones starring Frankie doggy. This is the next one in the series and focuses on characters based on our dog, Frankie:

And my parents dog, Abby, who wasn’t actually crabby but was a bulldog so she had a crabby face:

Enjoy!

Frankie Doggy Meets Crabby Abby
One day Frankie doggie was playing in the yard.
He was running he was jumping; he was playing very hard!
He barked and laughed and rolled around having lots of fun.
Eventually he took a rest from all the playing he had done.
Feeling very happy Frankie doggy closed his eyes, but then he heard someone else’s voice and it took him by surprise.
“You were making too much noise,” a gruff and crabby voice said, “now I have a pain that is pounding in my head!”
Frankie opened up his eyes and tried to take a look around.
He had been resting pretty peacefully until he heard this sound.
“I’m sorry,” Frankie doggy said, “I did not mean to harm.”
Then he wagged his tail and smiled, really turning on the charm.
“I don’t care if you are sorry,” the crabby dog said, “what are you doing playing? And then going to bed?!”
Frankie doggy was confused; the other dog was just so crabby!
He asked, “What is your name?” She answered, “Crabby Abby.”
Frankie doggy stood and cocked his head trying to pay attention.
The fact that “crabby” was part of her name filled him with apprehension.
“What makes you so crabby?” He asked, “Maybe I can help?”
“I’m not telling you!” She said, “You nosey little whelp!”
She turned away from Frankie doggy and sat her bottom down.
Frankie really wanted to help get rid of Crabby Abby’s frown.
“Would you like to play a game? Some fetch or tug of war?”
“No!” Crabby Abby said, “That will make my muscles sore!”
“Maybe we could have some food? Some kibble or a treat?”
“I don’t want it!” Crabby Abby said, “I do not want to eat.”
Frankie doggy scratched his head, his ideas were wearing thin.
Crabby Abby didn’t like too much, he didn’t think that he could win.
Without another thought of something he could do Frankie said, “I’m very sorry that my playing bothered you.”
Frankie walked away, head hanging low, to leave Abby alone.
Now Frankie felt crabby too and wanted to go home.
“I don’t have many friends,” Abby said and she cried.
“Your playing didn’t bother me. I’m sorry that I lied.”
“When I see other dogs have fun I want to have fun too, but no one ever plays with me! They never ever do.”
Frankie doggy felt badly for her, her story was so sad.
Frankie wanted to do something that might make her feel glad.
Without a word he turned around and walked back to her side.
Her leaned his head on top of hers trying to be kind.
Abby sniffed his face and licked it; her crabby act was all pretend.
It turns out all that Abby needed was Frankie as a friend.

The End

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Filed under 52 in 52, 52 stories in 52 weeks, animals, children's books, fiction, Frankie, pets, short story

November 8, 2011 · 8:39 pm

What’s kept me busy.

I said in the last post that I would mention in a separate post what I’ve been doing that has taken up all my time.

This is that post.

First off, “Earthlings Beware!” is a play that Rene and I are doing together at The Costa Mesa Playhouse. It plays Fridays through Sundays until November 20th. It is family friendly, funny and fun! It’s a send-up of 50’s Sci-Fi movies and does a great job of recreating that kitchy magic on a single stage. Rene and I made a video:

In video news Wiggy Webs has been posting regularly! Here are the videos you may have missed:

Also, movie stuff has been going forward at a hurried pace. Cheerleaders is casting and we are setting up meetings with talent. There’s also a pretty significant change coming to the film that I can’t technically announce yet, but I’ll give you a hint – there’s a reason we’ve only been referring to it by nicknames and as “Cheerleaders” for a while. There’s a new website on it’s way and some other new stuff. In the meantime go “Like” us on Facebook.

The documentary is wrapping up and with the workload growing on that it is very possible that there may be another drought of posts for a while – but I’m trying to manage that.

This may all seem like shameless self-promotion, and it kind of is, but this is truly all that I have been doing for the last few weeks.

Oh, and the cat needed surgery. Hurt his foot. Got worked on. He wears a cone now. The nightmare and hilarity that has been our cat in his cone of shame is documented better on Rene’s Twitter Feed

OK, I think that it.

See you tomorrow!

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Filed under acting, cheerleaders must die, Make Up with The Wolf, pets, shameless self promotion, Wiggy VonSchtick, wiggy webs

October 4, 2011 · 6:00 pm

Our Crazy Cat

Our cat Charlie is… special.

He was full grown when we adopted him so he had developed all of his quirks before we even met him. He’s a very sweet, very funny cat but he was also raised on the street so, every once in a while, his inner tiger comes out!

I have scars on my hands and neck from inner tiger moments.

All fear-of-being-killed-in-my-sleep-by-my-cat aside, we love our little Charlie because of all the cute fun things he does, like this:

He attacks women he doesn’t like on the TV. When he watches “Jersey Shore” he loses his shit.

 He hangs out above the stove and watches in silent judgement as we cook.

He experiments in photography.

He hides above the cupboard – waiting to attack!

He explores the jungles of Bora Bora.

Here he is at Trevie Fountain in Italy.

And he sleeps in screwed up positions with his mouth open. He has remarkably small bottom teeth!

See you tomorrow!

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Filed under pets, rambling

September 24, 2011 · 6:00 pm

I Forgot to Show You This!

OMG! How could I not have posted this?!?!? Frankie discovered his love for fountains!

It’s been on my personal YouTube page (but don’t go there, I almost never post there so if you want to subscribe to something go to the WiggyWebs Channel) but I haven’t really shared it with people.

I’m happy to have this horrible oversight corrected now.

Frankie hasn’t retained his love for the fountain. He still enjoys sitting by it, but he’s never recaptured that I’m-going-to-bite-the-water-and-jump-in magic from this first day.

Go ahead, watch it again – HE’S SO CUTE!

See you tomorrow!

EDIT – OK, I was wrong.  I posted this video in the blog right HERE, but it was thrown in with all kinds of other stuff so I’m still going to post it here in its own blog just ‘cuz.

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Filed under Frankie, happiness, pets, pit bulls

August 25, 2010 · 6:00 pm

Project 365 8-24-2010 Lack of Subject.

There were things happening today, but nothing that made a good picture.

I was up early – That’s not a good picture.

I did a HUGE amount of data entry – Not a good picture.

Rene and I completed the family ceremony guest list for the October ceremony – Not a good picture.

My nose bled – Not a good picture.

When you have a project where you require yourself to take a picture every day it sucks to have days like this where there isn’t anything cool to take a picture of.

So I took a picture of my parent’s dog, Pete, as he stared blankly at me:

See you tomorrow!

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Filed under business, pets, project 365 2010, the wedding

July 29, 2010 · 7:28 pm

Project 365 7-28-2010 House Sitting Dogs

I’ve been house sitting for my parents.  I haven’t mentioned it until now, with the small exception a couple days ago, because I, and I freely admit to this, sometimes bend the truth online about where I am so I don’t end up coming home to a robbed house that the robbers knew was empty due to my Twitter feed or blog post.  That’s one of the drawbacks to a know-everything-all-the-time world, people tend to know everything that you care to tell them all the time!

Back on point, my parents have two dogs that require watching when they are away: Abby the 5000 pound bulldog and Pete the 7 oz. ferocious chihuahua.

OK, Abby doesn’t weigh 5000 pounds, but she’s a big girl.  Probably fatter than she should be, and Pete actually weighs somewhere closer to 7 pounds, but he does have Napoleon syndrome and barks viciously at anyone or thing that gets close – until I walk up to him with a stern look where he then cowers and lays down.  Even with these physical/personality traits the dogs are pretty easy to watch.

  • 2 walks daily, morning and night.
  • Fed twice, morning and night.
  • Play with them (optional, they tend to sleep most of the day even if I actively try to play)

My favorite part is the walking!  My dad likes to walk them separately, but I prefer walking them together.  Abby is a lazy bitch (Get it? Cuz she’s a female dog!) and will usually only stand if you try to walk her by herself – but when Pete is around these two zoom through the neighborhood like Barry Allen and Wally West!  Well, at least until Pete decides to pee on something:

Yep, that just happened.

See you tomorrow!

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Filed under pets, project 365 2010

July 21, 2010 · 6:00 pm

Project 365 7-20-2010 Tuesday

Today is Tuesday of the unintended “Week of Getting Things Done!”  (Imagine the part in quotes in a booming, echoy voice.)

I wrote a to-do list on Sunday night of all the things that either need to be or I wanted to get done by Friday of this week.  It’s the whole sheet of paper and I’ve been adding a thing here or there as they come up.  As of this evening I have checked off about a third of it so if I keep up at this rate I should TOTALLY have the whole list complete by Friday!

By the way, totally off topic, my use of the word “totally” came back into the fold during the writing of “Stupid Teenagers Must Die!” when we were writing 80’s catch phrases and terms into the script.  Back then I figured that it might be a problem getting 80’s phrases stuck in my vocabulary but only one phrase stuck: “totally.”  I annoy myself at how often I use it, but at least I’m not saying “exactly” every other sentence like I was in 2005.

Anyway, back on task, originally the picture for today was going to be of the list that I’m doing so well on…

…but then I realized how much kinda’ personal information was on that sheet of paper so instead you get a cute picture of Pete the chihuahua chewing on his favorite toy:

Ain’t that cute?

The day today blew by like a flash and as I look back on it and try to think of interesting things to write about all I can remember are emails and the phone ringing.  And working out.  I feel very strong right now.

See you tomorrow!

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Filed under business, getting fit, making movies, pets, project 365 2010

April 2, 2010 · 6:00 pm

Project 365 4-1-2010 April Fool’s Day

I’m not a big fan of April Fool’s Day.  I remember, back in the drunk times, playing a few pranks but none that stand out as all that impressive or funny.  There were a few good Facebook gags today, though.  Some of my friends made the most of it, one by completely re-doing his page to make everything from his photos to his favorites lists be the complete opposite of who and what he is and another who lived out a whole relationship via his relationship status.  Even Rene and I got into the act – completely by accident.  I tried to type out the story in a way that makes sense, but it just reads like a mess so I’ll cut to the chase – people thought Rene was pregnant.

She’s not.

I even got a text message about it.  It was pretty cool, even if it was an accident.

Other stuff happened today – like dog vomit.

That’s NOT today’s picture.

My parent’s dog, Pete, had an upset stomach and yacked all over the house.  Once on me, once in the hall, twice on the couch, twice on the rug in the dinning area and once in my parent’s room.  It was awful.  Thankfully he’s ok.  We’re not sure what he he ate, but it seems to be through his system now.

Rene and I also got a chance to taste at one of our possible wedding venues, The Hacienda, today.  This is the place we keep raving about on Twitter (her Twitter too).  We take a trip to a winery tomorrow, then get ready for the holiday weekend.

Today’s picture is:

This was an excellent cup of coffee.  It was so good it inspired me to take a picture.

See you tomorrow!

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Filed under business, pets, project 365 2010, the wedding