Sing along with us

Uncle Brad's down, but not for long

As we pause between Bandit Challenge rounds, we see that Uncle Brad remains in the cellar, just below Bandit and Staffer Mom. We suspect this will be Uncle Brad's last day in the tank since he still has all his Final 4 teams hanging in, and Staffer Mom can't say that. ...Well, many of you can't say that!
We also anticipate a surge by Staffer Dad now that he picked 7 of 8 Elite 8 teams.

We're going outside to play now. The staff just put out some new plants, and we want to set a record for digging them up. Wish us well!

We hear Troyz Noiz

We made Troy Johnson's famous column! He's our favorite sports columnist, but he apparently has forgotten what it's like to lose to a wiener dog. We're not sure we can remind him this year, but we are a bit worried about that part of his bracket where he picked UConn to go to the Final 4. On the other paw, Maggie's still questioning Bandit's choice of Mississippi State's Bulldogs.

Easter bunny?

This weekend we learned that one part of Easter lore has something to do with a big rabbit that goes house to house and leaves candy and goodies for kids. We saw this bunny (right) giving out candy to strange kids near the park.

Let's get this straight:
At Easter, it's OK for kids to take candy from strange people in bunny suits, but it's not OK for kids to take candy from strange people who aren't in bunny suits.
We really don't understand this at all.

Screens and things

We've had a huge weekend! The staff had family come in from Missouri and that was fun. We ended up on the porch watching them outside, and then we saw the black and white cat from two houses down. All of a sudden, the porch screen gave way and we were free!
Staffer Mom was a bit unhappy and put up a big board next to the torn screen. That was just a dare; we had to go through that.
Staffer Dad's not real thrilled because now he'll have to replace the screen. He's also threatening to leave us in our cages now instead of trusting us to roam the porch. Maybe that screen thing wasn't such a good idea after all.

Challenge update: It looks like Amanda Anthony and Staffer Dad are scrapping for first place. They both did really well. Staffer Mom and Uncle Brad are dragging bottom, but we know they'll do better as the tournament goes on. If you're wondering how some folks have more successful choices than others and are still tanking, here's why: Underdogs got more points in the first 2 rounds -- after all, we're lowdogs and we made the rules!

A conundrum? Not.

Do we whine because Bandit's bracket is doing only fair or do we rejoice because Dook fell in the second round?

It's no contest: Woooohoooo!

(Now we'd better shut up or we'll jinx the Heels.)

Go Amanda!

After the first round, Amanda Anthony is winning the Bandit Challenge....and to answer the next obvious question: Uncle Brad is bringing up the rear, right below Staffer Mom.
Miss Ellen, queen of the foster moms, is in second place, but we fear Georgia's first-round loss hurt her more than we can see now. We understand why she put the Bulldogs to win it all, since they are somewhat fierce creatures.

See you late today after the next round of games!

Play the challenge

Hey, don't forget to join the March Madness Bandit Challenge. We've got a great group of competitors already, and we're looking for some real fun.
It's not too late!
Send us your email and we'll send you an invitation.

C'mon....there's no money, but there's a lot to prove!
(Do you really want a dachshund to beat you?)

St. Pat's in Savannah

As many of you know, St. Patrick's weekend in Savannah is a wild time. We saw pictures from the parade downtown, and we have to say that the tradition of dyeing animals green for the holiday -- goats and dogs, specifically -- is just a bad idea. The staff tells us humans also dye themselves green for the day, too. That doesn't make it right to do to dogs.

Aunt Jenn and Uncle Brad came in to see some of the green mayhem. We're not sure if they caused the blackout that ended the downtown festivities, but we're glad they came over anyway.

By the way: Don't forget to join our March Madness bracket challenge.
Hey Cricket, Pretzel and Skipper: Come on and play!

Take the Bandit Challenge!

Over the years, Bandit's had some success picking NCAA tournament brackets and winners. He's humiliated several humans whose lives and careers have been spent following sports closely.
We won't give away his strategies, but we'll just say he's ready to chow down on this year's tournament picks.

Here's the big news: We're challenging all our fans -- human and otherwise -- to take on Bandit. (Cats, too!)

Staffer Mom's helped us set up a special bracket group called The Bandit Challenge on CBSsports.com.

Here's how to join:
- Send your email address to us at lowdogs@aol.com
- We'll send you an official invitation through CBSSports.
- Sign in there and join the Bandit Challenge.
- Have your picks made by 11 a.m. March 20
- We'll send you reports on how you're doing and taunt you on the blog.

Let's play!

Lucky bunnies in the garden

Today turned interesting late in the day when Staffer Mom started her annual spring garden rescue. She chopped at the weeds with a hoe and raked out the old stuff in the garden plot. Then Staffer Dad brought in the dirt-eating machine and started churning up the area. And then he stopped: He found a tiny baby bunny. Staffer Mom looked around for a nest under the shrubbery and along the fence, but there wasn't anything. The bunny looked like he'd be a fun toy to play with; Ernie thought so, too. He was watching from the porch.

Staffer Mom took the baby and put it in a safe place. Staffer Dad started up the dirt machine to finish the garden, but he stopped again as soon as he saw the second bunny. He thought it was hurt, but it wasn't. Mom took it, too, and called a few people for advice.

As it turns out, those bunnies were about 5 days old and were born in a nest in the middle of the garden. We can't believe we missed them in all our hunting.

Wow. Those bunnies are really lucky:
- We didn't find them.
- Mom didn't chop them with the hoe.
- Dad didn't chew them up with the dirt eater, and most of all,
- Ernie didn't find them.

The staffers took them to a person in another county who takes care of outdoor animals. She lets them go back to the woods when they grow up.
We're so sorry we didn't get a chance to play with them. They would have been fun.

Carolina cool

Well, it's been a fun, fierce 2 days! Yesterday, mom let us play outside early in the drizzle, and then we got to stay in the house all day with her. Then today, we had lot of outside time and then we got to watch the Dookies fall on Senior night in their own court to the Tar Heels.
Staffer Mom held us up to get a good view of key plays, and we were so tired at halftime we had to take a nap!
Our questions about coverage: Why is Digger Phelps wearing a stupid hat? Does Dick Vitale know anyone who didn't give to the V Foundation? (no offense, we're sure it's a good thing, but he sure does talk about it a lot.)
Is that all Coach K's real hair? Does Coach Roy have any bad ties? (We don't think so, on either question.)
Wasn't it cool to see the drunk Tar Heel fans go wild behind the Gameday team in K-ville? (Staffer Mom says she would never have done that and doesn't know anyone who would have done it either.)

Coming soon: Beat the Bandit! (not literally.)

Challenge is on

It's March and we're ready for the madness. Outside of October's Savannah Wiener Dawg Races, there's only one other competition we live for: NCAA basketball and its lead-off event, the ACC tournament. As careful readers will remember, we wear our Carolina Blue Tar Heel collars proudly.
And when it comes to the final weekend of the regular season, we tell you Dookie dogs: Bring it.

New blog friends

Hey all! Check out The Long and Short of it All for more fun wiener news. This is a great blog by Joey and Maggie -- no kin to our Maggie. They collect all sorts of dachshund news and pop culture info about dogs like us. And of course, that's important stuff to know.

We need a nap!

And boy did we earn it!
Today was the monthly gathering for the dachshund club in Forsyth Park, and the weather was wiener-dog perfect!
Lots of friends and their staffers showed up. We saw chocolate dapples, chocolate-and-cream dapples, a pretty longhair, a 12-week-old puppy, and many more. We met a young, happy friend in need of adoption. His name is Ethan, and he's a small black-and-tan like us. If you'd like to adopt him, or someone like him, click here.
We played so much that we ended up sleeping all the way home in the limo.
Here's a link to the pictures of the old and new friends we saw today.

Beautiful day to dig

Wow. Spring's here, and we've had a great day. Bandit dug out a 20-foot mole trail, and Maggie found smells from all kinds of small rodents around Staffer Mom's daylilies. Tomorrow, we're targeting the bushes behind the garden. There should be some real action over there under the mulch. We also hope to go to the park and see our buddies in the dachshund club. What a great weekend!