Puppy 101

My friends on facebook already know I am getting a new brother. Now I don't like to post my true feelings on facebook but here on my own blog I want you to know it is not easy to think of a new Bro when I am still missing Lacey. I don't need to say anymore, I know you understand that doggie and human hearts can love something new and be happy...and hurt at the same time.

We have tried to find a way to get my new Bro (Bond is his name) up here to Canada so we don't have to wait so long for him but the airlines will not fly a dog from Phoenix or Tucson in the hot months. And I think this is a good thing. I wouldn't want the poor little guy to get too hot and be hurt... or worse. I offered to go and get him but Mom reminded me that I am a Dog too!  Right!

So it looks as if we will get him when we go back to Tubac which is two whole months away. In the meantime I am reading all the books I can find on dealing with a new puppy. I saw a book on the internet 'Puppies for Dummies'...NO, that doesn't sound good, I think Mom would give me 'the look'  if I gave her that.

I have never had a puppy in the house before, my three sisters were all older than me and I was in charge from the minute they set foot in the door. I gave them the drill about sharing and food hierarchy and respecting property rights ...and they got it! From what I read about puppies they are wild out-of-control things that do what they want when they want. Okay, you are probably going to say it is up to Mom to train Bond...but...look at Me and then ask yourself if she is capable of training anything? I had to train HER and DOD when I first got here.

I know what I will do!...I will ask my blog and facebook friends...my old Gang friends to help me settle the little Dude in and smarten him up. Please forward your suggestions a.s.a.p. keeping in mind the handicap I will have here with You know Who. My main area of concern is teaching him who is Boss from day one....designating food, space, toys, sleeping arrangements, critter control etc. I don't want this training to take more than a day (okay, maybe two if he is a slow learner) because even though I am patient I have my limits.

One thing I know for sure, I am not going to teach Bond to read and write!

Dear Margaret

I have many friends on facebook but my BEST friend is Dear Margaret and her faithful Dachshund Tansy.
Today is Dear Margaret's ninety-first birthday and to celebrate it I am going to tell you about our friendship.

First of all, I have never met Dear Margaret or Tansy in person They live on Galiano Island which is not far from my Island but the ferry schedule doesn't make it easy for inter-island travel and plans that we make to meet never seem to happen.

We do meet every day though on facebook. And Dear Margaret has been in all of my blog adventures. She has been an Indian Princess, a dance hall girl, yup Lake LaBarge Marge was her name... and she has been herself. She has performed marriage ceremonies for dragons, searched for lost treasure, jumped trains, rescued horses and faced bandits and witches just to name a few roles. We have crossed burning deserts, climbed mountains and even shopped at Walmart! And we have sung many hymns and held hands and paws in our paw circles when we needed guidance and strength.

Dear Margaret and I play Scrabble every day and she usually beats me...sigh.

She sets me straight when I get whiny and never lets me forget that I am supposed to behave like a gentleman dog and not a ruffian. She also sets some of my other facebook friends straight when they comment on my posts and she doesn't agree!

Happy Birthday Dear Margaret, I am so glad that facebook brought you into my life. Nose to nose and much love to you from me.

Robbie

DSL (Dog as a second language)

Today I was looking at the Youtube stuff on my facebook and I saw this wonderful video about a Hero dog named Buddy in Alaska. Buddy's owner's home caught on fire and his Dad was injured trying to put it out and could not get out of the house. The Dad yelled at Buddy ' Buddy, go and get help' and Buddy raced off into the snowy night. In the meantime, the Dad had called for help and a lone police officer was trying to respond but it was a very remote area and his GPS was frozen. Then the police officer saw Buddy waiting at a crossroad and barking,  right away he knew Buddy wanted him to follow...so he did. Buddy raced along and kept looking back and barking to let the officer know that they were on the right road. Of course they got to the burning home in time and the Dad was rescued. Buddy was honoured in a ceremony and given a silver food bowl!

Great story huh....and it is true. The officer said in the video that he understood every bark that Buddy made.

Remember Lassie on T.V.?  Everybody knew what Lassie was saying. She would run up to strangers and bark a few times and the people would say, 'OMD Tommy has fallen in the old dry well and this dog wants us to follow her'!!  Okay so it was a show but I think it was based on Reality just like the shows today.

So what does this have to do with me you ask? Well my Mom doesn't understand the most basic dog commands. I have to go mad to get let out... and in... and forget about asking for treats and food...butt rubs etc. without having to almost resort to violence to get recognition.

I want Mom to take a course in learning Dog as a second language. Why is language one-sided? Us Dogs have to learn English (or whatever language their owners speak) should it not work both ways? I understand English very well and I even understand when they spell out words so I won't understand, but I can't speak it fluently.... I think it is my accent that she has a problem with. Is it just MY Mom who is a bit dim? I hate to think so, but when I see these videos where other humans understand every bark I have to wonder.

So I am looking for a course for my Mom....one that specializes in older harder to teach students. Let me know if you know where I can find one.

Should We Or Shouldn't We?

So the place where my Sister Lacey came from has a girl dog that they would like us to have....should we or shouldn't we get her?

I am lonely and that is for sure.

I miss Lacey dreadfully and the walks and talks and fun we used to have. I don't like dining alone, a food bowl for one is a lonesome thing. I miss how we would run into the forest and chase critters and then sneak home hoping Mom had not noticed we were gone (she always had and she was always a bit cranky with us). I miss how we would discuss Mom and DOD when they left us alone and plot how we were going to trick them into getting us more toys and treats. I miss our playing 'remember when' and laughing over Lacey's first few weeks with us. I even miss having to gulp my treats whole so she wouldn't snatch them from under my nose!

I miss HER!

But if we get another girl she will be my new Sister but she won't be Lacey. She will look the same and she may smell the same but her heart will not be Lacey's heart and her soul will not be Lacey's soul. Will it be even more lonely to have a Sister so much like Lacey but who is not her???

This is a difficult decision for a mature dog to make. What do you think I should do?

New Mown Hay

We have three meadows on my property and for the past couple of weeks I have not been able to go for walks in them. The grass gets so high in June/July that I can't see where I am going and Mom gets all worried because she can't see Me ...I am a little on the deaf side you know due to my mature status so that makes it even scarier for Mom. On the other hand Me and DOD walk through the meadows no matter what and everything is fine, we just don't tell Mom.

Anyway, Jacques from Campbell Farm cut our hay yesterday. Oh what a beautiful smell! Oh how perfect for rolling! Oh how many little critters hiding in the hay! A sunny day and new mown hay....this is the stuff of poetry never mind that bread and jug of wine stuff. I don't run as fast as I used to but I do walk sedately up to the piles of grass and then I go mad and burrow in them, I fling the grass around... and then I roll and dance like no one is watching.....aahh, life is good.

In a couple of days Jacques will come back with a big machines and scoop up the grass and the machine will turn it into big lumps. Then they will take the lumps of grass away to feed to animals in the winter ..... my Hay time is very short.

So I am off this morning to do my thing.....to play in the hay while the sun shines. I wish you could come with me.

A Wayward Wind

There is a very strange wind at my house. It started up last night about 10.00pm.

I went out for my last check on the property and my last pee before bed when I heard the wind roaring. I heard it, but I could not feel it! I am not kidding...the wind was howling over the ocean but there weren't any waves and the trees weren't moving.

I called Mom and DOD to come out. They heard it too. Mom said it had to be something other than wind making the noise ...DOD said it was definitely wind whether we could feel it or not (DOD is an expert on most things).

If you remember there was a SUPER Moon last night and everything was shimmery and bright and easy to see.  I could see as plain as day but there was no movement anywhere, only noise. Mom said maybe it was a tsunami, ha ha!!  Oh Great! We live right on the ocean and I don't like water....such a comforting thought to go to bed with.

So I went to bed and listened to the noise for awhile and then the wind did start to blow and I felt the breeze on my fur and went to sleep.

This morning everything was normal until Me and Mom went out on our walk. I heard the wind again! And again the trees were still and quiet...but then... one Arbutus tree shook like a wet dog and hundreds of dry leaves fell on Me and Mom. We sped up on the trail and headed toward home as fast as we could (which is not anything like Olympic track speeds) but half-way home on the side of the road a little shrub started waving at me!

The little shrub was waving its branches and leaves frantically trying to get my attention. All the other bushes and trees were still! How could this be?? No use asking Mom I didn't want to hear anymore of her ideas on what was causing these things, (she can have very strange and spooky ideas at times), so I took matters into my own paws. I calmly walked over and peed three times on the shrub....It quit waving!!

I still don't know what caused this strange phenomenon (good word huh?) but I do know now how to deal with it. I bet if Me and DOD had peed in the ocean last night it would have quieted right down.

Have you ever had this sort of thing happen at your house??

LACEY

Three years ago Mom decided she wanted a Shar Pei puppy for her birthday. DOD said 'no way'. But you don't know Mom when she gets an idea into her head....
So Mom called Joan, a breeder of Shar Peis and asked if she had a puppy for sale. No, she did not... but she did have a young female that she was looking to place in a home. So Mom said ' we will come and look at her'. And we did. You know the rest of that story...home we came with a scared and confused little dog named Lani.


First off, Mom decided she wanted to change Lani's name  to Lacey....she had her reasons. Second,it became apparent that it was not going to be an easy integration into our family. I tried very hard, I shared my toys and tried to tell Lacey it was going to be okay but she had never seen a white dog before and she was not impressed. Lacey had not been a pet, she had not gone for car rides and slept on beds, she had not gone for long walks and learned about critters...she just didn't know a lot about a lot of things.

Anyway, she got off to a bad start when Mom took us in DOD's fancy car and left us there while she had lunch. OMD, Lacey ate all the leather back seats and most of the front ones too! DOD said she had to go back to the kennel.

Well she didn't go back.

So slowly she settled in and slowly we became the very best friends in the whole world. We did everything together...whatever I did she copied (which wasn't always good) and she became an honorary Westie. She chased critters and barked and growled...we were such a crazy pair!

She was way younger than me and  I had plans for us to be together for many many years. Then about four months ago, while we were in Arizona, she got a swollen leg. Lots of tests and nasty things later she was diagnosed  with cancer and we were told she didn't have very long to live. Well I was told, we never told Lacey.

We enjoyed each day even though she soon started to lose strength and stamina. She still she ate all of her food and most of mine. She still smacked me around the ears with her paws and we still growled and barked at feral critters. But then she couldn't do much. And then she didn't want to eat any more.

Yesterday we went to the Vet and I said goodbye to her. My sweet sister Lacey is waiting at the Rainbow Bridge for me now. I see her in my dreams and we run and play just the way we we used to and the way we will again when we are back together.