birdies with red hats

Mom and Dad walked me to the other side of this hill  today and guess what was over there!






Birdies with little wavy red hats. I wanted to sniff one so bad and I whined and yipped and pulled on my leash, but Dad didn't seem inclined to let me near them. Instead I sniffed all the feathers that landed on the ground when the birdies lurched away from me.

Mixing It Up

Mommy and Daddy have really been mixing it up lately. Some days Dad walks me in the mornings; it was always Mom in the mornings. And I always used to beg for my noon treat from Mom, but now Dad is home all day, so I beg both places but he thinks I'm greedy, not just confused, so I think I'll stick with Mom at noon. Usually I know who's going to give me which meal and which walk and which treat so my inner timer tells me whose feet to lie at when. Now I'm a little mixed up.

Plus, now they more often go away together. So I'm alone more now. Not for long, but still, I'm lonely. When they come home, I'm ecstatic. I gallop to Daddy and stand up tall with my paws on his legs and he bends down so I can lick his face all over. Then I charge over to Mommy and bury my face in her legs and talk and purr and talk and purr. Then I run to Daddy to tell him again how very very happy I am to see him. Then I nuzzle Mommy again. Today there were some going-away things piled near the back door. So when Mom took a shower, I thought she might be going away. I tried to climb into the shower with her to tell her I didn't want her to go away. Whew. She didn't go away. And whew again. She gently backed me out of the tub so I wouldn't get all wet. I hate getting wet almost as much as I hate being alone.

Because of Josey

I'm always glad when Mommy is home and sad when she leaves. Well, at the actual moment of her leaving, I'm happy because I get a treat. But after, I'm lonely. For a few days now, she has been at home, and more importantly for me, wanting to take me for extra-long walks and to sit down on the floor more often and play fetch with me. Plus, suddenly she has pulled out her whole repertoire of pet names for me ~ Charliebarley, Babyboo, Boobear, Sweetiepie, Chunkymonkey, Hunnybunny, Funnybunny. (Me, I like just Charlie.) And every day now, she gives me a big hug from Tricia. This is a new one.

Today during my hug from Trish, Mom reminded me of four years ago when she and her dog Josey came to visit. I remember my tail-wagging joy when Josey padded into the kitchen ~ I had a doggie just my size to play with! She smiled and we sniffed, but I didn't know what games she liked to play, and I don't share my toys. So I decided to play tag. Or maybe I decided to sniff around her tail, and she decided to run away ~ I'm not sure how tag started. But it was so much fun.

She scuttled into the hall, and I scuttled into the hall. She ran into the kitchen, and I ran into the kitchen. For hours. Then we went on the patio to sniff bricks and weeds and bugs. When we came back inside the house, Josey trotted into the hall, with my nose right behind her behind. When Josey trotted into the kitchen, my nose followed. I would have tagged her, too, except she hightailed it over to her mom Tricia on the living room floor and snuggled her tail end right into Tricia's leg. Her mom petted her, and she looked real happy to be safe at last from my pursuit. So we rested from our game.

Mom said Tricia wanted me to have extra hugs this week because my sweet, smart playmate Josey is resting now from all her games, safe at last.

Slow Walks

Mommy was sick today. All morning was boring, because I had nothing to watch and no one to smile at. But when she took me for a walk, she took teeny tiny pokey steps, and that turned out good for me. When you walk slow, you can hear buzzy bees, whizzy cars, whirry birdwings. The best part was I got to sniff everything. Mom was on cement, which doesn't hold smells very well, but I walked on grass the whole time. She let me sniff as long as I wanted in all the grass. When I lingered by a yellow fire hydrant with a shiny, sticky side, she said "That's enough snifferdoodle," and we shuffled on. But that was the only time. If she had asked me, I could have told her which grass squirrels had scampered on, which grass the neighbor dogs had poopied on, which grass a birdie had stopped to pull a worm out of and what kind of berries that birdie ate earlier. When I smelled bunny on the grass, you better believe I looked under the nearest porch to find the bunny. I didn't find any bunnies, but I did feel like Adventure Dog.

I have a comfy cozy now. At least that's what my mom calls it. It's different from my bed, which is near where Dad watches TV, and my puppy pad, which is near Mom's feet when she's typing. I used to have my own chair in the kitchen, but I can't jump up in it any more because my back legs stopped being springy. So my comfy cozy is on the floor where I can just step into it. It's in the room where Mom and Dad eat their food and right next to the kitchen, where I eat my food. Sometimes I sleep right in the middle. Sometimes I curl against a curve. I like my comfy cozy.

My Take on Toys

Mom brought me a new toy today and what's the first thing she does? She puts it on my head. This toy is for tossing and tugging, for pete's sake. It has a soft part I can rest my head on and a squeaker I can chew out when my parents are watching TV. Here is also a picture of my plush puppy before I chewed his squeaker out.

New Game

Hot diggity dog, the mailman came today and I invented a new game. He stepped inside the door to talk to Mom and Dad, and of course he knelt down to scratch me in all my favorite spots. I wiggled a lot to get scratched everywhere. But the silly adults kept talking, and the mailman wasn't concentrating on his scratching job, so I had to mix things up a bit. I calmly strolled out of the front hallway as though I was done with all the scratching. But I surprised everyone by galloping full-speed back down the hall to greet the mailman afresh. He scratched me all over. When he slowed down again ~ and the adults were still yammering ~ I sauntered away again, then galloped back. I gave my hello licks all over again and he loved on me again. I liked my new game.