A Quick Update

Well hello there. I didn't hear you come in, or I would have met you at the door. I do apologize.

Well, let's get down to business, shall we? I know it's been a while, but Second Mom (SM) & Second Dad (SD) are both "busy" with their school work, and it takes a lot of whining in order to get someone to transcribe for me. But I have finally succeeded in getting my tail in edgewise, so here goes!

Apparently, when no one was looking, winter up and left. The snow was there, all white and cold, and then, seemingly the next day, the grass was green and there wasn't an icicle to be seen. I was suspicious, but I do enjoy rolling in the grass more than rolling in the snow. Although I enjoy eating snow more than eating grass. It's a difficult position I've put myself in, but somehow I persevere.

One surprise that spring brought was a pool! SD magically produced a pool from the garage a few weeks ago, and now I have my very own little blue kiddie pool! While it's not deep enough to swim in, let alone do laps, I can still bite the water and keep it in line.



Here I am in my younger days, working on my form. Notice the correctly folded-back ears, the firm grip of the teeth, and the strong forward stroke of the front legs. Efficiency, folks, efficiency!



And finally, I try not to be too political, at least publicly, but I read this the other day and just couldn't help myself: (In reference to the recent climate legislation efforts being undertaken by the U.S. Congress, and the 30+ environmental groups who are pushing for its passage before the summer recess.) "Ponies will not descend from the heavens magically bearing Republican Senators who don’t filibuster every bill. "

No, I don't understand what this whole "Congress" thing is, or what a "summer recess" is, or even how one filibusters. My guess is that it involves a dog named Buster, and lots of food. But anyhow, if you do happen to see some magical ponies descending from the heavens, for goodness sake watch out you don't walk underneath one. Falling manure can be hazardous for your health, or so I've been told.

'Tis all for now - watch out for flying ponies!

Life's a Beach.... and then you Nap

Greetings, homo sapiens, and welcome to another shiny example of my giving nature. You know, it's times like these that I thank my lucky stars (bet you didn't know that I had lucky stars, did you?) for water. For without water, we could not have places to go swimming. Nor would we have snow, for that matter, and that would make me very sad. *whimper* I promised myself I wouldn't cry! *sniffle* Ah, yes, well, as we can all see from this next slide, we do have water.

"Look out behind you! There's a stick!"

"Where, where?! Here? I don't see anything..."

Oh, that was a fun day. You see, without humans, I probably wouldn't have the opportunity to do things like this. Well, no, I would, but I would be foraging for fish, or leaves, or rocks, or other denizens of the deep. (Can you tell I've secretly been watching Jeopardy? The vocabulary they use is amazing!)

But, as I was saying, without humans, there wouldn't be leashes, although without leashes there wouldn't be leash laws, so maybe I need to rethink this philosophy.... Anyways, what I'm really trying to get at is that without humans, not only would we be leashless, but we would be foodless too. And I don't know about you, but I loves me some food. Preferably lettuce, or broccoli. Carrots will do nicely too. Or ice. Yes, yes! Ice! ICE! ICE! Ice is nice, but peanut butter is better. Now, when you combine the two, apparently you get peanut butter ice cream. That right there, folks, is the bee's knees. I'm not quite sure what that means, but I think it's good.

Where was I going with all of this? .... Oh, right! No humans, no food. No food, no play time, because all the free time is spent looking for more food. And that makes Hagrid a dull dog. And we don't want that, now, do we?

So I thank you, Humans, for feeding me, and also for taking me on fun walks where I get to go swimming. Because without you, I would have to feed myself, and that would involve lots of walking, and then I wouldn't want to go on a walk, because I would equate walking with looking for food, and that would probably make me hungry, and when I'm hungry I get somewhat persistent, and persnickety, and then I get disappointed, and despondent. So thanks for the food, which allows me to enjoy my walks, and my swimming, which I do love so very much, which helps to tire me out, so I can take a well-deserved nap.


Till next time!

Swimming

I like to swim. No, I take that back. I LOVE to swim. When I was younger, they called me Fish Boy. That's how much I love to swim.


Here I am, acting as Chief Lifeguard at Hanging Horn Lake. It was quite the job, let me tell you. The Humans - that's Original Mom on the left - just did not understand the need for safety. They didn't stay close to shore, they were not consistently using the buddy system... the only saving grace is that they were in relatively shallow water, so I didn't have to watch them every second.

But as I've mentioned before, because I am unable to whistle, and the Humans would not provide me with an external whistle, I had to complete the well-known "Nose Check for Safety" constantly. Luckily, and through no small effort on my part, everyone made it out of the water safely. Next time I'm bringing a longer leash. Or perhaps stilts....