It's Been A While...

Now, let me begin by saying it's not all my fault I haven't posted in over a year. I had so many Exciting Things to Talk About! But Mom is my secretary and she's been AFK playing with all kinds of other things instead of helping me keep my fans informed. She's mostly been playing with yarn again, but that's not the half of it...

Let's go back. Lexi moved in with us for a while last year and kept getting fatter and sleeping a lot. Weird, even for her. But when Dan came home and moved in, too, I thought I'd have someone else to play with - yay! Little did I know he wasn't there for me anymore than she was.

One day last July, Dan's parents stopped by with a car, a truck, a moving van and a new friend for me!!! This is Chunk and me. Yay! I mean, it was okay if they moved in so long as I get some of the attention, ya know? But no, as it happened, they were only stopping off on their way to their new house and dropped off stuff for Dan.

Then Lexi and Dan had a visit from a friend and they got all excited over some phone call. The next thing you know, everybody's excited and loading all Dan and Lexi's stuff and they start living somewhere else.

So there's Mom making all kinds of fuzzy yarn things and not letting me play with them, then there's playmates coming and going without actually playing much, and then ...She arrived.

We went on our annual camping trip for Labor Day weekend, but something odd was going on, I could tell. Mom had rushed around in an unusual flurry that Friday morning. She didn't have school, but instead of getting the camper ready to go, she got dressed in a hurry and ran out the door. She was gone all day! Dad came home a little early and we got things going and went to the campground and set up, but something wasn't quite right. Now, normally when we go camping away from home, Mom and Dad leave me in the camper sometimes to nap while they go do other stuff. But not on Labor Day weekend because we camp so close to home. Not last year. They sat around a lot, as usual, because it was nice out. Mom taught Robin to play with yarn and Alli even came home! But they would leave for awhile, all smiles, and come back later all happy and talking about "how adorable she is" and things like that. Something was definitely up...

They would pet me and smile and talk about somebody new to love and play with and I started to get excited! Who could it be? Were they getting another puppy for me??? Blitz had been kind of overwhelming but I loved him. There had never been a dull moment with him around.They even brought a puppy over to play - this is Thor. He isn't as aggressive as Blitz had been. He was fun to play with. He chased me and let me chase the ball. Blitz always beat me to it.

But Thor doesn't come over that often. No, the little kid comes over a lot. Mom and Dad just LOVE that, but it took me a while to see the value in having her around. She was too little to play and she kinda made me nervous. I was happier just going outside and laying in the yard, watching for deer and bunnies. After a few months, though, she started showing signs of being a more active puppy. Now I get excited when she comes over to play. She has a lot of toys and they're pretty noisy, but she likes to come over by me and pet me sometimes. I guess it's okay. And she likes to share her snacks. Mom and Dad try to stop her, but she's pretty good at sneaking me some here and there.

Yeah, she' okay, I guess. We'll see. In the meantime, if I can, I'll try to get Mom back to her secretary job so I can keep you all posted on what's happening. I wish we had had a few more walks this summer so I could have kept up with the "local news." As it was, last time we walked Mom didn't let me stop and read all the stories. She keeps telling me to read the "Reader's Digest" version - whatever that is.

It's a Dog's Life 2

It's been a long week and I've been soooooooo boooooooored! Mom hasn't been taking me for all the walks she promised me this summer. She's always got some excuse - gotta go paint her classroom, gotta work on her computer, rain or heat or something. She won't throw the ball for me, either. Something about her arm hurting. (She's been wearing something on her elbow a lot, too.) But today - YAY! - we went for a walk!
I didn't think we were going to at first. She started out knitting this morning, then she and Lexi got in the car and went somewhere, without me, of course. Well, I figured I'd teach her a lesson and get into some of her things while she abandoned and ignored me for another day. Something on her table smelled good...
Anyway, when they got back she changed her clothes and grabbed...MY LEASH!!! The cool extension one that lets me run a bit! Holy cow! It's been so long I had SO many little news articles to read and had to leave my own information for the other neighborhood dogs a few times, too. You know what I mean, that little sign to tell them, "I was here, too." Hey, I'm an intelligent dog and I need to keep up with the news. I need the mental stimulation. Mom's a pretty smart woman and she says she reads, but she sticks her nose in papers or on the computer. I've smelled those things and even tasted them a little. There's no news there. 
So I checked out all the hot spots and tried to get the latest updates on who's been where recently. I had a great time. She even called me a good girl and I got to roll in the grass and run around the yard a little...it was hot, though, so I didn't do a lot of that. Mom brushed me before she would let me in. I guess I got some dead grass or something all over me that she didn't want in the house. At any rate, she said maybe we can go to the park later if it's not too hot and Dad wants to go. I haven't been for a ride in the truck for a few weeks, so that would be fun. She even said we might get the hose out and play later if it's too hot for a walk in the park! She really learned her lesson!
I have to admit, I was really surprised. Usually when I punish her she doesn't comply with me so quickly. Then I found out why. It turns out she didn't actually know I had taught her a lesson until we came back in and she found the evidence...

She wasn't very happy with me then and called me a bad dog. I sure hope I don't cough up those tissues.